Lachlan shoved the bag of bones in the other man’s hands. “Here you go.”
“Thanks,” said Waverly, grinning at him. He opened the bag and stuck his hand in there, running his fingers over the teeth. His eyes rolled up in his head and he made a funny noise.
Lachlan started, surprised by the reaction.
Waverly shoved the bag back at Lachlan. “Holy hell!” He was out of breath.
“What?” said Lachlan. “Is there something wrong with them?”
“No,” said Waverly. “No, not at all. Uh… I got a little dragon in me my myself?”
Lachlan didn’t understand what he meant for a minute. Then it clicked. “You’re part dragon?”
“Yeah, back in the family tree, one of my great-greats had a little dalliance, if you know what I mean. Now, that doesn’t mean much, not usually, but sometimes, the magic gets in the blood. And for me, it means that I have a little talent at… seeing things.”
“Seeing what things?”
“Sometimes things about the past. Sometimes things about the future. I’m never sure. It’s usually not very clear. All vague images and things. But these. You… That was wicked, man.”
“Premonition?” said Lachlan. “But dragons don’t have that power.”
“I know,” said Waverly.
“So how did you inherit it from a dragon?”
“Don’t know, man,” said Waverly. “But I see things.”
This wasn’t actually the first time that Lachlan had met someone who seemed to have a second sight. But that other man—Olsen Hunter—had been something else entirely. Not dragon, not human, something ancient and strange. Lachlan cocked his head, taking Waverly in. Whatever Olsen had been, maybe that was the thing that was somewhere back in his family tree. Or maybe not. Maybe it didn’t matter. Even though it didn’t make sense, even though Lachlan usually brushed off psychics as cranks or liars, he believed this Waverly person.
“So,” said Lachlan, “what did you see?”
“Your son is the blood dragon,” said Waverly. “Which is weird, right? Because I didn’t even know what the blood dragon was two minutes ago, but I touch that, and it all beams into my head.” He let out a breath and shook himself. “What a rush, I gotta tell you.”
“That’s all you saw?” Lachlan was disappointed. He knew this already.
“No, that’s not all. I saw a lot more. There’s a way… if you want it, you could take that power from him.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I know that you want to protect him. You don’t want him to have to fight monsters. You want him to have a chance to be a normal kid, make his own choices.”
“That’s right,” said Lachlan.
“Well, you could transfer it,” said Waverly. “There’s a way to take the power into yourself.”
Lachlan was suddenly interested. “There is? What would I have to do?”
“Stuff you wouldn’t want to do,” said Waverly, grimacing. “It’s dark magic, moving someone’s destiny. And there would be consequences.”
“What kind of consequences?”
“Well, right now, that whole rise of the court of the Green King, it’s decades away. Wouldn’t happen until your little man is full grown. Then he’d be able to live out his full potential. If you take the power from him, though, it would move up the attack. It would awaken the children of the deep sooner.”
“How much sooner?”
Waverly shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe five years sooner. Maybe it would mean it happened tomorrow. Maybe next spring. Sooner is all I know.”
Lachlan stared down at his hands, thinking this over. “You think I should do it?”
“Me?” Waverly pointed at his own chest. “You’re asking me?”
Lachlan nodded. “Yeah.”
“Don’t ask me about something like that.”
“But I am.”
“Well, then, I’d say don’t do it.”
“Why not?”
“Well, because it would mean that the world would end quicker, and I don’t want to die yet,” said Waverly.
“You mean I wouldn’t beat the court of the Green King?” said Lachlan. “Not even with the power of the blood dragon?”
Waverly shrugged. “Couldn’t say for sure about that, I’m afraid. The total outcome is hidden from me. But, uh, I would say that it doesn’t look good. Not good at all. But, uh, it doesn’t look good if you wait, either.”
“Wyatt wouldn’t be able to beat them either?”
The mage studied his shoes. “Like I said, I don’t know for sure either way.”
Lachlan rubbed his temples. “You saw this for a reason, though. If you’re telling me about it, it must mean that—”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” said Waverly.
“How do you know that? You said you’ve never seen a vision so vivid and informative. That’s a sign.”
Waverly shrugged again. “Maybe. Maybe not. You want me to tell you how to do the spell, I will.”
Lachlan didn’t say anything. He had wished like hell for a way out for his little boy, and here it was, offered to him on a silver platter. But of course there were consequences. What did the mage mean by dark magic? What if the attack came so soon that Lachlan wasn’t able to prepare for the coming of the children of the deep? He held up the bag of dragon teeth. “How about the talisman for now? I don’t know if I want the other spell or not.”
Waverly took the bag. “Don’t take the spell, man. Don’t do it.”
Lachlan shut his eyes. If only he could be sure what the right thing to do was.
* * *
I awoke to Wyatt screaming.
I sat up straight in bed, and I realized I was alone. Where the hell was Lachlan?
Maybe he was out in the kitchen. Maybe he’d already woken up from Wyatt’s screams and he’d gone to get the baby. “Lachlan?” I called.
No answer.
I felt a little chill go down my spine. I felt nervous now.
