by ML Guida
Not satisfied, William tightened his grip. “Why?”
“Ow! You are hurting me.”
He dropped his hand. “Sorry.”
She rubbed her arm. “Because Grand-mère can give you a clean pair of clothes and she needs to give you something.”
William took a step toward her. “A witch? What the hell does she need to give me?”
“She would not tell me.”
Suspicion gnawed at William. The last witch had refused to disclose a secret, and it had cost Sharon her life. “What games are you playing, wench?” he asked.
She grabbed Kane’s arm. “Please, Capitaine, ’tis important.”
“I trust Lark, Capt’n,” Ronan said. “If what she says is important, then ’tis important.”
Kane nodded. “Aye, we will visit your Grand-mère, lass.”
William scowled. “You’re making another mistake, Kane.”
Mariah grabbed her satchel. “Come on. Follow me. Our house is not far.”
William swore and followed the reckless little witch outside. He couldn’t help but admire the sway of her arse. She was beautiful when angry. Hell, she was beautiful when she wasn’t angry. He wanted to make her smile, yet she wanted to come aboard the Soaring Phoenix and stretch out her beautiful neck for a demon to cleave it off her stubborn shoulders.
Her boots crunched on the pebbles and crushed twigs. Branches of pine trees rustled as the sea breeze blew around them. The sun played hide and seek with the branches overhead. Despite the sun and the shirt around his shoulders, William shivered. With each step, his back throbbed.
“William, you’re going to slice your feet up more than a butcher dices up a pig,” Kane said. “Let us carry you.”
Kane and Ronan came on either side of him.
Mariah glanced over her shoulder. “What happened to the boots I brought?”
“Too small,” William said. “I don’t need to be carried. My feet are fine.” Surprisingly he walked over the sharp rocks without cutting his feet and didn’t stumble once. ’Twas as if his skin was made of leather. He waved his hand. “Lead on.”
“Humph,” Mariah said and headed down the winding ledge.
Ronan hurried to catch up with her.
’Twasn’t his damn feet that hurt. ’Twas his back. Each step he took on the rocky trail jarred his spine. He bit his cheek to keep from focusing on the throbbing pain.
Walk, just walk.
After a few feet, the ledge widened. Kane and Ronan passed William, while Sean and Doc brought up the rear. The trail wound downward, and the trees thickened. A stream bubbled next to him, and William licked his dry lips.
Sean came up alongside him. “Do you need to rest?”
Sweat trickled into William’s eyes, and the shirt tied around his neck stuck to skin. He wiped his forehead and sat on a large white boulder next to the stream, catching his breath. “Aye, my back aches.” He lifted his foot and examined it. No red marks. No cuts. No bruises. Why? Was it due to being a dragon?
“Kane,” Sean called. Kane, Ronan, and Mariah stopped.
“You’re pale, brother,” Kane said.
William shook his head and closed his eyes. “I’m fine. Just…give…me…a minute”
He heard her approach before her gentle fingers wrapped around his arm. “Are you bleeding?”
He looked up. Large violet eyes stared at him with concern. He could drown in their purple depths.
“No,” he whispered.
Doc lifted the back of William’s sticky shirt. “Da blood is seepin’ through da bandages. How much further?”
“’Tis only a half mile more,” Mariah said.
“I can make it.”
Kane draped William’s arm over his shoulder. “We’ll carry you.”
Ignoring the pain, William struggled to stand. “I said I can make it.”
William swayed, and Kane steadied him.
Mariah lifted an eyebrow. He clamped his jaw shut, daring to her say anything.
William didn’t resist Kane and Doc’s help. His brother would likely throw him over his shoulder and carry him if he did. Instead, he put an arm around each of them, then hissed. Sharp pain from his shoulder nearly paralyzed him. His vision blurred, and his eyes fluttered shut. He struggled to not pass out.
Mariah led the away again, but they moved at a slower pace. The rocky trail turned to a smooth path of dirt and pine needles. The throbbing in his back lessened. Sweat drenched his body and dripped into his eyes, blurring his vision. Bloody hell, he should jump into the rumbling stream to wash his stench and jar his senses.
