Oracle’s Haunt: Desert Cursed Series Book 4

by Shannon Mayer

  “What?” Ford made a grabby motion with his hand and I slapped it away.

  “I think they’re . . . dead.” Just in those few seconds, the image of the three hyenas running had become clearer, sharp enough that I could see the details. The dead black of their eyes, the chunks of skin flipping off their bodies, the bones jutting out of their legs as they ran. No movement to their mouths, no panting tongues, no heaving sides from breathing.

  I threw the binoculars at Ford. “Time to go.”

  “Where?”

  “North, we’ll lead them north.” I urged Balder into a gallop and Batman followed. We had taken only a few strides when Lila dropped from the sky, landing on Balder’s neck. She clung to him, her claws digging in but he didn’t so much as flinch. “You aren’t going to believe—”

  “The hyenas are dead?” I offered as I leaned into the gallop.

  “Yeah, well, that isn’t all.” She shook her head, her violet eyes worried. “It’s worse than just dead dogs chasing us.”

  Ford shook his head. “How is it possible to get worse than dead hyenas? I mean, how do we kill them, to start?”

  “We try to draw them away first, then we’ll make a stand.” My mind already raced with how to manage dead dogs. What would be the best way to tackle them? “They likely won’t be as smart as a living hyena, so that should be in our favor.”

  Lila jumped and slammed into my chest, her front claws grabbing at my face.

  “Hey!” I yelled. “What are you doing?”

  “You aren’t listening to me, so I’m making you listen!” she snapped. “This is worse than just hyenas. Or dead hyenas. They have riders, Zam.”

  A chill of understanding coursed through me. Of seeing Maks and Ishtar standing together.

  “Sweet goddess of the desert, the Jinn have mounts in the hyenas?”

  Lila nodded. “Yes. And . . .”

  “Really, there’s an and?” Ford yelled.

  Lila’s eyes, though, they filled with tears and that said it all. Don’t let anyone tell you dragons aren’t emotional. Lila’s heart was big enough for three people and she was moved to tears when she thought someone she loved was in trouble.

  I leaned forward and hugged her to my chest. “Maks is with them, isn’t he?”

  Her head bobbed against my chest. “Yes, he is.”

  5

  A part of me knew I shouldn’t be surprised that Maks was in the hunting party of Jinn and undead hyenas. I knew he still wanted me with him. I’d felt it in his touch in the sandstorm, in the heat of his eyes. Whatever love he had for me was still driving him to . . . well, to do what? Protect me? I buried my head against Balder’s neck, his mane lashing me in the face, and closed my eyes. I wanted to let the rhythm of galloping hooves carry me along for a space of time.

  Ford wasn’t going to let what Lila said go. After all, Maks was his adopted brother who he’d been searching for since Marsum had taken Maks away. “He won’t hurt us, you can’t really believe that, do you?”

  I lifted my head enough to look across at him. His face was twisted in a pain I knew all too well, one of grief and confusion mixed with a dash of goddam hope. The loss of a sibling was no small thing, not when you’d been hunting for a way to find them, to save them. Bryce and his death had been no small cost to my own hurt, to my own drive, and I had to believe there was a way to bring him back. Just as I believed there was a way to bring Maks back.

  Hope really was a right bastard. I couldn’t let it go, though, and I understood Ford’s need to believe that Maks was salvageable.

  “Today is not the day to test out his affection for us if we can help it,” I said and urged Balder faster. Lila tipped her head to the sky as the clouds rumbled and danced, darkening the day to a false night.

  “That feels strange,” she said, her words barely heard over the rush of the wind and the thud of the horses’ hooves in the sand. “I don’t think it’s Flora.”

  The wind around us snapped up, harder than before, grains of sand and bits of debris smacking into our exposed skin. I squinted my eyes against it and hunched farther over Balder’s back.

  “Flora’s got her panties in a twist today,” Ford yelled as we thundered across the dunes, obviously missing what Lila had said. He wasn’t wrong. This was the strongest storm I’d seen since we escaped from the Jinn’s Dominion.

