Stolen Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress Book 3)

by Linsey Hall

  “Go help them,” I said to Aidan.

  “Cass. Don’t.”

  My gaze met his, briefly. He knew what this would do to me. I could see it in his eyes.

  “Go,” I said, pointing to my friends. “They need you.”

  He nodded once, his gaze resigned, but fiercely proud, then left.

  Proud of me?

  I pushed the thought aside as I fell to my knees at the Nullifier’s side. He looked so frail. A shadow of his former self, which hadn’t been substantial to begin with.

  “Thank you for trying,” I said as I pressed my hands to his shoulders. “I’m sorry I brought you to this.”

  “It is all right.” His gaze was calm. Accepting. “I am four hundred and seventeen. I have lived a long life. It is time I did something good with it.”

  It didn’t make it feel any better. Especially now that I remembered how it felt to have your powers stolen. Like flaming knives digging into your chest.

  “Give my best to Aethelred.” He coughed, blood marring his lips.

  “Thank you again,” I said, wanting to thank him a thousand times for what he’d done for us.

  He nodded. “Do it.”

  Bile rose in my throat as I let my FireSoul power rise within me. White flame flickered along my skin, but it didn’t reach out eagerly for the Nullifier as it normally would. I had to force it forward, had to make myself take his power. What I was doing wasn’t natural. No supernatural in her right mind would give up her power like this.

  But I had to do it.

  The Nullifier gasped as the flame crawled over his chest. Sickness surged through me, turning my stomach, as I forced myself to complete this ugly deed. When his magic flowed into me, heaviness pulled at my limbs. Darkness rolled over my soul as the Nullifier’s magic suppressed my own, an inky tar that I could imagine coating my organs.

  The Nullifier’s face turned gray as he gasped his last breath. I tumbled away from him, a horrible emptiness devouring my insides. Loss overwhelmed me, an emptiness that threatened to swallow me alive until I was nothing but a shell curled up on the ground.

  It took all I had to stagger to my feet. The battle raged on as I stumbled toward the pool. The scent of the ocean wafted from the water, though it was just a small spring. The pool’s magic must smell of the sea, perhaps even drawing power from that enormous natural force.

  I had no idea what to do—how did the Nullifier use his magic?

  I followed instinct, stepping into the cool water. Pebbles shifted beneath my boots as I waded deeper. Shivers wracked me, clinking my teeth together, partially from the cold and partially from the horror of what I’d just done.

  When the water was up to my chest, I took a deep breath and submerged. The water glittered blue when I opened my eyes. I turned until I saw the faint glow of purple deep below me, then swam toward it, kicking hard.

  Magic pulsed as I neared it, vibrating deep in my muscles. Awkwardly, I called upon the Nullifier’s magic—the only magic I had left in my arsenal now that his had destroyed mine—and released it into the pond.

  Gray light shined from me, drowning out the glittering blue and purple. The vibrations slowed as the Nullifier’s magic—I couldn’t think of it as my own—destroyed the spell powering the Pool of Enchantment.

  My lungs burned as I used up my air, but I didn’t surface. I couldn’t be sure that I’d fully destroyed the portal, and there was no way in hell I was going to fail at this. Besides, I wasn’t sure I even had the strength to swim for the surface. So I floated there, forcing the new power into the water.

  When blackness sparkled at the edge of my vision, something hard jerked me from behind. Water flowed around me as I struggled. When I broke the surface, I gasped, my vision still fuzzy.

  A slender arm wrapped around my middle and began to tow me to shore. The floral aroma of Nix’s magic mixed with the scent of the portal’s dying magic. What had once smelled like the ocean now had an overwhelming odor of dead fish. When I blinked the water from my eyes, the air around me shimmered grayish purple.

  It was working. My magic was destroying the portal. I kicked to help Nix, glancing over my shoulder to see Del and Aidan still holding off the Monster. The dragonets launched their own attack at the monster, crashing against his shields.

