Dragon's Ground (The Desert Cursed Series Book 2)

by Shannon Mayer

  “We’re at the top,” Shem said.

  I wanted to ask him why he was here, what he’d been doing all these years, how he’d avoided the Jinn and just how the hell he knew about this tunnel.

  There was the sound of stone sliding across stone and brilliant light—or it seemed brilliant after the pitch dark—flooded in.

  “Stay low,” Shem said.

  Maks snorted, and I agreed with his snort. It was a dumb thing to say. Like what were we going to do, jump out and do all we could to get noticed? Idiot. It looked like nothing had changed in all the years.

  Shem disappeared through the hole above our heads and Maks followed him into the bright sunlight.

  I blinked a few times and tried to get my bearings. And then I blinked again because he did not bring us out in the middle of the nesting females, did he? There was no way that he would have known that I had already spoken to and convinced the females to let us pass.

  But more than that were the new additions to the nesting grounds. There were male dragons waiting at the mouth of the mound that had me more than a little concerned. Corvalis had called in the troops. The only upside I could see was that the male dragons had their backs to us as they stared into the mound. Waiting for prey to come out the way they went in.

  But for how long? How long before Corvalis roared up and out of the mound, announcing that we had escaped him? Time was not on our side.

  I jumped out of Maks’s arms and he immediately shifted. My uncle, on the other hand, stood and stretched. “Hello, ladies! Long time, no see!”

  I didn’t wait to see if the males noticed him. They would. And I wanted to be as far away as possible.

  I bolted east through the nests while I angled to the south. Lila and Bryce would be waiting for us and unlike those I’d stolen from before, I had no doubt the dragons wouldn’t give up. There would be no border they stopped at.

  The female dragons breathed over us as we bolted for the mound.

  Find the children.

  Bring them home.

  Carry our love with you.

  I couldn’t see. Their emotions blurred my eyes and I leaned into Maks as we ran, letting him lead me.

  “We’ll find them, Zam,” he growled. “If it’s the last thing we do, we’ll find them.”

  I struggled to see through the liquid until the wind pulled the tears away, clearing my eyes. The sound of the heavier tread behind us told me Shem was at least moving in our direction. I wasn’t sure I wanted him with us at all, but for now, he was at least attempting to keep up.

  We hit the tree line and dove under cover.

  The thing is it’s a hell of a lot harder to cover the tracks and bright golden hide of a big-ass lion over two small cats.

  A sudden cacophony rose behind us, the roar of a lot of very pissed off male dragons and one that bellowed above them all, full of anger and death.

  I knew his roar now as if his blood had seeped into me and I’d known him for a thousand years.

  Corvalis was coming for me.

  Chapter 29

  The race through the forest was nothing short of blind madness. Shem didn’t quite keep up, but he held on better than I expected. I tried not to think about what we were going to do when we reached the horses.

  There was no horse for Shem. It would be up to me to double with Maks again. Not that I minded. My bigger concern was getting the horses to go fast enough to get out of range of the oncoming dragons.

  What I minded was Shem showing up and. . . shit, he had helped us get out of the mound, but something felt off. Maybe it was just the fact that he’d kidnapped me all those years ago. Who the fuck knew?

  I panted hard, my body humming with adrenaline. I felt two spells go off around us as we shot through them. But they were facing the other direction—Lila had been right about that, at least.

  A section of the forest went up in flames right behind us, and I thought it was a delayed spell. The flames were followed with a roar that was close enough, I was sure I could feel the hot breath of the dragon ripple my fur. I shot forward, a new burst of energy running through me as the flames raced to catch us. I didn’t dare look back.

  The heat of dragon-born fire was no small thing as it crinkled the edges of my fur. That was enough to know we had to move our asses.

  Shem, on the other hand. . . “Oh, bonkers, it’s blue flames. That is bad.”

  Blue flames were alive, and they sought out their prey. More than likely, us. If I’d had enough breath to respond to him, I would have told him this was his fault. Yes, he’d gotten us out. But why the hell would he have shouted hello?

