by Ella Summers
Naomi burst forward, closing the distance between her and Firestorm. She slammed her body into Firestorm. Firestorm swung out her arm, knocking her aside easily. Naomi’s head hit the wall. Before she could pull herself up, Firestorm was there, pressing the silver heel of her boot down on Naomi’s throat.
Sneering, Firestorm cast a second fire lasso and wrapped it around Naomi. Unlike Makani, Naomi had very little resistance to fire. The golden coil burned her skin, bathing her in hot agony.
Makani made a sound that wasn’t even human. It was so dark, so primal. So dragon. Muscles tensing, magic flaring, he pushed with all his might to free himself from the flaming lasso.
A cool, calming power washed over Naomi. The lasso binding her puffed out, dissolving into smoke.
“How did you do that?” Firestorm demanded.
Honestly, Naomi didn’t have a clue. She stole a glance at Makani to see if it was his doing, but he was still thrashing to free himself from his own bindings.
“I have many skills,” Naomi told Firestorm, forcing a smile. Forcing herself to stand.
Firestorm made a derisive noise, then turned her back on Naomi, as though she wasn’t a threat at all. She focused her attention solely on Makani. Her grip on the burning lasso tightened. Flames bit into Makani’s skin.
“I will kill you!” he hissed.
Firestorm laughed, tightening the noose further.
Naomi’s mind was racing, trying to figure out a way to help Makani. Physically, she was no match for Firestorm. The Fire Monster had thrown her aside like she was nothing but a mosquito. And Naomi’s spirit magic, her best weapon, was pretty much gone.
Or was it? She’d broken free of the lasso. Somehow. Maybe there was some magic left in her. And maybe she could repeat it to free Makani. That was a lot of maybes.
Naomi waved her hand, trying to summon the sparks of…whatever that magic had been. Nothing happened.
“What are you doing?” Firestorm demanded, throwing an irked look over her shoulder, as though Naomi’s continued existence was the most inconvenient occurrence of the century.
Firestorm’s hands were pulling back on the lasso—then she simply froze. The delight on her face melted away into something else, something Naomi couldn’t quite pinpoint.
“What are you waiting for?” Darksire called out across his swarm of hell beasts. “Kill him now.”
Firestorm’s gaze shifted from Naomi to Makani, then finally landed on Darksire. “She’s pregnant.”
13
The Sky Is Falling
Naomi looked down, pressing her hand against her belly. She didn’t look any different. She didn’t feel any different either.
Well, except for tired.
No, she’d just been working herself too hard, using a lot of magic, sleeping very little. That’s why she was tired. That’s why her magic always felt drained.
“She’s pregnant,” Firestorm said again, her words dripping with disgust.
“Indeed.” A delighted, vicious expression lit up Darksire’s face. He waved his hands, directing the beasts forward once more to attack Sera’s warriors. “Kill Makani,” he told Firestorm. “He has been nothing but trouble for seven hundred years.”
But Firestorm didn’t move. Fire flashed in her dark eyes. She looked angry—angrier than Naomi had ever seen her. She kept that anger contained, however. It glazed her skin like a suit of fire armor. Her eyes were locked on Makani, her calculating expression terribly disconcerting.
Naomi hoped she wasn’t trying to come up with a fate worse than death for them all.
Makani took advantage of her inaction, and her loosening grip on the fire lasso, finally breaking free from it. It snapped with a sharp crack, then sizzled out. He jumped to his feet and planted himself between Firestorm and Naomi. Anger, protectiveness—even desperation—burned in his eyes. Dear god, this wasn’t a ruse.
Naomi looked down at her belly. It wasn’t any bigger than it had been a moment ago, but it suddenly felt fuller, heavier. “How long have you known?” Her voice was a dry rasp.
“For a few days.”
Shit. This wasn’t real. It was too crazy to be real.
“I tried to tell you last night,” Makani said.
So that was the important thing he’d wanted to discuss. She’d deferred that discussion, not even understanding how important it was, and now Firestorm had blindsided her.
