Roxy cried out hoarsely. No more. Can’t. Hurts! She sobbed in Key’s mind, and his vision grayed out until all he saw was Roxy and blood. The dragon roared in his head. Logic and reason shattered. Key exploded up from the ground; his claws burst out.
The scent of Roxy’s blood and agony were fuel on the flames. He grabbed Liam’s wrist and snapped it. Raked his claws over the bastard’s face and gouged his eyes.
Instinctively, the other man let go of Roxy. Key shoved her behind him, heard her fall to the ground.
Liam came at him, his face bloody, one eye gone, and he bellowed in rage. He had a knife, but Key went low, shoved his shoulder into his stomach, and landed on top of his brother. Before Liam could move, Key slashed his chest, ripped apart his ribs, and clawed out his heart.
Liam’s mouth opened, but only a gurgle came out. Key looked into his remaining eye. “You’re an abomination. Enjoy eternity as a shade, fucker.” He jumped to his feet and threw the organ as the other rogue fired a gun at him.
The bullet missed, and Key ripped out the gunman’s throat. The door blew open, and he snatched out his knife and threw it into the heart of the man. He eviscerated the next rogue who ran in.
They stopped coming into the room, but the fight outside continued. The other Wing Slayer Hunters had arrived. Key retrieved his knife and raced to Roxy. She was crumpled between the bed and dresser. So much blood! Carefully he turned her over and felt his heart squeeze. Gently, he wiped away some blood and saw the edge of the Tear. Cold fear hit his gut. Liam had gotten the knife under the Tear and pried it partway out. She was bleeding badly, but that Tear was killing her. The brilliant pulsing and the vivid colors were stealing her from him.
Roxy was dying.
“No!” Something in him broke, shattered. Time fractured. Black memories tortured him—holding his beloved treasure in his arms as she took her last breaths, her body old and frail as she swore she’d find a way to return to him. It was too much to bear, the wrenching pain. He knew the dragon’s memories were invading his own, their combined love for her merging past all barriers of time and magic. Other memories: The first time Key had seen her so beautiful and real. Their first kiss. The first time he slid into her body and she gave him her heart. The way she’d wielded her powerful magic to save Linc, how she’d fought to save her cousin. His Roxy … she willingly put herself at risk and suffered pain to save another.
His love for her erupted in ferocious determination. He’d sworn to her he’d fight for her. With the battle raging outside, he slid his right arm beneath her, holding her still and vulnerable, while he swelled with the ancient strength of the dragon as they fused their will.
Roxy gasped, her breath stuttering. “Kieran …” Her eyes opened, pain and fear dulling her gaze. She lifted her hand, touching his chest, him and Dyfyr. “Love you. Don’t want to … leave …”
“Roxy.” His throat tightened, and his heart surged in his chest, trying to reach her, to grab on to her and hold her to him. Her hand on his chest felt like a stain on his soul. “I’ll get the Tear out! You’ll live!”
“Not your fault.” Her fingers spasmned. “Hurts. Not brave like you.”
He was a damned coward! He should have ripped that fucking Tear out the first time when Dyfyr tried. But he’d been afraid. He could feel her pain, feel the squeezing pressure on her chest. Key lifted her to his face. Pressed his mouth to her dry lips. Tried to fill her with his life. “I have to—” Hurt her more. Rip farther into her chest.
“I know. Let Dyfyr get the Tear. Become mortal …” Her body shook as she dragged in a breath. “Maybe find you both again.” Tears rolled down her face.
“No!” The fingers on his left hand burned, fresh claws burst out. He wouldn’t let her leave them. He focused on the soft swell of her breast where the Tear pulsed, obscenely beautiful as it killed her.
Don’t lose her! Rip out that Tear! As she lay dying and defenseless, he felt her magic somehow rise. She opened at least one chakra, maybe two as she struggled to breathe. Now! He had to do it now. Key struck, his claws ruthlessly shoving into her wound and latching on to the Tear. He yanked, pulled the Tear out of her, and freed the silver chain from her skin.
