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

by Linsey Hall

  “Correct.”

  Maximus grinned and conjured two enormous umbrellas. “These will cover the most.”

  He handed me a colorful umbrella. Arachne began to eject webbing from her hind end. It was a bit strange to watch, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

  She handed me an end of the fine silver webbing, and I took it, wincing slightly at the stickiness.

  “Tie it around your waist.”

  I did as she commanded, not daring to look at the ground below. Maximus did the same, and soon we had our umbrellas open.

  I glanced at Maximus. “I feel like I’m in the circus.”

  He grinned.

  “Medusa!” Arachne called. “You have visitors!”

  There was silence. My heart began to thunder.

  “Medusa!”

  More silence.

  “She can hear us,” Arachne said. “She never goes far from here, so she must be able to.”

  “Maybe she is frightened?” I asked.

  “Likely,” Arachne said.

  “We know your story, Medusa,” I shouted. “It’s dreadfully unfair. We’re here to help you.”

  “You know nothing,” a voice shouted. Anger and fear echoed in it.

  Dang, those were two dangerous combinations.

  “We know about Poseidon and Athena. What they did was wrong.”

  “The gods no longer rule,” Maximus said. “You do not have to worry about them.”

  Medusa laughed bitterly.

  This was going nowhere. I looked at Arachne. “Can you lower us to the forest floor?”

  “If you think that’s wise.”

  “I do.” I turned back to the forest floor to project my voice that way, though I could no longer see past the umbrellas. “We’re going to join you, Medusa! But we will not attack. Please, just come speak to us.”

  “If I look upon you, you will die.”

  “I saw no statues when I looked at your home a moment ago,” I said. “You don’t seem to be killing many people.”

  “I dispose of the statues. I do not like them.”

  I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t want artwork reminders of all the demons I’d killed in the line of duty.

  “Well, either way, we’re approaching. If we meant you harm, we would not announce our presence. And your friend Arachne would not trust us.”

  “I do trust them,” Arachne said.

  “All right.” Medusa didn’t sound pleased about it, but she didn’t sound super pissed, at least. There might have even been a bit of hope in her voice.

  “Let’s go,” Maximus said.

  We leaned off the branch, dangling in thin air with our umbrellas pointed downward. Arachne deployed her web, lowering us slowly to the forest floor.

  “Nearly there!” Arachne said.

  When my umbrella hit the ground below, I lifted it, careful to keep it in front of me.

  “We’re here, Medusa! Come out and speak to us.”

  “All right. But I will approach you backward.”

  I waited, shifting uncomfortably as I used my animal hearing to get a sense of what she was doing. Soft footsteps sounded on the forest floor.

  “She is standing in the clearing,” Arachne said. “And she is not facing you. It is safe to lower your umbrellas and look upon her.”

  I sucked in a deep breath and glanced at Maximus. He nodded, and we lowered our umbrellas. My heart threatened to beat its way out of my chest, and I had my eyes squeezed so tightly closed that it almost hurt.

  Though, in all honesty, it didn’t matter that much if I looked upon her. She could give me one look, and I’d be stone.

  Slowly, I opened my eyes.

  A woman stood with her back toward us. Green snakes writhed on her head, hissing and glaring.

  Oh fates, that was awful.

  I would hate to live like that.

  We had to help her. But how?

  Maybe she would have an idea.

  “Tell me exactly how you found me,” Medusa said. “What leads you to my lair?”

  “Well, I’m on a quest.”

  She laughed bitterly. “They all are.”

  “True. But this one doesn’t involve killing you. I thought it did, but once I heard your story, I knew I couldn’t do it.”

  She shrugged. “Tell me more.”

  I explained about the dragons and the claw dagger they’d given me.

  “Throw it to me,” Medusa said. “I want to see it.”

  Was there excitement in her voice? I dug into my pocket and removed the sparkling opalescent claw. I tossed it to her in a perfect arc, quite proud of myself when it sailed down in front of her, and she snagged it out of the air.

