Dragon of Destiny (Legends Reborn Book 3)

by Eva Chase

  Don’t worry about it. I didn’t understand what he was talking about until my gaze traveled down the length of his body—and stopped on the tented fabric of his khakis.

  Oh. Oh. That hadn’t been a groan of discomfort at all. I’d been so absorbed in the spell-casting, it hadn’t even occurred to me what other sorts of effects the ritual might have on Darton. More concrete effects. I was practically kissing every inch of his naked chest. A spark of my own heat flared between my legs. Not that I intended to tackle that problem.

  He’d told me not to stop. Maybe this was feeling like the worst kind of teasing to him, but that was better than the torments the Darkest One wanted to inflict on us.

  I checked the bowl. It was only a third full from the red stream trickling down my fingers from my palm. I wasn’t even a little lightheaded yet. I could dredge out a whole lot more darkness yet.

  Darton kept his reactions under control as I steadied my breath and leaned in again. I shifted, breath by breath, down his rib cage to just above his belly button, and then back up the center of his chest. His musky smell seeped through the acrid scent of the powder that coated my face. I trained all my attention on the shine of his soul and the threads of shadow I was unwinding from it.

  I hadn’t seen the dragon, but now that I was aware of it, I could sense its movements. It wound itself tight and uncoiled itself more than once as I drained away those shreds of the energy collected in it.

  Then, as I inhaled yet another time, it lashed out with a swipe of its tail.

  The bolt of energy smacked me in the solar plexus. My pulse stuttered, and an ache swelled through my abdomen. I sat up, my breath gone shaky. My head swam. When I clutched the side of the obsidian bowl, my fingers dipped into what had to be nearly half a quart of blood.

  Okay, maybe that was enough for one session.

  Darton had closed his eyes. “Em,” he muttered. “Gods, Merlin.” A fresh wave of heat washed over me. I didn’t know what he was responding to now, what we’d just been doing or some memory only he could see, but he was obviously still turned on. And he’d spoken to me, not just to Emma.

  “My liege,” I said cautiously. “I think we’d better take a breath from this. Your dragon isn’t especially happy with me right now. And I could use that recovery time.”

  I said a few words to stop my palm’s bleeding, but didn’t seal the wound. No point in wasting the energy when I’d be reopening it before the end of the day. Darton pushed himself upright, adjusting his slacks, as I reached for the bandage I’d left just outside the circle. He coughed, still flushed. Still having some trouble meeting my eyes. “So, ah, did it work?”

  “I captured some of the energy. I’m not sure how much of a dent I made, but at least the process accomplished something.”

  I patted the bandage in place and reached for the bowl. Darton’s gaze followed the motion. He grimaced at the sight of its contents. “Are you sure you’re okay after all that?”

  “I’ve been studying human biology for centuries,” I said. “I know exactly how much blood a body can stand to lose. Now if you’ll excuse me, donation clinics recommend juice and cookies for a reason. I’ve got to stock up on fluids and energy for the next round.”

  “The next round,” Darton murmured to himself, with a rough chuckle and a shake of his head. He scrambled to his feet to follow me. On his way out the door, he grabbed his shirt from where he’d draped it on the dresser. “I don’t feel any different. Can you sense anything different with the oath?”

  That was a good question. I paused, turning as he caught up. A glance downward told me his, er, enthusiasm for the situation had waned, and with that apparently his embarrassment. He looked at me questioningly when I raised my eyes. I tested the impulses running through my body.

  Urge to grab the front of that shirt and yank his mouth to mine? Check. Urge to run my hands over his body until he was groaning my name again? Double check. Urge to snuff the life out of him...? Hmm. The now-familiar itch nagged faintly at my fingers, but without much oomph. I wasn’t sure if that was because of all the other sensations running through me or because my king’s soul had been downgraded in threat level, but I’d take it.

  “I think it’s a little better,” I said. “I definitely don’t seem inclined to kill you any time in the next hour or so.”

