by Tami Lund
In truth, he was the largest of the group of sentries, although Petra guessed Delilah wasn’t referring to his physical form.
She felt Noah tense next to her, probably waiting for Argyle to attack the woman for slandering him. But the gargoyle continued to stand as still as, well, a statue, until, after a moment, he said, “You compelled me with a truth spell, in case you forgot.”
Delilah raised a finger, like she was about to chastise him, and then she froze for a few seconds, before slowly turning her head toward Petra and Noah. “He has a point,” she said, and then she motioned at the other four gargoyles before walking forward, the large men following in perfectly symmetric steps.
Noah and Petra both shuffled backward until they were practically on top of the older woman seated in the rocking chair in the middle of the ruins. They were trapped. If they didn’t have Sadie, they could fly away, but there was no way in hell Petra was leaving her daughter. And she knew without a single doubt Noah felt the same.
Not that the knowledge made her feel all gooey inside.
Okay, maybe it did, but this sure as hell wasn’t the time or place to be thinking about what a damned perfect mate he would make.
If only.
“So,” Delilah said, “if he’s speaking the truth—which he has no choice, thanks to my truth spell—why are you here?”
“The curse,” somebody said. Not Petra and not Noah, although it was a masculine voice.
Gabe stepped into view, flanked by Talia and two other dragons. Rahu Volos and Ketu Ormarr. Rahu was young, maybe mid-twenties, but one of the best flyers in their colony. And Ketu was a straight up badass who had seen too many battles in his day yet not enough in recent years, and was likely itching for action.
Petra’s eyes widened when she saw her bestie. She wanted to rush over and hug her, except the old lady still had Sadie in her arms and Delilah’s gargoyles were all bristling and flexing like they were challenging the dragons to make the first move in some sort of cage fight.
Ketu, Petra noticed, ignored the other men, while Rahu flexed right back. Which was amusing despite the circumstances, because he was wiry, tall, and thin, while these other men were massive, bodybuilder types. Living as stone statues apparently was the natural secret to avoiding steroids.
“Which curse?” Delilah said. “You’re gonna have to be a little more specific.”
“The curse on our colony,” Gabe replied, striding forward so that he stood only a few feet away from the woman.
Delilah turned her attention to Petra. “I thought you said you were from out west?”
“We may have lied about that part.”
Delilah shook her head. “So you’re really from that colony in Detroit? Because I’ve enacted a lot of curses in my day, but that’s the only time I’ve ever cursed an entire colony of dragons.”
For the love of the gods, she sounded proud of herself.
“How?” Gabe asked. “How did you do it? How was a dragon able to curse anything at all, let alone something of that caliber?”
“She got that ability from my side of the family.” The old lady had left the rocking chair and wandered into the circle of dragons and gargoyles, Sadie still asleep on her shoulder. Petra’s hands shook with the urge to pluck the baby from her arms.
Gabe narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?”
“Her mother,” she said, nodding at Delilah.
“Delilah is your daughter?” Noah asked.
“Her name is Dahlia. But she hated it, so she changed it a few years ago.”
“I do hate it,” Dah-er-Delilah confirmed.
That explained why the lead Petra had been chasing went cold so abruptly.
“You’re a witch and you hooked up with a dragon?” Petra said. “Really?” She furrowed her brow. The older woman shrugged.
“He was hot. What can I say?”
Petra glanced at Noah out of the corner of her eye. Yeah, she understood.
Delilah’s mother canted her head and studied Gabe. “You look familiar. Do I know you?”
Gabe shook his head. “Gabriel Wilde. Reeve of the Detroit dragon colony.”
Delilah narrowed her eyes and focused all of her attention on Gabe. “Why do I know that name?”
“Well, we’ve already established that you cursed my entire colony,” Gabe supplied. “Oh, and you’re my mother.”
“My grandson,” the older woman exclaimed, pressing her fingers to her lips and blinking rapidly. Petra half expected her to rush over and envelope him in a hug, grown man who she’d never met before and who was more than a foot taller than her notwithstanding.
