Marked by Fire (Dragonkeepers Book 3)

by Kimber White

  Paula’s voice broke at the end. She sank to her knees in tears. My heart crumbled in two.

  She was right. Jonas was my fault. I’d tried to straddle two worlds. If I had been honest with the coven, Jonas wouldn’t have felt the need to try and protect me. He may not have viewed Finn as a threat. God, it was all my fault.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I told you before, if I could help Jonas, I would. But, it’s his own magic that’s keeping him locked inside himself. I can’t break through. No one can.”

  “Then your dragon can burn in hell,” she said. “That’s what you’re not telling us. You’re lying and speaking in half-truths even now. This isn’t some altruistic mission to try and save some other slave dragon who may or may not be out there. You want something from this magic. Something for yourself.”

  Finn stepped forward. “You’re right. You’re right about all of it. I have two brothers left without mates. They’re dying from it. Sourcing the magic from this stone could give them a sliver of a chance at something. It’s a long shot. But, one we have to take. Because, before my brothers die from mating sickness, they’ll go mad from it first.”

  “Good lord,” Miles said. “You can’t be serious. Are you saying there’s a risk of two feral dragons roaming the earth?”

  Finn turned to him. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. And there is no guarantee that whatever secrets this egg holds will prevent that. But, it’s a chance.”

  “Screw your chance,” Paula said. “I won’t be a party to this. I’ve lost my son. I don’t care if you lose your brothers.”

  She spoke from grief so pure it cut through me.

  “Paula, please,” I whispered.

  “No.”

  “Then, there’s nothing we can do,” Benny said. “We can’t perform this spell with anything less than the five of us. I’m sorry.”

  “Perhaps,” Finn said. “I might know something that can help Jonas. But, you’ll have to trust me.”

  “What?” I whipped around to look at him.

  “Do you really think that might work?” Miles asked. His voice was expectant, hopeful. But also, excited about the prospect of whatever magic Finn meant to deploy.

  “Jonas isn’t a shifter. It’s never been tried on a mage. But, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.”

  “And you’re willing to do this?” Miles asked.

  “Do what?” I asked, stepping between them.

  “A drop of dragon’s blood is the most powerful medicine in the world,” Miles said. “There are stories of it bringing shifters back from the brink of death. Dragons too, I think.”

  “You’ll do that?” Paula said through her tears.

  Finn looked at me. I reached for him, taking him by the hand.

  “Yes,” he said. “I’ll do it.”

  Paula wiped her eyes. “Then let’s get to work.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Finn

  “Are you sure about this?” Gemma asked. She’d taken me into Paula Landry’s study as the rest of them gathered the things they thought they needed for the spell. I think it was really a stall tactic. They wanted to talk for a minute outside of Gemma and my earshot. Fair enough. The magic we all meant to use should not be taken lightly.

  The dragonstone seemed to warm beneath my arm. No matter what else happened tonight, I would not let the thing out of my sight.

  “It’s one prick, one drop of blood,” I said. “I’m certain it holds enough power to heal any physical damage Jonas has done to himself. Hopefully, that will be enough for him to get control of his magic again. It’s the best...no...it’s the only shot he has.”

  “And it won’t hurt you?” she asked, her eyes searching my face.

  “No.” I kissed her forehead. My Gemma. My brave, strong fire mage. She’d taken on her coven for me. She’d brokered a treaty between us. That was no small feat.

  The front door opened and more hushed voices rose.

  “Someone else is here?” Gemma said, cocking her head to the side. My protective instincts flared and I tried to push her behind me. She gave me a stern look.

  “You’re going to have to stop being so quick to do that,” she said. “Here in Durness, I can take care of myself.”

  I smiled. “So you’ve proven, my love.”

  She gasped when I said it and her face broke into a beautiful smile. “My love. I’ve been afraid to say it. Afraid it was… Oh, Finn. I love you. When this is over…”

  I took her face in my hands and kissed her slow and deep. “When this is over, we have the rest of our lives ahead of us. And if you’ll have me, I intend for that to be very long indeed. How does a few hundred years sound to you?”