Outside, the wind was howling and lashing things around in the sky around the hotel. I could hear its keening sound as I threw aside the covers and got out of bed.
I went across the hallway to Wyatt’s room. Lachlan wasn’t there.
Wyatt was standing up in his crib, gripping the railing, howling. I snatched him up, holding him tight. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” I murmured. “Mommy’s here.”
He was still squalling his head off.
I left his room. “Lachlan!” I yelled into the depths of the house.
Nothing.
God damn it. Where was he? If Wyatt wasn’t crying so hard, I’d try to find Lachlan. But I couldn’t let the little guy cry any longer. I settled down into bed with him, pulling the covers over me and only up to Wyatt’s waist. I freed my breast and he latched on greedily.
Silence.
Well, except for the howling wind outside. What the hell was going on out there? I was remembering now that I’d checked the weather, and I hadn’t seen anything like this. Was this some freak storm that had shown up out of nowhere?
I tried to maneuver myself so that I could get my phone off the bedside table without dislodging Wyatt from my nipple.
It wasn’t possible. He popped off, promptly started screaming again, and I grabbed my phone and rolled back over and latched him back on.
Geez. I was never going to get back to sleep.
There was a text on my phone from Lachlan. Hey, Penny, it read. I’m heading out to meet with Waverly Garrett about the talisman. Probably be home late.
Well, damn it. He wasn’t even home. I was here alone with the baby.
I mean, I wasn’t really alone. Vivica and Jackson were downstairs and Felicity, Scott, and Asia were next door. But I felt alone. I felt a little frightened.
Lying here in this bed, huddled around my tiny son, breastfeeding him, I felt vulnerable. I didn’t like the feeling. I was Penny Caspian, and I was a dragon shifter. I was usually pretty on top of things. But now I fel
t scared and alone. I wished Lachlan was here. I tightened my grip on Wyatt, who was already falling back asleep.
Crazy child. I couldn’t believe he’d been crying loud enough to wake people on the other side of the country two minutes ago, and now was just slipping off to dreamland. All he’d wanted was me. Being close to me calmed him. I bent down to kiss the top of his little head. I loved this baby boy so much. I’d protect him, no matter how vulnerable or frightened I felt.
The wind screamed outside. I didn’t like the sound of it.
Wyatt’s breath was even and steady. I detached him from my breast and eased my way out of bed.
I tiptoed over to the window and peered outside.
What I saw made my heart stop.
There was something in the water.
I didn’t know how to explain it, because I’d never seen anything like it. The ocean was churning and crashing. The waves were twisting into the air, high and tipped with white foam. The wind was going crazy.
But the waves, they…
They weren’t like regular waves. They were the shape of… of…
They had arms. They had faces. Almost faces. Not exactly. They were missing something, but they were faces, and they swam and swilled in and out of expressions and their arms were reaching out for my hotel.
There was something chilling about them, as if a tight iron band had closed around my soul.
And they were coming ashore.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Leaving Wyatt in the bedroom, I ran out to the back porch. I threw open the door. The chill of late autumn cut into my skin. I stumbled, the cold stopping my breath.
But I got my balance, and I raised my hands over my head, and I summoned all the power I could manage, every shred of it. I poured fire up from inside me, through my arms, through my hands, through my fingers. And then I pointed at the nightmare thing that was flowing and crawling over the beach toward my hotel.
And a huge wall of fire burst out of my body and went careening through the air.
The fire hit the monster thing. It sizzled. It disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
But the thing on the beach had lost form. It was watery now, not as put together. It was weakened.
The thing was, I didn’t know if I had enough power left to hit it again.
“Penny!” yelled a voice from behind me.
I whirled.
There was Lachlan coming in the front door of the apartment. He sprinted down the hallway and grabbed my hand. “What are they?” he said in a hoarse voice.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Do you think they’re…” But I couldn’t let myself finish the sentence. Because… not yet! Wyatt was so small. How could he be destined to lead an army of dragons when he couldn’t even walk yet? It couldn’t be those children of the deep things. It couldn’t be.
Lachlan grabbed the talisman around his neck. It was the new one, the one made from the dragon teeth. He grabbed my hand, and I felt his power fueling my own.
Together, we gathered an even bigger wall of fire and we threw it at the thing on the beach.
The water and the fire hit each other and there was a loud crack, like thunder.
But then they dissipated in a ball of steam.
The monstrous thing was gone.
But there was another one behind it, and it was rolling in off the ocean as well.
The wind roared.
Lachlan gasped. “I don’t… I think I’m tapped out.”
I felt panicked. I thought I had a bit of magic left. Not much, but enough for maybe a small attack. Not enough to take out the other monster.
“Blood bond,” he said, baring his fangs. “We have to use whiteflame.”
“No,” I said. “We can’t. We don’t know what it will do to us.”
“Penny, that thing is coming for us, and we can’t wait around for it.”
Suddenly, there was a tongue of flame overhead.
I looked up, and I saw that nine or ten dragons were flying in over top of the hotel. They were making a beeline directly for the remaining monster.
When they got close, all at once, they opened their mouths and poured out fire. And the monster sizzled and fought and strained…
And then went up in a puff of steam.