  Unless he wanted them to chase us? Which made no sense.

  My heart thundered along and the adrenaline began to fade, the herd behind us increased its speed and we fought to keep ahead of them, my energy near its end. I closed my eyes for a split second, searching for that overlay of colors that would show me our path.

  And in that brief moment of calm, I heard his voice. The man who’d raised me, the man I wanted so desperately still to make proud of me.

  Dig deep, you are strong enough. I never doubted it, my girl.

  I drew a breath and demanded more of my fatiguing muscles. I shot ahead of Maks and he quickly caught up.

  He’d been holding back so he wouldn’t lose me.

  Goddess. Why did he have to be a Jinn?

  I looked at him at my side and felt a funny twinge. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered as long as we stood with each other.

  I would have liked for that realization to have come in a calmer moment, but whatever. This was my life.

  The trees began to thin, and through them I saw the tall black charred tree that marked the southern boundary.

  Bryce was there with the horses. Lila hovered above his shoulder.

  The horses danced. They knew the predators were coming.

  “Bryce. Run!” I screamed the words, hoping he heard them. His eyes shot to me, finding me in the canopy under the trees.

  He dismounted his big horse, Ali, dropped the reins of all the horses except Balder. He mounted my horse, his face as calm as a summer’s day.

  Why wasn’t he running?

  “RUN!” I screamed again, and the dragons behind us roared in response. Lila buzzed around Bryce, trying to get him to move and when he didn’t, she flew to me.

  “He says this is his moment. What does that mean? I can’t get him to go!” The panic in her voice was clear. She would know better than any of us what was coming our way.

  No, Bryce. I saw the golden lines running around him. One connecting him to me, others that were faded and I knew connected to our father and his mother.

  Those that were faded began to pulse, calling him.

  “NO!” I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t. There was no breath left in me. No, not Bryce. He put two fingers to his mouth and saluted me as his alpha. I hadn’t earned it, and he saluted me as his leader.

  “I defend my pride. I defend my alpha, even unto death. I will always be with you, Zamira.” He shouted the words and then his head tipped up and he booted Balder hard. Balder leapt forward, bucking and twisting.

  “Hiss at him,” I whispered as the tears streaked my face. I’d shifted mid stride and was on my belly, watching as Bryce and Balder raced north, drawing the dragons’ ire.

  I scrambled to get up to him. Maks and Shem tackled me at the same time.

  I screamed, and a hand slammed over my mouth and I bit down, hissing and punching. Someone was yelling at Shem to let me go. Lila shot between us and slammed her tail across his face, sending him back. I twisted around and stumbled forward. Maks had a hand under my arm, tugging me away from Bryce.

  Shem carefully handed over my cloak, as if it were dangerous. “Here, she’ll get cold fast once the adrenaline is gone.”

  I let Maks put the cloak on me as he spoke. “Zam, listen to me. He. . . he knows what he’s doing. He’s a fighter. We have to trust him. And he has Balder. Balder can outrun anyt
hing. You know that.” Maks turned me to face him. I saw it in his eyes though and I couldn’t stop the tears. I slumped forward and he caught me. Again, the shift took me without warning. Maks scooped me up and tucked me inside his shirt.

  I let him.

  It was not weakness ruling me. It was logic. There would be no catching Bryce and Balder, and to try would put us all in danger.

  This was the choice of an alpha. The life of one, for the life of many.

  The sobs shook me, and I could feel nothing but grief for a man who had been my hero for so long. The man who had been the reason I’d fought so hard to be strong.

  My eyes were closed. The lines of gold that tied me to him vibrated and quivered and I sent my heart along them.

  The images that came to me were hazy like a dream.

  Balder ran hard. The dragons were above them both, ducking and dodging in close. Fire and lightning danced, and there was a moment where I thought they were both going to get bitten in half by a big green dragon with the wingspan of over a hundred feet.

  “He is mine!” roared a voice, and Corvalis swept into view.

