“Do what? Save your asses?”
“Be so damned selfish! You think running off will save us? What happens when you die, huh? Did you think of that?” I raged stalking toward her. “Did you think of the pain we would have to endure, the suffering that would fall on us without you in our lives?”
“At least you’d be alive.”
“That’s not the point!” I stalked closer, and she moved back, so we were circling the workbench. “You cannot just take off and try to save the world on your own. We won’t let you.”
“Oh, so now I have to ask your permission to do anything?” she shot back and jabbed me hard enough in the chest to make me wince.
“That’s not what I said.”
“Sure as hell sounded like it!” She shoved me harder this time, forcing me backward. “I’m trying to save your lives. Why can’t you see that?”
“We are meant to do this together, the three of us. It’s why our souls found each other again.”
“Or maybe they’re trying to tell us something,” she argued. “Maybe the Vindicar is meant to do this alone. I’m the savior, I’m the only one… the only one who’s going to die at the end of this mess, do you hear me? I won’t let you do it.” Tears streamed down her cheeks as she shoved me again, but the strength had gone out of her.
Weakly, she pounded her fists against my chest until I wrapped my arms around her tightly, holding her as hard as I could.
We sank to the ground, and I let her cry on my chest, soothing her the best I could.
I knew since the ruins something had been bothering her, but everything happened so fast there’d been no time to talk about it.
“We don’t know what that mural meant,” I whispered when she started to calm down. “We never saw the final image, and we don’t even have the whole prophecy.”
“Doesn’t matter. Something keeps telling me I’m going to die one way or the other.”
“No, you’re not,” I stated firmly and lifted her face so I could stare into her eyes. “You are not going to die, do you hear me?”
“We might not have a choice.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean what if the Vindicar has to sacrifice herself to save the world? You’ll have to let me go, just like you did back then.”
I swallowed hard at the pain building in me, remembering how it nearly killed Broden to watch her leave. “It won’t be like that, not this time around.”
“I don’t want you there to see it, when my time comes.” The words sounded forced, and she shook as she said them.
I held her closer, not willing to think of how this might end for us all, not yet at least.
She bit her lip. “And you have to accept you might not be able to save me.”
I shut my eyes hard, willing to see a vision of a bright future. But whatever triggered the visions last night refused to aid me now. Instead, I remembered the bloodied and broken faces of her and Forrest, taunting me for failing them again. I saw Boshen burning and people dying all around me.
“No, we’re not there yet, love. When the time comes, we’ll talk about this again,” I told her, “but until then, we are not discussing how this ends.”
“Craig,” she started, but I shook my head.
“No. All that’s going to do is distract us. We need to find the sorcerers and see what they know. We’ll get better answers from them, than those old crones inside.”
She grinned up at me. “Don’t let Mama Lucy hear you say that.”
“Not scared of her, not anymore,” I murmured as I stared into those green eyes. “But I am terrified of losing you and Forrest, believe it or not.”
“I believe it.”
We sat there, just staring into each other’s eyes.
I wished we could remain there, safe in the greenhouse, out of sight of the rest of the world and the dangers closing in around us. But we were the chosen three, the heroes meant to save the world.
I lowered my lips to hers for a kiss that ended far too soon.
If we stayed out here too much longer, Lucy might come looking for us, and I wasn’t sure how she’d feel about Kate and I using her greenhouse for stealing kisses.
She clung to me a moment longer before we both stood, brushing the dirt from our pants.
“No running off on your own,” I said again when we paused near the back door of the house. “Swear it?”
She gave my hand a squeeze and stood on her toes to kiss my cheek. “Swear it.”
I heard the words, felt the sincerity in them, but when she quickly glanced away, I knew she was full of shit.
Kate was planning something, and I hated to think of how much danger she was about to put herself in.
20
Kate
I tried not to look at Craig once we were back inside, and I avoided thinking of anything having to do with what happened out in the greenhouse.
Forrest was talking to Mama Lucy and Abby, but stopped when he saw us, and waved us over.
“We have a location for the sorcerers,” he told us excitedly. “We can head out as soon as tomorrow.”
“That soon?”
“The sooner we find them, the sooner we can get some answers and track down the rest of the shield pieces,” Forrest explained, frowning. “I thought you’d be happy.”
I smiled, and mentally scolded myself. I’m supposed to be happy, not thinking of my impending doom and the deaths of those around me if I wasn’t careful. “Yeah, no, of course I’m happy.”
“Good. We’ll be using another portal to get to this other dimension,” he told us. “It’ll get us there and then all we have to do is go ring the bell. Hopefully, with any luck, they’ll speak to us, and we can find out what they know, or if Malcolm left anything with them for the new Vindicar.”
Craig grunted, and I swore I heard him mutter something about risking the mission by being there, but he said nothing to us about staying behind.
“Good, and we don’t need to give them anything?”