“Capt’n, he’s about to pass out,” Doc said.
“Aye,” Kane grumbled.
“I’m fine,” William said, but he stumbled.
“He needs medicine,” Mariah said. “Grand-mère can help him. We are almost there.”
The sun swirled around him, her voice drifted away, and he leaned his head back. A dog barked.
“Solstice, no,” Mariah scolded. “Down girl. Oui, I know you were worried.”
The dog barked again.
“These are the men from the Soaring Phoenix,” she said to the dog. “And they will help us get Lark back.”
“You…are talking…to her like you…can understand her,” William panted.
Mariah sighed heavily, as if she was tired of being questioned about talking to animals. William blinked. Lord, he was seeing two of her.
“I am talking to her. I hear her as well as I hear you,” Mariah said.
William frowned. His heart thumped blood between his temples. Sweat drenched him and dizziness tossed him into a spinning whirlpool. The sun, clouds, and trees spun faster and faster and faster. He tried to take control, to stay awake. She thinks she can talk to animals? She was way too daft to believe that she or her brother could take on Coaybay. Zuto would have her in chains soon and force her to do his bidding. William wouldn’t let that happen. He’d find a way to make her stay safe.
“You can’t defeat Zuto, Mariah,” he muttered. “He’s too powerful, and you’re too witless.”
He closed his eyes and passed out.
Chapter Five
William awoke to a wet cloth upon his forehead, and he inhaled fresh sage and lavender. The memory of a dream whisked over him. He’d been arguing with someone. The voice had been familiar, but he could not place it, and he could not see the speaker’s face. This person wanted him to take Hannah and her father to Zuto. Was desperate for him to. Was this all part of the damn dragon spell? He didn’t want to dwell on the nightmare. Taking another deep breath, he opened his eyes.
Mariah gazed down at him. “Bonjour.”
He glanced around the room. Through white lacy curtains hanging over a window, the sun sank behind purple mountains. Bloody hell, tonight there was another full moon, and he’d turn into a damned beast again. “What happened?”
“You lost too much blood, but Grand-mère put some salve on your back and stopped the bleeding. At least, she is not witless.”
William glared. “She doesn’t have it in her head to take on a demon either.”
She stopped mopping his face. “She says I am powerful enough.”
“Then you’re both playing with Pandora’s box. Nothing good can come out of it but foolishness.”
“No, we are not.” She wrung out the rag into a basin and tilted her head. “Your brother is pacing in the other room. Can you walk?”
He pushed himself off the bed and put his feet on the floor. At a yelp, he jerked his feet up. A white spaniel with russet spots jumped off the rug and growled.
“Solstice,” Mariah said. “He did not mean to step on your tail. Sois bonne.” She patted William’s leg. “See, he is a friend.”
The spaniel returned to the rug. She laid her head back down and wagged her tail.
William tried to ignore the stirrings in his groin from Mariah’s touch. “This is the dog you think you can talk to?”
“Oui, je suis désolé. She is prote
ctive. My familiar. And I am not imagining it.”
“You are if you think you can talk to animals.”
“Solstice aids me with my magic. She has the ability to keep dark magic at bay.”
“Just what I need.”
Solstice snarled and barked.
The dog’s howling spiked the pounding headache between his temples, and he winced.
William swiped at his hair hanging in his face. The movement pulled on his fresh bandages, and the constant throbbing in his back had stopped. Now, if he could get rid of his damn headache… “I don’t understand. The pain…”
“Is gone,” Mariah said. “Oui, I know. Grand-mère used a herbal salve to numb the pain, but she said that your dragon strength aided in your recovery.”
“Grand,” he murmured. “She’s powerful?”
“Oui.”
“Can she cure me from turning into a dragon?”
“Je ne sais pas.”
“So, she can cure human ailments but is powerless to heal magical ones?”
The oak door creaked open. An elderly woman with long white hair shuffled into the room. Her bony knuckles were white from her grip upon a gnarled cane, and when she moved, the gold bangles on her wrist clanged against each other.