  Of course, he’d seen Maks tuck me into his shirt and now thought that Bryce was him. That I was there with him, still tucked away.

  Bryce leapt from Balder’s back, shifting in midair. His clothing shredded, and the lion slid to a stop. Holding his ground.

  A roar reverberated through him and I cried out. “No, Bryce, no!”

  Maks’s arm tightened around me as we galloped away, but my eyes held only to my brother. He was doing this for me, for us. Because he believed in me.

  I hated Amalia in that moment. I wished she hadn’t cured him. I hated Ish more, for bringing us to these crossroads.

  Corvalis dropped to the ground on all fours, facing Bryce. “Return my emerald and I will make your death quick.”

  There had to be something I could do. I just had to think. Think, damn it!

  My mind raced.

  Bryce lifted his thickly maned head and let out a bellow that was part laugh, part challenge. “I am a shifter of the Bright Lions’ Pride. We faced the Jinn for hundreds of years, we held our ground. I am a protector of this world, dragon. Can you say the same? Your kind once stood shoulder to shoulder with mine to face the darkness. Will you do so again?”

  Curses, this had always been about curses and the Jinn.

  I shoved my way out of Maks’s shirt and landed on the horses neck with a grunt. I shifted so I sat straddled with two legs, balancing precariously. I lifted one hand and touched the necklace I wore. It held my curse from me, and an idea formed. Reckless, but it was all I had to hang onto.

  “Stop!” I screamed as I reached forward and grabbed Batman’s one rein and yanked him hard to the left. He spun out and I used the lost momentum to leap from his back.

  I hit the ground running. “Lila, with me!”

  She was at my side in a flash and I looked her in the eye. “What if your size was a curse, Lila? What if. . . this, my necklace, could take it from you?”

  I held the necklace up to her, the one with the lion’s head ring. She looked at me and I looked right back into those violet eyes. “Will you help me save him, Lila?”

  She ducked her head. “I. . . I am not big enough. It’s not a curse.”

  Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Please. It’s the only hope I have.”

  Maks caught up to us as did Shem.

  “Zam.” Maks said my name and there was so much pain in it. “Please, you can’t save him.”

  I drew a breath, filling my chest. “If I am to be an alpha, then I choose this as my trial. I will save my brother or die trying.” I grabbed the shotgun with the grenade launcher and checked it. One grenade left and two slugs. It would have to be enough.

  Maks closed his eyes. “Goddess help me, do not make me watch you do this.”

  Shem slid off Ali’s back, naked as the day he’d been born. “You can do this, kitten. You can. You know it in your belly there is nothing you can’t do. You just have to believe.”

  “You’re going to get her killed!” Maks roared and his magic pulsed over his skin. There was a flash to the south, and he spun around. “They’ve sent two Jinn to find me. I have to head them off.”

  “I will help you,” Shem said. “I’ve been fighting Jinn my whole life.”

  I looked to my brother, seeing him through the lines of his life as they connected to me.

  The dragons around my brother swayed from side to side and I saw a few whose eyes darted to others. As if they knew. I saw Pret, Trick, and Fink. They nodded. It was Trick who stepped between Corvalis and Bryce, his back to his leader.

  “We would stand with you, brother. We have seen the heart your family carries in the strength of your alpha.”

  He didn’t so much as bow to Bryce as he tipped his head. A salute from one warrior to another. Hope, fragile and light, filled my chest.

  “Lila,” I whispered with my eyes closed. “Trick is standing with Bryce.”

  She cried out, panic in her words, “Against my father? He’ll be killed!”

  “Yes.” I breathed out the word and the connection between Bryce and me tightened as if he saw me watching.

  I turned to her. She lowered her head. “Do it, we have to try.”

  I slid the necklace over her head and it settled around her neck. The reaction was fast.

  A deep rumble cut through the air and the clouds that had been hesitant and light only a moment before erupted like a rolling wave of water, black and mean, only there was no rain. The wind whipped and swirled around us in a tornado and Lila was caught up in it.

