Dragon's Gift The Huntress Books 1-3 Read online

  “This is my fight,” I whispered. I turned to the Council and spoke more loudly. “If the bastards figure out I’m wearing it, issue commands that I ignore, and the collar makes me sick, I’ll need the Origin at full strength to kill them. We’re the best team for it, and this is the best way to do it.”

  Though I sure as hell wanted to be the person to kill them, it really was the smartest way. It was true that I could be the strongest one at this table because I was a FireSoul, but I wasn’t. I didn’t have enough practice. Aidan was the most powerful. I’d need him at full strength to protect me. Though the idea dented my pride, I’d rather be alive than stubborn.

  Aidan’s grip on my knee tightened but he sighed, recognizing the wisdom of my words, I’d bet.

  Elenora glanced at her fellow council members. They all nodded. She drew in a deep breath. “If you’re willing, then we’ll accept your offer. And raise your pay. Double. You’ll also have full use of any Shifter forces you need. We’ll hit them hard and finish this.”

  I nodded. Normally, I’d be excited about the money. Right now, it was a bit hard to dredge up any enthusiasm.

  8

  Exhaustion tugged at me as I sat on the floor, my back pressed against Amara’s. They’d given her a box to sit on so that our necks were at the same level. Nix had joined us twenty minutes ago, coming in from the village. She’d left Del at the pub. No need to have too many FireSouls here, even if we were helping them. We told the council Nix had traveled with a transport charm to explain her quick arrival.

  Her eyes had been wide with an “oh hell no” expression as I’d told her what I wanted her to do. But eventually, she’d caved.

  “Okay, Amara,” Nix said. “I’m just going to use my magic to make a replica of your collar. There will be light, but you won’t feel anything.”

  Nix’s green gaze caught mine. I tried to smile, but it didn’t work. I was so tired I probably looked like a ton of bricks had hit me, and to be frank, this was a dumb idea. Selfless—I’d take that credit, thanks—but dumb for anyone who wanted to live a nice, long life.

  It hadn’t taken Nix long to figure out why I was doing this. She’d come from the same place as me, after all. It was Nix that Amara had reminded me of when I’d first seen her, scared and huddled against the wall. Some things were more important than living a nice, long life.

  Nix reached out and squeezed my shoulder, then hovered her hand near our necks. The light, floral scent of her magic surged. She’d never had my control problems, so she was more practiced with her skills. From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the glow, but it wasn’t until I felt the heavy weight of the collar squeezing my neck that I knew she was done.

  My stomach pitched and rolled at the feel of it. But it would only get worse when the spell was transferred. Just the idea made me feel like a thousand-pound weight dragged at my neck.

  Aidan watched from the side of the room, arms crossed over his chest and scowl fierce. I looked away. He didn’t like it, but it’s not like he had a choice in the matter.

  “Okay, now I’m going to transfer the magic, Amara,” Nix said. “It shouldn’t hurt, but if it does, you need to tell me right away, okay?”

  Amara’s head bobbed against mine as she nodded.

  As quietly as I could, I sucked in a deep breath and held it. Again, Nix hovered her hand near our necks. I strained my eyes to see, only briefly catching a glimpse of the blue smoke that usually accompanied a spell transfer.

  A gross, sickly feeling spread through my body. Not really physical, but like my soul was being coated with tar. Was this what Amara had felt?

  A cold sweat broke out over my skin as the feeling increased, the magic flowing into the collar. I felt polluted. Like a pond outside a sewage plant into which someone had dumped a bunch of garbage.

  “Her eyes!” Elenora gasped from behind me. “They’re blue again!”

  That must mean mine had gone black. I swayed with exhaustion as I closed them, suddenly hating what I’d agreed to do. I wouldn’t take it back, but fates, I hated it.

  “Okay,” Nix said. “I think it’s done.”

  “Amara, come here,” Elenora said.

  The heat of Amara’s back against my own disappeared. I turned to see her scurrying toward Elenora. The room seemed to spin and I grabbed Nix’s shoulder, steadying myself.

