Tucker summoned his swords to his hands, but didn’t ignite them. “I know everyone heard that. We need to hurry up.”
I pulled the scale from my waistband and held it high over my head for her to see it. “Shh, we’re here to help you.” The dragon snapped its mouth closed and tilted its head to the side. I took a step closer. “Remember me? I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Zinnia,” Tuck warned. “Be careful.”
I didn’t take my eyes off of the dragon. “We’re okay, aren’t we girl? We just need to get this back to you and get out of here.”
Tucker stepped up beside me. Her violet eyes narrowed at him, and she hissed. The scales around her neck rose the way a dog’s hackles would rise. Her teeth dripped as she bared them at Tuck. When her tail started snapping back and forth, I knew we were in trouble.
I held my hand out. “Tuck, take a step back.”
“No, what if you get hurt?” he whispered.
I took another step toward the dragon and held the scale out in front of me. “We don’t have a choice.” I took another step. The dragon leaned its head all the way down and tucked its wings in close to its body like a lioness about to pounce.
I slid in closer to her, and a growl rumbled deep in her chest, but she didn’t move. She lifted her neck just a fraction, so I could walk under her. I took another step under her, and this time, I could see where the scale was missing. It was a single spot in her chest that glowed a bright yellowy orange.
“Zinnia! Look out!” Tuck bellowed a moment before I saw the long sword swinging toward my midsection.
I dove to the side. The blade barely missed my torso as I fell to the ground. The side of my body smacked into the slushy ice, it soaked through my shirt and into the ends of my hair. The scale skittered out of my hands a few feet away. I scrambled on my hands and knees to get to it.
“You think to steal my dragon, little girl?” Alataris stood over me with his sword held high over his head. The golden hilt glinted in the fire light. “Think again.”
He swung it down, and I held my arm over my body trying to shy away from the blow. Tucker sprinted towards us, his swords at the ready. At the last second, he dropped to his knees, skidding to my side. He held his swords over my body, blocking Alataris’ blow. Metal clanged against metal as Tucker shoved his swords forward, sending Alataris staggering back.
I staggered to my feet and summoned my duel blades. “I’m not stealing anything. I’m freeing what doesn’t belong to you.”
Alataris pressed his boney fingers to his chest. His face was all hard angles, but when he smiled, it made him look that much worse. With his gaunt skin pulling tight over his high sharp cheekbones and his curly black hair falling down the sides of his face in a greasy mess, he looked like a serial killer waiting to happen. In fact, that’s exactly what he was, a serial killer. “Nonsense. We all know she belongs to me.”
I didn’t want to take my eyes off of him, not for one second. If I did, he might retrieve the scale from where it lay on the ground. I took a step to the side, blocking his view of it. Tucker moved along with me. We were like two magnets pushing and pulling in unison.
Alataris swung his sword back and forth. “You want her, then you’ll have to fight me for her.”
This wasn’t the time to hesitate or to keep talking to him. I leapt forward, crossing my blades in front of me to block the blow I knew would come. When his long sword connected with the blades, my arms vibrated so hard, I felt the pain all the way down in to my shoulders. He threw his weight forward, pressing down on me. I bent my legs, and my muscles quaked with the effort it took to hold him back.
His eyes went full black. “You can’t beat me. Just give up.”
“Never!” Tucker stepped up beside him and swung both of his swords at Alataris’ neck. He ducked under them, and his sword slid back from mine. Alataris swung out and clashed with Tucker. They jabbed at each other so fast their swords and arms blurred into one long motion. I spun on my heels and ran for the scale. A shot of magic smacked into the ground just at my feet, creating a dent, sending dirt and rocks flying up into my face. I leapt over it and pumped my arms harder to get to where the scale lay. Just as I closed in on it, I slid across the ground like I was sliding into home plate at a baseball game. Except this was more important than any game I’d ever played. I wrapped my hand around the scale and scrambled to my feet.
