by Sammie Joyce
“You don’t look too unhappy about it.”
He broke into a helpless grin. “How could I possibly be unhappy about seeing you sooner? We should leave quickly, though, as soon as we get this collar off.”
“You’ll have no argument from me there.”
“Here, Rose, you should take this.” Annabelle handed her the necklace, which Rose took gratefully. She felt something in her stomach loosen as she clasped it around her neck. She’d had it for so long, she felt incomplete without it.
“Right, let’s get this thing off. Breaking spell? What do you think, Annabelle?”
“Let’s try that first.”
Asher sat very still as Rose spoke the incantation. Mace, Dane, and Annabelle stayed close, while Jagger and Gavin scouted the area, looking for any signs of pursuing witches.
The collar hummed slightly as the spell hit, but remained unharmed. Rose hadn’t really expected it to work on the first attempt. “Alright, unlocking spell.”
That didn’t work either. Neither did the metal-shaping spell, or the unshackling one. Ice and heat didn’t work, and those spells hurt Asher despite her attempts to cast a shield between his skin and the collar.
Rose was running out of ideas to try. Annabelle’s brow was furrowed; she was clearly deep in thought, trying to remember what other spells they had learned.
“Incoming!” Gavin sprinted toward them, with Jagger not far on his heels.
“We have to get this thing off, now!” Asher turned to Annabelle. “Do it.”
Rose didn’t have time to ask what they were doing. Annabelle handed Asher a potion, which he downed in one. To her horror, his head suddenly shrank to less than the side of her fist. Annabelle snatched the collar off and threw it away. She helped Asher’s tiny mouth drink what must be a regrowth potion, then another potion after his head was back to its normal size.
“Asher? Asher are you—”
“Come on!” Jagger was already pulling Asher to his feet. Asher looked dazed, and he wasn’t walking properly, but he was still conscious.
“I’ll take him.” Rose waited for Gavin to shift before climbing onto his back. Mace handed Asher up, then climbed up behind, helping Rose hold him on.
Gavin leapt into the air. Annabelle and Dane were already flying. Jagger hadn’t shifted yet. Rose saw him falter, and for a moment feared he had been hit by a spell, but the next moment, he exploded into red as he shifted.
Rose twisted around to see witches on broomsticks pursuing them. They weren’t with any dragons, which was unsurprising given the newly growing rift between their species. Still, she wouldn’t put it past the dragons to pursue them separately.
We have to lose them! Mace was also watching. The witches’ broomsticks were almost as fast as dragons, and they were casting spells while they flew. Rose threw up a shield, feeling it shudder as the spells hit it.
She knew she had to cast an invisibility spell, but she wasn’t sure if she could do it while maintaining the shield.
Invisibility now. We’ll catch anyone who falls to spells.
Mace was right, of course. They could worry about healing anyone who was injured later. Rose dropped the shield and pulled up an invisibility spell. Her necklace pulsed warmly as it contributed the necessary power to the spell.
The moment they vanished from the witches’ gaze, Jagger and Gavin changed direction abruptly, so that the spell soared uselessly through the air where they had been moments ago. Not being able to see them, the witches had no way to tell which direction to cast in now.
Dane saw what they others were doing and changed direction too. Rose twisted around to see the witches milling around in the air, unsure where to go. A couple dove to the ground to retrieve Asher’s collar, but that would do them no good now.
The witches split up, one in each direction, but there weren’t enough of them. Jagger, Gavin, and Dane changed direction often, and quickly lost the pursuit. Soon enough, they were on the outskirts of the city, near to their hotel.
Everyone landed, and Mace helped Rose pull Asher to the ground. He still seemed a little groggy, but he smiled at Rose. “I’m fine. My head feels a little fuzzy, but I’ll be fine. Right, Annabelle?”
“Right. That was the strongest healing potion at the coven—Maria had it in her private, shielded supply. Trust me, any damage the shrinking potion caused will have been more than covered by it.”
Maria’s strongest healing potion could probably heal anything. Rose squeezed Asher’s hand. “Are you ready to run? The hotel isn’t far from here.”
