My hope was to either kill her or keep her busy until Deacon returned with another dragon shifter. Four of us together might be able to defeat her. With a little movement of my fingers, I opened a pool of thick acid in front of her. Much like napalm, it would stick to her skin. The instant that spell completed, I cast another binding her arms and legs together. While she was talented enough to not need to move to perform magic, it would disorient her.
As if she had expected it, Marguerite shot into the air the moment the acid touched her feet. The only explanation for such a quick reaction was a charm on her shoes. In the air, on her way down, she turned and broke free of the invisible bindings I had placed on her. It didn’t take long for her to spot Alex and me. Lightning erupted from her fingertips, and I rolled to miss it. She didn’t even bother aiming for Alex.
When she landed, I wasted no time in hurling a giant boulder toward her. She caught it, as I expected she would, but the distraction allowed me to shoot my own lightning at her. She screamed in pain, and I intensified the electricity. It might be foolish to expend so much energy, but I wanted this to be over. If I could cloud her mind with pain, then she wouldn’t be able to counterattack. Sweat trickled down my forehead despite the cool weather. I gave it everything I had, but Marguerite prevailed. She mustered the strength to put up a shield that absorbed my lightning.
Spent, I fell to the ground. Luckily, Marguerite was as tired as I was. Alex moved his body in between me and Marguerite, ready to absorb anything she sent our way. The shield she maintained required a lot of effort, and it wasn’t something I’d easily penetrate.
Wind roared, whipping my hair across my face. But the sound I heard wasn’t wind, it was the beating of wings. Above us, two massive dragons took aim at Marguerite. Her shield protected her from their fiery breath, but that also meant she had to maintain the shield. While Deacon and his partner attacked, I racked my brain for a way to get past her defenses. Before I could come up with anything, the shield and Marguerite disappeared without any warning. Deacon and his partner stopped their fire and searched for her. Deacon would know she was mage, not a sorcerer. She couldn’t actually disappear the way sorcerers could.
Alex took off running, stretching his feline form to its full length as he appeared to glide across the mountaintop. Deacon and his partner followed, apparently seeing the same thing Alex did. It took a few seconds, but I finally saw it: a small creature zooming ahead of Alex. I would’ve thought it was a mouse, but common sense told me it was Marguerite. She had somehow shrunk down, shield and all, to the size of a rodent. As they all neared the edge of the mountain, Alex sped up, determined to catch her.
“Alex, stop!” I yelled as I ran to them. I didn’t know if he could stop in time to keep from tumbling over the edge. He was narrowed in on his prey, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t even see the danger ahead.
Alex skidded to a stop just in time. I caught up to him, out of breath, and peered with the others over the edge. I could just make out Marguerite’s tiny form falling. With her shield still intact, I didn’t doubt she’d land safely. Chasing her would be a fool’s errand.
Deacon assumed his human form. “I take it that was Marguerite?”
“Yes,” I said, my heart still racing from the adrenaline. “I’m sorry for that.”
“Don’t apologize for the actions of others. If what you told me is true, she would’ve come here whether you were involved or not.”
Alex stood as a human beside me. “She won’t stop. The dragons here are still in danger.”
“They’ll be well protected,” Deacon said. He turned to me. “Do your pidge powers extend to teleporting?”
“Yes, but I can’t create a portal. We have an imp who will make one for us, if you’re willing to come to Earth with us.”
“I’ve already pledged you my support.” Deacon held his hands out in front of him, palms up. Alex followed suit, placing one of his hands on top of Deacon’s. I did the same, completing the circle.
Nicole wasn’t going to believe who I was bringing back with us.
Twenty-Two
An eery calm settled atop the mountain, the castle pinnacle Deacon was supposed to melt, as if nature itself knew that something was happening. Deacon, in his human form, walked around the area, examining the ice wall. He sniffed the air, smelling the magic. Millhook, Alex, Nicole, and I all kept our distance, giving him space to work. Nicole bit her tongue and bounced with nervous energy. She couldn’t wait to see Deacon shift. I admired her restraint in not asking him to do it for her amusement.
