by Aaron Crash
He sat down at the head of the table, to the right of Steven, and fell fast sleep, chin on chest. The servants all left him there and returned inside.
“Mathaal,” Steven said. He touched the ancient man’s hand. “It’s me, Steven Drokharis.”
The ancient man didn’t wake. Maybe he’d gone deaf as well as blind?
“This is bad,” Tessa said. “He’s so flippin’ old. What’s going on here?”
Steven wasn’t sure. But Tessa was right. If this was the new Mathaal, they were in trouble. They’d placed all their hopes on him, and they’d found him barely able to function, inches away from death.
Steven shook the ancient man’s arm. “Mathaal.”
“Why do you call me that?” he asked in a croaking voice. “I’m Mark Mathews. From Billings. I was a librarian for the university there. Montana State University. Uchiko brings me peach cobbler, and I enjoy what I can before I die. For death is near, always so near. Why are we given life at all if it ends in death?”
The word patterns echoed the voice from the third volume’s encrypted page.
Tessa gasped out a sob. Steven turned to see she had tears in her eyes. “It’s so sad. It’s like The Notebook sad.”
“Si, that book, very sad,” Sabina agreed. “But maybe there is more going on here than we know.”
“Yes, there is.” Steven motioned for Tessa to come over. “Bring me the third volume and the topaz pen. Let’s see if we can shake him out of this.”
The barista rose with her leather satchel and walked over to stand on Mathaal’s left side.
She touched the ancient man’s back. “Mr. Mathews. If you were a librarian, you must like books. Can I show you one?”
“I can’t see,” he grumbled. “But I would touch it. I do love books.”
Tessa slipped the grimoire out of the satchel and laid it down in front of Mathaal. His hands reached for it to feel at the worn leather cover. He opened it up and shifted through the pages. “It’s lovely. Leather binding and vellum pages. This book is old, loved, and powerful. I can feel how powerful it is.”
“And here’s a pen,” Tessa said. She pressed it into his right hand, but his knuckles were so enflamed he could hardly hold it.
Steven turned to the encrypted page that had led them to Nye.
“Try writing something here, Mr. Mathews.”
The ancient man scrawled nonsense across the page, just swoops and swirls. The ink rose from the page and flowed to drain onto the binding. It piddled across the table and onto the pristine white tablecloth.
Aria tsked. “There goes a perfectly good piece of linen.”
“Sabina?” Steven nodded at her.
“Magica Divinatio,” the blind woman murmured. Emerald light flashed in her eyes.
Liam also muttered the divination spell.
Sabina let out a hiss. “Nothing, I can’t see a thing. This place, it has powerful magic to it, more powerful than I could ever hope to become. Minds are hidden, flesh is hidden, and all reality bows to the majesty of the spell work. We can’t break this spell. Mathaal is lost to us forever.”
Liam closed his eyes and frowned deeply. Shaking his head, he said, “And Mouse, she is gone. She has restored her hurricane circle tattoo.”
Steven’s heart sank. What was Mouse thinking? And how could they ever hope to stand against Rahaab without the secrets in the third volume?
The short answer? They couldn’t.
They tried to reach Mouse on her cell phone, but she never picked up, and she’d turned off the tracking feature.
She’d gone rogue.
TWENTY-FIVE
The former Onari Guard, now just servants, brought out a thin miso soup followed by rice and vegetables. All six shared a small roasted chicken. The old man, this Mr. Mathews, ate the lion’s share, not stopping to talk, just shoveling the food in as fast as he could.
Uchiko hadn’t come back, and Steven missed seeing her. Something about her drove him wild.
“At least this meal is good for one thing,” Sabina said quietly.
“Yeah, watching this old guy eat.” Tessa grimaced. “It’s amazing. And really gross.”
“No,” Sabina replied. “Rice and vegetables are about all I eat now. And the miso soup was good. I don’t need any chicken.”
Liam nodded. “She is progressing quickly. I want her to try her Homo Draconis form soon.”
Mr. Mathews ignored them as he gobbled down food. He wiped his greasy mouth with a decrepit hand. “Have to hurry to get through it. Have to hurry to get dessert. No peach cobbler. The apple fine is pie.”