She screamed brokenly, her muscles locking with the hot agony. A loud crack echoed and the Tear he held in his claw burst open. Then the room filled with violent, piercing lights, red, green, blue, and yellow exploded in streaks of wild color. Then a second later they shot to the spot where Roxy’s hand lay against the tattoo of Dyfyr.
Then the colors vanished and the Tear disappeared, leaving just the chain hanging loose around her neck. The dragon shuddered violently on his chest, then stilled. The last thread of Roxy’s magic shut off. Her hand fell away. Love you. Find you again … echoed in his head as her spirit began to drift away.
He’d failed. She was leaving him. A keening cry of mad grief tore up his throat and filled the room.
The desperate grief rolled through him in pounding waves, and he held her tight to his chest, refusing to let her go. Hands grabbed him, jerked him to his feet as he clutched Roxy. Axel glared at him with hot urgency vibrating through him. “Get to the witches with her! Now!”
The order of his hawk cut through his pain. A flicker of hope sparked. He spun and raced out the door, his wings springing out as he took to the skies. He flew with the speed of a dragon, spotting Phoenix’s house and landing in the yard.
“Key!” Ailish, Darcy, and Carla raced across the yard toward him. They all dropped to their knees, Key cradling Roxy on his thighs, the witches on the other side of her. They laid their hands on her and their magic rose, filling the air, their witch-shimmers lighting the night.
“She’s not gone yet,” Carla said. “She’s still nearby!”
“Cut your hand, Key. Give her more blood to call her spirit back,” Darcy said.
He lifted his hand and dug his claws in, ripping open his flesh. Then he covered the ragged wound over her heart with his palm. He poured everything he had into Roxy. “Live, baby. You have to live. I can’t go on without you!”
Phoenix landed behind Ailish, blood spattered on his chest, his eyes dark and troubled. “Look through me,” he told Ailish as he put his hands on her shoulders.
Sutton and Axel dropped down behind Carla and Darcy, feeding their strength through their witches. Key looked up and saw them all coming together to save Roxy. He’d been created in perverted magic, grown up in violence and hate, and thought he was tainted by it. Now he was surrounded by strength and love.
“I think … yes …,” Ailish said. Then she tilted back her head and began to sing; her voice soared and trilled with her siren magic.
Holding his bleeding hand over her heart, Key pleaded, “Roxy, feel how much you are loved!”
Wind rose through the trees, bending the grass and scenting the air with metal and the faintest whiff of flowers. Then the hairs on Key’s arms stood straight up, and he felt the heavy, furious, electric presence of another being.
Wing Slayer appeared on his right. He towered over them, his shoulder-length, golden hair blowing back from an unforgiving face. His eyes were deep-set, gleaming gold with a tinge of red. His wings were a dark bloody bronze. Key’s bones shivered in reaction. The being radiated hellish anger.
“Dyfyr holds their spirits. Call them!” He thundered over Ailish’s powerful singing.
His voice was like surround sound inside Key’s chest. It boomed with a command that his body scrambled to obey, and he looked at Roxy’s too-still face. Please, Roxy, come back to me! Bring our child! He reached out with everything he had, looking for her. Needing her. Determined to find her and bring her back. He could almost feel her, catching the slightest scent of honey-almond, a faint ripple of her magic. The witches were pouring in their magic, forcing her body to heal, as Ailish kept singing. His heart pounded, his head throbbed, and he felt his soul cry out for her.
Then his very skin rippled. Stunned, he looked down to see a larger, bronzed han
d settled over Roxy’s stomach, where their child should be. Wing Slayer?
Warmth began to bloom beneath his hand. The scent of her magic drifted up, teasing him for an instant, then it took hold and grew. A low hum rose in his chest and stomach.
Roxy saw the vivid colors of the dragon scales and his ruby eyes as he stared down into his cupped hands. “Dyfyr?”
“Come look, my love.”
His voice rumbled with a sound that was near a purr. Curious, she drifted toward him, closer and closer, straining to see. But there was nothing there … then she saw it. A tiny flickering light, floating in the cage of his lethal claws. Warmth traveled through her, touching the very core of her. “It’s … breathtaking. And alive.” She recognized that light but couldn’t quite grasp it. She tore her gaze away to look at the dragon she loved beyond time. “Dyfyr, what is it?”