The dragon stomped around nervously, all the while roaring and flailing its long neck at Tucker and Alataris as they battled underneath her. The barbs of her tail went flying right at Tuck’s back.
“Tail!” I screamed.
He didn’t hesitate. He leapt up into the air and backflipped right over it.
Alataris too jumped over the swinging tail just in time to follow Tuck. In midair, Tuck shot his wings of fire from his back and held himself high above Alataris. One of his swords vanished, and its place he held a ball of fire. His face was cold and determined as he launched it right at Alataris.
The evil witch jumped to the side and fired off his own electric energy ball…at me.
My hand shot out of its own accord, and I caught the ball. Whenever I’d done this before, I was able to throw the magic back. But this was different. An electric current ran up my arm, and my knees gave out from under me. My body shook like I’d been tasered, yet I refused to drop the scale.
“Zinnia!” Tucker swooped down toward me.
Alataris fired a ball of energy at him just them. Tuck dove to the side, barely missing the ball. He held himself in midair, trying to get to me but unable to. Alataris threw ball after ball at him. If we were going to win this, I had to get up and get moving. I gritted my teeth and forced my hand to open up and drop the ball to the ground. Sweat covered me from head to toe, and every muscle in my body quaked with pain. I shoved one foot up and then the other. Run, Zin. Run! I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other and move toward Aldesse.
Eight witches sprinted in toward me, each of them sliding down the sides of the bowl the way I had. Their long deep purple cloaks billowed out around them as they formed a wall blocking me from moving. I held my blades up. “Can’t you see she has to be free to restore balance to the world.”
A man with black hair that started in a widows peek and ran down to this hips stepped forward. “High King Alataris is trying to restore balance with the witch court ruling all. Can’t you see that?”
I rolled my eyes. “And can’t you see that will never work?”
He lifted both of his hands, a ball of magic was centered in each one. “Suit yourself.”
“Bring it.” I opened my magic and gather in around me. Silver swirls moved up my legs and down my arms. I place one hand over the other with just enough space to hold my own ball of magic with in them.
He stepped forward launching one ball after another at me. I spun to the side dodging them. I flung my ball of power out at him hitting him square in the chest. The man flew back ten feet in to two of the other witches he had with him. They dropped to the ground in a puddle of limbs. I opened my senses feeling each one of their powers, they called to me, telling me what each specialty was.
I reached my hand out and siphoned the power from the closest witch. The man dropped to his knees screaming in agony. The power tasted of icky copper on my tongue and I couldn’t get it out of my body fast enough. With my other hand I shot it into a man on the other side of the dragon. Bolts of red lighting ran over his body. He threw his head back and cackled to the sky. When he raised both is arms, he cried out, “For Alataris!”
The red bolts sparked from his palms, but instead of coming at me they back fired right into his own chest. He crumpled to the ground in to a steaming pile. I glared at the pile of rubble that used to be the witch. “See using someone else’s power isn’t so easy! Is it.”
That’s it! I didn’t have to fight fire with fire. I could stand back and watch it all burn on its own. I held my arms down at my sides and closed my eyes. In my mind
I saw their powers the way I had in my class at the Academy my first day of school. An array of colors, from the brightest yellow to the darkest brown. I flashed my eyes wide open and couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my lips. I called them all to me one by one they left the witches and gathered around me mixing in with my own. The power surged in my body, I felt like I my insides would explode if I didn’t let it all go.
All at one I let it explode out of me like a bomb sending all the magic back into a different witch then I’d taken it from. Their screams echoed in my ears as one by one it back fired on them. Behind me swords clashed together again and again. I spun on my heels and summoned my blades back to my hands ready to take on Alataris.
Tuck and I locked gazes for less than a second. “Go now!”
In that one single moment I knew he saw me, I knew he wanted me to get to the dragon, and I knew he was going to kick Alataris’ skinny ass.