And it was quiet.
The wind stopped. Everything was still and placid.
From inside, the sound of Wyatt laughing.
Lachlan and I rushed into the bedroom.
Wyatt had somehow crawled off the bed and dragged himself over to the window. He was holding onto the window sill and looking outside, a big grin on his face.
“Wyatt?” I whispered.
“Is he wearing his talisman, Penny?” said Lachlan.
I darted forward and snatched him up. Together, Lachlan and I checked his wrist. We looked inside his sleeve.
“He got it off again,” I said.
“He did that,” said Lachlan. “He brought those dragons. He saved us.”
I started to shake. I was shaking so hard that I didn’t know if I could keep my grip on Wyatt. So, I sat down on the bed and I wrapped my arms around him as tightly as I could.
* * *
“What the hell was that?” Felicity was in the doorway of my apartment. She was wearing a pajama outfit covered in monkeys and bananas and her eyes were wide. “Those things out on the water. I saw them. Scott saw them. We were coming to find you and then—fire. Dragons. What the hell?”
I was still holding Wyatt. I had come out of the bedroom and Lachlan had his arm around me.
“I think…” I said. “I think it’s started.”
“What’s started?” said Felicity. “Because Scott is convinced that was Eaglelinx.”
“Eaglelinx?” I furrowed my brow. “No, they couldn’t have something like this. This is bigger than that. This is… this is the court of the Green King. Coming up from the deep. And they’re after Wyatt, and I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
“No,” said Lachlan. “It’s not.”
I turned on him. “How could you know that?”
“Well, because Waverly Garrett said that wasn’t going to happen for decades.”
“How would he know?” I said.
“I don’t know. He said he had dragon blood in his ancestry, but I think maybe he’s related to the same kind of things that Olsen Hunter was. He had a vibe about him. Whatever the case, I believe him. He told me that I could do a spell, that I could take Wyatt’s powers into myself, and then I could be the blood dragon. But if I did it, it would speed up the coming of the court of the Green King.”
“But it did speed up,” I said.
“It can’t have. I didn’t do the spell,” said Lachlan. “I didn’t even get him to tell me what it was. I figure… there’s another way, and we’ve got decades to figure out what it is. He said the spell was dark magic, and I don’t want—”
“No,” I said. “You can’t do a spell that’s dark. No more darkness for us.”
“No more,” he agreed.
“I don’t know what the hell you people are talking about,” said Scott’s voice from the doorway, “but that was Eaglelinx trying to get back at my daughter and me, just like they said they would. God, they know where we live.”
“You’re sure?” I said. “Because what just came out of the water… I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“I’ve heard about things like this before,” said Scott. “Things that live in the water. Things that belong to Eaglelinx.”
I shook my head. “But… but…” I looked at Lachlan. “It can’t be.”
He looked confused as well.
“Well, look,” said Felicity, “it all turned out all right. They protected you, just like they said they would.”
“Only because Wyatt isn’t wearing his talisman,” I said. “He brought those dragons. Whatever those things were, they were too powerful for Lachlan and me to handle on our own.”
“Maybe with whiteflame—” started Lachlan.<
br />
“No,” I insisted.
“Yeah, doesn’t that stuff make you guys crazy?” said Felicity.
“But powerful,” said Lachlan. “And if we have to use it, to keep the people we love safe—”
“If we use it,” I said, “then we don’t love anyone.”
He sighed. He knew it was true. Using the whiteflame made us powerful and aloof. We cared about no one except each other.
I turned back to Scott. “Where have you heard about this kind of thing exactly?”
“Well…” He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t entirely know what it means, but there’s a thing called… the Executive Board.”
“The Executive Board,” said Lachlan. “What? So, they’ve got a board of directors.”
“It’s…” Scott swallowed. “I know that the meetings of the Executive Board always happened after the sun went down and always in this little inlet off the bay.”
“They happened outdoors?” I said.
“People are scared of the Executive Board,” said Scott. “I’ve heard rumors about them. Like they aren’t… people.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Vivica was busy wiping down Jackson’s high chair, which sat next to the kitchen table in her suite. Her suite was tiny, but she’d managed to make it pretty homey for the both of them.
Jackson was crawling around in an oversized playpen. He had some toys in there, and he seemed pretty entertained.
“What’s up?” Vivica said.
“Look, I’m not trying to bother you,” I said. “If you’re busy, I can come back later.”
She laughed. “I’m always busy, Penny. So are you.”
I laughed too. “Well, that’s the truth. Can I help you with anything?”
“I’ve just got a couple dishes to wash up,” she said. “Microwave oatmeal. I put it in those little pouch things for Jackson, so that he can just squeeze it into his mouth.”
“Oh, cool idea,” I said. I was obsessed with these little plastic pouches that they sold for babies. They had an opening spout at the top which fit right in the baby’s mouth, and then he could suck out the yogurt or apple sauce or whatever it was in it. Vivica had gone a step further and found refillable ones online. They had a recloseable end so they could be washed out and reused.
Fire Brand (City of Dragons Book 6) Page 11