Tentatively she sent a message to her left hand to move. She had no idea if it did so. Another message to her foot. Again, she could not determine whether it responded. In fact, if pressed, she would say that her ability to move had abandoned her.

Her head buzzed with a noise she had never heard before. Then pain, not there before, ratcheted through her. It lifted her from the ground to slam her back into the soil. Once, twice, three times. Her spine arched and cracked before her head bashed the ground again. Two more seizures, or something resembling them before she came to rest on the ground again.

When she attempted to pry open her eyes, they responded. Concerned faces ringed her from a kneeling height. Healers. Ariadne argued with Restan, her son, while that lady completed a thorough examination of Drika on the battlefield.

A lake serpent she thought was named Serene worked with Ariadne. Drika appreciated the steady stream of healing magic that emanated from the young healer. The younger lake serpent’s competency made Drika relax into the clumped grass and mud beneath her. She had heard Serene was now mated and that likely strengthened her.

She did not see Eliza, hopefully that lady was fine. A second lake serpent, the mother of Serene, Myrtle, worked on Eliza.

Drika hadn’t met lake serpents before arriving here to this school for young Aasguards. She quite liked them, as well as the mages and the dragons. Her life as a human had been small. Now, as an almost Aasguard warrior, her world had expanded to an awe-inspiring place she longed to explore.

This is what she had been born to do.

Her gaze focused on Ariadne and Restan. “What happened?”

“Are you with us, Drika?”

She raised a hand to her head. It didn’t feel as fuzzy now. The quicksilver pain had fled.

“Yes. What happened?”

“Your Aasguard side finished off your human side.”

It took far longer than it should have for that to penetrate. She blinked several times. “I am Aasguard?”

“You are fully Aasguard.” Restan answered for his mother. “Your body needed to be Aasguard, so you are now Aasguard.”

Too many emotions flooded her as she processed what he said. “Aasguard?” That was all she could manage.

He nodded and smiled at her. A fierce warrior, one she respected. He would not lie to her.

She opened her mouth to ask additional, necessary questions, but a strange warmth overtook her. To the point that she felt as though she had plunged into a too hot bath. The heat danced along her skin, covering every inch of her before it penetrated her very core. There it nestled as though it intended to stay.

She might have gasped but whatever escaped her throat was echoed by those surrounding her.

Someone called for Eliza. But she couldn’t distinguish the voice.

Those staring at her shielded their eyes. As though the light surrounding her, then inside her, was so bright it hurt to look at the brightness. Questions rushed to the forefront of her brain.

Ulric asked permission to run his staff along her body. She was fine with that. Provided he could answer her unspoken questions. They tumbled around in her brain, but she had no idea which way was up.

Emma, who joined the circle of people, took her hand. “Drika, do you have a mage line in your family?”

What sort of question was that?

She answered honestly. “Not that I’m aware of.”

Her family consisted of only humans as far as she knew. It made this moment of learning she had transitioned to full Aasguard even more special. What was that strange light though?

The growing number of concerned faces surrounding her did not answer her questions. Wait, had she asked those questions?

A dragon’s battle bugle sounded far above their heads. She recognized that dragon’s cry. Her heart skipped a beat. Chip landed nearby and that meant only one thing.

He was here.

As the others updated the two fresh warriors, she worked hard to wrestle her body’s reaction into submission. None of the healers were monitoring her, thankfully.

She braced herself for when Wystan the Gentle entered her line of vision.

The massive warrior hunkered down with the others crowded around her and asked questions. The answers to his well-worded questions helped her as well. Her eyes met his. His gorgeous green eyes, so like his cousin Lucy’s stayed intent on her.

Concern radiated from him. She swallowed because she had no way to reassure him that she was fine. She felt fine, if battered and bruised. One couldn’t take a spell like that and not feel something.

“I’m fine.” She forced her dry throat to admit that. Had to reassure him.

He made a sound in the back of his throat. One she couldn’t interpret. What did it mean?

***

“You stepped in front of the healers?” Perhaps not the first thing he should have asked. Wystan tried a few deep breaths. Censure at her selfless act wanted to escape. He kept it in check. With more effort than should have been necessary.

Drika did not falter. “Of course. They are far more valuable than I.”

Every single Aasguard he knew would have done the exact same. All of them of the rightful belief that they forfeit their life for that of a much-needed healer.

He nodded because too many things, all personal reasons, vied for dominance when it came to this woman. A young one. One he had no business looking at with masculine interest. Yet he had not really lived. They were the same age in some regards.

And it appeared that when your mate arrived, you celebrated. You did not refuse the best thing in your life.

