[Dragon's Gift 01.0 - 05.0] Complete Series

by Linsey Hall

  Nix. Her black hair whipped in the wind as she screamed. I plunged, swooping below her to catch her on my back.

  Her weight forced me down. I beat my wings harder, struggling to keep us airborne.

  One person was the maximum I could carry, and even now, we were half flying/half falling. My best efforts were just slowing our descent. No doubt I was a smaller, more awkward version of Aidan’s griffin.

  “Woo!” Nix’s jubilant shout sounded from above. “Go, Cass!”

  I beat my wings harder, my new muscles burning, determined to get us to safety and give a good showing as a griffin. If Aidan hadn’t turned into one, too, I was going to need to find some more strength in the next two seconds in order to save him and Del and the Nullifier.

  It would be an impossible task.

  I spun on the breeze, searching for Aidan and the others, praying that he had caught them. My claws curled in fear as I sought him out.

  The sight of Aidan as a griffin, Del and the Nullifier on his broad back, sent relief streaking through me. I gave a victorious cry, the noise coming out as a strange, birdlike shriek. Nix laughed.

  I flew toward Aidan, the wind in my feathers. Lightness and joy surged through me, the most intense I’d ever felt. I’d saved us.

  Together, we glided down onto the valley floor below. A wide river wound through the valley, tall pines on either side. With my enhanced griffin hearing, I could detect animals rustling in the underbrush by the river.

  When I landed, I staggered a bit on my strange new legs, and Nix tumbled off my back. In a flash of gray light, Aidan turned back into himself. Nix dragged her phone from her pocket and snapped a picture of me right before I called upon my magic to shift back. I tried my best to focus on having clothes and my daggers when I turned back into a human.

  Warmth filled my limbs, light flashed around me, and a second later, I swayed on my real legs. I was grateful to see that I was still wearing pants, though I had on only one boot and my leather jacket, but no shirt beneath.

  At least I was decent. And my daggers had made it.

  “That was amazing!” Nix cried.

  “Thanks.” I dragged a shaky hand through my hair.

  The Nullifier sat heavily on a rock. “I am not used to all of this excitement.”

  I didn’t want to mention that this might be the dullest part of our trip.

  “Here.” Nix handed me another boot and a t-shirt that she’d conjured.

  “Thanks.” I turned and dragged off my jacket, then pulled the t-shirt on. Aidan joined me as I sat on the ground and tugged on the boot.

  He crouched next to me. “You did good. Changing in midair like that is pretty amazing.”

  I grinned up at him. “Thanks. Did I look good?”

  “Umm…” Aidan’s gaze was conflicted.

  Del laughed.

  “Well,” Nix said. “You were a good flier. That’s all that matters.”

  “Let me see the picture you took,” I groused.

  She grinned and handed over her phone. I glanced down at the image and cringed.

  The sorriest looking griffin I’d ever seen stared back at me. Brown and mottled, with patchy fur and feathers, it was half the size of Aidan’s griffin and looked like a fairytale reject.

  “Whew,” I said.

  “You’ll be a better-looking, stronger griffin with practice,” Aidan said. “But for now, you changed in midair and saved your deirfiúr’s life. That’s all that counts.”

  “I think being an actual cool-looking griffin is your specialty,” I said. And we didn’t have time to worry about what an ugly griffin I made.

  The scenery around us already wavered then changed to a new place. We were back in the desert. In the distance, a green oasis beckoned. My dragon sense tugged. The blue pool was so brilliant it made my eyes hurt, but it was the purple glow from within that made my heart gallop.

  “There!” I pointed.

  I ran, the sand dragging at my feet. My lungs burned from the hot air, but I pushed myself harder. We were still several hundred yards away, but it felt so close I could taste the cool water in the pool.

  A moment later, the serene quiet of the desert was replaced with the cacophonous sounds of an exotic bazaar. I pulled to a halt, my friends behind me. Heat blazed down on the many stalls filled with goods of every imaginable type—food, wine, jewels, fabric, toys, dishes. Like a fantasy department store in the desert. Colorful awnings stretched as far as I could see, a maze of people and merchandise.