“I can run.”
Barely an hour later, they returned to the suite, dusty and sweaty, but none the worse for wear. Annabelle and Dane got their own room, leaving Rose alone with her dragons.
She grabbed Asher by the hand and pulled him through to the bedroom. Mace, Jagger, and Gavin decided to stay in the living room of the suite, sensing that she needed some alone time with Asher after being separated from him.
Rose started undressing, and Asher did the same. They crawled into bed, and for a while just lay there, naked, in each other’s arms. Rose pressed her head against his chest, listening to his beating heart.
“I was so worried about you. Did they hurt you?”
“A little, but it wasn’t too bad. I’m just glad we’re together again, and we’re safe.”
His hand trailed over Rose’s breast. She turned her body slightly, giving him better access. The touches were slow and casual, without any real urgency behind them. Rose lay back, enjoying the feeling of his fingers tracing down her body.
She pulled Asher in for a kiss. It started slowly, but after a few minutes, Asher moaned softly and deepened it. Rose rolled so that she was on top of him, pressing her body down on his as they kissed with increasing passion.
Asher’s cock was rising beneath her, and her body responded. It felt like forever since she’d been intimate with him. She wanted him inside her, but she wasn’t quite ready to stop kissing him yet.
They kissed until Rose’s entire body was throbbing with need. She ignored it for now, wanting to do something for Asher. He knew exactly how much she loved him, but that didn’t mean Rose didn’t want to show him just the same.
She rolled back to the side so that she could reach his cock. She licked along the sides, causing Asher to quiver in anticipation.
“Wait. Come here, turn around.”
Rose let him maneuver her as he wished, so that her ass was pressed up right near to his face. Asher pulled her closer, tilting her so that his tongue could reach her clit. Pleasure exploded through her as he started sucking.
She swallowed his cock, loving the taste of him. It was difficult to focus on the blowjob when he was sending irresistible waves of ecstasy through her clit. Rose pushed back against him again and again, feeling her release so close she could almost taste it.
Asher’s cock was a bar of warm iron in her mouth, and Rose sucked it for all she was worth. She struggled against her gag reflex to take him deeper, loving the way his hips stuttered when she did.
His shout was muffled against her clit as he came into her mouth with warm pulses. The vibration through his lips set Rose off too. She swallowed down Asher’s come even as her own body peaked, then rose up and peaked again at Asher’s continued attentions.
When it finally ended, Rose rolled off Asher and lay there unmoving, limp in the aftermath of her orgasm. Asher pulled her up so that she could snuggle with him, taking most of her weight easily.
“Here, like this.” He positioned her so that she was lying directly on top of him. Rose knew that her weight gave him no trouble, and she relaxed into him, enjoying the feeling of skin on skin.
Something about her weight on top of him seemed to comfort Asher, because he drifted off. When he woke, Rose was in the same position. She wasn’t going to leave voluntarily any time soon.
“You know, your brothers will want into the bed at some point. It’s evening.”
“Let ‘em come,” Asher murmured sle
epily. “I know how to share.”
The thought of being with all of her dragons at once was beyond inviting. Rose had a feeling none of them were going to get much sleep that night.
It was many hours later when she vaguely felt Jagger extracting himself from their tangle of limbs. He quietly padded to the bathroom. Rose was on the verge of falling back asleep when the sound of retching woke her.
She clambered over Gavin and hurried to the bathroom. “Jagger? Are you okay? Are you sick?”
Jagger tried to answer, but he was overtaken by another bout of vomiting. She could hear Asher, Mace, and Gavin rousing in the other room, no doubt woken by the sound.
Rose’s breath caught when she stepped closer.
Jagger was vomiting up blood.
Chapter Eight
“We have to get him to a hospital!” Rose was already going for her phone, but Mace caught her around the waist.
“Not yet. We need to determine the cause. If it’s purely medical, I’m right behind you, but if it has a magical cause, doctors won’t be able to help him and letting them try will only serve to give away our secret.”