  “It is the dagger of choice.” Now it was clear that excitement echoed in her voice. “It could kill me or save me, depending upon your intentions.”

  “Oh fates. So if I’d chosen wrong, I really could have killed you.”

  “But you didn’t choose wrong,” Maximus said.

  “How can it save you, though?” I asked.

  The snakes continued to hiss at me, glaring even more fiercely. If they understood English, they didn’t like the direction this conversation was taking.

  “It magnifies your intentions. It could turn back the curse if you so wished.” Her voice turned doubtful at the end of her sentence. “Though I’m not sure that wishes are enough.”

  I chewed on my lower lip as I thought. “What if I have a potion that breaks spells?”

  I’d only ever used it to break the protection spells on locked doors, but it could work for this.

  “That might do it.” Excitement echoed in her voice. “What if you put it on the dagger and pierce me with it?”

  “That seems a bit extreme,” Maximus said.

  “Living with snakes on your head for thousands of years is a bit extreme. If this gets me out of that, you’re welcome to stab me in the heart.”

  “Maybe not the heart.” I reached for my potion belt and pulled out the tiny vial of spell breaker. There was no way it alone could break a god’s spell, but maybe with this fancy dragon claw dagger. “I’ve got the potion.”

  “I’ll throw back the dagger.” She lobbed it into the air, aiming closer to Maximus.

  He darted left to grab it, snagging it easily.

  “Are you sure about this?” Arachne asked.

  “I am.” There was a smile in Medusa’s voice. “It’s worth the risk, even if I die. Any hope at all is worth the risk. And think of it, old friend. I’ll finally be able to look at you again!”

  “That would be nice. Promise you’ll come visit.”

  “I will.”

  Oh fates, I hoped this worked. Medusa had been trapped for so long. If I killed her by accident…

  I couldn’t live with myself, frankly.

  “Okay, I’m going to approach you from behind,” I said.

  “Do whatever you have to.” Her voice turned thoughtful. “Perhaps you should stab me in the left arm. I don’t use that one much.”

  “All right.” I approached her slowly, Maximus at my side. As we neared the snakes, they began to hiss and writhe more violently.

  “By the way, Medusa. I think I’m supposed to bring the heads of your snakes to the dragons to prove what I have done.”

  “If you turn me back to normal, you can have the little bastards. They’re not even really alive. They don’t eat or sleep or anything. Pure dark magic is what they are.”

  “It’s a deal.” I held out my hand for the dagger, and Maximus passed it to me.

  The dragon claw was cool in my palm, sparking with magic. I uncorked the vial of spell breaker and dripped it over the point of the dragon claw. The liquid gleamed blue in the light.

  “Okay, I’m going to stab you.” I didn’t usually give a warning.

  Medusa didn’t even flinch, though. I had a feeling that she’d accept being skinned alive to get out of this curse.

  I raised the dagger over her arm, framing my intentions in my mind.
If this dagger was going to magnify them, I didn’t want it getting confused.

  Turn her back to human.

  I thrust the claw downward, piercing the fleshy outer bit that I doubted had any important ligaments or whatever made arms move.

  Medusa winced and hissed in pain. Magic burst from the blade, flowing outward over Medusa in waves of golden light.

  The snakes on her head went wild, hissing and thrashing. When the light reached them, they froze. One by one, they fell off of her head, disconnecting from her scalp. In their place appeared golden hair, long and straight.

  Holy fates, it was working!

  Excitement burst in my chest. I could hear Arachne up above, giving a weird little spider shriek of delight.

  “It’s working!” Medusa said.

  All of the snakes were off her head now. She reached up to touch her face, then gave a little jump.

  “My face is back to normal! My nose! My cheeks!”

  “Does this mean you won’t turn us to stone?” Maximus asked.

  “I think not.” She spun around before I could dodge left or right.

  Horrified, I stared into her eyes.

