Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7)

by Genevieve Jack

  Eleanor was proud but she wasn’t stupid. She bowed her head. “I will get you the book.”

  “Wise, dragon.” With a wave of her hand, a bottle appeared in Hera’s clutches. Its blue contents bubbled inside its round belly. “More sleeping elixir for Aitna. We wouldn’t want the goddess of the mountain to wake before you have a chance to kill her.”

  With a grin she hoped would hide her annoyance, Eleanor accepted the bottle. She wasn’t looking forward to flying back to Paragon in her soma form in order to safely carry the load. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Excellent. I love when we click, Eleanor. From the bottom of my heart. So often you remind me of me.” She pressed a hand over the center of her chest and smiled wickedly.

  “Only someone who’s been in your grandiose presence could truly understand what a magnanimous compliment you offer me. I fear I am unworthy of it.” Eleanor refrained from rolling her eyes although she physically hurt from the effort.

  Hera gave a haughty laugh and shrugged. “I’m a giver. What can I say? Zeus has never appreciated it. But because you do, Eleanor, I have a gift for you, something to replace your seer.”

  “Oh?”

  “Grigori, come.”

  A peacock strode from the forest, spreading its feathers in a gorgeous fan of green and blue.

  “I-isn’t he a bit conspicuous?” Eleanor mumbled.

  Hera made a sound like a growl and snapped her fingers. The bird transformed into a peregrine falcon.

  “I believe peregrines are used to send messages in your world, yes?”

  The dark gray bird blinked knowingly and stretched its formidable talons.

  “Yes, my goddess.” Eleanor gave her a bow.

  “Grigori will show you what he sees with the command vlépo. Try it now.”

  “Vlépo,” Eleanor repeated, and suddenly she was looking at herself from the bird’s perspective. She closed her eyes and gave her head a firm shake. When she opened them again, her sight had returned to normal.

  “Very good. Close your eyes for three seconds to regain your own sight. And Eleanor…”

  “Yes, my goddess?”

  “This bird can go anywhere, even Aeaea.”

  Eleanor’s mouth split into a wide grin. “You are too generous.” She bowed low and then spread her wings and turned to leave.

  “One more thing,” Hera sang out from behind her.

  What now? Eleanor turned back to the goddess. “Yes?”

  “Do not return to this island without the golden grimoire. If you do, I will feed you to Grigori.”

  With a diagonal tip of her head, Eleanor pursed her lips and flew for home, Grigori following behind her.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  At times like these, Dianthe did not want to see the future. Xavier was badly injured, foaming at the mouth as if he’d been poisoned, and bleeding. On top of it all, a man had arrived on a sled pulled by a team of dogs that would give Nochtbend’s hellhounds a run for their money as the scariest beasts imaginable. She feared they’d all meet their end soon.

  But then Sylas embraced the man, exchanged a few words, and a flicker of hope warmed her chest.

  “This is Zander, leader of the resistance in Darnuith and owner of the Black Mountain Inn. He’s a friend. He’s here to help.”

  Zander nodded his hello. “Your friend needs antivenom quickly. Load him onto the sled. I’ll haul him back. Can the rest of you follow along?”

  “This is Xavier’s mate. She was wounded too.” Sylas gestured toward Avery, who sheathed her sword.

  Zander narrowed his eyes. “Interesting. Very interesting. Okay, come along, Miss Avery. Perhaps you can tell me on the way how you happen to be immune to Skelna’s curse.” He kicked the remains of the demon’s trunk and shook his head. “The coven is not going to be happy about this, Sylas.”

  “We can talk about it once we find help for my brother.”

  Zander nodded in agreement. Dianthe helped her mate load Xavier onto the sled. Avery tucked into his side and they were off, the dogs barking in excitement as they climbed the mountain.

  Sylas swept her into his arms. A moment later they were in the air, chasing the sled with Nathaniel and Clarissa.

  “Wasn’t Zander the man you lived with when you were in Darnuith?” Dianthe asked.

  “Yes. We are very lucky he found us. I’m not sure what we would have done if he hadn’t.”

  “Why didn’t you simply fly to his inn and request his help before?”

