The Dragon Mage Collection

by L J Andrews

  “This was done by a mage,” I gasped, backing away from the poor creature.

  Raffi growled, his boxy skull leaning toward Leoch. It’s a sacrifice. I haven’t seen one since the night of the divide. Bad omens will be near.

  The energy would have passed by now, we are not at risk of harm, Leoch responded through their minds.

  How can you be sure? Raffi rasped in his thoughts.

  Well, do you feel possessed, Raffi?

  I could hear dragons even if they didn’t shift. Though, only a few people knew I could. I’d kept it a secret to determine if Prince Ced was a traitor—instead, I’d found out he was certainly an ally, and that our own warrior had been plotting against the lindworms and Jade. Tao wasn’t missed. I still harbored resentment for the traitor, but I knew Leoch had hidden pain over the loss of his friend. Even if he was the one who’d executed him.

  Turning to Thane, I offered a subtle nod toward Raffi and Leoch. “Is this a mage sacrifice?”

  Thane studied the creature and nodded. “They are only done when a mage would summon powers other than those of the earth. It is dangerous and evil.”

  “What about omens or whatever?”

  Thane smirked toward the warriors. “Yes, some believe doing something so gruesome would create evil that can possess another soul. I’m not sure I hold stock in such things. This sacrifice isn’t recent, but it was certainly used to find dark energy powerful enough to, say, poison an elemental royal.”

  My pulse pounded in my ears as I swallowed my disgust. “I didn’t know this sort of thing existed.”

  “Well, the elemental mages wouldn’t mention anything like this—it’s evil, Teagan,” Thane said with determination. “Ripping life away for sinister purposes releases darkness, no matter how small the creature.”

  “So you think this was used to control Onyx?”

  “Possibly. Or to destroy powerful energy. This could have been Bron, or it might have been done by his dark mages to add more sinister power to their forces. It’s hard to know for certain. But if Onyx had his stone, the mages would need strong energy to take him.”

  I swallowed hard. It was the concern we all had. Onyx had battled that day with his stone. “You think Bron has the stone?” I sputtered, finally stepping far enough away to relieve my burning nose of the smell.

  My father shifted, and I could sense he didn’t want to admit the truth of his beliefs. “Odds are, if he was taken, so was the onyx stone, which would give power of water to Bron,” he muttered softly.

  The dark High Priest already had the fire stone. I’d seen how he could manipulate flames. If he could control water, I was positive he would crush us with entire oceans.

  “Teagan, this way,” Athika shouted, pointing toward a grove of trees. “There’s energy in this direction.”

  We rushed toward Ruby and Athika. The trees were thick and released a fresh spice that soothed the worries raiding my chest for a moment. The deeper we went into the forest, the more I felt what Athika was talking about. It was another clash of energies. Along my arms, my skin trembled with tiny pinpricks as I sensed a surge of night energy—but it wasn’t like Ced’s, it was corrupted. But there was something more. A powerful warmth spread along the back of my neck, like I was enrobed in an invisible cloak.

  “Holy…” Mitch didn’t finish when he stopped between two trees that crossed at their tops. My heart leapt to the back of my throat as I scanned the small clearing. Ruby was walking among the dead, shaking her head. Raffi and Leoch puffed gray steam in their anger, and Thane became a stone at my side.

  After gathering my wits, I took a step into the carnage. There was a shredded tent, blood splattering all the sides. Backpacks, supplies, tin cups and plates were strewn everywhere. But it was the family that sickened me. Two parents, by the look of the clothes—I couldn’t be sure from the tormented state of the bodies—and two teens or young adults—again, I couldn’t be sure. They were sprawled away from one another. All dead, with old, clotted gashes along their gray skin.

  “This looks like a bear attack,” Mitch gasped.

  Raffi snorted, a stream of flames scorching the soil. Think bigger, he said, though Mitch wouldn’t even know. I nodded, even though Raffi didn’t know I could hear.

  “This was a wyvern,” Thane hissed. “Lindworms.”

