by J. L. Weil
Not a horrible way to go.
Chapter Sixteen
For a few minutes, I remained still. I stayed planted against Jase, waiting out the wave of mystical energy. My legs trembled, but I didn’t worry. Jase was there to keep me from falling. I was almost afraid to open my eyes, preferring the darkness to the dazzling colors.
“Olivia,” he whispered, his gentle fingers coming to rest on my cheeks.
I blinked a few times, testing the brightness. Being blinded once was enough for me. “What just happened?” I asked, tilting my head upward.
The muscles in his shoulders tensed. “That rock isn’t just a pretty piece of glass. I don’t know why I didn’t recognize it.”
The stone—that was twice now that we’d touched it together, and made fireworks fly. Wiggling to put a little bit of space between us, I lifted my hand and spread open my fingers. I eyed the round purple crystal. “What is it?”
“The Star of Tranquility.”
He reached to touch it again, and I snapped my fingers closed. His hand was suspended in midair as his eyes sought mine. A light of understanding dawned in them. Strange things happened when we both touched it, so for now, I’d hold on to it.
“It was lost during the Great War. Each descendant had a stone crafted by the gods, representing their power. They were embedded in the crowns of our forefathers, passed down through the generations, but they haven’t been seen since the Great War when our ancestors were struck down. We all assumed they had been destroyed.” His fingers dove into his damp hair, his mind traveling back in time.
“Does it have any magical properties?” I asked. Considering what just happened and, even now, the stone humming with energy it seemed likely.
Jase arched a brow. “It’s been so long since I heard the stories, but it was rumored the gods enchanted the stones with fire, ice, tranquility, poison, and influence, giving the very first dragons their powers.”
I couldn’t imagine having such an amazing history, and to think I held the source of his power in my hand, this tiny little stone. “I’m assuming it hasn’t lost any juice,” I said, locking eyes with him.
“Do you feel any different?” he asked me, his stunning features darkening.
“I don’t know. Should I-I?” I chattered, a shiver rolling through me, but as the words left my lips, I truly took a moment to take stock of how I felt from the inside out. I sucked in a deep breath, noticing a flutter stir in my chest. What is that? It didn’t seem like a big deal and could have easily been from nearly drowning.
Retrieving his discarded shirt from the dock, he tugged it over my head, and I wiggled my arms into the sleeves. The material was warm and smelled like Jase. “It’s hard to say, but I’m sure we will find out soon enough. The stones don’t appear to have lost their abilities.”
“I’ll say,” I muttered.
“We’re going to talk about how stupid it was for you to jump into the water like that, but first, let me look at you.” He took a step back as his eyes gave me a critical once-over from head to toe. The firmness crossing his brows softened, and I took that to mean I hadn’t grown a second head or a third arm.
The sudden frown that grew on his lips spiked a bout of doubt, but he no longer looked at me. Jase rotated his wrists from left to right, staring at them with an expression of wonderment and disbelief. “It can’t be!”
“What can’t be? Because I definitely felt some weird magical mojo a minute ago.”
“You did it!”
“What did I do?” I asked, squinting my eyes as I tried to see what I was missing.
“My bands… they’re gone.”
A funny look contorted my face. “What bands?” I prodded. Getting information from him was worse than going to Target on Black Friday.
A strangled laugh erupted out of him. “The ones that keep me locked to the island.”
“Oh,” I said. How had I not noticed them? Maybe they hadn’t been physical bands, but some kind of magical ones. “Does that mean the curse is broken?”
“I-I’m not sure,” he stammered. The man never stuttered. “We need to find the others,” he announced, grabbing my hand without the stone.
I had to jog to keep up with him. We passed around the back of the castle and through the courtyard, barging in through the double doors. Kieran, Zade, and Issik were in the hall, sitting at the oversized rectangular table. Strands of wet hair clung to the back of my neck, dripping water down my spine.
The three dragon shifters stopped what they were doing and flipped their gazes to Jase and me. “What’s wrong? Why are you both soaking wet?” Issik asked.
“You were supposed to find her, not drown her,” Zade said, his tone dry and slightly annoyed.
Jase sat me down in one of the empty chairs. “I found her all right. At the bottom of the sea.”
Three sets of eyes regarded me with disapproval. “Did she fall in?” Kieran asked, probably assuming I had.
Jase folded his arms and shook his head, enjoying the retelling a little too much. “No, I saw her jump.”
He did, huh? “I went to get this,” I butted in, throwing out my hand on the table so they could all see the Star of Tranquility.
Silence greeted me but was shortly followed by…
“Is that…?”
“It can’t be.”
“Holy shit.”
Three different responses, but they all shared the same incredulity.
“It’s the Star of Tranquility,” Jase said, his violet eyes illuminating with the same glow as the crystal as if they recognized each other.
Kieran leaned closer to inspect the stone. “How? I thought—”
“We all did,” Jase interjected. “But she didn’t just locate the lost stone. Something happened when we both touched it. Look.” He shoved out his wrists for the other dragons to inspect what obviously my human eyes couldn’t see.