  Nix and I climbed out of the water and scrambled over the pebbly shore. Helplessness overwhelmed me as I ran for Del, unable to call upon lightning or fire or even my Shifter form. There was nothing but emptiness when I called for my magic.

  Nix guarded me as we ran. I tried to produce the protective no-magic barrier, but I was tapped out. Or unskilled. It took all I had to suppress my nullification powers enough not to squash my friends’ power. And I wasn’t sure if I even accomplished that.

  Pain exploded in my every bone. A force threw me across the clearing and I crashed to the ground. One of the Monster’s sonic booms must have hit me.

  Through bleary eyes, I saw my friends racing for me. All three limped, blood pouring from various wounds. They dived toward me, narrowly avoiding another sonic boom as dirt flew into the air from the force of the missed hit.

  The Monster’s roar of rage echoed through the woods as Del transported us out of the clearing. The Nullifier’s body was the last thing I saw. Left behind.

  Guilt streaked through me, gnawing at my insides.

  We appeared at the portal in the desert a second later. It was far smaller than it had been, the glowing purple now faded lavender. My friends dragged me through it. I fell to my knees on the other side, the marble floor of the museum room biting into my bones.

  But if we were here, in the museum, it meant it had worked, right?

  The guards and the investigator who’d previously been frozen were sitting up from the floor, their eyes dazed. The dragonets were nowhere to be seen, no doubt disappearing the same way they’d appeared.

  “Can you get us out of here?” I said between gasps to Del, who struggled to her knees beside me.

  She nodded. “Out of the room, at least.”

  “Leave me. I’ll deal with them,” Aidan said.

  “Thanks.” I didn’t want to be near the investigators right now. I needed to get myself together. And my deirfiúr were still FireSouls. They shouldn’t be around them at all.

  Del grabbed my hand and Nix’s and squeezed tight.

  “Take us to Aidan’s,” I said. I had no idea if I could control my nullifying powers enough not to quash our concealment charms, so Aidan’s place was safest.

  “On it,” Del said.

  We only made it as far as the parking lot across the street from the museum. The museum was no longer purple and the building looked almost normal. No more missing wings. On the lawn, Mordaca staggered to her feet, Aerdeca helping her.

  “Tapped out,” Del said. “We’re lucky we all made it this far.”

  “Because we didn’t have to take the Nullifier.” I shivered with guilt.

  Del had said she probably wouldn’t have been able to get us all out of there. She hadn’t even had to try.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Staying glued to the news coverage of families returning to Magic’s Bend was the only way I kept from crying. I’d been holed up in Aidan’s mansion since my deirfiúr and I had come here from the museum. As soon as I’d arrived yesterday morning, I’d commandeered the guest bedroom and I hadn’t left.

  We’d all slept for a solid twelve hours after receiving some medical care. Nix had had several broken bones and Del had had internal bleeding and a concussion from her collision with the tree, but they were largely better now. Aidan had escaped without major injury, primarily because his body was unusually tough, being the Origin and all.

  My laundry list of injuries had healed with some magical help. Now, I was just moping. Nix and Del had kept me fueled with cheeseburgers and ice cream, but I could tell they were starting to lose patience.

  But I didn’t know how to function with half of myself gone. I almost wished my memory
had been wiped like it had when the Monster had destroyed my root power. Or had he stolen it?

  I really couldn’t tell, and I hated that. If I couldn’t remember what I’d lost, maybe I wouldn’t be so damned depressed.

  A loud knock sounded at the door.

  “Open up!” Del shouted.

  “Or we’re breaking it down!” Nix yelled.

  I flopped back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. “It’s open.”

  The door swung in and Del and Nix entered, each carrying a six-pack of PBR. The silver cans gleamed in the low light of the bedside lamp. I had the blinds drawn so that slivers of golden light striped across the floor.

  I eyed the cans with a fraction of my usual interest. “Isn’t it only eleven in the morning?”

  Del shrugged. “It tastes like shit at any time of day, so why not drink it now?”

  I tried to scowl at the insult to my beloved PBR, but couldn’t manage much more than a grimace.

