Magic Blaze: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Shifting Magic Book 3)

by Catherine Vale

  Aden waited for a moment, eyebrows lifted, as if giving me the opportunity to try that comeback again. I motioned weakly for him to continue, and he complied, trudging along through the now murky waters with me on his back.

  “Have you still got it?”

  I rolled my eyes. “The fucking artifact? Yes, just like I still had it when you asked five minutes ago.”

  “Confirm it.”

  “Oh my god, Aden—”

  “Just do it,” he insisted. “It’s the only thing keeping me sane here.”

  Sighing, I fished the one artifact he knew about out of my coat pocket, then held it in front of him. “See?”

  “Good.”

  I slid it back into my pocket, then, under the guise of readjusting myself, pressed my chest against his back. The slight pressure confirmed the other artifact was still hidden in my bra.

  “While I love the feel of your boobs on my back,” he said slyly, “you’re making yourself heavier.”

  “Oh. Sorry.” Cheeks red, I repositioned myself so that I was farther up on his back. “Better?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just trying to get comfy.”

  “What a luxury,” Aden sneered. “Comfort.”

  “Ugh, shut up.”

  He jostled me around, and I snapped my arms tighter around his neck, but when I caught his grin, I knew he wasn’t serious about bucking me off—yet.

  We carried on in an easy silence, ignoring the scratching sounds emanating from inside the walls. They had first popped up after we left the main tunnel with its deeper water, and they hadn’t let up yet. Something with thick, large claws was trailing after us, and as I glanced back, scanning the area with my enhanced sight, I felt Aden quicken his stride.

  Sometime later, in a new, tight tunnel that forced Aden to crouch, something on the wall caught my attention—and for once, it wasn’t a painting.

  “A ladder!” I all but shrieked in surprise, and Aden winced, my mouth right next to his ear. “Sorry… Look!”

  Sure enough, rungs of a ladder stuck out of the wall. Aden shuffled over, and we peered up a long, vertical tube cut into the earth, the rungs leading all the way to the top.

  “Is that sunlight?”

  “It’s some kind of light,” Aden said, his vigor renewed. A halo of light glowed at the very top of the ladder. “And we’re going to see where it takes us.”

  He slowly lowered me off his back, and I grimaced as my feet went back into the water. While I’d been feeling better—tired, but better—my head swam with that icky full feeling that came at the start of any bad cold. Congestion. It hit fast.

  “D-Don’t make me wait here,” I said before I could stop myself. My inner voice concurred with nothing more than a grunt. The iron must have made it difficult to hear her, because she’d been silent for hours now. Aden tugged on one of the rungs, then shook his head.

  “You’ll climb up first.” As I drew a breath to argue, he shot me one of his famous unimpressed looks. “So that I can catch you if you fall, you dolt. I’ll be right behind.”

  Hmm. I could handle that. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite as confident in my hands’ ability to grip things in that moment.

  “There we go, out of the water,” Aden murmured, his tone surprisingly patient as he lifted me, keeping a hand on my lower back. With his support, I managed to climb the first rung. Just as I’d suspected, I didn’t have the grip strength right away. Eyes closed, I channeled whatever white magic reserves I could, fueling the power through my body. Only then could I lift myself up, one rung at a time, and truly begin to climb.

  As promised, Aden was only a few rungs behind me. Although I could hear his huff of annoyance whenever I had to stop and catch my breath, he didn’t sneer one awful word at me. Instead, he just waited, leaning back and sometimes asking if I was all right. It was the first time he had been so considerate of me, and I wasn’t sure how to handle him when he wasn’t wisecracking or calling me an idiot.

  At the very top of the ladder, the portion circled in light seemed like a giant rock, with its edges rippled and sharp. Who used a rock as a manhole cover? Only in Alfheim. I tried at first to push it out of the way with one hand, then two, then squealed and clung to the ladder when I nearly lost my balance.

  “Aden?”

  “Hold on, give me a second,” he grumbled. Then, out of nowhere, he climbed up the rest of the rungs so that we were pressed together, my back to his front. I could feel each of his strained breaths on my neck, and I pressed myself closer to the ladder, uncomfortable to be in such confined, intimate quarters with the djinn.