I ran under Aldesse. She leapt and jumped from side to side. Her chest was a good fifteen feet off the ground, and there was no way I could do this without her help. “Hey! Hey, you up there. I need your help.”
She swung her head all the way under her stomach. When her violet eyes met mine, her face softened a fraction. “Listen, girl. I need you to help me, okay?”
She huffed and blew a freezing puff of smoke out at me. I motioned for her to drop down lower. “Just a bit lower so I can put this back on you.”
She lowered her chest down to me. I stood under her, looking up into the glowing yellow spot. This close, I could hear the flutter of her heart and feel the old magic running through her veins. This wasn’t a creature meant to be captured and broken. She was meant to be free to fly across the sky for an endless amount of days. I placed the scale over her heart and pressed my hand in the middle of it. A bright yellow light erupted from her chest, and the scale morphed in size, becoming a huge halfmoon that sat like a necklace around her neck and across her chest. It was gleaming white and shined like the sun.
Aldesse threw her head back and roared with glee. She bucked up on her hind legs and threw her wings out to the sides. Liquid ice seeped from her mouth, and she narrowed her eyes on the chains binding her to the ground. With one deep breath, she shot ice down both of the chains connected to the thick collar around her neck.
I jumped up into the air. “Yes, that’s it.” I ran over to one of the chains, then summoned my blades back to my hand and struck it as hard as I could. It shattered into a million pieces and fell to the ground. Aldesse pulled against the other, and it too broke into a rain of metal. She extended her wings and pumped them up, sending intense wind all around the bowl and knocking over the barrels of fire. With her heart scale in place she had the power to get away from Alataris.
I waved my arms. “Go, now. Be free.” She raised herself off of the ground a few feet then looked right at me. “Oh, no.”
She extended her large talons out at me and wrapped her claws around my whole body. I slammed my fist on the scales, but it was no use. She threw me up into the air. My feet went over my head, and I spun around. Before I smacked into the ground, her head shot out and I landed with my legs spread over her neck. Crap I’m riding a dragon. Aldesse pumped her wings taking me higher and higher. Below Alataris threw his head back and screamed, his face turned a bright shade of red. Before she took me above the clouds, he turned that rage on Tucker.
Dark clouds swallowed us up and I lost sight of Tuck. “No!” I patted the scales on her neck. “No, we can’t leave my friend there. We have to go back.”
Aldesse hovered in the sky for a moment shaking her head back and forth. I patted her neck once more. “You don’t have to stay, just drop me back down with him.”
The dragon surged through the clouds giving me a full view of Tuck fighting off Alataris. High above them she circled around. Tuck ran at him at full speed, fire streamed out behind him at the last second he flipped over Alataris’ head and jabbed his sword at him. Alataris spun and countered the swing with his own blade. Tuck leapt back but not far enough Alataris’ blade ran across his side. His shirt tore wide open and huge gash marred the side of his rib cage. He pressed his hand over it and stumbled back.
Alataris reached out and wrapped his hand round Tuck’s throat then yanked him in closer. Their eyes met and I saw Alataris’ lips moving but I couldn’t make out the words. Black smoke drifted from his mouth. Tuck struggled against his hands, blood poured down his side, soaking his shirt and the ground beneath him. The smoke surrounded Tuck’s throat, then drifted into his mouth, nose and eyes. Tuck threw his head back and his body bowed. His eyes rolled into his head as he inhaled whatever magic Alataris sent toward him. Tuck’s body went limp in Alataris’ grip.
“No!” I leapt to my feet trying to balance on Aldesse’s back. I held my hands out, when she began to level out and glided. I pumped my arms and ran down her wing and dove off the side. I held my arms and legs out like I’d seen so many skydivers do before me except I didn’t have a parachute. Aldesse roared behind me, but I couldn’t think of her. Tuck needed me more than ever now. My mind raced with a spell to make me float down to him, but I just kept plummeting. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him as Alataris shoved him away. Tuck stumbled back then fell to his knees. He held his hand pressed to his side looking down at his blood covered fingers. I was so close to him when two large claws wrapped around each of my arms. I looked up to find Aldesse holding onto me. When we got closer, she dropped me down right next to Tuck then took off once again.