Jagger vomited again, and Rose had to look away from the sight of his bright red blood. “How do we tell if it’s magical or not?”
“I was hoping you’d be able to tell us.”
Rose struggled to think through her panic. “Did any spells hit him as we were escaping?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” Gavin glanced at Asher and Mace, who also shrugged.
“Jagger?” Rose forced herself to kneel next to him, trying not to look at the inside of the toilet spattered with his blood. Having a panic attack right now wouldn’t help anyone. “Were you hit by anything when we were escaping?”
Jagger pushed himself up on his arms, coughing a few times. “I—I don’t think so.”
Rose nodded, trying to decide what to do. She hadn’t learned magical scanning spells yet. Maybe the necklace could do it for her, but it was cold against her chest, and she didn’t know how to make it come to life and pulse magic into Jagger.
“Lie back.” The least she could do was examine him. “Check him for any sign of injury.”
Mace, Gavin, and Asher hurried to do as she said. Rose scanned every inch of skin, pressing into it, trying to feel for underlying problems with bones or tendons.
Jagger pressed a hand to his mouth and lunged for the toilet. Asher helped him get there, holding him steady.
“You good? Can we lie you back down again?”
Jagger nodded, letting Asher gently lay him down. They continued their frantic examination.
“Here!” Gavin rolled Jagger over, showing them a small puncture wound in his shoulder. Rose bent close, and she could just see a tiny piece of metal imbedded in his skin. It looked like it was from some kind of dart.
“Someone get me some tweezers.”
Mace dashed away. Rose listened to him tearing the room apart, but there were no tweezers. Mace left, no doubt to hunt down a first aid kit. Rose and Gavin helped Jagger lean over the toilet again for another bout of vomiting.
She wasn’t sure how long it was before Mace returned. When he did, he thrust the tweezers into her hands. “Hold him steady,” Rose murmured. Asher and Gavin clasped Jagger’s shoulders, keeping him still.
Rose reached in and pulled out the small piece of metal. It didn’t seem to make any difference to Jagger’s condition. He moaned in pain and spat out some blood. She wanted more than anything to stay by his side, but Rose knew she was the best qualified to examine the dart.
She did a seeking spell, one that was meant to be used on unknowing objects to determine their use. Rose wasn’t advanced enough to get much information from the spell, but it did tell her one thing. The dart had contained poison, which was now in Jagger’s blood stream.
Gavin’s face paled as he heard her thoughts. Mace had vanished again, and Rose was just returning to Jagger when he came back, Annabelle and Dane on his heels.
Rose could have laughed in relief. Of course. Dane was the dragon clan’s healer. He’d be able to help Jagger.
Asher and Gavin moved out of the way, letting Dane kneel beside Jagger. “What happened?”
“When we woke up, he was vomiting blood. I found this inside him. It’s difficult to tell in detail, but it comes from some kind of dart and carries poison. I think he must have been hit with it when we were escaping the witches.”
Dane frowned at the piece of metal. “Why would they use poison darts when they have spells?”
“Spells take energy to cast. It’s common practice to invest objects with magic in times of peace, so that they can be deployed in battle at no further cost.”
Rose’s voice seemed to shrivel. Why would the witches use darts that had no immediate effects, that only made the victim sick later? It couldn’t be for tracking purposes—if they could be tracked, they would have been found by now.
She could think of only one reason. They wanted to make one of the dragons sick in a way that only witches could heal. Maria knew that was the only thing that would force Rose to return.
Please, let me be wrong.
Dane was pressing his hands to Jagger’s chest, his eyes closed. Rose couldn’t see anything happening, but after a minute or so, Jagger’s breathing eased. He sagged with relief.
“Dane, you did it!” Rose threw her arms around him, but Dane didn’t return the embrace.
“Don’t celebrate too soon. I haven’t stopped the poison—I have only slowed it.”
“But you can stop it.”
“I—I’ll try, Rose, I swear. I’m just not sure a dragon will be able to encounter a spell like this, made by witches.”
