by Jaime Rush
His fingers brushed hers as he touched the cylindrical piece. It pulsed with an energy he thought was Deus Vis. “This could be it.”
“So whatever my father was doing, Darren has re-created it.”
“And it took me years,” a bitter voice said from the doorway. “After he went crazy and destroyed everything.”
They both spun to find Darren and Magda. The aura that had obviously kept Cyn from sensing them fell away. Cyn held the device down and out of sight.
“Because he knew it was going to hurt people,” Ruby said, her voice amazingly even. “And you had him killed for it.”
Cyn came up beside Ruby, ready to step in front of her if necessary. Good girl, Ruby. Stay calm.
But she kept talking, emotion now leaking into her voice when she said, “You used your connections to have us all killed. We were your friends. You used to babysit me.”
“My connections.” Darren’s smile seemed almost wistful before it disappeared. “Your father should have thought of that before he ran off with years of research. Research to which I contributed. He was clearly planning to profit—”
“That’s the story you told everyone else,” Ruby cut in. “I know the truth.”
“You’re right. That was the for-public-consumption version. The truth was your father had finally figured out how to accomplish his lifelong goal, and he wasn’t about to heed Brom’s warning to destroy it. He took everything and went on the run. I couldn’t let him endanger people by continuing his project.”
Cyn’s eyes narrowed. “That’s what you told your connection at the Guard, that Justin was dangerous.”
Darren merely said, “He couldn’t be allowed to harm others.”
“Why didn’t you simply have him arrested? Why kill all of us?” Ruby asked.
“Not knowing how much your mother knew, or how much you had overheard, made it necessary to eliminate everyone. It was nothing personal.”
“And you couldn’t leave witnesses who would contradict the accident story,” Cyn added.
“Nothing personal?” Ruby turned to Magda. “You were our friends. I was your surrogate daughter.”
Magda’s shoulders stiffened. “Friends? No, we socialized because Darren wanted to feel that he and Justin were a team, equally responsible for the project’s progress. Spending time with your family was excruciating. Justin spoiled your mother rotten. If Leah so much as whispered some wish, he made it happen. Even getting her pregnant the first month they tried. And don’t think that she didn’t rub it in my face that her husband got all the glory and money from SUNLAB’s financial backer. And yes, you were a substitute for the daughter I couldn’t have, but after a while it became too painful to spend time with you. I didn’t want you dead, but it was not my decision to make.” Her hard eyes flicked to Cyn. “You know that you’re allied with the man who killed your parents, don’t you?”
Ruby flinched. “He’s better than the person who ordered their deaths.”
Cyn was glad Ruby hadn’t found out like this. It was too late for Magda to drive a wedge between them.
Ruby faced Darren. “What you’re doing is threatening the safety of every Crescent, including children.”
“And you base this on Brom’s warning? Do you really believe that crazy old man?”
Cyn crossed his arms over his chest. “Obviously you do. You set a parasite demon on him to keep him quiet.” The pieces began to fit together. “You were expecting Brom to return when you started fracturing the Deus Vis again, probably put a scry orb on his house. It followed Brom when he went to Moncrief and told him about his prophecy and Ruby’s part in it. That’s why you’re so determined to kill her.”
Ruby turned to Cyn, her eyes wide. Then she turned back to Darren. “You had Mon killed because he knew too much.”
Darren’s face was rigid. “And you made it easy by showing up. If only you’d died easy.”
That’s when Ruby’s control finally snapped. She Catalyzed, but Magda was faster, pouncing before Ruby could tear at Darren’s throat. Cyn tossed the device beneath the table and let his Dragon loose. He meant to block Magda, but Darren hit him with a ball of energy that washed over him like an electrical shock.
Ruby took the hit from the Citrine Dragon, whose mouth had closed over Ruby’s neck. They both hit the floor.
Darren sent another orb at Cyn that threw him against a cabinet. He pushed through the pain, shaking from the effort. The waves obliterated his view of Ruby, as though he were underwater. All he could see were blurry figures.
“Stinger, Ruby,” he managed to say. He hoped she remembered his lesson on what powers the different Dragons possessed.
