Dragon's Gift: The Amazon Complete Series: An Urban Fantasy Boxed Set

by Linsey Hall

  “Hold on!” Maximus shouted.

  I stared up at my hands where I gripped the rope, spotting a frayed section. Oh no.

  If Maximus joined me and gripped the rope near the frayed section, our combined weight might snap it. Especially if the wooden slats broke underneath his feet.

  “Stay back! The bridge is weak here!” I kicked my legs and curled my abs, trying to get my feet up onto another wooden slat so I could pull myself up.

  As I watched, the rope handrail on the left continued to unravel.

  Crap. I was running out of time.

  As the bridge continued to thrash in the air like waves, I tried one last gigantic heave. I got my feet up onto the wooden slats and scrambled to safety.

  Relative safety.

  “The bridge is breaking! Hurry!” I sprinted forward, my legs wobbly on the wooden slats.

  I was nearly to the end when the bridge lost tension. My stomach dropped, and I turned back just in time to see the rope handrails snap right in front of Prometheus. He leapt and grabbed onto my side of the bridge.

  The wooden slats beneath my feet fell away. I clung to the rope handrails as the bridge flew through the air, praying that Maximus and Prometheus had a good grip as well.

  As we sailed toward the other side of the gorge, my stomach leapt into my throat, my skin chilling. When the rope bridge slammed into the cliff, the impact shook my entire body. Pain flared as I lost my grip. I plummeted, my hands scrabbling for purchase.

  Just when I thought all was lost, Maximus grabbed my wrist, his grip iron tight. My body weight yanked hard on my arm, agony slicing in my shoulder. Beneath me, Prometheus hung onto the wooden slats.

  My head spun as I reached for the rope bridge with my free hand. I latched onto it.

  “Got it?” Maximus asked, voice tense.

  “Yeah.” The word was breathless as it escaped my lips.

  He let go of my arm, and I grabbed one of the wooden slats, hanging on for dear life.

  “Climb!” Prometheus shouted from below.

  We did, Maximus going first since he was higher up. He moved as quick as a spider, scaling the bridge that had become a ladder. I followed, my hands sweaty and legs trembling. As I ascended, I searched for vines or roots sticking out of the cliff wall. Anything to grab onto in case the bridge broke.

  Controlling plants was about the only thing I could do in this circumstance. Maybe I could make the river rise up to catch us, but there were gators in it.

  Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire.

  Ahead of me, Maximus flung himself onto the edge of the cliff, then turned around and reached down for me. I grabbed his strong hand, and he yanked me up.

  I flopped onto the scrubby ground like a dead fish, panting and gasping. Maximus hauled Prometheus up, and we all lay next to each other, catching our breath as we stared at the sky.

  “Holy fates, that sucked,” I said.

  “Simple but deadly.” Prometheus sounded disgusted. “One of Hermes’s favorite tricks. I bet he’s on the other side, laughing his ass off.”

  Aching, I staggered to my feet. The terrain ahead of us was even steeper than before, with rocky outcroppings and stone formations that looked like they could hide all kinds of dangers. There was less plant growth, and the air was growing cooler as well.

  Maximus and Prometheus joined me. Maximus pulled me against him, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Thought I might have lost you for a sec.”

  Prometheus strode forward, starting up the mountain.

  “I was too scared to process anything.” I tilted my head up to look at him, and he was white as a sheet. “Wow, that really worried you, huh?”

  He looked at me like I was crazy. “Yes. The idea of losing you worries me.”

  “Okay, when you put it like that, I see your point.” I grinned. “And likewise.”

  In a big way. What would I do if I lost him?

  I didn’t even want to think about it. We hadn’t known each other long, but I knew exactly how I felt about him. And it was serious.

  We shared one last look, then started up the mountainside after Prometheus.

  “Keep a wary eye out,” he said. “Olympus is riddled with monsters around the base.”

  “It’s safer here for them, I’d imagine,” Maximus said. “So many more people on earth these days that they need a place like this to hide out. And with Hermes guarding this area, it’s even safer.”

