Grace Unchained - Phoenix Throne Book Five

by Walker, Heather

  The club made contact with the giant next to him and cracked his head open. Pulp and sludge spilled out across the mountain. The giant’s skull made a soft, spongy sound at the impact. The first giant thundered in fury and rounded on Jamie, but Jamie was long gone.

  He zipped around one head after another. He stuck close enough to make them mad and far enough away to stay out of their reach. They lumbered closer to each other in their clumsy efforts to catch him. They hit each other and smacked one another, but they always missed him.

  Jamie streaked up behind a giant’s back. He ducked over the giant’s ear and nipped his sharp teeth on the giant’s flabby earlobe. He dodged away, but he didn’t move fast enough. The giant brought up one huge hand and smack!

  Jamie flopped against the giant’s cheek. The monster peeled him off and held him limp and stunned in its hand. Jamie writhed over onto his stomach to try to get his feet under him when the giant clapped down his other hand on top of Jamie.

  Jamie flattened between the giant’s hands. This was it. This was the end he knew would come. He’d tried once too often to pull a clever trick. Now he was doomed.

  The giant pried back his hand and studied the little dragon resting on his palm. Jamie peered up at the ugly creature, but he couldn’t move. His wings lay mangled and crushed. His legs hurt, and his head thumped.

  The giant craned back his head and laughed out loud. The noise boomed down the valley to the far horizon. Jamie made a feeble effort to extend his wings. One of them got stuck under his body, and he lacked the strength to dislodge it.

  The giant picked him up by the other wing, dangling Jamie by thumb and forefinger before his own eyes. Jamie twisted on his wing. Searing pain shot through him. The more he screamed and thrashed, the more it hurt.

  The giant flicked him with his other finger. Jamie was sent flapping back and forth in the breeze, and the giant chuckled and chortled at Jamie’s impotent efforts to fight back. The flicking got harder, more vicious. The giant laughed louder.

  Other giant faces appeared on all sides, laughing at the sight. Other giants took their turns batting him around. Something snapped in Jamie’s wing. His shoulder gave way, and he let out a shriek of pain.

  The sound startled the giants out of their vindictive game. The laughter stopped and the giant that caught Jamie took hold of him in one hand. He surrounded Jamie with his other hand and wrung him in twisting wrenching motions to break him in half.

  Jamie smashed back and forth between screaming in pain and fading into unconsciousness. Any second, he would pass out, and he wouldn’t wake up. He prayed for that moment, but it never came. Just when he thought he couldn’t stand any more, he woke up to find the giant yanking and twisting his legs just to watch him scream.

  Jamie gave up all his efforts to fight back. He lay limp in the giant’s grasp and waited for the end. The giant opened his hand to study his tiny plaything. When Jamie didn’t respond, he poked him with a finger.

  Jamie turned his bleary eyes up at his tormentor’s face. He blinked his vision into focus. He could barely summon the strength to breath, but he could take one more of these creatures with him before he perished. He drew in a deep lungful of air and spat a scorching geyser of flame into the giant’s face.

  The giant dropped him in a flash. Jamie smashed down to the rocks on the valley floor. He rolled over on his back in time to see the other giants closing in. They glared at him in vengeful hatred.

  He had to get out of here, but he couldn’t move his wings. Only one thing remained to do. He shifted, but when he tried to stand on his own two legs, his knees buckled. He came down hard on his hands.

  The giants stood around him in a circle. One of them bent over to pick him up. Its enormous hand covered the sky. Jamie couldn’t move. He could only kneel there and stare at his fate closing in on him.

  Something clicked off to one side of him. He turned his head and stared. There stood Grace, as beautiful and enticing as ever. She picked up a long cylinder from a black duffel bag at her feet.

  She did something to the cylinder. Then she set it on her shoulder. She sighted down its long black length and squeezed. A squirming, wobbling trail of fire and smoke shot out the end of the thing. It shrieked through the air between the trees and hit the giant in the neck.