  Darton laughed. “Well, I guess I’ll take that.” He opened his mouth again as if to say something else, but he didn’t get the chance. Because in the same moment, the ceiling over the kitchen collapsed with a hail of rushing shadows.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Darton leapt back, but a wave of dark magic was already crashing over us. It crackled cold over my skin and shrieked in my ears. I threw my arm toward Darton, groping for him, but my fingers only touched frigid air. I hurled myself in the direction I thought he’d gone, and finally my body collided with his.

  His arms closed around me. “What’s happening?” he shouted by my ear over the roar of the shadows.

  “The dark fae,” I said. “They’ve broken past my protections.” I’d set aside my salt pouch so it didn’t disrupt the ceremony, so I hadn’t felt them cross the barrier outside.

  They were coming for Darton. The Darkest One was on her way, and her minions had arrived to snatch up my king and deliver him to her. My heart thumped. “Where’s your sword?”

  “By the door.”

  “Then we run for it.”

  We dashed together, stumbling in the swirling darkness, toward the front of the house. My wand. Where was my wand? I’d set the one I’d been carrying on me aside for the ritual too, for the same reason. I should have picked it right back up when we’d finished. How could I have been so careless?

  There. The energy in one called out to me like a beam of light through clouds. There was the wand I’d set in the basket near the door.

  Excalibur gleamed as Darton grasped its hilt. I spun around.

  Shadowy figures swept through the haze toward us: The dark fae, following the path their magical assault had broken open.

  “Darkness begone!” I hollered, channeling all my intention through that wand. Light exploded through the room. The shadows splintered; the dark fae that had been running at us staggered backward. Only for a moment, but that was all I’d known I could hope for.

  I grabbed Darton’s elbow as the wand crumbled apart in my fingers. I’d used every shred of energy stored in it with that one spell, but it’d been worth it. “Come on!” I said, and yanked the door open. We hurtled out into the concrete yard.

  The sky that had been clear and bright when I’d returned from my trip with Jagger now churned with dark gray clouds. They blotted out all but the faintest hint of sunlight. Dark creatures, filmy beings shaped like panthers and wolves, stalked along the edges of the yard, not strong enough to break through my protections.

  Not yet. The Darkest One was coming, and her power was already sweeping over this country. My fingers dug into Darton’s arm. I spun and tugged him toward the van Jagger had left in our possession.

  If you can’t fight ‘em, flee from ‘em.

  A chant was ringing out from inside the house. I wrenched at some of my own bodily energy—goodbye, another three months of my life—and cast it out with a hasty spell. “Shield us, save us, press back the darkness!”

  A quiver of energy shot up around us. It formed a gleaming ball of light, as if we were rodents in a giant, glowing hamster ball. And not a second too soon. A bolt of sizzling shadow smacked into its surface and burst apart. Icy fragments seared over my skin, but they didn’t do half as much harm as if the bolt had hit me dead on.

  Darton swung out his sword, shattering another bolt of magic streaming toward our shell. Then he turned and ran with me the last steps to the van. I hauled open the back doors, and we charged through to the front seats. I dropped into the driver’s seat. A jolt of panic hit me.

  “The keys. I didn’t grab them from the basket.” I’d been in too much of a hurry to get us out.r />
  “You’re a wizard, Em,” Darton said. “You’re Merlin. Can’t you convince the engine to start some other way?”

  Right. I didn’t have a whole lot of practice with mechanical magic, but the principles were the same. And I couldn’t have asked for more motivation.

  The van rocked as some dark force struck it. The dark fae were almost on us. I hit the switch to turn on the flood lamps, hoping their sun-filled light would buy us an extra second or two, and shoved my hand into the cup holder between Darton and I. The twigs I’d stashed there during my drive with Jagger met my grasping fingers. I snatched a handful and pointed them toward the ignition.

  “Spark and sing,” I ordered the transmission. The engine roared on. Okay, that was a little more energy than I’d intended, but I’d take it. I grabbed the steering wheel and slammed my foot on the gas.