  Unless it wasn’t her? I glanced at Lila and she shrugged, reading the question on my face. If it wasn’t Flora, could it be the Jinn? I’d never heard of them manipulating the weather, but I wouldn’t put it past them.

  The land changed suddenly from the grains that slid under the horses’ hooves and made them work twice as hard to keep up a gallop, to a hard pack dirt, perfect for speed.

  “Let’s go!” I yelled and gave a low hiss to Balder. He unleashed his speed as if he’d been standing still, his legs stretching out and his body flattening into a lean line. Beside us, Batman fought hard to keep up and, shockingly, didn’t drop far behind.

  I looked to the side to see Ford with a grin on his face as he crouched low over Batman’s neck, mimicking me. If not for the fact that we had a small pack of dead shifter hyenas and three Jinn chasing us, this might have been an enjoyable gallop through the desert.

  The sky cracked above us and a bolt of lightning sheared off to our left, lighting up the space around us and making my skin prickle. The horses veered to the right until another bolt slammed down on that side.

  Forget that bit about an enjoyable gallop.

  “Fuck, that’s too much, Flora!” I looked behind us as if I could see her and give her the finger. I didn’t think this was her sense of humor, but I’d been wrong before about what others found funny.

  I looked at Lila and . . . she still stared straight up into the sky, her face all scrunched up as she searched the clouds with her violet-colored eyes. “Lila?”

  “I think I see something!” she said, and then she pushed off me and shot upward fast, her wings brushing against my face for a split second before she was skyward bound. In the black clouds, the lightning danced and—

  “Holy shit, that’s a dragon up there?” Ford roared.

  Yeah, and he didn’t mean Lila. A big dragon was there and gone in those flashes, the body undulating through the clouds.

  Lila had thought earlier her father was following her, could Corvalis be here? Fucking bloody damn hell, that was the last thing we needed. He hated his daughter and had tried to kill her twice, both times failing, which made it all that much more likely he’d try again. Knowing the luck that I carried around with me most days, there was a strong chance it was indeed the big black bastard of a dragon who we’d ousted from the Dragon’s Ground, and in doing so, earned his eternal hatred.

  Score one for the girls.

  Sort of.

  “Lila! Get back here!” I screamed up at her. She’d gone up there to check because she could feel something, because she knew someone was up there manipulating this storm. Because now that we were so far from the Pride and Flora we knew it couldn’t be her. The weather was too strong, too far away from her. Her skills were impressive, but not on this scale.

  And that was if we disregarded what we’d all seen.

  “Maybe it was just a cloud formation?” Ford offered.

  I wasn’t sure I could put much more stock in hope today. It had already fucked me over enough. I wasn’t going to give it another chance.

  We galloped hard and Lila did not show up. She did not fly out of the sky, and the weather only grew stronger, the lightning coming harder and faster, driving us first to the left, then to the right.

  I made myself look back to see where the pursuers were, to see if they’d gained any ground.

  Behind us was an empty space, no storm roused up, no flying sand.

  I held a hand out to Ford, palm up. We slowed without words between us. Or almost.

  “You sure that’s a good idea with the lightning and shit?” he asked.

  “It’ll hit us o
r it won’t,” I answered. “We keep running, we could be running with the storm instead of away from it.” Even as I said the words, the lightning seemed to strike a little farther away, not as close as before. A whoosh of wings snapped my head up just as Lila dropped from out of a dark cloud that boiled as if it were water on the ocean and not clouds in the sky.

  The lightning eased and struck farther away yet, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Lila, what the hell?”

  “I thought I saw a dragon up there,” she said. “But there was nothing. It’s just a storm.” She landed on my shoulder and sighed. “It’s probably better that there was no dragon.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, don’t be disappointed that it was just a storm. The lightning was giving us a run for our money.”

  I leaned forward and patted Balder on the neck. “Okay, let’s do a big loop and head back to the others. We’ll meet up with them by the end of the day. The hard pack here will hide our tracks.”

