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Grania murmured.
His mother gasped. Dylan's father grunted, and his uncle continued to inspect his feet.
“Now, you see here, young lady, I don’t think it’s funny for you to joke about such ludicrous things!”
“You said it yourself. You didn’t want Dylan bringing trouble to your doorstep—
well, like it or not, I’m not the dragon shifting bitch you need to look out for—I can tell you, though, that there are probably a few dragon shifting bitches and bastards that are on their way here as we speak. Unless, we leave now, and go back to my enchanted cottage, you all will be talking about this at the Gates of Heaven. They’ll leave your family alone, as long as you come with me right now, Dylan. At this point in time, Draco isn’t interested in the rest of the Lightfoots.”
“Draco?” His uncle finally spoke. His face had turned as white as the walls. “My boy, if he’s after you—you have no hope. You need to leave now—if Grania thinks she can keep you from harm, she is your best bet.”
“No. I can fight him,” Dylan contradicted.
“I’m afraid you can’t, son.” His father was now adding his two cents in. “The last time we fought Draco we literally had our asses handed to us. You can’t fight a dragon shifter that not only uses the magic of his own kind—but knows how to use our magic as well.”
“It’s true. When my father was very young, he studied the sort of magic that you witches and wizards use. He is such a powerful dragon shifter, that it didn’t take him long to figure out how to master your craft. While he is not as powerfully attuned to witch magic as you are—he will not disappoint you in a battle. You might have thought you were cleaning the floor with Denys—my father will be different. He sees you as a threat. When his assassins take you, they will bring you to Draco for extermination.”
Her heart froze at the horrific thought.
“Dylan, go with her. I don’t care what she is—just allow her to keep you safe until you can finish the spell.” His mother sounded as if she was going to stand her ground.
“I thought with all of your help I could finish it that much sooner.”
“Not possible. I promised to never again dabble my magical hand in that sort of a spell. It’s the worst kind of spell any of our kind could ever make.” His uncle shuddered.
“And yet, my king and queen need that spell. It’s the only way to keep this world from falling into a literal reign of fire.”
“Is it that serious?” His mother seemed surprised.
“It is. Before Dylan pulled off his great escape, I was talking with our Prince. He tells me that the war is going very badly. We would appreciate support from the witch and wizard community if they would like to give it.”
“I will bring that matter to our leader’s attention.” His mother nodded in
determination.
Then, she gave Grania a serene smile. Whatever had inspired such a swift change DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170
of heart in his mother?
“That means my mother will put it to the council tomorrow. She usually gets
what she wants.” Dylan gave her a wane smile. “If I must return with you—then, so be it.”
Dragon shifter battle cries filled the night air. His mother jumped up from her place on the sofa.
Her eyes were wild with fear.
“Don’t panic.” Grania forced her voice to remain calm. By the sounds of it, they had sent about six or seven dragon shifters.
“Can you open another one of your portals back to my cottage?”
Dylan crossed the distance to her side. “I can try. That sound is rather rattling isn’t it?”
She nodded. “Does it sound like a death knell to you?”
His eyes snapped at her. If she didn’t know better she thought she’d just hit a very raw nerve of his. “No.” A muscle danced in his cheek … his jaw was set in a firm and determined line. “Well, that’s shitty luck. I can’t seem to get the portal to open.”
“Shitty luck? That’s the worst luck. They must have figured out a way to jam such transportation devices. We’ll have to fight.”
“Fight?”
“Okay, I’ll do most of the fighting.” Then, beneath her breath she muttered,
“That’s my bloody job anyway.” She raised her voice so that everyone could hear her.
“Just keep your heads down. That way, I won’t have to worry about any of you getting accidentally killed.”
The battle cries stopped. She looked wildly around the room. Resting her hand on her sword, she waited. “Get ready! It’s about to get very hot in here.”
DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170
Chapter Four
Grania hit the nail right on the head, with her latest statement. He watched her catch his gaze and hold it. Nodding her head to him, she drew her sword from its scabbard. In the next second, she held her hand up and his mother, father and uncle were moved toward him so they stood flanking his sides.
“Be safe.” Flames erupted in her green eyes. A wall of fire enshrouded them.
“Damn.”
His mother’s horrified face turned to meet his. “She’s going to burn us alive!”
“Come now, mother. You should know better than that. Do you feel hot?”
“Strangely … no.”
“Dragon shifters have control over the elements. They can influence the
temperature of their flame to either be scolding hot—or lukewarm, cool, or icy cold.
This flame is cool to the touch … hence, the reason why it’s blue.”
“She does know her stuff, Dylan.” His father beamed over at him. “We could
have helped her—I’ve fought my fair share of dragon shifters in my day.”
“You are out of practice, Timothy. Don’t even think about walking through this flame barrier to assist that young girl. She was entrusted to protect our son, I highly doubt her king and queen would have given her such a responsibility if they didn’t believe she could keep him safe.”