  It exploded against his throat and sent him hurtling backward. His feet left the ground. He sailed back and landed flat on his back. Grace didn’t budge. She picked up something from the duffel bag and dropped it down the cylinder. She shouldered her weapon, aimed, and fired again.

  Jamie’s jaw hit the ground. He stared in wonder. The giants stared, too. She picked up one rocket after another until she shot down all the giants surrounding Jamie. They toppled to the ground and didn’t move.

  The other giants saw what was happening and hurried to the spot. Grace set down her weapon and picked up something else. She didn’t put it over her shoulder, but held it against her side. She set off at a fast clip through the forest.

  Whenever a giant came near her, she shot it down with her weapon. Something thumped from its end. It sailed through the air, hit a giant in the face or the chest or the crotch, and exploded.

  Heads split open. Ribs smashed, and blood spilled. Grace didn’t stop. She marauded through the forest on a steady, methodical hunt for any giant left alive. One by one, they fell and vaporized into nothing.

  Jamie got on his feet, but he couldn’t put his weight on one leg. He supported himself against a tree and watching in wonder. Grace cleared as many of the giants off the landscape as she could find, but more still rushed to the scene. Their thunderous steps vibrated up Jamie’s leg and into his bones. No one could win this fight, no matter what weapons they brought.

  Grace fired her weapon until it clicked empty. She carried it back to her duffel bag and put it down. She picked up a short, stubby device. Jamie didn’t recognize it, but he saw the truth written on her face. This wouldn’t do much good against the giants.

  She planted her feet wide on either side of her duffel bag to take her last stand. The giants surrounded her. She tightened her grip on her weapon, and a spray of rapid fire burst from its tip. It splattered across the giants’ faces and bodies, but it didn’t stop them.

  Jamie had to do something, even if it meant dying. He had to get into the air to protect her. He pushed himself off the tree, stumbled, and hit the ground. Every nerve screamed to do something, but he couldn’t even get on his feet.

  Grace peppered the giants with her fire, but it did no good. The giants blocked Jamie’s view of her, and he lost heart. He cast his eyes up at the mountain. That’s when he saw that woman standing in Piper’s cave—the young woman Grace called Alexis.

  She gazed down on the battle scene in a trance. She watched the giants hem Grace in on all sides. Ever so slowly, as if in a dream, she raised her hand and passed it off to one side. She wiped it across her field of view, and the giants vanished under her hand. They didn’t go up in smoke the way they did when the wolves killed them. They didn’t vaporize into steam. They simply ceased to be.

  Chapter 25

  Grace’s arms collapsed at her side. The gun fell out of her hands and landed on the duffel bag. It made a clunking sound when it hit the rocket launcher and the grenade launcher. She gasped for breath, and her back hunched.

  Jamie staggered over to her. “Lassie! Are ye awright?”

  “I’m okay,” she panted. “You don’t look so good, though.”

  “What did ye do?” He looked down at the duffel bag. “What…what is all this?”

  “That?” She gave the bloated duffel bag a kick. “That’s Mike’s stash. He was a survivalist. He wanted to be prepared in case of societal collapse, so he kept this stash in his closet for years. At least it came to some use.”

  “How did ye find her?” He glanced up at the mountain, and his eyes snapped open.

  Grace followed his gaze to the cave mouth. Alexis was gone. “I should have known she wouldn’t s
tick around. I told her she could leave when it was all over. That’s how I convinced her to come. She didn’t want to stay here, and she has other places she wants to go.”

  Jamie started to say something, but he shook his head instead. “I’m just glad ye found her in time.”

  “Will the giants come back, now that she used magic to get rid of them? Is the curse lifted now?”

  “Giants won’t come back,” he replied. “In Urlu, it took several months fer the next wave tae hit, but it’s awready goin’ on right now, o’er on Mull. Lachlan and his Clan are fightin’ those winged things. They’re up tae their ears in it and cinnae spare a mon tae leave. I hate tae think what he’s dealin’ wi’ out there right now.”

