Avery leaned across the table and kissed him solidly on the mouth, only pulling apart when they heard her sister scream.
“Avery! Avery!” Raven screamed her name from the second floor.
Avery sprinted for the stairs, Xavier right behind her. They pulled up short outside the door to Nathaniel’s office. Raven and Gabriel stood frozen in the center of the room, staring toward the fire where the egg, now almost as big as the opening to the fireplace, was rocking back and forth on the grill. A hairline crack ran the length of its shell.
“Oh my God,” Avery whispered. “It’s hatching. What do we do?”
No one answered her.
“Seriously, what do people in your world do?” She glanced between Gabriel and Xavier, but both had practically gone catatonic at the sight. “Should someone boil water? Should we take it out of the fire?”
Nathaniel arrived with Clarissa in tow, Maiara and Alexander behind them. Avery moved to stand next to Raven, and the four filed in behind her, mouths agape.
Nathaniel stared at the egg in wonder. “By the Mountain, it’s happening.”
Avery repeated herself to the new arrivals. “What are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to help it hatch or let it fend for itself?”
Maiara leaned toward the egg and sniffed, then frowned. Maiara’s dark eyes found hers. “I do not know this type of birth, but I smell… I don’t know the word.” She pressed her narrow fingers to her chin. “I sense that we should help it.”
“Dragon males never see this,” Gabriel muttered, rubbing his neck. “It’s not allowed.”
Raven started at the statement, blinking from her reverie. “We need Rowan.”
“I’m here!” Rowan entered the room with Nick, who stopped in the doorway rather than further crowd the room. She approached the fire. “I’ve never done this.” She looked wide-eyed between Raven and Avery. “I’ve read… I mean, they taught us—myself and the other Highborn females—that sometimes the baby isn’t strong enough to get out and the mother has to help pull the shell apart with her talons.”
Raven rushed forward and reached for the egg, then yelped and tugged her hands back. “The shell is too hot. Why is the shell hot? It’s never been hot to the touch before.”
Rowan frowned. “Sorry, I forgot about that part. Right before birth, the shell starts taking on heat. We’re supposed to pull it out of the fire. May I? Or would you rather, Gabriel—”
“Just do it,” Raven cried, cradling her burnt fingers.
Without hesitation, Rowan reached in and gently lifted the egg from the fireplace grate. She carefully rested it on the Persian rug in front of the desk.
“At least it didn’t zap you.” Avery hovered nearby in case Rowan needed help.
“Right.” Rowan frowned. “I… I’m not sure that’s a good sign.”
Raven’s face turned ashen, and Avery hugged her shoulders to offer support.
“Can’t you bust out some talons and get it done, Rowan?” Avery said.
Raven nodded.
“I would, but I’m afraid.” Rowan pushed her dark curls over her shoulder. “My talons will bounce right off dragon scales. But this baby is part witch. If Charlie’s human side has manifested first and it’s not a dragon in there, my talons could injure or kill him or her in the process of opening the shell. We need a way to see what’s inside.”
“We need Tobias,” Avery said. “He’s a doctor. He can help.”
“He and Sabrina are still asleep. It’s barely twilight,” Raven said.
“Fuck that. Consider me his new alarm clock.” Avery bolted from the room and careened around the corner and down the stairs, into the basement where Tobias was staying with his vampire mate.
“Help! Tobias, you need to come. Now.”
She grabbed the dragon by the neck of his royal-blue pajamas and hauled him out of bed. He stumbled onto his feet, blinking.
“Whoa.” The blond dragon rubbed his eyes. Behind him, Sabrina lifted her head. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Charlie… The egg is hatching. Slowly. Rowan thinks—”
Tobias grabbed his black doctor’s bag from the end of the bed. “Lead the way.”
“I’m right behind you,” Sabrina said.
She led them back to Nathaniel’s office where Rowan and Gabriel were hunched over the egg.
“There’s something wrong,” Gabriel said when he saw his brother. “I can feel it.”
A deep wrinkle formed between Tobias’s brows. Kneeling beside the egg, he opened his bag and removed his stethoscope. He listened, then shook his head. “I can hear a heartbeat, but it’s too slow. We need to get Charlie out of there.”