“Even if father wanted to walk through the flame, he couldn’t. It’s been erected as a bloody shield. Bloody hell, she’s got grit, I’ll hand that to you.” Pride welled in him.
“She’ll hold her own. I’m certain she’ll drive them away.” Her mother gave him a confident smile.
“She said there was six or seven of them coming.”
“No, Dylan, she didn’t.”
“Your mother is right … she never said a thing about how many were coming.”
“Oh, my aching head.” Earlier that night, Denys had played with his head, and
now Grania was doing it.
“I’m afraid, Dylan, that you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever getting away from young Grania.”
He looked at his uncle sharply. “What do you mean, Uncle Jonas?”
“I meant exactly what I said. You must be her mate … she probably
unintentionally allowed you to hear her thoughts. I’ve heard about the wonders of these dragon shifters when it comes to love. Your own aunt once held a torch for one of them.”
“That’s true. Rachel was quite smitten with one of them once. She even offered her magical services to many of them when it came to enchanting their lands so the humans wouldn’t notice when they shifted.”
“Aunt Rachel. Of course. That’s why I had such a bloody hard time working
past her enchantments—family spells are bloody hard to impregnate. She had to have been the witch that Grania got to bless her cottage.”
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“Indeed. Our sister does know how to write them.” His father nodded, beaming
with pride.
The sounds of battle met their ears.
“Oh, dear. They’re going to make such a mess of the hall. And after all of that restoration work we had done.” His mother lamented.
“We’ll repair it, mum.” His heart pounded loudly. His hand tingled again. He should be helping
her. He didn’t like the thought of having a woman protect him—he was all for women having equal rights as men, but it made him feel unmanly to have such a beautiful and fragile looking woman caring for him. She had to learn that he could help her.
A resounding crash shook the floor. Screams of agony met their ears.
Glancing over at his mother, his stomach fell at the look of fear on her face.
“What if she loses?” Her change in mood was swift—for being so confident only
moments before, she now faltered in her faith.
His heart stood still. He didn’t know why—but he couldn’t allow that to happen.
Maybe it was the fact that she was meant to be his—“Father, if you can’t go through a wall of fire—you can go around it, correct?”
“Son, I don’t know what you’re concocting in your head—but stop. If you try to interfere you run the risk of ruining it completely. She’s in a fighting zone right now—
she could hurt you without meaning to.”
“She won’t hurt me. She’ll never hurt me. I’m under her skin … and in her
heart.”
“Now you are talking plain nonsense, Dylan. You can’t fall in love with a woman in only a matter of hours. Think rationally. You need to settle down with a nice little witch, and have nice little magical witches and wizards.”
“Mother … just knock it off.”
She gasped. “Dylan, if you carry on with her—I will, I will have to ....”
“What? Disown me?”
Heartbreak glistened in her brown eyes. She turned away from him. “Do what
you have to do. You always have.”
He nodded. Looking up at the ceiling, he slowly drew in his breath. “Here goes absolutely nothing.” Releasing his magic, he levitated himself up into the air and made himself intangible so he could float straight through the ceiling. He’d come back down right in the middle of the fray. “I’m a scholar not a fighter—I guess I’ll just have to learn a few new tricks.”
“Good luck!” They all said in unison. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled.
He drew his wand. He hadn’t used his wand to channel his magic for years—he had to use it now in order to amplify his powers. In order to do the sort of damage he intended to mete out, his firepower had to be on equal playing ground of the dragon shifters.
He heard her voice in his head just before he phased through the ceiling. She’d been wounded. Yet, she still fought on. He admired her courage—he’d never met such a brave woman. She was going to protect him no matter what. In that instant, he found an entirely new kind of respect for her … and her people.
As soon as he transported himself through the ceiling and turned himself solid again, he had the attention of the evil dragon shifters. He felt Grania’s surprise—
concern—and rage all at the same time.
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“No! Dylan!” She raced to put herself in front of him. He moved too swiftly for her—she was injured—he wasn’t.
“Hi, Grania! How’s it going?” He tried to sound cheerful. At the sound of his cheekiness, she frowned. Evidently, she thought he’d just committed an unthinkable act.
“My, my, it is quite hot in here, isn’t it?” he joked.
“We have him. Take him, and retreat before we, too, feel the sting of her sword.”
Silently, he assessed the situation. He saw three dragon shifters. Which meant she’d likely taken out half of their force. Admiration welled inside of him again. He definitely was being protected by one bad-assed dragon shifter—bad-assed, but oh, so, good. He was certainly glad she was on his side.
Her sword dripped red blood. Dragon shifter blood. No bodies remained, since they had disintegrated in their death fire.
“Say hello to Mr. Wand, boys and girl.” Waves of his magic channeled through
his body and then in a rush, exploded out through the tip of his wand. He hit two of them. Shrieks rent the air. He looked over at Grania. Her eyes widened to the size of emerald colored golf balls. She stepped backward. He could feel her fear—and revulsion.
