Wyvern's Lair (Desert Cursed Series Book 5)

by Shannon Mayer

  I counted Balder’s strides as a point of focus, as I pushed the stone in as far as I could, opening myself to that doorway inside me. The magic pulsed and danced, and I stared as my hand turned blue, as the world around me cooled, my breath leaving me in puffs of condensation.

  And the magic trapped in me from the stone I’d destroyed woke up, tingling across my chest and through the bones in my torso. “No, no,” I whispered, trying to grab hold of the magic, but it slid through me like wet reins in my hands as it ripped through both me and the sapphire.

  The ground erupted with ice, shooting outward in long spikes like lances from an enemy.

  “Watch it!” Maggi shrieked. Only I couldn’t watch it. I could barely move from where I flopped half in and half out of the saddle. There was too much power and no control.

  “I got you!” Lila was suddenly there, her claws digging into my scalp as she took hold of my hair and yanked me upward. The magic shifted, sliding through me faster and faster, through that open doorway as I tried futilely to gain some sort of control of it.

  “Help.” I’m not sure if I yelled the word or whispered it, but Lila gripped me hard, and Balder slowed. Hands caught hold of me and then Marsum was there. The heat of a desert fire to battle the ice burning through me.

  “Let me control it,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  “Don’t trust him!” Maggi said, her voice from a distance. Only I had no choice. I’d opened up too much magic, too much of everything and now I couldn’t stop it. And if I had to pick which one of them to trust, two guardians of the stones, it was Marsum. It was Maks.

  His fingers dug into my arms and the amber stone flared to life under his shirt. His magic warmed the frozen parts of my hands long enough to pry the sapphire from my fingers. He took it and dropped it into the leather pouch at my side next to the emerald stone that had lain quietly through the whole episode.

  But the power wasn’t done with me. It spiraled out and into the sand, sending one last pulse through the desert.

  Still held by Marsum’s hands, I turned my head to watch the magic that was technically mine freeze mile upon mile of sand in a swath a quarter mile wide.

  “Is that really what I’m seeing?” Maggi shook her head. “Even I could not do that with—”

  “She is not you,” Marsum growled. “She has more inherent magic in her pinky finger than you have in your whole body.”

  I just stared at the block between us and the ophidians. I twisted around to see that the cold had circled behind us, cutting off those that had been on our tails. This would give us a good head start on the ophidians, maybe even take us all the way to the Blackened Market. The ground cracked and heaved, white frost rimming the ground. “That’ll help.” My lips struggled to make the words.

  “Yes, but at what cost? Did you break the other stone?” Lila tapped on my head from her perch up there. The magic in me receded and as it left, it felt as though my strings had been cut and I slumped, sore and tired. So damn exhausted.

  “Damn it, I hate feeling weak. And the cost is not too much. I’m just tired.” I reached up and patted her, my fingers still numb, but already feeling was coming back to them.

  Maggi stood apart from us, her eyes wide. “That is not . . . you shouldn’t have survived that.”

  Marsum pulled me from Balder’s back and held me in his arms. “You need to shift. Your core temperature is still dropping. That was too much magic, even for your bloodline.”

  I didn’t hesitate, and I should have. I really should have thought what he would do and how it would make me feel once I was a house cat. But I didn’t and that was a mistake I’d regret.

  20

  I shifted to my house cat form while my body continued to refuse to shiver. I was so cold, my body didn’t even have it in it to make the effort to warm up. “Too much magic?” I mumbled the question to Marsum as he scooped me up and stuck me inside his shirt. Inside against skin I knew so well, wrapped in the smell of Maks. It curled around and sunk into me, the scent of the hot desert sand and a wisp of magic that made my skin tingle in all the right places as I breathed it in, taking it deep into my lungs.

  Oh, this was dangerous. I had to fight to keep the purr from rumbling through me.

  “Too much magic that is not inherently your own. Not unlike that of the stone you shattered, and unintentionally drew into yourself,” he said, and there was a deeper tone, a new tone to his voice, one as though he were lecturing me. Teaching me. I blinked up at his face, the lines of his jaws so close I could kiss him, yet I didn’t think that was a good idea. Because this wasn’t Marsum or Maks. This was another of the Jinn masters talking; I was sure of it. This was back to Davin.

