Dragon's Gift - The Druid Complete series Box Set Page 23

  If he had found a good clue, I could bring that to Jude. Maybe it would smooth over the hair-loss incident with Lavender. Not that Lavender would ever forgive me—that was a lost cause. But I needed to get on Jude’s good side.

  “Yes, I found her. She’s hiding in a realm of shadows and mystery.”

  “Of course she is. What’s it like?”

  “It’s a place that takes myths and fairy tales and twists them.”

  I frowned. “Is there a difference?”

  “I’m not sure. But it’s going to be dangerous. You need contacts and an invitation to find her. We have neither.”

  “But we have our wits.”

  He smiled at me. “That we do. And also some moderately reliable directions.”

  “Moderately reliable? I can deal with that.” Then I frowned. Caro, Ali, and Haris were on the trail of this, too. If we were hunting something as big as this, shouldn’t I give them a heads-up? We’d lose our lead—and I really wanted to be the one to bring this info—but this was bigger than me. Anyway, working as a team had helped us save Connor last week. It was always the smart way to go. “I think we should give the others a heads-up.”

  “Agreed. Are they here?”

  “Maybe.” I touched the comms charm at my throat. “Rowan? You here?”

  Bree was off hunting that demon in Ireland, but Rowan should still be here. I’d called her when I’d gotten back earlier this morning, just to make sure she wasn’t on lockdown.

  “Hey! Yeah, I’m in the kitchen with Hans and some other folks.”

  “Caro, Ali, or Haris part of that gang?”

  “You’re in luck. They stopped by to pick up sandwiches to go from Hans. They’re on the hunt for a clue.”

  “Good. We’ll be there in a sec. I want to talk to them.”

  “I’ll tell them to hang on.”

  Lachlan and I hurried through the hallway, heading toward Hans’s kitchen on the bottom floor of the castle. Princess Snowflake III rode on his shoulders the whole way, and though he looked slightly uncomfortable and weirded out, he didn’t boot her off.

  It was a smart decision, since she might claw his eyes out. Muffin stalked alongside, while Bojangles rolled like a tumbleweed, chasing his tail.

  “How does he not turn his brain to mush, doing that all the time?” I asked.

  “Meow,” Muffin said. Everyone needs a hobby.

  “True.”

  We entered the main entryway and took the stairs down to the kitchen.

  Hans took one look at us and shouted, “Juice!”

  I caught the juice box that he hurled at me, and Lachlan did the same.

  “Do I look that bad, Hans?” For whatever reason, the head cook at the castle was convinced that juice solved all ills.

  Hans shrugged, mustache quivering. “You could always use juice.”

  I stuck the straw into the little box. “Thanks.”

  He nodded. Boris sat on top of his chef’s hat, the little brown rat snacking on a piece of cheese. He eyed Princess Snowflake III, but didn’t so much as twitch a whisker. Boris was a tough rat.

  Caro, Ali, and Haris stood near the table, each with a brown paper sack in hand. Rowan sat with a big bowl of soup.

  “Thanks for not turning my sister in,” I said to them. Rowan had briefed me this morning, saying that Caro, Ali, and Haris had kept her appearance in the caverns a secret from Jude.

  “No problem.” Caro’s platinum hair gleamed in the light, complementing her silver jacket and gray jeans. “But we can’t do it often. Jude would kill us.”

  “Made a judgment call, though,” Ali said, flashing a quick smile. “Rowan’s good people.”

  She grinned. “Thanks, Ali.”

  “Why’d you want to see us?” Haris asked.

  “I’m hunting for the same thing you are,” I said.

  “An extracurricular activity?” Caro grinned.

  “Pretty much. But I didn’t want to keep any info I found a secret, since I want to find Arach’s magic.”

  “More than you want credit, you mean.” Ali bit into an apple, his white teeth gleaming.

  “Credit won’t do me much good if we lose our friends and the Protectorate loses its magic.”

  “True.” Caro nodded. “So spill.”

  I told her about the potion and Torlock, along with our plan to hunt her.