His attack spell whirled around the two male dragon shifters. Their skin started turning to leather. They were transforming from the inside out. Their dragon skin ripped through their human flesh.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, fear still glittering in her eyes.
“Killing them—to save you.” At his words they blew up. He threw a shield
charm around both her and him.
Tears glistened in her eyes. She continued backing away from him. “You truly are the destroyer of my kind. Mistress Kendra, return to your master and tell him that his end is near. Tell him, his journey is coming to an end. A most gruesome end.”
Kendra directed her attention to Grania. “Lady Grania, you can’t allow the
wizard to live. He will obliterate our kind. Dragon slayers make him look like …. ”
She raised her hand. “Silence. I will not listen to what you have to say. Your side has already killed too many of my friends—tell Lord Draco that his end is near.
That is all.” She hurled a flaming fireball at her.
Kendra disappeared.
“We should probably go back to your cottage now. I guess it's my home for the time being.” He walked toward her. Unsettling stillness draped through the hall.
He touched her face, gently tilting her head to meet his gaze. “You withdraw
from me,” he said softly.
“Why shouldn’t I? You put us in this situation. You created this—this hall of death. I knew those men you killed. I grew up with them.” She was crying. “I wasn’t going to kill them—unless they tried to kill you. I wasn’t going to hurt them.” Her voice cracked with emotion. Coolness exuded from her. In a heartbeat, she turned frosty toward him.
Raising her hand, she showed him her palm. “The dragon mark has disappeared.
What you have done tonight might have resulted in the impossible.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I should thank you. You have released me from a heavy burden. You have
broken our bond. You are free.”
DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170
“No.” He held fast to her. He wouldn’t let her go. He clung to her as if his very life depended on it, and perhaps, it did.
“I am your protector. Beyond that, I am nothing. You should breathe a sigh of relief; you won’t have to worry about me ravishing you now. I will leave you alone—
always alone. That little witch you had your eye on—why don’t you go and knock her up?”
“Don’t.”
“I’m not doing anything.” He pulled her to him. She released her grip on her
sword. It clattered to the ground. His lips found hers. Flames shot between them … but for some reason he did not feel as if he burned. He dropped his wand, embracing her fully. “No.” Her word seeped through his psyche. Without saying a word, he allowed her to push him away. “This is not meant to be. Without the Mating Fire—you will survive, and so will I.”
“We should return to your cottage.”
“I’m wondering if you even need to stay with me. You seem to be fully capable of handling yourself. When I saved you earlier from Denys, I’m thinking I saved Denys from an unspeakable fate—not the other way around. You are no coward—and you are no pacifist. You can fight your own battles, you don’t need me molly coddling you and protecting you from an enemy that can’t hurt you. You, Dylan Lightfoot are a warrior, like no other I’ve ever met. An impressively talented one at that.”
“You suddenly think so little of me. I did what I thought had to be done.”
“You killed them in a most brutal and unspeakable fashion! If you are capable of doing that—you are capable of doing that to me.”
“No. They were evil dragon shifters.”
“Were they? They were my friends.”
“You say that in the past tense�
��those friends had turned into your enemies. You admitted yourself that Draco’s side had already killed ten thousand of you. I was keeping them from killing you.”
“They wouldn’t have killed me. I am Draco’s heir. They know if they killed
me—he would turn his wrath toward them. You don’t understand anything! The reason my king and queen assigned me as your protector was because they knew—they knew that my father wouldn’t kill me! Even he would not stoop so low. Dragon shifters do not hurt their children. We are sacred to them. To kill one of your own blood is to seal your own damnation.”
“How can you be so certain of that? I’m not willing to believe that. Not at all.
Those dragon shifter assassins have their own free will—maybe the fancy to kill you would have struck them. What then?”
“I have nothing more to say, to you, Dylan. I am tired.” Fatigue lined her
features. She looked so worn out. His thoughts traveled to her wound. She had been stabbed in the chest. She fell forward. He caught her.
“Your wound—it seems severe.”
“I’ll live.” She coughed. The hacking sound scared the living daylights out of him.
“I’m taking you home.”
“As long as I’m with you, Dylan—I’ll never be home. You and I are bad for each other.”
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“I beg to differ—I think you and I are meant to be. I’m never going to let you go.
Not for as long as we both live.”
“Waxing poetic, does not become you.” Pain lanced her features.
He smiled. Pulling her up so that she was cradled in his arms, he glanced over at his family. Obviously, being wounded had destroyed Grania's wall of fire around his family, freeing them to come into what was now a Hall of Death. His mother looked appalled, his father looked shocked, and his uncle looked amused.
“We shall see you soon!” With that, he sent her sword and his wand ahead to the cottage and transported them. “Home is where the dragon’s heart is.”
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