by Alisa Woods
Holy water. This was no ordinary magic.
This was an exorcism.
Rosalyn bucked up from the ground, wildly and out of control. The baby, she thought. The baby might get hurt. But she couldn’t stop the wild gyrations of her body. Couldn’t speak. The demon was raging through her, completely in control and fighting for its life. And as it did, her body and face heated. Her lightweight t-shirt and yoga pants felt like a hundred blankets, sopping wet with holy water and holding her down. They burned on her skin. She wanted to tear them off, rip them from her body. She was a blazing inferno, and a stark terror grabbed hold of her mind.
Too hot for the baby.
She struggled to scream or speak, but nothing besides demon gibberish was coming out of her mouth. Then a terrible roar built inside her. It started deep and low, building right next to where the baby sat, then it crawled up her throat with a burning so intense she felt it might rip her apart. Just before it threatened to consume her, she realized what it was—dragonfire.
She could no more keep it inside than the demon howls.
A massive stream of blue dragon fire erupted from her mouth, shooting straight up to the ceiling and spreading out fast to cover the walls and everything next to them. Her mother and Gwen jerked away from holding her down, Elmira stumbled back, and Alora and Simone were thrown to the ground by the blast.
The chanting ceased. The holy water vial fell to the floor and shattered. The last of it steamed off Rosalyn’s face as she rose up to sitting. The venting of the dragonfire had released something… but as she examined her shaking hands and hunched protectively over her belly, she knew the demon was still with her. She closed her eyes, reaching inside, deep to where her witchy magic lay… and she could still feel it entwined with the demon. Her baby, born of magic, was still surrounded by the dark essence of the demon. But it had quieted down, and it took her a moment of shaky breathing to restore the calmness to her body and figure out what had happened.
Her dragon had rescued her.
The exorcism had roared the demon to life, but it couldn’t be ripped from her witchy self—or that of her unborn son—without destroying them both, so her dragon nature had reared its head to protect her and her child from the onslaught.
Leonidas’s presence was protecting them both, even when he wasn’t here.
Rosalyn took a deep breath and let it out through pursed lips. Only then did she open her eyes to see the stunned faces all around her. The elderly witch who had tried to banish the demon shrank away from her. Her mother and Aunt Gwen huddled on the floor with wide eyes. Behind her, Alora and Simone were busy conjuring water to douse the smoldering drapes of her bed and the paper-covered walls of her bedroom.
“I’m sorry.” Rosalyn’s voice was hoarse from the screaming and weird ranting.
Her mother recovered the fastest. “Are you all right, Rose?”
Rosalyn nodded. “But the demon… it’s still inside me.”
The look of defeat on her mother’s face was crushing.
A bang on the door made them all jump. “My lady!” a muffled voice came through. “Are you all right?”
Rosalyn waved her mother over to the door to answer it. She was fine, but she was also halfway through her pregnancy and had just survived a failed exorcism. She didn’t trust her legs to hold her up at the moment, and regardless, it would take her a bit to get up from the floor. So she was still sitting when her mother let Cinaed into the room.
Confusion and horror made his face scrunch up. “My lady? What is the meaning of…” He trailed off as he saw the leftover smoke still rising from the curtains around her bed. And the scorch marks across the wall. His expression fell into a scowl, then his gaze returned to her. “Are you all right?”
“My dragon nature came out again, but yes.” Rosalyn’s entire body ached, but her son gave a small kick, and that tiny bit of normalcy anchored her. And gave her new energy. She struggled to get up.
Cinaed was instantly at her side, lifting her and setting her on her feet.
“Thank you,” Rosalyn muttered, a little embarrassed. Then she gestured to the five witches in the room, all now on their feet and exchanging worried glances. “We were trying some magic to banish the demon, Cinaed, but it didn’t work.” No need to go into the details on that.
