Lyon’s fingers tightened on Maddie’s waist. For a moment she tasted the bitterness of his regret. “I will join you, my friend. Give me a moment. “
The dark head bowed. Wings furled, Aeryx rested on the railing, waiting impatiently.
Lyon found his clothes and dressed quickly. He sheathed his sword and then pulled Maddie close. “You are changed, my heart. We both are changed, but there is far more to come. I will be back once we have made our inspection of the grounds. Wait for me here.”
“Hurry.” She managed a shaky smile. “I’ve discovered how very impatient I can be.” Maddie released his hand and took a step back. She gripped the gossamer silk as Lyon crossed the balcony and was caught up on Aeryx’s powerful wings.
The room seemed empty and far too cold when he had gone.
More lightning cut the sky above the distant valley. Maddie sat on the old rug, his silk draped around her shoulders and one purple stone gleaming in her hand.
Minutes crawled past.
Thunder growled and rolled. And still he did not come.
Wings crossed the balcony.
As they passed, a cold wind gusted through the open window.
“Rose,” a deep voice whispered. “Your Guardian calls to you from the far woods.”
“I heard nothing.” Maddie jumped her feet, scrambling for her clothes. “Is something wrong, Aeryx?”
“He is…weak, Rose. He bleeds most badly. His skin is torn, but he ordered me away, too proud for your help. So I come for you. Will you fly and join me? Or…are you afraid?”
“Of course I’ll go. Wait there. I’m coming.” Maddie jerked on her clothes and searched for the gleaming stones.
“Leave them, Rose. There is no time,” Aeryx murmured.
“I’m almost done.” Maddie stuffed the stones into her pockets and then knotted the silver web of silk rightly around her. “I’m ready. Take me to him now.”
“You are certain?” the voice probed.
“I’m certain. Hurry.” Maddie was furious with impatience. “Do it now.”
“As you will.”
A sound like wind through heavy grass filled the room. Maddie shivered and climbed onto the cold railing. When she reached out, stepping onto the dark wings, the powerful body swayed.
“Hurry, Aeryx.”
“We fly, Rose.”
Wind slashed at Maddie’s face as they shot upward in a dizzying sweep. She closed her eyes, caught by a wave of sudden nausea. The ground fell away beneath her, and Maddie leaned closer to the dark head. “Aeryx, what happened to him? Did the things—did those creatures—find him? I have to know.”
“Then I shall tell you, Rose. All that you wish to hear—and far more that you do not.” The voice changed, hardening in an angry laugh.
The air around Maddie’s head seemed to burn, charged with sudden electricity that made her flinch and draw back.
Too late she understood.
This was not Aeryx beneath her. This was no friend.
She was betrayed.
25
Fog swirled up beneath Maddie, piling over the ground, rising in cold waves.
Too late.
She slid trembling fingers into her pocket, feeling something foul burn at her skin. “Who—are you?” she whispered.
“You have called us, Rose. You gave us free invitation. Fool,” the voice rumbled, eager and hungry. “Through your wish we have crossed the portal.” The voice grew, awful in its power. “You invited us to come. Now we will feed well. On you and on those you love.”
Maddie understood now that a fierce intelligence had been at work. But this disguise they made—how was it possible?
There was no time to think about it. A leathery arm stretched toward her and narrow claws emerged. Maddie battled terror and nausea. This was no flight as Aeryx had given. Now they rocketed straight up, then fell with dizzying force.
The only thing that kept her sane was the possibility that they had lied about Lyon. She had to believe that he was unharmed.
She sent out a fierce call of warning to Lyon, to Aeryx, and to the abbey ghost. Then she eased her fingers around the stones hidden in her pockets.
The leathery arm reached back and gripped her leg. With a gasp Maddie wrenched free. The creature swooped higher. Its claws slashed toward her in a vicious strike and then another.
The last drew blood.
Maddie looked up and saw the air around her full of writhing shapes. Wings pounded and hammered as they followed hungrily.
More claws slashed toward her. A smaller figure raced above her head, dropping to snap at her arm. Maddie threw a stone and drove the creature back.
“She is no Rose,” the deep voice beneath her mocked. “Her fear burns clear.” Laughter rumbled and more claws struck. Maddie was tossed sideways, falling free for long seconds, dangling from the edge of a leathery wing.
She forced her eyes away from the other forms around her and dug another stone from her pocket. With all her force she hurled it at the dense, circling center of wings. A vicious cry tore through the air. Two of the creatures plummeted downward.