“I think you meant the apple pie is fine.” Steven couldn’t help but think of this ancient man as Mr. Mathews. Any of Mathaal’s power seemed gone forever. He now seemed like a retired librarian with one foot in the grave.
“Darn, I really wanted to try the peach cobbler,” Tessa said. “It sounds epic. And a good apple pie is hard to do. Lots of competition and American drama. The cliché of the apple pie.”
Mathew let out a squeal of protest. “You don’t know! Uchiko is a genius with desserts. You’ll regret you said that, young lady.”
Tessa blinked and kinda smiled. “I love it when grandpas call me young lady. Is that weird? It makes me feel like I’m little again.”
Steven had finished eating, not tasting the food. He leafed through the third volume, but the secret pages gave him nothing. Even the topaz pen had failed. What were they going to do?
Not waiting for dessert, he pushed himself back from the table and went out to walk down to the river alone, dressed in the keikogi.
He found a good place to sit, on a flat rock on the bank, to watch the sparkling water flow down through rich black dirt and over time-smoothed stones. The pines swayed above him, and their trunks creaked and popped.
Clouds gathered in the western sky, preparing the daily afternoon rainstorms. He thought of how dark the sky had been the day before, during the battle down I-90. They’d won, again, but the enemy they faced? Rahaab? They’d barely escaped his Trinity of Wives. Steven didn’t think they could handle an attack from all his forces.
But Rahaab wouldn’t be coming for him. He was waiting in Cassius Pine’s Yellowstone Aerie, waiting for Steven to attack.
While Steven spent time retrieving the third volume, the Alpheros had gathered his troops and perfected his defenses. He held every advantage.
A chill wind blew down from the sky. Raindrops flecked his face. He hardly felt any of it.
A stick snapped near him and he whirled. Sabina stood there. Her eyes glowed green.
“What do you see?” Steven asked.
“Do you really want to know?” She came forward, ducking a branch and stepping over a large stone. Her magic really did give her sight.
“I do,” Steven answered.
She came to him and took his hand. “I see our daughter, with her hair so dark, and her dimples so cute on her chubby cheeks. She will be our little queen. Her name is Regina, but we’ll call her Reggie. She’ll be a daddy’s girl from the very start. She will love me, of course, but she will only fall asleep in your arms.”
Steven wasn’t prepared for that. He was only twenty years old. He’d figured he’d do the father thing much later in life, like when he was thirty.
“Do you know what that means?” Sabina asked.
Steven shrugged. He wasn’t sure.
“It means we will survive, Steven. I don’t know about the others, but you and I will live. I can’t see when we’ll meet our little Regina, but someday…someday.” Sabina nodded. “And yet, maybe my vision won’t come true. I did confuse the night with a dark stormy day.”
Steven was blown away. The idea was daunting, and she was right, the little girl might not be theirs. However, a new hope filled him. “Sabina, I don’t know about all this, but I think we should take it as a sign. But how—”
Sabina interrupted him to kiss him. Her lips were thick and soft, and her tongue explored his mouth. He fel
t the heat between them. But this was about love as much as it was about lust.
Animus filled his chest, and he grew stiff against his soft, loose pants.
“You want to know if you can be a father,” she whispered and kissed down his cheek to suck on his earlobe before licking his neck.
It made him melt. Sabina knew her way around a man’s body. That was for sure.
“You can father children, but the Dragonsouls are made of mystical energy as well as flesh. For the child to grow inside me, there are rituals and spells. I’m not ready yet to be a mother, not until after I become a Dragonskin, and I want to wait until we’re safe. Then, I will want to bear you children, Steven. As many as you want.”
She caressed him through the pants and gave him a soft squeeze. Then she was kissing him again. Her tongue played with his and then she drew back. “I want you to make love to me. Then I want to cast spells this world has rarely seen. I don’t just fight for myself and not just for you, my Prime. Now I fight for Regina Drokharis, so that she might know life.”
She stood back and pulled him from his seat on the rock. Sabina spoke again. “We’ve used the Magica Incanto spells to imbue objects with magical energy. But we can do the reverse. We can dispel Rahaab’s magic from this place, from the old man, and from his servants.”