  He clicked his tongue at Batman and led Balder. “Maggi, it has been a long time,” he said as we caught up to her.

  “Davin?” She gasped his name. “I thought you were not strong enough to come forward.”

  “For the moment, I am, old friend. This is quite the mess you all have found yourselves in. Three stones and three curses. I am shocked any of you have survived this far. Though the Emperor’s granddaughter has managed to buy you time with that neat little trick.” He tipped his head toward the ground and the thick band of ice that I’d made.

  Lila landed and tugged at his shirt. “Let her out, or let me in, Toad.”

  Marsum—or Davin, I suppose—brushed her aside. “Let her be. I’ll keep her warm.”

  I closed my eyes, thinking about Ford. That was what he’d said to me only a few days before and I’d taken him at his word, and then sent him away. I missed him in that moment, missed his quiet strength and solid personality. I checked in on my bond with him and the others of my pride and found nothing.

  On a whim, I reached for Steve.

  And that fucker showed up loud and clear. There was a moment where I could see him lounging in bed, Darcy beside him, and I wondered if I was really seeing it, or just imagining it.

  “We need to keep close to Ish. She is going to rule the world,” Steve said, sliding a hand over Darcy’s hip. “The pride is mine now as it should have always been and we will rule at Ish’s side.”

  “What about Kiara? And Ford? They are loyal to Zam and won’t take this lying down.” Darcy traced his body with her mouth.

  “Kiara will fall into line. I’ll kill Ford when the time comes.” Steve yawned. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask about Zam.”

  “She . . . has never really been one of us,” Darcy said. “I was her friend because she was the only one to be a friend with that wasn’t human. I’m sad for her, to be all alone, but I don’t want her in our pride. I’m glad she’s gone.”

  I jerked hard as if the bitch had slapped me herself.

  A shiver went through me and then I began to shake hard, violently—though with the cold or what I’d seen, I wasn’t sure. The thing was, I wouldn’t have thought Darcy would have the power to hurt me. But to hear her speak so casually of me not ever really fitting in stung more than it should have. I closed my eyes as the horses picked up their speed, the sound of their hooves lulling me even as I fought to stay awake. Davin glanced down at me. “You are a curious one, little shifter. Curious indeed.”

  “Thaaaannnnks?” I stuttered out between chattering teeth.

  He grunted a sharp laugh that sounded strange coming out of his mouth. “The Jinn do not produce females with power. That has been bred out of them, did you know that?”

  I shook my head and he went on.

  “The reason, if you are wondering, is simple. Jinn females could manipulate all kinds of magic. Just like you are showing signs of. They were creatures of great talent, and the men were, in a way, slaves to them.”

  “Hot damn,” Lila said. I peeked out of the shirt to see her perched on the horn of Batman’s saddle, watching us closely. Guarding me. I was sure of it. “You mean—”

  “Well, perhaps slave is a strong word. But we did not have their power. The first of the Jinn masters was
the one to put the new hierarchy into play. He poisoned all the women at a yearly solstice orgy.”

  “Wait, did I hear that right? An orgy?” Lila asked exactly what I wanted to know.

  He waved a hand, quieting her. “Yes, we were far more liberal with our ways then. He poisoned them, and all but the weakest were killed. Those weak females were used as breeders, and we culled any women with power. A dark time, a time of great change for all the Jinn.”

  A shiver ran through me that I wasn’t sure had anything to do with the cold that still clung to my fur. “How old were the females when they were culled?” I asked.

  “A female Jinn rarely shows any ability before thirty.” He glanced down at me, a brow arching. “So you see why you’ve become rather popular these last few months. Though even that was no reason for Marsum to tie his life to yours. There are other possibilities when it comes to finding a mate.”

  Lila snorted. “Popular is not the word I’d use.”

