Magic Blaze: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Shifting Magic Book 3)

by Catherine Vale

  “Marie!”

  “Daddy!”

  “Stop!” I shouted, raising my hands when the fae started to twist the little girl’s head sharply to one side. “Stop. Here…”

  I looked to Darius, then Aden, then back to my dragon. What choice did I have?

  As if hearing my thought, Darius shook his head, his response clear. I had no other choice. Keep the artifact, kill Marie. Give Jasmine the artifact, risk the clan.

  “We’ll stop her, Kaye,” Darius growled. “Just hand it over.”

  Destruction, Kaye. Destruction.

  I swallowed hard. My inner voice didn’t sound as though she approved, but I didn’t care. I could never risk a child’s life; Marie was innocent in all this.

  So, I fished the second artifact out of my bra, then marched to Jasmine with stiff legs.

  “Give me Marie.”

  “No.” She grinned. “Artifact first, then you can have your half-breed back.”

  I hesitated, then thrust the artifact toward her when she started to twist Marie’s head again, dragging a strangled whimper from the girl. Eyes alight with cruelty, Jasmine plucked the artifact from my hand—then disappeared with another little pop, taking Marie with her.

  Aden’s cry thundered across the landscape.

  Chapter 16

  “Aden, I’m so sorry.” I crouched before the fallen djinn, two seconds away from snapping my fingers in front of his deadened stare if it meant getting some sign of life out of him. After his anguished wail when Jasmine stole Marie for the second time, he had practically become comatose. While I didn’t particularly enjoy his snark, the nothingness in his expression bothered me more. “Aden? We’re going to get her back. We’re not going to let Jasmine hurt her.”

  “I’m going to kill her,” he croaked, and I sat back on my heels with a soft sigh.

  “I know.”

  “It’s our only option,” Darius said, towering over the both of us. “She’s beyond redemption.”

  “I’m not sure how we’re going to do it when we endowed her with some insane hybrid-magical protection,” I muttered. My hand fell to Aden’s shoulder, giving him a small shake. “But we’ll figure it out. This isn’t the first time the odds have been stacked against us.”

  “You two go.” He shrugged my hand off and stood, the navy-blue fog of his true self crawling up his neck, as though he couldn’t be bothered to hide it anymore. His hands radiated with power, pulsing, surrounded by fog, and I shuffled out of the way, not wanting to get caught in a crossfire when he stalked by me. About ten steps away, he paused, barely looking back at us over his shoulder. “Go to your clan. Her armies will likely be there by now. They’ll need you. I will find Jasmine.”

  “Aden, we can do it together—”

  “I will do it alone.” He turned and tossed the protection artifact to me. “Protect your people. If you see Marie…”

  “I won’t let her out of my sight,” I promised—and it was a promise I intended to keep. As Aden disappeared into thin air, leaving a rush of swirling blue-black smoke in his wake, I vowed that if I found Jasmine and Marie first, I wouldn’t let either of them get away this time. I gripped the protection artifact tightly; first thing’s first, however, was casting this thing over the Sanctius clan, the Brisbane dragons, and Zayne’s militia. We had a tool to protect them now. I would never forgive myself if we were too late to actually use it.

  “This is a clusterfuck,” Darius said with a sigh. When I faced him, I noticed the way his lips twitched into a little half-smile. I raised an eyebrow, confused as to why he might be smiling at a time like this, and he shrugged. “We seem to do our best work knee-deep in clusterfuck territory. Why should today be any different?”

  I swallowed hard and slipped the protection artifact in my pocket. “I hope you’re right.”

  “It’s been known to happen.”

  We stared at one another for a moment, the last moment of peace we’d have until all this was over, and ended it with the kind of kiss I’d remember when I was old and gray. The kind that stole my breath away, that made my toes curl—that roused my inner beast to life, hungry for more.

  That kiss was all we had, and we both knew it. As we tore ourselves apart, I turned away to catch my breath, to steel my nerves. When I was ready, I took Darius’s sloppily folded clothing and stepped back as he shifted. Something in me stirred at the sight of his dragon form, at the sunset-hue scales and the dangerous black spikes along his spine. Seeing him in dragon form was always impressive, always stirring, but this time it was different.

