Dragons and Mages: A Limited Edition Anthology

by Pauline Creeden

  “You knew?” I said to my mother. “You knew people were dying?”

  She shook her head. “I had the books packed away. It wasn’t until recently we got them out again to help one member of our coven. Word spread and pretty soon there was a demand for the book…and when they made a movie out of the story, I seized the opportunity to get the books in the most hands possible. I hadn’t followed up on the health donors until yesterday.” Her voice escalated. “I swear, I didn’t realize how bad those books were. I stopped handing them out. When they come back to me, they’re being retired. I promise. All these years, all I thought they did was siphon a little bit of health from one person to be given to another.”

  I didn’t believe her. Or at least, I didn’t want to believe her. It made saving Izzy a harder decision.

  “So, why’d you take off?” Izzy returned her focus to her aunt. “Why haven’t I seen you until I hunted you down?” Izzy’s mouth opened to ask more questions, but she stopped there.

  “Because…because that was the tradeoff. A cure for you in exchange for me joining the coven.”

  “And you couldn’t have both?”

  “Maybe I could have if the magical cure worked as expected, but we were experimenting back then. Nobody read the book you were given before you. It meant that healthy parts of your own body donated its wellbeing to fix other parts of your body. We believed that we didn’t cure your leukemia, but rather put a band-aid on it. When you have a fit and the disease spreads, the magic takes what it needs to fight the disease, at the expense of your lungs, liver, and kidneys. I’m not quite sure what else, as magic has a mind of its own. After your mom found out how I cured you, and about how it didn’t quite work where you had to spend the rest of your life in pain…well, she forbade me from seeing you. She put a restraining order on me. I was waiting until you turned eighteen.”

  Izzy laughed. “Well I’m twenty-six now!”

  Her aunt looked down at her hands folded in her lap. Her voice was much weaker. “When you turned eighteen, I checked in on you. Discovered how terrible your life had been.” She shook her head and sucked in her cheeks. “I couldn’t come and admit to you what I had done. Time flew by while I tried to figure out a way to fix you…and we’re close. That is, until we discovered how bad the books really are.”

  “I don’t believe a word you’re saying,” Izzy shot back. “Mom never cared enough about me to go through all that work.”

  “Back then, she did. Perhaps now, she’s followed in her useless husband’s footsteps and turned to whatever substance they’re abusing to numb her pain.”

  “Ridiculous,” Izzy laughed. “All reasons aside, are you saying that I’ll never die? That there is magic inside me that cures whatever problems I have?”

  “Not quite. You’ll just never die from your leukemia. It must still be rampant in your body, but the magic keeps you alive.”

  I cleared my throat. “Lift the spell.”

  “I can’t…and why would I want to? Izzy’s body is so full of cancer, she’ll die quickly after the magic goes away.”

  “Lift the spell,” I demanded again. “Without the magic blocking her disease, I can cure it.”

  Izzy looked at me with wide eyes. “You can cure my disease?”

  “If the magic stops blocking it, yes. I’ve cured worse than that.”

  My mother spoke for the first time. “The spells are permanent, I’m afraid. Once the magic is done, it’s done.”

  Of course. Why’d I expect this to be easy? I ground my teeth. So close, yet so far away from the solution. I began to pull the magic from the air and tilted my head at my mother. “Those are your books?”

  Her throat swelled as she forced a swallow. “Yes, they are.”

  “And you can’t lift the spell?”

  She shook her head. “I can’t.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. Sure, she was my mother, but she was nothing to me. “Then you need to die.”

  “Whoa-whoa-whoa!” Izzy’s aunt said, stepping between my mother and me. “Nobody is going to die today.”

  “Really?” I asked. “What about the half-a-dozen people that are in the hospital infected with whatever magical sickness your books have brought on? And who are you to have an opinion in this matter? You condemned your own niece to a life of poking and prodding and a wheelchair in the hospital.”

