by Linsey Hall
The Titan who’d broken my windowsill flung out his hand toward Maximus, shattering the sill upon which he stood. Maximus leapt gracefully to the ground and landed in a crouch as the stone tumbled down behind him.
“Of myth and dark, we give the spark. Binding three, our will shall be.” The words echoed through the room as the same Titan broke Ana’s windowsill. The entire room shook from the force of his power, and I stumbled to my knees. Ana fell, not daring to take on her crow form since then she couldn’t chant. At the last minute, Lachlan caught her.
If he kept that up, he’d bring down the building around us. It was already half full of rubble.
The third Titan roared, her eyes shooting flames that barreled into the curtains by Cade. He leapt off the window and swung down to the ground using the drapes. Smoke filled the air as the Titan lit up all the textiles, and the heat made my skin burn.
The Titans were trapped, but they weren’t down. Not even close.
Oh fates, we could die before we finished this.
I shouted the chant, and the blue light of the binding spell grew brighter. Next to me, the wall exploded, sending a huge chunk of rock right into my side. I plowed into the ground, pain flaring as the words were forced from my lungs. I gasped, trying to catch my breath and start the chant again.
Broken ribs.
The pain was sharp, making it hard to speak, but I kept it up. In agony, I climbed to my feet.
At this rate, we weren’t going to succeed. We could barely fight back since we couldn’t touch the blue light.
I needed something that would hurt them from afar.
Lightning.
Except, when Bree had thrown lightning at one of them during the last battle, he’d just laughed as he’d absorbed it. I needed something good and pure to throw at them. And strong. Something they would hate.
Warmth began to fill me, as if responding to my need. It glowed through my limbs, as hot as the sun. All around, the room glowed brighter.
Wait, was that coming from me?
Hit them.
I blinked, hearing the voice in my head.
I was getting a new power.
Blind them. Use the sun.
Sunlight. Somehow, I’d been given the power of sunlight. It filled my soul with brightness. Battle exploded around me as I raised my hands, calling upon the new magic.
Then I hesitated.
No. I couldn’t just hit them with light. It needed to be more than that. They were evil and I was not. No matter the darkness within me, I chose differently for myself. I chose good.
So I called on all the goodness within my soul. Whatever kindness and generosity I possessed, I tried to stuff it into the sunlight within me. It was a weird process—and I had no idea if I was doing it right—but I imbued the sun magic with my own light.
Then I raised my hands and shot it right at the Titans, keeping up the chant the whole time. The light blasted from me, so bright white that I couldn’t see.
The Titans roared, sounds of rage and pain. The light dimmed, turning from white to a bright, golden yellow. I could see again, and the Titans were lit up like gold Christmas tree lights. They stood frozen still, my light and goodness binding them.
My friends, all of whom looked like hell, shouted the chant even louder, their words filling the room along with the smoke. The blue cage grew brighter and smaller, shrinking to wrap around the Titans.
We were nearly there!
I shouted the chant, continuing to send my light into the Titans. It froze them solid, and if we were lucky, we’d finish the binding before we died in their apocalyptic sitting room. We were almost there. So close.
Romeo appeared in front of me, pointing to the door. Incoming!
My gaze widened as I turned to look. The Stryx charged into the room, their purple eyes wide with horror. Their black hair floated around their heads, and they spun to search the room.
I didn’t dare let up on the sunlight that bound the Titans, but my friends charged the Stryx. One of them turned to Maximus, raising her hands. She threw a bolt of lightning at him, but he dodged it, sprinting right for her, continuing to chant the whole while.
He plowed into her, taking her down to the ground.
The others converged on the second Stryx. They’d be on her any second, too many for her to fight. Her head flew as she looked at each of them, then a determined glint entered her eyes.
Oh, shit.
I didn’t know what that meant, but I didn’t like it.
She raised her hand and threw a single blast of lightning, right at Maximus. It blew him off her sister.
Before the others reached her, she shouted, “For the Titans!”
Then she charged into the blue light of the cage. It caught her, holding her within the light, her body lighting up like a cartoon of someone being electrocuted. Her sister followed, throwing herself into the light as well.
They began to chant, shouting their own spell.
What the hell?
Then I caught the words.
“Unto me, I take the spell from thee!” Over and over, they repeated it, their voices shrieking over the roar of flames that enveloped the room.
It worked quickly, and the blue light faded from the Titans, flowing into the Stryx.
Holy fates, they were killing themselves.
To save the Titans.
Horror opened a hole in my chest.
The last of the blue light flowed into the Stryx, who glowed such a bright blue that I could no longer see their human forms. Then they exploded, poofing away in a blast of blue light.
Rage and fear fought a battle within me. We’d failed.
There was no time to mourn, or we’d all die.
I turned to the Titans, throwing every last bit of goodness and sunlight that I could manage. It exploded out of me again as a bright white light, stronger than ever before. I dropped to my knees, so weak I couldn’t stand.
Looking at the three Titans was like looking at a trio of suns. My magic was too much for them. But how much did I have?
I kept pushing it toward them, eventually falling onto my hands, unable to stay on my knees.