Steven was new to the Magica Incanto magic, but he had studied it extensively in his father’s grimoire. He realized with enough focus, and enough Animus, they might be able to do it.
His head was spinning. It was all a lot to take in. But if Sabina, their most powerful Magician, thought she could break the spell keeping Mathaal and Uchiko trapped on the ranch with no memories, he was going to do everything he could to help her.
“Come with me,” Sabina said. “It’s time for me to join your Escort.”
“Are you sure you want this?” He knew his own feelings. He’d come to love her quiet strength and her damaged soul healed into iron.
“My heart has been battered, and I’ve been tossed around, blinded, and thrown away. And yet I can’t walk away from you, Steven Drokharis. I know I’m not thinking clearly, but I don’t want to.” The cuts on her arm from Gideon Scaramanga were gone. She was whole again.
She gave him another toe-curling kiss. “Take me to the barn. Tessa and Aria have made it ready.”
He led her through the pine trees over the dark ground. Thunder rumbled overhead, and a wind swept down, bringing more rain, pattering around them. The barn door was already open, and he guided Sabina inside.
Tessa and Aria had worked hard. A big ornate brass bed sat on rough floorboards covered in straw. The fresh smell of the rain mingled with the dusty sweet odor of the hay. A rich coverlet covered the mattress. On low tables, candles glowed. Several of the windows were broken, so rain pattered inside, but the bed was in the middle of the room, safe from the elements.
Both Tessa and Aria wore black silk robes. Steven knew they were naked underneath. Sabina walked to the bed and turned. “Is it okay if they get me ready for you, mi amor?”
“Like what you did with Tessa? Sabina, that might kill me at this point.”
“Death by erection?” Tessa laughed quietly. “Don’t worry, we’ll be quick. We promise.” She kissed Sabina long and slow while Aria bent down and unzipped Sabina’s jeans. The Indian woman wiggled them down over her hips. She helped take off Sabina’s shoes as well and her socks. Her jeans hit the floor.
Steven watched in wonder. Aria took her own turn kissing Sabina while Tessa walked around. She eased the shirt over the Latina woman’s head. The barista unclasped the bra but held it to Sabina’s chest. “Are you ready, Steven?”
“I am.” He’d never been more ready. He couldn’t catch his breath. His stomach churned with lust. He loved the game, the ache of desire, the sweet seduction that Sabina enjoyed.
The Latina woman sighed, leaning back against Tessa, lifting her arms. Tessa kept her bra on her though, straps dangling. Aria, on her knees, kissed the panties covering Sabina’s mound. The Indian woman waited for the right time to strip the lacy white panties off the thick woman’s body.
Steven asked, “You love this game, don’t you, Sabina?”
Sabina’s breath caught, revealing her lust. Her eyes were closed. “Si.” It came out a whisper. Her cheeks were flushed. Her lips, after kissing Steven, Tessa, and Aria, were bright red. A sheen of sweat covered her forehead under her black, black hair.
“Why?”
Her eyes fluttered open. “Knowing you are looking at me, seeing my naked body, it makes me crazy. You struggle against yourself because you want to fuck me. I love it. I love you watching. I love you seeing me like this, turned on, wet, ready for you.”
Tessa licked the side of Sabina’s neck and whispered something in her hair.
“Si, mi amor.”
The barista lowered the bra to expose her big nipples and shapely breasts. At the same time, Aria drew down Sabina’s panties and then kissed her plump thighs up to the hair clipped to a stubble between her legs.
Tessa toyed with her breasts while Aria gave Sabina pleasure with her mouth. It was quick, and Sabina came, eyes flashing green from the Animus. “I need more, Steven. I need more Animus. Hurry, now. Hurry and take me. Take me and kiss me and love me.”
Steven shrugged out of his clothes and stormed over. Tessa whipped the coverlet off while Aria pulled down the sheets, then they drew back as he picked up Sabina and laid her on the bed. And then he was between the Latina woman’s legs and inside her.
She let out a cry and pulled him to her. She’d gotten him so turned on, he felt like an animal as he reached around and grabbed her ass. He held her down as he thrust into her, over and over and over, but Sabina gripped his hip and slowed him down, bringing him to the brink of climax over and over until she finally allowed him to tumble over the edge. Animus glowed around them, in their eyes, across their skin, as the energy filled the room.