Magda’s tail lifted up to lance Ruby, who dodged out of the way. Ruby lunged, and Magda howled in pain, blood oozing from beneath some of her scales.
Still reeling from the two orbs, Cyn didn’t have the wherewithal to move out of the way as a different orb came his way. It enveloped him, like one of those bubbles from a kid’s plastic bottle. It didn’t break when he tried to puncture it. He jerked his talons back from the sticky shell.
He inhaled but found he couldn’t draw enough Breath to generate his smoke. Darren approached him, hands out as he kept the bubble going. “And you have been a real pain in our ass, too. Ruby would have been taken care of long ago if it weren’t for you. What is it about this girl that weakens you, powerful and ruthless Vega? Women aren’t worth that kind of sacrifice. All they do is nag and demand and harass, and nothing you ever do is good enough. But you’re going to die for one of the insatiable bitches.”
Magda lifted her head at words spoken with a bitterness as powerful as his damned orb. Ruby took advantage, scraping her talons across her opponent’s vulnerable eyes. Magda screamed, trying to brush away the blood that dripped into her eyes.
Fueled by anger, Cyn drew enough strength to inhale and shoot out a stream of black smoke. It penetrated the bubble and looped around Darren’s neck. The bubble broke as Darren’s concentration did. He then created some kind of magick to disintegrate the rope of smoke. It loosened as Cyn lunged at him. Darren lurched to the side, and Cyn’s fangs ended up only grazing Darren’s side. Still, blood gushed through the tear in his shirt. Darren put his hand there and lifted red-smeared fingers, shock on his face. Maybe it was deeper than Cyn thought.
The bastard threw another orb, knocking Cyn against the wall. Magda’s tail whipped back and forth as she blindly aimed for Ruby. Ruby blew out a stream of fire that singed the scales down Magda’s side. She screamed and lurched. Her tail hit Ruby, jolting her with poison.
Cyn tried to get to her as she fell with a gasp, but Darren surrounded him with another bubble. Remembering when he’d been caught in one of these before, Cyn got the bubble rolling toward Darren. The bubble collided with him, sucking Darren in, too. Cyn pinned Darren down, then turned to Ruby.
She was struggling to stand as Magda jabbed her tail wildly into the air. Magda kept wiping away the blood, but she couldn’t keep her eyes open for more than a second. “I’ll find you,” she growled. “Even if I can’t see you, I will find you.” She moved closer to Ruby, who was beginning to convulse from the poison. It was attacking her nervous system. The more hits Ruby sustained, the less control she would have.
Darren shoved his hand against Cyn’s chest, sending a current like those shock paddles. He fell back but had enough mind to kick Darren as he did so. The man’s head hit the corner of a table, and he slumped to the floor. The bubble disappeared.
Ruby was on her feet, wobbling as she evaded the tail with the pointed black stinger. If Magda sank the tip into Ruby’s heart, it would all be over. Every time she moved, Magda followed. The sound of Ruby’s tail sliding over the floor was giving her opponent the audio clues she needed to track her.
“Pick up your tail,” Cyn hissed, drawing Magda toward him and away from Ruby.
Ruby pulled up her tail, narrowed her beautiful, fiery eyes at Magda, and whacked her with it. The Citrine Dragon fe
ll to the floor but bounded to her feet.
Another bubble orb flew past Cyn, missing him but enveloping Ruby. Darren’s voice was strained but loud: “I’ll hold her ’til you get there.”
Ruby struggled against the confines of the bubble as Magda limped over. Her tail twitched like a cat’s, readying for its fatal task. Cyn knocked her back with a wall of smoke, and he heard her choking and gasping. The room filled with it as he let it expand. Ruby was protected in the bubble, but her expression held fear as she watched.
“It’s just me,” he told her as he used his senses to track the Deuce. The scent of Darren’s blood filled the air, inciting his Dragon to bloodlust.
Go for it.
