Magic Revealed (Dragon's Gift: The Seeker Book 3)

by Linsey Hall

  With my deirfiúr at our backs?

  We were invincible.

  I pulled away from Roarke, then looked at my watch.

  “Two minutes,” I said.

  He nodded.

  I dug into my pocket and pulled out two small blue vials. I passed one to Roarke and we drank. It was sweet—far tastier than the invisibility potion—and a warm rush flowed through my muscles. The potion was a clever addition from Connor, who’d given a couple to Cass. Something new he’d been working on that was meant to strengthen the drinker’s system so that it could withstand injury and potions.

  I sure hoped it worked.

  We stood in silence as the concoction coursed through our bodies. My chest vibrated with tension as I waited, my gaze following the undulating flow of the dark mist that covered the ground. Any time a particularly thick patch brushed against my ankles, I shivered.

  Finally, it was time.

  I called upon my Ubilaz demon power, letting it flow free for the first time since I’d learned to control it.

  Since we couldn’t break in, we were going to have to be taken in.

  We were bait.

  And the best bait was very attractive. Fortunately, my most despised power was now becoming useful.

  As I let the Ubilaz demon power fly free, attracting whatever demons were nearby, I knelt by the river and pretended to fiddle with the grate.

  A few moments later, a shout sounded from above. Demons dropped down from the wall all around us. Five, all different species. But every one was big and had magic that smelled awful. Rotten eggs, mold, garbage, and vomit.

  What a lovely bunch. Like a bouquet of roses for the devil.

  I turned off my Ubilaz demon power and jumped to my feet, slowly drawing my sword from the ether. Roarke threw a punch at the nearest demon. It landed, knocking the beast to its back. His next strike was slower, intentionally so.

  A demon jumped him, tackling him about the waist.

  Roarke went down easy.

  I swiped my blade at the demon nearest me, but he dodged and lunged for me, slapping a damp rag over my face. As expected, the familiar smell of the sedative hit me. But it didn’t have any effect.

  Thank you, Connor.

  I sagged against the demon, pretending to be knocked out. I dropped my sword, then sent it back into the ether, hoping the demons didn’t notice. Through barely-open eyes, I watched another demon jump on Roarke and pull the same trick. Roarke struggled, but feebly.

  Dumb demon wasn’t even smart enough to realize who he was up against.

  After a last halfhearted twitch—which I felt was a bit overkill—Roarke sagged against his captor.

  The one holding me slung me over his shoulder. The air whooshed out of me as my stomach collided with his sharp bones. Pain radiated through my midsection, but I choked back a groan.

  Once again, three demons had to carry Roarke. We made our way slowly around the castle wall. Carefully, I called upon my power over ice. The air was chilly, so a little snow wouldn’t be too amiss. At least the sky was kinda cloudy. Hopefully, it would better hide my friends. They might be invisible, but they still made footprints.

  I called down the snow, and snowflakes began to fall all around us, softly at first, then more and more until we were in a veritable blizzard.

  “Buzzard’s balls, I thought we had another day before snow,” muttered the demon who carried me.

  Little do you know, buzzard balls.

  They tromped up to the main gate, their footfalls heavy on the wooden bridge that traversed a gap in the stone.

  “Open up! We’ve retrieved the Demise!”

  I stiffened, then caught myself, trying to relax slowly so he wouldn’t notice me. But my heart raced.

  Even this lackey called me the Demise?

  This was bad business.

  Slowly, the iron gate crept upward, creaking with every inch. As the demons stomped inside, I prayed to fate that this plan would work. Because suddenly, it felt really risky.

  I hadn’t seen this part of the fortress before. Through slitted eyes, I saw that the main courtyard was large and barren. Above, demons whispered. Were they on the ramparts, controlling the gate? I couldn’t see without blowing my cover, so I bounced along on the back of the demon who carried me, biding my time and praying this wasn’t a dumb idea.

  Soon, they hauled us through the door of what I assumed was the main building. The light was dim and the large foyer empty. The door swung shut behind us.