Raven gasped.
Tobias took her hands. “Raven, it’s a good, strong heartbeat, just slow. I don’t want to scare you, but I’m concerned that your baby isn’t strong enough to crack the shell from the inside. We need to help free it.”
Rowan’s fists opened and closed as if she wanted to take action but feared the result. “But if it’s not a dragon in there, won’t our talons hurt it?”
“Possibly. That’s a risk we face, but I have to trust that Mother Nature thought of that. Whatever this baby looks like on the outside, both Gabriel and Raven contributed to their genes. Let’s trust that this hatchling is most similar to a dragon.” Tobias looked between Rowan and Gabriel. “My advice is to try to pry the crack apart rather than stab directly into the shell.”
Gabriel sprouted talons. “I’ll do it.”
“Gabriel…” Raven pressed a hand to her chest.
He gave her a steadying gaze. “Trust me.”
She nodded. He inserted his claws on each side of the crack and pulled, his muscles straining against his shirt with the effort.
When it was clear he was struggling, Rowan came to his aid. “Maybe if we both…”
“Try,” Gabriel said.
She sprouted her own smaller set of talons and went to work on the crack. But the egg wouldn’t budge.
“Step aside.” Xavier drew his dirk. “I’ll try ma blade.”
Avery placed a hand on his arm. “No, it could slip and hurt the baby. A dragon’s talons are curved. That’s too straight and sharp.”
“I agree,” Gabriel said. “Xavier, lend us your strength instead.”
Xavier sheathed his weapon and wedged himself among the others, trying to dig his fingers into the crack. Nothing worked. The egg might as well have been made of solid marble.
Nick scoffed. “You were worried about the knife. I’m not sure a jackhammer could get into that thing.”
Alexander, who looked like he wanted to help but couldn’t find a place around the egg, gave him a hard, desperate look. “If three dragons can’t get into it, you’re right about that.”
Maiara stroked the healing amulet around her neck. “Perhaps the young isn’t ready to be born yet.”
Tobias shook his head. “I don’t think so. The heart rate is slowing. The baby is in distress. We have to get it out of there.”
Clarissa crossed her arms. “All I know is that if I were in there, I’d be afraid to come out with all those talons around me.”
A thought popped into Avery’s head. She grabbed Clarissa’s shoulders and shook. “You’re a genius.”
“I am?”
Avery pushed the dragons aside to get to the egg. “Charlie is protecting himself!”
Everyone stopped to stare at her. “Think about it. Charlie isn’t zapping you anymore with magic because it’s found another way. This baby has woven a ward around itself within the shell. The problem is, in keeping itself safe from the outside world, it’s also trapping itself inside. Charlie is half witch. We keep treating it like it’s a dragon, but it has magic too.”
Clarissa approached the egg. “Rowan, you said the dragon mother usually helps the eggs hatch, right?”
“Sometimes the babies are strong enough to do it on their own but yes, it is common for the mother to help,” Rowan answered in an exasperated tone.<
br />
“Well, this baby’s mother isn’t a dragon. She’s a witch,” Clarissa said.
Raven closed her eyes and nodded. “Of course. Avery, you’re brilliant! We need to open it with magic, not brute force.”
“Exactly,” Clarissa said.
The dragons backed away from the egg as Avery, Clarissa, and Raven stepped forward. “I’ll neutralize Charlie’s magic,” Avery said, kneeling beside one point of the egg.
“I’ll sing to crack the shell.” Clarissa positioned herself at the opposite end from Avery.
Raven glanced between the two of them and knelt at the middle of the egg. “I’ll pull the shell apart. I think Charlie needs to see me first.” They all exchanged glances and tentative nods.
Avery placed her hands on the egg and experienced the now familiar tingling she associated with magical energy. Scalding heat like pavement in summer burned her palms, but she forced herself to hold on. “It’s okay, Charlie. We’re here to help.” The magic fizzled beneath her touch and the shell cooled. “I think the ward is down.”