Dizzy with pain, Maddie found another stone. Another leathery form attacked her legs, and she flung out the stone. Chattering in fury, the creature burned in a flare of silver light, slashing Maddie’s arm from shoulder to wrist as it fell. The air was thick with acrid smoke and more forms gathered, hissing in delight as blood oozed down her bruised arm.
Suddenly Maddie tipped sharply. Her captor sailed high, then closed its giant wings around her, forcing out light and breath, crushing her slowly.
She searched for another stone, only to feel it slip from her trembling fingers. Four gone. Only one was left.
Her own.
Lyon?
Here. Very close. Fight them!
Maddie felt his strength burn through her as Aeryx shot over the high trees, with Lyon on his wing.
But the creature beneath her reached out to grip her neck, forcing the air from her lungs. Blindly Maddie gripped her last, precious stone and drove it with all her might into the suffocating wings, up through leathery arms and into the looming face. A raw cry of fury filled her ears as the body tipped and rolled sideways, losing control.
Maddie plunged free and was surrounded by a dark fury of wings.
“There! Faster, Aeryx.” Lyon clung to Aeryx with one hand, hacking at anything in their way. As his great sword flashed, another scream signaled his blow and another pursuer fell.
The fallen wore their true form now, with no hint of human face or limbs. Their speed could not be matched.
A claw raked Lyon’s chest and passed lower. Aeryx rumbled in pain. In a swift jab Lyon’s sword slashed out and severed the leathery body, which fell to join dozens more that steamed on the ground below.
They were almost close enough for Maddie to see them now. In a few more seconds….
Then Lyon’s heart squeezed to see her plunge wildly from the sky, while dozens of the horde followed, hungry and hissing in their eagerness.
Lyon called out her name and leaped from Aeryx’s back, using his sword to cut his way through the bodies that followed her as she fell.
She acted by the force of raw fury, kicking her booted feet and flinging her silver rosemarks out in dancing circles.
The circling bodies drew back in confusion and fear.
With each brush of her light another of their throng lost control and pitched blindly down to earth.
But there were too many to count now. Maddie’s breath was labored and her strength was nearly gone.
So many of the hungry things….
Then she heard Lyon’s shout and looked up to see him falling down toward her, hacking away with his sword. As two creatures hooked him with their claws, Maddie felt the shape of the fabric at her waist. She tore it free and cast it up toward Lyon,
The horde fell back. Maddie gave a mad laugh and called his name.
A wiry arm hooked her shoulder, nearly wrenching it from i
ts socket, and she was dragged back into her captor’s wings. And all her weapons were gone now. Only her courage remained.
And her rosemarks.
Maddie waited as the steaming mouth opened. Foul air and the stench of blood brushed her face. When the teeth gaped widest, she threw out her spinning marks and ran them down, into the yawning throat.
The gagging creature screamed in pain and cast her out.
But the ground was hurtling up toward her.
It was Aeryx who raced below her, the true form and true friend, gathering her onto his wings and then swooping up to cut through the horde around Lyon. The Crusader grabbed for the passing wing and met Maddie’s outstretched hand instead.
His fingers slipped on the blood from her wound and Maddie scrambled forward to catch him. Her eyes were glazed with pain and exhaustion but she did not flinch as he gripped her hand. Inch by inch he dragged his body onto the soaring wings.
Aeryx raced high, toward the sun as it flashed across the horizon.
Maddie’s whirling silver marks raced after them.
Aeryx sank down in weary grandeur on the slope above the moat.
In the morning sunlight the abbey ghost stood triumphant above a pile of steaming bodies, calling out a welcome. Around them the abbey’s roof and lands looked like a battleground, with the dead creatures in the scores. Smoke curled from their bodies. Yet as Maddie watched, the skeletal limbs shimmered and vanished, carried back to the place where they came from.
Was this what the Crusader had seen in his long, weary battles? Had Acre and Culloden looked like this?
She shuddered and felt Lyon’s tired arm slide around her. Together they stumbled over the ground, past the dead, hearing Aeryx keen in pain as he hovered above one of his own dead.
Up the hill Maddie saw Izzy walk toward them, his face a tight mask of disbelief. She did not try to explain. There was no need. The truth lay everywhere around them.
She looked up with loving eyes at Lyon. “They told me you were dead,” she whispered. “They said you needed me. The form was so like Aeryx that I never guessed—”
“It is done. We fought them back. You were magnificent, my Rose.” Lyon stared at her arm, where blood still oozed. “We must clean this well. Their poison is fierce. It may kill even now.”
