The closer I got, the worse Jolly looked. As gently as I could, I touched the sleep charm to a cut oozing blood on Jolly’s shoulder and then placed it on top of Jolly’s head. A drop of magic ensured it would stay in place until a person physically removed it. I repeated the process with three major healing charms, placing them along Jolly’s back.

  Taking a step back, I closed my eyes and removed the shield that prevented me from seeing magic all the time. As I’d hoped, using Jolly’s blood had lowered the dragon’s natural defenses, and a haze of sleep and healing spells spread over Jolly. With this amount of trauma, the charms wouldn’t be able to heal much, but they could stabilize Jolly until better medical support arrived. More importantly, the combination of a sleeping charm and healing charms should keep Jolly sedated and quiet as I moved the dragon.

  Switching my vision back to normal, I paced off an area for the truck, when it arrived, and a spot near Jolly’s head where I would be able to see most of the dragon and the truck clearly for the transfer. Satisfied with the spacing, I got to work.

  Asphalt was far from the easiest surface to inscribe with runes. It was too bumpy and irregular, cracking bits of chalk off the stick. As long as the lines were mostly complete and didn’t mush into a different rune, they would do their job and amplify my power.

  Witches had active magic. It was the main thing that set us apart from other races. “Born a witch, die a witch,” that type of thing. While magic could do a great many marvelous things and cause more than its fair share of mayhem, it came with a cost. Channeling energy into spells was hard on the body, and every witch had a limit of how much they could channel or use for a spell before exhausting their well of magic.

  The spells to safely lift and transfer Jolly weren’t as easy as a simple levitation spell. Not only was Jolly big and heavy, but the dragon needed to be held relatively still to prevent further injury during transport. That was where all these runes came in. They would focus and amplify my magic into a set of spells that could stabilize and move Jolly without using all of my power.

  I sketched the last three runes. Not my best penmanship, but it would do the job.

  A beeping marked the slow progress of a flatbed eighteen-wheeler into position next to me. It came close to my circle, but it stopped clear of the chalk. The door opened and a solidly built man in a faded blue baseball cap peered out. “Didn’t block you’re work, did I?”

  “Nope. You’re clear!” I dusted off my hands and shoved the chalk back in its bag.

  A black, unmarked SUV pulled up next to the flatbed. Six people, one in a TBI jacket, one in a coveralls, and four in white coats, poured out of the car. One of the white coats started toward Jolly, but a square mountain of a man barked an order, and the white coat returned to the group.

  The mountain scanned the scene, giving Jolly an extra-long look, before his eyes landed on me. “Agent Pine, get over here!”

  “Yes, sir.” I joined the group.

  Agent Tim Smith was as human as human could be. Though he sure looked like he was part bear shifter with his sheer bulk and height. He loomed over everyone—not intentionally, but it was hard not to loom at his size.

  “Agent Kelsey Pine is our resident witch. She’s going to do the spells to get the dragon on the truck. You tell her your concerns, and she’ll do her best to work with you. Got it?”

  The group nodded.

  “Agent Pine, this is the team from the hospital. All doctors.” He pointed at a slender woman with short cropped brown hair and a strong jaw. “Dr. Taryn is the head of the team.”

  Taryn stepped forward and shook my hand. “Taryn or ‘Hey, You!’ is fine. We want to get the dragon transferred to the hospital as safely and quickly as we can so we can patch them up.”

  “Then we’re on the same page. I answer to Kelsey or Agent.”

  Taryn grinned. “The fey is Dr. Lance. The lady with the dark hair is Dr. Moria, and the blond is Dr. Syd.”

  “Nice to meet you.” I shook each of their hands in turn.

  Agent Smith cleared his throat. “The man in coveralls is Jim from the trucking company. He’ll help secure Jolly and monitor transport from the follow car.”

  Jim smiled tightly and nodded. “Don’t want the dragon to slide off during transport.”

  “Agent Pine, it looks like you’ve been busy. Could you fill us in so we can get this moving?” Smith prompted.

  “I’ve met this dragon before. Their name is Jolly, and they work for Tennessee Dragon Flight.” From there, I filled them in on how I planned to do the levitation and the adaptations I’d made to hold Jolly still. “Also, I have one sleep charm and three major healing charms in place.”

  Taryn nodded. “We need to examine the patient. Depending on what we find, we may need to adjust how we approach the transfer.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Lance motioned toward the Jolly’s wings. “The roads aren’t wide enough for the wings to stay in that position. We can’t move the dragon until we have a plan for the wings.”

  “I’m just here to lift Jolly,” I said. “Do what you need to do and let me know when I can do the transfer.”

  The doctors didn’t need any more encouragement to swarm Jolly.

  Smith sighed. “We still haven’t been able to get any other dragons on the phone. I sent Harris to their residence and see if he can figure out why they aren’t responding and get some of them to help or at least be there when Jolly wakes up.”

  “How many dragons are with the group?”

  “At least ten, plus a few humanoids who work with them, maintaining their gear and the like.”

  Odd. I would’ve thought someone would be answering their phone or out looking for their missing dragon. Jolly looked big draped across the highway, but by dragon standards, they were still very young.

  All four of the doctors moved to one of the wings. The bone slid back under the skin as they repaired the worst break. Then they folded up the wing, tucking it against Jolly’s back.