Clarissa began to sing a soft tune Avery recognized as a lullaby. The music itself was soothing, but the power it held caused cracks to branch across the shell like a growing spiderweb.
Avery met Raven’s panicked gaze with calm confidence. “You can do this. Let’s meet your baby.”
Raven dug her fingers into the widest part of the opening and pulled. A chunk of shell broke off. Avery noticed it was bright gold on the inside and was surprised when the scent of honey reached her nostrils.
“Do you smell that?” Avery whispered.
Raven ignored her to tear away another chunk. It wasn’t easy. Even with Clarissa helping, Avery could see Raven break a sweat from the effort. Finally the hole was big enough to see inside. Something downy and white shifted, and a human fist punched out from the shell, chubby and golden.
“Help me,” Raven demanded.
Avery started tearing at the shell. Clarissa, still singing, helped too. For a moment, all Avery could see was her sister’s hands and hair as they worked over the egg.
The crack of splitting stone echoed through the room, and the shell completely shattered. Clarissa stopped singing. Charlie came into view, steadied between Raven’s hands.
“It’s a girl,” Clarissa whispered.
Avery couldn’t speak. Charlie did not look like a dragon at all. She was the size of a six-month-old baby, golden-skinned, with silky blond curls as pale as spiderwebs.
“She has your eyes,” Avery said breathlessly, marveling at the bright blue.
Gabriel knelt down beside Raven and brushed Charlie’s curls aside to expose two crescent-shaped birthmarks beside her right temple. “She has at least one thing from me.” He brushed the hair off the back of her neck, and Avery spotted the three vee-shaped ridges there, indicative of their species. She also noticed two ridges below her shoulder blades.
“Are those…?”
Gabriel stroked along the baby’s spine. Everyone in the room gasped as two white wings unraveled, unlike any dragon wings Avery had ever seen. They had no talon at the arc, or scales, or fleshy webbing. Instead, they were covered in downy white feathers.
“How?” Raven asked. Her gaze sought out Rowan’s. “Is this… normal?”
Rowan shook her head, eyes bulging.
“She is a gift from the Great Spirit. It is a sign,” Maiara said.
Clarissa circled Charlie and Raven to get a better look. “She’s not a dragon; she’s an angel.”
As if in response, Charlie chose that moment to belch, sending a ball of fire coursing from her mouth. It singed Raven’s hair, and Gabriel had to pat out the fire with his bare hand.
“Oh, she’s a dragon,” he said, taking her into his arms and bounced her gently. His grin was filled with nothing but pride.
Avery rose, stepped over the golden shell fragments, and took refuge in Xavier’s arms, suddenly overwhelmed by it all. The joy of having a new baby niece. The fear of the unexpected. The deep desire to protect the people in this room.
“Aye. It’s a wee bit strange, but they’re just a few feathers.” He tipped her face up to look at him. He gave her wink. “Ye’re not going weak in the knees on me now, are ye? There wasna even any blood.”
As always, Xavier’s crooked smile held nothing but lighthearted joviality. Nothing ever seemed to shake him. He was her rock.
On tiptoe, she kissed him. “Not a chance.”
“She’ll need fresh meat and blood.” Nathaniel moved around the desk.
“Blood?” Raven’s voice rose an octave.
“No worries. I’ll call the butcher.” Nathaniel reached for the phone. His hand froze as the silver candle on his desk blazed to life.
Clarissa’s brow furrowed deeply. “I thought you said you gave the other shadow-mail candle to Sylas?”
“I did. Someone hit the lights.”
Avery slapped the switch, plunging the room into darkness. All of them stared as the shadow-mail candle’s light flickered. Shadows danced along the desktop. Dark and light twisted together. Charlie mewled softly in the silent room.
The shadows bent into letters. Nathaniel’s eyes widened. Avery leaned forward to read what was written across the light.
She’s coming. Run.
Chapter Thirty-Five
One of the keys to a successful existence, Aborella mused, was understanding control—when you had it, when you didn’t, and when you could change the locus to your advantage. She’d hesitated to tell Eleanor about her vision, but in the end there was only so long an egg could take to hatch. She’d described her vision in detail, and the empress had used her magic to bring them here.