  Caro nodded, clever eyes keen. “Good, I like the direction you’re going. We’re headed a similar way, but we’re after another potion maker.”

  “Melevakan?” Lachlan asked.

  “The very same,” Haris said.

  “Who’s that?” I asked.

  “The only other potion maker besides Torlock who could make the Sylthian Potion. We were going to find him if it didn’t pan out with Torlock.”

  “We’ll take care of Melevakan,” Caro said. “You try Torlock. One of us will be right.” Her gaze turned to me. “But don’t tell Jude what you’re doing. I think it’s great, but she’ll be uber mad.”

  “I don’t want that.” Still, I didn’t consider quitting this. Not when we were on the trail of something.

  “No, you don’t. So we’ll find some info, and if you’re successful, then we’ll tell her. If you fail, we’ll pretend it never happened.”

  “Thanks, Caro. You rock.”

  I hadn’t known her long, only a few months. Same for Ali and Haris. But they were awesome. Rowan caught my eye and grinned. I knew she was thinking the same thing that I was—it was good to have friends. We hadn’t had many in our lives, but I could get used to it.

  Ali frowned. “But she’ll find out, you know. Jude sees all. So you’d better find something.”

  “And it better be good,” Haris added.

  Caro scowled at them. “I can always count on you guys to be buzzkills.”

  “But we’re right, aren’t we?” Ali asked.

  “You are.” Caro turned to me. “I hope you find something big. Big enough to make Jude forget she’s pissed that you broke the rules.”

  I swallowed hard and nodded. “Roger.”

  We grabbed a couple sandwiches, then wished the other team good luck.

  “Be careful,” Rowan said.

  “I promise.” I hugged her, then followed Lachlan from the room.

  We hurried up the stairs and through the main entry hall, then out to the courtyard.

  I turned to Lachlan. “So, where is this land of fairy tales and myths?”

  “Bavaria.”

  “Of course it is.” I didn’t know where exactly the Brothers Grimm were from, but it was somewhere in Germany.

  Lachlan raised his hand, his magic swelling on the air. Sneakily—or at least, I hoped I was sneaky—I sucked in a whiff of his intoxicating forest and leather scent.

  Then the portal appeared, and I stepped through. The ether sucked me in and spun me around, then spat me out at the edge of a forest. Though the sun was high in the sky, it was shadowed here. The trees were as gnarled and ancient as those in the Enchanted Forest at the Protectorate, but somehow much, much darker. There were no fairy lights floating between the trees, for one.

  Lachlan appeared next to me, nearly bowling me over.

  “Sorry.” I stepped aside, realizing that I’d forgotten to get out of the way of the portal exit. “The forest just…”

  “Distracted you?” Lachlan studied the trees that were about ten feet away from us, but somehow, it felt like miles. “I can see why.”

  “What is it about this place?” I sniffed the air, trying to get a sense for the type of magic that surrounded me.

  All I caught was the rich scent of dirt and the fresh scent of leaves. The air was completely still, though, with an eerie quality that suggested we were being watched.

  “I have no idea.” Lachlan stepped toward the trees. “It’s a strange magic, though.”

  “No kidding. Which way do we go?”

  “We head east through the forest, to start.”

  “All right, then.” I shiv
ered as I followed him, inspecting the twisting trunks and branches of the little trees. The bark was pitch-black, and the leaves a dark green. White specs nestled within the leaves, and I squinted upward at them.

  We were about a dozen feet inside the forest when I realized what the white specs were.

  ‘They’re eyes.” A chill raced over my skin.

  Lachlan just grinned.

  I kept my gaze on the eyes that followed us. The air was unnaturally still, as if we were sealed in some kind of fancy space chamber. Leaves crunched underfoot, and the eyes seemed to glare.

  I drew a dagger from the ether. Just in case.

  “Nervous?” Lachlan asked.

  “Smart.”

  “Aye, you’re that.”

  A little gray rabbit peeked out from beneath a bush. It wore a tiny top hat perched jauntily over its long ears.

  “And who might you be?” I asked, charmed.

  The rabbit bared its teeth, which turned out to be long fangs that dripped blood.