And, yes, now that she was looking for it, she could see a strong family resemblance.
“Your mother? You’re—you’re Everest’s son?” Delilah eyed him from head to toe. “Yes, I suppose I can see myself in you. In fact, I don’t see anything of your father in your features.”
The woman who’d abandoned her kid as an infant and then cursed his entire colony because his father wouldn’t choose her over his fated mate sounded proud that Gabe resembled her.
“How is my asshole ex and his oh-so-wonderful mate, by the way?” Delilah asked, her tone mocking.
Gabe shrugged. “They abandoned me, too, shortly after you cursed our colony.”
“Oh wow,” Delilah said. “That’s too bad. That wasn’t my goal, by the way. Although I suppose it was for the better. You said you’re the reeve? You’d never have won that position if Everest had raised you.”
Gabe grimaced and massaged his temples. Clearly, her words were giving him a migraine. “What, exactly, was your goal when you cursed an entire colony to not be able to find their fated mates?”
“To punish your father, of course. He chose some other woman over me, and at the time, I foolishly believed I was in love with his sorry ass.”
“So you cursed everyone?”
She offered up a sheepish smile. “Well, to be honest, I’d only been working on my witchcraft skills for a couple of years at the time, and I might have gone a bit overboard when I realized I could even enact that curse in the first place. It’s very difficult to learn, even for a full-blooded witch.”
“Some of us didn’t have a problem,” Delilah’s mother piped up. “In fact, if I hadn’t been so good at it, you never would have been able to pick it up.”
Petra glanced at Gabe while pointing at the older lady. “She seems far more reasonable than Dahlia or Delilah or whatever her name is. Maybe she can break it.”
“I named her Dahlia,” the old witch reminded them. “But she hated it, so she changed it to Delilah.”
“That’s, like, barely different,” Gabe said.
“Different enough,” Delilah said with a shrug. “So you came all the way down here to convince me to lift the curse on your colony?”
“Yes,” Gabe replied.
Rahu piped up, “Well, we also figured out that you’re a drug lord, so we’re here to stop that, too.”
Petra slapped her hand to her forehead. He did not just say that, did he?
Apparently so, judging by the way Delilah’s face morphed into a very angry-looking, er, drug lord.
“Uh-oh,” the old lady said, backing away with her hands covering Sadie’s head. “Any threat to that stupid drug business always sends my daughter over the edge.” She stepped behind Argyle and then turned and fled.
With Petra’s baby.
Every instinct told her to go after her child, but the shimmer of magic and the dragon’s roar caused her to fling around to check on her friends. The old woman did not appear to be a threat, but the crazy half-witch, half-dragon certainly was.
Rahu was lying on the ground—hopefully, only unconscious—and Ketu was wrestling with one of the gargoyles near Rahu’s head. Talia and Gabe were nowhere to be found, so Petra presumed they were in the sky, along with two of the gargoyles. That left one more gargoyle and Noah.
Petra twisted her head to and fro until she spotted Noah, who appeared to be
doing the same thing—probably looking for her and the baby. That’s when Petra noticed the fifth gargoyle, sneaking up on Noah, his arms outstretched for Noah’s neck. He’d probably rip his head from his body, if the size of those muscles were any indication.
“Noah!” she screamed, and burst into a run, charging at the bulky man threatening her, er, baby daddy. She jumped onto the stone man’s back, wrapped her arms around his neck, and scrabbled at his face, trying to divert his attention.
It worked.
He stopped stalking Noah and, reaching over his head, grabbed her by the hair, and pulled her forward so that she flipped head over heel and landed on her back on the ground with a great, “Oomph,” as all the air left her lungs in a rush.
There was a roar, and Petra opened her eyes to see Noah slam his shoulder into the gargoyle’s gut, lifting him off his feet and sending him flying until he landed on his ass. And then Noah was on the guy, straddling his chest while he punched him, over and over until the guy’s face was a bloody mess.
“Get off him,” a female voice shouted.