  “Sir, I need to get back to my spells.”

  Smith nodded.

  I went through the runes again, adding two more for stabilization and holding. The spell was, in theory, solid enough to hold up three Jolly sized dragons.

  “Agent Pine?”

  “Yes?” I shoved the chalk to the side and turned around.

  “We have a problem,” Taryn said.

  I was sure a dragon crash-landing on a highway thirty minutes before rush hour was a problem for a lot of people. “I’m listening.”

  Taryn tipped her head toward the dragon. “We need to adjust Jolly’s wing for safe transport, and we can’t do that on the ground.”

  Jolly had landed awkwardly, almost on their left side, leaving the wing joint on their back in what must have been a painful position. The rest of the wing draped over the center divider into the other lanes.

  “I take it you have a plan.”

  “You’re going to levitate Jolly, and while Jolly is in the air, I’ll talk you through repositioning the wing,” Taryn said.

  “No.”

  Taryn blinked.

  “I’m a witch.” I said flatly. “I don’t know how to magically refold a dragon wing and it could distract me from maintaining the levitation spell. So, no.” The risk of dropping Jolly was too high, even with the prep work I’d put into the spell.

  Her lips flattened. “Could you levitate one of us so we can fix the wing?”

  “If the initial lift goes well, and the rest of the spell works as planned, I’ll still have to manage it, work to keep Jolly level, ensure smooth movement, and execute a soft transition onto the truck.” I sighed. “I’m concerned that maintaining too many spells, like moving the wing or one of you, will distract me, and if problems arise, I won’t be able to manage them effectively.”

  “I can see that.” Her head tipped to the side. “Wait. I have an idea.” She darted away without another word.

  “Sure, I’ll wait,” I told the air.

  Taryn went over to the firetruck and spoke to a few of the firefighters. She motioned up at the ladder on top the truck. They turned around to look at it, and then the dragon, before one of them followed her back to me.

  I had a bad feeling about this.

  “Could you keep Jolly in the air while he folds the wing?” Taryn gestured toward the firefighter.

  “Yes.” Given his pinched expression, I didn’t think he’d suited up for this call thinking it would end up like this.

  “Ma’am,” He spoke slowly. “I’m not entirely sure how to fold a dragon wing.”

  “All you have to do is bend it at the big joint. I’ll be right behind you, walking you through the whole thing.” Taryn beamed at the two of us. “It’ll be great.”

  I had doubts.

  Those doubts did not stop the plan from moving forward. Before I knew it, I was standing in the circle of runes, my pine wand in my hand, watching Taryn climb up the ladder behind the firefighter. The rest of the doctors were next to the fire truck. From what I’d gathered, they were going to help with repositioning the wing.

  All of which sounded great, looked terrifying, and was before I did my part. Just a little lift and rotate. Taryn had grinned when she’d said that.

  I was terrified of that woman’s grin.

  Since the firetruck was on the wrong side of Jolly’s body to have access to the wing, I got the honor of rotating Jolly, drooping wing and all, so they could work on it.

  This morning I’d thought my biggest problems were the messages from Smith and Harris.

  “Everyone ready?” Taryn bellowed.

  “Ready!” The shouts came back.

  Taryn locked eyes with me. “Start the lift.”

  I exhaled, centered my mind on the spell, and mentally tugged a thick rope of magic from my core. I focused my power into the runes.

  The circle flared to life, and a fragile net of magic formed around Jolly. The shape and texture were right, but it wasn’t strong enough. I fed more power into the spell.

  The runes amplified the magic, and with surprisingly little output on my part, the holding and stabilization effects snapped into place. A moment later, the rest of the spell locked in. To be safe, I sent out tendrils of power to verify all the spells were working.

  Everything was functioning as expected. I kept a connection to spell, ready to add more power or adjust the parameters if needed. “Ready to lift,” I shouted.

  “Go for lift!”

  I flicked my wand up, and Jolly lifted off the ground. Another flick, and the dragon was fifteen feet in the air.

  The stabilization spells were holding nicely. Jolly moved steadily and evenly through the air. The holding spells were doing their job too. Even Jolly’s tail was still in the same position, curved as if held up by the concrete divider, tip drooped over slightly.

  “Ready to rotate,” I said.

  “Go for Rotate.”

  I moved my wand in a small clockwise circle. Jolly pivoted, their head moving away and the wing arcing past me. I halted the rotation when the dragon’s left side was close to the firetruck.

  This was the part that worried me.

  While I held Jolly, they got the ladder in position at the big joint in the wing. “Ready to release the hold.”

  “Releasing the hold,” I answered.

  As carefully as I could, I went in and created what I thought of as a gap between the holding spell and Jolly’s wing. It would give them room to work, but if they lost their grip, it would catch and hold the wing before it could hit the ground, potentially injuring Jolly or a doctor.

  The firefighter held the joint and started to manipulate it. On the ground, Syd and Moria climbed atop police cars. They lifted and folded the smaller wing joint, doing something to keep them stuck together.

  A tickle in the spell pulled my attention away from the wing. I eyed the spell. It looked fine, but I could just feel something brushing against it.

  Narrowing my eyes, I switched my vision to see magic. The net was secure enough, but just there. Had it moved?

  The tip of Jolly’s tail twitched.

  Oh, no.

  The spell shuddered.

  Jolly roared.