Cyn could make out Darren’s outline. The man was trying to wave the smoke away, but it was thick. Cyn took Darren by the throat. His scream was cut short as blood spurted from his neck. His hands fell slack, and his dead body hit the floor. Cyn cleared the air in one long Breath. Magda was feeling along the floor, only a few feet from Ruby, who was now free of the bubble. Magda squinted through her blood, seeing her dead husband and then Cyn.
“Bastard!” she screamed, but instead of rushing at him, she took off toward the open doorway. She paused there though, and Cyn moved in front of Ruby. Now human, bloody, and stooped over, Magda smiled eerily as she flipped a switch that was high up on the wall and ran out of sight. No lights went out.
“Get out!” Cyn said, snatching up his clothing in one hand and Ruby’s arm in the other. They shot through the doorway seconds before the building exploded. The force threw them several yards away, where they landed in the grass, naked and human.
He checked Ruby, relieved to see that she was stunned and bruised, but all right.
She pointed at the fiery building. “That thing we found, the one that’s messing up the Deus Vis.”
“Gone.”
He shoved the shirt at her as she got to her feet. He slid into his pants, and they pushed their way through the hedges into the yard next door. The sounds of alarmed voices filled the air, and Cyn pulled Ruby out of view just as someone came running out of the house. Her body slammed into his, and he held her fast for a moment, soaking in the feel of her. Once the people ran out of view, she jerked away.
Smoke billowed into the air, filling it with the acrid scent of chemicals. They kept close to the hedges and made their way to the street. Sirens signaled coming police vehicles.
Cyn assessed her, his shirt coming down to her upper thigh. “Stay here in the shadow of the hedges. You’re not indecent, but you’d definitely attract attention. I’ll bring the car up, and you can jump in.”
Pink light streaked across the sky now. He crossed the street, probably looking like a man sneaking out of his married lover’s house, and got into his car. A quick U-turn, and Ruby stepped into the car. Cyn turned down a side road just as two cop cars raced past.
She held her body stiff, shoulders straight. “They tried to kill me. They were our friends, and they were going to kill me just to protect his project.” She stared straight ahead, her eyes vacant. “She blew up the lab. Just…blew it up, probably to destroy the evidence. She was hoping we’d be gone, too. Maybe she was the supportive dutiful wife, trying to protect her husband’s reputation. Not to mention her own.”
“Maybe.” Cyn let Ruby talk it out.
“Mr. Smith is dead. It’s over.” A tremor vibrated in her voice. “No more d-demons. Or t-tulpas. Just Magda. I can handle her.”
Not if he could help it. “Yes, you can. You did well. You put your emotions aside and fought logically. That’s what kept you alive.”
“I don’t need emotions. I don’t want to feel anymore.”
He fought not to touch her, tightening his fingers on the wheel instead. “Don’t do that. Because once you bury them, it’s hard to bring them back. And you don’t feel anything, not joy or excitement or real desire.” Until someone special comes along and rocks you out of your numbness.
And now he was feeling pain he told himself he’d never experience again.
They drove in silence, except for Ruby’s occasional soft gasp as she tried to rein in her reaction to the adrenaline. He had to hold back words of comfort, because he knew she wouldn’t want them.
“Do you feel my mother’s energy?” she asked. “All those Dragons you killed and Breathed, can you feel them?”
“No, it doesn’t work like that. If you kill Magda, you have to catch her essence at the moment of death or within seconds of it. Get nose to nose with her and Breathe deeply. Your Dragon will know what to do from there. If she’s either old or murderous, you might be overwhelmed by the power you inherit.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Twenty minutes later, he pulled up to the gates of the Yard. He opened the trunk and pulled out her bag. She took it, hefting it over her shoulder. Her eyes were devoid of anything when they looked at him. He had mastered that lack of emotion for most of his life. So why did hers gut him?
Her gaze drifted to his bare chest, probably to the bruises and scratches she’d inflicted. Only then did he see some flicker of something, though he couldn’t figure out what it was.
“Do you want to hit me again?” He remembered the fire in her eyes when she’d talked of killing the man responsible. That was better than the deadness in them now. He spread his arms as he’d done in his office after handing her the letter opener. “Get it out of your system.”