“How did you know?” she asked Makani, trying to stay calm, even as her racing heart threatened to burst out of her chest.
“The fairy root was the first sign.”
Fairy root was so sweet, so potent, that potion-makers often used it to cover up the less palatable ingredients in their drinkable mixtures.
Naomi thought back to the Pancake Palace and all the fairy root sugar she’d put on her pancakes—and further back than that, through all the other meals she’d had over the past month. She’d consumed an obscene amount of fairy root, even for a fairy. She’d been putting it in her tea. In her granola. On her pancakes. Even on the whipped cream on her pancakes. Sure, she’d always had a sweet tooth, but not to this extreme.
At the time, she hadn’t thought anything of all the fairy root she was eating. Of course she needed the extra energy boost after all the long hours.
But, no, it wasn’t that at all. Fairies craved certain foods during pregnancy, and fairy root was right at the top of that list. Naomi had just seen her brother’s wife Nerida go through those cravings. She’d even teased her about putting fairy root on everything. And yet she’d been totally blind to her own odd eating habits.
“And I could feel the magic inside of you,” Makani said.
That explained why he’d been even more protective of her lately. He wasn’t just protecting her. He was protecting their child.
Our child. Naomi felt a surge of panic at the words. She wasn’t a mother. She was Naomi. Just Naomi. Just a fairy who dove into hell and fought demons. That wasn’t the life of a mother.
Fire erupted out of Firestorm’s hands, a spell fueled by unmitigated anger. But Firestorm wasn’t just angry; she was murderous. But exactly who was the angry one: Firestorm or the demon inside of her? One of them, or both of them, feared Naomi’s child.
Yes, fear. That was the missing feeling, the expression on Firestorm’s face that Naomi hadn’t been able to place. She’d never expected to find such a feeling inside the Dark Angel, Pestilence, the Fire Monster. This little unborn baby absolutely terrified her. But why?
Makani surged forward, magic bursting out of him. One spell after the other, he bombarded Firestorm without pause or mercy. Fueled by fear and love, Makani drove her back. Firestorm was the most powerful Dragon Born mage who had ever lived, made immortal and more powerful by Damarion, powered up once more by the demon prince of hell inside of her. But all that magic was no match for Makani’s fury.
Firestorm moved to counter him, matching his spells and movements. But Makani didn’t let up. A spell cut through her defenses. Then another. And another. Her body shook. She clenched her teeth, struggling to keep up. Anyone else would have already been spasming on the floor.
Darksire rushed toward Firestorm, but Sera and her warriors cut him off.
Makani drove Firestorm back further. His magic slashed at her again and again. Finally, her hands and knees hit the floor.
“Stop,” she growled, looking up at him.
“No.”
Makani didn’t stop bombarding her with magic. She was convulsing on the floor.
Wind cut through the room. No, not wind. Darksire had sent his entire beast army charging full-speed at Sera’s warriors, sacrificing his monsters so he could swoop in and grab Firestorm. His dark wings spreading like a night tapestry, he flew into the air. He blasted through the ceiling and escaped the castle, carrying his wounded beloved in his arms.
“The sky is falling,” Naomi said, looking up as the broken ceiling tumbled down.
There was no time to run.
She blin
ked her eyes. When she opened them, the stony waterfall had stopped, frozen midair. Cutler, a mercenary she knew from her years working at Mayhem, and the other telekinetics in the army were using their magic to hold up the ceiling. Sweat trickled down their faces, the enormous weight of the debris straining their magic to the breaking point.
Naomi blinked again. Her vision was going blotchy.
When her eyes opened this time, the telekinetics were tossing the debris aside, batch by batch.
Darkness tugged at her. She was falling.
She opened her eyes to find Makani gazing down on her. He held her in his arms. They were on the floor. Sera and Alex were kneeling beside them.
“Hey, we were worried about you,” Sera said.
