by Kat Bastion
After a time, she expanded the particles outward, through the stone surfaces, and beyond.
A slow gasp escaped her lips.
Brigid’s eyes opened and she pegged him with an awestruck stare. “’Tis an incredible power, vaster than—” she stopped short.
Understood. They treaded lightly with words or thoughts and energy, to avoid manifesting that negative thing. “Likely the source of Merlin’s power. Why meet us on Earth-realm turf? He probably thinks he has some home-court advantage here.”
“Nay.” Brigid shook her head. “The source is elemental. Available to all.”
“Who have the ability.” Skorpius gave a slow nod, volleying the trap-baiting back to her.
“Weel, Merlin doesna know that.”
“Apparently not.”
A percussive surge of power detonated through the air.
The ground shook beneath their feet.
Dust rained down from the rock ceiling overhead, fissures splitting open from the stress of the sudden quake.
“’Tis inconsssssenqential,” a booming voice ricocheted through the cavern.
“’Bout time you showed.” Skorpius stretched his awareness outward, but detected nothing. “We were just discussing your downfall.”
“Yourssss…” The location of the voice shifted, ghostlike.
“Nah.” Skorpius shrugged, not bothering to track the wizard. “I just checked my schedule. Not my time yet.” Baiting? You bet.
“You’ll ssssee.” Additional sounds emerged as the source of the voice moved around them: gravel scraping, minute clicking. “The time for heroessss hassss passsssed.”
“So has lispssss,” Skorpius taunted.
Yet in spite of the calm Skorpius endeavored to embody, an ancient dark magick rippled through the cave, ruffling his feathers.
Skorpius shook the slight agitation off and exhaled his own brew of ancient and dark. A spark of his blackish blue energy ignited, then glowed around him. He arched his wings, readying to fly. “Your disembodied voice doesn’t spook us.”
Brigid’s golden magick began to draw back toward her, each glittering particle sharpening in vibration as its density increased. An instinctive protective shield.
Skorpius gave her an approving nod. His warrior could take care of herself.
Then he rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “Face it, old man. You’re has-been news.”
“Not in thissss form.”
A moving shape began to grow solid around them, cell by cell, piece by piece—gleaming metallic scale by metallic scale.
A claw the size of one of those Stonehenge sarsens took shape, attached to a reptilian foot the length of a bus.
Myriad clicks sounded as an enormous barbed tail manifested into existence and curved around them, gravel crunching and scraping as its weight dragged over the ground.
“Looks slow. Cumbersome.”
“Aye.” Brigid backed farther away from it as she scanned over the length of the legendary beast from its deadly tail up the hump of its back, as scale by scale, more of the creature revealed itself. “All the power you’ve drawn to sustain your form. ’Twill be your undoin’.”
“Basssslesssss,” the voice boomed. And an unearthly crimson illumination spread forth as the image revealed more and more: the glowing breadth of a chest, a thick serpentine neck, hooded eyes smoldering with ruby fire, an elongated snout tipped in smoking nostrils, sabered ivory teeth. “You’ve not yet sssseen all the glory of thissss form.”
Nope. And they didn’t need to.
If they were comparing physicality, the hollow bones in Skorpius’s wings made for nimble flight. He’d take that any day over being a creaky cumbersome giant. “Looks uncomfortable.”
Have you sensed the boy yet?
Nay, Brigid replied from afar. She’d moved along the perimeter, while Skorpius kept Merlin distracted.
“Feelssss invincible.”
Keep searching, he urged Brigid. They had only a small window before things got ugly.
Skorpius stared straight into the fiery eyes of the dragon. “Only a fool would think so.”
However, something disconcerting began to happen.
Brigid and Skorpius possessed an immeasurable amount of unique and powerful magick combined. Yet their energy started to swirl away from them—to coalesce around the creature.
And the power that clung to Merlin like a shadowy aura behaved far differently than most. Like each particle had become infinitesimal black holes, sucking every bit of the surrounding energy into themselves. The wizard had clearly tapped into some primordial source that Skorpius had no knowledge of.
