Rebel just shook her head. “We’re almost there,” was all she said.
Thorne touched her lightly on the arm, and then started the SUV.
Chapter 33
They almost missed the dirt road. It was almost completely choked with weeds, and the underbrush had grown out on either side. It looked like no one had driven on it in years.
Maybe not since the investigation into her parents’ death ended.
Thorne was past it before Rebel realized it was there, and had to back up. He turned the SUV and nosed it through the underbrush, ignoring the branches scraping down the sides of the SUV.
This from a man who flinched at sugar icing on his computer monitor. He must really be worried about her. She wished she could summon up the energy to care, but she was still numb. The tall trees overhead seemed to block out all the sun.
After a few hundred yards, the trees thinned and then disappeared altogether, opening up into a large field with knee-high grass.
Thorne stopped the SUV, and Rebel got out.
The field spread out before her, bright with wildflowers, but all she could see was one thing. Twenty feet to her right was the wreck of her family’s trailer, collapsed and overgrown with vines. The whole place was sunny and quiet, except for the twitter of birds and the wind rustling the grass.
But in her mind, it was dark, trees swaying around her. She heard shouting and the hiss and crack of attack spells. Fireworks blossomed in the night, and then that final explosion…
“Rebel? Are you okay?”
She started at Thorne’s voice. It was sunny and quiet again, but she felt cold. She realized he was touching her shoulder, but she could barely feel it. Zane and Blaze stared at her, concern in their eyes.
Witches and magical creatures.
“I’m fine,” she said. “This is the place. This is where fucking rogue witches killed my family.”
There was a short silence as everyone looked at each other, not knowing what to say. Finally Zane said, “I guess we should start scanning the area.”
Blaze touched Rebel on the arm. “Do you want me to teach you the locator spell? It might make sensing the Seal easier for you.”
Rebel jerked away. “I don’t do spells.” She wasn’t a witch. She didn’t do magic. Didn’t they get that? Her skin was itching all over, and she wanted nothing more than to just run far, far away and never come back.
After a few uncertain moments, the other three spread out muttering spells and holding their glowing hands out in front of them, palms down. Scanning the area for any magical signatures that might indicate the Seal was hidden here.
Rebel didn’t buy it. She didn’t know why she didn’t buy it, but somehow now that she was here, she just felt like the Seals weren’t anywhere nearby.
Maybe her parents had never had them. That would be some fucking irony, considering they’d probably died to protect them
They died to protect you.
And that was the worst of it. Because knowing what she did now, it seemed likely that her parents had died because of her and Tempest. Because they were the Keepers of the Seals.
Something none of them had ever wanted.
Anger and bitter rage welled up in her.
Thorne, Zane and Blaze scanned the entire area with their magic, trying to find a hint of the Seals. There was nothing—not under the tall grass, or in the collapsed shed with its rotted remnants of tools and bags of fertilizer. Not underneath the overgrown garden plot.
Not around what was left of the trailer, that had been his mate’s home.
The place where her parents had died.
Thorne could barely concentrate on the locator spell Blaze and Zane had designed, based on the magical frequency of the Dragonfly Seal, which was now safely in Vyrkos’ tomb.
Most of his attention was on Rebel, who was still leaning against the SUV, staring at nothing.
He knew what she was feeling. That was the hell of it—he knew. And he didn’t know what the fuck to do for her.
They found nothing. No Dolphin Seal conveniently buried in the garden, just waiting for them to come and find it. Nothing but sun and bumblebees and death and tragic memories.
The three of them gathered by the ruined trailer. Thorne had nearly tripped over several pieces of it buried in the grass, yards away from the main structure.
He kept trying not to picture how that happened.
“Anything?” Thorne asked, already knowing the answer. They shook their heads.
Zane glanced over at Rebel. “Do you think we can get her to walk the property? Just to see if anything jumps out at her?”
“I’ll talk to her,” Thorne said.
He went over to Rebel, who was still gazing into the distance. “Do you feel anything?” he asked her. She shook her head.
Of course she didn’t. She’d spent years not feeling anything about this place and what happened here. She couldn’t afford to open herself up.
He closed his eyes, then took in a deep breath and blew it out, feeling like a total shit. “There’s a possibility the Seal will only react to you,” he said. “The locator spell might help. If you don’t want Blaze to walk you through it, I can.”
Rebel turned on him. “I keep telling you,” she growled. “I’m not a goddamn witch. I don’t do spells, and I don’t have power.”
She waved her hand at the wreckage of the trailer. “Witches did this,” she said. “They came after my parents and destroyed them, because they wouldn’t do what they wanted. We were happy!” she said. “We were a family, and witches took that away from us. Why can’t you all just leave me alone?”
She shoved away from the SUV, and walked off into the forest.
The other three looked at each other helplessly. “That went well,” Zane muttered.
Blaze shook her head. “We knew she was resistant to her magic. She’s never wanted to admit it was there. I just hoped that when she was really here…”
Thorne snarled, “That when she was really here, reliving the night her parents were murdered, that she’d be happy to embrace magic they never told her she had? Magic that led to their deaths? We’re all fucking idiots.”