“You kept passing out,” Alex added with none of her usual spunk. She looked like she’d just stared death in the eyes.
Naomi’s mouth was as dry as hell’s deserts. “I’m tougher than I look.”
“It’s a good thing too. Because you look like Barbie Fairy,” Sera teased her, finally smiling.
Naomi smiled back. “Only on a good day.”
Alex gave her a solid slap on the shoulder.
“Thanks,” Naomi grunted.
“I think she hit her head too hard,” Sera commented.
“Thanks for hitting you?” Alex asked Naomi.
“Thanks for not hitting me that hard. Usually, you hit like a hammer on a mission.”
“I hit with love.” Alex smirked at her. “But I thought I’d go easy on you, considering your condition.”
“Cute.” Naomi looked at Sera. “Do me a favor and hit your sister ‘with love’ for me.”
Sera snorted.
“Congratulations, mommy,” Alex said brightly.
Naomi’s heart hiccuped a panicked note.
“Don’t worry. You’ll do fine,” Sera assured her.
Alex was grinning like a maniac. “I hear Drachenburg Industries has great maternity benefits.”
Dizziness smothered Naomi. She couldn’t think about maternity benefits. She needed to think about something else. Anything else.
Alex glanced over her shoulder. “Logan is waving me over. Duty calls, lovelies. Be back soon.”
She ran off to the chorus of clashing blades and snarling monsters.
“The battle isn’t over?” Naomi tried to sit up. Her reward was a fresh wave of dizziness.
“A few beasts remain. Kai and Logan are hunting them down,” Sera told her.
“And the demons?”
“We’ll get them,” Makani promised her.
“But let’s get you home first.” Sera set her hand on Naomi’s arm. “You need to rest.”
“I’m fine.”
Makani leveled a hard stare at her. “You have been chasing demons nonstop for two months. And in the last two days, you have fought demons and beasts, transported us several times to hell and back, and repaired the torn veil that separates the realms.”
He left off the last bit, that she was pregnant. But his eyes drifted decidedly to her tummy.
“I’m not going to run after the demons now, but I am going to get up,” Naomi declared.
Sera took one of her hands, Makani the other. They helped her to her feet.
But as soon as she was standing, she regretted it. Her vision was blurry, her ears echoing. She swayed to the side. Makani caught her and lifted her into his arms, carrying her toward the hole in the wall that marked the castle’s exit.
“I can walk.” Her voice was a feeble protest.
“No, you really can’t.”
She sighed. She wasn’t nearly as big of a badass as she should be.
“You have to be patient with yourself, Naomi,” he said, his voice softer this time. “You can’t push yourself to the brink of exhaustion.”
“Isn’t that our life, pushing ourselves to the brink of exhaustion?”
“Not anymore. We have something greater to live for.”
“Back before the battle, you told me that none of us would die.” She swallowed hard. “You meant me and our child.”
“Yes. I was not going to let any harm come to either of you.”
He’d fought valiantly. He shouldn’t have even had any magic left after their battle in the core of hell, but he had fought off Firestorm, who’d had murder burning in her eyes. He’d kept her from killing them. He’d protected them. And she was going to protect him too.
Naomi kissed his cheek. “I won’t let any harm come to you either.”
“Of course you won’t. You’ve got my back. You’ve always had my back.”
Naomi set her head on his chest. “I’m tired.”
“I know.” He clutched her to him. “Rest. I won’t let you fall.”
“Ok,” she yawned. “But you have to promise not to tell Emma that you carried me off the battlefield. She already thinks I’m a wimp.”
His laugh was a pleasant rumble against her ear. “I promise.”
Safe in his arms, Naomi closed her eyes and fell asleep.
14
The Fire Monster
Naomi stretched out her naked toes, wiggling them against the silky softness of her sheets. She opened her eyes to find Makani lying beside her in bed, his gold eyes watching over her. His scent folded around her, that comforting aroma of sweet, hot spices burning with life and magic. He smelled of forest fires and primal threats, of forbidden secrets and scaled armor. He smelled of dragon—and all the wondrous things that came with it.
