by Linsey Hall
My breathing came faster and my skin chilled at the idea. I slowed as I walked down the hall to my room, afraid of what I might find. When I turned the corner and spotted Connor laying a package down in front of my door, I stopped dead.
“Connor?” My voice wavered.
He stood, a grin on his face. His Imagine Dragons T-shirt covered in sparkly potion residue. Quickly, he thrust the box toward me. “All done.”
My heart leapt. “Really? You made it?”
“We just finished.”
I ran over and hugged him, so grateful I could cry. My friends had my back, thank fates. They’d worked so hard to save me. It made me just as happy as the idea of handing over the potion and getting the Order of the Magica out of my hair.
Connor pulled back. “Well? Are you going to go give it to them?”
“Right now.” Relief surged through me. “This is all over. Almost.”
I turned to grin at Maximus, happiness welling within me. Thank fates for friends.
Maximus and I hurried back down the hall. The cocker spaniel and the rat were waiting in the main entry hall, both of them tapping their foot impatiently. Bree and Ana stood on either side of them, watching them warily, as if they’d have to jump on them and hold them down while I ran away.
Thank fates for my sisters.
I strode up to them and handed them the potion. “Here it is.”
Harry Ward gave the potion vial a skeptical look as he took it.
“It’ll work,” I said, totally confident in my friends’ ability.
“We’ll see.” He tucked the vial into his pocket. “We’ll get back to you soon with the results of our test.”
I nodded, since there was nothing else I could say.
Oliver Keates stepped forward. “Congratulations on winning the competition. The audience enjoyed the show.” I scowled at him, and he shifted uncomfortably. “Normally, there would be a ceremony at the end, but as you disappeared after collecting the Truth Teller, we won’t be having one.”
“Good.” Because I wouldn’t show up anyway. The last thing I wanted was to be under the microscope again, especially now that I’d gotten what I wanted and there was no reason.
Oliver nodded. “We’ll be going, then.”
We said our goodbyes and watched them leave. Thank fates that was all over.
“You look like you’ve been through the wringer,” Jude said.
I turned to her and nodded wearily.
“Let’s get some food.” She gestured to the stairs leading down to the kitchen. “Then we can talk.”
“Yes.” The word came out of me almost as a moan. But damned if I couldn’t sit down and get a bite to eat.
Jude, Maximus, my sisters, and I all trooped down to the kitchen, where Hans had a big vat of soup waiting. The steam curled up from the massive pot, smelling of vegetables and herbs. My mouth watered, distracting me from the ache in my muscles.
Hans turned to us, his mustache quivering in delight. “Guests! Sit, sit!”
I collapsed into a chair at the scarred, round table, absorbing the warmth from the fire that crackled nearby. The Menacing Menagerie sat in front of it, eating from plates that looked like they’d been filled at the compost bin. Romeo gave me a toothy smile. I smiled back, weariness stretching through me.
In moments, Hans had big steaming bowls in front of us, along with juice boxes. Always with the juice.
“Thanks, Hans. You’re the best.” I dug in gratefully.
After the first few bites, I leaned back and looked at Jude. She was waiting for me to speak, and I appreciated her patience.
“So, we didn’t catch the witches.” I pulled the Truth Teller out of my pocket and set the golden egg on the table. “But we have a clue about what they are.” I recounted the battle to her, including the scene that the Truth Teller had created.
“So they’re after something big,” Jude said.
I nodded.
“That’s what we think,” Maximus said. “They’ve got a plan, and they’re slowly putting it into place. They didn’t go after Rowan or me when they had the chance. They’re after something bigger.”
“We need to make sure they don’t get it.” Jude picked up the Truth Teller. “Well done, Rowan. This will help us in our work. I can’t even tell you how much. The lives we’ll save with this…”
I smiled, glad to have been able to bring it back here.
She held the Truth Teller up so it glinted in the light. “For this, you’ll advance to the next level at the Academy. You’re moving just as quickly as your sisters. Maybe quicker.”
I smiled, shocked. But it was Bree and Ana who smiled even bigger.
“According to Oliver Keates, the Truth Teller doesn’t have unlimited uses,” she continued. “It needs to recover after each use. But I thought you might want to use it to figure out what Dragon God you are.”
I grinned, nodding. “I’d like that.”
She set the egg on the table. “Well done, Rowan.”
Three nights after the Order of the Magica had reported back that the potion had worked and that they deemed I didn’t possess death magic—morons—I stood with my sisters in my living room.
“Are you ready?” Bree asked.
I looked down at the Truth Teller. It sat in my hand, heavy and golden. The light gleamed off the surface, and I sucked in a slow breath.
“I’m ready.”
Ana nodded and stepped back from the center of the room. I laid the Truth Teller down on the floor, then stepped over to join her. She gripped my hand. Bree joined us and took my other hand.
My heart raced as I considered how to ask my question. A dozen options flashed through my mind, but I went for simple. “What kind of Dragon God am I? What pantheon is giving me their powers?”
Magic swirled up from the Truth Teller. I breathed deeply as it rolled over me, sending a shiver down my spine. A glittery cloud rose up and coalesced to form an image.