  Prometheus nodded. “The monsters made a deal to protect the gods. So, all we’ve got to do is get past them.”

  “Oh, that’s all, is it?”

  Prometheus and Maximus chuckled at my wry tone. Hermes was only the first guardian, apparently. I shivered, adjusting my potions bag on my back. I could almost feel the eyes of the monsters on me as we climbed, skirting around scrub brush and rocks.

  “Exactly.” Prometheus sounded grim. “You’re lucky I believe in your mission or I sure as hell wouldn’t be here.”

  As we climbed, the rock formations grew up around us, creating a narrow valley for us to travel through. It was only about thirty feet wide, and the stone outcroppings rose twenty feet on either side, providing dozens of places for enemies to hide. A breeze whistled through the valley, blowing my hair back from my face.

  “I feel like I’m running the gauntlet,” I murmured.

  “There’s dark magic in the air,” Maximus said.

  I sniffed, trying to get a hint of it. Finally, I did. A very faint scent of old dust. It wasn’t outright terrible, but it was definitely unpleasant.

  “Do you know what lives around here?” I asked Prometheus.

  “All sorts of things. But here specifically? No.”

  Magic prickled against my skin as we continued between the rocks, and I shivered again.

  “Something is watching us.” I could feel its eyes. I called upon Artemis’s gift of animal senses, hearing a slight shifting noise to the left, about thirty feet away, high in the rocks. “To the left. There’s a faint noise.”

  A blast of magic hurled from that direction, a glowing green streak of slime. I dived left, narrowly avoiding it, and the slime slammed into the rock on my right. The stone sizzled as the acid ate away at it.

  “Oh, shit, avoid that stuff!” Prometheus lunged behind a rock.

  I followed, Maximus at my side. We wedged in next to Prometheus.

  “Any idea what threw that?” Maximus asked.

  “If I had to bet, it’s an Echidna.” He peered out from behind the rock and winced. “Yep.”

  I shoved him aside to get a look for myself, cringing at the sight of the huge snake woman. She was gorgeous on her top half—and totally naked—but the bottom was a massive two-tailed snake. The scales gleamed a beautiful green to match her eyes. Her dark hair streamed down her back, shining in the sunlight.

  She raised a hand again, and green magic glowed around her palm. She was about to throw the slime at us when she stopped and smiled.

  It was an evil smile. A satisfied smile.

  And it was directed at something right above our heads.

  “Move!” I shouted, as instinct propelled me to lunge out of the way. I managed to glance upward as I darted away from our hiding spot.

  I caught sight of another Echidna—this one with blonde hair and blue snake tails. She hurled a blast of blue magic right at the spot we’d been hiding. It slammed into the ground, a sonic boom that blasted a six-foot hole into the stone.

  Thankfully, Maximus and Prometheus were quick, and they’d dived out of the way just in time.

  As we scrambled away from the blue Echidna, I called upon my magic. “I’ll take the blue one!”

  “I’ve got green,” Maximus shouted.

  “And I’ll take red,” Prometheus said, just as a blast of flame hurtled toward us from a third Echidna with red hair and tails.

  Maximus conjured a dagger and hurled it at the green Echidna. It flew through the air, headed straight for her. She lunged left at the
last moment, and the blade lodged in her right shoulder, throwing her back. She screeched, a sound of rage and pain, and I had a feeling that wasn’t the last we’d see of her.

  I spun to throw my potion bomb at the blue Echidna. My aim was good, but she was fast, darting out of the way. She made her green-tailed sister look like a sloth.

  She threw another sonic boom, this one bigger than the last. I lunged right, avoiding the worst of it. The edge of the boom caught me in the legs, and pain flared. My limbs went numb, and I dragged myself over the ground, clawing my way to a rock outcropping that could serve as cover.

  Blood pounded in my head as I debated my options. No way I could accurately throw a potion bomb when I was in this shape, and she was too fast anyway. I needed something else.

