When I stepped outside, the whole group was waiting for me. Marcus gave me a big hug and handed me two wicked-looking curved daggers. Not my normal fare, but easier to hide. They came with a harness so the hilts would hang down, crossing in the middle of my back. I tossed him my coat and fit the harness into place. I slid my coat back over my shoulders and looked over at everyone who had gathered to see me off.
John came forward and pulled my coat down just a bit and then walked around me. “Perfectly hidden.”
“So the blades were your idea?”
“I’m not handing you off to any demon without a weapon, regardless of what’s at stake.”
I gave him a quick hug. “Good looking out.” Everyone looked like they were waiting on me. Most of them looked somber, but I felt an undercurrent of hope. If this worked, not only would we get Jackson back, but the demons would be leaving our world in record numbers. A lot rode on the completion of this deal, more than just getting the man I loved back in my arms.
Adam stepped forward. “It’s just going to be John and Sarah accompanying you. We wanted to make sure we sent the exact same people who were there when the deal was offered. If for some reason it all goes to shit, get back here any way you can. Everyone is ready to attack with everything that we have the moment this goes sideways.”
“I’m ready, Adam.” He stuck out his hand for a shake. I was tempted to bat it aside and pull him into a hug, but before I could, Henry did it for me. He knocked Adam’s hand aside and pulled me into a warm embrace. I knew I liked him better for some reason. He shot Adam a nasty glare and turned back to me with a warm smile.
“Be safe, and bring our boy home.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“I know you will.” Henry broke our hug and gave me one last smile.
“Well, if we are done with the sappy stuff, let’s get this thing done. Then maybe I’ll finally be able to get some real sleep.”
Marcus held out his fist as I walked by. I bumped it, and he smiled and reached back to blow it up. Guys. John and Sarah stepped in front of me and started to open the portal. We had thirty minutes to reach the house and get this done. For better or worse, everything would be decided soon. As long as I ended up with Jackson back in my arms, I’d chalk it up as a win.
The darkness faded around the opening, revealing a path inside of the dome. Sarah moved in and then motioned for me to join her. As John walked in, the opening closed. The stone in his hand shattered. There was no way out now except to go forward. John and Sarah took the lead. Just like when we left, the demons stayed conspicuously far away from us. They were avoiding us on purpose.
As we made it to the house, I noticed something massive was under construction in the driveway. The structure was already almost thirty feet tall, and couldn’t have been more than halfway finished. The demoness we had been speaking to strode out of the house and walked down to meet us with confidence.
“Welcome back. I trust that you have good news.”
John and Sarah just stared at her. I knew this went against almost everything they believed in. Everything that they had fought years to accomplish. John especially had every reason to hate the demons. “We agree to your terms. If we can convince Jackson to come back, you will take your demons back to hell.”
“Agreed.”
“What is this monstrosity?” John asked. The work the demons were doing was clearly putting him on edge.
“It’s a way for us to make a portal big enough so that we can send everyone home. My boss believed that you would find our deal amenable and asked me to start construction on it early.”
“And your boss is?” John asked.
“Oh, I’m surprised you don’t remember me, John.”
He stepped out of the shadows and laughed as he finished talking. His laugh was horribly high-pitched and tittering. It was almost how I would imagine a spider would sound if it could laugh. John stepped back at the sight of the man. Tremors broke out across his body. He turned toward me. “April, whatever you do, you cannot go with this man.”
“Silence.”
John fell to his knees, gasping for air. Sarah growled and turned to attack him. She made it exactly three steps before he raised his hand and she stopped moving. I could see it in her eyes that she was terrified, but her body refused to move. This demon was stronger than any I had seen or heard of before, but I still wasn’t willing to take his shit. We were here at his request.
“Enough!” His cold eyes turned toward me. “I’m coming with you to get Jackson back. Release them, or we have nothing left to talk about.”
He waved his hand again, and both of them were able to move. Sarah rushed to John’s side and held him for a moment before he was able to stand on his own again. The demoness just watched us, as if everything we did was interesting. The man laughed again.
“I can see why he likes you. So fierce and just as deadly, no doubt.”
“What can I say? The man has good taste. Let’s go and get him so you can honor the rest of your deal.”
“All you need to do is take my arm.”
I walked forward and gripped his arm. His skin felt cold and clammy, almost as if he had come out of a bath of ice water. He looked down at me, and a smile broke across his face. His eyes were hidden by his cloak. Something about him was off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. He wore a gem around his throat that seemed to glow almost in rhythm with my heartbeat. I wondered if it was tied to his heart somehow.
“It’s been a long time since I had such a lovely lady on my arm. It’s a shame we don’t have time for dinner first.”
I heard Sarah growl behind me. I felt the edge of my lips quirk up in a smile. She was so protective. I wondered if that was what Jackson would be like as he merged more closely with his wolf. The demon looked at me, wondering what was so funny. “Let’s go and get my man.”
His smile vanished, and with a wave of his other hand, a portal opened in front of us. The blackness almost seemed to spill from inside of it, making a dark night even darker. He waited for me to finish looking and then took a step forward. When I hesitated, he pulled me closer.