  Izzy’s aunt looked at her. “She’s fine…”

  “That’s because I’ve been helping! More than you’ve ever done.”

  The anger bubbled up inside me. By now the magic hung on my skin and focused in my hand, creating a blue glowing orb of pain, so strong, and so much wanting to be released, all I had to do was get near my mother to release it.

  Right at her chest.

  But she held up her hands in surrender. “I’m sorry I left.”

  I laughed a truly evil laugh that would make the old version of my father proud. “Now you’re admitting you know who I am?”

  She nodded. “I knew. I always knew. Like Danielle, I was just…ashamed…for leaving you. What type of mother does that?”

  “What is this?” I spat. “Everyone already learned from their mistakes? Everyone wants a new life? First my father. Then you. But you both forgot about what is most important. You forgot who you left behind. Who was missed in the process.”

  “I didn’t forget. I thought about you every single day.”

  “Like I thought about you,” Izzy’s aunt said.

  “Who leaves the people they love behind?” I let some power in the orb dissipate.

  My mother’s voice was soft, but it grew stronger as she committed to the words. “Someone who wants a better life for their loved ones. A life I knew I couldn’t provide. But your father. He loved you so much.”

  “Loved me? You have no idea what he put me through!”

  Her face looked like she had seen a ghost. “What happened to you, Greyson?”

  “Nothing you deserve to know.” I focused my energy on the orb in my hand again, making it grow.

  “Grey,” Izzy whispered. “We don’t need them. We are both better than they could hope to be, and if my aunt is right, I’m not going to die.”

  Not die, but live a long, painful life. Was that any better?

  “I am not a bad person,” my mother pleaded.

  “You’re not?” I bitterly laughed.

  She shook her head, and tears trickled down her cheek. “Really, Greyson. I only wanted the best for you.”

  I pulled my magic stronger, making the orb grow to the size of Luna’s over-sized head. “Then reverse the curse on the books!”

  “I can’t. They’re not my books.”

  Before I could process that, the front window frosted, sending a chill right through me. The frost grew, and suddenly, the window shattered. Luna…and my father…jumped through the opening and stepped in the way of my glowing orb.

  “Get out of my way,” I demanded. The orb itched to be released.

  Both my father and Luna shook their heads.

  I tilted my chin, eyeing my loyal dragon. “What is this? First you take Izzy’s side, then my father’s. Who are you? You are not my dragon.”

  Luna stood tall.

  “She is, Greyson. Luna is the dragon you need,” my father said. “Get rid of the magic pulse.”

  “And who are you to give me advice? You’re not any kind of man I knew. Step out of my way.” I ground my teeth. My mother deserved what she had coming. Not only for cursing Izzy, but for leaving me. For allowing me to be the only orphan whose parents were still alive.

  Izzy hung on my arm. “They’re not her books,” she whispered.

  Aye, she had said that, but the need to make her pay for the pain she caused overtook my logic.

  “Grey,” Izzy said, taking my arm that held the orb and trying to pull it down, but my strength far surpassed hers. “I won’t let you cure me if it means you lose who you are.”

  But I’d happily give it up. Give up everything I had
been fighting to become in order to save her.

  Izzy let go of me, crossing the room and standing in the way of me and my target. Her knees didn’t wobble, and she stood taller than I’d ever seen. Her voice was commanding, more than any queen of any of the seven kingdoms. “Whose books are they?” Izzy demanded.

  “My sister gave them to me,” my mother confessed.

  Everything about me melted, and my father said what I was thinking. “Luciana gave you the books? When did you see her?”

  “Not for many, many years.” My mother’s voice, filled with a bit of sadness, came from somewhere behind the wall of people protecting her. Why would they protect someone who abandoned their own child?

  Who cursed Izzy?

  Who killed the other innocent people of this realm?

  Then it hit me. Nobody except Izzy’s aunt was protecting Liliana. They were all protecting my sanity.

  Why?

