Dragon King of Treoir

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  The Laochra Fola opened a path that led to the tomb. The humming shifted into the weird buzzing like what they'd experienced in Midtown.

  Not good.

  Afraid to risk telepathy so close to this bunch, Evalle strolled forward slowly and whispered to Tristan, "I've got a bad feeling. Forget the tomb. Let's go with plan B and get the hell out of here. You ready?"

  "Yep. Link with me."

  She opened up her energy to link with him ... but she couldn't push the energy out from her body to connect.

  He murmured a concerned, "Evalle?"

  She fought a growing sense of panic. "I'm trying. Can you force a link with me?"

  The muscles in his jaws flexed from obvious strain. He couldn't do it.

  She said, "Get out of here, Tristan."

  "Not leaving you."

  "You have to go for help. Bring Storm, Quinn, everyone you can find while I stall them."

  "Shit."

  Tristan said that so loudly she jerked around to him. He shook his head. "Screwed."

  He couldn't teleport himself.

  Lorwerth didn't even turn around when he said, "Are you two having difficulties? We've activated our dome of energy. It allows only our powers to function." He continued to the tomb and stopped, turning to her. "I kept my word and released the humans, now it's time for you to keep yours. I warn you not to attempt to play me, Evalle, because while I won't harm you, my army will make life extremely painful for Tristan."

  This guy knew exactly who--and what--they were, which meant he wasn't bluffing about what he could do.

  Chapter 29

  Adrianna kept an eye on Evalle and Tristan as Isak handed throwaway ponchos to his mother and the boys, more for warmth now than rain. He was acting calm, but Adrianna hadn't missed the sick look of worry in his eyes as he assessed his mother's condition.

  Kit was tough, but playing foster mom to a pair of teenage witches had not prepared her for being held hostage by preternaturals.

  They were a whole different level of predator.

  Still, she and the boys seemed to be okay.

  Adrianna turned back to observe Evalle and Tristan walking through the group toward the tomb. Those men were clearly connected to the ones who'd attacked Beladors and Medb in Midtown.

  How did she know that?

  From the familiar buzzing that had begun vibrating overhead. She would tell Isak that, once he realized his mother was going to survive.

  The twin known as Kellman walked over to Adrianna. He said "We have to get them out of there."

  She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring look. "I know, but they have a plan. We're waiting here for them."

  "It won't work."

  Isak, his mother and the other twin walked up. Isak asked, "What makes you think it won't work when you don't know what it is?"

  Kellman asked, "Do Evalle and Tristan plan to teleport out of there?"

  "Yes."

  "You hear that buzzing?"

  Adrianna closed her eyes. "Yes. It's the fog dome."

  "What's buzzing?" Isak asked. Kit's eyebrows were drawn in question as well.

  Kardos, the usually cocky twin who had been uncharacteristically quiet, joined them. "I doubt humans can hear it, but Kellman's right. Lorwerth says only his Laochra Fola can use power inside their dome."

  Before Isak asked another question, Kellman intuitively explained, "Laochra Fola are the men with Lorwerth, that tall, black-haired guy. I've never seen anyone use kinetics and talk telepathically the way Beladors do, but those Laochra Fola can do it."

  Adrianna added, "We fought them yesterday in Atlanta. Now some things make sense. I think they can link their powers like Beladors do as well."

  "What dome?" Isak still couldn't figure out what the nonhumans were talking about.

  Adrianna took mercy on him. "It appears those men have some form of energy field. It was cloaking them this morning in Midtown and the only indication we had of where they were when the cloaking worked was a buzzing, like a bunch of bees. The minute the energy fell apart, the buzzing stopped and they were exposed." She snapped her fingers. "The rain!"

  Her sixth sense had been spot on.

  The boys were nodding. Kellman said, "They need the rain to control the energy domes. That's why it's foggy in this area even though we can hear a thunderstorm going on outside of it."

  Adrianna exchanged a look with Isak that said they might just be on the same page for once.