Clouds rolled in front of me, filling the room. A figure appeared, misty at first. They stepped through the clouds, approaching.
Bree and Ana squeezed my hands.
Immense magical power rolled toward me. It blasted the breath from my lungs and made me sag. I kept myself upright—barely—and blinked.
The figure wore a simple white tunic trimmed in gold that matched his shining hair. Golden sandals with wings glinted at his feet.
I gasped, my mind catching on a long-ago memory of a mythology book. Those sandals…
“Hermes?” I asked.
An enigmatic smile pulled at the edge of his mouth, and he held out a scroll. Trembling, I reached out to take it. My skin prickled as soon as I touched the heavy paper. As I unrolled it, Hermes stepped back into the clouds, disappearing.
“That was quick,” Bree murmured.
My head buzzed as the scroll revealed the text within. The language was ancient, the letters foreign. But as I stared at it, they began to make sense, as if my brain were rewiring to understand the ancient language.
“I’m the Greek Dragon God.” I looked up at Bree and Ana, shock nearly freezing my tongue. “Apparently, I’ve got the powers of Zeus.”
Clash of Magic
Dragon’s Gift: The Amazon Book 3
1
The ghost hovered over my shoulder, his anxiety crawling across my skin like ants.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Rowan?” whispered Florian, the spectral librarian. His old-fashioned English accent echoed in the dark corridors of the library. Tall shelves loomed overhead, stuffed full of old leather books that held all the secrets of the world.
I turned slightly as I walked, giving the pale ghost a determined nod. He nodded back, as if trying to prove he was on board. But it just made his tall, curly wig wobble and the lace cravat at his throat tremble. Florian Bumbledomber was the night librarian, and he hadn’t changed his clothes since he’d died sometime in the eighteenth century.
“I’m sure, Florian. I have to do this.
We need to know what the Stryx are, and I’ve found nothing in the regular part of the library. You said yourself that this was the last place to look.” I shivered as a waft of cold air curled around my ankles. A pale dark mist floated over the wooden floor, and I had no idea how it had gotten there.
There were two official libraries at the Undercover Protectorate. The normal one, with warm fireplaces and cushy chairs, and the ghost library that sat behind it, past a secret entrance. The ghost library was a massive ten-story space full of millions of books. To enter it, you had to contribute something to the collection. I’d already done that ten minutes ago, and now we were deep in the bowels of the ghost library, in a wing that I’d never entered before.
“Well, you need to be careful.” Florian’s voice trembled. “The wraith who guards the dark collection demands a heavy price for access to his books.”
“I’ll pay it.” I had to. I was hunting the two witches who had called themselves Stryx when I’d confronted them three days ago. I had no idea what that meant, but they had some kind of dark and deadly plan, and I needed to figure out what the heck it was.
I turned left at a tall bookshelf, heading into the depths of the library by instinct. Florian had said that my information would be in the darkest and scariest part, and that wasn’t hard to identify. Since I had goose bumps on my skin and my heart was thundering, I figured I was on the right track.
“You’re sure you don’t want to bring someone with you?” Florian asked.
I nudged him with my arm in a friendly gesture, but my elbow passed right through him. “I brought you.”
“Well, but, well…”
“And my sisters are busy.” Bree and Ana were on a mission for Jude, the boss of their unit at the Undercover Protectorate. They’d be back soon, but I hadn’t wanted to wait. Between my classes at the Academy and my other research into the Stryx, this was my first free moment and I’d grabbed it.
“We’re almost there.” Florian’s voice wavered.
“You’re a ghost, Florian. Why are you nervous?”
“You’ll see.”
A gloomy corridor loomed in front of us. It was formed by two tall bookcases that stretched back into the library. Dark mist filled it, nearly obscuring the books stacked twenty feet high. This deep in the library, the books were gray with age and dust.
“He doesn’t let us come down here to dust.” Florian’s voice was tinged with annoyance. “Bad for the books.”
The library was a labyrinth of secrets and old paper, and this right here was the darkest bit of it. Cold rolled out from the corridor, creeping up my legs to my stomach and seeping through my clothes.
I shivered and stepped toward the bookcases that formed the corridor.
“Don’t!” Florian’s voice cracked out. “Go no farther. Wait for him.”
I stopped abruptly, swallowing hard. Florian drifted to a stop next to me, his fear palpable. I blinked into the darkness, trying to draw out any details. A dark energy filled the air, prickling against my skin like the footsteps of little spiders.
“I can’t believe the Undercover Protectorate has a place like this,” I whispered, a shiver crawling up my spine. “The magic is definitely dark.”
“You seek dark knowledge,” Florian said. “The wraith who guards this place is bound by Arach’s magic, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t dangerous.”
Arach was the dragon spirit who guarded the castle. I saw her rarely, but her power blew my socks off every time. If anyone could control the wraith, it was her. Which was good, because we were so far below the castle that no one would hear me scream.
I shook away my fear and focused on the job. Fear would get me nowhere.
The coldness increased and the dark magic swelled, stealing the breath from my throat. The hair on my arms stood on end, and it took everything I had not to spin around and leave.
