Magictorn

by Leia Stone

  Magictorn

  Dragons and Druids Series Book Three

  Leia Stone

  MagicTorn

  Leia Stone

  Copyright © 2018 by Leia Stone. All rights reserved.

  Magictorn characters, names and related items are trademarks owned by Leia Stone.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, live or dead, are purely coincidental.

  Stone, Leia

  Magictorn

  Gilbert, Arizona

  1. Paranormal Romance

  For information on reproducing sections of this book or sales of this book go to www.facebook.com/leia.stone

  leiastonebooks@gmail.com

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 1

  The sound of footsteps echoing down the stone castle corridor had me scrambling to my feet. Six hours. It had been six hours since Ardan had marooned me in some steel cell inside of a castle in Ireland. My thick steel cage was bare, except for a toilet and washbasin. No bedding, no books, nothing. It looked out onto a hallway and stone staircase. A large arched open window with no glass, just bars, overlooked a beautiful landscape. If I weren’t scared for my life I might actually enjoy the rolling green hills, forest, and rocky beach. Logan and the team were scrambling to find my location, but this place was a magical fortress and they couldn’t locate it remotely. Thank God my mind-speak, mate-bond thingy still worked, or I would have gone crazy by now.

  Lynn and the new baby were safe, Logan had informed me, but not for long because Eva’s spell could only hide the baby’s shifting for about twenty-four to forty eight hours, and the ingredients needed for it were precious and hard to come by.

  Probably elven ear wax or something nasty.

  When I asked him about Ruben, he changed the subject. I didn’t press him; I was too emotionally fragile to hear the answer. Ruben and Steven had been in a faceoff right before Ardan took me. Could he have survived that? I thought of the little red beard tattoo on my ribcage, I prayed wouldn’t need to add a bear to it.

  Logan had made me promise that I would mentally keep him informed of everything that happened, I struggled now with telling him someone was coming. What was the point of worrying him?

  A face emerged over the top of the steps, and then the largest man I’d ever seen came walking up the stone stairs—that was saying something after being surrounded by huge shifters. He had brown, graying hair slicked into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. His eyes were dark, almost black, and he radiated power that made my pulse quicken; sweat beaded my brow.

  Ardan.

  Stepping up beside him was the king of douchebags, Steven, and someone I didn’t know, but his glowing yellow eyes made my stomach drop. He was a truth witch. The same eerie glow had been in the eyes of Eva’s bouncer.

  I scrambled to connect with my mate. ‘Logan, he’s back with a truth witch.’ Eva had warned me of their kind, told me I had to reframe things in my mind when I answered them, to get away with a lie. But I’d never learned the art of what she called trickery.

  My eyes fell to a large red glowing blade in the truth witch’s hand. I swallowed hard. I was too pretty and too sheltered for torture. I was gonna tell these assholes whatever they wanted to avoid getting sliced up.

  ‘We’re on a plane to Northern Ireland in the general area Eva thinks you might be.” Logan’s voice came through loud and clear. “Isaac has a friend there who might be able to help us find you. Just tell them whatever they want to know so you won’t be hurt.’

  That sounded like a decent plan until my mind flashed to the horrible things they could ask me: Where was Isaac’s land? How many more skyborn were alive, and where did they live? My mom’s address book…

  I scrambled backward until I was nearly touching the wall.

  ‘No. Teach me how to lie,’ I begged him.

  Logan growled. ‘It takes months to learn trickery! They’ll torture you! Just tell them.’

  ‘What if they ask me about Casey? Lynn’s baby? No!’ I shouted back through our bond. The men reached the bars and I clenched my hands into fists. Where was Sophie when I needed her? She would probably take a hundred cuts from that knife before ever uttering a single word.

  I pinned Ardan with my meanest glare. “You know, I hear steroids can cause some nasty side effects. You should really stop using them.”

  His face was a mask of calm. He looked at Steven and nodded. Oh shit.

  In a blink, Steven disappeared from outside the bars, reappearing inside my cell, right before me. I wanted to act cool and badass, but instead, I yelped and stumbled backward, cracking my head against the wall. Pain exploded in my skull, but I was able to shake it off and stay upright. Steven grinned, and I wanted to cut that smug look right off of his face. If I thought my dragon could break through steel bars, I would shift right now, but there was no point. I was a smallish dragon and steel was definitely strong enough to contain me.

  “I want her magic,” Ardan snapped. “Not just her dragon magic, all of it. I want the magic of a fire druid. Figure out how to get it for me.” He spun on his heel and left, heading down the same stairs he came.

  Oh shit of all shits, I was so screwed. There was no way this could end well. I had rogue power that was threatening to put me in a coma if I used it, and no staff to control it. I tried to control my breathing, but felt on the verge of hyperventilating.

  Steven grabbed hold of my forearm, yanking me closer to him. My heart jumped to my throat, I feared what he would do to me. There was an unlocking noise, metal against metal, and the cell door scraped open as the truth witch came inside.

  “We’re going to have a little chat,” the sorcerer told me.

  ‘Logan, they’re going to interrogate me. You have to teach me something! ANYTHING!’ I roared through our mate bond. Why did men have to be so difficult? Just do what I ask the first time and we wouldn’t have problems.

