by Jen Crane
No, no, no. I shook my head, a silent appeal for my mother to leave again.
I caught sight of Dean Miles’s pinched, angry face as she watched Brandubh’s reaction like an attention-starved child. Her scarlet lips curled in an unattractive snarl, and then her posture sagged in defeat. For the briefest moment I actually felt sorry for her, but she saw me watching from the corner of her eye and quickly snapped back to her rigid, spiteful RBF—Resting Bitch Face, the one she wore so well.
As the mob took in the deadly duo circling above them, a collective gasp sucked some of the tension from the scene. The crowd that moments before had been intent on seeing me burn was no longer quivering with malevolence, but with outright fear. A thin man with a small quantity of hair and a large quantity of freckles looked to the tall, dark-skinned woman near him. They shrugged, eyes darting across the scene before them, then backed away from what was left of the cabin. In fact, the entire mob seemed to edge toward the forest in a collective retreat.
That left three major players standing between Ewan and me and the dragons: Brandubh, Dean Miles, and Gresham, whose guard still stood behind him, though they, too, grew restless at the sight of dragons.
The rich, damp dirt of the forest floor was too heavy to swirl as Bay and Edina thrust their big wings and circled overhead. They remained just above the tree line, but occasional gusts of air sent my unruly red hair across my cheeks.
“Mom, get out of here,” I sent up to her. “Brandubh is dangerous. You know he’d re-take you in a heartbeat.”
“I know,” she shot back. “And it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
Brandubh interrupted our silent conversation. “My Edina,” he sighed. “It’s been too long.”
She pulled her mighty wings back, thrusting them to stand erect in the air. “Not nearly long enough.”
“Why did you turn cold on me?” Brandubh almost whined. “We had a good thing. A rare thing. With time, I can forgive your leaving me.” His smile was an attempt at charming, at seductive. It gave me the creeps; I doubt it worked on my mother. “I’ve missed you.”
Dean Miles gasped, her body jerking like it had taken a punch. These manifestations of her shock betrayed an emotion more profound than a casual connection to Brandubh would warrant. Ewan and I glanced at one another.
Weird, I mouthed, and he nodded.
And then Livia Miles blew her top, her own cover, and the rest of us away.
“After all I’ve done for you, you’d still have her back wouldn’t you?”
Brandubh didn’t turn in Dean Miles’s direction; didn’t spare her a passing glance.
“Wouldn’t you?” she screamed, her face red, eyes brimming with angry tears. “I killed for you, you bastard. I practically lived with this tool—” she nodded toward Gresham. “—embedded myself in that stupid-ass school and dealt with snot-nosed brats all day. And for what? For what?” She screeched the last. “So you could find another damned dragon. A child this time you only knew about through my visions. I should have kept my big mouth shut.”
“Shut it now, Livia.” Brandubh finally peeled his gaze from my mother and tuned in to Dean Miles’s train wreck confession.
The air was again thick with the smell and the pressure of magic. The mob had watched the scene before them like a telenovela, and after the initial stunned silence, they began murmuring to one another, confusion evident in their faces.
But one face held enlightenment, not confusion. Enlightenment…and agony.
“You killed her,” Gresham whispered the words. His eyes were glassy, wild. “You murdered my Joelle.”
“Yes, yes,” Dean Miles—Livia—said with a flick of her wrist, swatting away his bothersome concern.
That’s when I made the distinction. It wasn’t Brandubh’s magic that filled the air, but Gresham’s. The initial shock and his dumbfounded condition had vanished, and Gresham approached like a lion to prey.
Livia noticed the change in him and looked nervously toward Brandubh.
“Bran,” she said. When he didn’t respond, her voice held a plea. “Bran?”
Gresham’s arm shot out, grabbing Livia by the neck with such speed, such force, she had no time to run. The veins in her lovely face plumped with the tightening of his grip. She tried to fight him, kicking and scratching his wrists, but it didn’t faze him.
“Why”?” Gresham grated through clenched teeth and shook her, her legs flailing as he held her off the ground. “Why?”