  They couldn't leave Evalle and Tristan.

  Isak touched his ear. "Alpha Tiger to Romeo, come back." He repeated it.

  Adrianna didn't have to ask to know Isak had lost communication with his team. She'd already discovered her mobile phone had no signal even though they weren't that far from local towers.

  She suggested, "Why don't you take these three to your truck and contact Quinn. He'll bring in an army of Beladors."

  "What about you?"

  Now he was concerned about her? The strange nonhuman?

  She waved him off. "I'll be fine. I need to stay in case I can help Evalle and Tristan."

  Isak looked like he wanted to say something, but not with an audience. She couldn't help him with that, but she wanted to allow for a future conversation to clear up some bad feelings. "Once you get them to the truck and call in reinforcements, why don't you and your cavalry come back here, Isak?"

  Her mouth curved up on one side in the start of a smile to let him know all was not lost after all.

  Not unless he said something supremely stupid.

  "I can't leave you."

  That jump-started her deflated heart, but she wanted the humans out of this mess. The boys were more human than supernatural at this point, because they weren't trained. "I have cloaking. I can hide in the middle of an army. Go. Really. I'll be fine."

  Not entirely convinced, he offered his blaster to her. "Keep this."

  "I'm no good with that." She shook her head and pulled out her hand, opening her fingers to expose the ball of Witchlock energy. "But I'm deadly with this."

  The twins were duly impressed. She feared they might bow down to her any minute.

  Kit cocked an eyebrow. "Fascinating."

  Still clearly torn over leaving her, he ran a hand over his soaked hair, pushing water out, and muttered, "Shit."

  She shouldn't feel happy over his moment of worry about her after the way he'd acted earlier, but the more she was around him the more she realized he wouldn't intentionally hurt her.

  He just didn't realize the damage he was capable of doing with nothing more than his words and attitude after she'd opened her heart to him.

  Feeling charitable now that Kit and the boys were safe, Adrianna could give Isak a chance to make up for how he'd behaved earlier. That chance would require time and heavy groveling, but hey, an alpha male should be up to the task.

  Tilting her head in the direction of the truck, she hurried them along. "You better get going."

  He hesitated once more, earning him another point for caring, then he looked at his mother. She'd not uttered a word of complaint in spite of looking as if she'd been put through a wringer. The boys didn't look much better, but they were young and witches.

  Didn't matter.

  Untrained witches and a human had been cornered prey in the middle of preternaturals who had almost killed Quinn. That was a sobering thought to keep with her as she waited alone.

  Isak led his flock into the woods and had been gone only a few minutes when she heard bodies crashing through evergreen bushes, heading her way.

  The strange sound of Isak's blaster zoomed over and over.

  Adrianna turned, holding her Witchlock energy in front of her, prepared to meet the enemy. She told her power, "I know you can handle this. I just don't know about my part."

  Isak's deep voice yelled out, "Cloak yourself now!"

  The humming overhead cranked up until the sound of a thousand bees buzzed around her, but there wasn't an insect in sight. She could feel the vibra
tion racing over her skin, fighting against her majik.

  She lost a half a second in surprise, but lifted a hand to toss up her cloaking ... that didn't happen. She looked at the spinning ball of energy and ordered, "Cloak me now!"

  The buzzing dulled, the sound warping in and out like a bad radio connection. She whispered, "Witchlock?"

  Kit and the boys raced toward Adrianna with Isak at their backs, shooting his blaster in every direction. Kit skidded to a stop, sucking air in and out as hard as she could. She and the boys stared at Adrianna with open-mouthed shock.

  Adrianna wasn't sure if her powers would work in this buzzing if she stayed hidden, and from the looks on their faces, the cloaking couldn't be working. That was on her for lack of experience with the ancient power. If she survived this, she'd devote even more time to forming a bond with Witchlock and learning the intricacies of wielding it.