Rose wanted to scream at him, to tell him that he had to save Jagger, but she clamped her mouth shut. This wasn’t Dane’s fault.
Annabelle grabbed Rose and pulled her back. She only then realized that she’d been trying to get to Jagger, blocking Dane’s access to him. She allowed herself to be manhandled into the bedroom.
Asher was glaring at Annabelle for her rough handling, but Rose waved him away. She knew that Asher, Mace, and Gavin would give her comfort, but that wasn’t what she needed right now. She needed someone to tell her what to do, how to fix this. Judging by Annabelle’s determined stride, she at least had an idea.
“Rose. Rose, look at me.” Rose’s wandering gaze met Annabelle’s. “Focus. Think. Dane isn’t the only one who can heal Jagger. You brought Gavin back from the dead. You have a better chance than any of us.”
“I—I don’t know how to direct the necklace’s power.”
“It’s always come before in the situations when you most need it. It’ll come now. You just have to concentrate.”
Rose nodded, drawing in shaky breaths. She could do this. She’d done it before.
When she stumbled back into the bathroom, Jagger was resting peacefully. Dane was in the corner, conversing quietly with Asher. Rose hurried forward to listen.
“…don’t know how long what I’ve done will last. It’s slowed the spread for now, but I don’t think it can work indefinitely. I’m afraid that the only solution may be with the witches.”
Rose didn’t need to hear anything else. Dane wouldn’t stop trying, but it sounded like he didn’t have the power to heal Jagger. She did. Or at least, her necklace did.
She put her hands on Jagger’s chest like Dane had. Rose closed her eyes. Please, please let this work. It had to work. Jagger needed her.
Rose gasped as her necklace warmed against her chest. Her eyes flew open and she saw the pendant glowing. Yes! Her eyes raked over Jagger’s body, looking for any sign of improvement.
He suddenly arched up, crying out in pain. Rose almost withdrew her hands, but she knew she couldn’t. Even if it hurt, she had to heal Jagger.
Jagger rolled over, convulsing and vomiting more blood.
Rose threw herself back with a cry. She wasn’t healing him. She was killing him.
Dane was suddenly the
re, putting his hands back on Jagger, murmuring soothing words. The pain seemed to fade, and Jagger went limp with relief, panting.
Rose was horrified. What had she done? Her eyes sought Dane, begging for an answer.
“It must require a specific healing spell. The necklace probably picked up your need to heal and used a healing spell you know. Sometimes, using the wrong type of healing on a problem makes things worse.”
“What do I do, then? Whenever I’m directing the necklace’s power, it acts on spells I already know, strengthening them. It only does something I haven’t learned when it reacts instinctively, not when I’m directing it.”
“It reacted instinctively when I was dead.” Was she imagining it, or was there something accusing in Gavin’s eyes. “Jagger is in mortal danger—that much is clear. Why isn’t it reacting?”
“I don’t know! I swear, Gavin, if I could will it into working, I would.”
His face softened and he pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply you’re not doing everything you can. It’s just, seeing him like this…”
“I know.” In this moment, Rose hated herself with a burning passion. The necklace reacted according to her own feelings of fear, love, and desperation. What was wrong with her that she couldn’t trigger it for Jagger? She loved him as much as his brothers. How was that not enough?
“Stop.” Asher pulled her head to his shoulder, as if he could pull away the thoughts that raced around inside it. “This isn’t your fault. It could even be that Maria designed these spells with you specifically in mind.”
“That’s right,” Annabelle put in. “She knows you have the necklace. It would be a bit pointless designing a spell that you could just heal. It’s well within her capabilities to create a spell that a necklace of power can’t counter.”
Rose knew they were trying to make her feel better, but in reality, this was only making her feel worse. If they were right, then she had no chance of healing Jagger. Would she have to watch him die before she could draw him back?
Would she even be able to do that? It had been a miracle that she’d been able to bring Gavin back from the dead. What if the spell prevented her from reaching Jagger in the same way? If the poison stopped her from drawing him back from death, he had no chance except Dane.
