Stolen Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress Book 3)

by Linsey Hall

  Del glanced at her trove door. “Yeah. Yeah, I can.”

  “You gotta, Del. We’ve got to get Connor and Claire and Dr. Garriso out of Magic’s Bend. You’re the only one who can do it.”

  She nodded, some of the wildness leaving her gaze. “Yeah. I can do it. Can’t get them too far because I’m still regenerating power from the portal, but I can at least get them a couple hundred miles away.”

  “Good. That’ll do.”

  I left, racing up the stairs and through my apartment. My heart clenched. I’d miss this place if it got sucked away.

  In my bedroom, I placed my hand on the wall where my trove was hidden and pushed my magic into the secret door, igniting the spell that would unlock it. The magic snapped, and I pressed the door open.

  I flicked on the lights. Racks of gleaming weapons and supple leather jackets and boots filled the space. Contentment immediately flowed over me, filling me with warmth.

  It reminded me of being with Aidan, and if that weren’t screwed up, I didn’t know what was. Human companionship and healthy relationships should probably be the number one source of comfort and joy in my life. Instead, it was my trove.

  But maybe not for long, if the portal went out of control.

  I forced myself to move quickly through my trove toward the back. When I reached the last alcove, I dropped to my knees and shoved aside an old pair of boots, then pressed my hand to the wall near the floor.

  A small door swung open, revealing my little safe. The place where I kept my true treasures. It had once housed the Chalice of Youth and the Scroll of Truth, but now held only the small golden locket. Dr. Garriso had the chalice, and I’d given the scroll to Aidan for safekeeping.

  I reached in and grabbed the locket, then shut the door and rose. As I walked back through my trove, I fixed the locket around my neck, wishing I could remember how I’d gotten it.

  As I neared the exit, my steps lagged. My dragon sense ignited, trying to pull me back toward my treasures. I gritted my teeth and fought it, but it was like that part of my soul knew I was abandoning what we had worked so hard for.

  Would my FireSoul rather stay and die than leave all this? Was it that powerful?

  No.

  I was in control. I’d been proving it these last few days, and I would keep doing so.

  But I turned and took one last long look at the shelves full of my treasures, hoping I’d be back and that it would all still be here. Being a FireSoul might have come with a lot of power, but it came with even more baggage.

  In this case, almost literal. I had to tear myself away, digging my fingernails into my palms to clear my head enough to find the strength to leave.

  I didn’t look back as I walked out the apartment door and took the stairs two at a time to Nix’s place. When I entered, Del was dragging Nix out of the bedroom. Nix’s glazed eyes met mine.

  “Time to go,” I said.

  “But—”

  I grabbed Nix’s arm, cutting her off, and helped Del drag her out of the bedroom. By the time we made it to the bottom of the stairs, Nix’s vision had cleared a bit.

  “Thanks, guys,” she said. “Don’t know what came over me.”

  Del stayed behind and reignited the protection spells on the door while Nix and I headed to P & P.

  “You’re going to go to Aidan’s and get Dr. Garriso with Connor and Claire,” I said. “Then get out of town.”

  “What about you?” Nix asked.

  “Going to help Aidan try to get rid of the portal. But I’ll be right behind you.”

  “I want to stay and help.”

  I squeezed her hand.

  “Me too.” Del’s voice came from behind. She’d run to catch up.

  “Thanks, guys. But the only reason I can help is because I’m a Mirror Mage. There wouldn’t be anything for you to do. And Del, you definitely have to get our friends out of town.”

  People would be fleeing by road, air, and magic. Magic was definitely the fastest.

  “Yeah,” Del said. “But I can come back.”

  “And I can just—” Nix halted and grabbed our arms, jerking us to a stop next to her.

  “Look,” she whispered, nodding her head into the window of P & P.

  Another Tracker demon. The same kind who’d been hunting us before. Through his hair, I could just make out his sawed-off horns, and I’d bet anything that his eyes were that eerie silver.

  “Oh, hell no.” Now? “Doesn’t he know we’re evacuating?”

  “Not if he just teleported here.”