  Isak stumbled backwards into their area. He turned to her. "We can't make it out past those things."

  She was too busy trying to figure out how they could escape to take offense at his calling nonhumans 'things.' "I'll try cloaking all of us, then we can walk out."

  Kardos popped off. "If that was your cloaking a minute ago, it only made you translucent. It didn't hide you."

  Just as she'd thought.

  But if she couldn't hide herself, she couldn't hide all five of them for sure. "Then we're going to have to fight our way out."

  Isak was heaving deep breaths from his run back. "I don't think that's a good idea. I had to dive out of the way when the blaster bounced back at me."

  Kellman shoved a hand past Adrianna, pointing at the camp. "Look."

  She turned around to see Tristan stretched between two trees. From the look on his face, they were doing something painful to him.

  Adrianna said, "Everyone stay here. I'm going after them."

  "No."

  She turned to Isak and narrowed her eyes. "Don't ever think to tell me what I can and can't do. As you stated so clearly earlier, I'm a nonhuman. This is not your area, but mine."

  He sighed. "I'm not doubting you, Adrianna, but what will happen if you use that power and it boomerangs?"

  She felt energy moving toward them.

  Those things, as Isak put it, were coming at them from the woods. They were herding the five of them toward the camp and she had no way to stop them without harming everyone inside the energy field.

  She had one more idea for cloaking them, but she'd have to use what she'd learned as a Sterling witch and they wouldn't be able to move undetected.

  And she had sworn never to tap the dark majik.

  Chapter 30

  Quinn stood at the edge of the dirt cliff overhanging a giant hole left behind from a strip mine no longer in operation. He'd made the trip from Atlanta to Blairsville in record time. The gulley was probably three hundred yards long, half as wide and at least a hundred feet deep.

  A fog floated across the majority of the hole. It hummed.

  Lighting streaked overhead, followed by booming thunder. That was close, based on his count of time between the lightning and the thunder.

  The rain and warm temperature here were too similar to what he'd experienced in Midtown this morning. Reese might just be right.

  "That's one heck of a big energy canopy," Reese said, drawing his gaze to where she stood next to him. Not that he'd forgotten about her. She was impossible to disregard.

  She had her own energy as a supernatural being, and as a woman, though he'd tried not to notice.

  He could feel her vibrating with the need to do something. She wore a gray poncho now, longer than the convenience-store model the demon had shredded. Trey had been eyeing the weather radar, and had given her this poncho when Quinn stopped by briefly to go over the plan for tonight's event. He'd call it an operation, but that would suggest there had been actual strategic planning involved as opposed to terse orders from Daegan and chaotic rushing around to make it this far so quickly.

  Only preternaturals could've bypassed Isak's men waiting nearby for word from their leader.

  The fact that Isak's men were still here probably meant Isak couldn't get word out either, if he was in the energy field.

  When Reese moved, it drew his gaze to her jeans, which were soaked below the poncho. Thankfully, Trey's sister-in-law had dug up a pair of boots that fit Reese.

  She stared in fascination. "The rain coming down now is different."

  He agreed, thinking out loud. "Even the national meteorologists are flummoxed over the odd weather phenomena, and up here it's more intense."

  She cut her eyes at Quinn. "That sounds like a commode cleaner. Flummox once a week for a tidy bowl."

  He was sick with worry over Tristan and Evalle. He had to face the Tribunal in just over an hour, and Kizira's body was still beyond his reach.

  How could he possibly find anything humorous?

  He had no idea, but the mouthy human tornado who had dogged his steps today managed to do the impossible. He suppressed what would have been a real grin, but couldn't quite keep the smile off of his face. He covered his chuckle with a cough.

  She'd pushed every button she could find and at times had been entertaining.

  There was no explanation for his reaction to her other than the fact that she stomped around him when others tiptoed. She'd forced him to take a look at who he was and how he was affecting others.

  At the cemetery, he'd gone from irritated to confused to protective in a matter of seconds, the last of which he chalked up to nothing more than an ingrained drive to shield a woman from harm.

