Celtic Dragons

by Dee Bridgnorth

She smirked, her eyes narrowing darkly, and then lifted her hand, pushing something unseen toward him with determination.

  Nothing happened to Eamon as he got to his feet, and when he met her eyes again, he looked into her confused gaze with triumph, knowing that Isabelle’s protective pendant and band were doing their job. Whatever spell she had just tried to put on him hadn’t worked, and she was too astonished to know what to do next.

  Eamon charged her again, this time succeeding in knocking against her and sending her tumbling to the ground. He was on top of her, pinning her arms down, his eyes glaring down into hers as he growled, “Release her. Release her now, or I’ll kill you.”

  “You’ll have to,” Gayla snarled, shoving against him but getting absolutely nowhere as Eamon’s supernatural strength easily overcame her. “You think you’re so smart,” she hissed, lying beneath him. “Let’s see then.”

  Her eyes flashed again, and he could feel the heat of a spell surround him, then fizzle away without affecting him at all. Gayla looked enraged, and he delighted momentarily in thwarting her before focusing on the fact that Autumn was still underwater, getting closer to drowning with every passing second.

  “Release her, or I’ll kill you.”

  “No,” Gayla retorted. “And if you kill me, she dies too. She’s connected to me, and my death won’t break the spell that’s keeping her under.”

  Eamon was sure that she was bluffing, but he couldn’t take the risk. If she was right, then killing Gayla would be dooming Autumn to certain death. He had to come up with an alternative, and he had to act fast.

  Reaching into his bag, he pulled out one of the enchanted disks and swiped it through the air, causing its spikes to surface. Before Gayla could react, he drew it across her forehead, tearing at the skin and sending rivulets of blood pouring down her squashed face. Her mouth opened, and she let out a screech that was high pitched enough to echo painfully around the cavern, but Eamon barely heard her. He was already on his feet and running toward the deep pool, skirting around the pillar of fire and reaching down beneath the water to grab at the back of Autumn’s shirt.

  He started to pull her to the surface, but he could feel the weight of the enchantment keeping her down beneath the water, and he had to use every ounce of strength to combat it. When the top of her head finally surfaced, the spell broke with an audible pop and she was able to thrash her way to him, allowing him to pull her out of the water and onto the rock, both of them gasping.

  Eamon wanted to hold her, hug her, kiss her, whisper to her, but he didn’t have time for any of those things. He only allowed himself one hard kiss as he transferred the band to her wrist to keep her protected from spells. “Keep this on,” he whispered. “I love you so much. Don’t lose it, and don’t draw her attention to you.”

  He stood up with only the protection of the pendant, which he had kept for himself to make sure that the witch couldn’t control his actions, and therefore couldn’t keep him from transitioning. At least, that was his hope—his ace in the hole that she wouldn’t know about.

  She was on her feet again, glaring at him through a literal red haze, her blood still flowing down her face. Her hands lifted, and this time when she cast her spell, he was blown backward against the rock wall, slamming into it with a thud that reverberated painfully throughout his whole body. He paid no attention to the pain, landing on his feet and running straight for her again.

  Eamon threw a disk, and she deflected it with a raise of her hand, sending it spinning back toward him. He dodged it easily and threw his next weapon—a decorated ball that Isabelle had enchanted to explode into a fiery orb the moment it made contact with its target.

  Gayla’s scream of pain was satisfying, but a flood of water that came from her fingertips put out the fire that had latched onto her clothing and hair, leaving her singed and angry, but hardly worse for the wear.

  They circled each other now, facing off, their eyes locked on one another’s. They were sizing each other up, and Eamon wasted no time trying to get under her skin. “I know what you and Nova are planning, and I know how to stop it. Resistance is pointless, Gayla. Your whole plan is unraveling as we speak. How does failure feel? Does it feel good?”