Their eyes volleyed from Jase to his hands and back again. Zade’s brows scrunched together as he grabbed Jase’s arms, turning them back and forth, much like Jase had earlier. “They’re gone.”
“The stone removed them. I felt it but wasn’t sure at first.” Darkness crept over Jase’s face. “You still have yours,” he said to the three dragons who were like brothers to him.
“Which means the curse isn’t broken,” Issik’s powerful voice concluded, putting a dark veil over our short-lived elation.
Disappointment crashed inside me, and I rubbed the heel of my hand over my heart.
“That’s exactly how we all feel, little warrior,” Issik said, sensing my desolation for them. It hovered over all of us like a thick, black, ugly storm cloud.
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t it lift the curse?” Desperation laced my voice.
No one said anything, the silence thickened around us.
“Because we don’t have all the stones.” Issik announced, finally putting together the pieces. “There were originally five crafted. If the Star of Tranquility survived, it’s possible so did the others.”
“We need to find them,” Kieran surmised.
Issik nodded in agreement.
“And I’m guessing you guys have no idea where to look.” It had been purely accidental, stumbling upon the rock… or had it? The water woman. She had led me to the stone, but who was she? How could I summon and enlist her help again? I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t told them about her.
Zade heaved a heavy sigh. “They could be anywhere. The isles are quite large.”
Having recently seen it with my own eyes, I could attest to the sheer size of the Veil. “It will be like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.” I added to the gloom. Nearly impossible.
“For fuck’s sake,” Zade swore under his breath.
“But we have to try,” I said, pleading with each one of them as I looked them in the eyes one by one.
Jase had both palms flattened on the table. “And we have less than five months to do it,” he reminded.
Talk ab
out a time crunch.
Silence followed.
None of us expected the sound of a female voice laughing in a husky, flirty tone, brimming with mockery. It came from all directions, surrounding us. My first thought was Harlow, but the pitch of the tone was wrong, raspier.
All four of the descendants bristled and shot to their feet, rushing into the courtyard. The expressions on their faces were murderous. I followed behind them, refusing to be left alone. They stood in a fierce line, strong and unified. I felt sorry for the idiot dumb enough to challenge them all.
I lifted up on the tips of my toes, trying to see over their broad shoulders. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to find a hole in between Issik and Zade and weaseled my way in. A woman with flaming hair was poised in the gardens, a billow of white smoke at her feet, making it hard to tell if she actually touched the ground.
From my obscured view, her piercing gaze found mine. “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”
For an instant, a terrifying instant, there was only the sound of the sea and the wind and my own heart pounding. Is she talking to me?
A wisp of unease curled over me. I shivered and huddled back into Issik, instinctually knowing who the voice belonged to. He wrapped me in his arms, but the cold that settled into my chest wasn’t from Ice Prince.
“Tianna,” all four dragons hissed together, identical dark scowls marring their handsome faces.
Tianna?
The bitch finally came to show her face.
If I could get a firm grip on reality, I’d choke it. I felt as if the world had been spinning since I jumped into the sea, maybe even before then, and I couldn’t catch my balance.
Panic embraced me.
What does she want? Can she hurt me? Hurt the descendants? Can they hurt her?
Question after question tumbled like rapid-fire bullets in my head. There was something eerily familiar about the witch.
The witch’s lips curled into a grin. “So you finally found one of the keys. Took you long enough. I was beginning to think you’d given up.”
“Never,” Issik growled, his hands dropping from my back and fisting at his sides.
Every muscle in Jase’s body was coiled and ready to strike. “Time isn’t up yet.”
Tianna pinned her gaze on him with a look of pure hatred. “No, you can still fail. And fail you will.” Her hand lashed out and caught fire, lighting up her face in a green glow.
A knot of fear balled in the pit of my stomach. My hand clutched Issik’s arm, needing someone to keep me safe. I should have grabbed Jase. A dose of his calming nature would be divine right now.
My movement had Tianna turning toward me, a place I didn’t want her to look. What I wanted was to be invisible. “Such a plain human.”
I should have been insulted but that would imply I cared what Tianna thought about me, and I didn’t. She was the source of all my recent problems, the reason I had been kidnapped and brought to the Veil. Or maybe I should have thanked her. Without the curse, I never would have learned about dragons or met the descendants, and now I couldn’t imagine my life without them.
“I’d rather be plain than a vindictive bitch.” Oops. The words just came tumbling out of my mouth. I should have thought about it before I opened my trap because she had powers.
But I had dragons.
Four of them.
I won.
Tianna lost her shit. With a flick of her wrist, she cast a flame of energy in my direction. Kieran threw himself in front of me, opening his mouth and blowing out a blast of emerald smoke. Poison expelled from him, fizzling out the sphere of fire.
“Pathetic,” she laughed. “I’ve waited and grown weary of watching you through the curtain of magic as you fail time and time again, doomed to make the same mistakes.”
Under my hand, Issik’s arm flexed. The ice dragon was dying to freeze her lofty ass. “I’m assuming there’s a point to this spontaneous visit?” Issik asked.
“I’ve come for the star,” she stated as if we were all dim-witted peons. Lightning struck, the sky suddenly as black as Tianna’s heart.