When the wraith drifted through the dark smoke filling the space between the bookshelves, I almost didn’t see him. Skeletal and gaunt, he was made of the smoke itself. Only his eyes had any color, and they burned a bright, cold blue.
“What do you seek?” he hissed.
I straightened my spine. “I seek two answers and hope to find them in your collection.”
“There is a price.” The last syllable dragged on as if a snake had spoken the word.
“What is it?”
“A drop of blood. It must contain a bit of your energy. Your magic.”
Next to me, Florian stiffened. “No. It is too dangerous.”
“Of course it is,” the wraith said. “You must pay a great price for knowledge.”
“Will I continue to pay that price after I leave here?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Give me what I require. If you survive, you will have your information. And then you may leave, free.”
I looked at Florian, who was somehow even paler than his normal ghostly form. “I’m going to do it.”
He grimaced, but nodded. He knew how dangerous the Stryx were. How much I wanted to catch them.
I turned back to the wraith, who loomed closer, excitement gleaming in his eyes. “How do we do this?”
“Hold out your hand.” The wraith raised his own hand, and shiny black claws tipped each long finger. They were the only solid thing on him, given that the rest of him was made of mist.
My arm trembled slightly as I raised my hand. Then I jerked it back. “Wait. I need to know that you have what I seek.”
No way I was doing this if he didn’t.
His irritation flowed off him, curdling in the air. “What do you seek?”
“I want to know what Stryx are. I know they’re witches, but what kind? Where are they from? And I need a spell that will reveal a past vision shown by a Truth Teller.”
Last week, I’d fought my ass off to win at a deadly obstacle course where a Truth Teller was the prize. The little charm would reveal anything you wanted to know. Unfortunately, the Stryx had beaten me to it. They’d had time to ask the Truth Teller their question, and the charm had shown them what they’d wanted to see.
I needed to know what it had shown them, because I was one thousand percent sure that it had to do with some dark and dangerous plan.
The wraith hesitated, then nodded. “I should have something which will help you.”
“Good.” Before I could back out, I thrust my hand forward.
The wraith smiled broadly, dark fangs glinting in the dim light. He raised his obsidian claw and pricked my finger with it.
Hot pain flared, greater than anything I’d ever felt. It streaked up my arm like fire, wrapping around my chest and reaching into my soul.
Through dimming vision, I caught sight of blood welling from my fingertip. My energy seemed to flow out with the blood, making my knees weak. It was as if his claw were tipped in poison.
“Such power,” the wraith murmured, his words twisting through the darkness that was beginning to close in on my vision. “Such strength.”
“Rowan!” Florian’s voice broke through the haze of pain, and I blinked, trying desperately to stay conscious.
But it was hard. The wraith’s dark magic seemed to be seeping into me, as if a connection had been formed.
Through bleary vision, I watched the wraith lick a drop of my blood off his claw. The dark magic that resided deep inside me thumped, coming to life. It was as if it recognized the wraith and wanted to say hello.
The wraith’s bright blue eyes flared. “There is darkness inside you.”
“There isn’t.” The words sounded like I’d shoved them through gravel. But they were a lie. He was right. There was darkness inside me, an evil magic that I’d shoved down so deep it hadn’t seen the light in weeks. It was connected to the Stryx somehow, and it only made me more determined to stop them.
“There is.” He reached out for more blood, and I yanked my hand back.
“You’ve had enough.” It took everything I had to force down the dark magic that was welling inside me,
drawn to the surface by the wraith. My body swayed forward against my will, reaching for him. Desire to get closer to him thudded within me.
I sucked in a deep breath and focused on all the good things in my life. My sisters, Maximus, the Protectorate. I wanted to keep those things, and the only way to do that was to fight the darkness that writhed within me.
Mind over matter.
I shoved every ounce of darkness away, forcing it deep down inside of me. Slowly, the pain from the wraith’s magic faded as our connection broke. My vision cleared and my strength returned.
The wraith looked less skeletal now. He’d fed off my magic and my energy, using my blood as a conduit.
“I gave you what you wanted,” I snapped. “Where are my answers?”
The wraith tried to glower, but his pleasure over what had just happened was too obvious. It flowed through the air, a sickly and dark energy that wrapped around me. I shivered and stepped closer to Florian.
“I’ll be back.” The wraith turned and drifted away, disappearing into the mist that filled the space between the shelves.
“Are you all right?” Florian asked.
“Fine.”
“It seemed like I might lose you for a second there.”
The darkness within me had almost overtaken me, but I wouldn’t tell Florian that. “I was fine. Just shocked.”
Tension thrummed across my skin as we waited for the wraith to return. When he did, he had two heavy-looking old books in his hands. I had no idea how a figure that was made of black mist was able to carry two solid books.
He handed over the smaller one, which was still at least twelve inches across. “This will contain the answer to your first question.”
I took the book, shivering at the feel of dark magic that resided within it. The book’s power prickled against my fingertips, making me feel like I was grabbing a cactus even though it was smooth, dusty leather.
As soon as I pulled the book toward me, it flipped open, hovering in midair. I nearly jumped, stifling a gasp as the pages flipped open, one after another. Dust motes rose high.