  “You’re full of shit,” Gayla spat back at him, raising both hands in the air before bringing them down fast and hard, a nest of snakes appearing in the space between them. Their tails rattled menacingly, and they began to slither in all directions, some moving toward him and others heading straight for Autumn on the banks of the pool where she had almost drowned.

  “Don’t move,” Eamon called to her. “You’re okay. Don’t move, Autumn.” The snakes had been brought about by a spell, and he knew that she was protected from their magical venom. He, however, had no such protection, and there was nothing in his bag that would save him from the snakes baring their fangs at him and growing closer by the second.

  He backed up, but his back was against the wall, and there was only one thing he could think to do to avoid the hissing, rattling creatures. Eamon closed his eyes and shifted into his dragon form, knocking Gayla backward with the sudden expansion of his mass and lifting out of the snake’s range with one stroke of his powerful wings.

  The cavern was large—plenty large enough to accommodate his powerful mass, and he flew around the top of it in a circle, elated in spite of the circumstances because she hadn’t been able to take his dragon form from him. The pendant had worked, and though it was lost now, somewhere on the floor of the cavern after falling from him when he transitioned, it had served its purpose. He was winging through the upper part of the cavern, looking down on Gayla and the nest of snakes from a place where neither of them could reach him.

  In his element, Eamon circled, then dove toward Gayla, his talons outstretched toward her as she stood in a stunned state. Clearly he had taken her by surprise, and he utilized that moment of opportunity to pick her up in the air, holding her upside down with one foot while he rose to the top of the cavern.

  She screamed out and grabbed onto him, but he shook her hands off his talon, then released her, letting her plummet toward the floor. The anticipation with which he waited for the thud of her body hitting the ground was dark, and he knew it, but he felt no remorse after seeing what she had done to Autumn and knowing what she planned to do to both of them if she could.

  But he was denied the pleasure as she stopped short, hovering just inches above the cavern floor, cushioned by her magic. Eamon didn’t wait for her to right herself, swooping for her again, picking her up, and throwing her into the air. She flailed for a moment, then conjured a column of wind around her that kept her afloat as she turned toward him, her expression twisted with fury.

  “It’s not going to be that easy,” she shouted at him. “You should know, I adapt very well.”

  She sent fire speeding toward him with a push of her hands, and Eamon opened his mouth, swallowing the column and spitting it back out her with his own burst of flame. The fire caught in the wind tunnel that was supporting her, spiraling around and around, swallowing her up within it, and Eamon flew toward the ground, landing beside Autumn and nosing her reassuringly.

  “You’re incredible,” she whispered to him, weak from pain, fear, and blood loss. “Don’t kill her, Eamon. We need her.”

  He tilted his head, not understanding.

  “She knows…” Autumn said, coughing up a bit of water as she spoke. “She knows where they’re storing the centuries of gathered power that they need to take over the minds of everyone in the state of Massachusetts. The only way we win is if we find and it destroy it. Make her tell you.”

  Eamon brought his wing around her, gently laying her down on her side. He wanted to kiss her and tell her how incredible she was, but it had to wait until they had won. Once they had, he would never leave her side again if he didn’t have to.

  When he nudged her cheek with his nose, she seemed to understand, smiling faintly at him. “I love you too.”

  Her wo
rds warmed his heart, and he flew upward into the air again, focusing on Gayla just as she flew herself out of the tornado of fire he had sent at her. Clothing and hair burned, she was covered in dark ash, breathing hard, and angrier than he had ever seen a woman. She spat at him, hovering in the air on a new gust of wind, a death wish for him written all over her face.

  Eamon would have loved nothing more than to snap his jaws around her and end her once and for all, but Autumn’s whispered words echoed in his mind, and he knew he had to take her alive. He backed off, flying away from her so that she had to chase him, and when she did, he flicked at her with his tail, sending her flying against the cavern wall again. She retaliated with a crushing fall of rocks that landed against his brilliant-white scales with thuds that caused him pain but did no real damage to his iron-clad body.

  He would have laughed if he could, but instead he flicked her again, knocking her against the opposite wall and watching her slide down it.