Now she stood beside Eleanor at a crossroads in the English countryside in a place called Oxfordshire. Although they hadn’t even entered Nathaniel’s fortress, the empress smiled as if she’d already killed the babe within. She definitely looked the part of the Angel of Death. Dressed in head-to-toe black leather, her eyes were winged with dark kohl, her lips painted blood red. Two jewel-encrusted daggers hung from scabbards strapped to each of her thighs. Why she’d come armed, Aborella couldn’t fathom. The empress’s magic was far deadlier than any physical weapon, and she’d brought Aborella and Ransom along to do any dirty work she couldn’t accomplish herself.
“All but two of your offspring are guarding the whelp, Eleanor. Killing it will not be easy,” Aborella warned. “And, of course, there’s Raven herself.”
“As you’ve mentioned twice before.” Eleanor rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Aborella, since your accident, you’ve become such a wet blanket.”
“My accident?” Fury bloomed in the pit of Aborella’s chest. She checked it and forced her jaw to loosen before saying, “Are you referring to the day Nathaniel almost killed me and you buried me alive?”
She shrugged. “I fed you my tooth, didn’t I? You are standing here thanks to dragon magic.”
Ransom cleared his throat. “Empress, are we in the right place? I thought Nathaniel’s manor—”
“Oh, shut up. Of course we are in the right place. Can’t you feel the magic?” Eleanor waved her hand toward the bucolic moor in front of them, Earth’s single sun low but rising over its rolling green beauty.
Ransom shook his head slowly, his chiseled features turning pink with embarrassment. Goddess, the male was dumb. Aborella chuckled internally at the guard’s blank look.
“Would you like me to attempt to blast through the wards?” Aborella brushed some dust from the cuff of the gold vilt jacket she wore. She loved the color. It brought out the blue in her amethyst skin.
“No need. I learned something from Nathaniel the last time we were together. It didn’t take me long to deconstruct the spell. One is never too old to learn a new trick.” Eleanor reached into a small box concealed in her belt and removed a long, thin cigarette like the ones Aborella had seen humans smoke in years gone by. Dragons had no reason to smoke. Only the Elves of Rogos made it a habit and then only fro
m long, hand-carved pipes.
Eleanor blew a bit of fire across the end to light the tobacco and then took a long steady drag. She exhaled the smoke in a ring that formed a pentagram-shaped dial with glowing arcane symbols in each of its sectors. Eleanor dug her fingers in and turned the dial as if she were cracking a safe.
A chill ran through Aborella’s bones when she felt the ward give way. Nathaniel’s defenses were the most powerful work of magic Aborella had detected in some time. The idea that even this could be so easily deconstructed at the empress’s whims was truly terrifying.
Ransom’s eyes grew large as they stepped across the threshold onto a cobblestone path that led to the grand manor beyond. The place had sprung into existence in front of them only seconds before, and Aborella didn’t miss how the magic made Ransom’s hands shake. A carriage arrived, pulled by a giant white horse. There was no driver.
Ransom moved to get in, and Aborella had to stop herself from slapping the side of his head.
“It’s a trap, you fool,” Eleanor said, gripping Ransom’s upper arm. “We fly.”
She sprouted wings and soared toward the mansion. Aborella twisted into a column of smoke and manifested beside her. Ransom caught up, his hand on the rod at his hip, a Paragonian weapon meant to stun.
Once there, Eleanor raised her hands as if to blast open the door with her magic, but Aborella reached forward and tried the knob. It was unlocked. The heavy door swung open, and the three stepped inside.
“Where—” Ransom tried to speak, but Eleanor pressed a finger over his lips. Her black-painted nail was filed to a point and speared the skin under his nose. He shut up and held perfectly still. Maybe he was smarter than he looked.
Aborella pointed to the stairs. They climbed to the second level. Eleanor lifted her nose and inhaled sharply, then gestured down the hall. A light was on, and they entered an office that smelled faintly of smoke.
“What have we here?” Aborella knelt down and fished a three-inch shard of gold from under the sofa in front of the empty fireplace. She held it up between her thumb and forefinger.
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