“Oh, I got to see how smooth he can be when he helped the enforcers with the break-in at my apartment. His gift is really interesting. Do you think he’d let me study him?”
“You will not be studying him.” Shanton’s words had a finality. Slowly, I connected the dots and once the full picture was made, I laughed hard.
“Oh Goddess, get your head out of the gutter.” I snickered. “I just want to learn more about his mimicry and how it works. His recovery time, how he recovers, the changes his body has to go through to accommodate the change in mass. How often he can do it.” I shrugged. “Just questions and maybe some demonstrations. If he’d let me, I would love to push his limit and see what happens.”
Shanton grabbed my hips and helped me over a log before he catapulted himself over and landed gracefully. Siitha wasn’t far behind.
“You really love doing all kinds of experiments, don’t you?” he asked as I pointed the direction we needed to go and he moved us around a bush with blueberries on them. When I reached for them, my kitty growled and inserted himself between me and the delicious looking berries. When Shanton noticed, he gave the oversized kitty an approving nod.
Message received.
Answering Shanton, I said, “I’ve always loved magic and that led to a love of seeing how things worked, what made them break, everything. I love searching for the how of things, and teasing out the answers to the five Ws.”
“Five Ws?”
“Who, what, where, when, why.” I grinned. “I want all the answers. The control freak in me demands them, and the little girl inside of me is too curious for her own good. Give me a question, and I want the answer to it. And I’ll have follow up questions to go with it. Unfortunately, I’m always coming up with questions. It’s hard to walk through the wild and not stop to find answers to some of them.”
Shanton’s smile softened as he watched me go on about my interests. My chest warmed at his attentiveness. Normally, at this point, eyes were glazed as others tuned me out, but he listened attentively. It was nice to really get into what I loved and be heard by people I cared about who weren’t colleagues.
“What questions do you have? Maybe I have answers.”
I opened my mouth to fire some of them at him when Siitha growled. He jumped in front of me, his hackles rising, his ass in the air, ready to pounce. After releasing another growl, he charged into the bush and the sound of snarls reached my ears. I moved to go after him, but Shanton stopped me with a hand around my biceps.
“We need to help him.”
Shanton shook his head. “He’s fine. Just taking care of a pest. He’s not in any danger.”
I worried at my lip as more snarling and growling reached my ears, along with the sound of a struggle. There was a yelp and whine before everything went silent. A moment later, Siitha was back at my side with a satisfied look in his eyes.
Shanton nudged me away from where the fight had happened, and we moved on.
That was how I finally noticed that Shanton had managed to wrap me in a bubble. His energy always felt like a typhoon. Spinning around and around with him in the eye of it. I had gotten used to it and hadn’t noticed, but now that typhoon covered a large area, sweeping around us for a few meters so that the behesiff and I were part of the middle too.
Sneaky dragon.
He stayed at my side so that I remained in the middle of the bubble, and the behesiff went out to attack anything too stupid to stay away. It was brilliant. So that was why we hadn’t had any trouble.
I grinned up at the dragon with butterflies in my stomach.
“What?” he asked.
“You’re a nice guy,” I said.
He gave me a confused look, and I just widened my smile.
I had always been on the fence with Shanton. He was an arrogant dragon who needed to be knocked down, but he was nice too. Or at least as nice as his dragon side was willing to let him be. I could see why he and Dwight had such a long-lasting relationship.
Not many would say this about a dragon, but he was one of the good ones.
Chapter Seventeen
“No theories at all about why they’re out here?” Shanton asked.
I had just finished filling him in on everything that had been going on and how I’d found myself out here without any support.
“Not this far out, no. I originally thought maybe they were just going to a place close to Springer to test out what happens to the device when they release the magic they stole, but after following them for a while, I realized I was an idiot. First, they wouldn’t have been kind enough to go outside of the city to test it out. They would have just done it in the middle like they did when they stole the magic. That means they’re moving on to the next phase or coming out here to their home base. I just didn’t think it’d be this far out.”
Shanton nudged me to the left to avoid a branch. When I gave him a confused look, he picked up a rock and tossed it at the branch. It snapped out like a snake and wrapped around the large rock, pulling it into the earth. Siitha growled briefly before avoiding another root and moving to my side for a scratch. I didn’t fail him. He’d been such a sport these last few hours.
Holy shit.
“Who would want to live out here?” I already knew the answer, but I still asked.
“People who don’t want to be found,” was Shanton’s grim response.
“Or the crazies.” I shook my head. “Either way, it’s crazy to live out here when the leaves can eat you.”
“You learn. It’s all about respect. Remember that, Laila.”
“Trust me, I remember,” I grumbled and picked my way around a moss covered rock with something slithering on top, its furry coat blending in with the blue and green shades of the moss.
Just as I was about to toss out some more theories, my magical senses smashed up against something hard and painful. I might as well have had walked right into a wall with the way I took a step forward and then got knocked back on my ass.