  “Is that why Marsum wanted to kill me?” Horror flicked through me. How long had I been hunted by the Jinn? Was it because I was part of the Bright Lion Pride, or because I had Jinn blood running in my veins? Had he known all along?

  “Initially, yes. He saw you as a potential threat. It’s why he killed your mother. She was beginning to show signs of real power, enough to overthrow him had she decided. If you’d been weak, you’d make a perfect mate—powerful lines but no power to speak of—but he wouldn’t know that until much later. It’s why—”

  I cut him off. “Why he didn’t kill me at the Oasis as a child? Why he drew me to him across the desert? Why he let Maks kill him? All because he wanted to see what I was made of? To make sure I was weak enough?”

  “Yes.”

  That one word shattered me. Because that meant this mess, all of what had happened in my life, in Maks’s life, was my fault. My fault for existing, my fault for not just being weak but for having Jinn blood. I shook my head and buried my nose in the cup of my paws as I tried to push the negative thoughts away. That was stupid. I was being stupid.

  “This is not my fault.” I lifted my head, my jaw tightening. “Don’t you dare try to blame me for this.”

  “No, it’s not your fault,” Davin agreed. “But I felt you should understand him. He does not love you for you, little cat. He loves you for what you could give him, a child of great power. But he will kill you the second you give him what he wants.”

  I blinked up at him, feeling the need to misdirect him, at least about Marsum. “I never thought Marsum loved me. Maks loves me.”

  Davin’s eyes were sad with a depth of sorrow I did not like. “Does he? Or did he help bring you to this point? You do not know how deep a game either of them play.” His face twisted and a snarl ripped out of him, guttural and pain-filled. “You fucking liar!” He roared the words, clawing at his own throat with one hand.

  I cringed as his arm came around me, trapping me against his chest. I mean, I could have dug my claws in and opened him up like a fillet, but I didn’t want to hurt Maks. Squirming, I managed to push off and out the bottom of his shirt while he reached for me.

  He breathed heavily as if he’d been drowning and barely managed to come up for air. “Zam. Davin is a damn liar.” Marsum spoke now and shook his head, a grimace on his face. “That was always his strong suit, being able to convince people of a version of the world that wasn’t true.”

  I bounded off Batman, landing on Balder’s saddle. My limbs still ached with cold, but I could move, and that had to be enough. Because I couldn’t stay there, close to him, breathing in his smell and thinking that he’d loved me once.

  Davin’s words cut too close to truths I’d found myself circling since I’d found out Maks was Jinn. What if, what if, what if.

  Lila flew over to me and I forced myself to shift back to two legs. My body molded to the saddle and with shaking hands, I reached for the reins. Far from warm I might have been, but right then I didn’t care, and the sun was still high and beating down on us. That would have to be enough.

  I couldn’t look at him, not with the way the doubts snuck through me, like ghosts on the wind.

  I shook my head. “We have a job to do. We’re going to the Blackened Market, then to the crossroads. Marsum, you’re still with us?” I shot him a quick look and he nodded.

  Those blue eyes filled my vision and he gave me a bow at the waist as he spoke. “I tied my life to yours, Zam. I am with you. Your pain is mine still, as mine is yours.”

  I swallowed hard, a tight knot in my throat making me want to hurl. No, I’d done enough of that, enough of all the hurt and pain. Time to suck it up and get this done. Then, and only then could I figure out what to do with Marsum, with Maks. “We ride hard because we have an opening. We need to take it.”

  Maggi didn’t protest, and neither did he, as I urged Balder into a gallop. They and their mounts followed, the sound of drumming hooves and pads heavy on the sand, like distant drums.

  On the far side of the ice barrier, the ophidians kept pace for some time, and then slowly dropped away, disappearing into the sand. I kept waiting for the ice to melt, but it didn’t. Or at least it didn’t that I could see. All I knew was that we had to move. We had to keep ahead of the ophidians.

  “The market is on solid ground. We should be safe there,” Marsum said.

  Safe, I wasn’t sure that word meant what it used to, at least not to me. “Ophidian-free works,” I said. “You think it will be safer than that?”