  Sylas shook his head. “The magic doesn’t work that way. You don’t find the Dark Mountain Inn. It finds you. The place moves constantly to meet weary travelers in need. I guess we got lucky that we needed it most tonight.”

  They arrived at a large log cabin with a wooden sign that read Dark Mountain Inn. The place didn’t look mobile. It was as large as the solarium in Everfield. A team of witches emerged and ushered Xavier and Avery inside. Dianthe almost cried from relief as she stepped into the place to find a roaring fire and a sitting area with plush, brightly colored furniture.

  A friendly face appeared before her and offered to take her coat, then handed her a cup of something she’d never tried before but was hot, delicious, and clearly alcoholic. She felt guilty accepting the drink considering what was happening with Xavier, but Zander appeared and assured all of them that he had a dose of antivenom for Skelna’s poison on hand and his people were administering it to Xavier immediately. They were also bandaging Avery’s arm.

  Only moments later, Avery emerged from the back room wearing a white bandage and propped herself in a chair next to the bar. Xavier hobbled out after her, looking better although still a little green. The bartender served them drinks as large as Dianthe’s head. Nathaniel and Clarissa joined them. But when Dianthe started toward what looked like a wonderful celebratory drink, Zander gestured to her and Sylas.

  “Come, sit,” he said. “I have questions, and as fellow DOG officers I suspect you have answers.”

  Dianthe reluctantly followed him to a table near the fire. She sipped her drink, feeling languid and sleepy in the warm room, and absently wondered if either the drink or the fire was enchanted.

  “Thank you again for helping us,” Sylas said. “You are a true asset to the resistance.”

  “Be that as it may, Queen Penelope is going to want to know why you killed Skelna. That demon has guarded the Ice Forest for centuries. She will be missed.”

  “She almost killed us first,” Dianthe said.

  “Only because you weren’t where you were supposed to be,” Zander said. “Outsiders are forbidden in the Ice Forest.”

  “We had no choice,” Sylas said. “She had something we needed, something essential for the Defenders of the Goddess to move forward.”

  The warlock gave them a pitying look. “I heard about your latest situation in Everfield. I can understand why you’d be uniquely motivated to end Eleanor’s reign, but you must be careful here. You know as well as I do, the people of Darnuith do not welcome strangers, especially when those strangers damage their heritage. You should have sent a falcon. I could have escorted you.”

  “There wasn’t time!” Dianthe started, then forced herself to take a deep breath. “It’s true, I am motivated. Eleanor burned down my home. She left my people in squalor—”

  “That too,” Zander said. “But I was speaking about yesterday… the news that Chancellor Ciro handed Everfield to Paragon.”

  The room started to spin. “Excuse me?” Dianthe gave him a quizzical look.

  “You haven’t heard?” Zander glanced between her and Sylas, clearly bewildered.

  “Did you say Everfield fell?”

  Zander nodded. “It’s been annexed by Paragon. We are now the four kingdoms.”

  Dianthe’s mug slipped from her hand and landed on the table with a wobble. Zander steadied it. She was shaking, trembling so hard that her teeth were chattering. Sylas wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  “We’re going to make this
right,” he said softly. “We will stop Eleanor and we will take back Everfield.”

  Zander cleared his throat. “I hate to be rude. I realize this is a sensitive time for your mate, but you need to tell me why you’re here, Sylas. I can’t help you if you don’t. As I mentioned, Skelna was a part of our heritage. Children leave her offerings once a year to thank her for guarding the forest. As scary as you two found her, she is going to be missed. She may have been a monster, but she was our monster.”

  “I understand,” Sylas said, “And I’m sorry.”

  Dianthe couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. Everfield had fallen. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard Sylas drag his pack in front of his knees and saw, out of the corner of her eye, him pull the blue orb from it.

  “We had to kill Skelna for this. It was in her stomach.” Sylas held out the blue orb.

  “Fates above,” Zander said. “No… Is that? It can’t be.” He took the orb and rotated it, holding it up to the light to spy the piece of the key within.

  “Do you know what this is?” Sylas asked.

  He shrugged. “Only from legend. It looks like one of Medea’s lost orbs. If I remember correctly from my reading, there are supposed to be five?”