His scales rippled and glowed impossibly brighter. “Meet your daughter. She is as exquisite as her mother.”
“That’s her spirit?” Roxy must be dead then. What was happening? She’d tried to hold on, to stay with Kieran, but—
Dyfyr reached out, sweeping Roxy into the cradle of his hands. She felt her spirit touch the baby’s, and the heat of maternal love, along with Dyfyr’s, surrounded them in a safe bubble. “You were ripped away from me once, and I couldn’t stop it. This time, before you and the child’s spirits left, I pulled them into the tattoo. The baby came first, and you followed her. I’m holding you, because Kieran and the others will find a way to save you both. Kieran and I won’t let you go.”
The bubble of Dyfyr’s love, safe and familiar, wrapped her and her daughter’s spirit tight against her dragon’s beating heart. “I love you, Dyfyr.”
He rumbled his deep pleasure noise in his chest. “I know, my treasure. My heart has always beaten for you.”
“Did you get the Tear? Are you mortal?”
He nodded. “You found the strength to open your magic to me, even while suffering. To see you so …” he shuddered, and smoke streamed from his nose and mouth. “Losing you can break even a dragon.”
“Dyfyr …” How could love hurt so much?
“Roxy.”
The voice stunned her. Turning, she stared. “Mom?” She couldn’t believe it. Where she saw only the spirit of her child, her mother appeared as Roxy had always known her. “How can I see you? Are you … dead?”
“I’m at rest in Summerland, but Our Sacred Dragon granted me this one gift. To see you and your baby.”
Tears burned her eyes even though she had no body. “You wanted to see me? I’m sorry, Mom. Kieran tried to get there in time to save you and Dad.” Her voice broke. She had never been enough for her parents, always disappointed them. “I’m sorry …”
Her mother floated to her, wrapped her arms around Roxy. “Roxy, no. I love you, always loved you. But I did a terrible thing by forcing the dragon’s soul into Kieran. We were all so frightened when we lost our high magic, and the hunters who always protected us were going rogue and killing us. That’s no excuse.” She sighed. “Roxy, being your mother taught me the lesson of my lifetime. Magic is a gift we must use with love, not fear.” She leaned back and looked into Roxy’s eyes. “You taught me that. I will always love you, and I’m proud of you.”
The angst of grief eased within her. “You came back to tell me that?”
“I did. And that your father died trying to protect me and begged me to ask you to forgive him. His last words were, ‘Tell Roxy I love her.’ ”
“Oh Mom. Thank you.”
Gwen’s gaze drifted to the tiny light hovering next to Roxy. “May I?”
“Yes,” Roxy said and watched as her mother pulled the tiny light to her chest, holding gently. “She’s perfect.” Then her mother lifted her head, looking around. “I must go.”
Roxy reached out. “Mom …” She tried to touch her one last time.
But Gwen’s image broke apart in hundreds of tiny lights and vanished.
“I love you,” she sobbed as emotions swamped her.
Dyfyr gathered her and the baby to his heart once more. “She knows, sweet treasure. She is at rest now.”
Please, Roxy, come back to me! Bring our child!
“That’s Kieran.” She began to feel actual sensation as if she were in her body again. Ailish’s powerful siren witch voice trembled around them.
She could feel the distance between her and Kieran closing. Could almost reach him …
“Roxy, my love, open your eyes.”
His voice! She felt his arm around her shoulders, and others were touching her, too. Power swelled and rippled, calling out her magic. Slowly, she lifted her eyelids.
Kieran filled her vision. His gray eyes flamed with blue fire. She reached up, touched his face, and found it wet. Tears? Her heart wrenched, and she sat up, pitching herself into his arms.
He held her tight against him. For you, yes. I couldn’t bear losing you. His love poured over her mind, her body, and her magic.
I didn’t want to leave! I fought, and then Dyfyr caught my spirit and … She leaned her head back, looking into his face. “I saw our daughter’s spirit. She is perfect.” Then she felt a wave of panic. “Did she come back? Where—”
“Peace, witch, she is within you now, safe and secure.”