The three Titan-suns moved toward each other and smashed together.
Then they disappeared.
I collapsed, too weak to move.
Shit.
They’d run.
We’d failed.
And the room was going up in flames all around us. Wracking coughs tore through my chest as I tried to stand, to escape. But I couldn’t. I’d used up everything, and I was too weak to move. Rubble and smoke surrounded me. Where were my friends? Were they alive?
“Rowan!” Bree and Ana screamed.
“I’ve got her!” Maximus’s shout cut through the smoke, then strong hands grabbed me and pulled me up. He cradled me to his chest and sprinted through the smoke, leaping over piles of rubble. My broken ribs ached, but I didn’t care as long as he got me out of here.
“Is everyone okay?” I coughed.
“Yes.” He sprinted faster, racing into the cool air of the outdoors. I sucked it into my lungs, looking around frantically for everyone else.
I spotted the Menagerie first, looking charred and smoky, but fine. Ana and Bree stood next to Lachlan and Cade, and they all looked like hell. Ana’s arm hung at a weird angle, clearly broken, and blood poured down Bree’s face. Cade was leaning heavily on one leg, while Lachlan had a nasty burn on his shoulder.
Slowly, the worshippers left the temple and stared at us, standing in a circle. When Maximus turned to look at them, they shrank back like frightened rabbits.
We’d driven off their Titans. They might be pissed, but they were afraid of our power.
Good.
I dropped my head against Maximus’s shoulder and looked at my team. “We failed.”
“No, we didn’t.” Bree shook her head. “We took out the Stryx.”
“And we permanently weakened the Titans,” Ana added.
Cade grinned. �
�We learned what their final goal is. And now that we’ve seen them, we can probably identify them. Find their weaknesses.”
“And we destroyed their headquarters,” Lachlan said.
Maximus met my gaze. “We know that they’re terrified of you.”
I looked up. “Terrified?”
“They ran like cowards. They know you can kill them.”
I nodded, gritting my teeth. Determination flowed through me. I could kill them. I would.
For the world, I had to.
Epilogue
The next day, my ribs were finally healed. It’d taken a powerful healing tonic from Hedy, but I was feeling tip-top. Mostly.
Everyone else was healed as well, thank fates. There’d been some nasty injuries, and it’d been a miserable journey back through the fortress to get to Caro and the sub, but we were all better.
I leaned back on my couch, closing my eyes.
An hour ago, we’d finished our meeting with Jude. Though I felt the sting of failure over our mission, Jude had agreed with everyone else. It had been a success. Mostly because we’d permanently weakened the Titans and destroyed the Stryx. Defeating such insane evil was usually a multi-step process, she’d said. We knew who they were, too. I’d been right about the crowned one being Cronus. The horned one was probably Crius, whose name meant ram. And the one who shot flames from her eyes was Theia, Titan goddess of shining. Which was weird, but if it allowed her to shoot flames from her eyes, that was freaking bad ass.
And we now had a weapon to use against them.
Me.
I figured it was Apollo who’d given me the sun magic, and I was determined to practice until I could make a nuclear blast that would destroy them for good. We just had to find them again.
We suspected that wouldn’t be quite as hard this time. With their special fortress destroyed—we’d bombed the hell out of it after evacuating the worshippers—their dark magic would be easier to track.
A knock sounded at my door, and I blinked my eyes open. It was ten o’clock. I was supposed to be in bed soon.
“Yeah?” I called as I stood.
“It’s Maximus.”
I grinned, unable to help myself. After the meeting, he’d disappeared immediately. He hadn’t even said goodbye, which I thought was weird.
I opened the door, gasping at the sight of a huge cluster of roses. Maximus held them out, along with a picnic basket and a bottle of wine.
I took the basket and the roses, stepping back into the room. “What’s all this?”
“Our date.”
I smiled and let him in, then shut the door. “I don’t recall scheduling a date.”
“That’s because it never works when we schedule. And since we’ll be off hunting the Titans tomorrow morning, I figured we’d better take the time now.”
I grinned. “You brought a picnic?”
“We’ll go out for a real date once we’ve defeated the Titans.”
“This is a real date.” I set the flowers and picnic basket on the counter, then grabbed the wine from him and set it down, too.
I turned away from it, facing him. He looked so damned good in his dark T-shirt and jeans. Strong and tall, and handsome as sin. My fallen angel.
“Not a fan of the food?” he asked.
“Not right now. I have something better in mind.” I moved toward him, wrapping my arms around his neck and leaning up to press my lips to his. The scent of cedar rushed over me, and I drew it in.
He groaned and pulled me toward him, pressing me full length against his body. I reveled in his strength as I kissed him.
Pleasure streaked down my body, and I shivered. He ran a series of kisses down my neck, sending electricity through my veins. When he picked me up, I wrapped my legs around him, touching every inch that I could. He was hard everywhere, and I couldn’t get enough.
“Want to take me upstairs?” I whispered against his lips.
“I couldn’t possibly want anything more.”
Funny thing was, neither could I.
~~Thank you for reading! The next (and final!) book is now available. Click here to check it out.~~
Power of Magic
Dragon’s Gift: The Amazon Book 5
1
The alarm blared, a shrieking warning of oncoming disaster.