  “Over here,” Athika shouted. She was surrounded by the other mages who’d come. A distance from the dead family was more death. These deaths I couldn’t feel too upset over—as callous as it might sound. Athika was hovering her hands over the back of dark mage, whose face was buried beneath leaves and branches. The dark swirls of color on the skin gave away the truth. There were three dark mages in total, all dead for probably the same amount of time as the human family.

  I trudged a little farther away from the others, feeling the pull of something powerful. My body absorbed night energy at times, so when it overwhelmed me it wasn’t painful, just sent a race through my heart that wasn’t comfortable. The forest was alive with its voices again. They whispered a secret. Something it wanted me to know, that I couldn’t see.

  Shoving through a bramble barrier that blocked the deadly clearing from sight, I found what the forest wanted me to find. My hands trembled when the power struck me. It was unusual, like energy was fading, but that there was something else still sitting stagnant. I swallowed the bile down again and saw the steaming, decaying corpse of the enormous lindworm. Its scales had razor sharp claw marks along its neck, eye sockets, and chest. Fangs had impaled the gashes over and over. As I stalked the dead wyvern, I could practically see the violence of the attack.

  As Athika had done to the mages, I hovered my hands over the body, trying to gauge what had happened that could have killed a full-grown warrior of Nag. The night energy was dying slowly, but it was hardly detectable. Then what was the suffocating warmth pounding against my skull? Something was there—it reminded me of being near a swarm of valiant elementals. Like when Jade was near, or Sapphire—or any royal.

  “Gross,” Mitch grumbled, peeking through the brambles. Athika, Sapphire, and Thane followed. My father’s eyes widened as he looked at the lindworm. He shifted quickly, though I didn’t know why until he lowered his snout and followed a scent I couldn’t detect. Raffi and Leoch joined soon after.

  What is that? Leoch’s voice bellowed in my head, even if he didn’t know I could hear.

  While they smelled whatever power I was feeling, I studied a large tree that stood alone ahead of the distant barrier of forest at its rear. The tree wasn’t anything spectacular. Its bark was carved with lines made from beetles. Some of the pine needles were brown and faded, and the trunk was thin enough I could encircle it with my arms without trouble. Yet, there was something about the tree.

  Thane followed the scent close behind me while Athika kept her gaze trained on the tree on my other side.

  You sense something, Thane’s voice came into my head.

  There’s something here, I answered. It’s strong.

  This isn’t lindworm blood, he replied, drawing my eyes to the soil. I hadn’t noticed, but there were dark drips of burgundy leading right to my curious, unremarkable tree.

  Whose is it?

  Thane blew a billow of smoke from his snout. I would bet my life this is Onyx’s blood.

  It smells like a royal, Leoch’s distant voice echoed in our conversation, though I was positive the warrior was talking to Raffi.

  So do you think he’s dead?

  Thane hissed, his jaws snapped, and he sniffed the ground again. He was certainly injured. What are you feeling?

  I nodded, Athika eyeing me curiously, though she stayed silent. There’s something with this tree.

  That’s where the blood ends.

  “Do you feel it too?” Athika whispered when we reached the tree.

  “Something strong?”

  She nodded. “It feels like our power.”

  My hands covered the tree trunk. Thane flew toward the top of
the tree—searching, smelling—for anything that might give a hint at what was left in the forest. I was beginning to doubt my own emotions after I’d searched the trunk of the tree for several agonizing minutes. Nothing was there apart from sap, ants, and slivers. Lowering to my knees, the instant my body touched the soil, I imagined my lungs were combusting. I had to gasp and draw in long breaths to keep from passing out.

  “Dad,” I huffed. “Athika, something is wrong with this—not wrong, but someone has done something here.”

  Athika knelt at my side, and Thane shifted to join us. Raffi, Sapphire, and Mitch looked on behind us, while Ruby and the mages handled the dead lindworm by dissolving its scaly body until it was nothing but black soil.

  “Teagan,” Athika breathed, a smile spreading over her lips. “Someone took extreme care to protect something, that’s what we’re feeling. The warding.”