  “Well?” I said. “How do I look? Should I keep the eyes? Make them permanent?”

  The joke felt flat on my tongue. Goofing off wasn’t going to fix this, and even my delivery felt like I was half-asleep.

  “Your magic feels like you jumped into a garbage can full of old cafeteria food,” Nix said.

  “At least I can count on you for honesty.” But a small grin tugged at my lips. Nix knew I didn’t like to be coddled.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll help you take out the trash.” Nix hugged me. “Honestly, I’ll be fighting you for the right to tear off the bitch’s head, whoever did this.”

  Aidan’s hand landed on my shoulder. I was grateful for his warmth at my back, and also for the fact that it helped hold me upright. Amara approached, her dark eyes now blue. Her magic felt clean as well and smelled like grass.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Don’t thank me yet. We gotta get that ugly necklace off you.” I turned to look up at Aidan, my eyelids dragging with exhaustion. Using so much magic and putting on the hell collar were more that I could handle, it seemed. “You’re the strongest one here, so you’ve got the best senses. Do you sense any magic in her collar?”

  Aidan hunkered down and reached out to touch Amara’s collar. His hand looked enormous in front of her small body, but his fingers were gentle on the collar.

  “It’s gone,” Aidan said. “I feel nothing.”

  Funny. Neither do I.

  The next second, my vision went black as I keeled over.

  The stone floor cut into my knees and the cold seeped into my bones, the ever-present chill worse now that there were only three of us left in this little cell. That meant fewer bodies to huddle with for warmth. Fewer bodies to improve the odds that I wouldn’t be taken next.

  They’d taken the collared girl a few days ago. A week? A month? I had no way to track time in the dark. I’d been taken on my fourteenth birthday, but I had no idea if I was still fourteen or not. I hoped so. They’d stolen so much from me. Would they steal a year of my life as well?

  The girl next to me started weeping. It was hard to say what had triggered this bout, but she hadn’t spoken since she’d arrived some time ago. Just wept.

  Impotent rage fought with my own misery and fear. Hunger clawed at my belly as the cold gouged at my bones. What right did they have to do this to me? To lock me up like some animal? Worse, perhaps, was whatever waited for me outside this cell door.

  As if I’d called upon it, the heavy wooden door swung open, crashing against the stone wall. Light blinded me and my heartbeat spiked as my stomach dropped. Sweat broke out on my skin when a massive form filled the doorway, his shoulders so broad they almost blocked out the light.

  The girl next to me cried harder. The other panted. A strange growling noise rose from my throat, the sound of an animal enraged and in pain.

  They would take one of us. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t me this time.

  It would be one day soon.

  The giant raised one great paw and pointed. His voice cracked like thunder. “You.”

  I couldn’t tell who he pointed at, but it triggered something inside me. I lunged away from the wall, leaping upon him. My weight threw him to the ground with me on top of him. He wasn’t as big as he looked and his magic smelled like fresh air. Too nice for the likes of a monster like him.

  White noise filled my mind as I threw punches at him, hitting as hard as I could at anything I could reach. Face, neck, chest. My breath heaved through my lungs as I obeyed the beast that had taken over my mind.

  Though he wasn’t that big, my hits fell like rain upon him, inef
fectual and weak. When one of his fists connected with my face, pain exploded. The force of his punch threw me off him. I skidded on the stone floor, blind with pain.

  I scrabbled along the ground, trying to turn over, not knowing which way was up. The sound of a struggle sent strength surging through my limbs. Pain flared when I opened my eyes, but by the light of the open door, I could make out two skinny figures on top of the guard. Their fists flew as they tried to land their blows.

  My friends. The only two left.

  The fight was silent and eerie, as if the girls knew we couldn’t be caught. This was our one chance.

  A glint of silver caught my eye. A knife was slipping out of the sheath strapped to the guard’s calf. Most Magica didn’t carry weapons, but whatever gifts this Magica had, he found a weapon necessary.

  I lunged toward him, my hand reaching for the knife. The smoothness of the leather hilt beneath my fingers was the best feeling I could remember. My fist tightened as I jerked it out of its sheath.