  She was getting weak, his strength and mass so far superior to hers that she was struggling to adapt her magic to combat him. There was no element that she could use against him, no creature she could set on him that was stronger than him, and no disease that could get past his thick skin and heavy scales. He was an impenetrable force, and as he drifted downward, landing in front of her with a flourish of his tail, their eyes met, and that knowledge, mutually agreed upon, flowed between them.

  Gayla got shakily to her feet, raising her hands and creating a shield around her body that was almost invisible, except for the occasional flicker of current. “You can’t cross,” she told him. “I’m protected here. You can’t cross. So just go. Get the hell out. You’ve made your damn point.”

  It was possible for a dragon to smile, and Eamon proved it, his wide, strong jaw spreading into a wicked, triumphant smile as he slowly shook his head back and forth. There was no way he was leaving without learning what she knew and incapacitating her. There was no way he was ever taking the chance that she might come back to haunt them again.

  He advanced on her, and Gayla flinched behind her shield. Clearly she was not used to not having the upper hand, and she wasn’t handling it well.

  As he advanced, Eamon caught a glimmer of the pendant that had protected him from her control, and he transitioned back into his human form, picking it up and putting it on. He needed to talk to the woman, and he couldn’t do that in his dragon form, but he was taking no chances that she would be able to control his ability to transition again if he needed to.

  “It’s time for us to talk,” he told her, lazily walking toward his pants and pulling them on, amused by the way she averted her eyes from his naked body.

  “Actually…” Autumn’s voice sounded from behind him, stronger now. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to do the talking.”

  Surprised, Eamon turned to look at her, noting the determined look on her face and the dignified way that she stood straight despite being soaked, filthy, wounded, and exhausted. She was still ready to fight, and he loved her all the more for it. He also wanted her to have that moment more than he’d ever wanted anything, and he nodded, stepping aside to let her move closer.

  “All yours,” he said. Then he turned toward Gayla. “Just know—one step out of line, and I won’t hesitate to take you out for good.”

  The look in her eyes told him that Gayla believed him wholeheartedly, but as Eamon stepped back again, leaning against the cavern wall to give Autumn space to take charge, he didn’t let his guard down for a minute. Gayla was still a witch, and she still had the power to hurt them both. If she even tried, it would mean her death sentence, and they would find another way to get the information they needed. There was nothing worth risking Autumn feeling more pain.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Autumn

  Inside, she was shaking. The pain from the wounds on her back and the trauma of being held under the water over and over again, her lungs screaming for air while an invisible force held her under the surface had taken their toll on Autumn, but she wasn’t ready to stop fighting. Watching Eamon completely dominate Gayla had given her not only a surge of love for the man she wanted to be with for the rest of her life, but it had also given Autumn her confidence back. Alone in the cavern with Gayla, it had been easy to start despairing as she sank beneath the water again and again, completely under the woman’s control. But Gayla could be defeated, and Autumn was going to make sure she knew it.

  She touched the band at her wrist. Eamon had given it to her for protection, and though she didn’t know what the band was for, having it with her was empowering. When she met Gayla’s eyes through the flickering shield meant to protect the woman, Autumn’s gaze was dark and determined.

  “You and your friends tried to kill my children. Do you know what that means?”

  Gayla glared at her, not responding.

  “You tried to kill me. You’ve attacked me over and over again, but I’m still standing here.”

  “That wasn’t me. That was Nova,” Gayla said, her shield sparking with flickering power.

  “Oh,” Autumn said, smiling coldly. “So now that you’re in trouble, you’re not so close with Nova. That was her, not you. I thought you two were tighter than that.”

  Gayla’s eyes narrowed. “You’re twisting my words.”

  “No twist needed,” Autumn retorted. “Let’s not pretend that you’re not going to sell out your friend, Gayla. Just like when she takes power, she’ll leave you behind, you’re going to leave her behind right now. Tell us where to find all the power she’s storing up and maybe there’s a way for you to escape to some island in the middle of nowhere where you can’t hurt anyone.”

