Dragon's Heart

by Marly Mathews

“It’s four o’clock in the afternoon, and the sun is eclipsed. We weren’t due for an eclipse which can only mean…” William’s voice trailed off.

  “It’s the work of dark magic. Used in all of its terrible arcane glory. Not even the moon lights our way, he’s taken out all of the objects of nature that feed white magic.”

  “Indeed.” William’s nostrils flared. “I can sense my mum in there. We need to get to her.”

  She gasped. “O’Malley is here. Can you feel him?”

  He looked to the sky. “I can’t feel him, but I can see him.” He pointed to the dark sky.

  She followed his finger. “No! He has been swallowed up by his beastly nature. He has transformed into a demonic dragon. This is bad, this is the worst.”

  “What is a demonic dragon? I really don’t like the sound of that, my love.”

  “Love isn’t anything he knows or feels anymore. He is made up of pure hatred, evil in its strongest form. There is no reasoning with him, now. I don’t even think my father will be able to control him. He has lost himself. He is only set upon a path of destruction, one of his own making. If you think my father fights dirty, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

  William heaved a shattering breath. “I must go for my mother.”

  “You can’t fight O’Malley even if you wanted to. His power has grown too strong. It’s all encompassing. Can’t you feel the static electricity of fallout dark magic rippling in the air?” She handed him the bow and strapped the quiver of arrows to his back. “Take this, and if the spell doesn’t work, if he’s found a counter agent, use the arrows to kill him.”

  “What about you?”

  “I can handle O’Malley on my own. I’ll have to shape shift and fight him in my dragon form. It’s the only way. Fight beast with beast.”

  “Are you insane? You need this more than I do…” He tried pressing the weapon into her hands. She breathed in a large gust of air, calling upon her dragon shifter side.

  She envisioned the way she looked in dragon form and felt searing pain slice through her. Her knees were going to buckle beneath the extreme pressure. She gasped for air.

  “I can’t transform. I’ve never run into this before.” She leaned on him, discouraged by her latest discovery. “I don’t understand…” She fell silent. Perhaps, she did have an inkling of understanding, but she wasn’t about to tell him what she suspected, no she wouldn’t make that mistake. He’d flip, and if she knew him as well as she did, he’d run to transport her to the other side of the world.

  O’Malley had finally seen them. He centered his attention squarely on them. William was slowly regaining his strength. He lunged toward her and pushed her to the ground. She landed with a hard thud. He blasted a bolt of magical energy at O’Malley. The bolt simply bounced off O’Malley and swerved right back at them.

  “Oh, shit!” He covered her body with his and erected a shield. The brunt of his attack blast hit her making them both grunt with the impact. “Are you okay? I didn’t break anything did I?”

  “I’m not that fragile. I’m not as delicate as you seem to think I am.” He helped her to her shaky feet. She didn’t want to show her vulnerability to him, but the events of the last few days were wearing hard on her.

  “Well, I’m not as small as you think. My weight combined with my backfiring magic, I just thought you might have been injured. In the future, I won’t jump to worrying about you.”

  “I’m fine. Thank you for your concern.” She smiled at him wistfully. "I’ll have to try to get an arrow to pierce him. With his dark magic, I don’t know…”

  “I thought you had your own kind of magic,” William said.

  “Dragon shifters have magic, aye, but we don’t readily use it. Nor is it as formidable as the magic you wield.”

  “You have to tap into it now. We’ll merge our powers, and when we do, we might just be able to destroy him. If we don’t stop him now, Earth won’t even have a hope.”

  “I agree. Give me your hand, I don’t know how great of an idea this is since no dragon shifter and wizard have ever merged their powers before. What if we create some sort of combustion?”

  “As long as it affects O’Malley, I don’t see a problem with that.” He smiled brilliantly at her.

  Closing her eyes, she drew on her magic and it took her a while to summon the full force of her powers.

  Finally, she felt her fingertips start to warm. He felt it too, for his hand twitched beneath hers. “I’m getting stoked.”

  She smiled at his pun. The air almost crackled around them. She could smell the scent of dragon shifter magic. She hadn’t lost her touch after all. Her power was coalescing around them. A reddish bubble formed around them.

  “Now it’s my turn.” She watched as he called upon his own magic. Blue energy mingled with red magic energy.

  O’Malley’s animalistic dragon roar literally shook the ground. She shivered.

  “Let’s hope this will make him stagger long enough for me to use an arrow on him.

  “It might not come to that. If we’re lucky our magic just might take him out.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that, but I’ll hold onto that hope for your sake.”

  “Fire! Now, Grania!” William ordered. They merged minds. Their magic blasted forth in a huge stream. It connected with O’Malley. He let out a scream, which made her ears feel like they were going to bleed.

  “This is it!” she shouted.

  O’Malley staggered. His wings gave way, and started plummeting to the ground. She had to act now or they just might not get a second chance.

  The arrow zoomed toward him. It hit him in his thick hide. He let out another scream. A fireball the size of a car flew out of his mouth and arced toward them.

  She stepped in front of William. Her magic whirled around them. As the fireball drew near her ice fire magic wrapped around it freezing it. The large ice ball landed harmlessly at her feet.