  About eight inches long with a wicked point, it was beautiful.

  The guard didn’t seem to notice and he heaved a punch at one of my friends, though I couldn’t tell which. Like me, she went flying, skidding along the floor. Fast as a snake, he lunged toward the other girl, throwing her to her back and leaning over her.

  Rage seethed through me, a wicked fuel that gave me strength.

  Now.

  I scrambled up the guard’s legs, planting my knees on either side of his hips, and with both hands, plunged the blade into his back. It was a sickening feeling, but something in me sang with victory. He stiffened and gave a low shout.

  I pulled the blade free and plunged again, rage and joy filling me as the knife sank into his flesh.

  This felt good. So good. He was one of the monsters who kept us caged. Warm blood sprayed my hands as I plunged again and again, my mind a black vortex of vengeance and survival.

  But as my blade flew, something else grew inside my chest. A flicker of flame, so real that it burned away the chill in my bones and replaced it with burning heat.

  I was no longer a starving, freezing girl. I was the fire. A glowing white flame that consumed all in its path. And this monster was in my path. He stood between me and freedom. He had what I needed.

  The flame spread from my chest through my limbs. Through rage-hazed vision, I saw the flickering white flame crawl across my skin, extending out to the man who lay dying beneath me.

  Instinct compelled me, taking over my body. I dropped the blade and pressed my hands to his back. The flame was burning, raging, a magic unlike any I had ever witnessed.

  But it was my magic, no matter how strange. It reached inside the man, drawn by the signature of his own power. That fresh air smell that he didn’t deserve, not when he worked in this underground cage, torturing girls who’d done nothing wrong.

  Ruthlessly, I plucked his magic from him, my flame burning me from within as it stole his magic and made it my own.

  Power vibrated under my skin, more than I’d ever possessed. Powers that I didn’t understand trilled along my nerve endings, dancing within me.

  When the man was nothing but a husk beneath me, the flame that fueled me faded away. The dark and cold returned. My friends’ whispers filled my ears. Dread and joy and confusion raced through me.

  The door was open. We had to run, we had to—

  “Hey! Wake up, Cass! Come on, you’re freaking us out.”

  Warmth on my shoulder and a familiar voice dragged me from slumber. I thrashed, my body still on frantic auto pilot.

  But when I opened my eyes, I was in a little bedroom with an adult-sized Nix and Del leaning over me, concern in their gaze. I stilled, panting. My heartbeat slowed as the sweat cooled on my skin.

  I was safe. I was an adult. I was no longer in that cell.

  Stealing my Mirror Mage powers.

  “Holy shit.” I blinked up at my friends, my brain frying with everything I’d just remembered. I struggled to sit, finding myself in the same T-shirt as before but no jeans. Just underwear.

  The room was dim, with hazy sunlight shining through the thin curtains. Aidan’s house. We could cover how I got here later. This was big.

  “I think I just remembered how we escaped the Monster. And how I got my Mirror Mage gift.”

  Nix’s brows shot up and Del said, “For real?”

  I poked at the memories. “Yeah. At least, part of it. I definitely killed for my Mirror Mage powers, that’s for sure.”

  I hadn’t been sure up until now, though I’d always wondered if I were a real FireSoul. The kind who killed.

  “Whoever it was deserved it.” Del’s voice was ferocious.

  “Yeah, I think he did.” Dread slowed my heartbeat to a rhythmic thump. “But Aaron didn’t. With him, that’s two people I’ve killed for their gifts. Maybe I’m as big a monster as everyone says FireSouls are.”

  Nix gripped my hand fiercely. “You’re not. Aaron was dying from the slave collar anyway. He was glad when you helped him escape.”

  “Through death?”

  Nix’s shoulder lifted in a delicate shrug as her sad gaze met mine. “Sometimes that’s the only way.”

  “Fates, that’s dark.”

  “Life can be dark.”

  My mind flew back to the dungeon in which we’d spent an unknown amount of time. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. I just hate what I’ve done.”

