Dragon's Gift: The Amazon Complete Series: An Urban Fantasy Boxed Set

by Linsey Hall

  Tiresias looked up at it, his eyes darting over the flames as if he were reading a novel. Maybe he was, in a way. Seeing the future in the dance of the flames.

  Thick black smoke curled up from the fire, and the sound of birds cawing echoed from it. The smoke twisted and turned, forming large black birds that rose into the sky. Hundreds of them. Moonlight gleamed off the tops of their feathers while firelight shined on them from below. They looked like sparkling gems in the night sky, and as they moved, they began to form a shape.

  I squinted up at them.

  What were they supposed to be?

  The shape of a woman formed, and she carried two torches in her hands. Behind her, the shape of two dogs emerged. The birds continued to fly, forming a perfect pattern of the woman. I glanced down toward Tiresias, catching sight of his smile.

  He seemed to recognize her.

  I took a tentative step forward, wanting to nudge him into explaining what was going on. Maximus was narrating the scene to my body, seeming not to notice that I had left it.

  I stared hard at my human self, trying to see if I appeared weird at all.

  I didn’t.

  “You can come back now.” Tiresias looked toward me.

  Maximus eyed him, confused. Tiresias pointed at me, and Maximus’s gaze followed his gesture. I gave a little yip then, and Maximus frowned.

  It was time to return to my body. I’d seen what I’d needed to see, thanks to this wolf and Artemis’s ever-growing magic.

  I closed my eyes and imagined my consciousness returning to my human body. Though I had no idea if this would work, it seemed worth a try.

  At first, nothing happened. I concentrated harder, imagining being human. Seeing through my own eyes. It took a while, but eventually the magic sparked within me. When I opened my eyes, I was once again blind.

  My breath caught in my throat, and I turned toward where Tiresias was sitting. “Are we done?”

  “We are.”

  Magic sparked around my hand, and slowly, a blue light began to glow in the darkness of my missing vision. A moment later, I could see. I peeked over toward the woods where the wolf had been standing. He was still there, but the Menacing Menagerie were gone. Smart.

  “What just happened to you?” Maximus asked.

  “I joined the wolf’s consciousness. I’ll explain more in a bit.” I turned toward Tiresias, who looked right at me. His gaze was unfocused again, and I felt a bit bad about taking my sight back from him.

  He looked content, however. And he sounded pleased when he spoke. “You will need to seek Hecate. The Stryx worship her, and she will know where they are.”

  “Hecate? The goddess of magic?” I asked.

  “And of the night, ghosts, and necromancy,” Tiresias said.

  “She sounds like a load of fun,” Maximus said.

  I cracked a smile. “I suppose the Stryx wouldn’t worship anyone nice. But where do we find her?”

  “She resides in the Underworld, as Persephone’s companion. But it will not be an easy journey.”

  I frowned. The only way I knew to get into the Underworld was through Tartarus, and there was no way we were going to open up that hole again. “Do you know how to get into the Underworld?”

  He shook his head. “There are several entrances, though not all are open now. You will have to find one that works.”

  “Do you know where any of them are?” Maximus asked.

  “There was once one at Lake Avernus near Naples, Italy, and another at the ancient town of Tenarus. A third in the Alcyonian Lake at Lerna. But I don’t know which ones are still open.”

  “We’ll figure it out. Is there anything else you can tell us?”

  “Best be careful. It is a deadly journey to the Underworld.”

  A deadly journey to the Underworld? I just hoped he didn’t mean that literally.

  5

  We used a transport charm to get back to the Protectorate. On the way up to the castle, I explained my adventure with the wolf, and Maximus agreed that my powers were growing.

  Once inside, it didn’t take long to gather the group for a meeting. Fortunately, Ana was back from her shift guarding the entrance to Tartarus. Though Bree was gone, Jude was at the castle. We agreed to meet in the library, since we had some research to do.