  Languages I didn’t recognize flew around us as shopkeepers shouted about their wares. Magic ricocheted on the air. Supernaturals populated this bazaar, not humans. There were even some demons, just like at the dance club from before.

  “Does the Pool of Enchantment continue to move?” the Nullifier asked.

  “No, I don’t think so,” I said. “But the scenery around it does. We just need to get to it. Once we’re there, the pool itself should stay stable.”

  “Good.” His wide gaze flitted everywhere, clearly nervous.

  I nodded, then focused on my dragon sense, letting it pull me through the crowd. We went single file through the narrow passageways between stalls, dodging bodies and offerings of samples of sweets and fruits.

  “What have we here?” a rumbling voice said from beside me.

  I glanced around to see a huge form stepping out from between two stalls. His eerie silver eyes glinted.

  Tracker demon. And there were two behind him.

  My muscles tensed.

  “A FireSoul wandering around the bazaar.” His dark gaze darted behind me to Nix and Del. The Nullifier and Aidan took up the rear, but he didn’t bother looking at them. “Three FireSouls.”

  “Our quota for the next three years,” the demon behind him said.

  I called upon my lightning, ready to blast him away. But his big arm flashed out and grabbed me before I could so much as let the lightning crackle inside of me.

  A second later, I was standing inside a dark dungeon, the cold seeping through my jacket, into my heart.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  I was a dead girl.

  “The boss will be pleased with you,” the Tracker demon rumbled.

  Hell no, that wasn’t going to happen. I launched myself at him and swung my fist, aiming for his face. It collided with his nose, pain singing up my arm. He roared as blood sprayed. I heaved my knee between his legs, but he didn’t crumble like I expected.

  Instead, he backhanded me across the face so hard that I flew through the air and crashed into the wall. Pain flared in my head as it cracked against the stone.

  Darkness followed.

  13

  Light flashed as the door to the cell opened. I scuttled back, pressing myself against the wall. On either side of me, another girl huddled, shrinking back from the figure who loomed in the door.

  They were here for one of us.

  Me?

  My skin crawled, ice seeping through my veins, freezing me solid against the cold stone floor. They’d taken so many girls before. Would I be next?

  I was only fifteen. I had barely lived. Was this to be my end?

  The guard pointed one big finger and growled, “You.”

  Without a shadow of a doubt, he pointed at me. My heart stopped.

  He stomped forward on huge feet and grabbed me by the arm. His iron grip crushed my muscles. The other girls clung to my hands, trying to hold me back as if they could save me.

  Nothing could save me.

  Girls left. If they came back at all, it was different. They were collared or worse.

  That would be me now.

  I thrashed, trying to break free of his grasp, as the guard dragged me from the room. The rough stone scraped my bare feet, but I dug in, trying to keep myself from being dragged into the hall. The cell was terrible, but it was familiar. In there, all I knew was hunger and dark and fear.

  Out here, there were worse terrors.

  The dim light in the hall was no ea
sier on my eyes. I didn’t remember how long I’d been in the dark, but it’d been a long time. The guard dragged me up a flight of wooden stairs, then out a door and into an ornate hallway with silk wallpaper and wood paneling. A fancy manor house, though I didn’t remember it from my trip to the cell. I didn’t remember how I had gotten to the cell at all.

  I gabbed for an iron light fixture as the guard pulled me down the hall. My fingers brushed it for one short moment before I was yanked away.

  “Quit struggling,” the guard muttered.

  I kicked him in the shin, but all it did was send pain singing up my leg. A second later, he tossed me into a room. There was a flash of bookshelves and plush furniture before I thudded to the ground and skidded on a gleaming wooden floor. I scrambled into a crouch as my skin grew cold, then glanced around wildly like a trapped animal.

  “She’s feisty,” the guard said, his gaze directed over my head.

