Forrest, the man attacking Craig, the one I’d knocked down in town, snarled and pressed harder with his sword against a still weak Craig.
Craig sank to one knee, and I caught his eye.
I urged him to get up and keep fighting!
I had no idea who he really was or what the hell was going on, but I was not going to watch the guy I spent all morning trying to save be stabbed to death in my living room!
“Get the portal open,” Forrest ordered.
“No! You’re not taking her,” Mama Lucy screamed, and more light shot from her hands.
My jaw dropped, but there was little time to stand around being shocked by what I was seeing.
The man near the window was blasted through the glass to land on the front lawn, but another rushed in to take his place.
Craig suddenly sprang up from the floor, whirling the blade faster as he went on the offensive.
I kicked and flailed, trying to break loose.
The guy’s arm moved closer to my mouth, and I bit down hard until he finally let go with a snarl.
Forrest spotted me falling to the floor and opened his mouth to yell, but I picked up the closest item I could find, a brass bookend, and chucked it at him.
He ducked, and it thudded into the wall instead.
“We’re trying to help you!” he bellowed at me.
Craig scoffed, swinging the sword wide.
Forrest’s blade caught it just in time from slashing into his side.
“Then why are you attacking her? Kate! You have to get out of here!”
“She’d be safer with us, demon,” Forrest snapped.
“Demon?” I repeated and screamed in annoyance. “Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on!”
Forrest looked as if he was about to do just that when the guy I bit slammed his open palm into the nearest wall.
He’d used his blood to draw symbols around where his hand was, and the sheetrock crumbled away.
“Demons are coming! We have to go, now!” the man yelled.
Mama Lucy was back on her feet, and light bloomed in her palms. “I’ve had enough of this!” she snapped, but it wasn’t Mama Lucy’s voice anymore.
This, this was different, powerful, and it slammed into me, nearly sending me off my feet.
She raised her hands towards the glowing hole in the wall.
Craig ducked under Forrest’s blade and lunged towards me, taking me to the floor just as Mama Lucy let loose.
The power shot towards the portal, but instead of closing it, which I think was what she tried to do.
It exploded outward.
The man who stood before it was sucked in and a moment later, Forrest followed.
Craig started to go, and I held onto his hands, struggling to keep him there, but his grip slipped.
“Kate!” Mama Lucy screamed and rushed forward.
We couldn’t hold on.
Craig cursed as he was dragged into the swirling light and my fingers grazed Mama Lucy’s as I was sucked in after him.
“Mama Lucy!”
Her face filled with fear right before the room was filled with more strangers and then everything was gone.
I fell and fell, screaming as I tumbled head over heels before finally, I landed with a thud on something hard and the world around me went dark.
9
Craig
Everything hurt, again. I blinked, trying to make sense of where I was when a blade appeared at my throat.
The dragon shifter who attacked me at the house stood over me, smoke slipping from his nose as he glared at me with those glowing eyes.
“What did you do?” he snarled.
“Me? I’m pretty sure it was the witch who messed up your portal,” I said sounding calm. I mentally applauded myself for not losing it yet. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know, but it’s not home.” He held is sword against me.
“Clearly.” I tried to move, and the blade pressed in harder against my skin. “Is this really necessary? You know I can’t blink, right? Half-demon, means I only get a few of the benefits of a full-blooded demon.”
He narrowed his gaze at me, but pulled the blade back far enough so I could sit up. “Jenson isn’t here.”
“Who?” I asked, brushing dirt and muck from my sleeves.
“Jensen, one of the guards with me. He came through first, but I don’t see him.”
“Did we all land in the same area?” I glanced around suddenly frantic. “Kate! Kate, answer me!”
The blade appeared at my throat again. “You are not to go near her.”
Angry now, I shoved his hand away and clambered to my feet. “And why the hell not? I met her before you did and all you did was make a mess of her home.”
“That was the home of a witch keeping her trapped,” Forrest argued hotly and put the blade back for a third time. He stared me down as I glanced from it to him and laughed. “You think this is funny?”
“I think your face is funny,” I said lightly. “But this? No. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to find Kate before something else does. Kate!” I yelled again and ignoring him and his blade, hoping I was calling his bluff that he wasn’t going to kill me, started off in a random direction to find Kate.
After a few feet of walking, I found the sword and picked it up. Forrest went on guard immediately, but I didn’t care about some stuck-up dragon snob right then and kept walking.
The lighting was dimmed, but not completely dark, and the foliage was strange. Everything had a tinge of grey or black to it, like it was sick. Or dying. I stopped abruptly and spun around in a circle.
“What’s wrong?” Forrest asked, immediately pressing his back to mine.
“You know, for acting like you hate me, you sure are trusting me to protect your ass,” I muttered.
“I don’t know where we are, or what dangers are out there. I can put my hatred aside if it means we survive. Besides,” he added, “I don’t want to kill you.”
“Huh, I find that hard to believe.”
“I don’t. That would go against my orders.”