  Nix flopped on the bed next to me and handed me a beer. I dragged myself upright until I leaned against the headboard and stared at her stonily.

  “Drink it,” she said. “If I have to, you have to.”

  “Why are you drinking it? You hate it.”

  “It’s a show of solidarity, dumbass.” She cracked the can open and took a sip, her forehead wrinkling. “We’re going to drink one of these things you love so much and talk about all the good things we’ve got going on.”

  “Yeah. Can’t be bummed when you’re busy being grateful,” Nix said.

  “Good things? My chest feels like someone tore my heart out. I’m immortal, for magic’s sake. That’s awful. Who wants to hang around forever after all their friends are dead?”

  Nix grimaced, her eyes softening. “I know. I’m sorry. What you did was amazing.”

  Del reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “Ugh, screw amazing. Who cares?” I’d do it again in a heartbeat—the news coverage I’d been watching kept reminding me of that—but it didn’t matter that it was amazing or self-sacrificing or any of that bullshit. That stuff didn’t bring back a person’s powers. Why I’d done it didn’t matter, only that I had.

  And now that I had, I had to live with the aftermath. I was willing to, but I wasn’t up for doing it gracefully yet.

  “On the plus side, we’re all alive.” Del’s gaze turned grim. “Except the poor Nullifier.”

  I lowered my beer, guilt resting heavily on my chest.

  “He died a hero, at least,” Nix said. “I heard that the Order of the Magica will hold a ceremony for him.”

  “That’s good, he deserves it,” I said. “And he seemed mostly at peace in the end.”

  He’d reminded me of Aaron, the first Magica whose power I’d stolen. Aaron had been ready to die as well. Why was it that so many people I encountered recently were happy to die? What kind of shitty world was I getting myself into?

  Even with my powers gone and my soul pulverized, I didn’t want to die. I wanted to mope and eat ice cream in the dark, but I didn’t want to die.

  “And you have cool dragon friends,” Nix said. “What were those all about?”

  “They’re dragonets,” I said. “They’d been the Nullifier’s friends.”

  “Now they’re your friends,” Del said. “Dragon friends are definitely something to be grateful for.”

  “Yeah, you have a point.” I glanced down at my beer. “I guess they’ve gone back to Switzerland.”

  “But you’ll see them again,” Nix said.

  “I hope so.”

  “One thing to think about,” Del said. “After giving up all your power so willingly, you can’t exactly keep worrying you’re a power hungry FireSoul, can you?”

  “No. You’re right about that.” I knew the covetousness would come whenever I had an opportunity to steal a power, but I now knew I could definitely control it. I might enjoy taking powers, which was something I didn’t actually like about myself, but I could deal with that too. As long as I was in control when I did it, and didn’t take from an innocent, I could live with myself.

  “So that’s several things to be happy about,” Nix said. “We’re alive, we’ve saved Magic’s Bend, we now have dragons for friends, and the Monster is at the waypoint and not on Earth.”

  “But he can get out,” I said.

  “Sure. But he can’t find us still, not as long as you keep repressing your Nullification powers.”

  I nodded. It’d become second nature to me now, keeping the nullification locked up so it didn’t screw with my concealment charm. That was one thing to be grateful for. I’d need more practice to be able to create a no-magic barrier, but at least I could be near my sisters.

  “We just have to not run into him, and we’ll be fine,” Del said.

  “Except we’ve been doing that a lot lately,” Nix said. “He’s everywhere we turn.”

  “We’re going to have to find him,” I said. “We can’t keep running. He’s going to find us. Those Tracker demons might not have been hunting for us specifically, but they know there are FireSouls in Magic’s Bend. It’s only a matter of time.”

  “Agreed,” Del said. “We may have killed that seer, but he’ll find another.”

  Nix nodded.

  “Do you think he wanted the chalice?” Nix said.

  “Maybe,” Del said. “Or something else in the museum.”

  “Damn. I wish we’d figured it out.”

  “There hadn’t exactly been time,” Del said.

  No, there hadn’t. It’d taken everything we had to complete the goal and get out of there alive.