  I nodded, accepting the answer as truth. Digging away dead leaves, pine needles, and twigs, I saw a space where the roots jutted up through the soil. There was an opening large enough I could squeeze my hand inside if I shoved hard enough. I leaned forward, but stopped when Thane gripped my shoulder.

  “I’ll do it,” he said.

  I shook my head. “No, it doesn’t feel…dangerous. Just powerful.”

  Slowly, my fingers dug into the hole at the base of the tree. Inside was wet; my hand was buried in a muddy puddle. I sloshed around until I felt something. My heart stopped. I couldn’t help but grin, meeting Thane’s eye. The surface was so smooth, yet jagged all at once. I’d felt the exact thing once before, not so long ago.

  “I can’t believe…” I began, “he did it.” I released a haggard breath when I realized what Onyx had done. Slowly, I drew my hand back, and the moment I was free from the damp hole, the surge of warding power ceased.

  My skin was blackened in rancid, swampy soil, but in my palm I knew exactly what I was holding. Athika covered her mouth, and Thane released a victorious chuckle.

  “He’s a fighter,” Thane bellowed. “Hiding that while surrounded by lindworms and mages wouldn’t have been easy.”

  I nodded, feeling the first victory since Bron had attacked. The onyx stone, the power of water, burned in all its strength in the center of my hand.

  Chapter 5

  I grinned when Jade leapt from Eisha’s back. Gaia rode along Ced, with Donovan riding the back of Peran. The onyx mage wrapped his arm around my mother’s neck and hobbled toward us. Ced moved with Amber toward the clearing where the dead family lay undisturbed, but Jade had already made it to my side.

  “You found his stone?” she breathed, clutching my arm.

  I nodded, smiling still. I glanced at Peran and handed him the dirty stone. Peran didn’t look much like Onyx; he was lighter, with cropped hair instead of long waves, but when he smiled I saw the family resemblance immediately. “He was taken alive,” Peran gasped.

  “He made certain to hide the stone—always protecting our people first,” Jade whispered reverently.

  “Of course he would,” Donovan snapped and scooped the stone out of Peran’s grasp. The mage studied the stone, glanced around the space, touched the soil, closed his eyes, did so many things that I couldn’t keep up with what he was actually trying to do.

  “He’s a little unsettled,” Jade whispered. “He doesn’t understand why he’s so weak, or why we’re hovering around him.”

  “We thought we’d wait to explain what was happening,” Peran added. “It might send him over the moody edge.”

  I chuckled and agreed. My arm slung over Jade’s shoulder, and I tugged her against me. “This is a good day,” I whispered next to her ear. “And I didn’t even turn into a dark mage.” Jade rolled her bottom lip between her teeth and nodded. There was a glimmer of tears against her brilliant eyes. “Hey, I’m only joking. Everything was fine.”

  She nodded. “I’m so glad we have the stone, but look what happened to that family. They had children, Teagan.”

  I glanced through the brambles. Though I couldn’t see the campsite, I wouldn’t forget what was there. “I know,” I said softly, holding her a little closer. “My dad believes the lindworms attacked them. They were likely just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Jade nodded, sniffing back her emotion, and straightened her shoulders. “I’m going to go release them. They deserve that.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked cautiously.

  “Yes,” she snapped. “I may not have my head on my shoulders most of the time, but I’m sure I will do this. It is my gift, and I will help them rest.”

  I nodded, my brows raised at her stern tone. “Okay,” was all I muttered as she stalked away.

  Eisha sighed at my shoulder. “Something troubles her, but I can’t pinpoint what it is.”

  “You think she’s okay?”

  Eisha shrugged, her jaw pulsing with her own nerves. “She doesn’t want to shift. It’s just like when she was a child. She seems lost. Even your mother mentioned there is something heavy in her heart. The duties of being queen came so quickly. And with the looming war—I just wish she had more time to be the queen before being faced with the pressures we have today.”

  I agreed. Eisha had no idea how much I wished Jade had a peaceful life. How much I wanted her to be happy and safe. Something was wrong, as I stared at the empty space where my mate had been. I wouldn’t stop until I found out what it was.

