Magical Redemption

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  His eyes flickered between my own as he tried to read my emotions.

  “Do you think I’m making a stupid decision? That I should stay here?” I asked.

  Finally, his mask broke, and I saw what he was hiding. Anxiety. “No. They’d tried to keep you. They’d try to take you away from me. They’d try to keep you hidden inside their wards where I’ll never be able to see you again. I won’t let them do that. I’ll burn this place to the ground before they’re able to take you away. I’m sure elementalists taste delicious since they’re so ripe with power.”

  An involuntary laugh escaped me. I couldn’t help it. He said all the right things. I leaned forward, grabbed his face, and kissed him hard. My lips smashed against his, and I thought I had control, but silly me. I’d never have control over a dragon. He had his arms wrapped around me as he moved us up the bed. The mattress was soft, and we sunk into it as he carefully placed his body over mine.

  His kiss was hot, scorching hot as his hands found the bare skin on my stomach. I groaned as his energy pressed into me.

  “You’re mine, Dr. Laila Porter. Don’t ever think you’re getting away from me. My dragon goes crazy when I’m not near you. You consume me, and all you have to do is flash your mischievous smile. I’m not letting you run away from me.” He kissed me again, his tongue running along the seam of my lips. I opened to him, and he deepened his kiss, his tongue stroking mine. I arched into him, wanting to feel more of him, wanting all of him against my skin.

  His fingers flexed, grabbing me tighter, and I ran my hand through his inky black hair. He growled when my fingers skimmed the back of his neck, finding a sensitive spot.

  It was a while before the two of us separated, and we were both short of breath.

  “I’d love nothing more than to strip you naked and taste every inch of your skin.” Shanton ran his nose along the vein in my neck. “You smell so delicious, and I know you’ll taste better.”

  “But we have to get ready,” I said, unable to hide my disappointment.

  “Exactly. And I want to savor you.”

  I sighed because his idea sounded way better than having to pretend I liked strangers at a party.

  “I want you too,” I said. “You’re an arrogant asshole, but for the life of me, I still want you.”

  He chuckled as he lifted off me. “Tonight. If we don’t burn this place to the ground, then tonight, we’ll enjoy each other’s bodies.”

  Damn. That sounded like a brilliant idea.

  But first, we had to make it through this party.

  Chapter Twenty

  I pulled at my dress, grumbling underneath my breath.

  Shanton chuckled. “Stop complaining,” he said.

  “It’s so tight,” I said. “I can barely breathe.”

  “You look amazing.”

  “I probably look like a pig trying to stuff herself into a dress. They need to rethink whatever spell they have on the clothes. This has to be two sizes too small.”

  Shanton turned and pressed me up against a wall, sealing my lips with his. When he had my attention, he pulled back. “You are hot, Laila. The dress fits all your curves, teases me with what your body has to offer. It’ll be hard to not take you in the middle of the party, right in front of everyone. My fingers ache to run along your body, over the mounds of your breasts, or over your perfectly round ass. You are a tease tonight. Don’t forget that.”

  He pulled away and continued down the hall as if he hadn’t just pushed me against a wall and stolen all my words and thoughts. I practically panted after the man.

  Damn, he was good. I looked down at Siitha as he patiently waited at my side. “Shanton doesn’t play fair.”

  The behesiff just cocked his head to the side when he heard my voice.

  I sighed. “Let’s get this dinner over with so I can maul the damn dragon.”

  With a satisfied smirk, Shanton waited at the corner for me to catch up. I rolled my eyes.

  He chuckled and we continued to the source of all the noise. We didn’t want any kind of grand entrance, and if we’d waited for Atasha to come get us, we would’ve gotten just that. So we decided to sneak into the party and not give them time to announce us. We wanted to throw them off their game, ruin the flow of their plans. They needed to know we weren’t just going to roll over and let them do as they wanted.

  Soft music floated through the hallway as we approached the door, along with clinking of glasses, laughter, and the low rumble of people talking. Shanton stopped at the door and then stepped to the side, opening it for me. As the scene unveiled, I took in a breath, put on a fake smile, and stepped into the room.