  The demon who held me jerked and grunted, as if he’d been punched in the stomach.

  Go time!

  I thrashed, managing to fall off the demon’s shoulder as someone hit him. I crashed to the ground, unable to see my friends but able to see the havoc they wreaked on the five demons who had carried us. It was like a strange action sequence, watching them get beaten up by invisible people. Hopefully the demons on the ramparts wouldn’t hear the fight.

  Roarke had gotten free of his captors and broken the neck of one. He tossed the body aside and looked for another, but my friends had taken care of the rest.

  I dug into my pocket and pulled out my vial of invisibility potion, then choked it down.

  Tasted just as gross this time as the last. I grimaced and changed my original flavor assessment from mud to monkey butt. I’d never licked a monkey’s butt and didn’t intend to, but I’d bet my books on it tasting just like this.

  As the shivery sensation ran through my limbs, my friends became visible, courtesy of the potion that allowed me to see the others who had taken the same elixir. All the demons lay on the ground, dead and quickly disappearing.

  Cass was retrieving one of her handy daggers from the chest of a fallen demon, while Nix dusted her hands and grinned at me.

  “Not bad, eh?” she asked.

  “Went off without a hitch.” I turned to examine the room. It was empty, but it wouldn’t stay that way. “We’d better get a move on.”

  “Yes,” Roarke said.

  I called on my dragon sense, feeding it my desire to find Draka’s source egg. It tugged weakly, toward the back exit. But it felt…weird. Here, but not.

  That couldn’t be good.

  I pointed toward the exterior exit. “That way.”

  We hurried toward the door. I pushed it open slowly and peered outside. No one.

  Just an empty courtyard with a ramshackle garden.

  “Weird for a fortress,” Cass said.

  “Don’t like it,” I muttered.

  “My dragon sense pulls that way, too,” Nix said. “But it’s weak.”

  “Same,” I said. “Let’s try.”

  We hurried out into the garden, which was full of overgrown plants of all varieties. Most were dingy green or almost dead, lending the place a creepy air. The same black mist that had been in the forest hovered over the ground here, doing the plants no favors. The back wall of the garden was made entirely of thick brown thorns. My dragon sense tugged toward it.

  Of course it did. Looked like something straight out of the dark part of a fairy tale, so of course we were headed in that direction.

  There was a small gap in the thorns, right in the middle.

  “We have to enter,” I said.

  “Perfect,” Cass muttered. “Always with the creepy shit.”

  We neared the wall of thorns. Each pointy bit was at least six inches long. More like a wall of little daggers than thorny vines. I reached out to touch one, but Roarke grabbed my hand.

  “Don’t. They could be poisonous,” he said.

  “Good point.” I withdrew my hand, then slipped into the gap in the wall.

  It expanded out to form a wide corridor. The walls and ceiling were all made of the thick, dead thorny vines. Roarke followed me in, then Cass, Nix, and Aidan.

  “Bad news bears, this,” Cass murmured.

  “No kidding.” We started down the corridor, moving quickly in case the demons followed. They would, eventually.

  Soon we hit a split
in the path. We were given three choices.

  I gasped. “It’s a labyrinth.”

  “Of course,” Nix said. “That’s why our dragon sense is so weird and weak. The egg is so well protected. Almost hidden.”

  “My dragon sense tugs left,” I said.

  “Mine too,” Nix and Cass said in unison.

  “Left it is,” Aidan said.

  We set off down the pathway, jogging to keep ahead of any demons who might be in pursuit. A thorny branch snapped off the wall and nearly hit me in the face. I barely managed to dodge, ducking low and letting the thing whip over my head.

  Another came from the left, nicking me in the side.

  Acid pain bloomed, making me gasp.

  Through the pain, I felt Nix’s magic swell on the air, carrying the scent of flowers that was so out of place in this hell hole.

  “Del! Catch!” Nix’s voice.

  I turned, catching the long, thin metal shield that Nix shoved at me. The weight dragged my arm down, but I stiffened it and shielded myself. She conjured more as the vines began to whip out at us.