  Jude and Ana hadn’t arrived yet, and the library flickered with warm firelight as I entered the book-filled space. It was like a fantastic cavern, full of thousands of beautiful leather-bound books. They were all different colors, each of them lovingly cared for. The squashy armchairs in front of the fire beckoned, but I took a seat at the big wooden table in the middle.

  Maximus joined me, looking around at all the books, an awed expression on his face. “I’ll never get over this place.”

  “Amazing, right?”

  “Truly.”

  “Not a lot of books in ancient Rome, I suppose?”

  “None at all. Only scrolls. And there weren’t many of those. Not for a slave, at least. I only ever saw parts of an old copy of The Odyssey.”

  I nodded, grateful to live in the modern day. I reached for his hand and squeezed, delighting in the casual contact.

  “That one might come in handy, though. Didn’t Odysseus go to the Underworld?”

  “He did.”

  The Pugs of Destruction lazily raised their heads from their spots in front of the fire and stared at me. Mayhem, Ruckus, and Chaos were a staple here, and I loved them from their tails to their horns. Or horns, in Chaos’s case. Wings for Mayhem.

  Florian, the ghostly night librarian, drifted out from the shelves, appearing right through the books. His curly white wig rose tall on his head, and his fancy coat made him look like he was about to head to a ball. He grinned widely when he saw me, and I counted my blessings that it was nighttime. Had we come in the day, we would have gotten Potts, the day librarian. True, he was alive, whereas Florian technically was not, but he was also a grumpy old bugger and I liked to avoid him.

  “Here again so soon?” He drifted up to the table, his grin wide.

  “Yes, we need some help figuring out which entrance to Hades is still open.”

  “Ah, yes.” He nodded. “I’ve got quite a lot of firsthand accounts about trying to reach Hades. They’re quite old, but one of them will have something.”

  “We need to meet with Jude and Ana when they arrive, but once we’re done, we can help.”

  He waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, I’ve got it under control.”

  “Never doubted it for a second.”

  He gave a pleased bow and drifted away. Mayhem fluttered up from her spot by the fire, little wings carrying her chubby ghost body high. She yipped.

  “Yes, of course you can help, Mayhem,” Florian said.

  She flew after him.

  I turned toward the library entrance just in time to see Ana enter. Her cheeks were flushed and her hair messy. She carried four paper sacks in her hands.

  “Did you find something?” she asked as soon as her gaze met mine.

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” She sat and tossed a sack to Maximus and me. “Courtesy of Hans.”

  My stomach grumbled at the mention of the cook’s name. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. I tore into the bag as she did the same. Maximus had better manners, but that was par for the course. I didn’t like to let anything get between me and food.

  We chomped into the sandwiches—ham and cheese—and chewed silently for a moment. Muffin, Ana’s hairless winged cat, sauntered into the library. A little green jewel gleamed in his ear, a memento of his cat burglar days. Ana handed him a piece of ham from her sandwich.

  By the time I polished off my sandwich, Jude had arrived. She looked exhausted, with heavy circles under her starry blue eyes. Her dark braids were pulled back from her face and her clothes looked like they needed a good wash.

  Not a surprise, given that we were up shit creek.

  She sat with a sigh. “Tell me you have good news.”
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  Ana pushed the fourth paper bag at her, and Jude looked down at it like it was entirely unfamiliar.

  “It’s food, and you should eat it,” Ana said.

  “Of course.” Jude unwrapped the sandwich, and I had a distinct feeling that she hadn’t eaten in at least twenty-four hours. The leader of the Paranormal Investigative Team was the de facto leader of the Protectorate when dangerous things like this went down. Even though there were five heads of department, she bore the heaviest burden when things hit the fan. She took it seriously, too. “What have you got for me?”

  “We spoke to a seer—Tiresias—who has told us we must go to Hades to find Hecate. The Stryx worship her, and she’ll know where they are.”

  Jude nodded, her expression clearly impressed. “Tiresias. He’s quite well-known for the accuracy of his prophecies.”

  “Exactly.” I turned to Ana. “You crossed the River Styx once. Do you know how to get into Hades?”