“And let me guess,” I mumbled, squinting into the shadowy half-dead looking forest around us, “you always follow your orders perfectly. I think I hate you more than you hate me now.”
“At least I’m honest and not a lying, stealing, cheating—”
“Yeah, I got it.” I looked around us again, and up into what bit of the sky I could see. “Damn.”
“What? Is there something out there trying to get us, or not?”
I lowered the sword to my shoulder and turned to face him. “Yeah, there’s going to be lots of things trying to get us, so I suggest we be quiet and try to find Kate and this Jensen of yours.”
He didn’t sheath this blade, but he didn’t point it at me either. We were making progress.
I turned back and walked quieter, searching for any sign of where Kate might have fallen. I did not want her waking up to this dark world all alone and taking off in a panic. She’d get herself killed in seconds.
Though to be honest, I hadn’t expected her to be so courageous during that fight at the house. She might not know she was a dragon shifter, but she had the characteristics of one. The good ones, not the stuck up holier than though attitude like the one walking beside me.
“Your name is Forrest, right?” I asked as we walked.
“Forrest, son of Kadin of the Chimalus Clan.”
I groaned, annoyed. “Of course, you’re a bloody prince.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? So are you.”
“No, I’m not, as you seem to already know since you and your friends were after me for the bounty, too. Why else would you be following me around?”
“I didn’t follow you,” he said. “I followed the girl.”
“Kate?” I asked hotly. “What do you want with Kate?”
“I should be asking you the same question,” he snapped. “Why is a half-demon running around with a dragon shif
ter? Are you the one that trapped her in her current form?”
“What? No.”
He sighed heavily. “So, it was the witch then.”
“Wow, are you always like this?”
“Like what? Protecting my kin? Yes.”
I laughed, forgetting for a moment we were supposed to be quiet. I couldn’t help it. “Oh man, no I mean running into situations and assuming the worst of everyone before you know what’s going on?”
He flinched as if I’d hit him. “I saw quite clearly what was going on,” he started, and I walked off. “Where are you going?”
“To find Kate, but please continue. I’d love to hear what you were going to say.”
“That bracelet on her wrist. Someone cursed her.”
“Not even close.” I put my arm out to stop him when I heard rustling coming from our right followed by a groan. “I think she’s over here.” I moved towards the sounds, and Forrest kept talking.
“She should be with her own kind.”
“That witch you’re so ready to punish has been keeping Kate safe for a very long time.”
“You know this for sure?” he asked surprised.
I shrugged. “I’m guessing from what I saw.”
“No, a witch would not raise a dragon. She couldn’t, not the way we’re meant to be trained.”
More rustling. I stopped again and crouched down when a large, shadowy shape separated from the trees ahead of us.
Forrest sank down beside me without a word. The guy might sound like a bloody fool, but at least he knew how to pay attention.
I pressed a finger to my lips and crept closer.
He grabbed my arm to stop me, but I tugged away from him.
Kate was close, I knew it somehow.
And that thing, whatever it was, might be going to for her.
We couldn’t let that happen. Together, we sifted through the underbrush, but staying quiet was difficult. Everything was dead, and it creaked and cracked with each move we made.
I cringed every time, expecting the beast to turn around and come after us, but it stayed on its course. The great hulking thing was close to ten feet tall, if not taller, some bear-like creature. If we were where I thought we were, I prayed I was wrong about what I was seeing.
“Are you sure she’s over here?” Forrest whispered a few tense minutes later.
I was about to agree with him, that maybe my instincts were wrong after all when a high-pitched scream tore through the silence.
“Kate!”
I sprinted through the trees, no longer trying to be quiet. Brandishing the sword, I burst through the trees to see the large beast hoisting a flailing and screaming Kate into the air.
It stood over ten feet tall easily, fur blacker than night and thick covering a hide I bet was even thicker. Fangs dripping saliva hung over its bottom lip, and the talons currently holding Kate were a few feet long and stained dark, probably with the blood of its previous kills.
The beast held her in one hand easily, claws extending from its massive hands, and when it whirled around on us, jaw wide open, fangs dripping with saliva and blood were there to meet us.
The beast growled ferociously, but I didn’t stop my charge.
Hefting the sword high, I attacked, aiming to slice it open, but it swatted me aside like I was a bug.
“Craig!”
I groaned in pain and watched Forrest lunge forward next with quick jabs at the creature, but his blade barely broke the skin.
I found my feet and told Kate to hold on.
She yelled something back, but I missed it as I attacked the beast with Forrest, but no matter how hard we hit it, nothing penetrated its thick hide.
“What are you waiting for?” I finally snapped, running out of strength from repeatedly lifting the sword. “Burn it!”
Forrest threw his sword down, and I backed away as he thrust his chest forward with a bellow that turned into a roar. His body shifted and grew in size, changing from that of a man into the coiled form of a blue-scaled dragon with eyes of ice and wings that flared out behind him. His massive body barely fit beneath the trees, but he didn’t need to move. All he had to do was light the beast on fire.