  People didn’t notice us right away, at least not until Shanton stepped in and his dragon energy rolled through the room. Then all eyes turned to us. People froze, others grinned, and tossed into the mix were a couple of frowns. Shanton placed his hand low on my back, which was bare, and pushed me further in.

  Trying to ignore all the eyes on us, I glanced around the large space. It was the very same room we’d met the council in, but they’d cleared it out. No longer was there a stage, and the bleachers were gone. It was completely open, and for the first time, I realized there was more to the room, hidden by the bleachers the first time. A cool breeze swept through the space, a soft caress as the air shifted. Double doors were propped open to reveal what looked to be a balcony. Curtains hung on the walls to soften up the decorations.

  I wanted to pull at my dress, again wondering why I’d thought it was a good idea to wear it. Wait, it wasn’t. Shanton was the one who’d picked it out for me, his controlling need outdoing my own. Or maybe I wanted to impress him, and wearing the dress he chose for me made him happy. Damn, when had I become infatuated with the dragon?

  Now I was stuck with a red dress that glued itself to my body, the top of it dipping low to show off my breasts, and held up with straps around my shoulders and neck. The back of the dress didn’t exist and dipped dangerously close to my ass and the bottom was more straps starting at my knees going up and up on my thighs. I was pretty sure if I did anything but stand, I was going to be flashing people the sexy red lingerie I’d found tucked away in the closet, still in its original packaging.

  I barely kept the smile placed on my lips as Shanton led us to a server and swiped two flutes. He passed one over to me, and I graciously took it. It was too tempting to down the whole glass in one gulp, but I had a feeling that’d be frowned upon, and I wanted to keep my wits about me. My fingers buzzed from the power coming from the champagne. The drink was most likely spelled to have an extra little kick since getting drunk was not an easy task for an elementalist. Only spelled drinks had an effect on me, so that meant it was true for them too.

  “Laila,” Atasha called out as she slipped between two elementalists to meet us. She grinned, but it was tight. She wore a baby blue dress that fluttered around her as she moved seamlessly across the floor. Her brown hair was in soft waves, left loose, like mine, and again, I was hit with how similar we looked. “I was just about to come get you.”

  “Oh, sorry, we just couldn’t wait to meet everyone,” I said. “We figured we could get here on our own.”

  “Of course.” Her smile softened. “Come, I’d like you to meet some close friends of mine. But first, maybe your behesiff would like to explore outside? We don’t like to let familiars wander inside during a party.” She leaned closer to me. “Some of the familiars don’t like each other and we’ve had a few incidents of furniture breaking when they got into a disagreement.” She hooked her arm through mine and left Shanton and Siitha to trail after us as she led me to the side where wide doors were opened to the balcony I’d spied.

  The night air was refreshing when we stepped onto the balcony. I noticed there were stairs that led down to their courtyard from here. It took a few minutes to get Siitha to leave us for a little while. He was not happy about it and made it known with a growl to Atasha as a warning.

  She smiled fondly at my fluff b
all as he disappeared into the darkness. I had no doubt he’d be sticking close to the building, ready to play hero the moment something went wrong.

  “He’s a good one,” Atasha said.

  I grinned, warmth spreading through me. “I know.”

  “Now, let’s go meet some people. I promise it won’t be too painful. Unfortunately, if we don’t, they’ll come to you instead. At least this way, you have more control over the introductions.” Atasha winked at me.

  “I like how you think,” I said.

  “Before we do, what should we be expecting?” Shanton asked. “How many people? Who are they?”

  Atasha tilted her head in a similar way to how I did when I thought hard about something. Holy Goddess, even our mannerisms were the same. I was a little creeped out.

  “The Highborn Council is currently in a meeting, but they will be here in another hour or so. Everyone here has some kind of clout with them, or wishes to have more. All of the Highborn are here.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked. “Highborn? Isn’t that just the council?”