  That was the only explanation, but who was he to protect anyone after failing Kizira? The ache in his chest drove deeper at remembering Kizira dying in his arms.

  He deserved no woman.

  Reese lifted her thumbnail to nibble on. She didn't actually chew her nails, but seemed to be deliberating on what she was going to do next.

  Without turning to look at him, she said, "You're staring a hole through my head, Quinn. Cut it out. Your staring that is, not my head."

  Crazy vixen. He'd like to take a look inside that head and find a few answers, but since that wasn't going to happen, he asked, "Why are you doing this?"

  Lifting her chin in his direction, she said, "You know why. I want my medallion back. Not to mention that I'm the one who figured out someone is using suile marbh demons to power the energy field and that the rain is needed for a massive cloaking spell."

  "If you are correct."

  "I'm right." No hesitation on her part. "And you need me to get through that field. What are you waiting for?"

  The truth behind why she was in the middle of all this. Coincidences were for romantic comedies, not real life. "You're willing to dangle your energy in front of who-knows-how-many demons that want to rip you apart to get it, just to have your medallion returned?"

  She shrugged. "Yes."

  He didn't believe her. He could absolutely understand wanting whatever allowed him use of his powers, but she had yet to explain why someone had locked her powers down.

  He'd offered to enter her mind and see if he could unlock them. How could that be more risky than the low odds of survival that waited below with demons and other powerful beings?

  Quinn had survived many near-death situations by trusting his gut. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out the medallion still hooked on the cord. Reese was his only hope for regaining Kizira's tomb when he'd thought no hope existed.

  She might be his only hope for finding Evalle and Tristan if they'd gotten into a scrape.

  If Reese got this power ignition key back, would she race away and leave him to muddle his way through this rescue, or would she still be willing to face all those demons?

  Did he really want her to stay and face getting injured ... or dying?

  No.

  He coiled the cord in his hand and dropped the medallion on top, then offered it to her on an open palm. "Take it."

  Her eyes flicke
d from his hand to his face and back again. She licked her lips, want shining in her gaze. Then the wary woman from earlier returned. "What's the catch?"

  "Are you always so difficult?"

  "Pretty much."

  He felt a smile push at his lips, but to smile would say he enjoyed her spark. What man would do that while trying to locate the cold body of the woman who had made the ultimate sacrifice for him?

  A very confused one.

  Shaking off the strange reaction, he repeated, "Take it."

  She held his gaze as she took her possession from him. Once she had a grasp on the cord ends, she immediately tied it around her neck. Her sigh of deep relief confirmed how much that meant to her.

  He got a muttered, "Thank you," and for the second time in two days, had a feeling those weren't words she said very often. Not because she didn't genuinely appreciate getting her medallion back.

  That wasn't it.

  She'd sounded as though she couldn't believe he hadn't wanted her soul in exchange.

  He'd had no intention of keeping her power device from her beyond today, but she trusted no one and for some damn reason he wanted her to trust him.

  She deserved a choice in this.

  In fact, now that he thought about it, she needed to just leave. She'd stumbled into this and miserable dog that he was, he had taken advantage of her situation. Sure, she was holding secrets, but had she harmed any of his people? No. Was she working with this group who apparently used demons to power the rain shields? Didn't look that way.

  Would she survive being used as a demon magnet?

  Probably not.

  Don't I have enough blood on my hands?

  Yes. Quinn expected Trey to contact him any time now with a green light to put the next steps in motion.

  Reese had made the deal all on her own and he believed she had powers she had yet to reveal, but she was not immortal. He was fairly certain of that.

  "Reese?"

  She'd been holding the medallion and staring out over the buzzing cloud below them. "Hmm?"

  "You can go."

  Ever so slowly, she turned a face to him covered with an expression that questioned his intelligence. "What? Have you come up with another way to break through that canopy, but failed to mention it until now?"