Witch Darkness Follows (Maeren Series Book 3)

by Mercedes Jade

  Elizabeth let out a slow breath, contemplating the risk in offering to intervene with Victoria for her dragon life-mate.

  What did it take to confirm the bond?

  A kiss? A bite? Sex? A ceremony with vows?

  Victoria certainly had seemed desperate to stay away from the dragon.

  Right now, they were all on borrowed time. Elizabeth was going to have to take a chance that simply arranging a meeting between Victoria and Raphael wouldn’t doom the princess.

  Pan kidnapping Elizabeth might actually turn out to be the best thing that could have happened. It was so unexpected that nobody else could have accounted for it, which meant no one would be ready to counter any moves Elizabeth and Pan made.

  It was looking more and more like dragon involvement was unavoidable.

  Victoria couldn’t keep running from her life-mate.

  Elizabeth had Geer in her head—and he regularly threatened to one day dog her heels.

  Daemon had said that having the dragons on his side could help free his throne, especially when most nobles and clans would refuse to support a demon.

  Could Elizabeth gamble getting Prince Raphael’s cooperation on the element of surprise that Pan had provided?

  “Ever play poker?” Elizabeth asked Pan.

  “What’s poker?”

  “Card games? Gambling?”

  Pan looked at her blankly.

  “What kind of games do dragons play to pass the time?” Elizabeth asked, picturing a lot of boring hours, surrounded by rock walls.

  “Games? Only children play games. The rest of us have enough work to do to keep us busy,” Pan scoffed.

  “A thief like you should learn the fine art of a bluff,” Elizabeth commented, not offended at being compared to a child.

  It spoke more badly of Pan’s childhood than hers that games weren’t a familiar pastime.

  “I’m not a liar,” Pan said.

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “You’ve lied about your gender, rescuing me, and led all of us into a trap. You know what, maybe you’re a better bluffer than I gave you credit.”

  “It’s not important. What’s the plan to rescue the light dragonesses?”

  Elizabeth put on her serious face.

  “I’m going to walk right into Prince Raphael’s cave and demand that he provide some muscle if he ever wants the chance to talk to his true love again.”

  Pan cleared her throat.

  “Let me get this straight. You want to go into the Dark caves?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re going to blackmail Prince Raphael?”

  Elizabeth nodded.

  “Do you even know what he looks like?”

  She did. Although, the memory of him as a dragon had been knocked hard when he’d flown into her at the park to get to Victoria.

  His vampire form was more memorable. She could even remember the look on his face when she’d held a dagger to his dick.

  “Dark, big, and a bit moody,” Elizabeth snarked back to Pan.

  “That describes almost every dragon in the dark clan.”

  “He’s the one that responds when you yell out: Prince Raphael!” Elizabeth clarified.

  “Hey, Prince of Darkness, we’re here to sell a soul for a little murder!” Pan mocked.

  She was not selling Victoria’s soul!

  How about her own soul?

  Geer would love to get his dark dragon claws into her soul, as well.

  The chance of having the powerful dragons side with them was worth flaunting the treasure the dragons really wanted out in the open.

  Didn’t mean they were going to get their gaisa hand delivered in the end. It was a bluff, a gamble.

  “Let me handle the talking. You just need to lead me to his secret hideout,” Elizabeth said.

  “Do you really think we should do this on our own? What if he gets angry and . . . ?”

  “Off with our heads?”

  Pan swallowed nervously. “I can’t go back home now. Markus will have told my uncle what happened. If I give up and go home, I’ll never see the outside of a cave again.”

  “Would you rather risk your head or your freedom?”

  Pan didn’t answer. She stood up, stripping off her clothes with far less modesty than last time.

  “I can only get us within a mile of the dark caves without being seen by the sentries before I’ll have to land. We will need to walk the rest of the way.”

  “I can hide us from sight once you transform back.”

  “Thank you,” Pan said, dissolving into a cloud of magic.