  Atasha shook her head. “No. There are five ruling families here, and we call them the Highborn. Each seat on the Council comes from one of those families. Everyone around you are of the Highborn, which means they have the purest blood and are the most powerful. You already know the names of the bloodlines too, it is the names of the Highborn council.”

  “So Elaria is a family name?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Niatha Elaria.” Atasha’s eyes turned serious as she lowered her voice and leaned closer. “Technically, you’d be of the Highborn too if you were to stay here. That’s why the council is so focused on you.”

  “So you’re Highborn?” Shanton asked.

  Atasha nodded, her frown deepening. “Unfortunately.” Her eyes glanced around us briefly. “We are part of Cornaith’s family. His full name is Aleick Cornaith.”

  My eyes widened. “He wants—”

  She pressed her hands to my lips to shut me up, her expression briefly revealing panic. When I kept my mouth closed, she lowered her hands. “Even so, we are part of his family. If you were to claim your birthright, you’d be Laila Cornaith.”

  Shanton snickered, and I elbowed him as hard as I could. Unfortunately, my elbow felt that impact more than his side did. Stupid, rock hard dragon.

  “I kind of wish we were part of Elaria’s.” I glanced at the crowd and all the eyes on us. “Can they hear us?”

  “I put up a small ward to prevent it, but I’m not the most powerful, so I still stress caution.” Atasha motioned us further away from the prying eyes and into the shadows of the balcony off to the side. There were three others out here, but at least they weren’t staring at us like the other guests. “It is unfortunate to be part of Cornaith’s family. He isn’t the kindest on the council. He’s the second oldest, just a few years younger than Ilrune. He’s also the slowest to change and despises it.”

  “So he’s stuck in the stone age?” Just my luck to be part of the worst family.

  “Yes. He is a stickler for the rules and he fights the most against change. You are everything he hates about this new age and he does not want you here. If he had his way…” She trailed off and shook her head, blinking furiously. “Now is not the time to talk about this. For now, let’s introduce you to people.”

  And she did just that. My mind swirled with names and statuses of people. I learned that while being Highborn meant they were part of the strong families, it didn’t mean they were all strong, and just like everywhere else, anyone of lower status got stomped on by those in power.

  I had people look down on me and try to test me, I had people fear me and were quick to skitter away after our introductions. My respect for Atasha grew when she looked sad anytime someone quickly excused themselves, no doubt in fear of getting into trouble. I had so many questions, but I kept them all to myself and did my best to learn by observing.

  At least until we approached a young looking man with power that made him feel a lot older. For about the tenth time I wondered how old these people really were. It wasn’t exactly a question I’d ask them, but their looks didn’t match how they felt. Some people felt ancient, like those on the council. Their powers were oppressive, ripe with experience. Others felt like mine, but those who felt closer to mine, either didn’t have the glowing green eyes or I had a theory they’d recently gone through the transition.

  So when we approached the man, he looked like he could be in his thirties, but his power felt like he’d lived a few lifetimes, older than Shanton.

  “Atrius,” Atasha said with a sharp smile. “Please meet my niece, Laila.”

  The man wore a sharp black suit over a lean frame. He looked like he’d be a professional ass-kicker. Shanton stiffened at my side, his hand curling around my waist as he pulled me closer to him at the perceived threat. This man set Shanton on edge too.

  “Laila, meet Atrius. He is one of Ilrune’s protectors.”

  The man had inky black hair, pale skin, and a smarmy smile. I wanted to smack him already, and he hadn’t had a chance to say anything yet.

  “A pleasure, Miss Porter, we’ve heard all about you today.” He held out his hand.

  I gave him my own hand, and he lifted it to his lip. I held back a wince and instead said, “Please, call me Dr. Porter.”

  He stilled, his smile tightening before he pressed his lips against the back of my hand. I almost pulled back and wiped my hand. Why did men think it was a gentlemanly thing to do, kissing hands? It didn’t make sense. I was tempted to put some kind of potion on my hand so when people I didn’t like kissed it, they’d taste something very unfortunate. That was something to add onto my list.