  ‘Eva has a plan. Use our mate bond, open it up wide so I can hear what he asks you, but don’t really focus on what he says. Just focus on what I ask you and answer out loud.’

  What the hell? That was the most confusing thing I’d ever heard.

  I decided maybe I could talk my way out of this. “What do you want to know?” I asked them. “You already know I’m skyborn. You already know I’m half druid.”

  The truth witch’s eyes flared to life then, my stomach tightened in knots.

  “Are you mated?” he asked, his lips curling into an evil grin as if he already knew the answer.

  Frick.

  ‘Do you hate me?’ Logan asked.

  ‘What? Of course not!’ My man had lost his damn mind.

  ‘No, answer me out loud. Don’t focus on him.’

  Ohhh, oops.

  “I asked you a question. ARE you a mated dragon?” The sorcerer pressed his yellow magic and it washed over me, warmth and tingling, coating my skin like a film.

  ‘Do you hate me?’ Logan asked again and I focused on that question, ignoring the other one.

  “No,” I answered confidently.

  The truth witch pinched his eyebrows together,
eyeing me skeptically.

  “Do you know where any of the other skyborn are?” he asked, taking one step closer to me, causing my pulse to skyrocket.

  ‘Do you want me to kick Hemlock?’ Logan asked right away.

  ‘Hell no. And now I miss my dog—thanks.’

  “No,” I answered aloud.

  The truth witch glared. “She hasn’t technically lied but I don’t trust her answers,” he said to the druid.

  Steven growled. “Guess we’ll have to do some experimenting, then.”

  He lunged for me and there was nothing I could do but back into the wall and cover my face. The truth witch threw something yellow and suddenly I was frozen midair, hands over my face. I could breathe, barely, but I couldn’t move.

  “Thank you,” Steven said politely to his colleague.

  He reached behind him and brandished the glowing red knife. “I wonder if I make multiple small incisions, if I can coax out her dragon magic without killing her.”

  Oh God.

  The truth witch rubbed his chin. “She’s half druid. I’ll bet her druid feeds off of her dragon, and if you kill her dragon it might also kill her druid. Unless she’s mated.”

  Steven brought the knife closer to my raised arm, and that’s when my dragon roared inside of me. I could no longer protect myself, so she was going to try. Problem was, I was frozen.

  Steven looked annoyed. “So, what do you propose?” He was knife happy. I could see it in his eyes as I peered through my fingers at him. He was dying to cut me.

  The truth witch held out his hand, scanning the air before me as my dragon lashed at my body, trying to rip free. “Her magic is all intertwined. We need to tease it apart so we can siphon the dragon magic first. Then I can transfer her druid power to Lord Ardan through a sacrifice spell.”

  Sacrifice? Did he say sacrifice? Fainting was a definite possibility now.

  ‘Logan they’re going to kill me,’ I whimpered through the bond.

  I felt his fresh hot panic flare through me as Logan’s presence saturated my being. ‘Hang on. Isaac has a plan. Do whatever you can to buy us a couple of hours.’

  A couple hours! That seemed impossible, but I had to try something.

  “I know where The Eye is!” I blurted at the truth witch. I was pleased to find that although my body was frozen, my mouth still worked.

  He immediately looked at me with interest. “What is this, a bargain? Although the prospect of acquiring The Eye intrigues me, I will not trade your life for it.”

  No shit, Sherlock. I’m trying to buy some time.

  “I know that. But if you get it, maybe you can look into the past and find a way to untangle my magic or whatever it is you need to do instead of … instead of experimenting on me.”

  His intrigue piqued. “And why would you want to help me kill you and drain your power for our lord?”

  Shit, busted.

  “Because if I’m going to die anyway, I’d like a glimpse at my mother one last time. In her prime, in the old days.” Truth and lie were blurring here. Hopefully it was somewhat true, because he would tell if it wasn’t.

  “What’s The Eye?” Steven asked, clearly annoyed to be out of the loop.

  The sorcerer looked at the druid with mild disdain. It was clear they only worked together when they had to. “Only one of the most valuable magical artifacts to ever exist.”

  Now it was Steven’s turn to look annoyed. “Will it help us get her magic for Lord Ardan?” he growled at the sorcerer.

  The truth witch seemed to weigh the question in his mind. “Yes, I think it could. I could go back to a time when something similar to this has been done and learn the technique.”

  Oh God. Someone had this done before? That poor soul.

  Steven mercifully lowered the glowing sharp torture stick. “Let’s get it,” he declared.

  When the truth witch stepped closer, the spell over my frozen limbs broke. My dragon had calmed somewhat, so I was able to retain my human form. I sagged backward against the wall, taking deep lungfuls of air.

  “Where is it?” he asked.

  Here’s where I had to hope he would continue to take the bait. “Well, it’s with a sorcerer named Hensel. Last seen in Fresno, California.”

  Steven groaned. “She doesn’t even have it!”

  But the truth witch wasn’t swayed. Greed shone in his gaze. “I know of Hensel. He runs the black market. We can find him easily.”