  I turned and ran, letting the shield take the brunt of the blows. The vines slammed into the shield, some of the thorns breaking off in the metal and poking through. We sprinted for ages until my side pinched, and I was weak from the pain of the first vine blow.

  By the time the attacks ceased, I was panting and sweating. We stumbled to a halt, gasping.

  “Quick thinking, Nix,” Cass said.

  “Thank you,” Roarke said.

  “You’re the—” I bent over as the pain in my side sliced through me.

  “You were hit.” Worry was thick in Roarke’s voice.

  I pressed a hand to my side and winced. “Not bad, just one thorn.”

  “They were big thorns.” Aidan approached my side. “Let me see.”

  I raised my shirt, then gasped at the sight. Blood poured from a puncture wound in my side as if I’d been stabbed with a dagger. Sure felt like it.

  “That’s deep.” Aidan knelt and held a hand up by my wound. “Mind?”

  “Not at all.” I chuckled, then winced.

  He hovered his hand over the wound, and warmth flowed from his palm. Slowly, I relaxed, the pain leaching from me as the wound closed.

  I felt almost entirely better by the time he stood and said, “That’s the best I can do. I think there was probably poison in it, but the potion you took earlier helped fight it.”

  Thank you, Connor. “Thanks, Aidan.” The wound was now just a red mark with a little slice through it. But the worst was gone. “Let’s head on.”

  We picked up our jog again, with Roarke next to me and my three friends slightly behind. The air in the labyrinth smelled rotten, forcing me to breathe shallowly. I’d never been claustrophobic before, but the ceiling of thorns over my head was giving me the willies.

  A buzzing started, but I thought it was my imagination. Then a wasp came, flying straight at me. My eyes focused on it when it was only a few feet away. I dodged, but it became stuck in a flying wisp of my hair.

  I shook my head to free it. It escaped, and I immediately forgot about the little jerk when I caught sight of the massive horde of wasps coming straight at us. Each one was the size of a hamster. The little guy who’d been stuck in my hair was just an emissary.

  “Poisonous mega-wasps,” Roarke said. “Underworld species.”

  “Shit!” I’d only heard of them as a nightmare specie, whose venom immobilized you while they devoured you alive.

  “Duck!” Cass yelled.

  I crouched low, Roarke copying me. Above our heads, massive flames roared through the air. I glanced up, my face warmed by the blaze. Cass and Aidan were shooting fire from their palms, obliterating the wasps as they neared.

  I was damned glad to have them on our side.

  A few moments later, the fire extinguished, and they lowered their hands. A fine gray dust littered the path in front of us.

  I sagged, panting. “Good job, guys.”

  “Yeah.” Nix wiped sweat from her brow. “I really thought we were—”

  Pounding footsteps sounded from behind us, and Nix snapped her mouth shut.

  Roarke and I leapt to our feet and turned. Braced, we waited. My heart thundered, pounding in my ears like the beat of a thousand drummers. A moment later, a group of a dozen demons appeared about thirty yards away, racing toward us. I called on my magic, ready to hurl an icicle at the oncoming monsters.

  Then logic stole in.

  The corridor was wide. The demons were going single file, as if they’d been trained to do so in some deadly demon circus.

  I caught my friends’ gazes and gestured to the sides of the corridor. We pressed ourselves against it, close enough that I could feel the barest prickle of thorns poking my jacket. I held my breath as the demons ran past, praying they’d be able to report back to their master that the labyrinth was clear. That should buy us some time.

  As the last one passed, that same little wasp appeared, flying straight past my eyes, so fast I could feel the brush of wings. I flinched, the finest squeak escaping my lips.

  The last demon turned, suspicion on his ugly gray face. He had massive horns and a nose similar to a pig’s—which was an insult to pigs.

  His comrades kept running, but he stood still, staring at us—unable to see through our invisibility potions, but clearly knowing something was up. He opened his mouth as if to call for the other demons. I fired up an icicle and hurled it at his face before he got a sound out.