  This time, the skittering feeling beneath my skin returned, the kind I had felt when I first watched my father and siblings take flight—the sensation of my innards moving. Adrenaline pounded through me, but it had to take a backburner. There was no time to revel in the sensation. No time to savor it, to explore it. We had to go.

  The fate of hundreds of lives depended on us.

  So, I climbed onto his back and prayed that we would live to see tomorrow morning.

  Just as Darius had guessed, Jasmine’s camp had only been about an hour away from the Sanctius clan’s mountain range. My best guess as to why our scouts hadn’t noticed them before was that a powerful ward had been cast around the camp in its entirety, and once they left, Jasmine lowered it to allow Aden and I to enter and see the remains of what had been right under our noses the entire time. It seemed like something petty enough for Jasmine to do.

  Unfortunately, just as Aden had guessed, by the time we returned, a battle was fully underway. We had spotted the blackness, tinged with bright pops of magical color, hovering over the range as we approached, and when we were near enough to take it all in, this battle was just as grisly as the last. Dragons swarmed the air, a few with riders on their backs, but there were hundreds and hundreds of gargoyles clogging up the skies, latching onto any of our allies with wings and tearing them apart. As Darius and I joined the fray, I blasted as many as I could, while my dragon melted dozens to a crisp with his ferocious alpha flame. Purple fire cut clear pathways across the airways, giving room for other smaller winged creatures to have a go at a few gargoyles themselves.

  Witches on broomsticks buzzed around too, but unlike Abramelin’s army, Jasmine’s air force was primarily gargoyles. I imagined fewer sinister creatures were willing to join her horde after her uncle’s defeat. Not only did Zayne have them on the run for the last few weeks, but Jasmine was no Abramelin. Still, gargoyles were a fearsome foe to combat, with their stone bodies blotting out the sun, their reanimated figures hell-bent on following their programming—courtesy of Jasmine’s loathsome mind, no doubt.

  Below, our ground troops clashed with Jasmine’s armies of demons, dark elves, goblins, and other hellish beasts at the foot of the mountains. The fighting carried on up through the village. Halls smoldered. Open fires raged, gobbling up the dry grasses and underbrush of late summer. The sight of all those dark things invading the Sanctius clan—it stoked the fire burning in my belly, the fight within. Like an unwelcome visitor darkening my door, I hated the sight of all those foul creatures even being remotely near the Sanctius village.

  The only creatures we could count on not being there were vampires, given that it wasn’t even noon yet, but if the battle lasted into the night, there was no telling what other devils she had waiting in the wings. I hurled a hex and knocked out two gargoyles latched onto one of Darius’s clawed feet, my mouth set in a thin line. There was no way in hell we were letting this last until the night.

  We had to find a way to stop it before then. As I surveyed the battles below, I had to steel my heart to the sight. Bodies lay strewn about; too many had already died.

  “We have to find Jasmine!” I shouted, blasting another gargoyle who had a winged-fae in a headlock. The creature disintegrated as soon as my hex hit, and the fae shot us both a thumbs up before regrouping with another cluster of flying allies.

  Darius’s low growl suggested he agreed, and he veered sharply to the lef
t, drawing away from the main site of aerial combat. The distance gave us a better vantage point, allowing us to see the battles above and below with more clarity. Although, in theory, Jasmine could be anywhere, I assumed she would come here. After all, she had the destruction artifact and a hybrid. It wouldn’t take long to charge it and do serious damage to the people I held most dear.

  In the distance, I caught a flash of familiar navy scales, and my enhanced sight honed in on Quinn in dragon form, his own powerful flame holding the gargoyles back as Catriona, seated on his back without a saddle, hurled curse after curse, hex after hex, at every enemy within sight. I blinked back my surprise, taking in her battle armor, her braided white-blonde hair. In that moment, she reminded me of a mythical Valkyrie—and I immediately decided it was an apt comparison.

  My vision swam as I watched her, tears of pride, fear, and love trickling through. Sniffing, I wiped a thumb under each eye. Now was no time for tears.

  Focus, Kaye.