“This is the only way we can travel to him. If you want the opportunity to convince him to come back, this is your one chance. Are you ready?”
I didn’t answer him. I was ready, at least I hoped so. The fact that this could be a trap wasn’t lost on me. It was worth it, trap or not, for the chance to bring Jackson back. This time, when he stepped forward, I moved with him.
As we entered the portal, the darkness grabbed me and seemed to twist me around on myself. It wasn’t anything like going through one of our doorways. The feeling continued until, moments later, it abruptly stopped. I felt the bile coming before my feet felt firm on the ground. I retched a few times, and then stood up.
The demon next to me handed me a piece of cloth and a bottle of water. “It gets easier,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Who was this man who cared enough to have a bottle of water and a towel handy in case I threw up? It obviously wasn’t the demon who had laughed at our discomfort only moments ago. Not that demon who had John so scared, his body broke down in tremors. There was something more to this demon than met the eye.
A crashing noise sounded from in front of us, and then a giant creature came tumbling through an arch inside of the obsidian cavern. Out of the pile of teeth and wings, Jackson stood up, and when he saw me, his eyes seemed to shine. He took a step away from the creature before it grabbed his leg and pulled him back into the air.
“Jackson!” I tried to run forward, but the demon next to me slithered inside of my mind and told me to stay still. No matter how hard I fought against him, I was stuck. I focused everything I had, trying to create a shield around my mind, but it wouldn’t work. The demon took off his hood, and for the first time, I could see his eyes. They almost seemed to be pleading. The fact that this creature might have been experiencing the same thing that I was flashed through my mind.
All of my thoughts seemed to fade away until a screech of triumph sounded from the next room.
“It seems I might not need your services, after all.”
The presence in my mind left, and tears started to spatter the stone floor in front of me. I had been so close. This couldn’t be happening, not now. He had to be all right.
Chapter Nineteen
Jackson
The trek up the mountain had proved boring. I still hadn’t seen a demon, and I was starting to get antsy. If they were all in one place, this was going to be one hell of a day. I’d been running for the last half hour, and I was starting to think that even if I continued at this pace, there was no way I would reach the top until nightfall. I still needed to have the energy to fight when I got there, so it might even take me longer. Showing up exhausted would only get me killed.
Veering off the side of the path, I slipped into some light tropical foliage. I pulled out one of the jars of water and then looked to see what kind of food they had. It looked like some dried fish and fruit. Awesome. On what might be my last day alive, I had been reduced to eating fish jerky. I guess it was better than nothing, but what I really wanted was a burger or a pizza. Maybe even some of that killer lasagna Marcus used to get for us. Anything but fish jerky and fruit.
Still, you had to be thankful for what you had. I could have just as easily been out here with nothing. I drank half of the water and ate one strip of the salted fish and most of the fruit. When I got closer, I’d finish the rest of the water and the meat before heading inside the mountain to fight whatever was waiting there.
A cry sounded from the sky, and I crept further back into the foliage. Something flew overhead, and then its shadow passed me. I counted for five seconds before the shadow was gone. Whatever was flying above me was huge. Stepping out of the plants, I shielded my eyes against the dying light and started to mumble under my breath. It can’t be; there was no way in hell that it could be. The beast circled around one more time and descended toward the mountain. I was having some really bad luck. The princess was a fucking dragon.
Well, if that didn’t just scream failure, I didn’t know what would. How do you even fight a dragon? I mean, it depended on which books you read, but most of them were almost indestructible. That, and they could breathe flames or ice or chaos energy. Granted, seeing as she lived in a mountain spewing lava, my bet was on flames. Still, I’d put my money on impenetrable dragonhide for the win every time. Maybe my swords could chip away at it and eventually get through. I was lost for ideas, so I looked to my wolf. It gave me the mental equivalent of a shrug. Great, even the wolf didn’t know if its claws could penetrate dragon skin.
Stuffing the water bottle back into my satchel, I continued to climb the mountain. I still had some time to try and figure it out. Not much, but hopefully as much as I needed. Was it too much to hope that the dragon was missing a scale on its belly, just like Smaug? Yeah, yeah, I knew it was wishful thinking, but when your day in hell was going to end with a dragon battle, all you could do was hope for the best. This was me hoping. I’d throw movie and book references at it until something shook loose. Losing wasn’t an option.
The distance to the mountain must have been some kind of optical illusion. I’d walked all day and deep into the night. I was out of water and food, and just ready to get this thing over with. That wasn’t the kind of upbeat attitude you would expect from someone about to tangle with a dragon, but it was all I had. My shirt had been soaked through and dried more times than I could count. Now it rubbed raw against my skin like it was made out of steel wool.
The rest of me was a mess. If for some reason this demon princess actually sent me home, I’d be a fucking disaster to look at. My family might actually wait for me to shower before hugging me. Shit, they might demand it. Yep, I was that gross. It was crazy to be worried about it now. I still had to fight something that I thought didn’t exist, and maybe they didn’t in the real world. But here, here dragons were real, and one of them stood between me and getting home.