  The silver dragon knelt down, waiting patiently for Elizabeth to gather the discarded clothes and clamour onto her back, wrapping her arms around her slender neck.

  Flying on top of a dragon was a way better experience.

  The only problem was that it gave Elizabeth nothing to do, but to think of Geer and his reaction when she showed up on his doorstep.

  Happy to see her? Or ready to toss her in a dungeon and throw away the key?

  Dragon’s Den

  The dark clan was exactly what one expected from dragons.

  Their cave was suitably gloomy. The dragons were monstrous, with a number of scarred hides and sharp-eyed stares.

  Elizabeth could swear they saw right through her illusions as Pan led her through the twisting tunnels.

  There wasn’t any treasure in sight, but these were hard times in Maeren, especially for dragons.

  ‘We’re dead, dead, dead.’

  Elizabeth ignored Pan’s litany of worried thoughts.

  The little female delicately picked her way through the messy floor.

  Thankfully, the cave wasn’t littered with the bones of kidnapped witches.

  The dragons generally ate the same things as other elementals—according to Pan—but these bachelors were slobs, without a female’s touch to sweep away the dirt and insist that the males take out their garbage.

  There wasn’t a female in sight, in fact.

  Elizabeth began to have her own worries as they walked deeper into the cave, not coming across a single of the females rumoured to have been kidnapped by dragons.

  Pan had said they flew far to feed, but they must take the witches they captured back to their caves for convenience.

  Did they chain their females like the light clan?

  If Raphael had as unenlightened an approach to females as King Rael, then it was doubtful he would be moved to free any of them, other than to claim the light dragonesses from the rival clan for their own.

  Geer hadn’t mentioned anything about kidnapping witches or dragonesses. He’d actually left a lot out about his clan, as well as avoiding politics.

  Elizabeth was beginning to see that had been on purpose.

  One more thing had become obvious, although she’d already suspected it earlier.

  Geer had to be distracted or busy. Something kept him out of her mind even though she was right on his doorstep.

  Perhaps he thought her safe enough, stuck in the Wastes with George, and far from everyone else.

  Maybe he had to use a spell, on top of the bond, to sense her. It could be different from the passive range of her lightning.

  Or what if he wasn’t here?

  Did he go hunting for her?

  Had something happened to him?

  Geer had to be okay. The reason for his absence couldn’t be because he was hurt . . . or dead? He was a scary-ass dragon, for Maeren’s sake!

  He simply didn’t know she was coming.

  Like she’d figured, this move to come to the dragons wasn’t one that any of them would expect!

  She was certain Geer would have tried to stop her, if he knew.

  He’d bragged to George that he could find her anywhere when she was in Maeren, but that had to have been exaggerated.

  She became more sure of it every foot they got further inside the dark caves.

  Hell, she could be right outside Geer’s bedroom right now and he wouldn’t—
>
  Fire suddenly seared across Elizabeth’s vision, blocking off the view of Pan’s half dressed form, slipping between two sentries standing guard to another tunnel going deeper into the caves.

  Fire-breathing dragons!

  How could she really be mated to one of these beasts?

  Elizabeth hopped backward from the fire before she completed her next step, which would have been to walk right into the flames.

  Her heart raced.

  That had been too close.

  She’d better not screw this up by strolling through the caves arrogantly.

  Geer might not know she was here, but she certainly could give away her presence by being careless.

  This was likely where they housed the sleeping quarters.

  More security was present here than at the ‘hole in the wall’ entrance to the caves—carved by nature from the mountainside. Nobody would know it hid these extensive caverns within.

  It was already straining her magic to work with the strange dragon minds that she came across in order to fool their senses from seeing or hearing both her and Pan as they snuck around the caves.

  She’d been wrapping them both in illusions and a layer of air-shielding to keep them silent, having started from when Pan had been flying.

  It required enough concentration that she’d only been able to work on the minds they physically came across, ignoring the rest of the roughly one thousand occupants moving around in the caves.

