Witch Darkness Follows (Maeren Series Book 3)

by Mercedes Jade

  Jaeson stood there, stunned.

  It was the first time the general had acknowledged the connection between Jaeson and Kaila out loud.

  He stood at the bar for a moment longer and took a long sip from his tankard as he looked over his ruffled wren from a distance.

  She was seated in a booth beside Jill. The other three younger ones were squeezed in together on the opposite bench. They looked rather packed, especially with Alexander’s oversized body.

  Kaila wasn’t dainty, but she still had a relatively slimmer, feminine profile, which made the personal space she commanded all the more amusing.

  It seemed the others had learned the wisdom of staying out of her pecking range.

  The general lifted his glass and gave him a shrug. There was probably plenty he wanted to say to his wayward daughter, but he could be patient.

  Kaila wasn’t going to make room for either of them at the table, a slight retaliation for them suddenly showing up again in her life.

  Jaeson didn’t mind keeping the general company, appreciative of the many times Torsten had sat together with him in silence after Jaeson lost his own family.

  He picked up his tankard and walked over, giving Kaila another quick, assessing look before he sat at the general’s table.

  She had kicked off her new sandals, massaging her scarred ankle with her other foot.

  “He was the biggest dragon I’ve ever seen,” Alexander said, loudly enough that they could hear his bragging throughout the pub.

  They must be interrupting a recap of last night’s fight.

  “I’ve seen bigger,” Jill upped him.

  “I’m pretty sure the grey one was the biggest of the five,” Victor corrected, then added, “But size isn’t everything. The black armour on top of the red dragon’s hide was impressive magic. It took a blood spell for me to break through it.”

  The general put his mostly full glass back down on the table. “What red dragon?” he asked.

  He may not be sitting at the same table, but the order in his voice easily carried.

  Somebody was going to answer him.

  “Did you say five?” Jaeson asked, puzzled.

  There had only been one dragon at the portal, although he certainly had been a big one.

  Kaila kicked both her daughter and the prince under the table and then added another kick to Victoria for good measure.

  Alexander was spared in the far corner.

  “This isn’t the place for such storytelling,” Kaila told them.

  Oh, his wren was hiding something.

  “I love a good dragon tale,” Jaeson said, encouraging the younger ones.

  “It's not that exciting,” Jill dismissed.

  Jaeson scoffed, raising his tankard to his lips.

  Already, Kaila was thwarting their protections, keeping secrets.

  He would corner the princess later and get the whole story.

  Her brother really was quite distracted by Jill. Having Kaila here would only further divide his focus.

  “Better use your mouths for eating rather than idle talk,” Kaila advised.

  “Excellent idea, daughter,” the general said, finishing off his whiskey. “We have a long night ahead of us.”

  Kaila tapped her foot, but kept quiet. She knew exactly how far she could push her father.

  It was up to Jaeson to teach her his own limits this time.

  Second chances only came once.

  Sticks and Stones

  Elizabeth

  Elizabeth was used to fighting alone. She preferred it.

  Being a witness to her sister’s mauling by a monster was enough future incentive to avoid a repeat performance.

  Fighting alone most of the time let Elizabeth develop a specific skill set that even Jill—with all her martial arts training—couldn’t replicate.

  The slayer fought dirty and hard. She would strike an opponent in the back, warp minds around illusion, and kick her enemies while they were down. It was about survival, not honour or prestige.

  She wasn’t a general that directed the action, like the Maerenian princes had likely trained.

  Her fighting style was more to get into the thick of things, a foot soldier that was left standing in a field of bodies at the end of the battle through sheer determination.

  Seeing the silver dragon circle back around to help was what put a hitch in Elizabeth’s preparation, not the three nasty dragons flying straight at her with hunger.

  Pan was swooping down to intercept, diving towards the three larger dragons with a roar of her own, having circled only to gain momentum.

  The foolish girl dragon hadn’t escaped when she had the chance.

  Pan’s dragon form was more difficult to read than the girl, but Elizabeth could still sense her fear as she bravely dove into danger.

  What had made Pan stay when a few minutes ago she was throwing rocks and shaking, despite her cocky words?

  Elizabeth levitated in the amplification circle.

  Magic bounced, bounced.

  They were both committed now. It was tempting to throw lightning at the dragons—like she accidentally had when she’d blown up a rock while George had watched her the first time in this kind of a circle.

  With Pan in firing range this time, she couldn’t risk it.

  Focusing on the dragon minds approaching, Elizabeth tried to worm her way inside the lead one’s mind.

  She let out her own ferocious roar in response to the angry, conquering thoughts that twisted against her hold.

  The animal instincts screamed to burn, and bite, and tear.

  Her hands clawed at her sides until she fisted them.

  She couldn’t let herself be swallowed up by the strong magic surrounding the dragon minds, careful not to dive too deeply into their thoughts.

  She had to focus on something small, a tiny command that wouldn’t lead her into danger like it had with the sleeping dragons.

  Lightning from the amplifying circle crackled around her, pulsing with each flare of her power rebounding.

  It was a spark on her glowing skin, compared to the power filling her already, but enough to remind her not to lose herself.