  She shook her head. “No. I crossed the river in Dante’s Inferno. It flows from the Underworld to the Inferno—or maybe it’s the other way around. Anyway, I don’t know which way you should go on the river.”

  “That’ll take too long, then,” Maximus said.

  “Florian is looking for a proper entrance,” I said. “One that still works after all these years.”

  “I actually know someone who might be able to help, though,” Ana said. “Nix, the FireSoul. I’ve heard she’s been to the Greek realm of the gods.”

  “Really?” I didn’t know Nix as well as my sisters did, given the fact that they’d met the FireSouls while I was still in captivity.

  “Let me call her.” Ana stood. “Be right back.”

  She left the room, and I looked at Jude. “How’s it going at the gate to Tartarus?”

  “Fine. No sign of the Stryx, and the Order of the Magica is working on solidifying the gate with magic.”

  “The Order has informed you of the Titans’ growing dark magic?” Maximus asked.

  She nodded. “They have. We’re working together to create a weakening spell that will stop their magic from expanding. It will debilitate them enough that we can deploy a binding spell. Once bound, they’ll be helpless, and we can throw them back into Tartarus.” Her expression turned serious. “If you can find them, we can stop them. We’re counting on you.”

  “We’ll find them,” I said.

  Maximus nodded. “Have you had any luck tracking the source of the dark magic?”

  “We haven’t. And we don’t know how their power is growing, or what they intend to do with it all.” She looked disgusted with herself. “We assume it’s because they aren’t bound in Tartarus anymore, but we just don’t know.”

  It was the million-dollar question that ate at me. What the heck were they planning with all that magic?

  Ana sailed back into the room. “Speaking of getting into hell, I have our expert here.”

  Nix entered behind her. She was a slender woman with dark hair and flashing green eyes. Her blue T-shirt was decorated with a cartoon cat, which was a nice contrast to the beat-up motorcycle boots she wore. The FireSoul was immensely powerful, though you wouldn’t have known it from looking at her. She lived in Magic’s Bend with Cass and Del, her two best friends and fellow FireSouls.

  She grinned as she spotted me. “Rowan. Maximus. Good to see you.”

  “Hey, Nix. Thanks for coming.”

  Maximus nodded in greeting. They’d met each other at the end of the last battle, though only briefly.

  She sat at the table, and her gaze met mine, suddenly turning serious. “So, you need to get into Hades?”

  “We do. Do you know how?”

  “I know how not to,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I assume you need to sneak in? That you don’t want to alert Hades or Persephone or any of the other gods? Because if you do, they might want to know why you are there. And that could become a problem for you.”

  “Sneaking in is best. We don’t need any of the wrong gods slowing us down or taking issue with us being there.”

  “Then you need to go in the normal way. Like a human would.” At my blank look, she leaned closer. “You need to be dead.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “Here’s the situation—there are several entrances to Hades. I used my dragon sense to get there, which meant I went in a weird way. But if you sneak in through a back way as a living person like I did, the gods are going to notice. Hades or Persephone, maybe even Hecate.”

  “That’s who we’re going to find.”

  “Hecate?” She winced. “Yeah, you’re going to want to sneak up on her, from what I’ve heard.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  “Okay, well, you don’t want the gods to know you’re there. Even if you are the Greek Dragon God. Maybe they wouldn’t have a problem with it, but maybe they would. It’s not a place for the living, and you would upset the natural balance.”

  “Okay, so we need to find an entrance that leads us to the River Styx. We’ll pretend to be dead people—magically somehow, since I don’t want to die quite yet—and we’ll sneak in that way.”

  “Yes. You’ll go through all the steps a human soul would go through, ending in judgement and your assignment to your afterlife realm. Once you’ve made it that far, you should have some relative freedom to sneak around and do what you need to do.”

  “Okay, we can work with that.” I looked at Maximus, who nodded.

  “Do you know of any entrances that are still open?” Maximus asked.

  Nix shook her head. “I don’t know exactly how you should get to the River Styx. Tartarus is the only part of Hades that is actually underground, so you don’t want to enter that way.”