  I peeked out from behind the rock, eyeing her. She stood on a stone ledge, about twenty feet away. I called upon my new gift of lightning, feeling it crackle and burn inside me.

  It exploded from the sky, shooting downward to pierce the Echidna. She lit up like a lamp post, then laughed, clearly delighted.

  Crap!

  To my right, Prometheus stood out in the open. He raised his hands, and magic sparked around him, hot and fierce. It exploded outward, a massive wall of flame that surged toward the three Echidna, coming from all sides. He was going for all of them, and the amount of fire he produced was astonishing.

  It was an inferno that surrounded us, twenty feet tall and rolling like a tsunami over the three Echidna and the rocks that surrounded them.

  Heck yeah.

  “Where were you hiding that?” I asked. One blast of his fire and we were home free.

  A cocky smile tugged at the corner of Prometheus’s mouth. “Just a little something I had saved up.”

  A half second later, a triumphant shriek sounded from within the flames.

  “Oh, shit.” Prometheus frowned. “I think they like it.”

  The laughter continued.

  “Yeah, they do.” And we were screwed.

  5

  “Run,” Maximus said. “Our only hope is to make it through the gauntlet before they can see through the flames.”

  He took off, sprinting down the valley that had formed between the rocks. Prometheus and I followed.

  My lungs burned as I ran, going as fast as I could on my wobbly legs. The Echidna’s sonic boom had done a real number on me. “Keep up the fire, Prometheus.”

  If anything, it gave us a bit of cover until the Echidna reached the edge of the wall of flame and could see us.

  I darted around rocks and leapt over fallen logs, running like my tail was on fire. Hell, it almost was.

  But I was still too slow. I felt like Usain Bolt, but I was moving like an out-of-shape desk jockey, my legs still totally wobbly. The heat was intense, making sweat pour down my face and back.

  Maximus glanced back from up ahead, frowning at the sight of me lagging behind. He spun on a dime, racing back to me.

  Without saying a word, he swooped me up into his arms and threw me over his shoulder.

  “Oof.” The air whooshed from my lungs as my stomach slammed into him.

  “Hang on.” He sprinted faster, and there was no doubt that I was moving quicker on his back.

  How embarrassing.

  “I can’t hold it much longer.” Prometheus panted.

  Maximus ran faster, but the flames flickered and died a moment later. We kept running, though, so fast that the ground was a blur in front of my eyes as I bounced along on Maximus’s back.

  I heard the Echidna shriek from behind me, and lifted my head to look back. The three of them had appeared, perched on the rocks above. They looked entirely unharmed by the fire, and their eyes glowed bright with malice. They searched the area where we ran, their eyes racing over it. Almost as if they couldn’t see me. Then their noses twitched.

  “We’re invisible,” Prometheus whispered from where he ran along beside Maximus and me. “Illusion.”

  Ah, right. He was a trickster god, which probably brought with it the power of illusion.

  “They can smell us,” Maximus murmured.

  I clung to Maximus, unable to look away from the Echidna, who were still scenting the air.

  “I can run,” I whispered at Maximus’s back.

  “Not fast enough.”

  Instead of throwing fire or sonic booms at us, the Echidna began to move, racing toward me. Their double tails moved gracefully on the rocks as they climbed over.

  Oh no. “They’re coming.”

  Within seconds, the Echidna were in front of us.

  Oh fates, they’re fast.

  Dark delight lit their features, and they grinned evilly, white fangs glinting.

  They raised their hands, magic sparking around their palms. Blue, green, red, they were ready to throw their entire arsenal toward us.

  A glint of silvery water caught my eye.

  There was a waterfall behind them, just to the left.

  Heck yeah.

  I called upon it with my magic, feeling the crisp bite of the water as it poured down the cliff face behind the Echidna. The water came easily to me—easier than it ever had before.

  Quickly, it surged forward, a wide silver spear that plowed into the Echidna’s backs. The snake women hissed in rage, plowing forward and slamming into the ground.

  Maximus sprinted away, moving as fast as he could. Up ahead, I spotted the end of this narrow valley. We were almost to the end.