Jase’s cool gaze switched from Tianna to me. “Is that what this has been about?”
“Whatever you do, Olivia, don’t give her the stone,” Kieran whispered into my ear.
This was something about they all seemed to be in agreement. My fingers tightened over the smooth rock.
With unblinking eyes, she let a long moment pass. “Did you honestly think I cared about any of you? You have always been a means to an end. Sure, I had a little fun, but the games are over. Now, give me the stone, and I’ll let your little pet live.”
Only, by coming here and exposing her desire for the descendants’ stars, she had revealed a weakness. Did her greedy heart want power so much she would destroy an entire race to gain it?
In Tianna’s case, the answer was a big fat yes.
Holy shit. At Tianna’s threat on my life, all eight of the descendants’ eyes shone brightly with large, colored pupils.
“No. Not going to happen,” Jase snarled, his voice reaching a low note I’d never heard before in a guy. It was more animal than human.
Tianna waved her magic-happy hand in the air, disregarding them like children. “Don’t be foolish. It’s the only way you can get the freedom you so desperately want.”
“You’ve already cursed us. What more do we have to lose?” Kieran snapped.
“Her,” Tianna hissed.
A wall of dragons formed around me. “Touch a hair on her head and you won’t get what you want.” Issik’s words dripped below freezing temps.
Rage like I’d never seen before erupted from Jase, deep and vicious. “Trust me, we’ll find a way to make sure we kill you.”
“Are you willing to take the chance that I won’t kill her?” Tianna tilted her head to the side, giving them a moment to ponder, not that any of the dragons needed time to think on it. “In case you need a reminder of how serious I can be…” She called a creature down from the sky to perch on her arm, skimming her fingertips over the ruffled feathers of its face. The griffin was about the size of a crow. She whispered in its ear, “It’s time they heard you scream, dearie.”
“Get her out of here!” Kieran yelled.
A ring of orange fire materialized, boxing us in. She threw her head back and laughed. “Not so fast. Olivia and I need to have a little girl time. You boys don’t mind, do you?”
“Hell yes, we mind,” Zade roared, his amber eyes flaming.
“You’re not getting anywhere near her.” Issik shifted into his alternate self beside me, not bothering to remove his clothes. His dragon loomed over us—glorious, fierce, and very pissed off. A stream of snow spouted from him, extinguishing the flames.
Kieran transformed next, following Ice Prince’s lead. Jase and Zade framed me in between their bodies.
From above us, more griffins attacked, diving down at my dragons, their claws jabbing into the fleshy part of Kieran and Issik’s wings, but they didn’t show an ounce of pain. Using his tail, Kieran smacked one of Tianna’s pets, sending the odd, bird-like creature sailing through the air and into the sea.
Jase looked at me, worry present in his eyes. It was then I finally saw it.
Fear.
He was afraid for me. Tianna had already cursed them, but she could use me to hurt my dragons. I wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Olivia. Go. Now!” Jase bellowed, ducking as Tianna tossed another of her famous fireballs she was so fond of using.
All I could think was I need to run, and I begged my legs to work, but they were rooted to the ground. God, I was going to be sick.
I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Instead, a hazy, purplish mist I’d seen before expelled from deep inside me, rising up my throat and puffing into the air.
Tranquility.
How the hell had I done that?
The fighting stopped, and the Veil became eerily quiet for a few prolonged heart
beats. Everyone stared at me, except for the griffins. The feathery creatures were lying on the ground, sleeping.
I had done that.
“You!” Tianna hissed.
Uh-oh. She had on her ugly face, and I was in deep shit.
The air suddenly shifted, turning the dark sky foggy. Out over the sea, the winds picked up speed, morphing into a wicked twister, headed straight for me. Damn the witch.
“Olivia!”
“Olivia!”
“Olivia!”
“Olivia!”
Four voices bellowed, but they couldn’t save me.
I was swept up in the tornado of magic Tianna had created, which twisted me off my feet and away from my dragons. I lost all sense of the world as I spun and spun in the center of the cyclone, Tianna’s laugh echoing in my head like nails on a chalkboard. When my feet touched the ground, I was disorientated, my eyes unable to focus.
“Oh, come the frick on,” I mumbled, my hands stretching out in the air to ground myself before I tipped over. I could tell I had been transported somewhere, but my brain was still too muddled from the trip.
“You’re quite a funny human,” Tianna’s voice said in front of me.
I focused on the blur of red through all the muted colors of green, knowing it was the witch. Where am I? It could be nowhere good. Tianna stood in the middle of a forest as tall and powerful as any goddess, and maybe that was how she saw herself. With her arms thrown high, eyes glowing white, her fingers spit out tiny sparks of silver electricity.
“You’re going to have to kill me,” I said with a voice far steadier than I felt inside. My knees were trembling, and my stomach was still rolling.
She smiled coldly. “That is still an option, but I’m hoping more of your blood won’t be spilled.”
My stomach clenched in raw terror. “You need me to get the other stones, don’t you?”
Her hands settled on her hips, sparks of energy still crackling from them. “What if I do?”