  He opened his mouth, paused and then shrugged. “No idea.”

  That was the problem. There was no real idea as to how this was going to work. How we were going to get a new stone, how we were going to draw magic out of me, stick it in said stone, and then still get to the crossroads in time. I did a quick calculation that made my guts tighten and my stress levels soar. We had two days before the golden moon. Give or take a few hours.

  The pace of Balder’s feet lulled me, and the sun did indeed slowly melt away the worst of the cold that had sunk into my body.

  “We need to slow,” Maggi said as Demon drew close to me and Balder. “The animals need a break and we do too.”

  “There is no place to camp,” I pointed out with a sweeping gesture. “Do you see any rock to camp on?”

  She frowned. “You don’t think the ophidians would still be here?”

  “Whoever their new queen is seems to have a serious hate on for us,” I said. “I don’t trust that they aren’t here now. You want to wake up with one of those fuckers on top of you? I sure as shit don’t. I’ve had enough to deal with lately, don’t you think?” A pang slid through my chest that had nothing to do with the cold, and everything to do with the magic from the clear stone. I sucked in a labored breath, leaning over the saddle horn as I fought to push the pain aside. A hand slid over my arm, Marsum’s hand, and the pain eased. I looked at him.

  “Stronger together,” he said, his face also twisted up as he fought off the waves of pain. But he was right, touching him made it go faster, made it hurt less.

  I pushed myself upright in the saddle. “Always fun, let’s not do it again, shall we?”

  Marsum barked a laugh. “Oh, if it were that easy.”

  Maggi’s frown deepened and she shook her head. “We could protect ourselves better.” More telling, though, was the way her eyes slid to my shirt, where it hung over the pouch at my side, a hunger dancing through them as though she could taste what it was she desired. If she’d been a man, I’d have said she was checking me out, but it was what I carried under the cloth that I knew she wanted.

  The sapphire stone.

  I snapped the fingers of one hand in her face. “Knock that shit off.”

  “Yeah,” Lila flicked her tiny claws at Maggi as if shooing her away. “Knock that off!”

  “There is a place up ahead that will work,” Marsum said. “Two miles, maybe a little less. We can camp there.”

  I turned to him, slowing Balder. “How do you know
that?”

  He pointed to a rock jammed into the ground, words scrawled across it in pictographs I could almost understand. “That is a marker. The Blackened Market awaits. We have arrived.”

  21

  Part of me wanted to hurry ahead to get to the Blackened Market, and part of me was terrified. Because the thing I’d been pushing aside this whole journey was now right in front of me.

  What if there was no way to get the magic that had once been Ishtar’s out of me? What if I was about to find out I had a death sentence, a true death sentence?

  “Goddess damn it to the seventh level of hell and back,” I muttered to myself, “pull your shit together.”

  Lila crawled up to my shoulder and grabbed my earlobe for balance. “It’s going to be fine. Stop freaking out. This isn’t like you. We’ve got this; we’re a team.”

  She was right. We were a team. I looked at Marsum, at Maks, feeling the ties to him that wove between the three of us.

  Three. Three. Three. The Oracle’s words resounded through my head.

  “Maggi, you need to stay out of the market.” The words popped out of me as if someone else were saying them.

  She blinked at me. “But I am here to help.”

  “I know, but . . .” I rubbed a hand over my face, trying to hide the fact that she was making me nervous, that I knew as long as I had the sapphire, she would want it. “The Oracle spoke about three being the number. Three. And Marsum has to go in with me, and Lila. So that means you have to stay out.” And I didn’t trust Maggi, not after what happened with the Wyvern. Not after what happened when I’d used the sapphire stone. If given the chance, she’d double cross me now, I was sure of it.

  Maggi’s eyes narrowed. “The Oracle does not always give the information you need. Occasionally she even lies.”

  “Well, it’s what I’ve got and I’m running this show,” I said with a wave of a hand. “We will meet up with you on the southern side as soon as we can. If we aren’t there by tomorrow morning it’s because . . .” Because we failed. I was dead, and Marsum was free. Maks trapped forever.