  It pierced him straight through the mouth, gruesome enough that my stomach turned. As his knees collapsed out from under him, Roarke raced forward and caught him, silencing his fall.

  My heart was lodged in my throat as the other demons turned a corner up ahead, not realizing the silent drama that had gone on behind them.

  “Quick thinking,” Cass whispered.

  “Thanks.”

  Roarke lowered the body to the ground, then stood. We waited a moment to give the other demons time to get far ahead of us, standing in silence while watching the demon’s body to see how long it would take to disappear back to the Underworld.

  Finally, the body began to fade out.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  We set off running, keeping our footfalls silent on the dirt beneath us. We came to the path that the demons had followed, but my dragon sense pulled me straight ahead. That way was definitely darker, as if the thorny branches were thicker and wouldn’t allow sunlight in.

  “Don’t love the look of that direction,” Cass said.

  “Means it’s the right one,” Nix said. “It always seems to be the scary shit.”

  We hurried down the path, which was narrower than the one we’d left but still at least six feet wide. Shadows grew in front of us, along with a fresh smell. Like a lake. It was so out of place that my stride faltered.

  The shadows coalesced to form a glittering blue wave. It filled the corridor, roaring toward us.

  My skin chilled as my mind blanked. Then an idea roared to the surface.

  I called upon my power over ice and flung my hands out, forcing the magic toward the oncoming wave. At first, nothing happened. I gave it more, sweat breaking out on my brow.

  The wave slowed, turning to slush. I fed it more power, imagining it freezing solid. My muscles shook with the strain. A moment later, it froze, an ice sculpture of oncoming doom.

  “Niiiiice,” Cass murmured.

  “Saved our bacon,” Aidan said.

  I swallowed hard, inspecting the icy wave. It formed a thick wall over the entire passageway. “Now we just need to get through it.”

  “I’ll give it a go.” Roarke stepped forward, and the gray tornado of his magic formed around him. It obscured him briefly before he appeared again, shifted into his demon form. He was careful to keep his wings tucked in close as he approached the frozen wave.

  He pulled his fist back and slammed it forward, using his massive magical strength to pu
t several large cracks in the ice. The blow should have broken his knuckles, but his gift prevented it. He plowed his fist forward again, deepening the cracks. It took several blows, but eventually, the wave crumbled in a pile of icy shards and boulders.

  “Nicely done.” I grinned at him, then climbed over the shards of ice.

  It went on for ages, slippery piles that we scrambled over. It would have been enough water to drown us.

  By the time we were on the other side, my hands were frozen.

  “Pretty solid labyrinth, eh?” Nix said.

  “Not bad.” An understatement.

  I started jogging again, ready to get the hell out of here. We’d handled it pretty well so far, but the stress of what might come next was starting to wear on me. Not to mention, good luck streaks could only last so long.

  We ran for at least ten minutes, following my dragon sense down twists and turns and outshoots. When the dark shadow prowled out from another corridor, I was actually beginning to think we might be near the end.

  How freaking wrong.

  I slowed, taking in the massive shape in front of me. It was like a dog, but lumpy and strange, with stunted wings on its back. It prowled closer, the shadows receding from its form.

  I swallowed hard, my skin chilled. Scaly grey skin covered a monstrous beast on four legs. It was like something from my worst nightmares. Massive fangs protruded from its mouth, dripping what I assumed was poison, and its claws were at least eight inches long and tipped with an oily black substance.

  “Underworld beast.” Roarke’s voice was gravelly in his demon form. “A Chironera.”

  The beast growled, dipping low on its front legs as if ready to pounce. Roarke stepped in front of us and flared his wings. His magic surged, nearly bringing me to my knees. I hadn’t felt it this strong since I’d met him. The scent of sandalwood drove out the rotten smell in the air while the taste of wine exploded on my tongue. His form glowed blue with his aura.

  I couldn’t see the beast, but its growling stopped.

  I peeked around Roarke’s hip in the gap created by his wing. The beast was doing some sort of weird bow, its head bent.