“The magic here is disturbing.” Deacon finished his assessment. “There are teleportation rings nearby. Someone has prepared this place.”
The rings were news to me. Meglana could have put them there to make traveling here easier, but that didn’t seem likely. She went to great lengths to hide her secrets on Earth. She wouldn’t give away her hiding spot for the sake of convenience. That meant Marguerite must have put them here.
“Then we have to be prepared for Marguerite to show up at any moment. She probably suspects we’re here after seeing us on Desolate Ridge,” I said. “If she comes, we run. No exceptions.” I looked to Nicole and Millhook to make sure they understood. I hadn’t wanted them to come, but in the end, it seemed the safest option. Together we were stronger than when we were apart. If a mage came up on Millhook and Nicole, he could cast a spell to impair Millhook before they could get away. Someone could kidnap them and I wouldn’t even know until it was too late. We had nothing but horrible options, but staying together seemed like the best of them. Besides, Nicole really wanted to see a dragon, and I don’t think she’d have forgiven me if I didn’t let her come.
Deacon turned away from the ice wall and faced me. “I can’t tell you what will happen once I melt the ice. There is powerful magic behind it, twisted magic. That’s all I know. We may be unleashing something into the world that is better kept hidden.”
“There’s no doubt about that,” I said. “But if we don’t get to it, Marguerite will. Whatever is behind that wall will come out, it’s just a question of whose hands it will be in.”
“If you are certain this is the only way, I’ll do it.”
“I’m sure. Even if we killed Marguerite, there is enough of a mythos around Meglana in the Directorate that it’s just a matter of time until someone else picks up the search for her magic.”
Deacon nodded, resigned to my decision. He gestured for us to move back and give him space. Once he had the room he needed, he shifted. Nicole gasped. It really was a magnificent sight. He cocked his giant head, the same way a human would to get the kinks out of his neck. He took a deep breath, and a deafening roar sounded as fire erupted from his mouth.
This time as the snow melted, we weren’t greeted with a message from Marguerite. If what Deacon said about teleportation rings was true, she was probably waiting for us to melt the ice for her. There was no doubt in my mind that she knew we were here.
The snow melted into torrents of water that froze into ice once they hit the ground away from Deacon’s breath. It didn’t take long, a minute at most. Once the opening in the ice was big enough for a person to go through, we crowded around it. The only thing inside the cave was a pillar about three feet tall of pure stone jutting out from the cave floor, like a perfectly carved stalagmite. The top of it was carved in a diagonal so that whoever stood at the entrance could clearly see a large handprint embedded in the stone.
Deacon took his human form and spoke before any of us could enter. “That stone is holding something terrible. I don’t know what, but my guess is that placing your hand inside the print will release it. I don’t know what will happen. It wouldn’t surprise me if it kills you.”
This could all be one giant trap. I wouldn’t put it past my mother. The woman had sought knowledge and power only for herself. What a perfect little game it would be to trap her would-be successor at the end. But as little as I thought of Meglana, I believed she wanted
her knowledge to be shared with the right person. Better that whatever was inside that pillar was released into me than into Marguerite. I’d come this far, and I had to see it through to the end. We only had seconds. Marguerite would know that we were here, that we had a dragon with us to melt the ice. All she had to do was get to rings that connected to the ones nearby.
“You should let me examine it first,” Millhook said. “I might be able to conjure up a protection charm if I can get an idea of what it does.”
Millhook took one step before Deacon’s arm shot out in front of him, blocking his way. “The rings, they’ve activated.”
“Come on,” Alex said, his eyes pleading with me. “Remember, we run, no exceptions.”
I was the one who made that rule, and I could just as easily break it. Before the others could grab me, I sprinted toward the pillar.
“She’s here,” Deacon said right before he shifted back into his dragon form.
