Katrina zoomed through the forest on teal-tinted dragonfly wings. She didn’t bother to look back, she could hear the man’s pet wolves’ paws hitting the ground, feel their hot breath making her wings work harder to get it off of her. She was so tired, she wanted to stop, but she valued her life far too much.

She hit the ground—hard. Her wings had quit on her, and she could hear them gaining on her. Katrina rolled into the shadows, lying on her stomach and watching the empty air in front of her. She screamed at what she saw thirty seconds later.

It was a wolf’s nose. she moved back a ways, shaking like a leaf. She could hear the wolf growling as it got her scent. She hit the trunk of a tree. No, she thought. Not today.

She flew over the wolf, glad her wings were working again, and fought, using magic to subdue him and his wolves, knowing he could break free, but not until she was far off. She fluttered away, her blue spirals of hair foating behind her. Her amber eyes stared in front of her.