  Gemma’s eyes sparkled with wonder. I kissed her again. “I’ll take that as a yes for now. Now let’s go get to work.”

  We walked into the great room at the front of Paula Landry’s house. She’d covered all the windows in black. Wind howled down the chimney. She’d opened the flue. Miles, Benny, and Timothy stood along one wall. They’d moved Jonas Landry to the couch at the center of the room. He looked worse than before, his skin slack, his eyes still fixed open, staring at nothing. Paula knelt by his side and kissed his cheek. She was a strong woman and shrewd. It had been a smart move on her part to demand that I do what I could for Jonas. She was right. If I’d never come to Durness, he likely wouldn’t be in the state he was in.

  “Delia?” Gemma said. Delia Bradbury stood bent-backed in the hallway, leaning on her cane. Her eyes sparked with fierce determination and I realized at once what she was doing here.

  “She’s our fail-safe,” Miles said. “If something goes wrong…”

  “No way,” Gemma said. “Delia, I love you, but you’re not cut out for this anymore.”

  Delia raised her cane and pointed it at Gemma. “You let me worry about that.”

  “Either she stays and participates, or we don’t do this,” Paula said. “You asked us to trust you, Gemma, but you’re the one who’s been keeping secrets. If anything goes wrong, if you falter even a little, we need five to complete the spell.”

  “If any of us falters,” Timothy said. “This isn’t all about Gemma.”

  “Fine,” Gemma said, but her anger rose. She was worried about Delia’s health. She may have seen a frail older woman, but I saw steel in her eyes. Delia was ready. Hell, she looked downright amped.

  “Gather,” Delia said, immediately taking over as if she’d never left the council. I took my place behind the couch, closest to Jonas. Gemma shot me one last, wary look. She hadn’t asked, but she knew. No matter what she said, if I got the sense she was about to be harmed, I was going in after her.

  The Five plus Delia formed a circle in the center of the room. They each placed a small relic in front of them. To me, they looked like metal medallions. Each had different designs etched in them. Delia held an old book with a faded green cover. It was a grimoire. She must have taken it from the town library. She set it down in the center and it blew open to a page. Delia began to chant in Latin, calling on each of the elements of their power.

  The words blended together. My own fire stirred as Miles and Gemma picked up the chant. I waited for a sign. The grimoire lifted off the ground and began to spin, its pages flipping wildly. Then, it fell back to the ground with a thud. The room went deadly silent. Magic charged the air. The lights dimmed. In their place, tiny glittering particles swirled and danced around the room.

  “Now,” Delia said.

  I reached in the velvet sack and pulled the dragonstone out. I intended to move toward the circle and place it there. I never got the chance.

  Gemma’s magic joined with mine. She took the stone from me, levitating it right out of my hands. It swirled, picked up by the rhythm of the glimmering particles, and made its way into the center. The chanting picked up. It wasn’t Latin anymore. I couldn’t recognize the words. Gemma’s head snapped back. Her eyes burned brightest gold, then orange as her fire took over.

  The drago
nstone began to glow. A wave of shimmering white bounced off it. Six points of light emerged. Then, each mage opened their mouth and sucked the light into them.

  Instinct fueled me. I made a move to go toward Gemma. It was Delia’s magic that drove me back. It was so strong, I hit the wall. It was happening. Now. The coven had taken the magic of the fossilized egg into themselves.

  Time stood still. Gemma rose a few inches off the ground. I tried to lock eyes with her, but she wasn’t completely there. She was on some astral plane, seeing something I couldn’t.

  It lasted just a few seconds, but it was torture for me. If things went wrong, it would be now. I couldn’t stop myself. I tried to go to her again.

  You will stay put!

  This time, the voice and power came from above. Avelina. Her dragon soared above the tree line, cloaked. I wondered how long she’d been there. Probably the whole time.

  She’s in control, my mother cautioned.

  No sooner had she said it before the glimmering light went out. The dragonstone dropped to the floor with a thud. Each member of the circle slumped forward. The spell was broken.