I ran faster, my lungs burning as they sucked in the icy air. Behind me, Deacon breathed fire, and Alex roared. I could hear Alex’s padded feet slamming on the packed snow as he ran after me. Nicole screamed. Everything rushed to the back of my consciousness as I slammed into the pillar and placed my hand in the imprint.
Blinding pain shot through my head, and the world around me brightened into an unbearable white light.
Twenty-Three
The white light that surrounded me dimmed, revealing a scene far removed from the cave I stood in. The change was disorienting. I tried to look around, get a sense of my surroundings, but my gaze stayed fixed ahead.
“Why are you doing this?” A man’s voice sounded inside my head. My father’s voice. This was one of his memories, but I wasn’t familiar with it. I’d seen everything the talisman had to show me. This memory must’ve been taken from it somehow and trapped inside the pillar.
“You’re the one who’s making things difficult,” Meglana said as she circled in front of my father.
“It’s not my fault that the potion you made didn’t work. It’s not my fault that you underestimated the strength of my mind or the power of my will.” He struggled against a magical binding my mother had placed on him.
“Perhaps I did. You’ve always been a pushover for me.”
“That’s because I loved you. Not anymore, not now that I know who you really are.” I could feel the pain of her betrayal reverberate through his chest.
“That potion was my attempt to make this easy on you. You know now that you’re never leaving here. The only choice you have is how much pain you endure between now and the end. All I want is your magic. Give it to me, and this will all be over. You’ll be rid of me at last.”
“I couldn’t even do what you’re asking of me if I wanted to. I can’t simply give you my magic. It’s in my blood, in my skin. You've already tried taking those things from me. It didn't work. You took the blood from my veins, and it still didn't give you my magic. You could drain me of it and it still wouldn't be yours. You could use it for some spells, some dark magic, but it won't last.”
“I know it's possible. Your people have to know how to do it. It was done ages ago. Pidges used to be stripped of their magic and sent to Earth as humans. If it was done then, it has to be possible now.”
A terrible fear gripped my heart, a terror unlike anything I had ever felt. The strength of my father’s emotion in the memory overwhelmed me. I’d never felt fear like that in my life. “So that’s why you want this child. Specifically, that’s why you wanted a child with me.”
“Oh yes, she is my little backup plan. I’ve always been interested in pidges. They’re too rare the study. Now I have my own little pidge to do whatever I want with. I’d much rather learn how to steal your magic, though. Now, let me give this another try.” Meglana approached with her hand outstretched. Wisps of deep blue smoke drifted from Meglana’s fingertips to my father. They entered his chest. I felt a tugging, as if the smoke were trying to pull something out, but nothing gave.
“Why do you keep blocking me? You know that if I don’t get your magic, I’ll just take hers.” Meglana looked behind her to a crib where I stood watching with wide eyes.
“Please, you can’t do that to her. She’s just a child. She’s your child. You can’t want magic so badly that you’d kill your own child for it.”
“She's not a child, she's an experiment. If you choose to see her as a child, then you should do the right thing and give me what I want.”
“I don’t know how to do what you’re asking.” Panic sent my father’s mind racing, scouring his knowledge of magic. “You must vow to me on Elustria’s magic that you won’t harm my daughter, that you won’t try to take her magic if I give you mine.”
“Done.” With a flick of her wrist, she slit his hand open and hers, mixing their blood, and saying the same ritualistic words I had exchanged with Sadie. It was a vow even death could not break.
For the first time since the memory started, relief seeped into my father’s heart. “I’ll help you, but I genuinely don’t know how to do what you want. Maybe that’s why the potion didn’t work. Perhaps the curse you have on me that’s dampening my magic, keeping me from attacking you, is preventing the spell from taking my magic.”
“Are you expecting me to trust you if I remove the curse?”
“You know you can trust me. I won’t let you harm my child. We both know that’s what you’ll do if I try to fight back. If you keep your magic from interacting with mine, the spell just might work.”