  Fool that I was, I thought we’d escaped both the storm and the hunters behind us.

  Balder hadn’t taken two steps when a bloom of warmth rumbled in my blood, warmth that I’d only ever felt when Marsum had forced me into a kiss. I put a hand to my chest as my heart picked up speed, adrenaline suddenly coursing through me, chasing the sudden heat.

  Jinn magic.

  “Zam, look out!” Ford yelled and I instinctively leaned, putting my leg against Balder’s side and driving him to the right. Where we’d stood only a second before, the ground exploded with a rock-splitting boom that sent Balder even farther to the right, shying from the shards of rocks and flame that spewed outward in a vicious spray.

  I didn’t need to look back to know that the Jinn had caught up to us. The sense of magic had given me some warning. I’d just not known what it was until it was almost too late. Another boom of exploding dirt to our left sent us back the way we’d come. Flames shot into the sky to our left, right, and in front as the horses and we worked to find a way out.

  “They’re pinning us down,” Ford snarled.

  “Correction,” I said, “they’ve pinned us down.” I let out a shaky breath as I turned Balder to face the only opening in the flames.

  It happened so fast, there was no time to do anything but face the music.

  Three Jinn, three dead but still weirdly alive hyena shifters . . . and just me with Maks beside me. I blinked, no, not Maks, Ford. I was with Ford. Not with Ford, but beside him, facing Maks.

  Camel piss, I should not be confused by who was beside me. I was going to blame it on Batman being his mount. And the way he laughed just like Maks. They might not have been blood brothers but they still shared traits. Tics, movements, way of speaking.

  I gritted my teeth, and though my eyes watered from the heavy smoke off the red-hot fires, I stared toward the oncoming Jinn, my chin up in about the only show of defiance I could give right then. Two Jinn came at us, not three, roaring all the way. I distantly wondered which one was the brother of Asuga. It didn’t matter. They were here to kill us.

  I reached over my shoulder and grabbed the handle of the flail. It warmed immediately and bonded itself to my hand as though stuck there with fresh glue. “Murderous bastard,” I whispered and the weapon . . . wiggled. Yeah, it seemed to enjoy its job of death and destruction perhaps a little too much. Then again, it had saved my ass more than once.

  Even if the fucking thing had tried to kill me too.

  I pulled it from my back and held it out to the side so I could start twisting my wrist in a looping circle, the twin spiked balls speeding up, prepping for maximum damage.

  “Lady’s choice, you want the left Jinn or the right?” Ford said, the sound of steel leaving a sheath ringing through the air.

  “Stay on two legs as long as possible,” I said. “If we get the chance, I want to be able to run north again. And I’ll take the one on the right. He looks like he wants to die today. And you should dismount.” I looked at Ford. “I’m afraid you’ll cut Batman’s head off by accident.” I dropped Balder’s reins so I had both hands free, directing him only with my legs. Ford slid from Batman, a grimace on his face. Yeah, riding was a hell of a lot more than just sitting nice on a pony.

  The Jinn had slowed and now stood about forty feet away as the fire raged around us, holding us where they wanted us. Maks sat comfortably on his mount farther back and I fought not to look at him. What good would it do?

  “Toad,” Lila shouted, flying into the air above my head, “you stop this nonsense right this second!”

  Maks laughed, and it hurt my heart to hear it. His laugh, but not him. “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

  “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” I whispered, hating that he would play our game still.

  He grinned at me but spoke to her. “That’s you, Lila. A fool to think you’ll ever be anything but a tiny little dragon with tiny little abilities. You can’t even mate, can you? How could you ever be anything but a null?”

  Lila gasped and then let out a snarling roar that cut me to the quick . . . because it was wet with tears. “You . . . vile . . . horrible . . .” She couldn’t say more than that.

  I made myself bark a laugh at him, though with difficulty. “Nice to see you’re here today, Marsum,” I yelled. “Still making Maks do your dirty work, still controlling him, using him. You really are a broomstick up a camel’s ass, aren’t you? Good for nothing but getting the shit moving.”

