Grace Unchained - Phoenix Throne Book Five

by Heather Walker

  It worked. The giants spun around to roar at him. They swung their clubs at him, but he swerved out of the way at the last second. He ducked and dove between them on a breakneck course for the far mountains.

  More giants converged from all directions, but Jamie didn’t care. He spat fire every which way to catch their attention. The giants went after him, just the way he knew they would. They forgot all about the village.

  Jamie whizzed up and over the mountains, through valleys and through forests, and back into the sky. He antagonized the giants until they attacked him in a rage. Then he disappeared and reappeared somewhere else.

  This couldn’t go on forever, though. He had to think. He had to find a way to defeat them, but there were far too many of them. They destroyed trees with every step. They smashed their clubs into the mountains, and massive blocks of stone and debris went flying.

  A streak of lightning shot past Jamie’s wing. He spun around fast to find a giant right on his tail. The giant brought his club down to knock Jamie out of the sky when another blistering splat of lightning glanced off the monster’s head from behind. It ricocheted off and went crackling into the sky.

  Jamie banked and zoomed around in a circle to shake the thing off. The giant roared in rage and spun around at the same time. He raised his club to destroy whatever attacked him when a third bolt of lightning shot out of the nearest mountain peak. It split the sky on a shimmering path straight for the giant’s head.

  That’s when Jamie noticed a tiny figure standing atop the mountain. It was Piper. The old man raised his arms above his head. He held a thick stick in one hand, and the lightning exploded from its tip. Piper fired this thing at one giant after another.

  He sent a fork of lightning at the giant nearest Jamie. It hit the giant’s club and shattered it to smithereens in the giant’s hand. The giant bellowed and set off at a lumbering trot toward the miniature wizard.

  Piper held his ground. He fired his magical lightning at dozens of giants in rapid succession. He whipped around from right to left and fired as fast as he could. One bolt struck the nearest giant in the shoulder. The monster whirled away. Piper’s next attack hit him on the back of his neck, and the behemoth plunged headfirst into the forest.

  Jamie’s heart soared. He wasn’t alone after all. With Piper fighting for him, he just might have a chance to get out of this alive.

  Now he concentrated all his fire on the giants. He flew at them in murderous rage to kill with extreme prejudice. He soared faster than ever between them, but this time, he set as many on fire as he could get near. He covered them in flame and sent them flailing across the countryside.

  Their burning arms womped the air. They beat their sides to extinguish the flames. If any of them succeeded in putting it out, he came back and gave them another dose. Not one of them had the brains to head for the river.

  One after another fell behind the trees. Jamie catapulted through the skies on his mission of destruction. He came across more than one giant in its death throes from Piper’s lightning. That fool wizard hid his power all these years. He waited until now to show what he could really do. If only he could cast the spell, he might get rid of the giants once and for all.

  Jamie swooped around the mountain. More giants converged on the spot from every side. Piper couldn’t see as much of the landscape as Jamie could from the heights. He couldn’t battle giants until they came into his view.

  Jamie tilted to the other side of the mountain. He had to stop these giants getting near Piper. Piper could handle the giants coming at him from the south and west. Jamie would deal with the north and east. Between the two of them, they might be able to stop this.

  Jamie flew far into the distance to destroy as many giants as he could. He cleared the north side of the mountain when he heard a deafening crash from the south. He feared the worst and whipped around the peak. He didn’t see Piper anywhere.

  When he got there, he found three giants pounding the mountaintop with their clubs. They split the rocks, sending boulders tumbling down to where the villagers’ camp used to be.

  Jamie exploded in a rage. He had to destroy them for killing Piper. He set to work on the three of them. He sprayed their legs and arms with flame and turned his sights on their heads when a powerful burst of lightning zinged past him from the ground.

  Jamie snapped around to stare. Piper stood between the trees far below, aiming his staff at the giants. The flames licked up their clothes to their faces, and Piper finished them off with blasts of his power. He knocked them out of the sky to crash to Earth.