But Maddie settled against him with a sigh of exhaustion and relief. As she did the silver swan fell, silk rippling as it covered their bodies.
Maddie had to ask the question. “They will come back?”
“I have little doubt of it,” Lyon said grimly. “But you learn fast. We will start your training tomorrow. The sword will be first, I think. But not tonight….” His fingers brushed her hair and he caught her up in a fierce kiss. “Tonight is for us. Only us.”
Izzy ran toward them, his eyes hard. “You are both bleeding. Let me have a look. Damn it, Lyon, why didn’t you warn me?” He grabbed Maddie’s bloody arm and scowled.
Talk about bad timing, Maddie thought.
And then she began to laugh.
Find more Draycott Abbey Romances at:
http://www.amazon.com/Christina-Skye/e/B000AQ764M
Steel Magnolia Press is publishing more of Christina’s backlist in new digital editions! Sign up for Fresh Leaves, the SMP monthly newsletter, to find out when new books are released, most at special introductory prices:
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
And so the journey begins….
Thank you for joining Maddie and Lyon on their racing path to danger and adventure. You probably noticed that I love this story! There are many secrets yet to come and dark betrayal yet waiting. Even Izzy will soon be tested when the fallen ones return.
But I am getting ahead of my story…
Ever since Adrian and his ghost cat Gideon swept into my life almost 15 years ago, nothing has been the same. Draycott Abbey seems to grow more beautiful with each passing year. I am thrilled that so many of you have asked for more of these unforgettable tales blending history and modern suspense. This one has haunted me for almost a decade.
More of Maddie’s journey will be coming this fall.
Longtime readers will know that this story is not part of my regular Draycott series, but I hope you will enjoy those too!
The complete Draycott Abbey collection as written (so far!) is:
“Enchantment,” a novella now reprinted in DRAYCOTT LEGACY
“What Dreams May come,” a novella now only available in DRAYCOTT ETERNAL
“Moonrise,” a novella only available in DRAYCOTT EVERLASTING
HOUR OF THE ROSE
BRIDGE OF DREAMS
BRIDE OF THE MIST
KEY TO FOREVER
SEASON OF WISHES
CHRISTMAS KNIGHT
THE PERFECT GIFT
And I especially hope you will look for my most recent ghostly abbey romance, CHRISTMAS AT DRAYCOTT ABBEY.
Each of these stories can be read alone, but they all work together, blending into an ongoing saga that stretches back for centuries. I hope you will enjoy all of them, savoring old characters and discovering new ones in turn.
If you want to learn more about the Draycott legacy, check out my website — www.christinaskye.com — for contests, details about upcoming books and research notes. Pinterest boards for Draycott Abbey are coming soon too!
Meanwhile, happy reading.
Maddie and Lyon will be waiting for you … at the abbey.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christina Skye is the New York Times bestselling author of thirty-three books. She is a pushover for Harris tweed, Scottish cashmere, Chinese dumplings, French macarons and dark chocolate.
Not necessarily in that order.
A classically trained China scholar with over two million books in print, she has appeared on national television programs including ABC Worldwide News, Travel News Network, the Arthur Frommer show, Geraldo, Voice of America, Looking East, and Good Morning, Arizona.
Christina loves being a writer and savors quirky historical research. Most of her first drafts are written by hand, while her white Siamese helps with the “editing.” While she writes, she usually has her knitting right beside her. But don’t expect speed. “The sheer pleasure of colors and texture running through my fingers helps me concentrate on the mystery of my characters taking shape before my eyes. Researching a period draws me into a sense of place, and then knitting pulls me to a quiet place where a story can unfold at its deepest level. It’s my best writing tool.”
Visit her online at http://christinaskye.com/ for a glimpse into new books, strange research tidbits, great recipes and some of her all-time favorite knitting patterns.
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If you enjoyed this work, please leave a review to help other readers decide if it’s a story they too would like to read. A couple of sentences are all you need to write. Thank you!
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Ebooks by Christina Skye available now or coming soon to Amazon (from Steel Magnolia Press)
Regency Romances
Come the Night, Book 1 of The Dangerous Delameres
Come the Dawn, Book 2 of The Dangerous Delameres
Defiant Captive
Tempting the Pirate (orig. The Black Rose)
Seducing the Rake (orig. East of Forever)
Victorian Romance
The Ruby
Paranormal Romances
(Draycott Abbey Series)
Hour of the Rose
Bride of the Mist
Key to Forever
The Perfect Gift
Fallen
Christmas at Draycott Abbey
http://www.amazon.com/Christina-Skye/e/B000AQ764M
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