  I cringed back. “All right, all right.”

  “Let’s keep moving,” Lachlan said.

  I skirted around the rabbit quickly. “What, you’re afraid of a bunny?”

  “You bet your arse I’m afraid of that bunny. He can probably clean a corpse in minutes.”

  “He eats the dead?”

  “Well, I assume he eats them once they’re dead. Whether or not he makes them dead, I have no idea.”

  “This place is officially nuts.”

  “I think that devil rabbit is going to be the least of it.”

  We walked in silence for nearly an hour, our senses ever alert. The Cats of Catastrophe appeared out of the blue, somehow having made their way to us. I almost asked Muffin, but it seemed like he could read my mind when he shot me a look that clearly said, Magic, dummy.

  The Cat Sìth had a lot of tricks up his sleeve.

  He and Princess Snowflake III stalked quietly through the leaves, their movements lithe and graceful despite Princess’s bulk and Muffin’s little belly.

  Bojangles, on the other hand, was the opposite of stealth. He bounced off the tree trunks like a bouncy ball on steroids, keeping himself entertained as he followed along.

  “How do you rob banks with that guy blowing your cover?” I asked.

  Muffin looked at me. Bojangles has skills you can’t even imagine.

  I stifled a laugh, barely holding it in.

  Muffin gave me a look that was entirely unimpressed. You’ll see. If you’re lucky.

  I nodded, not wanting to piss off my sidekick. But I definitely didn’t tell him he was my sidekick. That would get my butt kicked. By Princess Snowflake III, if not by him. She wouldn’t even be a sidekick by association.

  As we walked, snow began to appear on the ground. Weirdly, it wasn’t falling from the sky, and nothing else about our surroundings changed except for the air growing colder. It was the fastest regional temperature change I’d ever experienced.

  The snow became thicker quickly, until I was crunching on top of the semi-frozen crust. Bojangles ran and slid along the top of it, sending it spraying, while Princess Snowflake III minced her way through it. Muffin just plowed forward, head low and determined.

  I looked down to check his hairless body, sure to see him shivering, and realized that he was wearing little boots.

  “Where’d you get those?” I asked.

  Always be prepared. I was a Cat Scout.

  “Really?”

  Oh, you sweet summer child.

  “So, there are no Cat Scouts?”

  He just shook his head like I was a moron.

  I scowled at him, and he grinned toothily back at me.

  Then a drop of red blood landed on the snow in front of his paws. It spread outward, red and bright. He stopped abruptly, back arched, and I stepped back. Dark magic rose on the air, prickly and sharp.

  “What the hell—”

  5

  The red spot grew outward, quickly snaking through the white snow. Then it rose up, forming the shape of a man. He was built of bloody snow, and he lunged for me, so quickly that I didn’t have a moment to react. His icy body plowed into mine, and I crashed onto the cold ground.

  His freezing hands reached for my throat and grasped it, his touch slippery and icy.

  I kicked up at his belly, blasting a hole through the snow. But his hands remained, tightening around my throat as my vision blackened.

  Muffin lunged for his hands, his little body plowing through the snow that clutched my neck and scattering it.

  Gasping, I sat up.

  All around, drops of blood fell from the sky, landing on the white ground. Bloody ice men popped up from each drop and lunged for us. Lachlan was already fighting four, his blade cutting through their middles. They tumbled to the ground, but crawled toward him like zombies, their hands dragging their torsos along. He took out two ice men, then raised his hand.

  As his magic swelled on the air, I drew my sword from the ether and lunged for one of the red ice men. His features were rough, but clearly human. Since kill shots weren’t an option—blasting apart their snowy forms was the only way to go—I went for the waist, cutting him in half. They were easier to outrun in that form.

  There were dozens of them, though, and I thanked fates for my sidekicks.

  The Cats of Catastrophe shrieked as they launched their attacks, flying through the air to plow through the bodies of the ice men. As usual, Princess Snowflake III was covered in blood in seconds, her white fur stained red. Bojangles went after them with the fury of a thousand enraged kittens. He was as awkward as ever, but since this attack was all about brute force, it worked in his favor. He was a whirlwind. Muffin was efficient and quick, claws flying as he leapt from ice man to ice man.