“Then it’s good that I’ve come for you,” Cinaed said with an arched eyebrow for the hesitant looks on the witches' faces. He made sure Rosalyn was steady on her feet, then stepped back. “The prince has sent me to tell you he has something he wishes to try—to banish the demon from my lady and her future prince.” He tilted his head toward the door.
Rosalyn couldn’t tell if the strain lines around his eyes were from leftover worry at the state of the room or something else. “Well, I had been trying to keep my distance so I could remain calm…” She looked around at the solemn faces of the other witches. “But I guess I’ve blown that.” And she ached to see Leonidas again. To feel his comforting arms around her. If that brought out the demon… well, it couldn’t be worse than what a little holy water would do.
“Lead the way, Cinaed,” she said.
“Yes, my lady.” He seemed to want to pick her up bodily and carry her back to Leonidas, but she was more than capable of walking. Or at least mostly capable. Her legs still felt like spaghetti mush. But she waved him off and gingerly followed him out the door.
As she passed Elmira, the sorrowful look on the elderly witch’s face made her stop. “Thank you for trying,” Rosalyn said then turned to the rest. “Thanks to all of you. It was… well, it was a reasonable idea. But I’m afraid my situation is like nothing any of us have ever seen.” She gave her mom a small smile. “But I trust the dragons to have even more powerful magic than anything we mere witches possess.”
Then she turned and followed Cinaed out.
Truthfully, she didn’t know if they did… but she couldn’t stay away any longer.
Leonidas had showered off the pool water, but his hair was still wet.
He used magic to dry it because he couldn’t stand still in the bathroom any longer, not when Cinaed would arrive with Rosalyn at his lair any moment. Leonidas paced the receiving room with its wide couches and woven rugs and cushioned chairs… and tried not to picture every position and location where he had made love to his mate. His mind was cataloging them as if they were already in the past—as though he had only moments left with her—but he couldn’t help the heavy dread that encased his heart right next to the well-nigh unbearable anticipation of her arrival.
He refused to believe this was it. The end.
No.
He lapped the room again, but he was about to crawl out of his skin with the wait.
Finally, a knock came at the door. He dashed to open it, but it was only Leksander and Lucian. “Aargh!” His inarticulate frustration nearly came out as dragonfire. Instead, he just stalked away from the door, hands tugging at his hair and nearly pulling it out.
Then he stopped suddenly and whirled around. “Is something wrong? I thought she was coming—”
Lucian had already caught up to him. “Everything’s fine. Cinaed’s bringing her. She’ll be here in a moment. The witches were, I don’t know, trying some kind of magic to expel the demon.”
Leonidas’s eyes went wide. “And?” he demanded.
“And it didn’t work,” Leksander said, striding past the two of them to the center of the receiving room. “Cinaed said the place was scorched with dragonfire. He’s calming her down before she gets here, but Leonidas…” The worry in his eyes was like a blade scraping across an open wound.
“I’m sure she’s in control,” Leonidas said, although he had no reason to believe that… except for his fervent belief she had to be. He had to believe he hadn’t already lost her to the demon. Plus, he was working full-time not to despair. He’d given into that darkness for a short time, sitting at the bottom of the pool and cursing his life. But Rosalyn deserved better from him, whatever time he had l
eft to give her. So he refused to give up hope, determined to try to heal her with all three dragon princes from the House of Smoke. It had to work. What good was it to have fae powers if he couldn’t save his mate and child? Which reminded him… “Did you bring the Summer Queen’s gift?” he asked Lucian.
His brother pulled the small bronze dragon from a pocket in his loose, old-fashioned pants and handed it to Leonidas. “I don’t know how much help that’s going to be. And it’s risky, just because you never know with the fae.”
Leonidas nodded. It was a last resort. He slipped it into his own pocket.
Then another knock at the door had him tripping over his own feet in his haste to get there. This time, when he magically threw it open, Cinaed was there, standing behind Rosalyn.
Just seeing her made the air go out of Leonidas.