  The tension flowed out of me like water through my fingers.

  They protected me because they all cared.

  Of course, Luna cared. She had cared about me for a good chunk of my life.

  And Izzy cared. Even through my coldness, she put her life between me and a woman who potentially cursed her.

  But the shocking part was, my father cared.

  He actually cared.

  And I didn’t know what to do about that.

  Chapter 21

  Both my body and my mind felt numb as I fell into the armchair in my mother’s home. Anger still coursed through my veins, but I had it under control. The gaping hole inside me that I had been searching for something to fill it, like a hunger that could not be satisfied by food, was still there, but it wasn’t as important.

  I handed over my father’s magic moonstone without even an argument, and he drew a circle in the air, creating the portal home.

  The portal to Luciana, the real witch behind the books.

  “You can’t kill her,” my father ground out through his teeth. “There will be another way. There has to be.” His thumb rubbed the moonstone in his hand, and his eyes were far away, deep in thought.

  “I can kill her and break the curse. She’s as much my flesh and blood as Liliana.” I watched my father’s nervous fingers. “You love her? Even after she claims you are driving her mad in the dungeon? After all the anger she directed towards you for getting her locked up?”

  “Love has a mind of its own,” he said with a glint of something I wasn’t used to seeing in his eyes—sadness.

  Once the portal was drawn, Luna hopped through the hole, followed by me and Izzy, and I didn’t even look back, knowing my father would follow. He had come this far, and either I was that defeated that I didn’t care if he escaped, or he had proven to me he would stand by my side.

  We arrived right outside the dungeon door, where we all waited. My father was gray and hunched over as he passed me back the moonstone. Sweat trickled down his brow, and his chest rapidly rose and fell as he gasped for air.

  He’d be okay.

  It was only the magic taking what it wanted from him. I didn’t wait. Izzy’s next fit might be moments away, and even though the leukemia wouldn’t kill her, I wasn’t certain the magic wouldn’t. Magic took what it wanted. Then there was Ruby who had the curse from the book draining her health who certainly faced death.

  All it took to lift the spell on Izzy, Ruby, and the others who were sick in the mortal realm was the death of one woman.

  A woman who had cursed thousands in her day. Who had taken life after life. Both worlds would be better off without her. My father said to spare her, but did she deserve to live?

  I wouldn’t kill her out of anger or revenge. I would do it for all the innocents out there suffering the wrath of her health-sucking books.

  For Izzy.

  For Ruby.

  Both women who meant so much to me.

  Calmly, with Izzy at my side, I approached the cell on the far end of the dungeon. Luciana sat on a bench with her head buried in her hands. Her long, dark hair a ratted mess, cascading over her fingers.

  “I saw my mother today,” I said, calmer than I expected.

  “You saw Liliana? She is still alive?”

  “Aye, and she told me something interesting. You gave her a collection of books. All titled, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

  Luciana stood rather abruptly. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? You did see her…that means she is alive.” A huge smile grew on her lips. “The spell worked. I didn’t think I could do it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The books. Unlike you, I could never heal. Only bring disease…but it appears I can do a health swap.” She smiled. “Even after nearly fifty years, I’m still learning about my magic.”

  “Your spell is causing a whole bunch of innocents to die.”

  She smiled. “But it’s also causing people to live, now isn’t it? Are they not innocent as well?”

  “Not if they take their health from someone else.” Such a black and white answer, but as Izzy leaned against me, I realized my claim said that Izzy was guilty. She might not be alive because others gave their health, but that decision had been out of her hands. What about the first witch we visited whose wife had lung cancer? Was his wife guilty and did she deserve to be punished? All that happened to her was she was dealt a bad hand of cards that would take her life before her time. “I need you to lift the spell.” My voice cracked as I pulled Izzy close and added a word I wasn’t used to saying, “Please.”

  Luciana tapped her ragged nail to her lips. “It’s clear that I have nothing more to lose, and only something to gain, while you have everything to lose. I will help you, but only for my magic and my freedom.” She smugly smiled.