“No. The second they find out who you are, they should be more than willing to help,” Mama Lucy sighed. “If not, give them this coin.” She took my hand and rested a heavy piece of gold and silver in it.
I frowned as I stared at it. “Is there supposed to be something on it?”
“Yes, but only they can see it. Don’t worry about what it says.” Abby was still sitting in the same chair, and she patted my hand warmly. “It’s just a message from one friend to another.”
“Friend? You’re friends with those old bastards?” Craig growled.
“As a matter of fact I am,” she huffed. “They didn’t always used to be so stuck up. There was a time when they were as much a part of society as the dragons were, but then things changed.”
“What happened?” I asked curiously, as Abby’s eyes took on a faraway look.
I expected her to talk about some war or other that decimated the sorcerers’ numbers and forced them to hide away from the world. Or the plague even, maybe it had affected them, too and that’s why they put themselves in a dimension it couldn’t reach. What came out of her mouth next, though was not even close to what I’d been thinking.
“Once, a long time ago, I was quite the looker you know,” she started, and I smiled as Mama Lucy rolled her eyes. “Don’t start with me, Lucy, you know exactly what happened back then.”
“I know you stole the hearts of two sorcerers, brothers, vying for power, and if I recall you nearly brought down their entire brotherhood because of the feud that was started because you couldn’t decide which one you liked more.”
“Seriously?” Craig muttered.
“You have to understand, Abby was once the sole leader of the largest coven on this side of the world,” Mama Lucy went on. “Winning her hand would’ve meant immense power for the victor.”
“I couldn’t choose. They were both so ruggedly handsome,” she sighed. “And quite gifted.”
“So you drove them to create their own
dimension?” I asked confused.
“Not me all by myself, the other sorcerers did in order to steal away the temptation for any of the others to fall for a witch who caused too many problems.”
“And the brothers?” I asked through my quiet laughter.
“Well, they wouldn’t stop following me around like puppy dogs, especially after I finally decided I was better off on my own. So,” she said with a mischievous grin, “I turned them into dogs.”
“Wait, you!” Mama Lucy exclaimed, and then rushed off without further explanation.
Abby frowned. “Is she alright?”
“I’m not sure,” I said slowly until I heard the clicking of dog nails on the hardwood floor. “Harry. She’s bringing you, Harry.”
“Harry?” Abby peered around me as Mama Lucy returned with Harry at her side. “Greyson?”
“Not Harry?”
“What?” she asked me curiously. “No, that’s Greyson. You’re still a dog after all these years? Good gods man, did you forget to use your magic while you were biting your arse for fleas?”
I couldn’t hold it back this time and burst out laughing as Harry growled at her before plopping his furry butt down and staring at her intently. Mama Lucy glanced from Abby to the dog and seemed to be waiting for something.
“Abby? Will you just do the man a favor and turn him back.”
She crossed her arms and glanced away. “Not sure why I should. Damned fool could’ve turned himself back years ago if he’d been so inclined.”
“Are you sure about that because it’s been several hundred years.”
“Why yes, I made perfectly clear when I did the transformation spell that all they had to do was find the right ingredients to eat and they’d be fine.”
“Right, and you told them what they were, right?”
Abby opened her mouth, but then clamped it shut when Harry barked.
“Oh, you know, I might have been so annoyed at that point I forgot.”
Harry groaned in agreement and bared his teeth.
“Stop your whining, already. I’ll turn you back. Just hold on one moment. Lucy, would you be a dear and fetch me what I need?”
I glanced from Greyson—not Harry—back to Abby, observing the stare-down they gave each other. I was enjoying this little respite from so much talk about finding the shield and saving the world.
Watching Abby be confronted with a man who was essentially her long-lost lover was just what I needed to help make the smile on my face more real.
Mama Lucy returned a few moments later and handed over a bowl of hot tea.
Abby held her hand over it, whispering words under her breath before she set the bowl on the floor.
“There, drink up, and you’ll be good as new.”
Greyson lapped up the entire bowl of tea. He let out a loud burp when he was finished, and a dark purple haze surrounded his body.
It rose higher and higher, and a groaning of a man came from within the haze.
I spied two arms stretching high over the man’s head, and when the haze fell, an older man with dark skin, stark white beard and hair, dressed in navy blue robes stood before us.
His eyes were narrowed on Abby as she smiled back at him. He tapped his bare foot on the floor as the tension continued to grow between the two.
“Oh alright, I’m sorry I turned you into a dog. Happy?”
“Happy? Happy! You’re lucky your entire coven is here, or I’d be paying you back in kind, dreadful witch,” he grunted, but I swore I saw his lips twitch in a smile.
He turned around until he faced the three of us.
“You, boy, there was a reason I was drawn to you. You met with my brothers, yes?”
“Wait, I thought Lucy said you were a warlock?” Craig asked as he glanced past Greyson and frowned at Mama Lucy.
“Sorry, my mistake.”