  Jamie’s spirits soared. He turned his wings to the east when something hit him so hard it stunned him for a moment. He reeled in the air, and a giant caught him by the tail.

  Faster than Jamie could react, the giant whipped him through the air. He cracked Jamie’s spine with a mighty jerk of his arm. Jamie’s wings and neck snapped forward and back. Pain screamed through his every sinew. He tried to right himself, but the giant raised his arm and smashed Jamie down on his other palm.

  Jamie lost consciousness for a moment. He couldn’t go down when he’d almost won. He fought his way back to consciousness. The giant hauled back his arm with Jamie still dangling by the tail. The wide countryside sailed past Jamie’s eyes. He caught sight of giants all over the place before they vanished in the blink of an eye.

  All at once, something overpoweringly tight crushed Jamie all over. The giant grasped him in its fist and brought Jamie up close to its face. Jamie opened his mouth to spit fire in the monster’s face, but the giant moved faster. He pinched his finger and thumb together and snapped Jamie’s mouth shut.

  Jamie thrashed and struggled, but he couldn’t break free. He whipped his tail against the giant’s hand, but it didn’t make a dent. Jamie started to panic. The giant could yank his head off in one pull, and that would be the end of the glorious career of Jamie Cameron.

  At that moment, a thunderous clap sent Jamie’s head spinning. A catastrophic bolt of lightning winged off the giant’s head. It sliced through the giant’s scalp and zinged off into the Heavens.

  The giant spun around to face Piper. The wizard stood on the mountain’s shoulder where a shelf cut out of the rock. The old man raised his staff to fire again. The giant wound back his arm and hurled Jamie at the wizard with all his force.

  Jamie tumbled through the air going faster than the wind. He tried to extend his wings, but he lost his balance in the air. He hurtled across the valley and slammed into the mountainside hard enough to shatter the ancient stones.

  The mountain shivered from the impact. Jamie bounced off and somersaulted head over heels into the valley far below. He didn’t see what happened to Piper.

  When he came to rest among the trees, Jamie struggled to his feet. He had to stop this fight before it got any worse. He took wing as best he could, but every limb ached.

  Why, oh why didn’t he listen to Grace when he had the chance? Hadn’t he learned from seeing his brothers marry four other women just like her? The Cameron brothers all had to learn the hard way to listen when these women told them what to do.

  Now it was too late. He flapped over the treetops, and his heart sank. More giants appeared from every point of the compass. He knew it would come to this. The curse would keep sending them. It would create them out of the natural world itself, and they would never stop—never.

  Chapter 23

  Grace blinked. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the strange light. When she realized where she was, she found herself in another quaint little one-room cottage like those in Kinlochleven.

  She couldn’t be in Kinlochleven, though, because this cottage stood perfectly intact. A fire blazed on the hearth, and a young woman sat in a rocking chair beside it, gazing into the flames.

  Grace went down on her knees by the chair. “Alexis!”

  The girl turned her bright eyes on Grace. “Hi!”

  “What are you doing here, Alexis?” Grace asked.

  �
�I don’t know.” Alexis looked around the cottage like she was seeing it for the first time. “I just… I just sort of came here.”

  “Do you have any idea where you are?” Grace asked. “Do you know where this is?”

  “Not really.” Alexis studied the floor at her feet. “I just wanted to be somewhere comfortable and out of the way, so I came here.”

  Grace took a deep breath. “Listen to me, Alexis. I know it sounds crazy, and I know you want to be somewhere comfortable and out of the way. I don’t want to bother you, but I need to ask you a favor. I know I’m nothing but a stranger, but I really need your help right now.”

  “Sure thing,” Alexis chirped. “What do you need?”

  “There’s something happening right now, something really dangerous. I don’t know much about it, but I think you might be the only person who can stop it. Someone I care about a lot is in danger, and you’re the only one who can save him. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few people in danger. I know you wouldn’t want to stay somewhere comfortable and out of the way if there was anything you could do to help them.”