“Laila.” Shanton was at my side, helping me to my feet.
“Damn,” I said.
“What was that?”
I frowned and reached out with my magic again. It brushed up against something, but the blowback sent me on my ass again. My tailbone was taking a hard beating. I couldn’t touch the ward with magic.
“A ward,” I said. “We found a ward.”
Shanton froze and scented the air. He moved in front of me, waving his hand, probably thinking it was there. That wasn’t the case. It was still a few yards away.
“I don’t sense anything,” he said.
I frowned. “Nothing at all? No scent? No energy discrepancy?” I asked.
I definitely felt it. It pressed against me now that I knew it was there.
Shanton moved around, trying to find it. He shook his head. “Nothing.” He reached down and pulled me back to my feet.
“Anytime I try to touch it, it sends me to my ass,” I said. “It’s still a few yards ahead.” I took lead and we worked our way around a massive tree trunk and between two bushes. Once we were only a few feet away, I stopped and stared at where it should have been.
I couldn’t see it.
“It’s right there,” I said and pointed.
Shanton’s eyes narrowed as his nose flared. “I don’t sense anything. Are you sure?”
Raising an eyebrow, I asked, “Are you really questioning me?”
A snort left him as he shook his head. “Not at all.”
“Thought so,” I grumbled and stepped closer to the ward. The pressure against me intensified. I pulled up my mental shields, expecting even that to send me on my ass. When nothing happened, I stepped closer again and reached out.
Shanton groaned. “Please don’t poke at the ward.”
“Well, my magic sets it off. So unless I want to give my ass another bruise, I get to poke it, I said.
My fingertips brushed against the ward. Nothing happened. A shimmer started where I made contact and expanded outwar
d. When Shanton took in a sharp breath, I knew it was because he could see it now.
“That’s huge,” he remarked.
“It’s a border ward, meant to wrap around the property,” I said and pressed harder against the ward. My hand slipped through. “Oh shit,” I said and kept pushing, my arm now all the way through. I could feel cooler air, compared to the hot temperatures we were dealing on our side.
Arms wrapped around my waist and yanked me back hard.
“Let me go,” I said to Shanton.
“No,” he growled out, and when I turned my head, I was able to see the deadly glare he was sending the ward. His lips were curled back into a snarl, teeth on full display as his eyes burned with protectiveness.
“Shanton,” I said softly, wondering what had set him off. “Let me go.”
“You can’t just walk through a ward,” he said. “You might not be able to get back out.”
“Shanton,” I said again, making sure to keep my voice low and soothing. I never thought I’d have to tame a dragon. “I promise I’ll be okay. Can you please stop squeezing me so tightly? It’s a little hard to breathe.”
That seemed to work as he loosened his hold and stepped back.
“If I can step through the ward, then I’ll be able to step back out. I promise.”
“Let me go through first then,” he said.
“Fine.” I stepped back and Shanton went up to the ward and touched it. His hand rested against the ward, just like mine had. His muscles strained, and it took me a moment to realize he was trying to go through, but it wasn’t letting him.
I moved next to him. The veins in his neck bulged out, and he gritted his teeth together. Briefly, I wondered if he could break his teeth straining so hard like that. I rested my hand against the ward and then applied only a little bit of pressure. My hand went right through.
“The ward keeps you out but allows me to pass,” I said, grabbing Shanton’s arm and pushing him away from the barrier. “Why? What’s different between you and me that this ward is picking up on?”
“Is it because you have magic?” he asked.
I eyed it. “No. That can’t be it. It doesn’t feel right. I can’t pick up on any restrictions like that.” When I moved closer, something on the ground caught my attention. It looked like a rune, but it was inside.
Pointing to it, I said, “I’m going to get a closer look.”
“You are not going through on your own,” Shanton said.
“I’ll look and then come right back out. I promise, I’ll be okay.”
“You don’t know what this is for or what’s inside of it.”
“I’m guessing we found a settlement. The settlement itself is probably a mile or so in still.”
“And when they come after feeling you going through their ward? They could already be on their way here. Does your tracker lead you through here? We can go around.”
They had to have skirted this place,” I said. “Shetz said there was a settlement they were concerned about. What if this is it?”
“Who the fuck is Shetz?” Shanton asked.
“The pixie who gave me the supplies I needed. He said they were headed toward a settlement out here and expressed concern that they were the target. If they are, then apparently the world is screwed because the settlement is under the protection of some strong beings that would burn this world to the ground for them.”
“All the more reason to not go in there.”
“But we need to find out if this is the settlement. The tracker has the baddies coming this way and they probably circled around it. So there has to be some interest. We need to know what is in here that interests them.”
Not wanting to waste any more time arguing, I shoved through the ward. It resisted at first, but then I was able to slip through, my skin prickling from the touch. I went straight to the symbol on the ground, not wanting to waste time.
The symbol was foreign to me, not one I’d ever seen before, not that it was hard. I didn’t specialize in symbols. I had a mediocre understanding of them. I committed it to memory. Maybe if I drew it for Shanton, he’d know.