I surged upright before my eyes were even open, instinct propelling me toward wakefulness.
“What is it?” Maximus’s groggy voice sounded from beside me in the bed.
“Attack. The castle is under attack.” I scrambled out of bed, throwing the blanket aside and hitting the ground running. I raced around the room, searching for the clothes I’d discarded in haste the night before. Where were my damned pants? I needed pants.
A quick glance at the clock showed that it was three a.m., which was definitely not a pants hour. Unless you were about to defend a castle. Doing that in my underwear was a bad plan.
Maximus was out of bed in an instant, his strong body totally naked. Under any other circumstance, I’d have paused to admire him. But not now. Right now, I needed to get to the castle walls.
Were the Titans attacking? We’d fought them only five days ago, binding their dark magic so it couldn’t spread through the world anymore. They’d disappeared and we hadn’t heard from them since—nor had we managed to locate them—but they had to be pissed at us.
Finally, I located my last pair of clean underwear and tugged on some old jeans that had seen better days. A bra and shirt came next, followed by my leather jacket. As I tugged them on, a sharp pain twinged in my side.
I pressed a hand to the spot. “Ouch.”
“What is it?” Maximus asked as he tugged a shirt over his head.
“Nothing. Just a weird stitch I’ve been feeling in my side lately.”
“How lately?”
“Just a few days. It’s already faded.”
Maximus frowned at me. “A few days?”
“Yeah, so?”
“We were with the Titans five days ago. Could it be related to that?”
“I don’t know.” I hated that idea so much that I shoved it to the back of my mind. “Come on. We need to go.”
He gave me a look that said he wouldn’t be forgetting this, and we exited the bedroom in a rush, racing down the spiral stairs to the living room.
The Menacing Menagerie sat on the couch, their eyes wide. They’d been banished to sleeping on the couch once Maximus and I had taken our relationship to the next level, which we’d done immediately after our run-in with the Titans five days ago.
What’s going on? Romeo’s bright eyes met mine.
“We’re under attack.”
Eloise perked up, her little badger face clearly excited. The light of battle gleamed in her eyes, and she grinned, her teeth sharp and fierce. Poppy smiled, too, the little possum nudging her badger friend.
“Well, come on, then,” I said as I grabbed my potion belt off the kitchen counter and strapped it around my waist. My potion bag came next, and I shoved as many bombs as I could gather into the leather bag.
I might be mastering my Dragon God magic, but I didn’t ever think I’d give up my potions.
The five of us hurried from the apartment, spilling out into the darkened hallway. The door slightly down the way opened, and Bree and Cade rushed out. The Pugs of Destruction were already racing down the hall, their ghostly blue forms bright in the darkness.
“What’s happening?” Bree demanded, her dark hair messy and her T-shirt on backward.
“No idea.” I joined her in a sprint down the hall.
As we passed Ana’s door, it opened. The Cats of Catastrophe streaked out, three blurs of black, orange, and white. Ana and Lachlan followed them out the door.
“Know what’s going on?” Ana asked, her voice breathless. Her blonde hair was piled in a messy knot.
“Nope,” Bree and I said in unison.
Together, the six of us sprinted down the hall, our animal familiars racing along like a ti
ny four-legged army of weirdness. The sound of doors slamming and shouts echoed through the hall as the rest of the Protectorate headed toward the castle walls.
We sprinted into the entrance, a massive room at the front of the castle. Hans, the cook, appeared at the top of the stairs that led down to the kitchen, his eyes wide and a big wooden spoon gripped in his hand. Boris the rat, his constant companion, rode on his head, clinging to his perch on top of the chef’s hat. Florian, the ghostly night librarian, appeared a moment later, along with Lavender and Angus, my fellow classmates.
By the time we ran out the front door and into the courtyard, there were nearly two dozen of us, all dragged from our beds. We raced across the lawn, the moonlight illuminating the dark grass.
Near the main castle gate, I spotted Jude standing on top of the castle wall. We veered for her, sprinting as a group. Stairs led up to the ramparts at a dozen strategic points along the castle wall. I raced up the nearest set, my lungs burning.
The sight that greeted me on the other side of the wall dropped my heart into my stomach.
“Holy fates.” I leaned on the castle wall, scanning the crowd that stood below.
There were hundreds of Magica and demons, armed to the teeth. Magic sparked around the lot of them, dark and fierce. It made my skin itch and my hackles rise. They weren’t attacking—not yet—but they were ready to.
The demons looked normal—that is to say, like a bunch of evil jerks. But the Magica…
“There’s a manic glow in their eyes,” Ana murmured.
“Like they’re entranced,” Bree said.
I nodded, my heart thundering. “They’re under the Titans’ thrall. They have to be.”
We knew that the Titans’ dark magic was converting humans into cult worshippers who were filled with dark magic, but seeing them was a whole different thing.
There were so many.
“They look like the worshippers we met back at the Titans’ island fortress.” Maximus gripped my hand. “But how did they get here?”
I scanned the forest behind the army, but spotted no portal gleaming in the distance.