Yet at the same moment of incongruity, a new ability manifested within Skorpius. He could directly detect the health of the timeline. And what threatened it. No tether required.
And he detected an enormous threat.
It felt as if a magnetic needle had formed within the well of his magick, pointing toward a threat, urgently seeking to strike it down.
And the targeting needle shot erratically back and forth.
Between Brigid and Merlin.
His timeline-protecting magick couldn’t decide the greater threat: goddess or wizard.
Brigid had never been the sole threat to time. Her developing magick had only ignited its possibility. And Merlin’s greed for power? Attracted him like a kamikaze moth to her newly fanned flame. The potentiality of their alliance—voluntary on Brigid’s part or not—proved the greatest threat. A reality that Skorpius and his magick existed to prevent. No matter the cost.
“Come to me, goddesssss.” The dragon’s ruby eyes glittered toward her, and a beam of the deep red particles burned a path through her golden energy, aiming to entrance her.
Brigid’s magick surged outward, but then lost traction when Merlin’s ruby beam blazed right through, a destroying flame to delicate snow.
Skorpius tensed to move, but found his entire being frozen in place.
Brigid appeared to be similarly immobilized.
Skorpius dug deep, finding faint sparks of his magick, but he lost his hold on amplifying the energy. What kind of foul magick did you find, wizard? Never had Skorpius encountered a power that could dampen angelfire.
Brigid’s muscles shook with effort. The golden shield she’d erected did the same, particles vibrating. “Nay. I’ll not go anywhere near you.”
“Oh, but you will.” Tendrils of heat swirled through the cave, snapping and sizzling every molecule of moisture in their wake. “For the ssssake of thosssse you love, you will.”
A low growl reverberated out. From Brigid. “Nay! Doona dare be threatin’ my people.”
“Your people? Imagine the power for them. What would you do to enssssure they never starve?” The dragon taunted.
Brigid’s magick swelled, flooding the cavern with glowing light. But she didn’t move toward the beast. And neither did her newfound magick.
Instead, with deep breaths, she began to calm.
Skorpius did the same, drew within, grounded himself into the origin of his magick. And his angelfire magick flared bright, growing in mass as his composed focus fanned its flame.
Merlin’s beady dragon eyes flashed at the denial. “The child will serve well in your sssstead!”
Now! Skorpius broke free of the foreign enchantment, then blasted magick into Brigid as he launched into flight.
Found him! With a powerful blast of her own, Brigid broke free of her stasis. At the same instant that the dragon blazed an unearthly stream of fire at her.
An instant later, nothing remained on that stone floor but a scorch mark.
Brigid?
A muted energy vibrated back toward him. Not anything that translated with meaning. But Brigid’s energy signature all the same.
Stay alive. They hadn’t discussed any plan. Hadn’t made contingencies if they got separated.
Because threat to time or not, he and Brigid needed to figure that next part out together. After the battle. Survive!
The instant Merlin had given thought to the stolen child, Brigid had arrowed a pulse of magick on to that image and captured the boy’s location straight from his mind.
But she’d also had to fortify her essence, protect the part of her within her magick.
For the hungry turmoil inside the sorcerer’s brain had roiled like a ragin’ thunderstorm, hellish and destructive.
Then her energy had shot back from the dragon on the fiery flame it had surged forth. Brigid’s awareness had ridden the dragon’s fire as it had blasted over her fragile body.
Heat like none she’d ever imagined scoured at her essence.
And then she’d disappeared.
Chillin’ blackness pressed in, suffocatin’.
Till her inner flame of magick reignited. And her golden glow filled a stone cavity no wider than a trestle table. With her layin’ prone on its hard surface.
She pushed into a seated position, but still had to duck her head to keep from knockin’ it against the low ceilin’.
Brigid then radiated some energy outward, similar to when she’d constructed her shield, to analyze where she’d gone.