Zane said, “I know it’s rough for her. But Vyrkos is still going to rise. If she can sense the Seal…”
“Who are we kidding?” Thorne snapped. “Blaze couldn’t sense the Dragonfly Seal when it was tattooed on her fucking ass. How the hell is Rebel supposed to sense the Dolphin Seal? It could be buried right where were standing, and there’s no guarantee she’d know it.”
“But there is the Prophecy,” Zane pointed out. “And we did find the Dragonfly Seal. We have to assume that if we get Rebel near the Seal, it will make itself known somehow.”
“Yeah?” Thorne said savagely. “How’s that working out so far?”
He slammed his fist into the side of the SUV, leaving a dent. Then he went into the woods after his mate—who hated magic and everything to do with it. Including him, apparently.
Chapter 34
Rebel hadn’t gone far. She was just a few yards into the woods, leaning against a tree trunk, when Thorne found her.
Deep down inside, she’d always known the truth. Her ability to evade electrical and magical fields. Tempest’s ability to see the future—and understand how to change it.
The fact that the Keepers of the Seals were descended from long lines of powerful witches.
Now she couldn’t deny it any longer, and she hated it.
Just. Fucking. Hated. It.
She wrapped her arms around her waist, trying to hold in the pain. She hated witches, and she was one. Fucking irony biting her in the ass again.
She felt tears on her face, and then they were pouring down her face and she was sobbing. She fought it, but it was like a dam had broken and there was nothing she could do. The flood couldn’t be held back anymore. She was on her knees, and the tears just kept pouring down, but the pain didn’t ease.
Then Thorne was there, kneeling in fron
t of her, his hands clasping her forearms. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”
She wasn’t okay. She was sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. Sobbing like she hadn’t done since that night. “I saw them die, Thorne. Don’t you get that? I stood right over there—” she stabbed her finger towards the path— “in the dark, holding my little sister and pushing her face into my shoulder so she couldn’t see.”
She gulped, gasping for air. “They were all around the trailer, in their robes, screaming at my mother. That she was an abomination, that she’d corrupted my father, that her children—“” she gasped again, feeling like a boulder was sitting on her chest.
Thorne was still holding on to her wrists, his blue eyes intent on her face, his hands warm and strong. Solid. Safe.
“Tell me,” he said.
“They said—that her children should be put down. That they—we—should never have been born.” She heard Thorne growl softly. “And I saw—I knew my mother was in the trailer. They were both in there, and I saw the shield around it, like a big bubble.
“But then my mother was next to me, only I could see through her, like a ghost. She whispered for me to run, to take care of Tempe, to remember everything she’d told me, and then she kissed me.” Her hand went to her cheek.
“I knew the witches wanted something, and I wanted to give it to them to save my parents. I would have done anything to save their lives.” She gripped Thorne’s hands with her own. “Anything. Even give them the Seal, if I knew where it was.”
“But you didn’t,” he said softly.
She shook her head. “There wasn’t anything I could do,” she said numbly. “I knew my mother wanted me to go, to save Tempe, but I couldn’t leave,” she whispered. “And then I saw the missiles flying at the shield. Red and blue and green, like fireworks. I knew it wouldn’t hold. I knew.
“And then there was an explosion, like a huge flower made of fire. It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time. I don’t even remember hearing the ‘boom,’ but a wall of wind rushed over me, almost flattening me.
“Everything seemed to be on fire, and people were screaming, and I ran. I left them there.” She swallowed hard. “But I remembered I’d seen my mother, outside the trailer, and so I thought… maybe…”
Thorne gathered her into his arms. “Shh,” he said. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not.” She pushed away from him. “I couldn’t be a witch, because magic killed people. And if anyone thought I had magic, they’d kill me too. And Tempest.”
She sat back on her heels, shivering with reaction. “I saw them die, Thorne. I saw them go up in flames. Do you have any idea what that feels like?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I do.”
He sat cross-legged on the ground in front of her. “I was at the battle of Mount St. Helens, when the Draken Lord Zavrek broke free. I saw my father die.”
He picked a stalk of grass and began folding it between his fingers. “I was on the ground, in human form, helping to evacuate one of the towns. I wanted so bad to be fighting.”
He gave a soft huff, like he was laughing at himself. “Like Zavrek wouldn’t have crushed me like a bug.”
He moved his shoulders uncomfortably. “Anyway, the battle was raging, in and out between dimensions, as the Guardians tried to corner Zavrek and banish him through a one-way portal. The battle was cloaked from human sight, but I could see them dropping one by one.”
His voice grew soft, his gaze far away, as if he could see the battle. “Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore. The last handful of the Guardians, including my father, were desperately trying to back Zavrek through the portal. I could see they were losing, and I was flying my hardest…”
He shook his head. “They threw the last of their magic into a net to trap Zavrek and push him through the portal. His fire was so much more powerful than theirs, and he was flaming them, trying to weaken them so they’d let go of the net. I flew faster than I’d ever flown, trying to get there in time to help.”