  I waited for Gemma to lift her head. When she did, her eyes filled with wonder and she smiled. “It’s okay,” she gasped. “My God. It’s perfect!”

  I went to her. She stood, trembling but whole. I took her in my arms.

  “Did it work?”

  Gemma nodded furiously. “Oh, Finn, it was…”

  “Stop!” Paula shouted. “We made a bargain. Your mate hears nothing until he’s lived up to his end.”

  The first part I’d already done. The deed to the Durness Wilderness sat on the table in Paula’s study. I’d signed it over as my family’s representative. Free and clear.

  “Fix him!” Paula commanded.

  Do it! My mother’s voice thundered in my head. She was desperate to get the answers she sought. I was pulled between two mothers, fiercely protecting their sons. So be it.

  I pulled a small knife out of my back pocket and pressed the point to my palm. I leaned over Jonas Landry.

  “Open his mouth,” I told Gemma. She put a gentle finger on his chin, pulled down, and held his head back.

  “When will we know?” Paula asked.

  “In about two seconds,” I said. I drew blood. I let just one drop fall between Jonas’s lips. I took Gemma’s hand and pulled her away. If this didn’t work, I had plans to spirit her out of here and back to Chicago or Knoydart in an instant. The coven had what they wanted. I wouldn’t let her suffer for something that wasn’t her fault.

  Paula held her son’s hand in a death grip. I stayed close. I’d never done this in a witch before. Hell, I wasn’t sure anyone ever had. My mother had used her blood to heal my brothers and me before. It was an odd sensation. Like traveling down a tunnel at the speed of light. When I came out the other side, I could see myself through my mother’s eyes for a moment, before slamming back into myself. But, when I woke, it was a rebirth. I was stronger, faster, my fire burned hotter.

  “He’s not moving,” Paula said. “He’s stopped breathing.”

  She tried to jolt him awake, clawing at his shoulders.

  “Paula, just stay calm,” Gemma said. “Give it a minute to work.”

  “No! Can’t you see it? He’s worse. You’ve killed him!” She flailed at me, her fists hitting my chest. I stayed rock still. She was right. This was far from over.

  I put a hand on Jonas’s forehead. It was cold and damp. He certainly seemed lifeless. But, deep down, I could feel the faintest pulse. He was still fighting.

  “Do it again!” Paula shrieked. “It wasn’t enough. Give him more!”

  “It’s too dangerous,” I said. “One drop is all it takes to heal a dragon. He’s nowhere near as powerful as a dragon.”

  “You don’t know my son,” she said. “And maybe...maybe it metabolizes differently in witches. You don’t know. Have you ever done this before?”

  I opened my mouth to answer, but knew I couldn’t. No. I’d been the recipient, never the giver. Gemma caught my eyes. She tilted her chin up. Of course she sensed my mother close by as well. Our cloaking spells no longer worked on Gemma.

  I narrowed my eyes. She could read the thoughts I sent to her. No. It’s too dangerous. We wait.

  Then, Jonas Landry squeezed my hand.

  “Jonas,” I said. It was more that I barked it. I could feel him trying to sleep. His body was beginning to heal. I could feel his pain start to slip away. He wasn’t out of the woods just yet though. He’d need to find the strength to get his magic under control.

  A strange thing happened. I started to hear Paula through Jonas’s ears. To him, she sounded desperate, pained. There was deep love in her voice. My mother had never told me about this part. I knew I momentarily saw through her eyes. I didn’t know she saw through mine. But, as my blood entered Jonas’s system, we shared a brief connection.

  It hit me like a bolt through the heart.

  He railed against it, trying to throw up a protection spell.

  “Let it come,” I said. “I won’t hurt you. Focus on untangling the last spell you cast, Jonas. Don’t try to cast another one just yet.”

  He was screaming inside his head. He started thrashing on the couch.

  “What is it? What’s happening?” Paula shrieked.

  Then, time stood still. I fell through a hole in Jonas Landry’s mind. He had a secret. Something dark and looming. It drew me in like a tractor beam. I held my breath, afraid if I blew it out, I’d break the connection. Because, everything inside me told me I had to see. I had to know.