  I spun, staying crouched low to the ground, hating that the motion was so familiar, so instinctual.

  “Shackle her, then.” The voice was so cold it shivered along my skin. It was even scarier than the words.

  Footsteps thudded behind me. I lunged to the side, but I was too slow. The guard’s big hand snagged my arm, his grip bruising. Cold metal clamped around one of my wrists, then the other, binding my arms behind me.

  Terror surged, a fear so great that it felt like acid in my veins. It scrabbled through me with sharp claws as I cowered on the floor.

  The guard lifted me by the arm, nearly dislocating my shoulder, and spun me to face the man with the cold voice.

  He looked so normal—thin and brown-haired and boring—that the evil in his gaze stood out starkly. I cringed back, whimpering.

  The man crooked his finger, gesturing the guard forward.

  Despite my terror, instinct made me kick and thrash, determined not to go easily to my doom. But I was like a fly in a web.

  The evil man’s pale hand reached for me, gripping my thin dress and dragging me toward him. He was so close I could make out his pores and the muddy speckles in his irises. I yanked at my bonds, but all I did was scrape the skin from my wrists.

  The pain was nothing though. Gray flame was starting to lick its way across the man’s skin, the heat scorching. It flickered toward me, crawling up his arm to my chest. When it jumped onto the front of my dress, I screamed.

  The flame felt like knives digging into my flesh. It rooted around inside of me, seeking out my power.

  This man was a FireSoul, like me, I realized. Terror flared, greater than the pain of his gray fire. He was going to take my power! I’d never done that myself, but I knew what it was.

  “No!” I cried. My power was my soul. It was me.

  “So rare,” the man muttered, his gaze alight with greed.

  I thrashed, but pain and my bound hands made me weak. The flame was eating me from the inside, consuming me. My vision was fading.

  The man’s face twisted with frustration. Sweat dripped down his temples.

  “Why isn’t it working?” He shook me.

  My head lolled on my neck as my vision narrowed to a pinprick of light. I was sure my ribs were being torn open, my heart and lungs plucked out by the beak of a hungry bird.

  A spot of cool relief glowed on my chest.

  My locket? Consciousness began to fade.

  “Why isn’t it working?” the evil man yelled.

  Spit hit my face. The pain in my chest surged until I was certain that I was being consumed by the man’s gray flame. My power was waning, struggling to stay inside of me.

  But I was losing it. I could feel it being peeled away. Crushed. Immolated.

  Gone.

  I didn’t know what was going on, but as my mind retreated inside of itself, I knew I was losing part of my soul.

  Consciousness jerked me from the memory. I rolled onto my side and vomited, my chest heaving. When I was empty, I struggled to my knees and crawled toward the corner.

  I shoved myself back into it, the cold bite of stone so familiar. I’d spent part of my childhood here. This was the cell Nix, Del, and I had fled.

  But what had that nightmare just been? An event I’d suppressed? How had I not noticed the feeling of missing one of my powers? If it felt anything like the Nullifier suppressing my powers, it was terrible.

  I shuddered at the memory of the horrible pain. It was no surprise I’d repressed it. The Monster had stolen my root power. Or destroyed it. I didn’t think he’d taken it as his own, though. He’d been so angry. So frustrated. That meant he hadn’t gotten ahold of it, right?

  But it was also no longer my own. I couldn’t even remember what it was. I was a FireSoul, but what else was I? When I’d learned that I’d stolen my Mirror Mage power, I’d thought perhaps my root power had been that I was a FireSoul. I didn’t know if that was possible, but I’d assumed it. I’d never imagined I’d had a power stolen from me.

  I’d been wrong.

  I was some kind of Magica, but I didn’t know what kind.

  A blue light glowed from the other wall, catching my eye. Del? Hope flared in my chest.

  A moment later, Del drifted through the wall in her phantom form, a ghostly blue apparition of her normal self. I leapt to my feet and raced to her.

  “Del!” I whispered. “Where is Nix? Is the Monster here? I think this is his home.”