  “It’ll take time to come to grips with,” Del said. “But you’ve never done any of it with malice.”

  “Uh, I was malice personified when I killed the guard in the Monster’s dungeon and took his Mirror Mage powers.”

  “But I bet he deserved it,” Nix said.

  The memory of the unknown little girl who’d worn the collar and then disappeared soon after slid into my head. I had no idea what had happened to her, but whatever it was, the people responsible deserved to be punished. In a way, I’d meted that out to the guard.

  “Thanks for the faith, Nix,” I sad.

  “How did we escape?” Del asked.

  “I’m not one hundred percent sure. We were in the same cell as my other nightmares, but this time, we attacked a guard. I stole his power, though I didn’t really realize what I was doing. But right before I woke up, we were looking at the empty doorway. Like maybe we could escape.”

  “So we fought our way free,” Del said. She grinned. “I like it.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I know we at least killed that guard. What happened after is still a mystery.”

  “Hey, maybe that’s why your powers have always been so uncontrollable,” Nix said. “You never had a chance to practice them. One second you got them from the guard, then the next we were on the run and somehow lost our memories.”

  Possible. I was improving with practice, though I wasn’t close to reliable yet.

  “Why the sudden surge of nightmares?” Del asked.

  “No idea. Probably because I’m practicing my magic. Stirs up all the bad shit in there.” I tapped my head. My hair was so stiff and gross that I almost gagged. I literally could not remember the last time I’d had a shower. It’d been run, fight, run, fight since the temple in the jungle. Was that right?

  “How did I get here?” I asked.

  “Well, first you passed out,” Del said. Next to her, Nix mimed swooning. “Then that big hunk of man you’ve been trotting around with scooped you up in his giant arms.”

  “And carried you back to his creepy lair.” Nix swept her arm around the little room.

  At her words, I registered the prickle of the protection spells. I rubbed my arms.

  Del glanced at the motion. “Yeah, feels like shit here. These are some grade A protections, so whoever is tracking that collar can’t get within a few hundred yards of this house, but it sure ain’t fun to hang out here.”

  “Ugh, I just want to go home,” I said, glancing around the barren room. “I want a shower at my own place, a couple hours hanging out in my t
rove, and a PBR and a pasty at P & P’s.”

  “No can do, buckaroo,” Nix said. “Not only will that collar lead the bad guys straight to our home, but this is the safest place for you until you get that damned thing off. We gotta play it safe.”

  She glared at my collar. I reached up, wincing at the cold bite of the metal beneath my fingers. The cloying, sickly feel of the dark magic hadn’t abated. I was glad I’d gotten it off Amara, but holy crap, it sucked.

  And Nix was right. We couldn’t lead them to our home. Not when I thought the Monster was involved.

  “Guys?” I really didn’t want to make them worry more than necessary, but this was necessary. “I think the Monster is behind this.”

  Their fearful gazes met mine and I explained the shadow demons and the collar. When I was done, Del and Nix both reached out and took my hands. Fear vibrated in the room.

  “We’ll take care of it.” Nix’s voice trembled.

  “But he’s so damned powerful,” I said. Our odds of winning this—of all of us coming out alive and free—dropped exponentially if the Monster was involved. “And if the Shifter wolves can transfer the ownership of this collar, he’d be my master.” The word made my tongue feel gross.

  “We’ll kill him,” Del hissed. “So you won’t have to worry about it.”

  I nodded, not convinced, but desperate to believe her.

  We sat in silence for a moment, each fighting our own demons. At least I was. I figured they had to be doing the same.

  “So, to try to get on a less dire subject,” Nix said. “Why does your guy have such a weird place? These protections are insane, but this place is no Fort Knox. What’s he protecting?”

  I was grateful Nix was trying to drag us out of our fear, though not thrilled to talk about Aidan’s place.

  “He’s got an interesting past,” I said, not wanting to share more. Sure, these were my deirfiúr, closer than blood. But I was starting to feel loyalty to Aidan too. I didn’t want to be spreading his business around.

  “Hmm…” Nix said. “I don’t like the sound of that. You sure about this guy?”