“So, you are awake,” she said. She had the same violet eyes as Mariah, only tired and glossy.
Solstice rolled off the floor and nuzzled against the woman’s leg. The woman scratched the dog’s ear.
“Grand-mère,” Mariah cried. She rushed over to her grandmother and wrapped her arms around the old woman’s slim shoulders. “You look so tired.”
“Of course, I am tired. I am dying, chérie.”
Solstice whined and nudged the woman’s hand.
William frowned, and his stomach shifted with unease. Could the dog understand the old woman too? He didn’t like this, not one bit.
Mariah wrapped her arm around the woman’s waist as if to steady her. “No, you are not,” she insisted.
“You are lying to yourself, ma petite chou. I can walk myself. I am not dead yet.”
Mariah dropped her arm and bit her lip. “Oui, Grand-mère.”
The old woman shuffled over to a wooden chair beside the bed and sat. She gasped and clasped the cane with both hands. Her shawl fell down her shoulders, and her gauzy blue dress hung off her frail body. William swore that a banshee had to be on her way to escort the old woman to the other side.
She shook a skeletal finger at him. “Do not look at me that way garçon. You are as bad as ma petite-fille. Je suis Morgana Fey.”
William tensed. “So, I have you to thank for healing me?”
“Oui,” Morgana said. “Feeling better?”
“Aye. Mariah says you had something you wanted to give me.”
“If you are well enough to hear the truth.”
“The truth?” More tales about magic, things about dragons, about him, that he didn’t want to know and would corrode his insides.
“Venez avec moi.” She pointed her crooked cane at William and then at the hallway. “Your brother and his men are waiting. ’Tis important we are all together.” She labored to stand, wheezed, and shuffled toward the door.
William rushed to her side. “Let me—”
She pushed his hand off her arm. “I can walk.”
William and Mariah glanced at each other. He shrugged and followed Morgana out of the bedroom. She hobbled down a narrow hallway into a large kitchen. Cast iron pots and pans hung from hooks next to an unlit fireplace. At least ’twasn’t a cauldron boiling with human remains.
’Twas a normal kitchen. White dishes with painted roses lined a wooden china cabinet. A large rectangle table had six matching chairs around it. The cozy kitchen reminded him of his mother’s back in Ireland and how she used to love to bake bread and sing. But that was before the Irish Confederate War. Before Palmer had killed William’s mother. Before he and Kane were forced to become pirates to survive.
Morgana headed toward a large round door and opened it to a darkened room. Candle light flickered upon the walls. Dread seeped into William’s bones.
Morgana gestured. “Do not be afraid. Go inside.”
“I’m not afraid, madam.” William stormed past her and hoped, he wouldn’t see human skulls, ritualistic signs, or some other ghastly thing that witches used to worship the Devil.
He was surprised by the scent of pine, mint, periwinkle, rosemary, and coriander. But his trepidation quickly magnified when he spied the painted circles around a five-pointed star on the brick wall. On the opposite wall, an enormous wooden bookshelf filled with books stretched from the floor to the ceiling. On another wall, built-in shelves contained jars, bottles, and candles. A fireplace flickered, and this hearth held a boiling pot.
Kane and Ronan sat at a round table. With them was a man with bushy white eyebrows, a matching beard, and hostile blue eyes. Another five-pointed star had been carved into the table’s wood grain.
William sat next to Kane. Kane nodded and smiled. He squeezed William’s forearm. “Glad you came back to the living.”
William would have given him a smile, but he was too busy watching Ronan. Ronan’s gaze followed Mariah as if she were the most beautiful lass in the world.
William tried to ignore the burning anger rising within him. Why should he care if Ronan wanted the wench? Ronan had survived the tortures aboard the Fiery Damsel thinking of Mariah. William should step aside. Besides, she was a witch, and by the looks of things, could easily be in league with Zuto.
Mariah sat next to William, and he couldn’t help but feel a glint of satisfaction at Ronan’s obvious disappointment. Morgana sat next to the old man and patted his arm.