  A deep breath, then a hard push at the magic to give her more control over the dragon’s senses.

  Elizabeth searched for the signals from the vision of one of the dragons, closing her eyes, then opening them again to see as he did.

  Pan’s silver form flashed against the sun, like liquid mercury snaking down to meet the lead dragon, blue-fire pouring from her snout in a long stream.

  A shield of green-fire coated the lead dragon’s hide, enough to keep the burn of the blue-fire from penetrating through to his scales.

  It was his mind that Elizabeth possessed.

  Elizabeth shut her eyes again, picturing pure black, calm and dark as a moonless night .

  She commanded the dragon to do the same, keeping her eyes closed tight as he fought the sudden loss of his vision.

  His wings flapped hard. He pulled up, out of his dive, halting mid-air and hovering as he tried vainly to open his eyes.

  His companions blew past him, flying too fast to pull up in time.

  They were unable to stop Pan’s sharp, taloned feet from digging into the leader’s hide, just behind the neck and at the top of one vulnerable wing.

  Pan ripped through his magic barrier like tissue paper and poured flames over one leathery wing.

  The sound of wings and fighting were getting physically closer.

  Elizabeth opened her eyes, fighting the urge to curl up against the pain telepathically lashing her body as the lead dragon had his wing shredded and burned.

  It wasn’t her body. She was only feeling an echo of his pain.

  She dropped the tormented mind and hoped that Pan could handle him.

  The circle Elizabeth was in had no barrier to protect her from the incoming attack of the two remaining male dragons.

  She wished she could call forth her demon fox familiar,
Rai, but without Victoria to remind her of the complex Maerenian spell to do so, she had to rely on her lightning and air for protection instead.

  The male dragons would expect lightning after seeing her circle.

  She quickly sketched a rectangle in front of her and blew up the air-shield.

  She sent it out towards the dragon getting closest to her, stretching the shield from a square-foot to five-feet of invisible air, just waiting for the dragon to fly head first into her wall.

  The dragon was playing chicken without even knowing it.

  Twin streams of green-fire flew towards Elizabeth, one hitting her air-shield with a flashover.

  The flickering flame bathed her air-shield like a glowing sign.

  Her intended target flapped hard to one side, barrel rolling around her air-shield, and then straightening.

  His lizard yellow eyes narrowed on her.

  The other dragon’s flame coated her body as she shielded lightning fast. She smelled the sickening burn from her singed hair that she hadn’t been able to protect in time.

  She dropped to the ground, landing hard on her feet, cut off from the circle’s magic by her own lightning-shield.

  Don’t panic. Drop the shield and throw lightning. Eat dirt to escape the other dragon.

  She took one running step, two, three, and leaped, twisting in the air to see the position of the dragons.

  They were so much closer than she’d expected. The one that had barrel rolled had turned back onto a collision course with her already.

  Lightning danced over her hands as she threw what power she had gathered out, not bothering to aim with only seconds to strike.

  Even if it didn’t hit, this kind of power would send a warning message.

  Using her own air against her body, she pushed herself down to the ground—even harder—willing to bust her nose or get bruised if it got her under the reach of the dragons.

  Warm bands of iron wrapped around her back, catching her as she fell.

  Dragon talons screeched against an air-shield that wasn’t hers, inches from her face.

  The body underneath her absorbed most of the impact of their hard landing against the ground, but it still rattled the breath out of her.

  Scaly dragon tails slithered over the invisible air barrier. She swore she could feel the wind of their passing, the wall of air between her and the dragons only large enough to block their bodies from being touched.

  “Get into a circle!” two angry males demanded, reinforcing their commands mentally.

  Daemon released her.

  She rolled off of him and got onto her hands and knees, looking up for Pan and the lead dragon.

  Her eyes caught movement that was on the ground.

  Two fighting figures were in human form, one much slighter than the other.

  Daemon and George were already preparing for the two other dragons who had attacked her, swinging around for another pass.

  Elizabeth took off running, never once glancing back. She paused her mad-dash to bend down and scoop up the chalk by her still active protective circle.

  Daemon and George must have slipped out of the barrier by using their own lightning.

  She could use the magic from the circle herself, but there wasn’t enough time to reabsorb it.

  “Pan!” she shouted. “Get the hell away from her, Markus,” she screamed, guessing the other dragon’s identity.

  He looked up at Elizabeth, while holding a naked and bleeding Pan with one hand wrapped around her neck, the small girl dangling helplessly in his grip.

  Elizabeth used air to give her feet wings, running on the wind. Drawing from the lightning boiling in her blood, she let her hands spark with threatening power.

  Markus dropped Pan to the ground.

  He was a huge male, almost as tall as Daemon and as muscled as George.

  Although she had felt the rent in his hide and the burn of his wing earlier—when she’d been in his mind—there was only a pink-looking scar across the back of his shoulder. The injury didn’t appear new.

  Pan was the one covered in fresh blood.

  “Lightning witch? So, you’re not only a tale to frighten dragonlings?” Markus asked as she neared.

  His sneering tone belied any fear of facing her magic and wrath.