  Unexpected explosions of fire were even more difficult to account for and still hold her illusions.

  It was better to avoid visibly blocking another’s magic. Flames couldn’t part like the Red Sea without drawing unwanted attention.

  Elizabeth ducked down and crawled.

  Reaching out with her fingers, she grabbed onto one of Pan’s ankles, so she could share her telepathy.

  Touch seemed to make things easier with Pan.

  It might also help when using her lighting with other dragons. Elizabeth would rather not test that unless forced.

  "So, dragons can breathe fire even when not in familiar form?" Elizabeth asked.

  Pan had frozen, just past the sentries. She shrugged off Elizabeth’s touch and carefully turned around.

  Her body moved with balance and grace that Elizabeth had difficulty achieving—even without standing on one bare foot and only inches away from two heavily armoured dragons who would burn her to a crisp if she disturbed the air around them.

  Meeting Elizabeth’s eyes, Pan answered her mental query.

  Touch wasn’t as necessary to hear the dragons, although the thoughts Elizabeth received were mere surface, conscious things, unless she focused hard.

  Such a single minded intensity risked her getting lost in the animal subconsciousness.

  There wouldn’t be a rescue from George this time.

  “Fire is life. Only a dead dragon can’t breathe fire. Dragonlings have to rest in cribs carved from stone to stop them from setting their bedding on fire in their sleep,” Pan replied.

  Elizabeth thought about babies blowing rings of fire instead of raspberries.

  Yikes!

  The dragon that had used fire in front of Elizabeth was happily munching a chicken leg he had crisped with his flame. Bloody meat was torn from the bone, still raw inside.

  Pan was watching the dragon tear into his disgusting snack with a hungry look, subconsciously licking her lips.

  Perhaps the first thing they should bargain from Prince Raphael was a decent meal to stick to Pan’s ribs.

  One of the guards Elizabeth crawled past was complaining to the chicken roaster about the bloody mess he was making.

  The roaster tossed the bone onto the floor between them.

  Threats were volleyed in gruff voices over Elizabeth’s head as she crawled forward.

  She really couldn’t tell if they were serious or not, although she hoped nobody was planning to chop anyone else’s ears off in front of her.

  Pan started moving ahead again. Her thoughts trailed behind her.

  ‘Hurry, hurry, hurry.’

  Pan talked to herself like most other people. She might not even realize that Elizabeth could pick up her worried commands.

  Crawling wasn’t fast. It was why babies eventually decided to stand up and walk if they really wanted to get anywhere in the big world.

  The stone ground had already bruised Elizabeth’s knees and was now working on pulverizing them as she tried to move quicker.

  If Pan was worried, then Elizabeth should be scared.

  She touched Pan again as she finally caught up to her.

  "Let me lead. I’ll use my lightning to see the the magic signatures of each occupant behind the doors, so we don’t have to explore them all,” Elizabeth explained.

  Pan’s eyebrows rose as Elizabeth climbed to her feet. The bossy little dragon didn’t look ready to give up the lead.

  "Magic signatures?" Pan inquired.

  "No two magics are exactly alike. I’ve felt Prince Raphael’s signature up close and personal,” Elizabeth said.

  Pan reluctantly let Elizabeth walk in front of her, after that explanation.

  Elizabeth held out a hand back to her. The slim fingers that slipped into Elizabeth’s were hot and sweaty.

  "Hold my hand, so it is easier for my magic to keep you covered and for us to share thoughts,” Elizabeth directed.

  She was going to keep Pan safe. The girl was brave. Her valour deserved to be encouraged, not punished.

  Elizabeth had faced Raphael twice. She’d barely survived the second time, without even being his target. Pan must realize that their foray into the dark clan could be a one-way trip.

  The only way out was to remain undetected until they achieved their objective. Lightning wasn’t going to be enough to fight their way out of here if they were caught.