  “Gayla!”

  The exclamation came from behind Autumn, and she whirled, coming face-to-face with a shimmering image of the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, sitting on a flowered couch, an expression on her face that was dark and furious.

  “Nova,” Autumn said, Eamon’s voice echoing hers. “How nice of you to join us.”

  “Nova, I have this under control,” Gayla muttered.

  Rolling her eyes, Nova crossed her long legs, bouncing her foot impatiently. “It hardly seems so. Aren’t you the one cowering there behind a shield, hoping they don’t hurt you? You had one job, Gayla. But you had to make it a game. Why didn’t you just kill them in their sleep, you stupid, stupid fool?”

  “Not really partners, are you?” Autumn said, still looking at Nova, but speaking to Gayla. “Look how easily she discards you. You didn’t play by her rules and now she’s going to step in and do your job for you because you’re so incompetent. That’s what she thinks.”

  Nova scoffed. “Pay no attention to her, Gayla. She’s running her mouth because she has nothing else she can do to you.”

  “It seems a little like what she’s saying is true.”

  Glaring, Nova lifted both of her hands and fire erupted in a circle around Autumn, the flames crackling and the heat filling the whole cavern.

  Autumn jumped backward, but when she moved, the fire backed away from her, as though there was a barrier around her body that the fire couldn’t cross. She put her arm out as though she was going to touch the fire, and again, it jumped back from her, not touching her skin. Autumn grinned, glancing over at Eamon, who winked at her and nodded.

  “You’re okay,” he told her. “She can’t hurt you.”

  “Is that a challenge?” Nova said, standing up in her shimmering image now. “I see you were smart enough to find a way to protect her against basic spells, but unluckily for you, I know a lot more than the basics.” Putting both of her hands out, she tensed her fingers, and the ground beneath Autumn began to shake and crack, a chasm opening up between her feet.

  The fire was still all around her, but Autumn dismissed it from her mind, trusting whatever Eamon had given her to protect her from the flames. It would not, she expected, protect her from falling into the earth. She stepped to the left, avoiding the crack that was opening up
right beneath her, but the moment she regained her footing, another crack opened beneath her, and she was stumbling to the left again.

  “Now,” Nova shouted to Gayla. “Kill her now! I’ve done the work for you, Gayla. Push her into the damn crack and be done with it. I can’t do everything!”

  “Look how she treats you,” Autumn shouted, dodging crack after crack. She wasn’t looking at Gayla, too intent on her feet to look anywhere else, but she hoped that she was getting into the woman’s mind and turning her against the beautiful but evil Nova. “She deserves to lose, Gayla!”

  “Push her in, you idiot! You know what we have. We’re partners!”

  Whatever Gayla would have decided, Autumn didn’t know. Eamon didn’t give her a chance to decide, suddenly sweeping over her in his dragon form, lifting her away from the web of cracks that she was barely managing to dodge. He carried her high above Gayla and Nova, then tossed her up, flying beneath her so that she landed on his back.

  She had never actually interacted with him before when he was in his dragon form, and as she slid forward, her legs straddling his neck and her hands resting on the ridges there, she felt more powerful than she had ever experienced.

  “Nice try,” she called down to Nova. “You might be hundreds of years old—and you definitely look it—and have all of this magic in your fingertips, but it’s not enough to take us down. And we both know that you can’t kill me with your magic unless you want to destroy everything you’ve worked for. The way I see it, you’re completely powerless and I’m riding a dragon.”

  To back her up, Eamon let out his own cloud of fire, the flames drifting down to the bottom of the cavern, crackling around Nova’s image.

  Nova’s answer was to turn on Gayla. “All the shit you gave me about getting them involved, and then you turn around and make this ten times worse. Why the hell did you not kill them in their sleep? You’re useless! I can’t do everything, Gayla. I’m in a different country, and I still have to clean up your mess?”