  “Gotta love his timing.”

  This demon needed to be sent back to his hell, and fast. But the desire to confirm that he wasn’t looking for us specifically tugged at me. If I was going to question him, I had to do it fast.

  “I’ve got an idea.” I sucked in a calming breath and called upon my new Illusion power. It was hard to get a grip on since I hadn’t used it before, but I managed. Magic, fluid and ephemeral in this form, flowed through my veins. I imagined myself changing shape, growing horns and turning my eyes silver. My limbs didn’t fill with warmth like they did when I actually shifted into animal form, but a sparkling sensation slid across my skin.

  “Whoa.” Del stepped back.

  “How do I look?” I asked.

  “Scary as fuck,” Nix said. “Like a bigger version of that dude.”

  “Perfect. Follow me, but linger near the door like you’re not with me.”

  They nodded.

  I turned and strode toward the door, ducking as I entered. I probably didn’t need to, but if I was bigger than the Tracker demon currently interrogating Connor, the illusion that covered me likely would have hit his head on the doorjamb. I caught sight of myself in the antique mirror behind the bar and almost winced.

  I was one scary bastard, over seven and a half feet tall and built like a ‘roided up wrestling star on Saturday morning TV. I twisted my features into a snarl.

  “You!” I barked, pointing one massive finger at the other Tracker demon. “Why’re you poaching on my turf?”

  He spun, confusion on his beastly face. “Master’s orders. Hunting FireSouls.”

  “You got a special assignment? ‘Cause I do. One FireSoul in particular. You screw it up poking around because you’re here on a general hunt and you’ll fucking regret it.” I prayed that’s what they called them as I took a threatening step forward. I was half a foot taller than this guy and easily fifty pounds heavier.

  “Hey, calm down. I’m just here on the seer’s orders that there are FireSouls in this town. Not hunting anyone in particular. So if you are, I’ll back off, let you have the bounty.” He raised his hand.

  Bingo. Just what I’d wanted to hear.

  Connor’s startled gaze darted between me and the other demon. He was reaching under the counter, possibly for a potion bomb. I needed to end this before he chucked the thing at me.

  I called upon my lightning, letting it crackle and fill me. When I’d created a big enough bolt, I let it fly at the demon. Thunder cracked as he dropped like a stone.

  “Cass?” Connor asked, bewildered.

  I dropped the illusion and grinned. “Yep.”

  “I thought that smelled like you. Badass power.”

  “Thanks. I got it from a real asshole.” I walked over and kicked the demon. He didn’t budge.

  Del approached. “That was some quick thinking.”

  “Thanks. Most of the times I try to wound and then question, I just end up killing. This seemed better.”

  “Yeah,” Nix said. “At least we know they aren’t hunting us in particular.”

  “Just that they know some of our kind live nearby.” I grimaced. “Which isn’t good.”

  “Let’s not worry about that now,” Del said. “We need to get out of here.”

  “Agreed.” I hugged her, then Nix. “I’ll call you when we’re done at the museum.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  This time, I spied on Aidan and the Order from the park
ing lot across the street. I stood behind a tall pickup truck, with a view through the window to the museum. It wasn’t perfect cover, but everyone would be staring at the glowing museum, so I’d probably be fine.

  I’d used the comms charm to tell Aidan where I would be. When I arrived, he’d perked up and looked back, his gaze searching the lot. He’d been listening for me with his Shifter hearing, I realized.

  I peaked my head out, and he caught sight of me. One corner of his mouth kicked up slightly, and he turned back to the others. I recognized the three investigators, as well as one of the other two figures. The Amplifiers. One was an unfamiliar man dressed in a blue suit, but the other was familiar.

  Mordaca?

  Her dark hair and gown—she was basically a twenty-first century Elvira—were distinct. Mordaca was a Blood Sorceress who had a shop called the Apothecary’s Jungle in Darklane, the part of town where most Black Magic practitioners lived and worked. She wasn’t outright on the wrong side of the law, but there was no question she dabbled in forbidden magic. I’d hired her and her sister a month ago to help me find the Scroll of Truth, but hadn’t seen her since. She must have been the local Amplifier the investigators had spoken about.