“Hi,” she said, smiling.
“How are you feeling?”
“Rested.”
“I should hope so. You slept the whole day.”
Naomi glanced out the window. The sun was setting, its rays painting splashes of red across the indigo and orange sky.
“That’s ominous,” she said, noting the red splashes. They looked like spilled blood.
“Such things only hold power in the spirit realm, where the environment and the people are so interconnected by magic,” he replied, his face completely serene. “Here on earth, storm clouds mean only that it will likely rain. And a red sky occurs because the sun is close to the horizon.”
“I hope you’re right.”
He wrapped his arm around her, turning her, pulling her in closer. The hard wall of his chest pressed against her back like a shield. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Naomi.” His breath whispered against her ear.
“Have we found any signs of Firestorm or Darksire?”
“No, but they have too much magic to stay hidden for long. We will find them,” he said, silk and steel interwoven in his voice. “And then we will end this.”
“Firestorm was scared. Back at the castle.”
He grunted. “As she should be. She has a lot to answer for.”
She’d betrayed him. She’d hunted down and killed the other Dragon Born. And she’d finally topped it all off by making a deal with the demon princes of hell, thereby selling out the earth and every single person who lived here. But that’s not what Naomi had meant.
“I mean, she was afraid of the baby,” Naomi said. “But why would she fear an unborn child?”
“Because he is powerful.”
“He?”
“Yes.”
Naomi’s heart did a little flop. She didn’t question Makani’s assertion that he knew the baby was a boy. He could sense magic—and all the delightful intricacies of it. He’d once told her that the magic of male and female supernaturals smelled different.
“His magic is different than anything else I have ever felt,” Makani said. “Dragon magic and spirit magic intertwined—a beautiful, seamless blend unlike anything I have ever felt before.”
As he spoke, he stroked her belly, a belly that hadn’t even popped yet. She sure didn’t look pregnant, but all this talk made it real. Frighteningly real.
“Our child is a Spirit Warrior?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“And Dragon Born?”
“Yes.”
&nbs
p; Being Dragon Born had some serious consequences associated with it. It wasn’t as dangerous as it had once been; the Magic Council no longer considered them abominations to be killed on sight. But being Dragon Born made things complicated. It meant their child was not one child, but two—two souls in one body. They would have to separate them after birth, performing a spell to give each baby his own body.
This explained why she and her magic were always tired. She was growing two magic powerhouses.
Something downstairs rattled softly. Someone was fiddling with the lock on the front door. There was the click of the door opening, then the soft whisper of footsteps.
“Stay here. I’ll check it out,” Makani whispered in Naomi’s ear. The mattress shifted as he rose from the bed.
He stepped quietly down the stairs of the loft, creeping down to the house’s lower level. Magic whistled. Light flashed. A wind spell slammed the front door shut.
Naomi got out of bed and peeked over the edge of the banister. Down below, Makani and Firestorm were locked in vicious combat. He threw a punch, but she evaded, hammering him hard in the head. Shaking it off, he cast a spell. Jaws of earth magic burst out of the ground and grabbed the intruder, trapping her.
Naomi walked down the stairs, lamenting her ruined floor. There went her deposit on the house. At least Makani had contained Firestorm before she could burn down the building—and everyone in it. Dragon fire was volatile. It spread fast and was almost impossible to extinguish. It could have spread to the neighboring houses. It might have eventually set the whole city ablaze.
Naomi stopped at Makani’s side. A few steps away, Firestorm glared out of her earthly cage. Her disheveled dark hair fell over her face, covering half of it. Her skin was flushed, like she’d just been running.
“Makani.” Firestorm’s voice was hard but brittle, like a suit of armor about to break.
Makani grabbed one of his swords off the wall, then stalked over to her.
Firestorm held up her hands in the air. “Wait. Stop. I didn’t come here to fight you, Makani.”
He positioned himself in front of Naomi like a shield.