  Sylas’s eyes sparked. “We have the other four, Zander. We have the key.”

  Zander’s gaze met his. “Do you know what the key unlocks?”

  “A vault somewhere with a weapon.” Sylas rubbed his palms together. “We will get that weapon, and we will overthrow Eleanor.”

  “The folk tales say it’s her grimoire,” Zander said, his face suddenly serious. “And if it is Medea’s grimoire, it belongs to Darnuith. Medea was our queen. Her lost magic belongs to us.”

  Sylas lifted the orb from his hand and returned it to his bag. “I don’t know what type of weapon it is, but I’ll keep what you’ve said here in mind.”

  “Do that, Sylas,” Zander said firmly, suddenly sounding much less friendly. “Our kingdom grieved the loss of Queen Medea and her unborn child for centuries. She is revered here. Anything you find ultimately belongs to us, her people. You don’t want Darnuith as an enemy.”

  An enemy? Dianthe suddenly found her voice. “Enemy? We’re trying to help you. You know what happened to Everfield and Nochtbend. Darnuith could be next. Are you threatening to side with Eleanor against us?”

  “Of course not. We will never support Eleanor.” Zander shook his head dismissively.

  “Well then, think twice about what you are saying, because Eleanor will use our division against us. Medea didn’t leave these orbs or the weapon to Darnuith. She left them to her descendants.”

  Zander sniffed. “She didn’t have any descendants. Her baby died with her. We are her people.”

  Dianthe shook her head. “She and her sisters lived on, and those two witches”—she pointed at the bar where Clarissa and Avery were laughing and drinking something black and bubbly—“they are two of three descendants of Circe. They are the three sisters foretold to end Paragon’s reign, and this weapon belongs to them.”

  Zander looked again at Clarissa and Avery as if seeing them for the first time. “By the fates, you have the three sisters, here and ready to fight for the Defenders of the Goddess.”

  Sylas nodded. “We do. You’ve healed one of them.”

  “Couldn’t heal her. She’s completely immune to magic. Simply bandaged her,” he said absently.

  “We have to get back,” Dianthe said. “Colin doesn’t know what’s happened. If we don’t return soon, he’ll consider sending out a search party and put more of us at risk. We’ve already tempted fate by keeping the three sisters separated.”

  “Again, thank you, Zander, for your help,” Sylas said. “You are and always have been a key member of the Defenders of the Goddess. If Queen Penelope gives you hell about who killed Skelna, I won’t blame you for whatever you have to say, but right now we have to go. We have a war to plan.”

  “Very well. Enough for now.” Zander stood. “Go then. I’ll clean up this mess with Skelna. But we will discuss the ultimate ownership of the grimoire should you find it.”

  “Fair enough.” Sylas shook the warlock’s hand.

  A short conversation later, Dianthe circled up with the others, hand in hand with her mate. Nathaniel, Avery, and Clarissa opened the way home.

  Arriving on Aeaea with Dianthe in his arms was a relief to Sylas in more ways than one. Yes, she was safe. They all were. But more importantly, she was his again. They’d reached a crossroads in their marriage where they were both challenged to either dive into the dark recesses of each other’s souls or take the sunny path away from each other. He was glad he’d dove.

  “Oh, this feels heavenly.” Dianthe spun from him and raised her arms to the sun. “As much as I am passionate about our mission, I could do without spending another day in Darnuith.”

  He grinned at her and cocked an eyebrow. “All it takes to break you is a little snow and ice?”

  “And perpetually gray skies. And the wind. Don’t forget the cruel, biting wind.”

  He pulled her back into his arms. “I’ll keep you warm.”

  She fluttered her lashes up at him. “Always.”

  While Avery sought out Tobias to assess her wound, Sylas led Dianthe to their tent to change into something more comfortable for island weather. He would have enjoyed celebrating their successful mission with some time in bed, but she held back when he pressed his mouth to hers.

  “You promised to keep me warm, but will you keep me fed? I’m starving.”

  “It smells like dinner in the main tent, and I’m guessing a debrief is in order. Everyone is going to want to know about Aborella.” He slung the bag with the orbs over his shoulder and allowed her to lead him toward the food.