  Maks laughed again, but I still couldn’t look at him directly. I kept my eyes on the other two Jinn and their mounts. The Jinn were just Jinn like those I’d seen before. They looked like men, their bodies and eyes the same as so many. The one on my side had the same build as Asuga and his eyes were the same dark color.

  “She’s safe,” I said softly. He nodded ever so slightly, a sigh going out of him. I had no doubt he’d still fight me, and I’d still try to kill him, but he deserved to know when he’d warned her to flee.

  My eyes slid to the hyenas. They were something else entirely. Oversized, as was expected. Hyenas half the size of lions, only now . . . their spots were sloughing off, their fur was missing in patches and their bodies looked rough, to say the least. A few places were burnt, a few places had chunks of bone sticking out, one foot looked to be twisted the wrong way. But they were not bothered by any of it.

  At least, as far as I could tell.

  “Maks, don’t do this,” Ford called out, and I stiffened and looked at him.

  “Don’t,” I said. “He’ll just try to get in your head.” Hell, didn’t I already know that. That was what Marsum wanted—to get into our heads. To make us doubt ourselves and each other. “The thing is,” I continued before Maks could respond, “Marsum was about as dumb as a bag of sand. Maks is smart. Marsum is using him, as users do, and using his best abilities—his brains.”

  I shrugged as if it was no consequence. Lila landed in front of me and tucked herself against my belly. I put a hand on her to still her shaking. “He’s going to try and tell us the worst about ourselves. That’s what bullies do.” I smiled at Ford then, and did something more than dangerous, maybe even stupid. But he’d hurt Lila, and I knew there was one area that would be open to a blow. You see, two could play a game of stab-them-where-it-hurts-the-most. I winked at Ford. “We can talk about it in bed later.”

  Ford’s eyebrows shot up, and Lila grabbed at me as she gasped, and I finally looked at Maks. Made myself look at him.

  His blue eyes might well as have been black for how dark they were. Whatever smile had been on his face was gone, whatever laughter that had rolled from his mouth had disappeared. I bared my teeth at him. “Doesn’t feel very good, does it? You lay into Lila again, and I’ll cut your tongue out myself, Maks. You don’t touch my family. You don’t touch those I love. It won’t matter that I loved you.”

  Past tense. Loved.

  He frowned and the darkness slid off his face, and for just a second, a moment so fast I almost missed it, he was just Ma
ks. His eyes met mine, sorrow and pain flowing between us—and more than that, understanding.

  But then he was gone, and before he could say anything, his eyes narrowed, once more darkening. With a tip of his head, he gestured to us.

  “Kill the male, bring the girl to me.”

  Batman let out a low whinny, obviously recognizing his friend’s voice, and Maks flinched as if he’d been hit.

  There was a moment where the scene just seemed to pause. No one moved, there was no thump of a horse’s foot, and even the crackle of the flames around us dimmed.

  And then the two Jinn and their pets launched at us.

  “I’ll knock them down, you take their heads!” I said.

  “I thought you were going right. I was going left!” Ford yelled at me.

  “Or maybe that,” I yelled back. Anything to throw the Jinn off. The warmth in my blood sung sweetly to me as I closed the gap between me and the Jinn. I swung the flail, spinning it hard and fast, ready to move Balder into position. “Lila, stay with me. I don’t want to get separated.”

  She hunched down on the front of my saddle and wove her claws into Balder’s mane. “Got it.”

  I leaned into Balder, into the wind, and focused on only one thing. Killing the Jinn. I would not think about Maks. I wouldn’t think about my heart.

  I couldn’t, not if we were going to survive, if I was going to protect my pride.

  The flail’s handle glued itself to me as it did, warming as I snapped it around in a sharp circle, the spiked balls ringing like a pair of bells as they banged against one another. The Jinn closest to me grinned, his eyes wild and the magic crackling around him. Asuga’s brother.

  There would be no quarter given on either side, and we both knew it.

  “Hang on, Lila,” I said through gritted teeth. “This is going to be a fucking bumpy ride.”

  6