  “I am,” I snapped, glaring up at my forehead before returning my enhanced sight to the battlefield. Now, Jasmine likely wouldn’t be down with her troops. Last time she barely went near the actual fighting, steering clear of it in order to sucker-punch me. She would need somewhere relatively clear to fuel the artifact… I turned my attention to the peaks of the mountains, until I finally spotted her—and Marie, much to my immediate relief. “There!”

  Darius swooped low without hesitation, dodging a few wayward blasts of magic as we sailed toward Jasmine and Marie. He angled his wings for braking, slowing our speed until we collided hard with the mountaintop, landing close to the alpha’s hall—with its secret doorway into the belly of the range, where clan innocents lay hidden. It didn’t surprise me one bit that Jasmine would try to make her last stand there, as if she could stroll right in and sit on Darius’s alpha throne while her minions died for her below. Yeah. Not happening.

  She sneered at us, though didn’t seem surprised that we had tracked her down. Instead, she continued to shove Marie’s bloody hand against the destruction artifact, fueling it with hybrid blood. We didn’t have much time, and I sprang to action immediately. My first move: protect Marie. Reopening the cut on my finger, I pressed the bleeding digit against the protection artifact in my pocket, then slid off Darius’s back as he roared at Jasmine. In the distance, our dragon allies roared back, the battle cry rousing the ground troops too, who responded with shouts of their own.

  “Pathetic,” Jasmine spat. Marie’s pale body lay limply at her feet, her head bowed. There was no telling how long Jasmine had been bleeding her dry, but it stopped now.

  Although I wasn’t completely sure how to activate the artifact, I infused it with my white magic, noting the way the little pockets had already filled somewhat with my blood, then pointed it at Marie and fired. A burst of white light cracked across the distance between us, slamming into the poor girl and knocking Jasmine to the ground. Seizing the opportunity to get Marie out of there, I darted forward with a burst of fae speed, scooped her limp, little body off the ground, then raced back to Darius’s side. I set Marie between his two front feet, noting that the protection of the artifact had sealed the gaping wound across her palm.

  “You can’t have her,” I shouted at Jasmine as the fae staggered to her feet, her face twisted with rage. “She’s protected now.”

  “I’d rather bleed you anyway, mongrel,” she sneered back, her hair a mess—something that, in that moment, brought me more satisfaction than it should have. Beside me, I heard Darius’s form shift from dragon to human, and I soon found him kneeling beside Marie, two fingers over her pulse, brow knitted. Across the way, I felt Jasmine drawing her power to her hands, both the artifact and her person primed for an attack. As my finger bled over the protection artifact, I mirrored her flow of magic, calling whatever white magic I had within the depths of my being to the forefront. Her lips twitched when our eyes met. “You think I’d kill the creature? Her blood makes the artifact work.”

  “There’s a pulse,” Darius said, almost begrudgingly, “but it’s faint. Steady enough for now, but I’m worried we’re losing her.”

  Foul… loathsome woman. Bleeding a child. My inner voice agreed, her disgust evident in the adrenaline pounding through my body, preparing me for confrontation.

  “Kaye, use the protection on yourself,” Darius urged. “You know she’s gunning for you—”

  I threw up a white magic shield as two blasts of magic hurtled toward us. The red and orange streaks of light hammered into my shield, the force behind them knocking me back a few paces. It was clear, however, that these curses weren’t meant for me. They were aimed at Darius. Soon she would come after me, but not before butchering good shifters and supernaturals in the battle below. Her forces were deluded enough to follow her maniacal plan.

  So, I didn’t use the protection artifact for myself. I had fought Jasmine before. She might have learned a thing or two from her uncle, but she certainly didn’t scare me. The people fighting below, the people dragged into this war because some bitch fae had a grudge against me and Darius—they were the ones who deserved the ancient hybrid’s magic protection the most.

  While still maintaining my conjured shield as best I could in front of Darius and Marie, I extended the artifact’s protection down to our forces fighting below. I willed the surge of white light, moving like an unstoppable whitewater flood, rushing down through the village, envisioning its protection extending solely to the forces of good, then pushed it out to the skirmishes at the foot of the mountain. The magic took its toll on me—fast. So much power, so many people to save… Spots danced in front of my eyes, the kind that came just before a blackout, and I tried to blink them away. The artifact had limits, surely, and I noted the bulges shrinking around the onyx stone, needing more and more of my blood to fuel its power.