Petra turned toward the sound in time to see Delilah’s hand light up with a glowing ball. “Duck,” she yelled at Noah, who instantly did as she said. The spell flew over his back and splattered against a tree, cracking and crashing one of the branches to the ground.
The action unbalanced him, though, and the gargoyle was able to scramble away toward the half-breed witch tossing spells every which way.
Wait—Delilah wasn’t the only witch in the vicinity. Noah was okay and everyone else was holding their own for the moment, so Petra followed the trail of trampled grass the old lady had created when she took off with Sadie. But once Petra stepped outside the ruins, she had no idea where to go.
“Follow me,” Argyle said, swooping down from the sky. His leathery wings folded like accordions and then seemed to melt into the skin exposed by his tank top, until they disappeared from view. He stomped through the undergrowth toward one of the old shacks, and she hurried after him.
A moment later, they climbed the groaning and creaking steps and burst through the front door. Petra skidded to a stop and stared at her surroundings. Whitewashed wooden furniture, gingham curtains, and antiquated iron light fixtures—it looked like she’d stepped into a country cottage, not the abandoned remnants of a slave’s quarters.
And there was Delilah’s mother, sitting in another rocking chair, next to a brick fireplace, with Sadie in her arms. Argyle brushed past Petra to the hearth.
“Doesn’t sound like the battle’s over yet,” the lady remarked.
“No, it isn’t. And I’m pretty confident your daughter has an edge with her ability to use witchcraft.” She moved closer, her gaze on Sadie, who was asleep, her thumb firmly stuck in her mouth.
So stinkin’ cute.
Focus, her dragon reminded her.
“And it seems like you might actually be on our side.”
The old lady shook her head. “Can’t abide the idea that my daughter is dealing drugs. Goes against everything I’ve ever taught her. And I know her father didn’t believe in that stuff, either, when he was alive.”
“Then, um, why don’t you go out there and help bring her down?”
She shook her head again. “Can’t.”
Petra waited, expecting an explanation. After a few moments of silence, she said, “Why not?”
The lady waved her free hand, as if encompassing the cottage. Or maybe the entire plantation. “Cursed. By my own daughter, no less.”
“What do you mean?”
“Dahlia was always overly emotional. Fell hard for every boy she ever dated. When she was sixteen, she was visiting her father for the weekend—we shared custody—and developed a crush on a dragon in the Rojo colony. So she moved in with her father full time, so she could be close to this guy, who, of course, eventually broke up with her. I mean, who finds true love at sixteen? Not to mention, you dragons have that whole fated mate thing going on, so he knew she wasn’t the one for him.
“Anyway, shortly after she graduated high school, she met another dragon and fell for him too. He was from up north. He took her back to his colony—your colony—and, of course, eventually broke up with her when he met his fated mate. For whatever reason, she stayed up there after the breakup and met Everest a few years later. And he did the same thing: broke up with her when he met his fated mate.
“I didn’t know she’d had a child with Everest until only a few years ago. If I had, I certainly would have figured out a way to be involved in my grandson’s life. By the time that little secret came out, I was already cursed and couldn’t leave this place.”
The woman sighed. “When my daughter returned home after Everest jilted her, she begged me to teach her witchcraft. Said she wanted to embrace this side of her heritage. She didn’t like being a dragon, and she wanted to pretend that side of her didn’t exist.
“That’s what she told me, anyway. It wasn’t until after I taught her everything I could that I realized her intent was to seek revenge. And after she successfully cursed your entire colony, she became power hungry. Went back to New Orleans to get revenge on that poor kid who was the first to jilt her. I’m not sure the point at which she got involved in the drug trade, but it goes along with her constant need for dominance. If she’s always in control, her heart remains safe. Her words, not mine, by the way.”
“And she cursed you at some point?” Petra prompted.
“Oh, right. Yes. When I discovered she was dealing drugs—back when she was still a dealer, not yet the supplier—I tried to stop her. But she’d been practicing her magic and was just as powerful as me. I wasn’t expecting it. Next thing I knew, I was trapped here on this plantation, unable to leave and unable to perform even the most basic of spells.”
