by Sammie Joyce
With that, Rose closed the connection. She could feel him and Mace beating against her walls, trying to talk to her, but she blocked them out. She was afraid they would convince her to change her course.
Gavin helped her bolster her defense.
How long until they catch up with us?
We have a good head start. They will be close behind us, but the moment we land at the coven, we’ll be safe. The witches will take action to secure us, and the same with Asher and Mace. Asher and Mace will fight, but if we don’t, we can have the procedure performed before anyone has a chance to win or lose that fight.
The procedure. It sounded so cold, so clinical. Rose knew that they would have to secure Maria’s promise first. Maria would need to send someone to help Jagger before Rose was letting anyone touch her baby. She wouldn’t let this be for nothing.
She pressed a hand to her stomach, feeling sick.
At first, Rose was sure she imagined it, but as she pressed her hand harder to her stomach, she felt it again. A light fluttering under her fingers.
Gavin! Land!
Gavin didn’t question, swooping down to the nearest landing site at once. Rose slid off his back, and by the time she turned around, he had transformed back to his human form.
“Feel this.” She grabbed his hand and put it against her stomach. The fluttering was still there.
“He’s kicking,” Gavin whispered in awe.
“How is that possible? I’ve only been pregnant for a few weeks.”
“Dragon pregnancies progress much faster than witch or human ones. We typically give birth in five months, and the baby is fully developed within a few weeks; it just grows from then.”
Rose nodded. “Since I’m carrying a dragon-witch baby, the pregnancy is bound to be unusual.”
Neither of them spoke for a minute. Feeling her baby kick changed everything. It made the life inside her feel more real to Rose. It was as if her child was kicking frantically to remind her that he was alive, that he wanted to live.
“I can’t do this.”
Gavin’s face was filled with sorrow and understanding. “I know.”
The two of them sank to the ground, holding each other tightly. This would mean Jagger’s death. When he died, Rose would die too—not in body, but her heart would surely perish. She had to keep going, though, for her child’s sake.
She didn’t know how long they sat there for. She and Gavin both lifted the barriers on their minds, allowing Asher and Mace to find them.
Asher looked ready to spit fire, even in his human form. “How could you?” He looked between Rose and Gavin, but neither of them answered. “That’s OUR CHILD! How dare you make this decision on your own!”
“It’s Jagger’s life!” Gavin snarled. “Forgive us for having a moment of uncertainty over whether or not it’s okay to sit back and let him die.”
The fire seemed to go out of Asher. “We should go back. He’ll be waking up soon, and we should all be there when he does. Rose can fly with me.”
Gavin flinched a little. Losing Asher’s trust was a familiar nightmare for him.
“He helped me when I knew none of you would.” Rose stood between Asher and Gavin, taking the full force of Asher’s anger. “And I’ll ride with Mace.”
Asher nodded, his lips pressed tightly together. Mace shifted without saying a word to Rose. She knew that he was hurt, but she didn’t know how to fix it.
Once again, they flew through the dawn, but this time, they didn’t fly toward hope; they flew toward despair. Rose still couldn’t help being relieved that her child was safe.
What made you change your mind? Mace didn’t bother to hide his question in a private connection, and Rose could feel Asher listening keenly.
I felt the baby kick.
No one really needed anything more of an explanation than that. They flew in silence. Rose would have to worry about fixing things with Asher and Mace later. Now, she needed to see Jagger. She was suddenly terrified that he would die before they got back, all alone, thinking his brothers and mate had abandoned him.
By the time they got to the hospital, the sun was fully in the sky. They all but ran to Jagger’s room. Annabelle and Dane were sitting a silent vigil by his bedside. He was just coming around.
“Rose?” His voice was hoarse from vomiting.
“I’m here.” Rose took his hand. “Just try to relax, Jagger.”
“Hurts.”
“I know. The doctors have you on pain medication, but they can’t give you too much of it.”
Jagger nodded. He looked at Asher, Mace, and Gavin. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Asher soothed. “Just relax and focus on getting better.”
“Something happened. What is it?”
There were a few moments of awkward silence before Mace finally answered. “Rose and Gavin decided to trade the baby’s life for yours.”
“WHAT?” Jagger tried to sit up, but he fell back down, coughing. His heart monitor was going crazy.
“Jagger, don’t get worked up. We changed our minds. The witches have no idea where we are. Everything is fine.” Rose tried to stroke his forehead, but Jagger jerked his head away from her.
“How could you, Rose?”
She didn’t know what to say. He knew exactly why she would do what she did, but he clearly didn’t think her reasons were good enough.
Doctors started rushing in, drawn by Jagger’s erratic heart rate. When the space around him cleared again, Jagger was asleep—or perhaps unconscious.
“What’s going on?” Asher demanded.
Dr. Richards ran a hand through his hair. “He’s slipped into a coma. The stress is just too much for his body. I think it’s best we leave him as he is—that will give his body more of a chance to heal.”
When he put it like that, Rose could hardly argue with him, but all she could think was that she might not even have a chance to say goodbye to Jagger before his body gave out. Their last words were an argument, and she didn’t know how she would ever get over that.