  A shadow of doubt crossed the girl’s face. “No, I wouldn’t, but what can I do? I can’t do anything. I’m just one person.”

  “I know, but I really think you can. Are you willing to try if I help you?”

  “Sure. Just tell me what you want me to do.”

  “Well, the first thing you need to do,” Grace told her, “is to transport yourself there the same way you transported yourself here. Think about it and concentrate. You were somewhere not comfortable and not out of the way, and you wanted to leave, so you came here. Now you’re going to do the same thing. Think about those people who are in danger, and think about going out there and helping them. Then you’ll go there. Just make sure you take me with you. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Alexis replied, but she didn’t seem very sure about it.

  “Once you get there, you’ll see what you need to do.”

  “Are you sure?” Alexis asked.

  “Well, not really, but it’s our best shot.”

  Alexis turned back to the fire. She rocked back in the chair. “Something weird is going on. I don’t know what it is. There have been so many strange things going on, and I don’t know how to stop it.”

  “Can you remember what happened?” Grace asked. “Can you remember how you got here in the first place? Did it have something to do with Ivy.”

  “I can’t really remember anything. I remember I was lying in my bed in our room, and Ivy was in her bed. She was talking to me as usual, and we were both drifting off to sleep. She was telling me this story about a princess in a land of dragons and magic and spells and all that. She was telling me this princess used a magic spell to do…something or other. I can’t remember what. I think there was a wicked witch in a castle that made all the people disappear, and this princess had to work the spell to save them all and help a hidden prince get back his throne so he could become King. Ivy started repeating the magic words. She kept repeating them over and over, and I remember her voice got more and more slurred as she fell asleep. I started to fall asleep, too, and that’s the last thing I remember.”

  Grace sat back on her heels. “That must be how it happened. She must have cast the spell and sent you both here.”

  “I wish I could see her again. I would give anything to see Ivy right now.”

  Grace grabbed her shoulders. “Don’t think about Ivy right now. You’re not going to Ivy right now. Think about those people who need your help. Think about them running through the woods and trying to save their children from monsters. That’s the best way you can help them right now.”

  “What about your friend?” Alexis asked.

  “He’s there, too. He’s fighting them.” Even as she said these words, Grace realized they were true. Oh, Jamie, where was he right now? Was she too late already? “He’s fighting these monsters, but he can’t win. He’s only one man, and they have all the power. He’ll die if you don’t help him.”

  Alexis nodded. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

  Grace got to her feet, and Alexis stood up. That’s when Grace noticed certain details of the cottage she’d seen before. A shield hung on the wall by the bed. The Cameron family crest emblazoned its surface. A sword hung on a wooden hook behind the door. A dirk with a deer-antler handle stuck out of a leather holster on the belt.

  Grace blinked. She’d been inside this cottage once before with Jamie. This was the cottage where she slept on the bench that first night. Jamie called it Ganny and Jock’s cottage. The roof didn’t cave in at one corner, though. The place showed no sign it was ever broken.

  Grace went to the door and looked out. All around her, the village houses stood up as tall and perfect as the first day she set foot in this village. Alexis’s magic must have restored it. She wanted to go somewhere comfortable and out of the way, and her mind fixed the village for her.

  Grace inhaled a shaky breath. She couldn’t get distracted by this now. She had a job to do, and Alexis needed all the guidance Grace could give her. She returned to the girl’s chair. “Are you ready?”

  Alexis nodded.

  “Okay. Do it.”

  Alexis frowned again. “There’s something else.”

  “What?” Grace asked.

  “There’s something else. There’s other people who need my help, but they aren’t running around in the trees. They’re somewhere else.”

  “Can you see who they are?”

  Alexis shook her head. “They need me, though. I should go to them, too.”

  “You can go to them afterwards.”