  She faced him. “You can’t go out there. You can’t help him. This is his fight, not yours. You said you would stay until this was finished, and now it is. You have to go back to Urlu now. That’s your place.”

  “I ken it, lassie,” he replied. “I ken it, and I’ll no ask ye tae return tae yer own world. If ye still want tae come wi’ me, I’ll be honored tae take ye.”

  A wry grin spread over her face. “That’s good, ’cuz I can’t go back. I can never go back. I’m stuck here for life.”

  Jamie gasped. “No! Ye cinnae….”

  Grace nodded. She couldn’t stop grinning like a fool. “Looks like you’re stuck with me for a while.”

  He gaped at her in blank incomprehension. He just couldn’t grasp that she was happy about this. Grace’s heart burst with so much happiness she couldn’t contain it. She was here. She was with him, and she wasn’t going back.

  She’d never realized until this moment how unhappy she was. She’d kept one foot in each camp for so long, she got to thinking it was normal. Now she was here, and she would stay here. She couldn’t go back if she tried, and she was glad. She didn’t want to be anywhere else.

  Jamie’s shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry, lassie. I’m sorry ye’ve lost yer home.”

  “I haven’t lost my home,” she replied. “Don’t you see? Urlu is my home, and I’m going there. Come on. Let’s go.”

  She snatched his hand and tried to pull him down the mountain. Jamie didn’t move, and his hand slipped out of her grasp. “I cinnae go back, lassie.”

  “Why not?”

  “Me wing’s munted.”

  Grace frowned. “It’s what?”

  “Munted,” he replied.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It’s gubbed. It’s goosed. It’s whacked. I cinnae fly.”

  Grace’s eyes flew open. “Oh, I get it. You mean it’s broken. Why didn’t you just say so?”

  He stared down at the ground. “I’ll no be gang tae Urlu any time soon unless I walk there.”

  “Can you walk there? I thought it was…you know, protected by something.”

  “It is,” he replied. “I dinnae like tae think how laing it’d take tae walk there, nor e’en if we could walk there.”

  “What’s the alternative?” she asked. “We could stay here until it heals, but that would mean….”

  “No!” he cried.

  Grace spun around to stare at him. “What’s going on with you?”

  He glanced around with wild eyes. He lowered his voice to a murmur. “I dinnae want ’em tae ken…about me.”

  “Don’t you think they already saw you?” she asked. “You were all over the sky.”

  “I dinnae ken. I dinnae want tae find out.”

  “So what are you going to do?” she asked. “Do you want to go off somewhere alone until it heals.”

  He grumbled under his breath. “I’d like tae.”

  She took his arm. “That’s silly. Come on. Let’s go back to the village. I’m sure there’s somewhere you can stay. We can stay at Dick Ralston’s house if we have to. They don’t have to know the real reason why. You can just tell them you want to spend a little more time in your old hometown.”

  “I suppose.”

  She urged him forward. “Come on. We have to get down to the village—all of us. I can’t wait to show you what it’s like.”

  He didn’t understand her, but he let her lead him down the mountain. On the way, they passed villagers heading back to their camp. Grace hailed them. “Come down to the village—all of you. Follow me!”

  They didn’t understand, either. None of them did, but she didn’t want to spoil the surprise. In the end, a few of the fighting men tagged behind the pair. They emerged on the brae, and Grace stopped where the path twisted. “See? Look!”

  The men stared down at the neat little cottages, all shining perfectly constructed in the sunshine. They exchanged a few fevered words of breathless conversation. Then they broke and ran back up to the camp.

  Grace smiled at their retreating backs. They would spread the word. In a few hours, the whole populace would return to their village. They would fill it with life where death and destruction ruled before. It would become the beautiful paradise Grace remembered from her first visit here.

  She turned her beaming countenance on Jamie to see his reaction. She started when she saw him scowling down on the village. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy about this? Alexis repaired it. It’s as good as new, if not better.”

