No Witch Way Out (Maeren Series Book 2)

by Mercedes Jade

The room was turning black.

  “Victoria!” Elizabeth shouted, catching her with air.

  Jill used her earth strength to simply pick up Victoria’s limp body from Elizabeth’s air cushion and settle her onto the Lazy Boy chair that Elizabeth had abandoned.

  Sitting down was a good idea.

  “How do you know he is the missing dragon prince?” Victoria asked.

  She closed her eyes to all of their worried looks as they crowded around her. If only they knew this was her fault.

  The dragon she had held captive for Elizabeth had been the right age to be him.

  Young dragons were uncommon now.

  “Half-form,” Kaila answered. “Only royalty are able to maintain half-form, with wings alone and the rest of the dragon suppressed.”

  Just like the little boy that Victoria had awakened when they were children.

  She and William had been playing in the woods near the castle when she had felt something tugging at her chi.

  Innocent and fearless, she had followed the tug to a dark cave, hidden by moss and leaves she had to dig through to find the entrance.

  She’d fallen through when she tried to peer into it, like looking down a wishing well. The ground around her that had seemed so solid had given away.

  William heard her scream and bravely climbed down the narrow tunnel, competent enough even at that age to use magic to make his foot and handholds in the stone, so she would be able to climb back up with him.

  If only she hadn’t followed that tug to a little side tunnel, crawling on her belly and reaching out to touch the sleeping boy with wings, using a little fireball, so she could see his face.

  She had kissed his lips, figuring a princess should be able to wake a sleeping prince in the same way and nicked herself on his unusually sharp fangs as she pushed down too hard, clumsily slipping in the mud.

  His purple eyes had been the last thing she saw as William dragged her out, by her feet, and collapsed the tunnel.

  “We need chalk,” Elizabeth said to her mother, interrupting Victoria’s dazed remembrance.

  Victoria didn’t think she had said anything out loud to the rest of them, but apparently, her shocked silence had been enough.

  Either that or the knowledge that another prince was going to be tracking them had gotten Elizabeth to choose to take action.

  Elizabeth wasn’t the only one spooked at her mother’s sharp guess at the dragon’s identity.

  If Kaila hadn’t told them that royal dragons could stay in half-form, then Victoria wouldn’t have known just how much crap she was in.

  Victoria and William had never discussed that day. In fact, she had stayed mute for weeks afterwards, due to the trauma of knowing her brother had trapped the little boy she had awakened.

  She hadn’t been afraid of his wings or his unusual purple eyes, a child’s imagination more than a match for the oddities in Maeren.

  Even when she had felt the wings in her dream this time, and knew enough to fear, she still had been unaware of the implications until about thirty seconds ago.

  Victoria had awakened the sleeping dragon prince.

  “Let’s go visit Kim,” Kaila suggested.

  “Do you really think that’s wise?” Elizabeth asked, giving her mother a sharp look. “There’s something I really ought to tell you first.”

  “Who is Kim?” asked Victoria, not quite ready to leave the chair.

  What else were the Norwoods hiding from her?

  “A friend. She knows about witches and Maerenian magic. Her help will come with a price for you, however, and that includes no personal questions about her,” Kaila said.

  That was rather abrupt and harsh.

  “We’re going,” Kaila told Elizabeth, quickly turning to her eldest daughter. “This can’t wait. Whatever you need to say can either be said in the car or wait for when we get back.”

  Kaila was just as abrupt with her daughter, but Victoria wasn’t listening. Kaila’s talk of a different price for her to receive help had hurt. A reminder that she was an outsider.

  The first purposeful one since they had brought her here.

  Victoria felt like Kaila treated her equal to her daughters, but this dragon was an unexpected danger.

  Now she felt like Kaila was blaming this entire situation on her.

  Victoria would never have met the dragon again if Elizabeth hadn’t insisted on going through the library portal.

  She hadn’t asked them to drag her along on this crazy trip, implicit in their treasonous escape.