  I sliced through the waist of another attacker as the scent of Lachlan’s magic made it smell like Christmas in the forest. The pine scent surged as a glint of silver caught my eye. He was calling on a nearby river, forcing the water into the air. It shot like a jet through the trees, aiming for the ice men. It plowed through one, obliterating it, before heading to another.

  I kept an eye on the water as I fought. It plowed through the beasts faster than we could, but there were still so many. I took out one, then spun, kicking another in the chest and sending him flying backward. Red snow flew through the air as his body scattered.

  A snowy attacker got me by the arm, squeezing tight. Pain flared, followed by icy cold. I swung my blade, slicing through his arm. The hand stayed clutched around my bicep, continuing to tighten. I kicked at the now one-armed attacker, sending him backward, and rubbed harshly at the snowy hand still attached to me. It crumbled away.

  “This is some miserable freaking magic,” I shouted.

  “It’s under control.” Lachlan sliced his blade through an ice man, his other hand raised to manipulate the water that zipped through the forest, taking out our attackers. It avoided the cats, who were flying through ice men like feline trapeze artists.

  My muscles ached as I fought, swinging my sword as quickly as I could.

  Finally—freaking finally—we took out the last ice man.

  The snow around us was coated with red. The dark magic that had pricked on the air faded, and I turned to Lachlan, panting. “That was close.”

  “What the hell were these beasts?” He rubbed watery blood off his face.

  I dragged my shirt up to rub at my own face, wincing as the cold hit my belly. “I don’t know, but it’s some strong magic. Did your moderately reliable directions not warn you about this?”

  He shook his head. “No specifics. Just keep heading east from the edge of the forest. And we might meet some helpful individuals along the way.”

  “So, just like a fairy tale.”

  He pointed to the bloody snow around us. “A screwed up fairytale.”

  “True.”

  The Cats of Catastrophe were frantically cleaning the blood off themselves, though Princess Snowflake III didn’t
seem to be in much of a hurry. She was the prettiest of them all, with her long white fur and elegant bearing, but she sure didn’t mind a bloody tussle once in a while. Or every day.

  Lachlan met my eyes, respect glinting in his dark gaze. “You fight well.”

  “Thanks.”

  He nodded.

  “Let’s keep moving.” My body ached like mad, and I didn’t want these bloody ice men to wake up and start fighting again. Not to mention my chilly skin, which was starting to feel numb.

  We hiked quickly through the forest, the cats at our side. It was quiet now that the battle was over, pristine and white. Frankly, it looked like a Christmas card. The glittery kind that I’d always admired, except that we’d never had anyone to send them to.

  As we walked, the sense of danger left the air. No way that would last, but for now, it gave me a moment to catch my breath.

  “When I met you outside your class, you seemed off,” Lachlan said.

  Apparently, he’d already caught his breath. And decided to use it to make probing and insightful observations.

  I shot him a look out of the corner of my eye, annoyed and touched at the same time. “Why do you say that?”

  “I don’t know. You just had a look about you.”

  “Class didn’t go well. Lavender kicked my ass, then I got pissed and whooped hers. With some kind of crazy light magic that I couldn’t control. When I left, she was laid out on the floor.”

  “Was she all right?”

  “Of course.” I think. “She seemed all right. Mostly. And Jude seemed pissed.”

  “She wants you to get a handle on your magic.”

  “Duh. It went easier for my sister Bree. She’s a total badass. I think Jude expects me to move as fast as her.” And damn it, I wanted to. I was willing to do whatever it took.

  He hiked his thumb over his shoulder. “I saw you back there. You were badass.”

  “Thanks. But that wasn’t magic. That was regular old sword fighting.”

  “Your magic is totally unheard of and manifests in a different way than most people’s. That’s why you’re having trouble.”

  “Um, thanks.” It was nice that he understood, but it wasn’t an excuse for me. I’d used every moment I’d had, to practice, trying to call out the magic and make it obey my command. It hadn’t worked.