Dragon's Gift The Huntress Books 1-3 Page 33

  Aidan stiffened. “Could they transfer the ownership of the collar to him?”

  I shuddered, a cold sweat breaking out on my skin. He’d hit right at my greatest fear.

  “Yeah,” Nix said. “But they said they weren’t going to contact them until they caught Amara, so we have some time to get them first.”

  “We need to draw them into a trap,” I said. “Get them before they realize Amara isn’t wearing the collar or before they transfer ownership.”

  “But how?” Del asked. “We’d have to plant some kind of clue to draw them to us.”

  “Not really,” Nix said. “They’re—”

  The air sizzled with electricity, sending a spike of energy through me. Around the table, everyone else grimaced. The hair on my arms stood on end and I shuddered. It felt gross. Like the usual crap from the steroidal protection spells, but ten times as bad.

  “What was that?” Del asked.

  “Protection charms being tested,” Aidan said. “By someone trying to break in.”

  “Well then, retract my original question,” I said. “Because it sounds like they’re coming straight to us.”

  “They can’t get in,” Aidan said. “Not unless we drop the spell.”

  “Okay. Then we have time to make a plan.”

  An hour later, the four of us left Aidan’s house. We had a plan that would be implemented tonight after the sun went down. Mathias had gone back to Glencarrough to get some things and would be gone until evening.

  We’d fight the bad guys on our turf, and this time tomorrow, I’d be home free. Back at P & P, relaxing.

  Though I still felt like crap, I’d be going to the battle. Not only because I was necessary to draw them to us with the tracking runes on the collar around my neck, but because there was no way in hell I wasn’t getting my pound of flesh from the bitch who’d put this on Amara.

  But my Magica skills were weakened by the sickness that wouldn’t let up, so we were going to practice shifting one last time. As the four of us walked into the woods behind the building that held Aidan’s gym, I focused on my surroundings, trying to calm myself. The glen was cool and quiet, the trees silent sentries. Dappled sunlight fell on the grass and leaves, making the place feel like a fairy glen.

  When we reached a small clearing, Aidan stopped.

  “This will do,” he said. “Nix and Del, if you’ll take up positions on either side?”

  “On it,” Del said as she headed back down the path a bit. Nix headed in the other direction.

  We didn’t think Mathias would be back anytime soon, but we’d decided to take precautions. We’d come out here so he wouldn’t feel my signature in the air as I changed, and Nix and Del would stand guard in case he came back early and decided to go for one of his runs.

  “Ready?” Aidan asked as he turned to face me. He’d changed into a thin blue sweater and jeans and looked like he fit right into the wilderness. In a handsome-man-strolling kind of way rather than a creepy-mountain-man-hiding-out kind of way, which I approved of.

  “Yep,” I said. I widened my stance and tried to relax my muscles. Being freaked out by failure and pain wasn’t going to help any.

  “Start with the small things, like last night. Once you’ve got them, try for the change.”

  I nodded, then closed my eyes. I pulled on my magic, sighing when it came easily. It stretched out toward Aidan, seeking his power and twining around it.

  Scent came first, the fresh smell of grass and leaves and wind. A bit of Aidan’s shampoo and his distinct smell. Nix and Del, as well, though they were farther off. Two dozen meters, if I had to guess.

  I startled. I could determine distance from scent? Way cool.

  Enhanced hearing came next. The rustle of leaves in the wind, Aidan’s breathing. A crumbly, crunching noise that I realized was Del or Nix shifting on her feet, crunching leaves as they moved.

  I opened my eyes and had to blink to adjust to enhanced vision.

  “The tree leaves are so distinct,” I murmured.

  “Yeah,” Aidan said.

  I closed my eyes again, focusing on the image of a fox. It seemed like a fairly easy shift. There was no way I could try a griffin, but since Aidan was the Origin, I had Noah’s Ark at my disposal.

  I envisioned the red fur, pointed snout, alert ears. I tried to imagine myself running through the underbrush on four paws, sniffing for enticing smells, and listening for threats.