Livia’s mouth opened and closed in an attempt to speak. She couldn’t form words. Gresham loosed his grip just enough to allow a hoarse whisper.
“He made me do it,” she said. “Needed…to get close to you. Everyone knew…you loved her. Would never…be with me…if she was alive.” Her eyes widened, flashing feigned remorse as she whimpered, “Forgive me. Like you…I loved…too much.”
Gresham shook her again to shut her up. “You’ve no idea what our kind of love was,” he said, emotion thick in his deep voice. He looked away from her and released her neck, dropping her to the forest floor.
Livia rubbed her neck, a look of indignation spoiling her fine features. Her outraged face morphed, nose and mouth elongating.
I had time to think, Oh, shit. She’s gonna change. I’ve never even seen her form. And then it was revealed.
The whole thing was completely anticlimactic. I looked from Ewan to Gresham to Brandubh to the crowd. Everyone stood there, not sure what to think, to do.
I laughed; I couldn’t help myself. I giggled, covered my mouth, and giggled some more. “A weasel? A weasel? You have got to be kidding me.”
“I’m a mink, you stupid bitch,” Livia snarled.
A smile pulled Ewan’s mouth in one corner, though he attempted to hide it by biting his lips.
Her tough words did nothing to curb my amusement. Tears had formed in the corner of my eyes and I swiped at them. When I removed my hand, I saw Livia heading straight for me. Her lithe, rodent-like form was quick, I’ll give her that.
She leaped for my face, the intent to claw my eyes out abundantly clear. I grinned, welcoming her attack and preparing to fend her off.
But before she reached me, her body jerked violently back.
A putrid smell filled the air. Saliva pooled at the back of my thickening throat and I covered my nose with my hand. As a child, I was sprayed by a skunk in our back yard. My dog attacked it, triggering its only line of defense. Livia’s foul stench put the poor skunk to shame. I was instantly nauseous, my gag reflex working overtime. My eyes watered again, not from mirth this time but disgust.
“My God, you’re repulsive,” I choked out. “Is that your defense? If you can’t out-bitch somebody, you’ll stink ’em to death. Ugh.” I wanted to say more but the urge to vomit overcame me.
Livia let out a high-pitched squeal and leaped for me again, but this time whatever had jerked her back wasn’t so gentle.
Through stinging and bleary eyes, I caught sight of a sleek gray fox with eyes a brilliant shade of gold. A limp mink tail hung from his black lips.
With one thick gulp, Gresham swallowed Livia Miles whole.
Chapter 7
One problem taken care of, Gresham’s golden gaze swung to Brandubh, lips raised on a sinister growl.
“You’ve never frightened me, Rowan Gresham.” Brandubh closed his eyes lazily, a silent dare. “You’ve rid me of Livia. Perhaps I should thank you. She was only necessary to help you find Stella, and now that we’re reunited, I really had no further use for her. I have another now.” He paused dramatically. “Make that two,” he said and bared his teeth lewdly in my mother’s direction.
Bay, who until then had only offered silent support, began to curse Brandubh with a skill that would make a seasoned sailor blush.
He raised his eyebrows in amusement, delighting in her hate-filled diatribe.
My mother didn’t say a word. Hadn’t said a word in some time. I wondered if her fear had returned and crippled her, if she’d lo
st the vengeful intent with which she flew in.
My questions were soon answered.
Like a winged nightmare, Edina Drakontos dove for Brandubh with single-minded objective: kill the man who’d enslaved her and her family, and who intended to do the same to her daughter. My mother’s auburn scales glinted in the moonlight, a beacon of vengeance. My full heart pounded within my chest, and a cautiously optimistic smile pulled at my mouth.
Brandubh’s attention flew from Bay to the dragon intent on decimating him. His eyes lighted and he licked his lower lip in anticipation. The air around the sorcerer thickened and gleamed like the area around a gas leak. He vibrated with power and spread his legs into a commanding stance. Brandubh extended one long arm to reveal a ball of fire suspended above his palm. The flames flickered and licked viciously, and with a toss of his hand, the fireball flew into the night sky, exploding above the heads of the rapt mob.