  He looked away. “I still cinnae go there. I ne’er belainged there. I didnae ken it afore, but I ken it now. I ne’er should ha’e come back ’ere. I can ne’er be a part o’ this village again. I belaing in Urlu and nowhere else. They’ll run from me and try tae kill me the same way they did the McLeans. They dinnae understand at all.”

  Grace migrated closer to him. She wanted nothing but to be close to him and to help him through this. “It’ll be all right. There must be somewhere else we can go.”

  He glanced up the brae. “There is somewhere, but I dinnae ken how we’ll stop there. There’s no hoose nor e’en a shed tae keep out the cold.”

  “We can go take a look, anyway,” she replied.

  He led the way back up the brae where the trees clustered thick and tall. He steered her off the main track into an old road. It ended at an iron gate with stone pillars holding it up on either side. The gate stood open, and the road extended around a curve in the distant woods.

  Jamie glared at the gate. “Summat’s off.”

  “What is it?” she asked. “It looks all right to me.”

  He started forward. Down the road, it opened wider. The trees stood farther back to let the sunshine through. The way spread out into a wide yard surrounding an old castle.

  Jamie halted there and stared up at the place. “It was destroyed,” he murmured. “The curse leveled the place until there wasnae a stone standin’ tae show where it had been.”

  Grace surveyed the place. “It looks fine now. It looks perfect.”

  “Aye.”

  She waited, but he didn’t move. “Well, do you want to go inside? We might as well stay here.”

  He nodded, but he didn’t say anything. Grace inspected him at close range. All his usual brash attitude had disappeared in the last few days. Now a pinched, careworn expression haunted his eyes. His curvy mouth didn’t smile. He barely saw anything right in front of him.

  “Come inside,” she murmured. “Let me look at your wing. I’m no doctor like Sadie, but if it’s bad enough you can’t fly, we should take a look. You might need it splinted or something so it heals right.”

  “I’ll ha’e tae stay a dragon fer the long haul,” he pointed out. “Ye’d no want tae…”

  She smiled to herself. “I think I can handle that for your sake. Does it hurt?”

  He turned his face away and compressed his lips. “It kills.”

  She laid her hand against his back. “Come on. Come inside where you can rest.”

  He still wouldn’t look at her, but at least he didn’t argue. He let her guide him inside, but in the end, he went by himself. He circled the castle to the back, where he opened the kitchen door.

  He glared at the tiny room. Grey flagstone covered the floor. The firep
lace sat cold and empty, and no herbs or food hung from the rafters like the cottages in the village. The pots hanging from the ceiling were all clean, though. The place gave Grace a comfortable air. The door looked out on the yard and across to a low stable.

  Jamie let out a shaky sigh. “I’ll no fit in ’ere.”

  He kept going. He passed through a different door and into a high hall where the solid wooden doors opened onto the entrance steps. Grace peered through the windows and saw the road up which they just came.

  Jamie walked to the center of the hall, and there he stopped. He scowled at everything.

  “Well?” Grace asked.

  He nodded, but he still didn’t do anything.

  Grace positioned herself in front of his face. “Come on. Let’s have a look at you.”

  Quicker than thought, he erupted out of his skin. His massive chest exploded before her eyes, and the huge golden dragon filled the hall with his enormous bulk. He extended his wings, and his head whipped back to let out a terrific shriek of pain.

  Grace staggered back out of the way. He thrashed to the ceiling. He clawed the air with his forelimbs, and his tail cracked through the air. No matter what he did, he couldn’t keep his wings still. He let out one tremendous screech after another.

  The sound set Grace’s teeth on edge. She didn’t want to go near him when he was like this. He could crush her with one accidental stamp of his foot. This went on and on for what seemed like ages until at last the dragon collapsed on the stone floor in a heap. His wings still rustled, and one of them stuck out at an odd angle. He couldn’t fold it down.

  His sides heaved, and deep groans came from inside him. Every time he tried to move his wing, he flinched. The spasms glanced down his scales and made them shimmer in the dim light.

  Grace stepped forward. She raised her hand, but she hesitated to touch that seething monster. Could this really be Jamie, the man she’d grown to love?