The bindings loosened and then completely disappeared. I hadn’t noticed another spell dampening his magic until it was gone, and the magic in his blood surged. True to his word, he didn’t make a move to attack. He didn’t even think of it, not for a second.
As before, tendrils of blue smoke came from Meglana’s fingertips. This time, she spoke the words of the spell aloud in Cadaran, the ancient language. The fear inside my father subsided. It didn’t disappear, but another emotion suppressed it.
Overriding every other thought and emotion was his desire to protect me from Meglana. Once again the tendrils of smoke entered his chest, but this time when they pulled, something gave, as if my father released his magic. The smoke left his body, but now it was yellow instead of blue. The yellow stream of magic entered a familiar amber stone hanging around Meglana’s neck. More blue smoke entered his body and left as yellow magic.
It wasn’t painful, at least I could be grateful for that. It felt like emptiness, as if he had been hollowed out. As his magic left, he shrank, weaker and weaker with every passing second.
“It’s working! It’s really working after all this time.” Meglana sounded giddy and awed by her own power. “I suppose the magic is so intertwined with your life that you can’t live without it. Pity. Perhaps a pidge can survive without their magic.”
“No!” My father’s voice was hoarse, and panic lit in his chest. “You vowed.”
“Oh, don’t worry, there are plenty more where she came from.”
The last bit of magic left my father’s body. For a few seconds, he lived without a drop of magic in his body. The anguish ran deep. The absence of his magic cut as sharply as the absence of a soul. In the last few seconds, I knew he did not want to live if it meant living without his magic. And then he was gone. Whether the act of removing his magic actually killed him or if it just killed his will to live, I didn’t know. When he gasped his last breath, my viewpoint changed, and I saw the room from inside the amber talisman around Meglana’s neck.
The scene around me vanished. While it felt like minutes had passed, it must’ve only been seconds because Alex was still a few feet from me. Outside the entrance of the cave, Marguerite blocked Deacon’s fiery breath with one hand, and with the other she fired a strip of purple lightning at Nicole.
Twenty-Four
Before the lightning reached Nicole, Millhook intervened. He wasn’t close enough to Nicole to port her, but he did intercept the spell and reflect it back
to Marguerite.
I ran to the cave opening and yelled to be heard over the roar of Deacon’s fire. “You’re too late, Marguerite. I already have the clue. You won’t be able to get it now.”
“Oh, I think you’ll give it to me. Your little friends here may keep you safe, but I have Mikael. Give me the clue, or he dies.”
I had to stop her, and I could only think of one way. “Killing him would be a foolish move. I made a vow to Sadie. If he dies, I die too, and with me, the clue.”
“Well, there are other ways to get what I want.” A flash of light blinded us. Deacon’s fire stopped as he looked away. Once the light subsided, Marguerite was gone.
The bright white snow reflected the light and made it difficult for my eyes to adjust. Around me, the others shook their heads as well, trying to restore their vision.
“The rings have activated,” Deacon said in his human form.
“Is everyone all right?” I asked. Nicole appeared shaken but not physically hurt. Millhook was a different matter. Alex ran to him as a panther and licked his injured hand.
“I’ll be fine, but if Furball wants to lick me, I guess he can. You know, so he can feel helpful seeing as he doesn’t have any other magic.” Millhook grimaced, but his tough act reassured me that he wasn’t too badly injured.
Alex playfully growled and kept licking. When the color returned to Millhook’s cheeks, Alex shifted and glared at me. “Whatever happened to running, no exceptions?”
“I needed to get the clue before she did.”
“So did you get something? I don’t see anything,” Nicole said as she searched my hands for the clue.
I tapped my forehead. “I got it up here.”
“We can talk about it back at the hotel. Let’s go,” Alex said as he reached out his arms to touch me and Millhook at the same time. Deacon and Nicole moved closer, but before they could complete the circle, Deacon jerked his head to the side to stare at the opening of the cave.
Magic Hunted (The Elustria Chronicles: Magic Born Book 4) Page 11