“Doesn’t matter, what does matter is I will take you to them since you wound up bringing me my salvation… and potentially my revenge,” he added the last thrown over his shoulder at Abby. “I will take you to my brothers.”
“And they’ll talk to us? Tell us what we need to know?” I asked eagerly.
“They will, though they may not answer to him so well.” He jabbed his finger at Craig. “I would be more upset, but you’re the reason I no longer have to piss outside.”
“Well,” Mama Lucy said, as Greyson went to apparently go find the bathroom, “this day turned out better than I expected, I think. At least you three have a guide now, and with another sorcerer taking you along, they will let you inside.”
“Yeah, but will they let us leave?” Craig mused.
“As I said, if you get into any trouble, show them the coin.” Abby patted my arm to remind me.
I nodded. “Right, well then, I guess I’ll get some things packed up and make sure I enjoy one final night of a bed.”
“You shouldn’t be gone for more than a day,” Mama Lucy assured me. “Unless something goes wrong, there’s no reason for you to be gone longer than that.”
Crap, course not. “Well, you know things with us tend to go wrong, so I’m at least going to throw some things together in a bag, just in case. I’ll be upstairs if anyone needs me.”
I hurried up and out of sight, needing a few moments alone to gather my thoughts and find a way to block Forrest from sensing what I was feeling.
There was too much at stake now, and I was not willing to risk their lives, not if I could find a way to prevent it. We’d go talk to the sorcerers, but after that our plan was going to change drastically.
I would already have everything I needed.
The hardest part would be finding a way to go through with my plan.
And hope one day they could forgive me for it.
21
Forrest
“She’s planning something,” Craig told me later that night once we turned in.
“She can’t be. She wouldn’t,” I argued, but even thinking back Kate’s behavior throughout the evening, I knew he was right. “What did you two talk about out in the greenhouse?”
“What, you don’t know?” he shot back, lightly tapping his fist against the wall by his bed as he lay there, glaring at the ceiling. “I thought that was part of your gift. Knowing what was going on with us at all times.”
I leaned against the wall on my side of the room, staring out the window and watching the stars appear. “Empath, not psychic. I felt some tension, but then I tuned you both out the best I could.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means there were some highly explosive emotions going on out there, anger, fear. Hard to block everything out.” I shrugged. “I don’t want to know what you two are feeling all the time. Gets confusing.”
Silence fell between us, minus the dull thudding of his fist against the wall. Today had been helpful in at least giving us a chance to find these sorcerers and learn what they know.
Greyson assured us if he didn’t know it, another brother amongst his order would. There were several who were old enough to remember back to those times, not that I could imagine someone that old.
Dragons could live to be a thousand if they were lucky, but it was rare. Demons a few hundred years less. But nearly two thousand years old? It sounded impossible, along with everything else we’d found on this journey so far. Impossible and yet somehow it worked in our favor.
Greyson assured us the full cooperation of the sorcerers, but we left out the bit about Craig stealing the sword from them, as well as the piece of shield. They might not be as lenient with information if any of them remembered him.
“You really think she’d plan something?” I asked, unable to push it from my mind. “What would she even try to do on her own?”
His head rolled, so his eyes met mine. “What do you think?”
I shook my head confused, until a horrible thought crossed my mind. “No, no she wouldn’t! She’d get herself killed if she ran off on her own.”
“I told
her that, but she’s more worried about getting us killed.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Exactly what I told her.” He growled under his breath as he sat up and mirrored my sitting position. “We’ll have to keep an eye on her while we’re gone from the house, and not let her have the coin that’s going to transport us there.”
“I’d say we should keep everything from her, but I feel better when she’s lugging around that damned sword,” I muttered.
The idea of Kate trying to face down whatever this was on her own scared the hell out of me. We were meant to do this together and to look out for one another. All she’d manage to do on her own would be to get herself injured, or killed, or worse. What if she was captured by Allis? Or this mysterious master he claimed to work for? The scenarios continued to build in my mind until it was all I could think about.
“Any chance you can see how this is going to turn out tomorrow?”
Craig hung his head. “Beat you to it, and no. Nothing came up. I’m not sure what triggered the visions in the first place. I was just ranting to Lucy, and then they were there.”
“Ranting about…”
His jaw clenched, and he closed his eyes.
I thought I pushed him too far and was going to let it go, but then he started talking.
“Back then and now, I’m the one who’s supposed to take the hard hits for you both. I’m the one meant to protect her and you, and if I can’t, we all fail.”
Without even trying, I felt the fear of failure flowing out of him, but could think of nothing to say to make him feel any better.
“I failed once; what’s not to say I fail again? I can’t watch her die, or you for that matter.”
“This time is different.”
“How? Kate said it herself, we’ve had no time to prepare, we’re missing at least half the information we need to have a chance of beating this back, and we have no clue what the rest of the prophecy states.”
He acted as if we were already defeated as he flopped back down on his bed.
Legends (Dragon Reign Book 3) Page 11