  “The rest isn’t underground?” I frowned.

  “No. Human interpretation puts them underground because the entrances are generally through caves and in lakes. They’re portals that make it look like you’re going underground. But in reality, they’re taking you to Annatlia, the magical realm of the Greek gods. It’s located roughly in southern Greece.”

  “But what about Mount Olympus? Does only Zeus rule there?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Exactly.”

  Okay, this was starting to make sense. I’d learned a bit about the Greek gods and their realms, but it had been only what I’d managed to read in the last few weeks. Though I’d spoken to a couple of the gods, they hadn’t explained all this to me.

  “If we’re going to cross the River Styx with Charon, we need ancient Greek coins to pay him,” Maximus said. “I could conjure replicas, but they wouldn’t have the patina of age, so I’m not sure they’d work.”

  “Where the heck will we get those?” I asked.

  “I have a contact at the Museum of Magical History in Magic’s Bend,” Nix said. “If I explain what it’s for, he may let you have two.”

  “Oh, thank fates.” I really didn’t want to go robbing any ancient sites to get the coins I needed. Not that I’d know how to find one anyway. “So the next thing we need is a potion that can make us appear to be dead so we don’t set off the alarm when we enter.”

  Jude nodded. “I think Hedy can help with that.”

  A little thrill of excitement surged through me. This sounded like a very cool potion, and I wanted to watch Hedy make it.

  “I’ve found something!” Florian’s voice echoed from the back of the stacks.

  I turned to see him hurrying out with a large book in his hand. He rushed to the table and set it down, pointing to an old pen and ink illustration. “There. You need to go through the bottomless Alcyonian Lake at Lerna. That’s how you’ll get into Hades.”

  “Well done,” Jude said.

  Florian beamed.

  I looked at Maximus. “Looks like we’re going to hell.”

  After Nix explained a bit more about Hades and what to expect, she headed to Magic’s Bend to try to get us a couple of ancient Greek coins.

 
I went to my apartment to take the fastest shower in the history of time. All clean, I hopped out and scrubbed myself dry, then hurried into the bedroom. I leaned over the spiral stairs that led down to the living room and shouted to Maximus, “Your turn!”

  His footsteps were silent on the stairs up, but he appeared quickly. I tugged my towel closer around me, heating under his quick but appreciative gaze.

  “That way.” I pointed to the little bathroom.

  “When I’m done, I’ll get the scuba equipment we need to get to the bottom of the lake and meet you at Hedy’s workshop.”

  “It’s a date.”

  “I wish.” His gaze didn’t travel any lower over my barely clothed form, but it did heat.

  I blushed and turned away, waving my hand. “Go on. We need to get a move on.”

  While he showered, I tugged on clean clothes. It was now nearly midnight, and we were about to start off on another long adventure. Hopefully Hedy would have a pep-up potion of some kind.

  I strapped my fully loaded potions belt around my waist, then grabbed a slim backpack that I loaded full of potion bombs. As I hurried down the stairs and into the living room, I looked over at the kitchen.

  Romeo, Poppy, and Eloise sat on the counter. A normal person might think it was gross to have animals on their kitchen counter, but I never cooked in there. Every square inch that wasn’t covered by the Menacing Menagerie was littered with potions equipment.

  Going somewhere good? Romeo asked.

  “Hell.”

  Ohhhh.

  Eloise’s eyes brightened.

  “Lots of fights in hell, Eloise.” I grinned at her, knowing the badger’s love for a good battle.

  She nodded, excited.

  We’ll be there if you need us.

  Poppy nodded as if she agreed with Romeo, the little flower bobbing on her head. The possum always wore a flower behind her ear, and today, it was a tiny pink rose.

  “Thanks, guys.”

  I left them to do whatever the heck it was they were doing and hurried down the hall and through the castle. I’d been here less than a year, and I still couldn’t believe it was my home. The huge, ancient structure was as comforting as it was magical, and I loved it.