  Panic was making the room spin again.

  What if Kaila threw her out of the house or worse?

  They had gone to a lot of trouble to ensure Victoria was kept with them, due to the blood oath to Elizabeth.

  Had it occurred to Kaila that she only had to make Victoria’s poison a little more lethal to eliminate the problem caused by the bond permanently?

  “I don’t need help to deal with this dragon prince,” Victoria said in an icy tone.

  She pushed up from the chair, ignoring the spinning. She just had to make it to the bathroom and throw up in the toilet, in that order.

  “Yes, you do,” Elizabeth insisted.

  The nausea abated so suddenly that Victoria knew Elizabeth had slipped into her mind and taken it away with her lightning magic.

  Elizabeth gagged, confirming it.

  “Get out of my head,” Victoria shouted at her, pushing Elizabeth out of the way.

  Nausea immediately twisted her belly again, but she refused to embarrass herself further in front of them.

  “I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said.

  She tried to reach out for Victoria but the anger on Victoria’s face stopped her faster than magic.

  “If you hadn’t kidnapped me from the heavily guarded castle I was living in for my protection, then this dragon prince wouldn’t have been able to find me. I had a room full of protective glyphs and the grand magic circle in the practice room—which you destroyed—had been reinforced with charcoal from the sacred woods of Sandier and salt from the Sea of Desne. I was untouchable.”

  Elizabeth stepped back, with a haunted look that stole Victoria’s anger, but it was too late.

  “Untouchable?” Kaila questioned, and the older witch knew better. “Were you so much safer in the castle?”

  The nightmares behind that question, all of the torture that Victoria had slammed the door shut on, made her hands shake as Kaila pushed her to open the door once more.

  “It’s not forever. You just need to stay until we figure out what to do with Daemon,” Jill said.

  Jill was always the peacemaker.

  Daemon was kind of a big ‘if’ to rely on, anyway. Hiding out in the human realm was only a temporizing solution.

  Victoria had seen the way Daemon had looked at his little lightning witch. He would eventually track Elizabeth down.

  “I’m a prisoner, in case you forgot. Liz took over my mind and moved me around like I was some doll she played, without a conscious thought of my own.”

  “I’m sorry!” Elizabeth shouted.

  It was angry, but she wasn’t even looking at Victoria, seeming to shout at someone else.

  Maybe herself or fate?

  “You can leave here as soon as the blood oath is gone,” Elizabeth said. “We don’t need you. Run back to your precious castle and its grand circle.”

  The front door banged open as Elizabeth used magic and her anger. She walked out of it, without looking back.

  Victoria clenched her hands. She hadn’t meant to blame it all on Elizabeth. She knew everything Elizabeth had done for her probably added up to more than the Norwoods had taken back.

  The problem was that Victoria hadn’t been trusted enough to be asked first.

  Elizabeth had lied, and Jill drugged her, and then Elizabeth had forced Victoria to walk away from her twin without a word.

  She had been made to run away again, and with her reputation, her family might just believe she
left willingly.

  Victor was her only hope.

  “I didn’t mean it,” Victoria said in the heavy silence that followed. “It’s complicated. You don’t understand what my disappearance is going to do to Vic.”

  “It’s not just you. Of course, you were upset. We did drag you along, against your will,” Jill said. “Elizabeth hates using her magic that way. If she wasn’t worried about our safety . . .”

  “It’s Daemon,” Kaila said, using her air to gently close the door behind her eldest daughter. “She isn’t ready to discuss him yet. I believe some of her anger is misdirected, although, Victoria, you ought to remember your oath to Elizabeth. As much as it was meant to promise protection to my daughter, she feels it obliges her to keep you safe, as if Daemon gave you into her keeping instead of the other way around. Everything she has done is to protect others, our family, and now you. She can’t take another betrayal right now.”

  “I know. I spoke before I thought. My brother has to be crazy with worry, and now, there is this damned royal dragon, with a grudge, that is in my dreams. All of my spelling equipment is in another dimension.” Victoria shrugged her tense shoulders before admitting the real problem. “I hate being helpless.”