  “Dr. Porter it is then. I heard you assisted the dragon,” his eyes flickered to Shanton, “in our labyrinth. Please, tell me, what did you think?”

  The way he asked the question set off warning bells for some reason. Maybe it was the spark in his eyes when he asked it, or the self-satisfied curl of his lips. Either way, he put me on edge.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  His smile widened as he puffed out his chest. “I had the fortunate opportunity to aid in the creation of the labyrinth.” My rage pulsed at his words, at the way he was so proud of that statement. I stilled, frozen. He didn’t notice as he kept boasting about it. “It was originally created to punish those who broke our most sacred laws, but after the Chaos War, we used it to hold onto the Soul Weaver. Nasty weapon that thing is.”

  He sent a smirk Shanton’s way, and I swore Shanton was about to snarl at him.

  “Without it, we wouldn’t have had a chance of stopping that war. It’s amusing how feared we are because of that weapon. I’m glad it’s back in our hands. I was one of the ones who thought it’d be good insurance to keep it with us, so thank you, Dragon, for returning it to us.”

  Shanton stepped forward to eat Atrius’ face off. I slipped in front of him and pushed back. Shanton stopped. He probably thought I did it for our benefit, so we didn’t start some kind of war or incident. What he didn’t know was this guy was mine. He’d been mine since I found that room, where others had starved for who knew how long. It took a long time to starve an elementalist. We didn’t eat often, at most, once a day, but I’d gone days without feeling hunger pains.

  I had a working theory on that, but that didn’t matter right now. The fact that Atrius took part in the starvation of elementalists set my blood on fire. I held so much anger from my experience back then. I’d gobbled it all down, pushed it down, out of sight, out of mind, but it was there simmering. And facing Atrius cracked the cage I’d built around the boiling rage. He didn’t know it, but he needed to be very cautious.

  Of course, Atrius didn’t think that as he kept talking, not realizing he needed to shut up. Atasha picked up on it by the nervous glances she kept giving me.

  “So I was curious what you thought about it? It was fun adjusting the traps to keep people out of them. A nice
little challenge.” His grin widened as he leaned closer. “I heard you unmade the dreho? What did you think about that beast? He was my personal achievement.”

  I stilled, a whooshing noise in my ears drowning out the prattle of everyone in the room as everything at the edges of my sight blurred. All that existed was Atrius and the arrogant smile on his face.

  “You created the dreho?” I asked in a low voice.

  He didn’t pick up on the danger signs that flashed in my face.

  “I did. The others didn’t think it was a good idea.” He shrugged. “But we needed a guard dog down there. He was a real piece of work.” He snorted.

  My rage boiled and popped. I saw red. My magic whirled out of me in a tsunami and with Shanton pressing against my back, I yanked on his energy and whirled it in with my magic.

  “You bastard,” I seethed.

  I didn’t notice anything but the way Atrius’ smile dropped and his face paled. No doubt my eyes glowed.

  “What? You shouldn’t be able to do that,” he stuttered out.

  I ignored him and rammed my power into him. He flew back, but I wasn’t done with him. Using magic, I pushed off the ground and shot toward him like a bullet and slammed into him. When we smashed into the wall, surrounded by screaming and shouting, I dug my elbow into his throat, cutting off his airway.

  Without giving him any time to react, I smashed my knee up into his balls.

  He gargled, trying to howl from the pain. With my hold on him, he wasn’t able to curl into himself like he wanted.

  I did it again.

  All the pain and misery, all the anguish I had felt from that dreho poured out of me in retribution. He needed to suffer. He needed a taste of what he’d done to that poor creature. An idea popped into my mind. I’d give him a taste of its medicine. That dreho never should have existed and it was time to show this asshole exactly why.

  Hands pulled at me, but I pushed out my magic, creating a barrier. Now that I didn’t have contact with Shanton, the energy I’d stolen from him was diminishing, but I had enough.