  She nodded, her blue face transparent. “It is. I remember this place. Nix is in a cell down the way. She’s conjuring a key. I don’t know if the Monster is here.”

  “A key? Is her power not blocked?” Most magical cells blocked the inhabitant’s power.

  “There’s a block,” Del whispered. “But it’s only strong enough for children and low power mages. Nix is too powerful. It’s taking her a while, but she thinks she’ll have a key soon.”

  Anger bubbled like hot tar in my chest. So he preyed on kids. “Bastard. Are there any children here?”

  “Not that I could find,” Del said. “And I floated through all the cells on this floor. But some of them looked recently used. If there are children here, they might be elsewhere.”

  “Damn it.” Did we have to choose between looking for missing children and saving Magic’s Bend?

  That was too terrible a choice.

  A moment later, a scratching noise sounded at the door. A key in the lock. The heavy wooden door creaked open, and Nix crept in. Her face was pale in the gloom, reflecting slightly blue in the light of Del’s phantom form.

  “Are you okay?” she whispered.

  “Good enough to run for it,” I said. But okay? Not even close. “Lets do a quick sweep. See if we can find any kids.”

  Nix and Del nodded.

  “I’ve checked this hall,” Del said. “No guards, no kids. I think we’re new additions. We’ve only been here ten minutes. Someone will probably be coming for us soon.”

  We snuck out into the hall. I glanced right, not surprised to see the big wooden door that I’d gone through twice in my nightmares. Once to have my powers destroyed, the second time to escape—though I hadn’t remembered going through it the first time at that point. I must have repressed the memory.

  Or had it stolen.

  How many times had I been violated here?

  I shook away the dark thought and glanced left. Another door, this one smaller.

  “Have you checked through there?” I asked Del.

  She shook her head, so I set off in that direction, keeping my footsteps light and my hand gripped on Righty, my favored dagger. I didn’t want to use lightning here, not when thunder would follow it. The noise would alert any guards.

  Quietly, I pushed open the door. A narrow set of stone steps led down, looking like they were leading to the basement of a haunted castle.

  Even farther underground? The Monster had a creepy underground mole’s labyrinth. But if there were any more prisoners, they would probably be down there.

  Slowly, we crept down the stairs, our way lit by th
e glow of Del’s phantom form. The door at the bottom of the stairs had no lock. After listening for a moment, I sucked in a deep breath and pushed it open.

  A wave of malevolence rolled out of the dimly lit room, making my skin feel sticky. Candles perched on tables and shelves, illuminating a large space that was lavishly furnished. A stooped figure sat in a plush armchair in the middle of the room.

  The malevolence rolled off of him. If he were a prisoner, which I wasn’t entirely certain of given the lavishness of his quarters and the lack of a lock on the door, he deserved it.

  “Who is there?” His voice creaked with age.

  “Mr. Orriordor sent us,” I improvised.

  “He did not!” The old man’s milky gaze snapped to my own. “You!”

  “Me?”

  “I recognize you.”

  “A seer,” Del whispered from beside me.

  I hurried to his side. The stench of malevolence was worse near him. Dark magic. No doubt he helped the Monster commit his evil deeds.

  “What do you know about me?” I demanded.

  “Payment first.”

  I almost growled as I thrust out my dagger and held it at his neck. His hand gripped my wrist, and I shuddered at the feel of his cold skin. Evil seemed to seep through into my flesh as the chill soaked into my muscles and up my arm.

  “How’s this for payment?” I demanded and I pressed the knife against his skin. “Tell me what I want to know, and I won’t slit your throat.”

  His lips peeled back from his teeth, revealing crooked yellow fangs. I pressed the blade harder until blood welled. His muddy eyes rolled back in his head until only the whites showed.

  Was that how he had his visions?

  “What do you know about me?” I demanded.

  “The gifted.”

  “What?”

  “The gifted.”

  Frustration welled. “Anything more?”

  “The gifted.”

  Damn it. “What about my deirfiúr?”

  “The gifted.”