  Kaila smiled encouragingly at her. “That is one thing I believe we can fix.”

  She walked over to the door and grabbed the car keys hanging on the wall, handing them to Jill.

  “Jill, tell Victoria about keeping it inside for the car ride. I’m sure your sister is getting impatient, waiting for us. I’ll be out after I give Kim a call about our visit.”

  “Field trip!” Jill said, sounding excited to show Victoria something new. “Have you ever been in a car?”

  “Nope. I was on a motorcycle once.”

  Jill tossed Victoria a light jacket. “I bet you weren’t alone. Want to tell me about it?”

  “It was a lifetime ago,” Victoria dismissed.

  That part of her life was over. She already had too much stuff coming back to haunt her with the dragon to even think about the first time she had run away.

  Her human boyfriend was dead. Unlike William, her fourth brother, George, didn’t screw up when he killed somebody.

  Jill shrugged, unaware of the demons she was stirring up. “My sister likes Harleys but she’s too afraid of an electrical malfunction to ride on one.”

  “Smart. Sometimes your sister is smart.”

  Elizabeth glared at them both as they exited the house. “I don’t even need magic to hear you two gossiping,” she complained.

  “What if I did want you to hear something in my mind, without saying it out loud?” Victoria asked, zipping up her light jacket.

  “Just think it hard at me or try ‘knock, knock,’” Elizabeth suggested. “My magic is always on, especially if you are in my passive range, which I figure is about a city block. I have to actively block you. If you rap my shield hard enough or think something unusual like ‘knock, knock,’ then I’ll pay attention.”

  “Forgive me, Liz? I shouldn’t be blaming everything on you.”

  “My mother was right, I’m not really mad at you. On the other hand, you really should be angry with us. Don’t let my mother guilt-trip you.”

  “Your mother just reminded me of my duties to you. I need to show you some protective glyphs as well. I’m not the only one blood bonded to a dangerous male.”

  Elizabeth sucked her magic back in before opening the car door, cutting off the connection.

  This time Victoria could almost feel it when Elizabeth left her thoughts.

  Elizabeth put up a mental shield that felt warm and protective. It was nothing like the cold, mechanical control Elizabeth had forced on Victoria when they left the castle.

  Now it felt more like a safety net, ready to catch her if needed.

  “Come on,” she told Victoria. “I’ll teach you the art of backseat driving.”

  “And the protection?” Victoria prompted, belting herself in as soon as she shut the door.

  Maybe Kaila had been right and Elizabeth really was trying to take care of Victoria when it was meant to be the other way around.

  “Yes,” Elizabeth said. “I’ll take everything you’ve got.”

  Jill turned around from the front passenger seat, checking on her older sister. “Are we cool?” she asked.

  “Like a cucumber. Go veg,” Elizabeth said.

  There were dark circles under Elizabeth’s eyes as she told Victoria a story about the first time she had driven a car.

  It apparently involved trying to pull out of the driveway and putting the car into reverse, through the garage door instead, which her mother had just finished painting.

  Victoria laughed and Elizabeth launched into another story, instead of lying back and resting for the drive, although her body looked like she needed sleep.

  What dark dreams chased Elizabeth?

  The Drunken Tattoo

  Elizabeth

  Kim greeted them at the door with the early morning sun and her cats. It was cooler out, fall having settled onto the human realm since the Norwood’s family trip to hell.

  Otherwise, walking into Kim’s home brought Elizabeth a sense of déjà vu.

  At least until Victoria stage whispered, “Seriously, Liz? I need a real witch, not some human idea of one.”

  “You need chalk,” Jill said, closing the door with a bit too much force. “She teaches school. There are boatloads of chalk.”

  A spate of irate Maerenian stopped Victoria in her tracks.

  Elizabeth had no idea what Kim had said because it had been ancient Maerenian, similar to the language of the high-level spells.