“Bonjour, Grand-père,” Mariah said.
A grin spread across the old man’s face. “Chérie.”
Solstice trotted inside and curled up in the corner on a rug
“So, Morgana,” Kane said, “Tell us why we are here and why I had to send my first mate and ship’s surgeon back to the Phoenix.”
“’Tis not their story.” She pointed to each of them. “Not yet. They will have parts to play, but this is William’s and Mariah’s tale. Your men’s comes later. You are all intertwined and are about to find out why. A new adversary is coming. Do not worry, garçons. This room is fortified from evil.”
William snorted. “You can’t keep a demon out of a room just like you can’t predict anything.”
“I can see into the future, and I know what you are,” she said. “You are a dragon.”
“Can you cure me?” His voice filled with eagerness, and he held his breath, hoping she would say the word he wanted to hear.
Her eyes softened. “No.”
He hung his head and exhaled bitter disappointment.
“I have something that will help you tame the wild beast.” She patted the old man’s hand. “Jonas, bring me my bag.”
The old man scraped his chair away from the table, rose, and grabbed a black velvet bag off a shelf. He handed it to Morgana. She reached inside, pulled out a red velvet cloth, and unwrapped it, revealing a gold chain with a jade pendant. She handed the necklace to William. “I have personally charged this stone, and it will aid you in learning how to control your other self.”
He took the necklace. “Charged? My other self?”
“Oui, you are now two and can never be parted. You are a shifter now and must learn to control your beast. My magic shall help you.”
He examined the stone, brushing his thumb over its smoothness, waiting for it to do something evil. Chills trickled up his arm, and he shuddered. “More magic?”
“Not all magic is black, gamin. You are caught in a magical web and scoffing at it shall be the death of you.”
Mariah put her hand on his arm. “Please listen to her.”
Mariah took the chain, and before he could argue, placed it over his head. Her sweet breath brushed onto his cheeks, and inhaling her flowery scent, his muscles relaxed. The jade stone lay ag
ainst his chest, warming him, soothing the tension, and soreness gripping him.
He clasped the stone. “What exactly will this stone do?”
“Your dragon is angry,” Morgana said. “When you transform, the stone will calm the beast, and you can control it. If you take it off, your beast will be in control, and all who you love will be at the mercy of a raging dragon.”
“We learned how not to kill when we fed, William,” Kane said. “You’ll be able to do the same.”
How could a small stone keep his dragon from murdering people? He needed to run away and find someplace where no humans lived, where no demons dwelt, and where no one would be in danger.
“If you retreat,” Morgana said. “Natasa will find you and control you.”
At the name Natasa, Solstice growled, baring her teeth.
William lifted his eyebrow. “Natasa?”
“Oui,” Morgana said. “She is coming, looking for you.”
Kane stood, put his palms on the table, and leaned toward Morgana. “Speak plain. Who is Natasa?”
“I will show you,” Morgana said. She closed her eyes, lowered her head and murmured a French chant.
“Grand-mère,” Mariah gasped. “No.” Her face paled, and her violet eyes rounded.
William clasped her hand, and she squeezed it tight. He could feel her trembling. “What are you doing, witch?”
The flickering fire dimmed, the warmth vanishing. Black smoke swirled out of the cauldron. William cringed at the stench. He exhaled and could see his breath.
“What’s happening?” Ronan demanded. He grabbed his forehead. “I feel dizzy.”
Morgana opened her eyes. “Evil is a sickness.” She pointed at the fireplace. “Look.”
Solstice snarled, staring at the flames, her hair standing on end.
A pair of red eyes peered out of the smoke. The smoke churned into different colors of red, black, and white and whirled around the glowing eyes until a lass’s face formed. As the air turned colder, the face became clearer and sharper. Flaming red hair highlighted her white skin and ruby lips. She was beautiful, but evil reflected in her eyes.
The air seemed to be sucked out of the room, and William labored to breathe. A hand squeezed his heart, and fear penetrated deep into his soul.