She was holding him now, her fingers wrapped around his, both of them crushing the fragile grass.
“They were so wounded, their wings burning, but they wouldn’t let go of the edges of the spell net. Any of them. Finally, they pushed Zavrek through, sealing the portal with the last of their strength.
“I saw my father fall. I almost burst my heart trying to get to him, but he was gone when I got there. Lying on the ground, dead like the others. All in human form, burned almost beyond recognition.”
His voice was very soft. “I put their bodies in the volcano, so they’d return to the fire. And then I went back to the lair. The last of the Guardians.” He gave a self-deprecating laugh.
“Don’t do that,” she said fiercely.
“Do what?”
“Make fun of yourself. After what you saw—after what you lost—you were still willing to be a Guardian. Knowing what could happen to you.”
He shrugged, looking away. “I couldn’t save them. I had to make it up to them.”
“You’re braver than I am. All I wanted to do was to forget.”
He put his hand over hers. “You were a kid. And you wanted to protect your sister.”
He was giving her an out. But he’d had plenty of outs in his life, and he hadn’t taken them. “I’m not a kid now,” she said, brushing the last of the tears from her eyes. “If you can face it, I can.”
Thorne gazed into her eyes, as if trying to see into her soul. Then he nodded. “Okay.”
He rose to his feet, holding out his hand to help her up. After a moment’s hesitation, she accepted it. As he turned to walk away, she pulled him to a stop.
“For the record,” she said. “I bet if your father could see you now, he’d be proud.”
Thorne snorted. “Sure. Proud. Of a son who not only isn’t a full Draken, but who just barely managed to find the first Seal, after searching for forty years, and who got stuck in dragon form just trying not to attack the wrong side while a human witch and a dragon/bear shifter hybrid did all the heavy lifting.”
He shook his head. “Don’t kid yourself. If my father ever laughed—which he didn’t—he’d be laughing his ass off.”
“It’s a good thing he isn’t. Because I’d have to kick it for him.”
Thorne pictured his father, who’d been approximately the size of Rebel’s house in dragon form, with formidable magic powers. He didn’t believe for a minute she could kick his father’s ass, but he had no doubt she’d give it her best shot.
“For what, exactly?” he asked.
“For dissing you,” she said. “You were really brave to fly into that battle. And to take his job, and sticking with it alone all these years. You’re brave and honorable, no matter what your stick-up-his-ass father thinks.”
Thorne felt warmth spread through his chest. “I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. “Don’t get used to it.”
He wrapped his arm around her neck and hugged her to him as he walked back to the others.
Rebel allowed Blaze to teach her the locator spell, but it didn’t help. She still didn’t feel anything. At least, not anything that felt like a Seal.
But there was something… she walked nearer to the woods, frowning. Something felt—off. Not natural. Magical?
The others were dogging her heels. “What is it?” Thorne asked.
“Is it the Seal?”
“Shut up,” she said. But they’d broken her concentration. The spell flickered out. “Now look what you made me do,” she said.
“Did it get stronger over here?” Zane walked toward the woods.
“It—yes. But…”
“Did you get a sense of how far away?”
“It felt like it was coming at me.”
Zane frowned. “That doesn’t make any—”
There was a crash of snapping branches and a feral snarl, and then a hellhound burst out of the underbrush and l
eaped straight at them.
Chapter 35
They scattered. Rebel dove and rolled to the side, coming up with her Colt from the back of her pants. She shot, and a blue fireball caught the hellhound in the flank.
It staggered, but it didn’t go down.
Then a second one bounded out of the woods, eyes glowing orange.
Rebel kept shooting, trying to conserve her ammo. Thorne had made it to the SUV and grabbed his own magic-enhanced gun out of the back, and was down on one knee, shooting at the second hellhound.
Blaze and Zane were casting spells. Blaze put up a shield, and Zane took a couple of running steps away from the SUV, jumped up and Changed to dragon form. A couple of flaps of his huge wings, got him airborne, and then he turned and came back at the hellhounds, breathing flame.
He laid down a swath of fire, catching one of the hellhounds full-on. It died instantly. The other, its fur on fire, scrambled for the woods.
Rebel knew she should shoot at it, but she turned her head away. Deadly fire in this place was more than she wanted to see.
Zane Changed back and he and Thorne went after it. Blaze stayed with Rebel, dropping her shield and using another spell to put out the grass fire Zane had started.
“Sure, set the clearing on fire and then let the women clean up the mess,” she muttered. “Dragons.”
Rebel heard a few more shots in the woods, and some roaring and snarling, and then the two men came back out of the woods. Zane picked up the burned hellhound and carried the body into the woods.
Thorne came over to Rebel. “You all right?”
“Yeah. It was just—the fire.”
Thorne nodded. He put his hand on her back, rubbing it gently, and after a moment Rebel leaned into him.
“I’m fine too,” Blaze said.
Thorne gave a half-grin. “I know. But you’re not my responsibility.”
“Nope.” Zane came out of the forest and wrapped his arm around Blaze’s neck, giving her a kiss. “She’s mine. Thanks for cleaning up after me, babe.”
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