  In my moment of weakness, I dropped the shield protecting Marie and Darius, but just as Jasmine geared up to take advantage of the situation, my dragon shifted.

  His roar rattled the mountaintop, and as I continued to extend coverage to those who needed it most, Darius’s enormous figure positioned himself directly between Jasmine and me. His wings flared, shielding Marie too, and his second roar sounded more like he was baiting our adversary, daring her to give it her best shot. My inner voice whimpered, a sentiment I shared. My dragon was strong, but Jasmine’s magic was stronger.

  “Darius!” My eyes widened as she pointed the destruction artifact squarely at Darius, and before I had the chance to summon more protection, he shot upward, the blast of wind from his huge wings knocking me back. I hit the ground hard, the protection artifact falling from my grasp. A strangled cry clawed its way up my throat when Jasmine fired, a surge of orange-yellow light emanating from her palm, gathering its strength, before blasting toward my dragon.

  White and orange. A vision flashed across my mind’s eye: it was just like the hybrid in that painting, standing between two battling armies, a white shield and an orange staff in hand. She wielded them both—but to what end?

  The orange missed Darius, skimming over his shoulder as he darted out of the way, the beat of his powerful wings sending up dust and gravel from the mountaintop. Panicked at the sight of Jasmine charging up for another blast, I scrambled for the protection artifact. Darius bore down upon on our enemy, purple flames gathering in his snarled jaws. He was fast—but Jasmine was faster.

  She fired off another blast of the destruction artifact.

  And this time—she didn’t miss.

  Chapter 17

  Destructive magic hurdled from Jasmine’s palm, heading straight for Darius, and the world slowed around me as I watched, helpless to stop it, unable to save him. Like the spear from the painting, it thrust up and sliced through Darius’s left wing. He had tried to dodge. Wings flared up and back, he appeared to be trying to backpedal, to narrowly avoid that second blast, but it did him no good. The hit was true and fierce, and I clamped my hands down over my ears at his a
nguished cry as he veered hard to the right, slamming into the mountainside.

  “Darius!”

  Blocking out Jasmine’s mocking laughter, I pressed my finger against the protection artifact, spilling more of my life’s blood into the device, refueling it as fast as I could. My whole hand was a bloody mess at this point, my blood falling freely in long, dark streaks over my skin. When the bulges around the onyx stone swelled enough, I cast protection over my fallen dragon. Not far from me, I could see the enormous hole in his wing, the edges crisped and sizzled—as though fire had done the deed. White light enveloped him, protected him, and I felt my head spin just a little bit harder as I willed the artifact to keep him safe.

  Beside me, Marie remained unconscious, but a quick glance told me the artifact’s protection was fading already. Maybe the spell hadn’t been powerful enough when I cast it. Maybe I hadn’t spilled enough blood. All I knew was that she was vulnerable, as was Darius—and, slowly, so was I.

  But if the spell was fading from Marie, it had to be gone from Jasmine. I turned my narrowed gaze toward her, steeling myself against her giggles, against her cruel stare—against the powerful hum of magic in her palm.

  “There are too many of them to protect, mongrel,” she stated, her taunt followed by a rather witchy cackle. “How much are you willing to bleed to save them?”

  Her sinister smile faltered suddenly, her eyes wide and pissed, and in my sideview a blue shimmering light flickered to life. Suddenly, Aden materialized out of nowhere, crouching over his daughter, his hand to her forehead, his expression surprisingly neutral.

  “Her protection is fading,” I told him. He continued to stare down at her, until his arm shot up, deftly deflecting a curse from the insane fae across from us. He cast it aside like it was nothing more than a fruit fly hovering around his face.

  “Thank you,” he murmured, scooping Marie’s little body into his arms. He stopped Jasmine’s next hex with no more than a look, the blast of violet light stopping dead in its tracks, frozen midair, before it shot back at its caster. Jasmine shrieked and leapt out of the way, covering her head as a boulder behind her exploded into a thousand little pieces once the hex hit. The djinn’s black eyes slid over to me, taking me in slowly. “I’ll not forget this.”