  Prometheus pointed. “That’s the boundary to their territory. We make it there, we’re safe.”

  As soon as the words left his lips, a shiver ran down my spine.

  Something was coming. I lifted my head to look, catching sight of the Echidna, who’d scrambled after us on their slithery bottom halves.

  Man, they recovered quickly.

  They darted toward a rock formation that was only a couple feet high, grabbing something in their hands. They lifted it, the three of them bearing the heavy weight of what looked like a tangled rope.

  Then they threw it.

  “Move!” I shouted to Maximus and Prometheus, but it was too late.

  The net flew toward us, so fast I could hardly see it move. When the heavy weight landed on me and Maximus, my muscles froze solid. Maximus fell forward, and I went down right along with him, unable to move a muscle. I couldn’t even move my eyeballs, though I was able to spot Prometheus going down with us. He was just as frozen as we were. When I hit the ground, my head slammed into a rock.

  Blackness followed.

  Pain streaked through my head as I woke from a deep sleep.

  Sleep?

  I couldn’t be sleeping. I was upright, for one, tied to a chair with my head aching like I’d been hit with a truck. Agony radiated through my brain, and the muscles in my shoulders pulled.

  It took everything I had to pry my eyes open. Sand seemed to scrape beneath my eyelids, burning my eyes.

  A great fire roared in front of me, sending flickering shadows over the interior of a huge cave. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, piercing downward. A glance to my left and right showed Prometheus and Maximus in the same position.

  How had we gotten here?

  I tried to call upon my magic, but it stayed dormant inside me. The ropes had to be suppressing it somehow.

  A memory of the snake women flashed in my mind.

  Crap.

  I blinked, searching the cave for them. When the red one slithered out from behind the fire, her dual tails carrying her quickly across the dirt ground, I winced backward.

  There was only one way to describe the look in her eyes, and that was hungry.

  Only then did I notice the weird iron bar that extended horizontally over the blazing fire.

  “Oh fates, is that a spit?” I blurted the question, so horrified that I couldn’t keep it in my mouth.

  The red Echidna grinned evilly. “How else are we supposed to make dinner?”

  There was no meat in the cave that I could see. So yeah,
it was pretty obvious who was going to be dinner. Frantic, I struggled at the rope that wrapped around my chest and arms. My hands were bound behind me, which explained the pain in my shoulders. The ropes were so tight that I couldn’t move an inch, and frustrated tears pricked at the corners of my eyes.

  Maximus and Prometheus were now coming to, and the shock on their faces scared me even more. They were struggling to break their bindings, and they couldn’t.

  These were two men who were clearly used to muscling their way out of any situation they didn’t like. And it wasn’t working.

  These were some seriously strong ropes.

  I swallowed hard and turned back to the Echidna, struggling uselessly at my bonds. The knot was at the back—if there even was a knot—and there was no way for me to reach it.

  The other two Echidna slithered out from behind the fire, their blue and green tails glinting like jewels in the light. The three of them slid toward me, eyes gleaming bright.

  They ignored Maximus and Prometheus, leaning over to sniff me.

  Surprise flared in their eyes, and they looked at each other.

  “She smells of the ones on the mountain,” whispered the blue-eyed one.

  “Who are they?” I demanded.

  The Echidna just stared at me, then slithered back toward the fire, leaning toward each other. They whispered frantically, and I called upon my gift from Artemis, using my animal hearing to pick up traces of their words.

  “Should we eat her?”

  “Will the gods be angry?”

  “She’s a trespasser.”

  “What about the winged ones?”

  Who the hell were the winged ones?

  The Echidna looked at me, calculation in their eyes. I glared back, and they turned away, resuming their conversation. They’d lowered their voices enough that I couldn’t pick up on their words anymore, so I looked at Maximus and Prometheus. Both were red-faced as they struggled at their bonds.

  Maximus was actually having some luck. The ropes were beginning to fray at his elbows, where he was shoving them away from his chest.

  “Just a few minutes more,” he murmured, so low I could barely hear.