  Magic warmed me from within, spreading out across my limbs and ensnaring me in the scent of warm fur. Agony followed, streaking through me. I cried out, collapsing to the ground as pain surged. My bones felt like they were breaking apart, not to form a fox, but because my magic couldn’t grasp on to an animal to become. Images of wolves, bears, ravens, rabbits, ducks, falcons, and hedgehogs, flashed through my mind, chased by dozens of other animals.

  I pried my eyes open, blinking through the tears. My arms stretched out in front of me.

  Wrong.

  They looked so wrong. My heart galloped. One arm was human, the other a fox’s leg. I cried out as pain ripped through me. Darkness stole my vision.

  “Cass!”

  The voice tore me from the blackness. I opened my eyes. Aidan was kneeling by my side. Only seconds had passed. I looked at my limbs. They were normal again.

  “What happened?” I moaned.

  “You shifted halfway again and then passed out.” He helped me sit up. Pain screamed through me.

  Del sprinted toward me and fell to her knees. “I heard you scream. Are you okay?”

  “Uh, yeah. Just having trouble.” The animals that had marched through my mind flashed in front of my eyes again. I glanced at Aidan. “I think I’m having a hard time mirroring your power because you can change into so many different things. I don’t know what it feels like to change, so it’s hard to feel my way through that and select an animal. Especially if I’ve never been one before. Why don’t you shift?”

  “Okay. Let’s try it again. I’ll become a fox, then you mirror that.”

  I nodded and stumbled to my feet, leaning heavily on Aidan.

  “Are you sure you can do this?” he asked.

  “I have to do this. If I can master it, the damned collar will let up. I’ll be stronger tonight.”

  “I can always heal you,” Aidan said.

  “I want to heal myself. And I need to learn this. I need to be as strong as possible, no matter how much it hurts.”

  “She’s right,” Del said.

  I gave her a wan smile, appreciating that she had my back even if it meant she was pushing me toward more pain. Our lives had been full of pain. What was a little more if it was for the greater good?

  “Okay, turn into a fox,” I said.

  Aidan let go of my arms. Gray light swirled around him. A second later, a fox stood in his place. I closed my eyes and focused on my magic. The scents and sounds of the forest now came more easily after a bit of practice. I envisioned the fox and let my magic reach out for Aidan.

  Heat and power surged through me, the scent of warm fur filling my nose. My limbs vibrated with the magic surging through them, but they didn’t hurt, not like last time. I opened my eyes just as I began to fall. The forest zipped before my eyes.

  I flailed my arms, but my paws hit the ground.

  Paws.

  Oh. I hadn’t been falling. I’d been shrinking. To fox size. The scent and sounds of the forest were so detailed, so strong. I looked down at my little black feet, then over at Aidan, whose black fox eyes met mine. Del gave a whoop of joy.

  Beyond her, a figure stood stock still. His golden main of hair glinted in the sun.

  Shit.

  Mathias. He’d been able to approach because Del hadn’t gone back to her spot. I’d shifted so quickly and she’d still been here, so of course she’d watched.

  Mathias’s yellow eyes were so wide they looked like gold coins. He’d seen everything and was shocked as shit. Why was he so shocked? I’d told him I was a Mirr
or Mage.

  But fear glinted in his eyes as well.

  Nerves made my fur stand on end.

  A swirl of gray light shined to my left. Aidan appeared, standing tall on two legs, looming over me. I panicked, wishing I was human. Magic filled my limbs, hot and strong, and a second later, I was standing on two feet.

  Naked as hell.

  Damn, I wasn’t as powerful as Aidan so my magic had incinerated my clothes. My cheeks burned, but I shoved it away.

  Whatever. At least I hadn’t brought my daggers and lost them in the change.

  I faced Mathias. Shock and fear still twisted his features. “Hey, Mathias. Looks like I’m a strong enough Mirror Mage to shift.”

  He started to walk toward me, his expression morphing into something I didn’t recognize.

  From behind, I could hear Nix approaching, clearly having abandoned her post when she heard the shouting.

  “Here.” Nix draped a conjured blanket around my shoulders.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  Mathias had the strangest look on his face as he stopped in front of me. Fear skittered across my skin like mice feet, and the air grew thick.