  As soon as they walked into the tent, cheers went up from the others who had gathered there, Alexander whistling and clapping his hands while Rowan and Nick whooped and punched the air.

  “Welcome back,” Colin yelled, jostling through the crowd to draw both him and Dianthe into firm hugs. “I send you out for two orbs and you return with four. You two always were overachievers.”

  Sylas kissed the side of Dianthe’s head. “This experience has definitely taught me that there’s nothing we can’t achieve together.”

  Dianthe cradled his jaw, her eyes misting.

  “Well, let’s see them!” Colin said.

  Sylas dug in his bag and tossed him both the blue and the gold orb. Colin carried them to the center table where he added them to the collection in front of Leena and the scroll. Sylas led Dianthe to the buffet where they loaded their plates. They found a seat at a side table next to Gabriel and Raven. Charlie was sitting on her lap, eating something raw and meaty.

  “You look like you’re going to gag,” Sylas said to Raven.

  “She can’t get used to the baby eating meat,” Gabriel said.

  “Why can’t it be cooked?” Raven stuck out her tongue.

  Sylas and Gabriel laughed.

  “I’ll hold her if it bothers you,” Dianthe offered, making gimme hands toward Charlie.

  Raven handed her over, and Dianthe bounced her on her lap. All Sylas could do was smile. Dianthe was a natural. Dragons and fairies could not produce young together, but he’d always thought she’d make a perfect mother.

  Colin and Leena dropped their plates on the table across from them. “Start talking. I want to know everything that happened from the time you left for Everfield until now.”

  “Didn’t Tobias and Sabrina fill you in?”

  “As well as they could. I want to hear your version of events.” Colin folded his arms and waited.

  Beside him, Leena pulled out a blank scroll and a quill, readying herself for Sylas’s story.

  Sylas gave Colin a rundown of everything, from the sprites in Solaris Lake to the raid of Nochtbend to how they’d found Aborella and she’d told them where the Paragonian orb was. He told him about Darnuith too. And when it came to Aborella’s deat
h, he turned it over to Dianthe, who handed baby Charlie back to Raven and gave a heart-wrenching account of the fairy’s last moments.

  “Aborella is dead,” Colin repeated, shaking his head. Beside him, Leena transcribed furiously. “I never thought I’d see the day. But she was right. Had she not sacrificed herself, Eleanor would have come for you.”

  Dianthe wiped a tear away. “She told us how to find the Darnuith orb before she died.”

  “Did she tell you anything else before Avery did what she had to?” Colin asked.

  Dianthe glanced at Avery, and Sylas saw the witch shake her head. “That’s all she told me… Avery?”

  Sylas wondered what had truly transpired between the three women, but then it couldn’t have been easy for Avery to kill Aborella under any circumstances. He supposed the witch had mixed feelings about it.

  Colin shot Avery a quizzical look.

  Avery cracked her neck. “Aborella told me she had a vision about us, the three sisters.” Raven’s and Clarissa’s heads snapped around. “She said that the reason we can’t translate the scroll is that when Medea laid the enchantment on it, she assumed we’d have access to the tanglewood tree.”

  Raven shook her head. “But we don’t. Circe was burned at the stake over the remains of the tree in the early 1700s in New Orleans.”

  Avery chewed her lip. “Yeah. I hate to be the bearer of bad news.”

  Sylas suspected she was hiding something, but when he opened his mouth to ask, Dianthe shook her head. He leaned back. His mate would explain in time. Around him, the group shifted uneasily in their seats. Was this the end? Did their success depend completely on a properly translated scroll? Sylas refused to believe it.

  Colin abandoned his plate and walked over to the center table. “I had hoped that putting them together would have a beneficial effect. Emerald from Everfield, crimson from Nochtbend, royal purple of Rogos, sapphire from Darnuith, gold from Paragon. Medea wanted us to find them. What are we missing?”

  His twin’s frustration was palpable. Sylas threaded his fingers into Dianthe’s and snorted. “She didn’t want us to find them. She wanted her descendants to. You heard Avery. Medea intended this message for them.”