  They were a beautiful blue. And her face was beautiful, too.

  Even better, I was still breathing. I moved my arms.

  Yep, not a statue.

  Oh, thank fates.

  It was stupid that her beauty made her good and her ugliness had made her bad—they weren’t things that should be equated. But the Greek gods weren’t exactly advanced thinkers. Her beauty had drawn Poseidon to her, and ugliness with a side helping of the stone curse had been Athena’s best punishment.

  “You saved me!” Medusa threw her arms around me.

  I grinned and hugged her back.

  At my side, Maximus conjured a small bag, then bent and collected the dead snakes that lay withered on the ground.

  I pulled back from Medusa. “Do you know where you will go now?”

  She moved away from me and looked up at the trees, her gaze landing on Arachne. A beautiful smile brightened her face. “I’ll spend time with my old friend. From there, we shall see.”

  Arachne waved at her with one of her front legs, and my heart warmed.

  Man, sometimes I really liked my job.

  “If you ever need help, you can come to the Undercover Protectorate in Scotland. Just go to the Whiskey and Warlock pub in Edinburgh. They’ll direct you there.”

  Medusa squeezed my arm. “Thank you. Truly.”

  I nodded. “I’m just glad I met the Centaur Chiron so he could tell me your true story.”

  Otherwise, I’d have killed her. The idea made my stomach turn. It was so dangerous to run around on quests where the goal was to kill people. How were you to know you were even doing the right thing?

  I shivered. Lesson learned for the future.

  I looked at Maximus. “Ready to go back?”

  “Yes. But how? They transported us here.”

  As soon as he said the word, the ether began to pull at me. The dragons were calling us back.

  I gave Arachne and Medusa one last look, then the ether sucked me in.

  Fates, I hope we did this right.

  10

  We arrived back in the ceremonial center of Olympus. The wind whipped coldly over my cheeks, and I gripped the dragon’s claw tightly in my hands.

  Next to me, Maximus carried the bag of snake heads.

  I spun in a quick circle, taking in the dragons. All six stared at us, interest gleaming in their jewel-like eyes. I really hated how they’d laid out this space. It’d be so much better to face the dragons head-on. Instead, I had to choose which one to face.

  Obviously, it had to be Ladon.

  “Well?” Ladon asked.

  I nodded to Maximus, who dumped the snake heads onto the ground.

  “At first, I thought I was supposed to kill Medusa,” I said. “Everything I’d ever heard about her was bad.”

  “I know,” Ladon said.

  I didn’t ask how he’d known. He was a damned dragon. They knew stuff.

  “Along the way, we learned her story,” I continued. “I knew I couldn’t kill her, then. Even if I’d had to kill her, I wouldn’t have. But Maximus remembered what you said about heads. Plural.” I nodded down to the withered snakes on the ground. They still stank of dark magic, and some of them had turned entirely to dust. “I hope we were right about that.”

  “You were indeed,” Ladon said. “We had hoped you would choose the right path. A Drakaina is powerful—we wouldn’t give that power to someone who couldn’t wield it well.”

  “Drakaina?” I asked.

  He nodded. “A female dragon.”

  My heart began to pound and my head to spin. Was he saying what I thought he was saying?

  Please let him be saying that. Oh, please!

  The six dragons raised their wings, magic sparking around them. Red, yellow, white, blue, green. Every color glittered in the air, and the dragons roared. It shook my eardrums, nearly sending me to my knees.

  I stiffened my legs, determined not to fall in front of them. I would be worthy.

  The magic surged toward me, slamming into me like a freight train. Because it came from all directions, I didn’t fall over. Instead, it lifted me up, filling me with so much power that I thought my head might pop off. I could barely breathe, and every muscle began to tear.

  Pain streaked through me, along with a weird kind of pleasure. Almost like triumph.

  My vision began to darken, the sparkling magic glittering at the edges. A moment later, power exploded from me, making me feel like a supernova.