I smiled at Shanton and Siitha as the two of them paced back and forth on the other side of the ward. My kitty couldn’t get through the ward either.
“Relax, I’m fine,” I said,
He glared at me.
“She is correct, we would never hurt her.”
Shanton’s eyes narrowed and a growl erupted from him. “Laila, get back over here,” he snapped out.
I turned to the familiar voice and moaned in frustration at the cloaks.
About ten of them stood there, their faces hidden within the shadows of the silvery white robes, covering them completely down to their feet. I never felt them, which didn’t surprise me. Elementalists had complete control over both magic and energy—that meant they’d be able to cloak themselves.
Five of them held long white staffs and the other five were empty-handed, though it didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“Laila Porter, this is a surprise,” a female voice said in a cultured voice, and I winced, knowing exactly who it was. She stepped forward with two other figures flanking her. No doubt they were the two who had accompanied her the first time we’d met. They still moved as if they glided across the ground and when they stopped, they became statues. Still creepy as fuck.
“It’s Dr. Laila Porter,” I corrected her. “Why am I not surprised you’re the one to greet me, Elaria?”
She reached up with white-gloved hands and lowered her hood so I could have a look at her face. She looked exactly the same with white hair in a perfect pixie cut, her green eyes glowing as they stared at me with far too much confidence. Elaria called herself Highborn, and that apparently meant she could look down on everyone. She did that now as she stared at me with her unnerving glowing green eyes that were so similar to mine when I used magic.
“It is a pleasure to see you again, Laila. Please, come with us.” She turned to walk away, but I didn’t move. She froze and frowned.
“I’m not following you like a lost pup you’re luring home,” I said when she realized I really wasn’t going to just blindly follow her. I inched toward the ward, ready to jump through. Shanton looked ready to grab me.
Elaria’s eyes flickered to Shanton and the behesiff before back to me.
“We have much to discuss,” she said. “I don’t have time for these games.” She turned to one of the figures holding a staff. “Let the dragon and her pet through.”
“No, thank you,” I said. “I think we’ll just leave.”
Elaria sighed as if I were the one pushing her patience. “Laila, please, just stay for a meal. People would love to meet you.” She paused and tilted her head to the side. “Your aunt would love to meet you. She’s been dying to see you since we told her of your existence.”
My eyes widened. “I have an aunt?” I asked. I never expected that. I had family. Did I have a mother and father too? Did I want to know?
“You do. Will you at least meet her?” Elaria asked. “It would break her heart to know you were here and she did not have a chance to see you.”
I bit my lip. Damn, Elaria was good at all this manipulation stuff. I didn’t know if I wanted to go or not. I was curious for sure, but at the same time, while she held the title of aunt, she was still a complete stranger. And I really wanted to keep going on our hunt. This was a distraction I didn’t want.
“You are hunting,” a smoky voice spoke up.
“Stay out of my head, Jezek,” I replied.
He stepped forward and lowered his hood to reveal a shaved head and dark skin. His eyes popped against his skin tone. While everything about the elementalists varied, like hair color, skin tone, frames, one thing was similar with all of them—glowing green eyes.
“We can give you more supplies. Whatever you are hunting, we can help make you better equipped. Just give us a chance,” Jezek said.
“If I do stay, will you stop sending me invitations? I doubt Nature is happy with how many trees you killed to send me those letters.”
Elaria nodded. “They will stop.”
“Then fine.” I reached out with the tracking and noticed my targets were still far away, but they had stopped too.
“Excellent, I will let them know. Jezek, please make sure they settle in. I need to let her aunt know.” With that, Elaria turned and left, half the other bodies following behind, including Elaria’s third protector Zenek, who had remained hidden in his cloak. That left me with Jezek and three other guards.
One of them held a staff and approached the ward. Shanton was quick to step through with Siitha right behind him. In a blink of the eye, the two of them pressed on either side of me, their protective instincts screaming for them to keep me safe. I didn’t fault them.
Elementalists were manipulative and on a power trip. They’d do what they could to get what they wanted.
Even so, we still followed them because apparently we’d come across the elementalist establishment, a place meant to be impossible to find unless they wanted you to. Apparently, they really wanted me.
I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like I had a glowing personality.
Chapter Eighteen
The wilderness on the elementalists’ land was different. It was like everything vibrated a hundred times more. All the life within the ward was happy, bursting with magic and energy. I thought about how I fed Shetz’s garden, how I always connected with nature, how my magic had a stronger connection with the elements. Was this what could happen to the wild if it had an untapped source of food from the elementalists? There was no doubt in my mind that the plants were like this, so full of life, because of the elementalists and their power.
Shanton and Siitha stayed at my side as the three guards wrapped around us from the back and Jezek took lead. They all walked like their feet didn’t touch the ground, and I began feeling like a giant trying to sneak around in a glass house.
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