The voice rolled through her, shivered her chakras, and commanded her attention. Roxy turned and saw the golden brilliance of a god. “Wing Slayer.” She scrambled off Key’s lap, digging her knees into the grass. “I felt you, felt the electric touch of your god power bring us back to my body.” She bowed her head, humbled that Kieran’s god had done that. “Thank you.”
Key shifted to kneel by her side. “My thanks, too.” When he first arrived, his wings were dark bronze and his eyes flickered with red. Now he’s glowing gold.
Roxy reached out and clutched Kieran’s hand. Angry at us?
“I can hear you,” the god thundered.
Roxy fought to keep her balance as the ground shook. “Sorry.”
“I was not angry at you. You two fought with true hearts. Asmodeus is the one who brings out my anger. He tried to get that Tear to kill me and gain control of Earth.”
Roxy cringed as his anger crashed over them.
“Roxy.”
Her name from the god surprised her into looking up.
“You nearly lost your life to safeguard that Tear. I am not just Kieran’s god, but I am yours.” He was suddenly in front of her. “At the last moment, as you were dying, you forced open your chakras just enough for Dyfyr to use his dragon magic and take back the Tear. Only the chain remains.” He reached out and touched the silver chain. “Wear the wings of your dragon over your heart.”
A warm twang slid around her neck and pooled at the curve of her left breast. She looked down. The dress was no longer torn—either the witches or the god had repaired it. In the gap of the material, where the Tear once marked her, there was a pair of silver dragon wings embedded into her skin.
You wear my wings, marking you as our treasure, Kieran whispered in her mind.
How do you thank a god for something so precious? “I am honored.”
Wing Slayer said, “Kieran DeMicca, you have the heart and soul of a dragon. You have stood against evil all of your life. But it was your love for Roxy and your child that allowed Dyfyr and me to save them.”
“I am grateful.”
“Hunter, your knife.”
Key handed the blade to the god.
“Lift your joined hands.” Wing Slayer then looked at Roxy. “Roxanne, your Ancestors are here.”
She raised her head, her green eyes softening. “I see them. I wondered … the other witches have seen them, but I never did. They look like radiant stars gleaming in the night.” Like her mother had when she left Roxy.
She was able to project their beauty to him as Key raised their joined hands.
Wing Slayer smiled. “They were always there, Roxanne. But you gravitated to Dyfyr. And the dragon will te
ll you that he is so beautiful, you could see nothing but him. Dragons are singularly vain creatures, but when they love, they love for eternity.”
Then he turned to Key. “You and Dyfyr will never be without your witch again.”
Key saw the blur of his silver knife and looked down to see the twin rings appear around the base of their thumbs. “Immortality.”
Wing Slayer wrapped his large hand around theirs. “As true soul mirrors, may the two of you reflect the faith, courage, honor, strength, and cunning to fight the curse and protect the innocent. We give you the gift of time to aid you.”
With their minds joined, the touch of the god seared through them right down to their cells. Roxy felt them being redrawn, reshaped, a stronger life force emerging. Her long hair blew back behind her from the force, but Kieran’s thoughts stayed firmly linked with hers as the internal shifting crested, and then it was done.
Key said reverently, “Thank you.” He bowed his head. “For giving me back Roxy, my treasure, and safeguarding her with immortality.”
Wing Slayer began to fade from their view. “Guard her well, hunter.” And then he was gone.
Key swept her up in his arms. “For all eternity.”
Her mind was spinning, her body humming with magic and love. Kieran had fought for her, right to the death as he’d sworn. His love was a swirling silver light in her mind.
His face softened. “I love you, Roxy. I promised you I’d fight for you. You’re mine. I will fight for you and with you, but I will never walk away from you.”
Joy crowded her heart, and tears filled her eyes. “I’ve been looking for you so many lifetimes, to finally have found you … I’ve come home.”
A WEEK LATER
Roxy sat on the grass in the moonlight with her cousin, gazing at the graves of her parents. Key had drawn the image of her mother holding the tiny, brilliant light that was their daughter’s spirit on her mother’s headstone. And for her father, Key had drawn his hand reaching down from the heavens to touch his daughter, as he had touched Roxy when her mom gave her the message from him.
Sinful Magic: A Wing Slayer Novel Page 32