My mother faltered, the power he’d discharged obviously rattling her.
No. No, I won’t let him win this time. I won’t let Mother and Bay fall under his control again. And I won’t let him have me.
With a force that shook the ground beneath us, I burst into my dragon, joining my mother and Bay in the warm night sky. Ewan changed when I did and stood on the ground below with raised hackles and bared teeth. His furious gaze was set on Brandubh, ready to strike. Ewan was vicious. Formidable. Majestic.
The time had come to take on Brandubh. To rid ourselves of him forever.
Gresham, an omni like me and able to take any form, changed into a dragon. The crowd had backed so far into the tree line, they were barely visible. But at the sight of him, a woman let out a blood-curdling scream.
Gresham paid the crowd no mind, circling us and coming to a halt beside me, wing-to-wing with Mother, Bay, and I.
“What’s the plan, ladies?” he asked in a tone much lighter than the situation called for.
“Wheel, you’ve got no fire.” Bay stated the obvious. While Gresham could mimic a dragon’s physical form, only natural dragons possessed fire. He could fly and fight, but couldn’t produce columns of damnable fire like the three of us. “But I doubt Brandubh can control all four of us, even gifted as he is at wielding power over dragons.”
“I don’t know,” Mother disagreed, grimacing as she withstood the fireworks display Brandubh continued to put on. “He’s just playing with us now. When he gets serious, he’ll be near impossible to reach.”
“Let’s not give him time to get serious,” I urged. “If all four of us attack now, maybe we can catch him off guard.”
“He’s too powerful.” Mother’s shifty green eyes betrayed her fear.
“And you’re still unpracticed with your fire, child,”Bay reminded me.
“I can do this. I know I can. Anyway, what’s the alternative? You want to run again? Hide? I’ll never do that.” My mother flinched at my words.
“Hush child,” said Bay. “You’ve no idea what you’re saying. You’ve not endured the torture we have.”
She was right, of course. I knew nothing of sacrifice, of pain. I knew very little of loss or defeat. “I’m sorry. It's just… we have to do something. We have to try.”
“An entire generation has tried, Stella, and failed. Wars have been fought to rid our world of this one evil man. You think the four of us can do what they couldn't?"
"Five," Ewan gritted from the forrest floor.
“Five. Fine. You think our ragtag gang can defeat the most powerful sorcerer I've ever known?”
“I got the best of him before. Maybe with all of us combined. I can't explain it. I just know we can. We have to.”
“I’m waitiiiing,” Brandubh called from below. “Are you four going to gab all night, or can I plan on some action? Tell you what. Surrender now, and I’ll let the man cub go.”
Panic sent ice through my veins. I looked down at Ewan, who stood inches from Brandubh, his lupine teeth bared in an angry snarl.
It wasn't premeditated. It was predatory. Concern for Ewan overrode my good sense, and I screamed “Now!”
After a stunned hesitation, Bay, Edina and Gresham heeded my battle cry and dove with me for Brandubh.
“Ugh,” Bay grunted as he landed a fiery missile on her back.
I felt it, too. Though he hadn’t sent a direct hit, his ability to disarm and control my dragon was all too evident. Raw shocks of his magical force shot through my body. I gritted my teeth and rode out the waves of his attack.
A particularly powerful jolt sent Gresham toppling through a stand of evergreens, his enormous body breaking off the tops of the trees before he came to a stop in a mound of thick earth.
I was re-thinking my impulsive attack.
Ewan dove and snapped at Brandubh, his wolf form taller than the mad sorcerer when he reared on hind legs. Brandubh fought Ewan while fending us off, giddy and laughing and flinging power around like an evil villain.
“The flames are just for effect,” he called up to us. “Learned that from your kind. Everything’s scarier when it’s on fire, isn’t it?” A ball of twisting flames shot in my direction and I pulled my wing in to swerve. “Missed on purpose.” He was taunting us. We were fighting for our lives, and he was having the time of his.