  Steven looked at me with mistrust. “We’ll be back,” he told me, and reached for the sorcerer’s arm. Within a blink they were gone, poofed out of existence.

  Holy hell.

  I slid down the wall into a sitting position. Now that the adrenaline had run its course, a crushing exhaustion came over me. But no way could I sleep with my life on the line.

  ‘They’re gone. I’ve bought some time, but I don’t know how much.’

  I waited for a reply from Logan.

  ‘Logan?’

  I waited again but there was only silence. The last of my strength fled then, as tears began to fall down my cheek in warm rivulets. I slowly curled into a ball and peered out the bars at the stairway, praying they wouldn’t return soon.

  My eyelids were getting heavy—I’d been awake almost twenty-four hours—but snapped open when I heard Logan’s voice inside my head.

  ‘Sloane!’ he roared.

  I sat up, dry-mouthed, stomach rumbling and alert. ‘I’m here!’ The sky was darkening as the sun began to set. I was running out of time.

  ‘Oh thank God. I did a glimpsing spell on the plane to try to find you, and it knocked me out.’

  What! That didn’t sound good.

  ‘Isaac’s friend is inbound to free you.” he rambled on, before I could ask further. “When she gets there, you’re going to need to shift and fly away with her. She’ll bring you to us. We’re about to land.’

  I scrambled upright. ‘W-wait, what? She’s going to waltz into Ardan’s lair to free me just like that?’

  Silence. ‘She’s … small.’

  I furrowed my brow. Okay. ‘Logan, is this friend … a human, sorcerer, druid, or skyborn?’ I quickly rattled off all of the supernatural species I knew of.

  Silence again. ‘Neither.’

  Oh God. I let that go, because I couldn’t go there. I didn’t want to know what kind of Faery creatures had escaped before the land had fallen. Creatures that Isaac apparently had friendships with.

  ‘Okay, you want me to shift, which will alert Ardan, and then fly over Ireland…’

  ‘Yes.’ His reply was instant.

  My mate was crazy, but if it would keep me from getting chopped up I was game. I knew Ireland was full of tales about mythical creatures, and I knew they liked to drink. Hopefully, if I did manage to make it out of here and fly over this place, any humans who saw me would be intoxicated and think they imagined it.

  Yes, I was going to go with that.

  I spent the next twenty minutes pacing my cell. How long had I been here without food or water? or the restorative energy of the Earth? More pressing, how long had it been since I’d flown? Would I even know how to do that when the time came? I thought I heard a noise and froze, staring at the staircase, wondering if Isaac’s little intruder friend was here.

  “Psst!” said a tiny, high-pitched voice, no louder than a whisper. I’d barely heard it. My whole body went rigid as I pivoted towards the sound and zeroed in on the tiny...

  Holy mother of little fairies.

  Standing between the bars of my large window was … a fairy. Like a legit, tiny, gossamer-winged creature that I expected carried pixie dust. Her face was like a painted doll’s, with porcelain skin and rosy lips, her hair short and jet black. She wore a tiny blue dress, with a bow and arrow slung over one shoulder.

  I didn’t know what to say. I stared with my mouth gaping open. My druid master and I needed to have a serious chat about his “friends.” How many more surprise creatures did he know?

  “Slo
ane?” she asked, in that tiny singsong voice. She had a mild Irish accent, which made her even more adorable.

  I nodded, mouth still agape. This is what I imagined tripping on acid would be like. But it was real. Without another word, she burst from her perch and flew at me, so fast I barely had time to move back before she was hovering in front of my face peering into my mouth. She was like a hummingbird on Red Bull.

  “You have nice teeth,” the tiny voice said.

  Excuse me? Maybe this was an acid trip.

  “Thanks.” I smiled.

  She nodded, wings flapping, hovering midair.

  “Isaac has spoken to you about the payment?” She scrutinized me, raising her tiny chin in my direction.

  No.

  “Yep. All good.” Take my soul if it means you can free me from here. Whatever the payment was we would work it out. Logan would pay anything to free me.

  She looked excited and suddenly I hoped it wasn’t my soul Isaac had promised her. “Be ready to shift and fly, skyborn.”

  She pulled an arrow from the small sling around her shoulder.

  “Okay…” I stepped back and felt my dragon stir, ready for when I called her forth.

  Please don’t let this be an acid trip.

  Without ceremony, she loaded an arrow into her tiny bow and it lit up with blue fire. I stepped forward, suddenly interested.

  She loosed the arrow and it crashed into one of the steel bars at the window. The second it hit, the bar disappeared. I grinned, trying to contain my excitement. This freaking tiny fairy was totally breaking me out of here.

  “Shift,” she told me as she loaded and loosed the next arrow, knocking the second bar out of existence.

  The window was a high stone arch, but looked only about five or six feet tall. My dragon was at least eight feet standing. It was going to be a challenge to squeeze through, but I had no other options. I stripped my clothes quickly, feeling my dragon rushing to the surface. The thought of leaving my undies behind for Steven and Ardan repulsed me, so once my shift was complete I clutched the bundle of clothes in one of my taloned hands. My body bulked out, and my wings were pressing the edges of the cage.