Mace put a hand on her shoulder, and Rose grabbed it, holding onto him for dear life. When Dr. Richards left, Mace led her to a chair. Asher stepped out to kidnap some chairs from the lobby; they all needed to sit down, or their legs would probably give out before long.
“I have an idea.” Everyone spun around to look at Mace.
“Spit it out!” Gavin looked like he was on the verge of leaping up and trying to physically shake the idea out of Mace.
“I’m not sure any of you is going to like it.”
“And you think we like Jagger being in a coma? Spill.”
The order from Asher was enough to convince Mace to talk. “We could contact Hellith.”
If the situation wasn’t so serious, Rose would have thought he was joking. “Contact… Hellith.”
“We already know that she’s not dead. She still has enough influence in hell to send tendrils out here and control the coven. She’s more powerful than any witch or dragon ever born. If anyone can heal Jagger, it’s her.”
“In case you’ve forgotten, Mace, the last time we tried to negotiate with Hellith, it didn’t go well at all.” If Gavin was speaking out against it, the idea must be truly crazy, but Rose didn’t think they were in a position to turn down any ideas right now.
Talking to Hellith couldn’t possibly be worse than giving her baby up. They had to try everything they could to save Jagger’s life. “What makes you think she’d help us?”
“We’d have to give her a reason to.”
“What could we possibly offer Hellith?” Rose wondered how badly things would go if she gave Hellith her necklace of power. She’d sworn she’d never part with it again, but what was that vow when compared to Jagger’s life? Would Hellith be happy with the necklace, though?
“Her release.”
Everyone stared at Mace. Asher was the first one to voice what they were all thinking. “If we release Hellith, it won’t matter if she saves Jagge
r. She’ll kill us all. Jagger will die just the same, and the rest of us will go down with him.”
“I’m not saying we should actually release her. I’m saying that’s our bargaining tool. I have no intention of following through with that bargain.”
“You think she won’t suspect a double-cross?” Gavin was clearly desperate for some kind of hope, but Mace’s idea seemed impossible. “She’ll want some kind of assurance that we will keep our word, and whatever that assurance is, I’m betting it won’t be easy to get away from.”
“Look, I don’t have it all worked out. Jagger doesn’t have much time. As long as he’s alive, we have options. We can work toward making sure we never have to let Hellith out. Even Hellith can’t raise the dead. Once Jagger dies, we’re out of options.”
This argument seemed to work on Asher. He was used to having to make life and death decisions without as much time as he’d like to think about them. “Alright, we’ll do it, but under no circumstances are we to do anything for her before she’s healed Jagger. We’re not doing this for nothing. And if it comes down to it… if we have to choose between keeping her locked up and saving Jagger, we keep her locked up.”
Rose didn’t like it, but she knew Asher was right. There would be no point in saving Jagger just so that he could die with the rest of them.
“How do you plan to contact Hellith?” Dane and Annabelle had been quiet for the conversation, letting Rose and Jagger’s brothers make the decision on their own. Annabelle brought up a good point, though. How were they going to contact Hellith?
“Does the divination ritual have a reverse?” Rose wished she had done more study on divination rituals before she left the coven, but it had never really seemed important.
“Only if Hellith does one, and I doubt she’s going to. It may be possible to create a spell, though, based on the divination ritual. If the ritual can reach into hell, there must be a way to manipulate it so that we can talk to Hellith.”
Rose winced. Creating spells was risky. There was an entire wing of the coven devoted to it—a magically reinforced wing that could absorb explosions without destroying the rest of the building.
It didn’t seem like there was much of a choice. “We should get started, then. We’ll need somewhere out of the way, where we can’t accidentally hurt anyone.
“I’ll take you.” Dane stood up, glancing at Asher. “The rest of you should stay with Jagger.”
He got no objections there. Rose wanted one of her dragons to be with her; she felt empty without them. She wouldn’t ask, though. She wouldn’t drag them away from Jagger’s side, missing what could be his final moments, just to be moral support in a spell they could be of no practical help with.
They were quiet during the flight. Rose and Annabelle couldn’t have talked even if they wanted to; the wind rushing in their ears drowned out all other sound.
When they landed in an abandoned quarry, Dane carried flat pieces of stone for them to have something raised to sit on. “I can go back and get cushions if you’d like?”
“Thanks, Dane, but we’re good. Rose and I had better get started.”
Dane nodded, fading into the background. He patrolled around them, no doubt checking for any type of danger.
Rose and Annabelle looked at each other, waiting.
Rose finally let out a shaky laugh. “I have no idea how to do this.”
“Me neither,” Annabelle admitted. “I suppose we have to start somewhere, though.”
“Usually we’d start with a divination ritual, but that could be dangerous—if we do that, then Hellith could get into our heads like she’s gotten into everyone else’s.”
“Exactly.”
Rose wracked her brains, trying to figure out a solution. How did one communicate with the world of the dead? How were they supposed to modify a spell when they couldn’t cast the spell itself?
An idea came to her, though whether it would work or not, Rose had no idea. “Does the divination ritual have to be cast with someone inside it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the rituals are usually conducted in a ritual circle. The person doing the divination ritual sits inside the circle. What if we did everything for the ritual, but didn’t put a person inside?”