  Quick as a flash, he reached out and grabbed my arm as he dug into his pocket and threw something to the ground.

  Glittering silver smoke burst around me. The ether sucked me away. Aidan’s shout was the last thing I heard.

  Half a second later, I collapsed onto a cold stone floor in a dark room. It’d all happened so fast!

  “What the hell?” I demanded as I climbed to my feet.

  True terror hit when I saw the barren stone walls surrounding me. One miserable 40-watt bulb hung from the ceiling.

  A dungeon.

  The Alpha Council’s dungeon.

  “I knew you smelled wrong.” Mathias backed away from me. “Just like the FireSoul in the Alpha Council dungeon.”

  Shit.

  “Yeah,” I said. “But I haven’t killed anyone. I’m not a bad person.”

  The lie burned my throat on the way out, but I had to escape this dungeon. I’d sort out whether or not I was a bad person later.

  “Doesn’t matter. FireSouls are evil.” He turned, heading toward the closed door.

  He’d taken me right into a cell. I couldn’t let him alert the Alpha Council! Fear lit in my veins as I charged him. I threw myself at his back, taking us both to the floor.

  He was huge and so damned strong. He rolled over, throwing me off him. I had no weapons except my magic, and lightning would have Shifters down here in a heartbeat. Instinct drove me. I reached for his lion’s strength with my magic. I couldn’t turn into a lion, because then I couldn’t talk. But maybe I could take the powers of his muscles like I took Aidan’s ability to hear and smell.

  Power surged through my limbs. I scrambled to him, straddling him and holding him down. Though I could process that I was naked, my own terror and the fear and disgust I saw in Mathias’s eyes made it easy to ignore my nudity.

  I pressed by hands into his throat, not strangling, but holding him down with the strength I’d mirrored. He struggled, but I urged my magic onward, accessing every bit of his strength.

  “I’m not trying to hurt you.” I panted. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone.”

  “Get off me, FireSoul!”

  “I promise I’m good!”

  “How can anyone believe a FireSoul?”

  I wracked my brain. Panic fueled me. “I could kill you if I wanted. Electrocute you with my lightning, then take your power and shift and sneak out. But there’s no way in hell I would because I’m not a murderer. I’ve got you at my mercy to prove to you that even under threat of my very life, I won’t hurt you.”

  His eyes were stark in his face. He was so shocked that he was listening, at least. If he fought back, I’d have a hell of a time winning this since I was only as strong as he was. No, stronger.

  “Look at this collar around my throat. I’m trying to save your kin!”

  His gaze darted down. Something cleared in his eyes. Fear was still there, but something I’d said had hit him.

  “I’m just trying to live my life,” I said. “I can’t help how I was born. But I’m not evil. You’ve got to trust me. Let me go so I can find the people who threaten Glencarrough and Amara.”

  More of the fear left his eyes. After an eternity of silence, he said, “Fine. Get off me.”

  “Do you swear you won’t turn me in?” I asked.

  He nodded sharply. I gave him one last hard look and scrambled off toward the blanket. I grabbed it and wrapped it around myself, my muscles still tensed to jump him.

  He sat up and bent his head into his hand, thinking.

  “Mathias?” I asked.

  “Give me a sec.”

  I waited, tense as a bowstring.

  Finally, he looked up.

  “Damn it, Cass. This is dangerous. You know what the Council would do with you if they knew? Do with me if they knew I harbored you?”

  I thought of the guy I’d seen in shackles being led through the hall at Glencarrough. “Yeah. That’s why I was hesitant to take the job. But I did, because you said lives were at stake. I came to help you. Now help me.”

  He grimaced.

  “You got me into this, Mathias. You’re the one who came to me for help. Now let me help you get Amara back, and for magic’s sake, don’t turn me in. The loss of the Heartstone is a greater threat to Glencarrough than I am. So just let me go.”