I landed in a crouch next to him and grabbed on to his shoulders. “Tuck.” I shook him. “Tuck are you okay?” His head bobbled on his shoulders, but he said nothing.
“Oh he’ll come round…sooner or later.” Alataris chuckled. “Or not.”
I lumbered to my feet and opened my senses letting my magic gather all around me. Streams of silver circled around me and centered in my palms. “What did you do to him?”
He shrugged. “Zinnia Heart, look at the power you wield.”
“Zinnia.” My name was a whisper on Tuck’s lips. I glanced down at him for less than a second. His eyes were barely open. I knew I had to get him out of here. The color leeched from his skin, his lips turned a pale white.
I held my hands up and faced Alataris. “It is my power and I will use it on you.”
Aldesse dropped down behind me and roared, my hair blew into my face and I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my lips. “My ride has arrived. We will be going now.”
Alataris returned my grin. “Oh my dear, I’ll let you go…this time. In fact, I couldn’t be prouder.”
I shoved my hands under Tuck’s arms and helped him come to a stand. He moved like a zombie, slow and stiff. I never took my eyes off of Alataris. “What are you talking about? I’m doing exactly what I came here to do. I’ve freed the dragon. The balance will be restored, and you will have failed.”
Alataris ran his hand over the tip of his pointy chin. “In a way yes. Your precious balance will be restored. But I will still hold the mother you love and well other things. You may have gotten your dragon. But I have more than you can possibly dream.”
He took a step toward me, but Aldesse blew a sheet of ice between us. It only stood about four feet tall, but the warning was clear. Alataris held his hands up and took a step back. I climbed up behind Tuck and held on to him. His head rolled around. “Leave now, Zinnia. Leave.” His words were so faint.
I wanted to leave, to fly away and vanish from Alataris but I had to know. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, dearest daughter. How magnificent you are.”
My breath left me in a rush. Daughter? This couldn’t be, I opened my mouth to say something else, to deny it all. But the words wouldn’t come out. My stomach dropped to me feet and I wanted to vomit. My stomach churned and burred my face in between Tuck’s shoulder blades. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t be his daughter.
The witch with the long black hair stumbled out n
ext to Alataris. “Sire, don’t let them go!”
Alataris held his hand out stopping him. “I’ve done what needs doing for now.” He folded his hands in from of him. A sinister smile spread across his face. “And we have only just begun.”
What does that mean? I wanted to scream out but the words wouldn’t leave my mouth. I could only hold on to Tuck. “Let’s go.”
Aldesse didn’t hesitate to take off. She pulled her wings in and pumped them hard, shooting us up into the air. I clung to Tuck, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of Alataris as he faded from view. Though we’d stopped him and freed the dragon somehow I felt that I’d lost. Oh yes, we have just begun.
To find out what happened to Tucker and how Zinnia will handle her next encounter with Alataris keep on reading. The third book in The Royals: Witch Court, Wicked Hex, is releasing winter 2018 and is available for pre-order now just Click Here!
Turn to the next page to see the cover and book description for Wicked Hex!
Some powers come with a price…
I need Evermore Academy more than ever. Alataris will stop at nothing to take me down, even use the ones I love against me. Now I have to trust the one person I know I can’t…
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This power chose me…
Within the supernatural world of Evermore everyone prays their child will be born with the Mark of the Guardian for they have unparalleled strength, intelligence, and power…but they have no idea what it’s actually like. I didn’t wish for this gift and I definitely don’t want it. I was born a prince, I already had it all. This Mark on my neck stole all of it from me and forced me into a dangerous life I’d gladly trade away if I could…
Wicked Magic (The Royals: Witch Court Book 2) Page 19