  The van peeled down the driveway with a screech that suggested we’d left a lot of tire on the concrete. We careened through the ring of dark creatures that had been stalking around the edges of the yard. All those nearby leapt at us in a rush. Their shadowy forms burst apart as the van’s sun-powered lights hit them, but the wave of them was so forceful it rocked the vehicle anyway.

  I jerked the wheel to follow the curve of the driveway toward the main road. A clot of darkness shot toward us in the rearview mirror. I braced myself half a second before the spell hit the van with a wallop.

  Bulbs popped with a tinkle of cracking glass. The glow around the van dimmed. I had just enough time to mutter a curse before a pair of shadow creatures like giant eagles dove at us from above.

  They slammed into the windshield at the same moment. The van’s lights were still bright enough to shatter them, but not before the thrust of their energy had split a crack down the middle of the glass. Heart thudding, I swerved onto the highway, so fast we nearly spun.

  My lips started to move of their own accord. A few words had spilled out before I caught myself—caught the spell they meant to cast. A choking enchantment to smack Darton in the throat. My stomach knotted. The itch dug into my hands even as I clenched the steering wheel with all my strength. My arm twitched. Another blast of dark magic hit the back window, blackening it.

  I didn’t know if we could make it. Maybe there wasn’t anything I could do but grab Darton and think of some other place to apparate us to where the fae couldn’t quickly follow. But the second I let myself reach toward him, I had the feeling I’d be driving magic into his heart, stealing the breath from his lungs—fulfilling that awful oath. They were right on our heels, and the urge didn’t believe I could stop them from completing their mission.

  My elbow jerked to the side. I gritted my teeth, biting down on my lip hard enough to draw blood. That sting wasn’t enough. With every ounce of self control I had in me, I released my left hand from the wheel just long enough to press my thumb into the knife wound I hadn’t bothered to seal.

  I winced, but the jolt of pain that radiated up my arm was worth it. The oath’s urge dulled enough that I could breathe. Darton looked over at me, his eyes widening.

  “Em,” he said. Then, without waiting for any response, he reached over and rested his hand on my leg.

  A shaky laugh spilled out of me. He must have remembered the other way I’d tamed the oath’s urge. His thumb traced a gentle line across the top of my thigh, and the heat of it flared up my leg to the core of me, despite everything going on around us. Maybe even because of it. Adrenalin could make quite the enhancer to physical attraction.

  A slash of dark magic cut across the road in front of us—literally. The pavement snapped and gaped in a half-a-foot chasm. I jammed my foot harder against the gas, thinking maybe we could hop it.

  Before I got the chance to find out, another dark bolt must have hit us from behind. The van jostled and listed to the side. One of the wheels gave a dull thump thump thump against the ground that told me the tire had blown out. We were coasting to a stop.

  I pumped the gas pedal, hoping I could squeeze a little more speed out of our momentum. No such luck. I slammed my hand into the cup holder to grasp the last of my twigs.

  A wave of shadow swept toward us and crashed into the side of the van. The vehicle swayed and skidded. With a screech, it tipped over into the ditch.

  I clutched the wheel, but I still fell half out of my seat on the impact. The top of my head smacked the ceiling. I dropped down onto Darton, who’d had the smarts to put on his seatbelt during our mad rush away from the house. The passenger window shattered. Darton grunted as my hip hit him in the gut.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “Sorry.” We had to get out of here. The dark fae and their creatures would be swarming us, getting closer every moment we lay here. I squirmed away from Darton as he fumbled to detach his seatbelt. My hand throbbed. My head ached.

  There wasn’t any other answer now. I had to use the magic, had to whisk us away from here, as far as I could. What were another few years of my life gone anyway? It wasn’t as if I was going to live more than a few minutes if we stayed here.

  Where to go? Not back to my parents. Campus was too close. Maybe the desert, near Jagger’s former house. Could I summon enough connection to that place to port us out there? I grasped Darton’s arm and closed my eyes, dragging up every impression I’d had of dry earth and blazing sun—

  “That’s far enough, you monsters!” someone hollered outside the van. My head jerked up.

  “What?” Darton said, looking as startled as I felt. A crackling, hissing sound that was almost familiar split the air.