  “LILA!” I screamed her name, leapt up and caught her by a back foot. “I’ve got you.”

  Only the wind had us both, sweeping us beyond the reach of Maks and Shem, high into the maelstrom of the clouds. I held on tightly as we were thrown higher and higher.

  I wish I’d been able to say goodbye to Maks.

  “Wait, I’ve got you,” Lila said as she twisted and wrapped a talon around my middle. I touched the black curved weapon that was easily six feet along, almost as big as Corvalis’s. I stared up at her, that blue and silver scaled body the same, only sized way up.

  “Holy mother goddess of the desert! LILA!” I screamed the words because she was bloody fucking magnificent.

  I mean, she’d always been, but seeing her as she was meant to be was nothing short of breathtaking. She let out a roar that cut through the air, and the clouds rumbled in response, lightning dancing around us. She flicked me up into the air and I landed on her back as if I’d ridden this way for years. I tucked my hands under a scale, the shotgun clenched in my arms and hung on tightly as she shot forward.

  The scene of the dragons and my brother filled my eyes again.

  “Zam, I cannot bear for you to see this again.” Bryce’s words were spoken, I think, but I couldn’t be sure they didn’t reach inside my head. I let out a low moan. “Faster, Lila, faster.”

  She stretched out, her body streaking through the clouds, the moisture of them soaking me as I crouched over her neck, my clothes whipping in the wind. We were going to make it. We had to.

  Bryce winked at me. “I am your protector always. I will be with you, Zam. Look for me when I am gone.”

  We broke through the clouds above the dragons. Above Bryce as he faced them. I lifted a hand to him though he wasn’t looking for me.

  “No. I am your protector, now, brother,” I said softly.

  I could only say that a weird madness took hold of me because it was a fucking stupid thing I did, but then again, the curse Marsum placed on me was in full effect.

  I am going to die, was what I thought. I didn’t want to die, but I was going to. For Bryce. And that would make my death worthwhile.

  I stood on Lila’s back, the wind tugging at me as I jumped off her back and into space, shotgun in hand still.

  I fell with my arms wide. Lila dove next to me, twisting into a spiral as she went straigh
t for her father.

  The seconds stretched as only those that herald a coming violence could.

  Corvalis looked up; his eyes that were carbon copies of Lila’s widened. He launched himself sideways, away from Lila.

  Toward me.

  The emerald stone sparkled on my hand.

  I was no mage, it would not save me.

  I lifted that hand and pointed the finger at him, shooting at him as if my hand were a gun. Nothing happened, of course, except Corvalis launched toward me.

  I rolled in the air, shifting into my house cat form as his claws reached for me.

  He passed by Lila as he sought me out as if she were of no consequence.

  BFM. Big fucking mistake, dragon.

  I dug my claws into his leg, attaching myself to him, digging in deeply as I climbed his body. From below us came the roar of male dragons, and the bellow of a lion.

  Lila slammed into her father’s back and he twisted around, his mouth opening, the green mist pooling.

  I was at the base of Corvalis’s neck when he turned to Lila. Her mouth spewed sparkling green acid all over his back that ate through the scales, through the muscle and bone.

  But it wasn’t working fast enough. I shifted back to two legs, brought the shotgun up and grabbed the grenade off the bottom of the stock. I threw it up and into Corvalis’s open mouth. He gagged, and his mouth snapped shut as the grenade went off, blowing a hole through the side of his neck.

  He gurgled and the wound healed. “Are you shitting me?” I yelled as he opened his mouth again, only this time there was no mist. Maybe I’d broken his mist maker? I’d take it.

  I clung to him with one hand as I reached for the flail with the other. “You’re getting dragon blood today, you bastard, so no killing me.”

  The handle heated so fast in response to my words, I would have dropped it if it hadn’t glued itself to my skin. I yanked it from my back and swung it with all I had into the side of Corvalis’s head. The twin spiked balls drove in deep, past the layers of scales and into his jaw bone, snapping it in half.