  “Do you think we could use this to make a grand entrance?” she asked.

  He smiled. Her stomach twisted at O’Malley’s final agonized howl.

  “What I don’t understand is how he broke out of the cell your kind had him in.”

  “During the chaos, I’m certain someone could have been lax in their guardianship,” William groaned.

  “They should be slapped silly for making such a mistake.”

  “You corrected their mistake, so I see no reason to hunt down the person responsible.”

  “Unless…unless, that person is one of my father’s spies.”

  William raised his eyebrow at her. “I…our protective enchantments would stop anything like that from happening.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure in light of certain events. We’ve found out that my father’s mastery over the Craft far surpassed what we dreamed.”

  “You might be right. We can’t do anything about that until we rescue my mum.”

  He started to walk toward the castle.

  “Wait.” She pulled back on his arm. “I can’t let you go any further.”

  “You can’t?” He gave her a perplexed look. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is war. We’re about to end it.”

  “Or not.”

  “What?”

  “This smells fishy. I think my father is leading you into a trap. And this time it will be a trap that you won’t be able to escape from.”

  “I have you. Working together we can do anything.”

  “No. We have to return to where your father is and get briefed on everything he knows. Walking into my father’s lair is pure folly.”

  “You walked into his lair…”

  “I did. And I got really lucky. I was able to get out again unscathed. But my father has other plans for you. He thinks your mother is his trump card. It must have been her magic that released O’Malley. Who knows what else he’ll get her to do? Or…”

  His eyes narrowed at her. “Don’t even think about it. I won’t hear you telling me that my mother is a
traitor. She is the most loyal witch magic kind has ever known.”

  “What if she’s in my father’s thrall?”

  Chapter Twenty

  William drew in a lengthy breath. “I don’t like hearing that my mother could have fallen prey to your father’s mind games. However, I see your point. I rail against agreeing with you, but if you think it’s wise to return to headquarters, then, I will humour you.”

  “Humour me?” She stepped backward. The cynical tone in his voice was like a physical slap in the face.

  She swallowed, hard. “I guess we’re going to have to get used to this. You always seem to push my buttons, and in return I push yours.” She sighed. “Open a portal, and we’ll return to Cheltenham.”

  He pulled out his wand, and in one flicker a portal was conjured. She walked through it pulling him behind her.

  They emerged into a scene much like the one that had surrounded her castle.

  “I want the sun back.” She let out a frustrated sigh.

  “I do, too.” He searched the immediate area. “I took us right to where the building should emerge…” Sighing, he scanned the streets around him.

  “This place looks like a ghost town. What are we going to do, William?”

  “First we get out of the elements.” He held his wand aloft. She could hear him muttering something in a low tone. A light flashed and then the same building emerged out of nowhere.

  The door slid open.

  “Welcome back.” Aurora stood waiting for them, almost as if she’d expected them to arrive at this precise moment.

  “How goes the fight?” William asked, heaving another sigh. She could feel his worry for his mother emanating off him, and it unsettled her considerably. She didn’t like seeing William so distressed.

  “It still goes. Which, is better than what I could have reported one hour ago. The prisoners you released along with Merdwyn have helped us by far. But in the last few hours, we have lost a lot, your mother, and as you already know, O’Malley. Her magic released him, and almost broke the concealment enchantment on this building. If I had not been standing vigil, I shudder to think of what would have happened.”

  He sighed with relief. “Thank you, Aurora.”

  “It is my job. Your mother will come round in time. Whatever mind spell Draco has her under will eventually break as long as she keeps fighting.”

  “She’ll keep on fighting my mother is even more stubborn than my wife.”

  “Thank you.” Grania inclined her head to him.

  “Your father awaits you in the Council Chamber, as the Director General of the Agency, he’s in charge now.”

  He nodded her head at Aurora. “I’m on my way.”

  “I’ll remain at my post, keeping an eye on your mother.”

  “We are all in your debt, Aurora.”

  “I’m just fulfilling my destiny, as the keeper of this institution. I will guard it with my last breath. Now, go and talk to your father, he might have already cooked up a plan.”

  They dashed through the building past the hustle and bustle of the frenzied witches, wizards and warlocks. Tension was at a fevered pitch—everyone seemed on the brink of mass panic.

  “William.” They heard Timothy’s familiar voice, before they even opened the door to the large chamber he stood in.

  “Dad, it is good to see you, hearty and hale.”

  Father and son quickly embraced while she studied the other inhabitants of the large Council Chamber. Narrowing her eyes, she turned to face Timothy.

  “Are you preparing to evacuate Earth?” William asked.

  “We might have no other choice. If Earth falls, we do have a contingency plan.”

  “Screw the contingency plan!” She closed in on Timothy.

  William stepped to block her.

  “You don’t understand, Grania. If your father succeeds in overrunning Earth with his brethren then the magic kind has no other choice but to retreat. We can’t hope to muster up enough of a resistance here on Earth. Our only hope is to go to one of our allied magical realms until we have time to strike back.” She hated the way that Timothy reminded her of William.