She raised her eyes to his. “I don’t want anything from you. I don’t need the Dragon Prince anymore. I can handle myself, my power. I never want to see you again.”
Why did it feel as though she’d plunged that letter opener into his chest? He forced himself to nod, putting his mask in place. “Be safe, Ruby.”
He didn’t leave as she turned away, punishing himself by watching her. She went in, relocked the gate, and walked into the Yard. Even when she was out of sight, he couldn’t seem to move.
The sense of loss acted like the poison in a Citrine’s tail, working its way from his legs, up to his chest, his throat, pounding in his head. He realized he hadn’t breathed in a long time, maybe the whole time she’d been out of his sight. He leaned his forehead against the edge of the roof, grimacing from a pain he’d not felt before. His fingers even hurt. He realized he was gripping the metal and released them. Eight small dents marred the surface.
He pushed himself to get into the car. Then he had to force himself to drive away. He had a Dragon bitch to hunt down. He was still Ruby’s sworn protector, even if he never saw her again.
Friggin’ Hidden. She was done with it.
Friggin’ Cyn. She was done with him, too.
Ruby dropped her bag on the floor and sank down next to the pile of photographs. She hated him. H-A-T-E-D him. “I hope you’re hurting, Cyntag Valeron. I hope you are suffering at least a fraction of what you’ve put me through.”
Then why does your heart ache?
She’d fallen in love with the man who’d murdered her parents. That was bad enough. The worst part was she still wanted him. I suck.
She could smell his scent, his essence permeating her. Well, of course, she was wearing his shirt! She wrestled out of it and threw it across the room. The pictures on the floor were of happier times, and yet, now she knew her father had been doing something that endangered people. Had he known before Brom warned him? Had he resisted destroying his work at first? She would never find out.
She stumbled into her bedroom, catching her reflection in the mirror over her dresser. Her beautiful red Dragon seemed to be looking at her with sympathy.
“I’m stuck with you, aren’t I?”
It shifted, the tip of its tail wiggling.
“I guess I can live with you.” She pointed at it through the reflection. “But you can forget the black Dragon. Forget any Dragon. If I can’t date… Mundanes, then I’m not interested in dating. I was doing fine before. I didn’t need a man in my life then, and I don’t need one now.”
Something thrummed through her though: need, desire.
“Stop it.” She dropped onto the bed. Emotional and physical fatigue, along with a night in a car, caught up to her. She was bruised, achy. Achier in her heart than in her body.
She tried to recall Mon’s fairy tale, how Garnet had gone on after the Dragon Prince died. Sleep claimed her as the final battle played out in her mind. A sound scratched at the outer edge of her dreams.
Probably nothing. Or Fergus. She sank back into sleep.
The Book of the Hidden
Garnet and her army bided their time, gathering intelligence on the comings and goings of the Shadows and where they had stationed guards. Her heart ached at learning how many of her people had died, how many were now slaves to the Shadows. Thinking of her slain husband and Opal, her fury grew.
More refugees joined them. Their army gathered, timing their attack for the end of the guards’ shift, when they would be the most tired, but before the new shift arrived. Each troop brought their particular skills to battle as they rushed forward. The Deuces pounded the Shadows with fiery orbs. She’d told the Dragons how the prince had defeated the Shadows when he had rescued her. She fought, too, cutting down monster after monster as she remembered how they had killed her parents. The battle raged for hours, and eventually they brought down the Shadows and their ruler.
In the aftermath, she was heralded as a savior, more beloved than any queen. She helped clean the rubble, restoring her castle and the kingdom to a semblance of its former beauty.
A fortnight later, she stood at the Great Room’s window, looking out at her lands. A dove alighted on her finger, rubbing its head against her palm. She knew all would be well.
Until the next battle…
Chapter 18
Purcell held Magda as she sobbed in his arms. She’d collapsed the moment he’d opened his door, and he’d barely managed to guide her to the living room. Her broken report about what had happened at the lab was slowly seeping into his brain. First, how this would set them back. Second, that Darren was dead. And Purcell had never once thanked him for his work, praised him for his accomplishments. Guilt lanced his grief.