“Then the ritual would blank out. The whole point is for information to come to the person inside the circle. If we do that, Hellith may very well try to communicate, but we wouldn’t be able to hear her.”
There had to be a way. Rose couldn’t let Jagger down, but getting spelled by Hellith wasn’t going to help him.
“Communicate… what about some kind of radio? One that could pick up the signal coming from Hellith?”
“It might work!” Annabelle turned to Dane. “Dane! We’ve had an idea.”
“On it. Will you two be okay for an hour or so?” Of course, he’d heard their entire conversation, despite being quite a distance away.
“We’ll be good.” Annabelle blew him a kiss. “We’ll also need candles, crystals, and red ribbon for the ritual.”
“Will do. Just don’t tell Asher I left you alone; he’ll have my head.”
Annabelle laughed, but Rose didn’t. Dane wasn’t being entirely sarcastic.
Dane flew off, which left them to discuss the specifics of the ritual. One of them would have to do the ritual, while the other one shielded her. Neither of them were ruling out the possibility that their experiment would go wrong and blow up in their faces—literally.
Dane was back in less than an hour. As soon as he came with the supplies, Rose and Annabelle started laying them out. They’d decided that Rose would do the shield. That would likely be the more difficult job. If the ritual circle exploded, she’d be in charge of shielding herself, Annabelle, and Dane from the carnage.
“Wait.”
Rose was impatient to get started, but she paused to listen to Dane. “Yes?”
“If this works, you’ll be negotiating with Hellith. The others should be here. They will want to be part of the discussion.”
He had a point, but Rose didn’t want Jagger to be left alone.
“I’ll go and sit with Jagger. If he wakes up, I’ll be there.”
Rose knew that Dane couldn’t read her mind, but she guessed that her expression must have been pretty clear. “I—alright. We’ll wait for Asher, Gavin, and Mace.”
Once more, they waited. Asher didn’t want to leave until Dane got there, on the off chance that Jagger woke up alone. Rose didn’t know whether she was relieved or worried about having to wait.
On the one hand, trying to contact Hellith was not a prospect she relished, and she’d be quite happy to put it off. On the other, every moment they wasted was another moment Jagger got closer to death.
When they landed, the dragons shifted to their human forms. Asher came to put his arms around Rose. She sighed into the embrace, hoping that this meant he forgave her for what she’d intended to do before she felt the baby kick.
“You should stand back,” she told him regretfully. “If things go wrong, I don’t want to have to worry about shielding more people than I have to.”
“We’ll be right here if you need anything.” Asher kissed her cheek before retreating with Mace and Gavin. Rose could feel their eyes on her back. If this didn’t work, what would they do? Jagger didn’t have time for them to come up with a plan B.
“You ready?” Annabelle stood just outside the ritual circle, holding one of the crystals. It was glowing slightly, primed to begin.
“I’m ready.”
Rose focused on her shield while Annabelle initiated the ritual. She tensed as the radio started emitting static, checking her shield for flaws.
There was no explosion. Instead, the world around them went black, like she and Annabelle were in a bubble of light surrounded by infinite nothingness.
Rose froze, waiting. Her shield was still up, but the current situation didn’t seem to be harming her or Annabelle.
That didn’t mean
it wasn’t harming Asher, Mace, or Gavin. Was the blackness around them just an illusion, or were her dragons being forced into some kind of void that was killing them?
She was just about to tell Annabelle to abort the mission when a voice came out of the radio.
“What is this? Who is disturbing me?”
Even over the slight crackling of the radio, Rose could recognize Hellith’s voice.
“Rose Haller. We have things to discuss.”
Hellith sneered. “What would I want to discuss with you?”
“Your release from hell.”
Hellith didn’t respond for a moment. Rose got the impression she was thinking hard. “Why would you want to release me? You know what I’ll do to you.”
“I want to make a deal. Jagger is dying. Only a witch can heal him, but I’ve broken from the coven. They won’t help me. I want you to heal him, and promise to leave me and my mates alone, as well as Annabelle and Dane, who are still aligned with us.”
“And just how do you plan to release me?”
“I was hoping you’d be able to tell us.”
“You would have to come into hell and use magic to break my cage open. Somehow, I don’t see you attempting that.”
“If you give me your word that you’ll let me and mine live in peace, I will do it. You know how I feel about my dragons. I would do anything to save them. Anything. Even if it means watching the rest of the world burn.”
There was another pause as Hellith considered. “Are your dragons in the circle of light with you?”
“No, they’re outside it. Are they… are they okay?”
“They are in stasis. They will be fine once the spell is over—I simply wanted some privacy with whoever found a way to contact me without suffering my influence. Now, I can agree to your deal, but the problem is, I don’t see any reason for you to honor it. What’s stopping you from going on your merry way once I heal Jagger?”
Rose glanced at Annabelle, trying to think of something that would convince Hellith. “I’ll keep my word, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I don’t think so,” Hellith hissed. “If I’m to do this, I’ll need assurances.”
This was exactly what Rose had been afraid of, but she nodded anyway. “What do you need?”