  It figured they were going to get a lecture.

  How could they expect otherwise when it was Kim’s only son that Elizabeth had jilted and left behind in Maeren?

  Dragging one of the royals along with them to Kim’s secret home in the human realm, too, compounded the offence.

  At least, Victoria was unlikely to guess Kim’s real identity.

  The Blue Queen had perfected her disguise over the years in the human realm. Jill’s old sensei looked harmless, dressed in simple black pants and a creamy beige cashmere sweater with her trademark red-lipsticked mouth that really popped against her otherwise casual look.

  She could be any other lady on her way to the spa to laze away the afternoon, except it was barely past dawn and they had work to do.

  Victoria’s mistake was understandable, but it still wouldn’t be excused.

  “My apologies,” Victoria said.

  Victoria’s startled shoulders had shot up defensively as she had taken the direct hit from the elder witch that she had clearly underestimated.

  The princess executed a quick bow towards Kim, in the first sign of deference Elizabeth had seen her give since Daemon made her a Lasier.

  She felt Victoria’s tentative mental knock and opened her mind.

  “Who is she?” Victoria asked.

  “She has a secret superhero identity. What did she say?”

  “I’ll forgive only the first offence. Who is she, really? Few can speak Maerenian like a language anymore. It’s just words memorized for spells now.”

  “Obviously, you can speak it.”

  “Not really. I understood her, but to speak it myself would be an effort and I studied it extensively in texts to learn the advanced spells.”

  “It’s not my place to tell you her identity. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you who she was, anyway.”

  And wasn’t that the truth?

  If Victoria knew who Kim was, the princess would be questioning their sanity, coming here.

  Only their mother’s previous friendship with Kim likely allowed them to presume on her kindnesses and help after they burned their bridges with the rest of the royals.

  When Kim found out they were bringing dragons into their problems, it was going to really test the limits of her friendship.

  Thankfully, Geer hadn’t returned to her mind since t
hat demon she’d staked, earlier. He’d pulled a nasty trick on her to let his dragon friend—a dragon prince!—try to steal Victoria away in her sleep.

  Geer better hide!

  Normally, he only dropped into her thoughts once a day, and his surprise visit when she had been hunting wasn’t a time of night he regularly showed.

  Given the opposite shifts that most Maerenians preferred, active at night, and the time difference between the realms, she figured he usually dropped into her head when he was going to rest.

  Elizabeth had been his few moments of enjoyment at the end of his day, something she’d also felt similarly about until he revealed his nefarious intentions.

  “Kaila told me time was of the essence, water imp,” Kim said to Victoria, interrupting Elizabeth’s thoughts. “Let’s go to the dojo, where I keep my spelling circle, so you may reinforce your protections.”

  Victoria stiffened up further. If she was a hedgehog, her spines would be quivering, but she wouldn’t be in a ball yet.

  Elizabeth remembered the feeling.

  “I’m a fire witch,” Victoria informed Kim.

  The irony was lost on Victoria, of course.

  “Your temperament, perhaps, but your strength is in water,” Kim said, ignoring Victoria’s bristly attitude.

  Kim was leading them down to the dojo, Victoria following close on her heels.

  Perhaps the real lecture was postponed.

  Only their mother had talked with Kim, when they returned from Maeren.

  Jill had avoided going back to her weekly lessons and practice at the dojo. There was something that had changed between student and teacher.

  Elizabeth worried it was trust and she was the cause of its destruction.

  Jill had gone against her nature and Kim’s teachings to save Elizabeth.

  The hallway they were walking was as bright as the rest of the home, windows along every wall due to the U-shape of the bungalow, opening to a central courtyard in the middle, with a traditional Japanese style rock garden.

  It was Kim’s private refuge. Elizabeth had never ventured there during her training, sticking to the more public dojo that was actually set off at the back of the house, not attached but close.

  Her only time exploring there had been as a child, accompanying Jill during her kendo lessons.