  There were so many dragons in the caves.

  None of them looked like the type to believe that a lost little girl had wandered into their lair.

  The back of the caves had more doors than there were dragons, or perhaps, most of the dragons were not in bed yet. Room after room was empty of magic.

  In a few of the rooms she walked past, her magic encountered the strange feeling of a dragon mind in familiar form. More animalistic, but she could still pick up the magical signature from a sweep of the outer barriers of their minds.

  She tried to take advantage of every shadowy corner and bit of physical cover that she could find as they made their way fruitlessly into the heart of the caverns.

  Her magic was making her hand as slick as Pan’s and their grip precarious.

  The strain was burning through even the endless supply of magic available this deep in Dragos.

  She finally found Raphael at the end of a long, dark tunnel.

  How suitable.

  If these cave walls were what Victoria had seen in her dream, it was no wonder she had been terrified.

  Jill would have stopped at the cave entrance and refused to go further with her claustrophobia.

  It was a miracle that Jill had even explored the hidden portal with Elizabeth in the castle.

  Perhaps having Victor with them had helped, incentive not to wimp out.

  Now, all Elizabeth had to do was prove as brave as her sister to confront a fire-breathing monster in his den. A better nightmare test of her resolve couldn’t be devised.

  Fire. Dark. No escape.

  This wasn’t Pan’s first cave. The younger girl’s fleet and quiet feet quickly took the lead as Elizabeth hesitated at the tunnel entrance.

  Pan looked back and Elizabeth nodded. Into the darkness they tiptoed, hand in hand, the air cooling with every step forward in premonition.

  Raphael’s door was shut.

  "Let me go first. I need to touch the door and the mind in the room in order to establish an illusion, so he’ll never see us entering.” Elizabeth explained.

  The door was made of pure metal. Elizabeth would have to ask for Pan’s help,
and her illusion would have to account for the scrape of it against the stone floor.

  Dropping Pan’s hand, she leaned against the door and threw her magic hard and fast at the dragon mind within.

  ‘Bring his gaisa here and ban chalk, so she’ll never escape.’

  ‘No, that was bullying. Geer would tell him such tactics were doomed to fail.’

  ‘Her brother was going to be a problem.’

  ‘Smart witch, manipulating the transport circle. If she could do it, he should be able to make his transport spell work even without her dreams.’

  Warm hands grabbed Elizabeth’s shoulders.

  Pan’s touch pulled her out of Raphael’s mind enough to focus on what she was supposed to be doing.

  She used Raphael’s vision to see the dark room, lit by only a few candles that revealed the large circle chalked onto the stone floor.

  Raphael was bent over and drawing a new glyph.

  Frost coated the older lines and the walls of his room, like winter had been trapped inside the cave.

  The magic from the circle pulsed with icy power as it absorbed the newest glyph, frost climbing the chalked lines.

  Elizabeth sent a quick thought for Raphael to wonder if he had closed his door.

  Raphael’s glance up was all she got to memorize the door and its surroundings from inside the room.

  It would have to be enough to set her illusion. Even sending that one, subconscious thought, had left her trembling and sweaty since she wasn’t touching him to make using her lightning easier.

  Raphael’s mind was difficult, whether or not he was in familiar form.

  His focus on the circle and stealing Victoria back was the only help she was going to get to manipulate her illusion without detection.

  "Put your hands on the door, but don’t push until I do,” Elizabeth directed Pan.

  Pan slipped her hands under Elizabeth’s without needing further direction.

  Vision was easiest to manipulate, the mind used to tricking itself into seeing what it wanted no matter what the eyes tried to reveal.

  Elizabeth created false smoke from the candles, hiding the door and the rest of the room in a slow, creeping haze.

  It tunnelled Raphael’s vision on the chalked circle that she left clear of smoke.

  His hearing was trickier because his room was so quiet. He was used to the normal sounds he would hear in here—like the creaking stairs one might dismiss at home.