  “From the scent and energy of the place, it’s clear that Onyx stumbled upon the lindworms devouring the human camp,” Donovan muttered when we all surrounded the blaring flames in the pit that evening. “Though he could have left them, he stopped and fought the lindworms, showing the true valor of his heart. Of course, the damage was already done. Obviously, Onyx fought the dark mages and however many lindworms. He must have known he would be taken. With bravery, he protected the onyx stone and succumbed to what would happen.”

  Ruby beamed. We all felt a sense of pride for Onyx. He didn’t back down, and he’d been willing to die to protect the elemental stone. He’d been willing to die for humans. In my opinion, he was a true royal, but it only made finding him all the more desperate.

  “We know the dark mages are summoning powers that are unnatural,” Thane grumbled. He’d shown Gaia the sacrifice, and it was the first time I’d seen my mother look as though she might faint. “We must be vigilant as we go out to find our support. There will be a mage for every warrior, and if a royal leaves again, we will have four warriors for each royal.”

  “You think it wise to send the royals outside the barrier?” Leoch asked.

  Thane chuckled when the four royal wyverns glared at the warrior. Jade looked ready to strangle Leoch. I held her hand, gently trying to calm her heart. The touch sent a shock through my arm—her energy was searing today.

  “Leoch, if you want to try and keep the royals from fighting with us, be my guest,” Thane smirked.

  “Thank you,” Sapphire rumbled. “We aren’t pampered any longer. The divide caused each of us to learn how to survive on our own. We will fight, and if we die—then we die.”

  “Yes, but may I remind you,” Donovan muttered. “The onyx bloodline is the only one to have heirs. Just keep that in mind.”

  “Donovan,” Peran chuckled. “Don’t lecture them on mating right now.”

  “I’m just saying, the queen is the only one who has taken the proper steps to protect her bloodline. Onyx is just fortunate he has two brothers,” Donovan snapped. “Konrad, before the divide, you were scheduled for a pairing. It’s just something to think about.”

  Though the mage hadn’t meant for it to happen, his outburst lightened the mood. Especially when Sapphire rolled his eyes.

  “I was to be paired with a wyvern twice my age who couldn’t stand the sight of me. I think I’ll go without an heir if that is to be my life, if you don’t mind,” Sapphire hissed.

  “You like the older ladies, huh,” Mitch chuckled. “And, I mean, you’re like really old, so if she was
twice your age—man, she must have been a looker.”

  Raffi bellowed a deep laugh when Sapphire clenched his jaw.

  “I’ll have you know, I’m in the prime of my life,” Sapphire insisted.

  “Yeah, two centuries—that’s nothing,” Mitch teased.

  “I’m one hundred and forty-nine,” Sapphire growled as though it helped his case.

  “Oh, you’re practically a baby.”

  We laughed; even Sapphire grinned when Mitch got started. We discussed going forward, the protections we would need, and how we could convince the hidden wyverns and mages that we needed their help, late into the night.

  Jade rolled onto her side when we finally made our way to our room. The air was sweltering from the fire, and even when I stripped my shirt, it did nothing to cool me down. Eyeing Jade carefully, I nestled my body right behind her, I kissed her jaw, and felt a bit of relief when she smiled.

  “I need to know that you’re alright,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around her middle tightly.

  Jade scoffed. “Everyone thinks something is wrong, don’t you start.”

  I tugged her shoulders so she rolled to face me. “Jade, you would tell me, right?”

  She cupped the side of my face. “I would tell you. I’m fine. This is just a lot. I promise, I’m fine. I’m learning how to deal with this just like everyone else.”

  I kissed her fingers. “Yes, but just remember you don’t have to do it all alone. That’s what I’m here for now. You feel warm,” I said, brushing my hand over her forehead.

  She chuckled, and I thought I might melt when she found her smile. “Well, I do have fire in my body.”

  I smirked. “Yes, but you feel really hot. You feeling okay?”

  She shrugged. “I’m okay.” I stared at her until she sighed. “It’s nothing, I just feel like I don’t have any motivation to do anything—like shift. I’m weary, Teagan. I’ve been running from this my entire life and now that it’s here, I’m tired of all the chaos. That’s all it is.”