Emma interrupted. “Drika, again, you must have a mage or two in your family?”

“I am not aware of that. As far as I know, we are humans.”

“What do you speak of?” Wystan asked.

No one answered him as Ulric asked Drika if he could check her again. She nodded. He raised his staff to trace a path above her, back and forth.

Ulric lowered his staff with a noise that might have been frustration before he opened a portal. His love, Drusilla, stepped through and took charge of the situation.

She held Ulric’s staff in one hand and helped herself to Mozark’s new dagger as well. He was her nephew, so he figured aunts could do such things.

Drusilla shut her eyes as she held the staff and dagger in tandem and hovered them above Drika’s body. Drika appeared unsettled. He could relate.

Before panic could settle in, Drusilla asked a question. “Drika, do you have mages in your lineage?”

“No. My family are human.” Drika’s voice sounded strained.

If because of the repeated question, or because she felt the effects of the spell she took, or turning full Aasguard so abruptly, all remained in question.

Drusilla continued with the magical transits. She traced the long line of Drika’s prone body.

“Ah, yes, exactly as I expected.” Drusilla’s eyes snapped open and she returned the transits to their rightful owners. “Drika’s mage power is from Ambrose’s line. He tried to kill his sister and Eliza and used his familial magic. Drika, in an act of selflessness, stepped in to protect the two healers. That is, of course, a most noble act. Ambrose’s pure line, of which he wasted, went to one worthy of the magic.”

Ariadne clapped her hands. “That means Ambrose’s magic, unadulterated by his evil, is now in Drika?”

“That is correct. Drika proved worthy of that old and noble magic. It was gifted to her.” Drusilla smiled at Drika. Who looked as though she might be struggling to keep her last meal down. “We have another Aasguard warrior who is also a mage.”

“Both of them women.” Ulric sounded as though he approved.

“Wait, I am Aasguard and mage now?” A note of panic threaded Drika’s uneasy question. He leaned closer. Wystan, as old as he was, had no idea how to process that information.

What in the land did it mean?

Drusilla’s eyes and voice darkened, indicating she had slipped into a sage vision. At least that is what he assumed.

“You shall use your magic and your warrior skills wisely. You are worthy of these great gifts.” The sage within Drusilla looked upon Drika and him with grandmotherly knowing. “You have one as worthy as you to support you.” Drusilla’s eyes and voice returned to normal.

Wystan’s eyes widened. She had included him in Drika’s future? Not that that made him uncomfortable. Not at all. He struggled to calm his elevated respiration and barely resisted the urge to tuck a finger into the collar of his shirt, under his tunic.

Behind them, Chip made a noise in the back of his throat. His ever-helpful dragon nudged him from behind.

Wystan’s gaze sought and found Drika’s. If possible, she looked far more stunned than he felt. The muscles of her neck moved. As though that’s as far as the questions that had to be on the tip of her tongue reached.

He started when he realized her eyes had changed. She now had a silver ring around her gray-blue iris. They were silvery already, and now her eyes had that glowing rim. Emma and Mozark, after they connected their lives together, discovered a similar new ring of color. It indicated their connection. He had no silver in his eyes.

He struggled to make sense of this new outcome.

“Drika, you and Emma shall train with me.” Ulric announced this in benevolent tones that struck instant fear in Wystan’s heart. He knew what that meant. He opened his mouth to decline for Drika, but Drika’s lost look made him take her hand in his.

It was right for her smaller hand to be tucked into his. As though they belonged together.

“Emma still has much to learn about being a mage. She has benefited from sessions with Ulric.” Mozark’s smile was all that was kind as he smiled at Drika. “You can also work with me.”

Drika’s mouth opened, shut, opened again, then she swallowed painfully and shook her head. “I am not feeling…”

She slumped onto the ground. Panic crashed through him as he scooped her into his arms and crushed her against him.

“Careful, Wystan. She is overwhelmed. I imagine her body is hurting now that she is aware. She must heal before she can process all that has happened to her. She shall, of course, meet with me as well. Her magic is from my familial line, after all.” Ariadne barely came to his ribcage. Yet her power made him, a centuries old Aasguard warrior, take a prudent step back.

He had no intention of releasing Drika now that she was in his arms. He had no notion of where they were going, but he would carry her.

Ariadne opened a portal. On the other side was the examination room at the school. His shoulders relaxed as he ducked through the portal and into the room.

It took everything in him to lay his precious armful on the examination table. He ignored the protests in his brain and his body.

Ariadne and Eliza bustled around the table. He stepped back as he presented a large obstacle. Drika roused again. Her urgent gaze sought him. His heart swelled.

She lost consciousness again.