“Kate! Cover your face,” I ordered, and I saw her duck down at the last second as Forrest’s jaw dropped and flames shot out from deep within his glowing chest.
The beast screeched in pain as its fur lit up and he dropped Kate to the ground. She curled up in a tight ball, protecting her head and stayed there even after the beast took off into the forest as a flaming, living torch.
When Forrest clamped his jaws shut and swung his heavy head around to stare at me, I grinned in approval. Dragons were handy to have on hand. Fire killed most things.
I rushed over to Kate and fell to my knees beside her.
“Kate, it’s over. You can look now. Come on, are you alright?”
Slowly, her arms fell away, and she lifted her head to stare at me and then past me to where Forrest’s massive dragon form was shrinking back down again.
I helped her to a sitting position and smiled, waiting for her to tell me she was fine, but then she scrambled away, eyes wide with fear.
“Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on? Right now, and I mean right now. Did he just change into a dragon? And someone said they were a demon… and Mama Lucy, what was Mama Lucy doing!” she ranted, pacing back and forth in a tight circle. “And the light… and falling, I don’t understand what’s going on. Any of it!”
I held up my hands to try and stop her, but she backed away again.
“Alright, just calm down. We’ll explain everything. Just take a breath before you pass out.”
“Don’t patronize me!”
“I’m not,” I assured her as Forrest slowly walked over to join us. “Take a deep breath.”
“I don’t want to take a deep breath,” she seethed, and I saw the dragon shifting in her eyes. She rolled her shoulders and her neck as the change rippled across her body, but she never shifted. The bangle on her wrist glowed faintly for a few seconds before it faded away. “I just want some answers.”
A loud howl made us all jump, and I gripped my sword in my hand. “How about we find somewhere a bit safer to talk first? I think our friend’s coming back—”
More howls joined the first. “And he’s bringing friends,” Forrest muttered.
I spun in a circle and looked around.
A stone outcropping that rose high above the trees. “Who’s ready for some climbing?” I asked happily.
Neither found me amusing.
I nodded. “Right, let’s get out of here and then we’ll talk.”
“damned right we’ll talk,” Kate muttered as she fell into step behind me.
I smiled despite the horrible situation we found ourselves in.
Maybe being thrown through a portal wouldn’t be as terrible as I first assumed.
10
Forrest
I glanced up at the sky. “Does the sun not rise here?”
“Nope, never,” Craig replied. “It used to, a long time ago.”
“That’s if you know where we actually are,” I stated. “And you could be wrong, which means we would have no idea where we are or how to get back.”
He poked a stick into the tiny fire I’d created to keep the chill away.
Kate sat near the fire, but well away from both of us, staring intently into the flames. She hadn’t said a word since we decided to take Craig’s suggestion and climb up here.
I hated to admit it, but it’d been a good one. The beast had come back, singed fur and all, with four more, but they hadn’t been able to climb up and get us.
My father always said even the tiny victories were worth celebrating. I counted this as a very tiny victory since we were currently trapped in an unknown world with dangerous creatures and I was unsure if Craig was going to try and kill me or not.
“Why don’t you just open up another portal and get us back?” Craig sugg
ested. “Like the other guy did.”
“It’s not that easy to make a portal.” I refused to meet his gaze when it narrowed on my face.
“Seemed pretty easy to me.”
“Well, it’s not. We’ll just have to find another way.”
He barked a laugh, pointing the charred stick at me. “I knew it! You’re weaker here, aren’t you.”
I lifted one shoulder. “I was able to shift, that’s what matters.”
“But you weren’t able to use your magic, so we’re screwed. Stuck in The Burnt World until we find our way home except... oh wait,” he announced brightly, “there is no way home!”
I rolled my eyes. “if there’s a way here, then there’s a way to get out of here.”
“Not how it works, at least not with this place.”
“That doesn’t make sense! We landed her, didn’t we?”
“Because the witch’s magic interfered with another portal,” he explained. “It created a pocket for us to slip into, but unless we recreate it all exactly the same way, I doubt we’ll get back the way we came in.”
I was good at fighting, always had been, but magic and spells were beyond my skill set. That was the reason I had Jensen around. I needed to find him, get a portal open, and take Craig to my father. And Kate, too. Kate who should have been with her kin since birth, but wasn’t.
“Seriously?”
I flinched at Craig’s abruptness. “What?”
“You’re already plotting against me, I can see it in your eyes. Can we worry about surviving first?”
“I said I wasn’t going to kill you.”
“That makes me feel loads better.”
I held my hand to the flames, and they washed over my fingers. “It should.”
A strange sound came from Kate’s side of the fire, and we both turned, confused. Her head was lowered, and she shook uncontrollably.
I worried she was having a fit of some kind, maybe this Burnt World as Craig called it was affecting the bracelet and her ability to change.
But when she lifted her head, her cheeks were flushed, and she burst out laughing hysterically. She laughed so hard, she cried, holding her sides as she rolled backward into the dirt.
Rivals (Dragon Reign Book 1) Page 6