Her eyes were pinched with worry. “Cinaed said you had—”
He cut her off with a kiss, his mouth consuming whatever words and worry she might have, countering them with an urgent need to touch her. Hold her. Not waste one more second before reconnecting with her. Magical sparks flew between them, and she made a small whimpering sound, kissing him back, hard. He had one hand cupping her head, the other slipping around her waist, gently pulling her body against his, including the sweet roundness of her belly… holy magic, the baby had grown.
That his son might never take his first breath…
It was too much. He pulled back from the kiss, emotion threatening to strangle him. Rosalyn sighed, her body easing into his, and he just held her, his forehead pressed to hers, breathing the air they were sharing.
“I was dying without you,” he whispered.
She just nodded in return.
That was all he needed. He released her enough to slip his arm around her and usher her into his lair. Where she belonged. The simple act of bringing her inside settled something deep and primal inside him. Cinaed followed behind them, his face tormented by a parade of emotions that were a pale reflection of the turmoil in Leonidas’s chest. But he marched his mate into the receiving room where his brothers awaited… they needed to do this right away. Before his heart broke any further.
“Are you ready?” he asked Lucian and Leksander and got nods in return.
“What exactly are we doing?” Rosalyn asked. “Cinaed didn’t really explain.”
Leonidas gave Cinaed a nod—he knew the blue dragon would leave it to him. He took Rosalyn by the hand and led her to the couch, bidding her to sit. He sat next to her, and Leksander and Lucian gathered behind the back, where they could still lay hands on her.
“All three of us have fae magic in our blood,” Leonidas started. Then he smiled a little. “Four counting you, and five with the baby.” But then the flood of emotion threatened to cut him off again, so he dropped the smile and focused on the task at hand. “Normally, any one of us could banish a demon from an ordinary human, and even a witch. But when I tried with you before, it was too deeply entwined. I was afraid to…” He stalled out. Did she understand the risk here, even if they somehow succeeded?
But she was nodding, eyes bright. “You were afraid you’d damage my witch powers. Because it was entwined with the demon.”
“Honestly, I didn’t even know if you were still yourself,” Leonidas admitted, shame heating his face. “I should have known you were stronger than any demon.”
She frowned. “It’s not easy to keep it at bay.” She swallowed and glanced at Cinaed. “Certain things bring it out, and then… just be careful, okay?”
That brought a smile to his face. “You don’t have to worry about us.” Then the smile flew away, and he couldn’t help touching her again, stroking her cheek and running his fingers along her soft lips. What he wanted was to make love to her—to reconnect fully—but that must wait. “My love, you have to understand. Destroying the demon, if we can even do it, might…” He grimaced, having a hard time just coming out and saying it—
“It might destroy the witch in me as well.” She nodded. “I know, Leonidas. I can feel the demon bound with both me… and the baby.”
“It’s not just the witch part, my love.” Saying this was killing him.
She frowned and glanced at his brothers standing stoically behind the couch. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…” He took a breath. “It might destroy the dragon part as well.” Once again, the air went out of him, the words coming out with a shudder.
Her eyes went wide. “But without the dragon part—”
“Our son won’t fulfill the treaty.” Leksander’s heart felt like it was tearing out. “And that’s if we can even do it. We may not at this point. The baby is bigger. Stronger.” Even an infant prince of the House of Smoke had fae magic in him… he would resist if it felt like it was killing him.
If it was in fact killing him.
Sweet mother of magic… he didn’t know if he could do it.
Lucian’s hand gripped his shoulder. Leonidas couldn’t look his way, but he knew what it meant—his brothers would take over if he couldn’t continue.
“Wait… what are you saying?” Rosalyn’s face lit with alarm. She rose up from the couch. “Are you saying… you’re not going to hurt the baby!” That was a command. Rosalyn’s eyes were blue fire, and her body had gone rigid.
Leonidas was on his feet in an instant. “No, of course not.” He couldn’t spell it out for her. Couldn’t tell her it would have to happen eventually, one way or the other, if they couldn’t separate the demon from the baby. Because a demon-infected prince of the House of Smoke would be too dangerously powerful to live.