Och! The clever Merlin had buried the boy into a tight chamber within the solid stone of the earth. No air moved in the space. The only water was scant condensation on the cold hard surface. Light ceased to exist in the sealed tomb.
A sudden faint whimper sounded low and to her right.
When she turned, she caught sight of a huddled form.
Brigid flared a probe of magick over him and pushed over to his side.
The poor lad had his head dropped between bent legs. Despair emanated from his soul. The pulse of his frail body had grown thready. Robert was wet, filthy, and wracked with shivers.
When he tried to lift his head, she had to touch a finger under his chin to help lift the weight. But that one small touch of his skin set her fingertip afire. The lad burned with fever. An unseeing gaze stared through her.
“Doona worry, Robert. You’re safe.” As can be.
And through that single touch to his chin and a burst of her magick, she transported him the only place she knew where Merlin could never reach him.
The total darkness of the tomb flashed into the bright whiteness of another realm.
And a crystalline tree house enveloped them, with latticework walls made of mist and the air vibratin’ with the hopes of two other wee ones.
But Brigid dinna search for the others. She couldna stay.
Instead, she infused the feverish boy with a powerful healin’ dose of her magick, eased him onto soft ivory pillows that she’d manifested for him, then called out into the ether. Cass?
Brigid.
The children have a surprise waitin’ in their tree house. She shot the angel an image of the slumbering lad. I must go.
Understood. Well done.
Brigid transported back into the cavern, but she’d intentionally positioned her return into a cramped low-ceilinged corner, a goodly distance from where the dragon had been located.
The instant she materialized, she powered down her energy. She sought the calmness of her loch while stokin’ the inner flame of her magick to prepare.
And with all she had, she focused to calm herself. Kept up her strength. While she searched the cavern for Skorpius.
Glossy black wings soared overhead, then dove low. Skorpius flashed a burst of soothin’ magick toward her. Stay right where you are. Promise me.
Aye. Brigid dinna understand why she couldna help, but refused to ask and distract him. For she dinna wish to cause Skorpius harm. I promise.
The enormous dragon slithered and curved through the massive cavern. Hints of movement flashed. The gleam of articulatin’ scales appeared. Then disappeared.
Skorpius banked along the curve of the cavern, swung around as he arced high, and burst out a massive amount of energy. Then a bluish black ball of fire—the size of a cottage—blasted forth from his chest, roared through the cavern, and detonated along the spined back of the mighty beast.
The dragon never stopped his movements, appeared wholly unfazed.
However, Skorpius’s wings flapped in slower rhythm as he circled about. His energy appeared to be fadin’.
Glee sparked in the dragon’s ruby eyes. “Your magick is waning, angel. My form issss ssssuperior.”
“Go ahead and think that, wizard.”
Skorpius! Allow me to assist.
No! Stay where you are. He swung around, wingbeats draggin’ as he tried to gain altitude. Trust me. A great amount of energy began to vibrate from him as he neared the cavern’s peak then banked once again. No matter what happens.
Brigid swallowed hard, not likin’ the dire sound of that. In any manner. On a shaky exhale, she sought the soothin’ calm of her inner loch. I trust you. Whole truth. All she could offer.
Skorpius folded his wings back, anglin’ down toward the dragon, then dove straight for him. A vibratin’ energy burst forth from his body in a bright flare of blue light. And as his winged body descended alongside the dragon, an incredible ball of his blue fire exploded against the belly of the beast.
Brigid snapped her eyes shut from the blindin’ glare.
But she reached out with her magick, attemptin’ to sense what happened.
Skorpius landed on both feet, but stumbled forward, barely remainin’ upright. He shook his head, then wobbled to the side. He appeared dazed. Weakened.
From behind Skorpius’s strugglin’ form, the dragon rose. Up and up the mighty beast stretched, great chest expandin’ as it drew in breath.