  “There’s a hole in the fabric,” Alexis replied. “I don’t know how it got there, but I have to close the hole. All these monsters are coming through the holes.”

  Grace studied the girl. Where had she heard this before? “Do you know how to fix it?”

  Alexis shook her head. “Not really. I don’t know how to do any of it, but I bet Ivy does. She knows stuff like that.”

  “Does Ivy play around with magic and stuff?”

  “I don’t know half of what Ivy does,” Alexis replied. “She could be doing all this, for all I know.”

  Grace nodded. “Okay. Let’s get out of here. Once it’s all over, you can come back here or you can decide to go somewhere else.”

  “I don’t really want to go,” Alexis admitted. “I don’t want to go anywhere. I’d rather stay here. I like it here.”

  Grace smiled. “Me, too. I love it here. I never wanted to go anywhere else. Let’s just get this done, and then you can come back.”

  “Okay.”

  “Think about those people who need you. Think about the people who are going to die if you don’t help them. Don’t think about anything else.”

  Alexis nodded. Her eyes glazed over, and she stared into the fire. Grace recognized that look. The same thing happened to her when she passed through the doorway. She would never pass through that doorway again. She would stay here, in this world, forever.

  Alexis blinked, and the cottage shivered. The image of the firelit hearth, the scrubbed wooden table, the rocking chair—all of it winked out and vanished, and Grace found herself standing in a bare stone cave.

  The cave mouth looked out over the wide mountains. Dense, dark forest covered the valley floor. Grace recognized Piper’s cave, but she didn’t see the old man anywhere.

  At that moment, a golden dragon zoomed past the opening going a mile a minute. The wind screamed off its scales, and it rocketed out of sight as fast as it appeared. The next instant, a massive giant thundered across the gap. It charged after the dragon and vanished just as fast.

  Grace took a few tentative steps to the cave mouth and looked out. Giants covered the landscape as far as the eye could see. She couldn’t see Jamie anywhere anymore. All over the place, giants smashed their way through the forest. They cleared wide swathes of forest with their clubs. They pulverized the mountains all around, and their towering bulk block
ed out the sky.

  Chapter 24

  Jamie tumbled through the sky flying as fast as he could, but he couldn’t get away from the giants. He stretched his wings to the utmost to stay one step ahead of their clubs. They might be stupid, but enough of them crowded around all over the place that none of his antics surprised them anymore.

  If one chased him, the others stood aside and watched until they could get their tiny brains to decide to do something. They had all the time in the world to take aim with their clubs and swing at him. They raised their hands in front of his face so he flew straight into them.

  He slammed into their solid flesh, bounced off, and whizzed away somewhere else. He couldn’t fight them anymore. Piper was gone. Jamie was on his own. He could only prolong the inevitable before they caught him and put an end to him.

  He almost wished they would. He didn’t want to do this anymore. He wanted to rest in peace. He did his best, and it wasn’t enough. He could let it all go, now that he knew he was going to die.

  The next time one of them blocked his path, he veered upward. He rocketed into the highest clouds to get away from them, but they paid no attention. They turned their efforts to the mountain around the camp. What were they looking for? He couldn’t tell, but he couldn’t hang around up in the clouds. He had to fight them. He had to stop them, even when he knew it was useless.

  He gauged the distance and did his best to come up with some semblance of a strategy. What could one dragon do against these things? He surveyed the battle. He didn’t see any new giants sprouting out of the ground. This must be all of them, but this was enough. He could never destroy all of them on his own.

  If only he could find Piper, they could fight these giants together. Just one more person with some power would tip the scales.

  He dove toward the ground, racing down out of the sky as fast as he could fall. He whipped around the nearest giant and sent his hair flying on the wind. The giant roared and spun around to attack him. He played right into Jamie’s hands. Jamie zoomed around the giant’s head, buzzing in the monster’s ears until the thing bellowed in rage. He raised his club and swung.