  When she turned, I flinched. Could she see me? She didn’t have any Shifter blood as far as I knew, so her hearing should be normal. How had she known to look back here?

  “Why are you lurking?” A soft voice came from behind me.

  My heart leapt as I spun, calling upon my lightning instinctively. It crackled under my skin.

  “Don’t shoot.” A pale woman smiled eerily at me and raised her hands slowly. She wore a killer white pantsuit—that shouldn’t look good on anyone but looked amazing on her—and her golden hair gleamed under the noon sun. Her magic sounded like chirping birds and felt like a light breeze, but she wasn’t all goodness and light.

  “Aerdeca,” I said. Mordaca’s sister. “What are you doing here?”

  “Same as you. Keeping an eye on my loved one.”

  “Why is Mordaca here?”

  “She’s an Amplifier. The Order hired her to assist.”

  As I’d thought.

  Aerdeca scowled. “But you’re a Mirror Mage. You could be up there helping.”

  “I am. From here.”

  “Don’t want to run into the Order?” She arched a perfect brow.

  “No. Do you? You’d be better able to keep an eye on Mordaca if you were nearby.”

  “Fair enough. We’ll lurk here together.”

  I turned back to the group and watched them talk. “I didn’t know Mordaca was an Amplifier.”

  “She has many talents. But your magic feels a bit different than it did a month ago. I bet it’s a fascinating story.”

  “No talking. Let’s just watch.”

  Aerdeca shrugged.

  “And give me space.”

  She moved back a few steps.

  I turned my attention to the group in front of the museum. They were spreading out, Mordaca and the other Amplifier standing on either side of Aidan. They approached the museum and stopped about ten feet from it.

  Aidan reached out, his hand slowly swiping through space. Testing the soupy portal air, I assumed. He then held the Spell Stripper out.

  Magic swelled in the air as he activated it. The scent of the forest and the sound of crashing waves hit me. Then the Amplifiers’s magic. The taste of whiskey came from Mordaca. The other Amplifier’s power felt like a cold shower.

  I shivered, then closed my eyes and tried to pick up the feel of the exact magic they were using. My chest thrummed with energy as I grasped the signature of the amplification and mirrored it. Like the power over illusion, this was harder than my usual magic. Probably because there wasn’t something physical and easy to create, like fire.

  My muscles vibrated with strain as I attempted to assist, but I’d had no training in this. It was like trying to grab on to eels. I visualized the amplification magic as green smoke that I pushed toward Aidan, trying to make it increase the Spell Stripper’s magic.

  “It’s working,” Aerdeca whispered. “Keep going.”

  Sweat dripped down my temples and my breath became short as I spurred my magic on, pushing it toward Aidan and the Spell Stripper. The museum wavered, the purple glow pulsing. The air began to thrum, as if the portal were fighting to hang on.

  My legs weakened and I leaned against the truck. A hum sounded in my ears, either the portal’s magic or my own exhaustion. I pushed past it, focusing on the whiskey taste and cold shower feel of the Amplifiers’s magic.

  “Whoa,” Aerdeca whispered. “Keep going. The purple is almost gone.”

  She was right. I could feel the magic fading. The bricks of the museum were almost beige again. The air went deathly quiet as the portal finally faded. My heaving breath was the only thing in my head. I lowered my arms.

  Aidan and the Amplifiers did the same.

  The lightness of joy welled in my chest. We’d succeeded.

  A thunderous boom cracked through the air, followed by a flash of purple. An enormous gust of power bowled me over.

  Pain exploded in my entire body, tearing my muscles apart.

  Then everything went black.

  Golden light flared behind my eyelids.

  The desert. Blazing hot light pounded down, but there was no sun. Magic vibrated in the air. The Monster, and something else.

  I cringed, my stomach twisting with fear. I was back at the waypoint. The purple explosion of the portal flashed in my mind.

  Had I been sucked in? Or was this a vision? It certainly wasn’t like my dreams of my childhood.