  “I had another nightmare,” I said. I’d meant to tell them sooner, but I’d been sleeping so much of the past twenty-four hours that I hadn’t had a chance. I also hadn’t wanted to talk about it. If I was going to open my mouth, it was going to be to shove a cheeseburger inside it.

  Their gazes met mine.

  Since my moping time had passed, I told them about the Monster stealing or destroying my root power and how I’d apparently repressed the trauma.

  “You were too young to cope with it,” Nix said.

  “And you don’t remember what your power was?” Del asked.

  “No. Just like I don’t remember anything before we were fifteen. I’ve no idea what it was.” The memory of the locket cooling on my chest flashed in my mind. I raised my fingers to it. “But the locket felt strange as he was stealing my power.”

  “That’s a clue,” Del said. “Obviously.”

  “Obviously?”

  “Yeah,” Del said. “Aidan told me how Aethelred said to come back to him for more information about the locket. Aidan’s had a guy camped out on Aethelred’s doorstep for the last day, waiting for the old guy to return so that he can bring him to you.”

  Tears smarted my eyes. I hadn’t let Aidan into the room because I’d been too depressed to talk, but he’d been trying to find a way to make me feel better?

  “I agree with Del,” Nix said. “That locket has to be a clue. You were wearing it when you woke in the field fifteen years ago, and you’ve guarded it ever since. If it played a role in your dream, it’s important.”

  “So what do you suggest I do about it?” I asked.

  “Hunt down some information. Learn what you can about your past. Go from there.”

  My past. A flare of purpose ignited in my chest. I’d had a power that was stolen, or lost. Maybe I could get it back. Or at least learn about what had happened to me. It was better than moping around here all the time.

  “And maybe you can find a way to get your powers back,” Nix said.

  “It’s not possible,” I said.

  “You don’t know that. Anything is possible.”

  Getting my powers back. Hope flared in my chest, a bright light that drove out some of the dark.

  “I agree with Nix,” Del said. “You should try to get your powers back.”

  “But how?”

  “I don’t know,” Del sai
d. “Start with learning about your past and your stolen root power. Your locket may be a clue, considering how it reacted when the Monster tried to steal your power. Maybe that will lead you somewhere.”

  It might. And I wanted to learn about my past. Aethelred was the first person I’d ever met who might know something. Now I had a lead, at least.

  Maybe getting my powers back was a stretch. But it didn’t mean I couldn’t try.

  “You need to do it,” Del said. “The Monster won’t stop coming. You heard what the seer said. He’s up to something big, even if we don’t know what it is yet. And you can’t exactly hang around without your powers.”

  “You’re right.” I’d do anything to get them back. “Thanks for helping me get my head out of my butt.”

  Del shrugged. “It’s cool. If I’d gone through what you have, I’d be acting the same.”

  “Likewise,” Nix said.

  “Thanks.” I reached out and squeezed both of their hands, then climbed off the bed. “Okay, time for me to get back to the world of the living. I need a shower. I don’t think my dip in the Pool of Enchantment counted.”

  I only cried a little bit in the shower, but by the time I got out, I felt a lot better. My chest still felt empty, but that just left more room for the hope to grow.

  I laughed at my bad poetry and went into the bedroom. A fresh change of clothes lay on the bed, along with my two daggers. I tugged on clothes, then reached for Lefty and Righty, grateful I hadn’t lost them during my griffin changes. I was going to need them now. I’d lasted a long time without my magic. I could do it again.

  I hefted their familiar weight and tossed the blades into the air, watching the black glass glimmer in the light before catching them. After strapping the daggers to my thighs, I headed out in search of Aidan.

  I found him in the kitchen, unloading bags of ice cream into the freezer.

  “What are those for?” I asked.

  He spun, a grin on his face. His gray eyes roved over me, relief clear in their depths.

  “They were for you, but since you’re up and about, maybe you don’t need them.”

  “Hey now.” I approached and hopped up on the island counter across from him. “Can’t take them back.”