  “I’m not going to allow you to leave, not when we are this close to victory! We can’t give up! I seem to recall one of your human Prime Ministers having that mantra during the War that almost consumed England. Had he done what you wanted to do, the entire world would have been at the mercy of a madman. Can you honestly allow my Father to have his way? Do you want him to win? I think we can rise above it all…I think we still have a chance to win!”

  Timothy sighed. “I do not see the same vision you hold. I see a world being demolished battle by battle. My warriors are growing exhausted. I can’t expect them to keep up the pace. Your father has limitless energy, and so do his forces, since they feed on darkness. However, my kind is losing their strength. The white magical energy in the land is being smothered. Soon, it will be almost non-existent.”

  “And you are going to leave the humans of Earth to live in the hell my father is creating?”

  “I don’t expect you to understand. Our allies found amongst the dragon shifters are more than welcome to join us when we retreat.”

  “No,” William murmured.

  She stepped back toward the door. “I won’t retreat. I will die here on Earth before I let my father destroy it. It started with Dragonia and when he had destroyed everything beautiful about that realm, he moved to Earth…” She turned to the other magical beings in the room. “My father’s lust for power is all consuming. Earth will not be enough to fulfill that hunger. He will yearn for more and when he does, he will turn to the other enchanted realms.

  World by world, he will spread his poison across all of the known realms, and there will be no safe haven left. You can’t allow that to happen. I implore you to send your warriors to work in our cause. That way, we might be able to defeat my father with far less casualties.”

  “Lady Grania, our kind knows you well.” She stared at the Leprechaun King that had spoken. “We shall give your side our luck, whether it will do any good remains to be seen. I see your point and I support you. I should think the other council members should support your cause as well. You shall have my support for a fortnight. After that, if we haven’t gained ground in pushing your father back into oblivion, then I will have to bring my troops home and seal off my realm from outsiders.”

  “I understand. Thank you.” She took a deep breath. Her world swayed. Reaching for the wall, she leaned on it, until William could pick his way over to her side.

  “You don’t look so hot. I think you should sit down.”

  “I hear your concern for me, William, but we don’t have a moment to lose. Earth is being overwhelmed by dark magic. I don’t have time to rest until my father has been…”

  “I think you should stay here. I can handle whatever else comes our way. I already told you I’m going for your father. I see no reason why you need to be by my side.”

  “Because you are my husband, and whether or not you want to admit it, you need me.”

  He clasped her hand against his chest. She reveled in the feeling of his heart thrumming against her touch.

  “If our magical friends are willing to add their combined magical might to the fight, then, I see no reason in ordering the retreat until we’ve exhausted all of our resources.” William’s eyes hardened as his father spoke.

  He whirled upon his father. “Are you telling me that you were honestly going to flee the world without first rescuing my mother?”

  “Your mother was the one that told me what to do if she were to be taken prisoner. She told me that if she was taken, then, there was no hope in stopping Draco, and that I should save what was left of our kind.”

  Merdwyn stepped out of the shadows. “I do not think that she fully grasped the meaning of her words when she made that order, Timothy. Aine is stubborn and full of fire, but her heart and her mind do not always work together as you should well know.”


  “What he said.” William emphatically nodded his head. “If you want to stay behind here safe and sound, then that’s your prerogative. But I’m not going to leave my mother in the clutches of Draco for one second longer. She’s a hard ass when it comes to her profession, but she loves her family. She’d do the same for you, father.”

  Timothy’s jaw twitched. “Don’t question my love for your mother, Son. Do you think I relish the thought of her being in Draco’s clutches? I know your mother, and I have never gone against anything she’s asked me to do for her.” He heaved a shuddering breath. “However, in this particular instance, I see your point. Aine will just have to live with me going against her, for once.”

  Grania smiled at the two of them, love flowing through her.

  Timothy altered before their eyes. He took on a commanding presence. She could see that though Aine was an Alpha Female, her husband was also an Alpha Male. It was a shame he didn’t get to show off his prowess more often. He reminded her of William in this forceful guise.

  “The first thing we need to do is start purging the world of the darkness that’s seeping across it. My Light Elves will be able to assist in that endeavor.” Her eyes went to the King of the Light Elves. He sat with his queen, and though she’d seen Elves before, she never ceased to enjoy their beauty. The room literally glowed with all of the white magic that bounced off the walls.

  “You have our deepest gratitude, Your Majesties.” William’s deep voice created a slow ache in the pit of her stomach. She reveled in each word he spoke, drinking it up as if she would soon be parched.

  “My Elemental Fairies will work alongside you. Draco won’t be any match for our combined white magic.” The Queen of the Elemental Fairies fluttered her long angelic looking wings. The slight breeze they created rippled through the air moving her hair.

  “Thank you, Your Majesty.” She bowed her head to the Queen of the Elemental Fairies.

  The Fairy Queen bowed her head to her in turn. “This day has long been foretold. As magical beings, we all should learn to work together no matter the adversary. Your father only accomplished unity amongst our kinds. I am quite certain that this revelation will bother him greatly.” Her violet eyes twinkled at her.