  With us squished together, we took up the width of the vertical corridor. Over my shoulder, I spied him leaning back against the wall, able to free up both hands without falling so he could shove at the rock covering. Thirty seconds later, with a gentle burst of magic from Aden, we were free.

  Heart pounding, I scrambled up and out, flopping onto lush green grass at the base of a tree. Just as I’d suspected, someone had actually used a large rock to cover up the opening to the underground world, and I made a note to put it back once we decided our next steps. As I stared up at a beautifully blue sky, a warm gentle breeze washing over me, I was grateful to finally be free of that iron-soaked hellhole—its beautiful artwork aside. I knew we needed to get to Darius immediately. The artifact needed to be implemented ASAP—however it worked. Although it radiated power and magic, I wasn’t sure how to activate it.

  “Oh, I’ve never been so happy to see trees,” Aden declared, contorting himself this way and that, as if to stretch out stiff limbs—only I’d never seen someone do a perfect ninety-degree angle mid-spine before. “This… This is perfect.”

  “Couldn’t agree more.” Based on how beautiful and serene everything was, I had to assume we were in elven territory. The sun appeared to have recently risen, yet I wasn’t hungry. Something in the magical air down there must have sustained me.

  Or maybe I was in shock, and all my bodily needs would hit me hard in about two minutes.

  “Do you have the artifact?” Aden asked, that growly edge back in his voice that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

  “Same as before,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes, “yes.”

  “Confirm it.”

  I groaned. All I wanted to do, for just a few minutes, was rest, breathe, and regather my strength. Instead, I peered up when Aden’s shadow crossed over my face, and I found him standing almost directly on top of me.

  “Fine.” With some effort, I pushed up and onto my feet. My whole body trembled, recovering from the prolonged exposure to even the bare minimum of iron, but I had the strength to dig the artifact Aden knew of out of my pocket and show it to him. “There, you, paranoid weirdo. Still got it.”

  “Good.” His dark gaze flitted from the artifact to my eyes. “Very good.”

  My quip died on the tip of my tongue when he lashed out so fast that his hand was a blur, and clamped down on my wrist, yanking me toward him.

  “What are you…?”

  A strangled gasp crawled up my throat as black ice crept slowly through my veins, and I shot him one last incredulous look before my knees buckled.

  Poisoned. Again.

  The world clouded as Aden slowly lowered me to the ground, his expression grim. Although I was fading fast, I made sure to stare up at him for as long as possible. Let him remember his betrayal, the look in my eyes after all we had just been through.

  Bastard.

  And then, as I felt him brush the hair from my face, I finally succumbed to darkness.

  Chapter 11

  I awoke with a gasp, eyes wide and chest heaving, feeling as though this wasn’t the first time I’d done so since Aden wrapped his hand around my wrist and infected me. A third djinn poisoning, and I once again lived to tell the tale.

  I was a freakin’ miracle.

  “Kaye,” a familiar voice whispered as I tried to focus on the dimly lit room. My limbs felt stiff and aching despit
e the downy softness of the bed I found myself in, but my mind was steadily clearing. Seconds later, Zayne’s worried face slid into view, and before he could say another word, I threw my arms around him and squeezed with all my might.

  “Zayne!”

  Somehow, I was safe, with family, and after a quick glance at my veins, no longer infected with the djinn’s poison. My half-brother hugged me tightly, hushing me when the tears surfaced and fell. After all I’d been through, I couldn’t stop the storm from quaking, the dams from bursting, and he just held me as I sobbed into his chest. A hand rubbed up and down my back, and when the flood finally eased, I managed to spare a peek over his shoulder and quickly realized I was in my old bedroom at the Hive.

  “W-What?” I sat back with a sniffle, unshed tears still clinging to my lashes. The room seemed almost untouched since I had last used it, yet I couldn’t understand how or why I was here. My last memory, besides the hazy bits of fog and gray that made no sense, was the forest. And Aden. And…

  The artifact! I patted myself down, praying he hadn’t found the spare, but Zayne gently took hold of my hands and held them within his own—his long fingers acting like snares.