Brigid opened her eyes and lunged from the space where she’d promised to remain. Skorpius! He couldna mean to ask her to stand by and watch him suffer. Surely, that hadn’t been what he’d meant.
Those sparkin’ blue-green eyes locked on to hers. “It must be done.” He exhaled, shoulders slumpin’. “To save time.” His wings drooped, the primary feathers crumplin’ against the stone floor. “To protect them all.”
A great wind funneled toward the inhalin’ beast. Red-hot fire glowed from within its swellin’ chest.
Skorpius swallowed hard, then pinched his eyes shut. Know that I love you, goddess mine. Sacrifice. To protect them. Above all.
Heart breakin’, Brigid closed her eyes. Know that I love you, angel mine. Always. Forever.
The roar of flame was deafenin’.
The fire of a thousand suns blasted across her senses, even with the shield of her magick.
A cloud of chokin’ smoke besieged her, burnin’ her lungs, nose, and eyes.
Cold darkness then prevailed.
An eerie silence reigned.
The cloud began to dissipate with her tormented exhalation.
Unable to stop herself, Brigid rushed forward. Anguish burned hot in her heart as she stopped short of a pile of ash on the stone floor.
The dragon loomed over her, delight vibratin’ in the air. “Victorioussss.”
Brigid snapped out her magick into a multilayered shield to protect her, her magick, and what remained of Skorpius.
“Nay!” She crumpled to the ground where her bonnie angel had stood mere seconds ago. “Nay!” An achin’ cramp choked at her throat. Agony burned in her breast.
Tears fell freely as she mourned the instant loss.
Sacrifice? The devastatin’ pain was too great. They hadn’t enough time.
I doona understand! She dropped her head into her hands and sobbed, stricken by her emotions.
“Oh, yessss.” Merlin slithered around her, pennin’ her in. “You ssssaved the child. Your lover fought valiantly for you. A true knight of old.”
Brigid blocked the vile creature out. Extended her magick outward, searchin’ for some sign.
The oily essence of the hunter seeped over her senses, coated her golden light with a sticky putrescence. “Submit, fair goddesssss. You, and your delicioussss magick, are now mine.”
“Nay!” Utterly destroyed at the finality
of it all, Brigid allowed fury overtake her. “Never! You will never attain me. Never my magick.”
Tears streamin’ down her face, she stoked the great well of magick within her.
Then she punched all of her power straight into the ground.
White hot, golden flamin’ energy blasted out. And kept blastin’.
Silvery tears with salty sparks of magick flowed into the energy stream, flashin’ and sizzlin’.
On and on, Brigid blasted all she had, everra last particle.
When the last of it flowed out, when all that remained in her loch was cold emptiness, she collapsed onto Skorpius’s ash.
Tears continued to stream down her face.
But her magick? Ceased to exist. She’d willed it straight into the earth.
At the distant reaches of her awareness, Brigid thought she’d heard a dragon scream.
But no energy remained within her. Her power had been fully expended.
And barely able to draw breath, Brigid closed her eyes and waited to die. She dinna struggle, simply drifted downward. She wished to join her Skorpius in the afterlife, wherever he’d gone.
Into a strange place, she floated.
Time slowed.
Elements expanded.
Tiny embers of magick sparked within her fallin’ tears as they dropped into the ash, one by one.
Power on a subatomic level began to gather.
Vibrations rippled forth.
At first, the slightest quiver.
Then a greater tremor.
Soon dust danced across the stone.
Brigid gasped as an odd surge of energy shocked over her senses.
The dragon reared back, beady eyes narrowin’ at her.
Particles of ash floated up and began to swirl about.
Brigid backed away, wishin’ and hopin’. Skorpius! she willed toward the strange outburst of energy. Come back to me. Finish this battle with me!
A great quake followed. The entire cavern bucked and moaned from the pressure of it.
All of a sudden, the pile of ash ignited into a roarin’ fire of magick. Flames of darkest midnight, brightest white, brilliant gold, burnished orange, and fiery scarlet licked higher and higher.