But he could say none of that to her.
She was still shaking her head and backing away from them. She had the fireplace at her back and nowhere really to go, but he would not force this on her. Not in a million years.
“My love, I promise you…” He edged toward her, hands out. “We’ll do everything we can to separate the demon from the baby, but if we can’t, we’ll stop. I promise you, we’ll stop before it… before it becomes a danger to him.”
Her eyes were still wide and disbelieving. The whole thing was a danger to them both. She had to know that. “You promise.”
“You’re my mate. He’s my son.” He could barely speak the words. “You have to know…”
Then suddenly she was back across the gulf that separated them and in his arms. Her arms were up around his neck and holding hard. “I know.” Her voice was shaky but loud enough for the others to hear. Then she sat back down on the couch, pulling Leonidas with her.
He was weak with the need to hold her, but he kept back and nodded to his brothers to begin. All three laid hands on her—Leonidas holding one hand, Lucian bending down to take the other, and Leksander wrapping his hand around her wrist, just short of where Lucian gripped her tight. Cinaed held back, watching with wide eyes.
He would be helpful with dousing the dragonfire flames if it came to that.
Without a word, fae runes rushed down their arms and surged Rosalyn’s body with healing magic. Her eyes went wide, so Leonidas cupped her cheek in his hand. “Try not to fight it, my love.” But he knew she couldn’t help it.
He could feel the inky blackness of the demon, wrapped around the core of her magic, and the pulsing, beating life of his baby. The demon was like a tumorous snake entwined around their hearts, leeching magical energy from both, growing off them, especially the baby as it slowly formed into the powerful young dragonling he would be at birth. Even now, at three weeks and halfway there, the baby was strong, vibrant. While part of his son resonated with the magical energy—both dragon and fae—that Leonidas and his brothers were flooding into him, the demon part writhed and fought against it.
Rosalyn gasped as the baby churned and kicked inside her.
Leonidas held her tighter, leaning in to hold his cheek against hers and whisper, “It’s all right. It’s going to be okay.” An endless stream of reassurances and an aching need for those words to be true. Meanwhi
le, by unspoken agreement, all three brothers focused on the baby first—if they could separate the demon from his son, then Rosalyn should be no trouble, but the reverse wouldn’t be true. And either could re-infect the other, given how intimately they were entwined. Plus not fighting both at once meant Rosalyn’s demon wouldn’t fight them physically as well.
Still, Rosalyn made a small crying sound that tore into him, and her hand clutched his. Leonidas squeezed his eyes shut but kept whispering and pushing every ounce of fae magic he had into her. He slid his hand to her belly, lifting her t-shirt to have skin-to-skin contact. The baby was bucking so hard, Leonidas had to fight to keep hold there. He felt his brothers move to do the same, their hands brushing his and covering the expanse of her belly. Rosalyn dropped against the back of the couch, moaning and lurching against them. Her cries became more insistent, and now that they had hands on her belly, she used hers to clutch at the couch. Her breathing was fast and rapid through her teeth, but she wasn’t telling them to stop. Leonidas could feel some the demon’s essence loosen its hold, but they weren’t just pulling a weed out by the roots—they were pulling his son apart. The baby kicked and punched, and Leonidas prayed to everything magic that the demon would just let go… but it wouldn’t. Any more, and the magic that kept his son alive—that comprised his very being—would tear in two.
Leonidas couldn’t help the small sound of despair that escaped his lips.
He yanked his hand away, opened his eyes, and twitched his head for his brothers to stop. They immediately backed off, but the torment on their faces was akin to his. They could do it—their combined magic made that clear—but not without destroying the baby.
Rosalyn’s body immediately relaxed and sank into the couch, now that the demon inside her wasn’t fighting for survival. She was still breathing hard, and a light sheen of sweat had broken out on her face. She blinked open her eyes and blearily looked at him, but he could tell she knew—the demon was still there. Her face scrunched up like she was about to cry.