  “Take a breath,” he instructed. “You’re safe now.”

  “Zayne, I—”

  “I had heard whispers that the dragon shifters were searching for you,” he admitted, his brow furrowed, “but I didn’t believe it. I assumed Darius would have come to me…”

  “He… has a lot on his plate,” I offered weakly.

  “A few of my men found you wrapped in a trench coat at the edge of the city. We brought you to the Hive to heal in peace,” Zayne told me with a slight shake of his head. “You’ve been in and out of conscious for about a day and a half now. It appeared you’d been poisoned by—”

  “A djinn.” I cleared my throat, in need of water. As if reading my mind, Zayne fetched a cool glass from the wooden desk beneath the window. I took a much-needed gulp, then another, and another, until I drained the cup dry and handed it back. A vision of Aden’s face flashed across my mind, and I swore I heard my inner voice snarl. The feeling was mutual, sweetheart. “I know about the djinn. I remember. He kidnapped me.”

  Zayne’s features contorted from tempered curiosity to flushed rage. “What?”

  Before he flew off the handle, I composed myself as best I could and explained what I remembered about Jasmine’s plan, the danger Darius’s clan was in, and an asshole djinn named Aden. To his credit, Zayne listened to the whole story without interrupting once, though from the myriad of irate expressions dancing across his face, I knew he wanted to. Once I finished spilling all that happened over the last week or so, he stood stiffly and stalked out of the room.

  In his absence, I checked myself over. No lasting wounds, and besides the foggy head, no lingering side effects of the djinn poison. He must not have given me much if I’d only been out for a day and a bit.

  Clearly, Aden had double-crossed me and taken the artifact, but things seemed just a bit brighter when I found my belongings arranged in an orderly fashion on the bedside table. My waterlogged wristwatch. My clothes—cleaned and dried.

  And the second artifact that had been hiding in my bra.

  Unable to believe my eyes, I snatched it up and hid it under the covers, as if Aden might be lurking in the shadows, ready to steal it. With djinns, I couldn’t be too cautious. I’d learned that now—and it was a lesson I’d never forget.

  Zayne returned after I’d downed my third cup of water. Slowly, I was starting to feel like myself again and in desperate need of something fatty and fried. The artifact sat nestled in the pocket of the shapeless calf-length shift dress I’d been put in, resembling a hospital gown, but somehow even less flattering.

  “I’ve ordered the men to mobilize,” he told me, his tone curt—official, like he was still wearing his commander’s cap. “We’ll join the fight against Jasmine. The Sanctius clan will not fight her alone, whether that djinn gave her the artifact or not.”

  “We’re going to Darius?” I asked, standing so fast the room spun. Balance lost, I scrambled for something to hold on to, only to have Zayne by my side seconds later, steadying me.

  “Tomorrow,” he insisted firmly, “when I’m sure you’re ready, we’ll go. The healers still have some work to do with you now that you’re awake.”

  I smiled up at him as he lowered me into a chair. There was nothing quite like protective, brotherly love. Before, I’d always found it frustrating, maybe a little unnecessary. Right now, however, I wanted nothing else. “I love you, big brother of mine.”

  “And I love you, wild and reckless little sister of mine, even if you’re going to turn me gray well before my time,” he countered. Exhaling softly, he pressed a kiss to my forehead, then pulled up a chair beside mine. “Now, tell me everything about this djinn. Leave no detail out. I’ll have him in the mind of every official in Alfheim, and all its bounty hunters, before sundown…”

  It never ceased to amaze me just how quickly Zayne could summon his troops. After another day of healing in the Hive—the healers had requested more time, but I put my foot down, insisting we leave for the Sanctius clan now—I had followed my older, half-brother out of the underground world and into Alfheim proper. Standing at the portals was an impressive militia, considering he’d taken only a day or so to organize it. Following at his heels, I felt an ever-present sense of nostalgia clinging to me, like we had all done this song and dance before. This time, however, my dragon’s clan was the prime target. Jasmine had sent assassins after me to hurt him. Before, the threat of Abramelin had loomed, but he was an elusive creature who none of us knew fully.