  He still looked doubtful, but he nodded. Reluctantly, but committed. “You’ll have to wait here while I get another transport charm. I’m all out. We’re burning through these things like firewood, but I can’t risk taking you out the normal way. After that other FireSoul was here, everyone has gotten more used to the scent. You’re below ground now and there’s no one on this level now, so you should be okay.”

  I shivered. No one on this level? That meant they’d taken the other FireSoul to the prison.

  “I’ll wait. But hurry.”

  He nodded.

  I sat on the cold stone, huddled in my blanket and praying I was making the right decision in trusting him. I could try to escape. But he was my best bet. And I believed him. He wasn’t a very good liar, and I was very good at detecting them.

  The ten minutes he was gone were some of the longest of my life. I was in the Alpha Council’s dungeon, one of the places I’d feared most. This was the first stop on a one-way trip to the prison for Magical Miscreants. This was what being a FireSoul was. Even the people you helped were afraid of you and willing to toss you in prison.

  When he finally returned, I was vibrating with anxiety. His eyes had calmed though, and almost all of the fear in them was gone.

  That calmed me a bit. If he wasn’t afraid of me, he wasn’t likely to turn me in.

  “Ready to go?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Uh, sorry about bringing you here.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was really sorry, but I’d take it.

  12

  A second later, we appeared in the driveway of Aidan’s family home. Nix, Del, and Aidan were yanking open the doors of his Range Rover. They whirled to face us. As a unit, they charged Mathias.

  Aidan grabbed him by the throat. “I’ll fucking kill you if you hurt a hair on her head.”

  Del had drawn her sword and was flickering blue, she was so mad. Nix had conjured a sword of her own.

  I grabbed Aidan’s arm. “Put him down. He brought me back. He had to know you’d try to kill him and he brought me back anyway.”

  “She’s right,” Mathias grunted. “I’m sorry I took her. She’s a FireSoul. It was instinct.”

  Bitterness surged inside me at his words. Instinct to throw me in a dungeon for life imprisonment. That was my reality.

  “But I was wrong,” Mathias said. “She’s helping us. Never done us wrong. I can ignore what she is.”

  Aidan shook him. “Ignore? You should be praising what she is. What she is is the pers
on who was able to find Amara when no one else could. Not even your woman Mordaca could find her. But Cass did. And now she’s wearing that fucking collar to save the girl.”

  I’d never heard Aidan swear so much. And I sure as hell had never had a man defend me so valiantly before.

  “I get it,” Mathias said.

  “You’d better.” Aidan shook him one more time and put him down. He looked at me. “You want me to kill him? He tells anyone about you, and I’ll do it.”

  Holy shit, Aidan was like a rabid dog. Gone was the sophisticated, powerful millionaire, and in his place was a powerful beast. The ferocity in his gaze was so like his griffin side.

  “Don’t kill him!” I grabbed Aidan’s bicep, then thought better of shaking him. I petted his arm instead, trying to calm him. “He’s on our side.”

  “I am,” Mathias said. “I knew what I was walking into when I brought her back here. I’ve seen how you look at her.”

  Like he’d kill to protect me?

  Wow.

  “We need her help,” Mathias said. “And she’s had plenty of opportunity to hurt us and hasn’t. She had good reason and a perfect opportunity to kill me ten minutes ago, and she didn’t. I shouldn’t have panicked. I’m sorry.”

  I believed his apology this time. “I believe him, Aidan. Let him go.”

  Aidan nodded. “Keep it in mind, Mathias. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect her.”

  Time felt like it slowed. I knew he cared for me. But this was really serious.

  “We’re fighting tonight,” Aidan told Mathias. “At sundown. Be here thirty minutes before.”

  Mathias nodded.

  Aidan’s gaze met my own. My heart fluttered. “Come on, Cass. Let’s go in.”

  He put his arm around my shoulder, supporting me. The collar’s effects hit me suddenly, my adrenaline having drained away. I sagged against him and let him lead me inside.

  Nix and Del stayed outside, presumably to stare down Mathias.

  “I do believe him,” I said. “At least until we finish this with Amara and the Heartstone.”

  “I do too. With the same conditions.” We reached the bedroom. He turned to face me and cupped my face in his hands.