Steven never softened. Tessa and Aria dropped their silk robes to climb onto the bed. They took turns kissing Sabina until she asked to suck on their nipples, first Tessa’s, and then Aria’s, and that sight was so erotic that Steven’s libido found new life.
Then it was hours of lovemaking as the rain danced across the roof. Sabina was in the middle of it all, loving on Tessa as the barista straddled her face. When Tessa erupted, she sank down, and Aria got her turn. As Sabina licked Aria, Steven continued to slide in and out of the Latina woman, kissing a shoulder, a breast, an upturned face, the pale arm of Tessa, or the taut dark skin of Aria’s back.
Finally, he shuddered again. The third time? The fourth? He’d lost count.
Abruptly, Sabina squirmed out from underneath him. “Magica Divinatio!” Her eyes glowed like jade starbursts. She left the bed. Naked, she ran from the barn and out into the rain.
“This is it!” Tessa cried. “Sabina is going to try and undo the spells!” She grabbed a silk robe. Aria and Steven didn’t bother.
Sabina stood with her arms over her head. Rain trickled down her luscious body, and she looked like a storm goddess controlling the heavens. Her shriek carried over the wind. “Magica Incanto!”
Tessa ran and pulled Sabina’s hand down to hold it. “Magica Incanto!” The rain soaked her robe to show the lines of her body.
Steven laughed at himself. Even after all the sex, he couldn’t get enough of his Escort. He ran and clutched Sabina’s other hand.
A green energy illuminated the house, and then a crackling silver shell took over, until Tessa’s pink magic pushed it away. That silver energy, that was Rahaab’s work.
“Magica Incanto!” Steven thundered. He was full of Animus, the lives of his Escort were on the line, and Mouse was out there, alone.
Enough was enough. They had to make a play for Rahaab, and the only way they could do that was to shatter the magic keeping Mathaal and Uchiko trapped without memory and without power.
A whorl of black spell work struck the house, wiping away the silver, until
all that remained was a black light, edged with Sabina’s green and Tessa’s pink magic. A final explosion shattered every window. The silver was gone. Steven’s cloud of black energy exploded outward, making the trees sway and tearing boards off the barn.
Sabina sank down to her knees. Tessa also fell. Steven stood with Aria, in her True Form, her tail swirled around them. He felt powerful, unstoppable.
The rain sizzled off Aria’s hot scales, and steam rose from her.
The back door opened. Out crept Mr. Mathews with Uchiko holding him steady. The Japanese woman turned, and once again, half of her face was reptilian. Half of her hair was gone. Scales covered the rest of her scalp. She led the old man to the edge of the deck.
Other servants tripped out, changing before Steven’s eyes, ripping through their gis as wings tore out backs and human faces scaled over, becoming serpentine. Wet, tattered clothes hung from their bodies, which rippled with muscles under dragon skin. But these were not true Dragonskins because they had failed the rituals. One had a clawed hand, but his other hand was human and pale. Another had a human head atop a pile of dragon muscles. Some only had one wing. Others had the legs of a Dragonskin but that was it. They were a mishmash of human and dragon. Like Uchiko, their flesh was trapped between two worlds.
Steven wondered what Sabina would look like if she failed the rituals. Was it worth it? Should he try and talk her out of it?
Mathaal straightened. He gazed upon Aria in her dragon form. And then his eyes fell on Steven. The old man smiled. The cataracts were gone, and his purple eyes were clear again. He blinked away the rain streaming down his wrinkled face. “Steven Drokharis, I felt your magic. That was quite the spell, my friend. Quite the spell. Your father would be proud.”
But it wasn’t just Steven. It was all their magic combined.
Liam walked out of the ranch and stood on the porch, staying out of the rain. He gave Steven an approving nod.
Tessa found her feet. Steven had to help Sabina to stand. She fell against him, weeping softly. “You are my heart, Steven. You are my heart. Forever.”
He gripped her. Tessa hugged them both. Aria let out a victorious roar that shook the ground around them.