  I shot into the air, feeling amazing.

  I was strength.

  I was grace.

  I was power.

  I was dragon.

  Massive wings flapped alongside me, brilliant silver in the sun. The magic that flowed through me felt like a homecoming, and I soared upward, the wind against my face.

  Joy burst in my chest.

  But only for a second.

  My wings faltered. Suddenly, the air felt like pudding. It was impossible to fly through it. I collapsed backward and slammed onto the ground.

  Pain surged in my skull, and I blinked, swearing that I saw stars circling my head as if I were in an old cartoon.

  I struggled upright, flopping around on my dragon feet, my wings as awkward as two umbrellas in the wind.

  Oh fates.

  I was a terrible dragon.

  I turned my head to look at both my wings. They were huge and magnificent, silvery and sparkling in the sun. They looked like they should carry me to the moon.

  In reality, they’d carried me about twenty feet up, and most of that had probably been because of the magic of the other dragons.

  Boy, I was going to need some practice.

  I was like an awkward adolescent dragon who’d just gone through a growth spurt and stumbled around like a giant.

  It was a letdown to not be soaring through the skies like a professional, but only for half a second.

  Because holy fates, I was a dragon!

  A dragon who needed some practice. But I was a freaking dragon!

  Wait until my sisters see this.

  I should blow some fire. That was very dragon-y and a skill I really ought to have.

  For safety’s sake, I raised my head to look toward the sky. I didn’t want to barbecue anyone, after all. I called upon the heat that I felt within my chest. It was like there was a furnace inside me, constantly pumping fire through my veins.

  I forced the heat to rise from my chest through my throat, and I blew it outward.

  A puff of smoke escaped from my lips. Maybe a tiny little flame.

  Dang.

  My shoulders sagged, but only a millimeter.

  I looked down at Maximus, who was looking at me with an expression of such awe that my shoulders went up again.

  I would get the hang of this.

  I’d have to.

  I turned to
look at Ladon, who looked a little impressed himself.

  “You look good,” he said.

  I tried to speak, but no words came out.

  “You’ll have to shift back,” he said. “You are not quite like us. At least, not yet. With practice, you may be able to speak in your dragon form. But not now.”

  I nodded, then imagined turning back into my human self. It took a few moments, but the magic surged through my limbs finally, shrinking me back down to human size.

  I looked down at myself, spotting my usual shirt, jacket, and jeans. Thank fates I still wore my clothes. Transforming back naked would be a real pain. I shot a glance up at Zeus’s castle to see if he was watching. He was, and his expression was conflicted.

  I looked up at Ladon. “Is it normal for me to be so…awkward?”

  Ladon shrugged an enormous shoulder. “I have no idea. A human has never transformed into a dragon before.”

  Wow.

  “It is true, though. You need practice.” Ladon grimaced. “A lot of practice.”

  “No kidding.” The memory of flopping back down to the ground in front of all these dragons made my cheeks warm. “I don’t have a lot of time, though.”

  “You aren’t getting any more, so work hard.”

  Maximus approached me, stopping to stand by my side. He looked at the dragons. “We do have one other problem.”

  “And what is that?” Ladon asked.

  “We don’t yet have a way to put the Titans back in Tartarus.”

  “I’m not sure we can help with that,” he said. “But I do have a warning for you, Rowan.”

  Uh-oh. “Yes?”

  “The darkness in you is still there.”

  A shiver of dread raced over me. “I know. But I’ve come to terms with it.”

  “Good. Because you will be tested once more. One final time. The pull of evil and power is strong. Too much for most people to resist. It could make you the most powerful being in existence, but you must not embrace it.”

  My mind snagged on the “most powerful being” part. Was that how I was supposed to defeat the Titans? I had to become mega powerful to do it?

  Except, I couldn’t embrace the darkness.

  Ladon had made that clear, and I was unwilling to anyway. I didn’t want to be like them. How could I come back from that? Could I, even?