Petra looked around at the beautifully decorated home inside this dilapidated shack. “Then how—?”
The old lady chuckled. “The internet isn’t magic. This décor is courtesy of Amazon. And Dahlia’s credit card. Apparently, she doesn’t mind if I spend her money so long as I stay out of her business.”
Petra’s shoulders sagged. “So you can’t help us?”
“Afraid not. In fact, Argyle here is hoping you and your mate will help me, actually.”
“He’s not—” No point in arguing with the old witch. It didn’t matter anyway. “So Argyle is loyal to you instead of Del—er, Dahlia?”
“I protect from evil spirits,” Argyle answered for himself. “Delilah is evil. Ginger is not.”
“Thank you for taking care of my daughter,” Petra said.
“She’s beautiful,” Ginger said with a wistful smile. “And such a good baby.”
“How come Delilah brought her here to you?” Petra asked.
“It’s not the first time she’s brought me something or someone to watch over while she intimidates someone else. She knows how much I wish I could be a grandmother, and she refuses to ever have another baby, so this is how I get my fixes.” She stroked the baby’s downy head.
Wow. Delilah was a piece of work. And her single offspring, Gabe, had managed to become a decent person despite the two people who had created him. Maybe Petra should have given him more of a chance over the years.
Well, she couldn’t change the past, but she certainly could improve the future. Assuming, of course, they could get out of Delilah’s clutches tonight.
“Okay, so we need to keep from dying, and then convince your daughter to break the curse on you,” Petra summed up.
“Yep. And if you do that, I can break the curse on your colony.”
Chapter 10
Noah watched Petra rush away. No doubt she’d gone after Sadie and the old woman, leaving him to focus on the more pressing problem: a psycho witch who had a serious chip on her shoulder about dragons.
And she was half dragon, which made her chip pretty damn confounding.
“What’s your problem, anyway?” he asked, circling her yet giving her a wide berth. He nee
ded to distract her to keep her from lighting up the sky with all that damn magic. If one of his friends didn’t get hurt, surely a nearby human would notice and call the cops. And Noah was pretty sure this was private property, so they’d likely all be arrested for trespassing.
“You people won’t leave me the hell alone so I can do my own thing,” she said, dropping her arms so that she was no longer shooting spells at the dragons and gargoyles flying above their heads. The gargoyles, Noah noted, weren’t aggressive as long as they didn’t perceive an immediate threat to Delilah. Without her instigation, they simply flew in circles, not attacking the dragons but not letting them land, either.
“No,” Noah said. “I mean, why do you hate dragons so much?”
“Seriously?” She rolled her eyes. “Your species has such a massive hang-up about love, yet you’re such users. The whole lot of you.”
“I’m not following.”
She made an annoyed noise in her throat and then stabbed her thumb at her own chest. “Apparently, because I’m half witch, I don’t get to have a fated mate.”
Noah canted his head. “Gabe’s part witch and he has a fated mate.”
Delilah glanced up at the sky and then back to Noah. “Well, there goes that theory.”
And then she shook her head. “See? It’s even worse than I imagined. Even though it’s possible I have a fated mate out there somewhere, at this point, I’m convinced that person just doesn’t exist. Or maybe he’s dead already. Who knows? All I know is I’ve never been good enough for anyone I’ve ever dated. No matter what I gave them or promised them or did for them. Didn’t matter. Didn’t ever matter. As soon as Little Miss Fated Mate came along, each and every one ditched me. Including his father.” She pointed at the sky, where Gabe flew in circles above the three gargoyles. “I knew Everest was losing interest. That’s why I deliberately got pregnant. Thought he’d feel the need to be faithful once he knew I was carrying his child. But no-o-o, that stupid fated mate thing is too powerful.”
“So you’re mad at Gabe’s father for leaving you when you were pregnant, and you’re taking it out on all of dragonkind?”