  I hovered outside myself just above Winter Street on the east end of town. It was a yellow house with a white picket fence. I didn’t recognize it, but my heart told me it was Gemma’s. Then, she came running outside wearing a blue, flower-print dress. She couldn’t be more than five or six years old with scabby knees and her blonde hair tied back in two braids.

  “No!” she screamed. “I won’t go. I have to stay with you. I have to stay with you.”

  Tears streamed down her face. Her eyes glinted with fire. She was so small. So young. And yet, so powerful. A man came out and ran to her. He was tall, lanky, with unruly blond hair and his daughter’s amber eyes. This was Roman Hayes, Gemma’s father. His wife trailed behind him, crying. A dark storm gathered to the west. It was coming fast. It was filled with dark magic.

  “Go!” Roman said. “You run as fast as you can to the Landrys’s house. Nick and Paula will keep you safe. We’ll be right behind you.”

  Little Gemma didn’t believe him. Her eyes stayed focused on the menacing clouds over his shoulder. She knew what was coming. But, she was just a child. She didn’t yet trust her own power. When a crack of lightning speared through the roof of the house, Gemma’s fears won out. Her father gave her one last command and she took off running to the center of town, braids flying behind her.

  It took everything in me not to follow six-year-old Gemma. But, it was an illusion. A mirage. It wasn’t her memory. It was Jonas’s. He was there. He’d watched the whole thing. Why didn’t he go with her? She’d always said he’d been like a big brother to her after her parents were killed.

  As soon as Gemma was out of view, Jonas turned and said something to the two figures behind him. It was his parents, Paula and Nick Landry. Nick was dead now. Gemma told me he died a few years ago in a car accident. But then, that night, he was strong and deadly, his eyes turned to blackest coal.

  All three Landrys stepped forward, their dark magic swirling between them.

  “Nick?” Roman Hayes called out. “What are you doing here? You have to go back. They’re coming. You have to take care of Gemma.”

  Then, I saw what Roman couldn’t. The gathering storm wasn’t coming from some distance. It was already here. Nick and Paula Landry were controlling it.

  My God. I felt Jonas’s naked ambition. Things his parents told him.

  You can be the most powerful of all. They all think it’s fire
. It doesn’t have to be. We can take it from them. Where there were Five, you can become One.

  Then, the Landry family gathered their magic. They had the element of surprise. Nick let off a blast of wind and black lightning that struck Gemma’s mother, Layla, square in the chest. She died instantly, not expecting the blow. She’d done nothing to counter it.

  Roman reacted. He was ready for the next blow, but his grief and shock turned inward, making a momentary hole in his defenses. It was all Nick and Paula needed. They cast a spell that conjured coiled, black smoke. It turned and rolled like a snake, then poured into Roman Hayes’s screaming mouth. It was a succubus. They drew his power away from him. The spell was fueled by naked, raw ambition. With the three of them joining forces against grief-stricken Roman, it ended far too quickly.

  Through Jonas’s eyes, I watched as the light went out. They ran together back toward this house. I felt paralyzed with terror. Gemma. They were going after Gemma. She was there, waiting for them, just like her father told her to. Later, Jonas would hold her back as she tried to get to her parents. She didn’t know. She’d never known. She told me dark mages came in and tried to start a war with the Durness coven.

  It was a lie. All a lie.

  She was so little. So scared. The Landrys were still teeming with stolen power. It distorted their figures, obscured them in a cloud of black smoke and crackling fire. Gemma stood at the front gate of this very house. Benny, Miles, Timothy, Delia. They were all there by now. The Landrys focused their magic on Gemma. She didn’t see. None of them did. They couldn’t perceive the threat was coming from their friends. They only saw the dark shape of smoke and fire.

  Gemma changed then. She rose up three inches off the ground. Her head snapped back, just like I’d seen it do a few minutes ago. Then, a column of fire ripped from her throat. She didn’t know her power. She didn’t know what she was doing. Instinct took over, and she took the power away from the Landrys. They crumpled to the ground beneath it.