  Jasmine, on the other hand, was someone I knew. I knew she was an impatient, uppity fae who would take her uncle’s death and his army’s defeat personally. She’d be pissed that I hadn’t died. Vengeance was her middle name, and Darius was her target.

  With surprising efficiency and Zayne at the helm, we all crossed through the portals leading back to Earth, leaving a swiftly recovering Alfheim behind us. From there, the militia portal-jumped in groups, eventually bringing us to the foothills of the Sanctius clan.

  When we arrived, it was a very different village than what I remembered. Windows and doors on the lower halls were boarded up. Flags and banners had disappeared from the steeped roofs. The laughter of children around the schoolhouse was gone, and as I lead the first wave of Zayne’s militia up the path toward the alpha’s hall, I couldn’t help but feel as though the village had died in my absence. The lack of bright, smiling faces. The lack of curious stares and whispers. All of it—gone. The slate gray of the mountainscape around us seemed enhanced, which only served to make the winding road up the steep incline even more desolate.

  By the time we’d nearly reached the top, a dragon’s roar thundered across the sky, harsh and powerful, like the crack of a storm’s first thunder. The gray cloud cover above shielded the shifter tailing us, but every so often I spied his or her outline, puffs of gray dispersed with the grand flap of both wings. The supernatural beings behind me, many new and unfamiliar, cowered at the enormous presence, but I pressed on, climbing harder, faster, determined to find an answer for the state of the village where even the herb gardens seemed despondent.

  A harsh wind whipped over us when we crested the final hill, reaching the top of the mountain just as a new group of the militia began to climb from the bottom. I looked back, scanning the landscape for unseen dangers. While there were captains and other ranks littered throughout the groups, I had offered to take the helm while Zayne decided to bring up the rear. No one would get left behind, and I refused to lead anyone astray.

  When I was sure the others were safe, I told the group with me to wait. Darius’s personal hall, the one I’d stumbled out of in a dream-like stupor under Aden’s influence, was also boarded up. I swallowed hard, fighting back tears. He wouldn’t have left. The clan wouldn’t have abandoned their ancestral home, not even with the threat of
Jasmine over their heads.

  Suddenly, my inner voice uttered something between a squeal of delight and a long, forlorn moan. I winced at her volume, then whirled around and found the reason. A figure stood in the now open doorway of the alpha’s hall, the only structure without planks of wood across its door. I drew in a soft breath, the outline instantly familiar.

  Darius. Tears blurred my vision before I could even think of holding them back. For a moment, I forgot about the impending war, the militia, and Aden’s betrayal. As I raced across the mountaintop, headed straight for my dragon’s open arms, the only thing on my mind was him.

  That I loved him.

  That I wanted to marry him.

  And that I was ready to be his mate.

  “Darius!”

  I slammed into him with such force that he actually stumbled back, but he didn’t falter. I’d caught the jumbled emotions in those stormy gray eyes fleetingly, but I felt them in the way he held me. Our bodies melded together, the sturdy hard lines of his muscular form and my less than their usual voluptuous curves fitting against one another. Like the only two pieces of a puzzle crafted by fate and destiny. I hugged him hard, shaking, and I felt him slide his fingers through my loose red waves before breathing me in deeply, his nose trailing along my neck.

  “Fuck, Kaye,” he growled, fingertips digging into me as he hugged me tighter. “Don’t you ever do that to me again.”

  “The next time a djinn kidnaps me, I promise, I’ll let you be the white knight to my captured princess,” I teased, though my voice quaked with emotion. “I promise, I’ll consider a rescue.”

  He chuckled thickly, his coarse stubble scratching across my skin in the most delicious way. I suddenly found myself desperate for more physical contact, for fewer clothes between us, and no audience of supernaturals tastefully averting their gaze behind us. But as my hands wandered across the muscular planes of his torso, it was easy to forget averted stares and their lingering presence. All that mattered was Darius and me. Together. Finally. My fingers locked onto his black shirt and twisted the fabric. My breath hitched as his mouth trailed along my neck, turning an innocent caress into something darker, something tinged with barely restrained need that resonated deeply within me.