The entrance to the mountain didn’t look like much, but as I walked closer, I could see the black stone had been carved in intricate runes and patterns. It must have taken an army of laborers a lifetime to do that much work. Maybe I was wrong, and the princess was putting the tributes to work.
When I walked under the archway, I felt a release of some kind of power. Maybe an early warning system. It wouldn’t be long now until a horde of demons or people descended on me. I could feel it. I moved forward slowly and kept my eyes moving around the room. An attack could come from anywhere.
I’d like to tell you that when an attack didn’t come, that it put my mind to rest. It didn’t. If anything, the lack of attacks or of any other living thing put me even more on edge. The cave narrowed and then opened again into what could only be called a throne room. The black stone had been carved to look like a massive chair thrusting up from the ground in the middle of the room. It was almost as if the lava had shot upward and then cooled itself into a throne. Currently circled around it, and possibly sleeping, was the dragon I had seen earlier.
The dragon was maybe forty feet long, if you counted the creature’s massive tail. I know I counted it. Forty feet sounded much more impressive than twenty-five feet and a tail. The beast’s jaws were big enough that it would be able to easily rip me in half. One clawed hand poked out from underneath it. It was tipped with foot-long nails that would probably be able to rip a car in half.
My wolf let out a low whistle in my mind. I knew exactly what he meant. This dragon was as impressive as everything I had ever imagined, and neither of us had any idea of how to fight it. I stood there, watching it breathe slowly and wondering what in the hell I had gotten myself into this time. Then one of the dragon’s eyes opened and froze me in place with its stare.
The massive creature uncurled its neck and head from around the throne and stretched. A small burst of fire flickered through its nostrils before it turned its head toward me. It wasn’t any less intimidating to have both eyes fixed on me instead of one. All I wanted to do now was run away. I might have even taken one involuntary step backward, before standing still again and wishing I was invisible.
The dragon spoke, and her voice echoed off of the cavern walls. The power behind it was unmistakable. “You are too young to be a tribute. Why have you disturbed my sleep?”
Dragons like flattery, right? “I’ve come to request a favor, Oh Mighty One.” Mighty one? Shit, couldn’t I have come up with something better than that? Of course, she was mighty. She was a fucking dragon. It didn’t look like my smooth tongue was going to get me out of this, after all.
“The only boon I will bestow upon you is the chance to leave with your life. If you hurry, I won’t even chase you down.” Her eyes closed, and she seemed to be pondering something. “Although, you would make a tasty snack.” A red tongue curled out of her mouth and ran around her lips.
All I could focus on was the teeth behind that tongue. Well, fuck, that didn’t actually leave much room for negotiation, but I had to try. More of her body was already uncurling from around the throne. Probably because I hadn’t turned tail and run out of the room like a good little supplicant would have. “You see, I’m not from this realm, and I’d really like to get back home. If you would be so inclined as to open a portal for me, it would be greatly appreciated.”
The dragon finished uncurling from where she had been sleeping. Her giant wings unfurled, and a breeze swept over me. I had to use my earth magic to hold me in place. I wondered if this was what it felt like to get next to a jet engine as a plane took off. I’d only seen it happen in Pushing Tin, but hey, if it happened in a movie, it had to be real, right?
When I didn’t get blown away, the dragon cocked its head. The image reminded me so much of a dog, that I had to smile. Maybe animals just shared a universal expression that meant what in the fuck? I didn’t expect that to happen. Fire bubbled at the dragon’s nose, and I knew what was coming next. I
held my hands out in front of me.
“I’m not one of your tributes. My name is Jackson Blackthorn, son of John, and I am the redeemer.”
The dragon in front of me seemed to shimmer for a moment, and a woman stepped out of where it had been. She had long legs and a tapered waist. Her dark green hair stood out against the paleness of her skin. The rest of her was covered in something that I might have called a cat suit on earth. The main difference being instead of being made out of latex or some kind of spandex material, hers was made out of scales. It was sexy, and it gave her what I expected to be the same amount of protection that she would have had as a dragon. She smiled at me, and it was disarming as hell.
“Oh, how interesting.” She paused to look me over. “It’s been so long since I had a surprise.”
Interesting . . . Well, I guess that could work in my favor. Unless by interesting she meant that I was about to become a snack. Then, of course, you could take interesting and shove it up your ass. She walked up to me and put a finger on my shoulder. She trailed the finger around me as she walked in a circle. She stopped in front of me and licked her lips before backing up a few steps. Jesus, what in the hell was going on?
“I’ve been looking for a mate.”
She just let it hang there. I wondered if that was what the tributes to her were for, at least the male tributes. Maybe she was hoping for a mate. If she only wanted the males, what did she do with the females? “I’d be happy to try and help you find the right person. If you can get me home.”
“Oh, I think I might have found the right person. You see, the humans are too weak. I tend to break them during the process. But you . . . you’re something more, something different. I sense power inside of you. Maybe your body could live up to the stress.”
I started to back up, putting some distance between us. I didn’t know which form she mated in, and I didn’t want to find out. “As much as I appreciate the offer”—I bowed my head in subservience—“I already have a mate, and a wolf mates for life.”
Redemption (Ascendancy Legacy 6) Page 16