I was so new to my dragon, to my fire, to fighting. But Mother and Bay had fought too many battles in their lifetimes. They were tired. They were afraid. After years spent fighting, serving, and ultimately hiding from Brandubh, it was no secret a pivotal moment would come. This was it. Hiding wasn't an option anymore. We had to defeat Brandub, to kill him, to have a shot at any kind of future.
I looked to my mother, and then to Bay and said a silent prayer I could produce the fire I’d struggled to learn. “The fire within,” I said. “On three.”
The two blinked in sad, silent agreement. They knew I would have trouble holding up my end. They knew it might be a deadly mistake.
“Bite his evil ass,” I sent down to Ewan before spearing toward Brandubh.
Ewan’s renewed attack distracted Brandubh for the milliseconds we needed to coordinate our fiery charge. We called our magic, our fire, and combined the two to produce the damnable weapon that only natural dragons possessed.
Because of its rarity, dragon fire was an enigma to most people. It was superior, deadly magic, and the primary source of the public’s fear.It was also the reason my mother and her people had been hunted and acquired as weapons. But at that moment, it was the weapon we needed to fight Brandubh.
The force of our incendiary assault snapped his head like a right hook. He swung his arms in wide arcs, wind milling to stay upright, but we persisted. He stumbled backward, finally throwing an arm in front of his face as a shield.
Even as Brandubh faltered, he flung angry bursts of power, landing another at Gresham, who had circled behind the sorcerer, angling to take him out with teeth or tail.
Ewan, whose continued assault had bloodied both he and Brandubh, had only the use of three legs and was bleeding from his shoulder. It had taken all of us, but Brandubh was disoriented and partially disabled. What would have decimated a normal being in a matter of seconds was wearing slowly on Brandubh, his ability to fend off our attack unnaturally strong.
I looked so deep into my chakra I saw, I felt, I was light pulsing like a blinding beacon of white. I widened my eyes at the recognition of my very own power. The force, the sheer quantity of it astounded me. And it scared me. I didn't know what to do with it, but I knew we needed it. Some instinct took over and I opened to it, imagining my chest ripping down the middle to let the light escape.
I could see the power leaving my body to join Mother and Bay’s, adding white to their orange flames. A fourth stream met ours, and I followed the line of dark, smoky magic to Gresham, his gold eyes closed in concentration. If the force of my power was light, his was soot, the smoldering remnants of charcoal.
I jerked my head in confusion. Whatthehell? The variation of my fire, and the evidence of Gresham's
raw power didn't seem to concern Mother and Bay, and so I doubled my effort. With one final burst of magical energy, our unified column of flame sent Brandubh to his knees. He gasped for breath, hands scratching at his throat.
“He’ll never leave us alone,” I said to my comrades. “We have to kill him. I think I can keep this up. Can you?”
“This one’s mine, baby. And it’s a long time coming.”
I looked to my mother, whose eyes shined with aggrieved vengeance, and lowered my head in deference. Brandubh deserved a gruesome death for the lifetimes of suffering and death he'd inflicted on so many. But no one had reason for revenge as much as Edina Drakontos.
We descended below the tree line, our growing proximity to Brandubh steadily increasing the intensity of our barrage. Mother withdrew her fire. Bay and I followed her lead. Gresham reined back his assault.
Brandubh raised his battered face to my mother, a demented smile pulling at his cracked lips. He opened his mouth to speak, but she had no interest, no patience for his boisterous ramblings.
She opened her hinged mouth in a deafening roar, her dagger-like teeth slick with saliva. With lightening speed, she struck out and bit into him with fervor, his head cracking within her jaw teeth like hard candy.
Chapter 8
Back in human form, I stood slightly bent with hands at my hips, taking short, shallow breaths to recover from the physical and mental exertion we had just endured.
“Wheel, that’s that, then,” Bay said in a sing-song voice incongruent with our circumstances. I lifted my head to raise eyebrows at her, and she shrugged good-naturedly.
“Men, your coats,” Gresham instructed his officers.
While nakedness held no shame in the world of magical shifters, we were surrounded by a crowd of strangers and in the middle of a scene of mass destruction. Bay, Mother and I hastily donned the scratchy uniforms, thankful for the cover.