  I blinked and tried to push myself up, but I couldn’t move. The hot sand sucked me down. My heart pounded. My panic tasted metallic. Was I paralyzed? I thrashed my head, trying to see if anything was coming for me. Trying to find an escape.

  A flash of green caught my eye. I stared, squinting. An oasis. With a glittering blue pool in the middle. There was a hint of purple light in the middle of the water, and magic surged from it, rolling over me.

  The pool was the source of the other magical signature—the one that wasn’t the Monster—but it was strange.

  I tried to focus on it, squinting to make out the purple light, but the glittering blue water kept distracting me. My brain felt so fuzzy that it was hard to concentrate.

  It hit me a second later.

  A Pool of Enchantment.

  Of course. That was why we—

  “Wake up!” A shriek tugged me from the desert.

  I bolted upright, throwing off the hand that shook my shoulder.

  “What? Where am I?”

  “The museum, idiot! Now come help!” Aerdeca yelled. Her blue eyes were wild. Her power surged, egged on by her panic. She surged to her feet and darted off through the cars.

  I scrambled up, panting. I wasn’t paralyzed. I hadn’t actually gone to the waypoint.

  But the museum had.

  “Oh shit,” I breathed.

  The east wing of the museum was gone. Or at least, mostly gone. I could catch the barest glimmer of the brick and windows, like a shadow. The rest of the building glowed a violent purple.

  The portal had expanded. Big time.

  Not only had we failed to get rid of it, we’d made it worse.

  My gaze darted over the front lawn. Though it was a windless day, leaves skittered across the grass, drawn to the portal. A huge oak creaked as it bent toward the museum. Figures were scattered on the ground, frozen. The purple glow of the portal extended out over the grass like a dome.

  Aidan!

  I sprinted through the cars toward his prone figure. He was half in/half out of the portal’s glow. Aerdeca was trying to push her way through the purple to reach Mordaca, whose body was fully encased in the expanded portal, her skin and clothes glowing eerily purple.

  “Aidan!” I fell to my knees beside him. His eyes were closed, but his chest moved. “Wake up!”

  I tugged at his shoulders, t
rying to drag him out of the portal, but he was too heavy. The portal must be pulling on him, because normally I’d at least be able to awkwardly tug his two-hundred-plus pounds.

  I smacked him right across the cheek. “Wake up!”

  He jerked, his eyes widening.

  “What the hell?” He bolted upright and stared at his legs, encapsulated in the purple glow.

  He tugged, then grunted. “Shit.”

  “You can’t get out?”

  Aerdeca’s curses and magic flared from nearby as she tried to reach her sister. The other investigators and Amplifiers were all frozen solid within the portal.

  “No.” Aidan heaved himself along the ground, but he barely budged. “Move back.”

  His tone was so authoritative that I scrambled back without question.

  Silver gray light swirled around him, and the evergreen scent of his magic swelled. He disappeared in the light, and an enormous golden blur burst forth, launching itself into the sky.

  I tilted my head back. An enormous griffin soared above, its golden coat and powerful wings glinting in the sunlight. A grin spread across my face, and I jumped to my feet.

  The griffin spun on the breeze and descended, landing with a thud that shook the ground.

  “Not bad,” I said, meeting its dark gaze. I couldn’t help the shiver that raced across my shoulders at the sight of the beak that looked like it could crush cows. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, but he was still damned scary in this form.

  Silver gray light flashed, and Aidan stood before me again, dressed in his same clothes, a talent I still admired. When I shifted, I ended up mostly naked on the return change. I’d managed to keep a single boot, my granny panties—it’d been laundry day—and my t-shirt last time, so I still needed more practice, but at least I was improving.

  Aidan shook his head as if to clear it.

  Aerdeca ran up, her gaze wild. Her immaculate suit was now streaked with grass stains from where she’d tried to crawl into the portal to reach her sister.

  “How’d you get out?” she demanded.

  “My griffin’s strength. And because I was only half-captured.” He glanced at Mordaca. “I can’t help her. Not in the same way.”

  “Damn it!” Aerdeca hissed. “What is this? How do I get through it?”