  “Oh, were those your friends I smote in the caves? I admit, they did cry like children before I put them down to sleep,” she responded, glossing over Daemon’s role.

  She sent a little spark of lightning to blacken the ground between Markus and Pan, biting back a satisfied grin when he hopped sideways.

  He was more wary than he’d sounded.

  “Don’t get closer,” Pan warned. “He has enough earth to bury you, and anything you shield. You need to cir—”

  Markus slammed his fist into the side of Pan’s delicate face, cutting off her warning to circle as the girl crumpled to the ground.

  “The vampire behind me can slice a dragon in two with his sword,” Elizabeth bragged. “Or maybe, he could cut off that embarrassingly tiny dick you’re trying to make up for by smacking around little girls, asshole.”

  “You’re going to learn better uses for your mouth th—”

  Elizabeth electrocuted him, watching his body jerk before he got a weak fire-shield up.

  He bit his tongue, blood trickling out of the corners of his lips. It made his teeth gruesome as he bared a bloodstained snarl and growled.

  “Down boy,” she mocked him, slapping him with a flick of air against one cheek.

  The ground under her feet disappeared as Pan had warned her.

  Elizabeth would have been buried in the sandy trap, if she wasn’t already standing on air an inch off the ground, after being cautioned.

  Wind and dust made for a gritty sandstorm that Elizabeth whirled around Markus. She blinded as well as subdued him with the sting of a thousand minuscule rocks rubbing the skin off of his thick hide a millimetre at a time.

  He howled and she almost winced, sure that his more sensitive parts felt like they were on fire.

  His already battered shields would have difficulty dealing with every grain of sand, all hitting in different directions at the same time.

  “Come on, run!” Elizabeth said, snagging Pan’s hand to pull her up.

  The girl was finely built, taller than Elizabeth, but with small breasts and petite hips that had almost let her get away with playing a boy.

  She seemed embarrassed by her body, trying to cover up with her free hand, but Elizabeth doubted it was due to her size and more to her discovered sex.

  “Already knew you had boobies, sweetie,” Elizabeth said, tugging harder.

  “I’m naked!” Pan screeched.

  “You’re a shifter. I’m sure it’s not the first time,” Elizabeth said. “Hurry up! We’re supposed to get into a circle and let the guys protect us.”

  “You fought Markus and came away without a scratch!” Pan said, sounding incredulous.

  She let herself be tugged a few feet away, then stayed still, while Elizabeth sketched a quick circle around them.

  “I’m setting it with lightning. If you want to transform and fly away before I do, now is your chance,” Elizabeth warned.

  “Can’t change,” Pan admitted, crouching down on the ground with her arms wrapped around her knees to hide most of her female bits.

  “Because you’re injured?” Elizabeth asked, setting the circle.

  The sandstorm around Markus died with Elizabeth’s magic getting cut off by her setting the circle.

  He looked like a tourist that had fallen asleep at the beach, if he had turned over and gotten baked twice. Every naked inch of him was painfully red.

  “It’s more complicated than that,” Pan answered about not shifting.

  Her wide eyes were focused on Markus as he started to approach them.

  Elizabeth stepped in front of Pan, standing inches from the circle barrier to stare down the approaching threat.

  She refused to fl
inch as Markus threw his earth at the circle in a fit of fury.

  He littered the outside of the circle with smashed rocks that he pelted at her face, like shooting bullet after bullet at the target until the clip emptied.

  He was wasting ammunition, but too angry to care.

  “If this circle goes down, I want you to run towards the males that were with me. They won’t harm you,” Elizabeth promised. “Tell George that I’ve found him another ‘little one’ to rescue.”

  Pan’s panicked mind, behind her, was almost deafening.

  Surface thoughts only! Elizabeth refused to force herself further, trying to add another layer of protection to the girl’s mind.

  She was an innocent. The real enemies Elizabeth had to defeat were outside of their circle.

  “Pan, trust me,” Elizabeth said. “George looks tough with all of his scars, but he’s a bit misunderstood. Give him a chance.”

  “I don’t want to become demon bait!” Pan wailed. “I’ve never been bitten. My first time can’t be with a monster.”

  What?

  “George is the vampire, not the demon. Nobody is feeding off of you. The demon’s mine,” Elizabeth said.

  It was a good thing Daemon couldn’t overhear Elizabeth claiming him.

  Markus stood right up to the crackling barrier, looking down his nose at her.

  He was huffing and puffing, but their wall held.

  She hoped Markus didn’t figure out the simple solution that George had earlier with Daemon, and divided the ground under the circle, cutting through her chalked lines.

  That had required an immense amount of magic. This dragon was already using his magic like his well had no bottom. He had to dry up soon.

  Even George had only been able to break the circle because he had drawn it himself.

  Markus’s realization that the target of his anger was well defended puckered his lips in disgust. He spat at them.

  Disgusting, filthy habit. She ought to introduce his mouth to a bar of soap.

  “He’s never going to forget your face,” Pan whispered.

  “Good. I hate having to introduce myself twice,” Elizabeth snarked, not breaking her stare.

  She scrunched up a bunny nose and waved bye to Markus, knowing what was coming out of his line of sight.