A tingle warmed the back of my neck despite winter’s bitter wind, and I tensed instantly. Snow blanketed the empty fields surrounding me, but an abandoned-looking barn set deep in distant trees caught my eye.
Inhaling deeply, I tapped into my senses, seeking for the origin of the magic traces setting my skin on fire. It had to be the barn.
I approached slowly, cursing the snow with each footstep. The magic irritating me heated, and my stomach lurched. Whatever magic was in the barn, it was full of impure intentions and my entire body wanted to reject it.
The doors were locked, odd for something abandoned this long. Electricity burned in my palm as I dismantled the wards. An angry whimper bled through shabby walls, the sound dampening spells disabled.
I ripped open the door, my skin burning with how thick the magic was in the air. A small dragon stretched against its short chain to a broken stall. The metal links glowed, laced with magic, and a cage tapped the dragon’s maw shut.
Trappers.
Anger helped me push through the burn of magic, and freeing the dragon was quick work. I lurched back, expecting the beast to savagely fly through the exit. But it only stumbled forward, its wings broken and bumping against its back with each step.
Freeing the dragon one was one thing, but smuggling one out on foot? The trappers would track our footsteps in the snow and kill me. Yet I had to try.
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