  No, it was completely familiar. I’d heard it when Eric and Mauve had taken on the dark vermin that had come for us at their house. It was the flare of flamethrowers spewing their fire. And another sound, too, that I definitely didn’t recognize, but something about the warbling sizzle of it made my spirits lift.

  I grasped the back of the driver’s seat and hauled myself up to the door that was now above us. With a heave, I flung that door open. Darton gave me a leg up so I could poke my head out of the van.

  Two rows of vehicles, all of them fitted with outer lamps like the van, had formed a blockade from one of the road’s gravel shoulders to the other. Their passengers had streamed out of them to surround the van. Several of the men and women wore harnesses with flamethrowers attached. Others held devices I hadn’t seen before, with a large spherical chamber at the back and a narrow rod at the front.

  A bear-like dark creature charged at a young woman wielding one of the new weapons, and she pulled the trigger. A streak of electricity discharged from the rod. It zapped the bear right in the chest, and the creature exploded into fragments of shadow. Sodding hell, what was that thing?

  Jagger stood at the front of the crowd, holding one of those electro-guns. He waved it at the surge of darkness that was swelling down the road toward us. The figures of at least two dozen dark fae glided toward us with strides hastened by their magic, flanked by a mass of dark vermin so dense I could barely tell where one creature ended and another began.

  “Just try me!” Jagger shouted. It was his voice I’d heard earlier. But I’d never heard it like that before, so harsh and raw. He was angry—and terrified. Not that I could blame him.

  I could get my act together and pitch in rather than sitting here like some damsel waiting to be rescued.

  I hauled myself the rest of the way out of the van. “Pass me the sword,” I called back the Darton. He held Excalibur up to me, hilt first. I hopped down with it to give him room to clamber out after me. My head swiveled, taking in the lay of the land.

  The dark creatures had already nearly surrounded us. Jagger and the others—more of his fae hunter colleagues, I assumed—were torching or electrifying any that came within a few feet of their protective circle. Their chill carried on the breeze with a smell like slush mixed with rotted leaves.

  My gaze snagged on a sapling at the edge of the forest on the other side of the ditch. Darton jumped down beside me, and I shoved his sword back into
his hands. One of the fae hunters barbequed a snake-like creature that had just slithered past the sapling. I dashed over to her.

  “Cover me?” I said, waiting only an instant for her nod. “Darkness begone,” I yelled at the closest creatures and clamped my jaw against the jerk of my soul. At least I was only giving up a few weeks rather than the years I’d been looking at a couple minutes ago.

  I leapt forward and snatched at the sapling’s branches. With a murmured apology, I snapped two, and then another two, and another, dodging backward just as a hissing ball of dark magic whipped toward me. It vanished in the stream of the fae hunter’s flamethrower.

  Clutching my plunder between my hands, I hustled back to Darton. He’d joined the fae hunters facing the thickest onslaught, Excalibur gleaming in his hands.

  “My liege!” I said. “A little assistance?”

  He sliced through a snarling shadow fox and jogged backward to me. “The great wizard needs my help?” His grin was far too tight.

  “Shut up, Art,” I said. “Magic plus sword was a fruitful equation the last few times we tried it. I’m all for sticking with that strategy.”

  He glanced back toward the fray. The fae hunters were keeping the dark fae’s magic and minions at bay, but the fae themselves looked unharmed, only frustrated. I felt the prickle of all those narrowed gazes seeking out me and my king.

  “Can you kill them all?” Darton said, sounding uncertain. Which, fair enough, I’d had plenty of trouble simply killing one full fae not that long ago.

  “Probably not,” I said. “But in light of that fact, I figure we’ll set our sights a little lower. Knock them unconscious and bind them up like I did on that hill near the overpass. That’ll at least buy us some time.”

  What we were going to do with that time, I hadn’t figured out yet, but that could come later.

  I shoved all the branches I’d gathered under my left arm. My palm was bleeding all over them, but that was okay. A little extra life energy leaking into the magic would only give it more oomph.