I tucked the coin into my front pocket and nodded. “He better be nice to me after this,” I muttered and stomped for the door.
The guy grunted in his unconscious state, but it came out more of a growl. His lips moved, and he mumbled a few words I couldn’t make out, but then Mama Lucy was shoving me towards the door.
“Is this his dog?” she asked, nodding to Harry sitting by the couch.
“I think so, at least he said it was. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
The wound oozed more blood as we’d stood there talking and not wanting to waste any more time, I darted out of the house, and sprinted through the streets.
My mind raced with possibilities of what was going on, but each one was crazier than the last. The guy had been stabbed by someone and carried around a sword, had a weird dog as a companion, and growled.
None of it made sense, but then again, nothing about these past few days made sense. The dreams had gotten worse, and the sensation that I was not alone in my own body intensified at random times throughout the day.
I took a deep breath as I rounded the corner and took off again. A tantalizing scent made me come to a dead stop.
The coin.
My eyes darted to my pocket, and I placed my hand over it. I wanted the coin, wanted to hold it again and keep it… but I couldn’t.
“What is wrong with me?” I picked up the pace and turned my thoughts back to the guy on Mama Lucy’s couch potentially going to die if I didn’t get back to them both fast enough.
Whatever else was going on, the only thing that mattered was not letting that rude person die on the couch. I had a feeling he’d come back to haunt me one way or another and never let me forget I failed him.
I was maybe a block away from the shop when I turned another corner and slammed right into a group of people.
I took one of them down with me as I yelped in alarm, but somehow, he managed to twist us mid-fall, and I landed on top of his hard, muscled form.
“Oh God! I’m so sorry,” I gasped, but the rest of the words stuck in my throat.
He smiled, and it lit up his face, his very smooth, chiseled face. Two bright blue eyes met mine, and I swore they glimmered.
“That’s quite alright. Are you hurt?”
“Am I hurt?” I repeated dumbly and shook my head. “No, no I’m fine. How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“I was going to land on the sidewalk, and then you moved, and I crushed you.”
“I hardly call this crushing me, and you seem to be enjoying it since you have yet to move… though your elbow is digging into my ribcage.”
I yanked it away and tried to get off his very comfortable, very warm chest. “Sorry! I’m so sorry.”
He helped me, and I noticed his buddies standing close by, staring curiously at me. “It’s alright. Not every day a beautiful woman runs into me.”
“Yeah well, I’m in a hurry and crap! I’m sorry, I have to go!”
I took off at a run again, but a glance over my shoulder told me the guy stood there with a mix of confusion and delight on his face as he watched me go.
Damn it! Why couldn’t I have just stayed a few seconds longer? Gotten his number maybe? But that was selfish of me. The other guy I ran into was about to die if I didn’t hurry. There was no time for getting numbers from handsome guys on the street.
And I didn’t know either of their names.
Fantastic.
But that second guy, he seemed familiar. I hadn’t seen him around town before, just like the first one, but he was different.
I wrinkled my nose as the notion that he smelled familiar passed through my mind. How could someone smell familiar? Was it his cologne maybe? But I was lying right on top of him, and I was pretty sure there was no cologne on that guy anywhere.
He looked a little older, too. Maybe nineteen or twenty. College guy. Could’ve been in town for something I guess. I shouldn’t know who he was, but that voice in the back of my mind said I did and I should turn back to find him again.
“No,” I told myself firmly and sprinted the rest of the way to the shop. “Have to save the idiot first.”
Outside the shop with windows filled with herbs and oils, candles and hanging charms and ornaments, I waited a few seconds longer, to catch my breath, then sweaty and a bit out of sorts, stepped inside the one shop I’d always wanted to go into, holding my breath for what I might finally get to see.
A bell chimed over the door as I entered and a strong, familiar scent that reminded me immediately of Mama Lucy’s greenhouse hit me hard. Soft flute music played from speakers in the ceiling, and a bubbling fountain filled the center of the shop.
The walls were lined from floor to ceiling and filled with jars and bottles, wooden boxes, and things with names I couldn’t even pronounce. More glittering charms hung from the ceiling.
I glanced up at them as I moved slowly through the shop. There was one wall dedicated to books and another to horns and other strange looking items that had to be for show.
“May I help you?” a voice came from behind me.
I turned to see a woman with jet black hair and piercing ice blue eyes standing behind the counter. She had a broom in one hand and a red shawl around her shoulders.
“Yeah, sorry, Mama Lucy sent me,” I said, gulping down my apprehension over being here.
But the woman’s face softened immediately, and she smiled, waving me forward. “Well then, welcome. You must be Kate.”
I frowned. “How did you know?”
She nodded her head towards my wrist and the bangle. “I know many things, child, and I know your time is precious. Why have you come? Where is Lucy?”
I couldn’t speak for a moment, but remembered the wound on that guy’s side and rushed to pull the coin and list from my pocket. “She’s helping someone. Said we needed the things on the list and to pay you with this coin.” I handed both of them over, though my fingers tried to cling a moment longer to the gold coin.
She whispered over the list. “My, my, this is interesting. Wait here. I’ll gather what you need.”
As she disappeared into the back, I meandered around the shop to keep my mind from thinking the worst. If I was too late… if I couldn’t get back to the house in time…
No, no I was going to think positive. I might not have known that strange guy for long, but I could tell he was a fighter. He’d live. I knew he would.
I glanced aimlessly around the shop as I walked, but stopped when voices whispered as if people stood right beside me, speaking into my ear.
I whipped around, but I was alone. The voices were still there, but when I moved towards the counter, they grew quieter. Curious, I took another few steps towards the far corner of the shop, and they increased. I winced at how loud they became when I reached a small table, and everything fell deathly silent.
Sitting on the table was an intricate looking dagger, gold hilt encrusted with sapphires. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Dragons were etched into the sheath around the blade and even the hilt curved into the tail of one.
I reached out to touch it and like a magnet, my hand tightened around it. The shop fell away, and I was no longer a girl in a shop.
I soared high above the town, heavy wings beating the air as I pushed myself higher and higher above the clouds. When I rose above them, I was free.
Finally, free!
Wind rushed past me, and I rolled as I soared effortlessly through the air.
Then the sky darkened and turned red, and screams came from below.
I flew below the clouds, and the town was gone.
Instead, a castle stood in its place surrounded by other buildings on fire. People screamed and ran, but from what, I couldn’t see.
A massive body flew right by me, and I stared in awe at another great beast like me… and another… and another. The sky was filled with dragons, fire shooting from their mouths as they attacked the shadowy force overwhelming the land, bu
t it did nothing to hold it back.
I tried to flee, but I was no longer in control. A roar erupted from my great body, and the dragons rallied to my side.
As one, we flew towards the shadow. I opened my jaws, my inner fire shot upward, through my throat…
“Kate,” a stern voice snapped, and my hand was yanked away from the dagger.
“What… sorry… what was that?” I asked panicking as I staggered away from the table.
“I said to wait by the counter.” She didn’t sound angry; concerned, but not angry.
“Sorry, yeah.” I sheepishly shoved my hands in my pocket and stepped back to the counter.
“I’ll have your items ready in a few minutes. I recommend you not touch anything else. You might not like what you see.”
She disappeared into the back of the shop again leaving me to wonder what she meant… and what the hell I’d just seen.
I hope you enjoyed this excerpt from Dragon Reign: Rivals.
Copyright © 2017 by Kit Bladegrave
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Mortal Raised Page 19