  “So you can take over this kingdom again? Curse thousands more?” It was clear I was better off allowing the books to circulate in the non-magical world than letting Luciana free.

  But I had let my father out. My hands clenched. Was he escaping as we spoke? If he was smart, he’d run far, far away while I interrogated Luciana.

  “I think we’re at an impasse,” Luciana said, bringing me back to our situation.

  We were at an impasse, but I had an advantage. All it took was Luciana’s death at my hand and this entire journey would be over. I looked at Izzy’s bright eyes and sweet, innocent expression. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, giving her a soft kiss on the cheek as I went to escort her out of the dungeon. She didn’t need to see what I had in store for Luciana.

  “I’m staying here,” Izzy said, folding her arms over her chest and pulling away from me. “I know I got in your way with Liliana, but I wasn’t convinced of her guilt. This woman here…well, she’s as guilty as they come. She’s all yours. Do whatever you need to do to her.”

  I smiled. She was all mine.

  She was who came between my father and me.

  Who almost killed Ty when he was younger.

  Who was why Ruby was upstairs, slowly dying of a curse.

  Who had killed hundreds of others.

  I cracked my knuckles. “Luciana, you’re wrong. You said you have nothing more to lose, but you do. You stole the health from all those innocents while you had your own health. I think it’s time for you to feel what so many others have gone through. Feel it until you beg me to kill you. With your death will come the others’ health.” My stomach turned at the thought of the torture I was going to put her through, but at the moment, I had no other choice. If I killed her mercifully, she’d be dead. With torture, I might get an alternative solution out of her.

  I closed my eyes and focused on the surrounding magic. I pulled it into my body and gathered it in my heart, shooting it down my arm until it concentrated on the skin of my hand. All I needed to do was touch her.

  And thanks to my father, I knew an easy way for that. With my other hand, I rubbed the moonstone, making Luciana freeze in place. I dissolved the cell into a melted puddle of iron as I stepped inside. Fear radiated through
Luciana’s eyes. How was she going to tell me the answer when she was frozen? I loosened the magical grip on her upper body.

  “Last chance,” I said, hoping with every ounce of my sanity that she told me what I wanted, because after everything I went through, I didn’t know if I could go through with killing her. Just the thought of ending a life twisted me into a knot and made me lose my breath. Only a bit ago, I had been so willing to end my mother’s life, but that was before I realized anyone cared what happened to me. Now, I didn’t want to let them down, but I had to do something to save the ones I loved. I had to be strong. Izzy and Ruby depended on it. I made the orb in my hand glow bigger. “How do I reverse the spell?”

  She spat at me, but glanced over my shoulder at a figure entering the dungeon. My father.

  “You don’t want to be here,” I warned him.

  “Oh, I do,” he said. “In fact, I’ve been wanting to torture her since the moment we got locked up together. Let me take over.” He lifted a rod that came from where the flags hung in the other room. “In fact, I don’t need magic to get the answers I want.” A sinister gleam twinkled from his eyes as he stepped closer, slapping the iron rod against the palm of his free hand.

  “I got this,” I said, making the magic surging through my hand, intensify.

  Then, in one swift movement, my father had Izzy in his arms with the rod pressed tightly against her neck. “Step away from Luciana.”

  Izzy and my father were so close. All I had to do was reach out and send the pain I held through Luciana, then release her from the freezing spell, directing my magic at my father instead. Then I could douse him with another shot of pain.

  Pain like he had never seen before.

  How dare he threaten Izzy? The lass could barely stand by herself.

  And all she had was sweetness and compassion inside.

  But if I lunged forward to shoot Luciana with the pain, that would give my father time to harm Izzy.

  And I wouldn’t allow that.

  I let the pain orb in my hand go, also dropping the freezing spell on Luciana as I turned towards my father, pulling the moonstone magic into me, ready for a fight.