The crystals rattled again as he leaned down, our faces inches apart. I wanted to run away. I wanted to close my eyes and tilt my face up in surrender. Was he really going to kiss me now? I could already imagine the feel of his mouth. Aggressive and dominant. All dark, fierce passion. The thought alone left me breathless.
But when I looked into his eyes, I didn’t see passion. I saw anger. And it took me a moment too long to realize he wasn’t leaning in to kiss me.
A cold crystal pressed against my bare arm.
“Ori decidas,” he hissed.
Weakness flooded my body. My legs collapsed and he swept me up before I crumpled. I hung limply in his hold, unable to do more than twitch helplessly.
“Bastard!” I screamed, relieved to discover my lungs still worked. “What the hell are you doing?”
He dropped me on the bed. I felt a tug on my arm as he knotted the leather tie around my wrist, keeping the spelled crystal against my skin, and I could do nothing to stop him. My body wouldn’t move, my limbs numb and heavy.
I seethed, using anger to combat the squirming panic in my gut. How stupid was I? He’d misled me with nothing more than a smoldering stare while sneaking a spell off the rack behind me—and I’d fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker.
Returning to the crystals, Zak surveyed his collection. A rippling movement from the corner stole my attention, and my next insult died on my tongue as the huge black eagle unfurled her wings. The fae sprang off the perch and flew across the room, her feathers sweeping wide as she reached Zak’s back.
Instead of landing on him, the fae’s phantom body sank into his. Her wings settled across his shoulders and arms, darkening into bold tattoos.
Selecting an acid-green crystal, he sat on the edge of the bed and dangled the stone above my face, his emerald eyes eerily bright with the power of the fae inside him.
I wheezed pathetically, my arms and legs twitching.
“I think it’s time,” he said quietly, dark tattoos edging his jaw and giving his face a malevolent cast, “for you to tell me everything. And this spell will ensure you’re properly forthcoming.”
All I could do was glare in furious terror as he pressed the crystal against my throat and uttered the incantation.
I was a gullible idiot, and I had no excuse. Give me a mysterious, gorgeous, so-powerful-it-was-arousing mythic with a fierce sense of justice and a soft spot for dragon babies, and I was happy to jump to ridiculous conclusions. I’d convinced myself he was a not-so-bad guy who was only a danger to really bad guys.
In actuality, he was a not-so-bad guy who was a danger to anyone he considered a threat. And I’d made myself into a nice big threat not only to him, but to everyone he protected. And he was having none of it.
I told him everything.
My whole life story, and then some, spilled out of my mouth, prompted by his sharp questions. I couldn’t stop myself. The crystal artifact resting on my throat pulsed with a strange heat, and the urge to answer his questions was irresistible. I wanted to tell him everything, even as a small part of my brain screamed at me to stop.
He watched me blather with merciless eyes. I was his enemy now.
He extracted the tale of how I’d come to work at the Crow and Hammer, and I blurted all sorts of private thoughts he had no business knowing. Like how the guild felt akin to home, and how I was terrified of losing my place there once my paperwork went through. Like my confusing feelings for Aaron and the way my hardcore crush on him was being eroded by doubts. Like my secret fears about Ezra—the repressed savagery I’d glimpsed in him, the hints of an inner darkness I didn’t understand.
Zak questioned me thoroughly about our plans for capturing him and rescuing Nadine, then backtracked to my past—asking questions about my family. About my father. About things I never talked about. Things I’d buried deep. But the spell forced me to answer, to tear through my mental barricades and unleash the long-ago memories on my psyche.
Finally, Zak stopped asking questions. With the spell still tied to my arm, I lay motionless, my breath hitching as I choked back tears. I’d cried in front of him, and the shame burned my soul.
He stared thoughtfully across the room, unaffected by my emotional state. Cold-hearted bastard.
“I need to save Nadine,” I said hoarsely. “Since you aren’t kidnapping anyone, I don’t care what you do. I would’ve promised to never speak about your secrets, and I would’ve kept my word.”
He glanced at my throat where the artifact pulsed against my skin. “I can’t accept that promise.”
“Not everyone is a liar,” I spat. “If you can’t trust me, then use a spell or something. I’ll swear whatever magical oaths you want, just let me go so I can help Nadine!”
Plus, I needed to leave before he decided to kill me, but I didn’t say that. The circumstances under which he’d let me live on his ranch as one of his wards were long gone.
“You would swear a magical oath?” His gaze shifted over my face. “Even a black-magic one?”
“Yes.”
“Even if breaking the oath meant death?”
“Yes.” Wasn’t like my chances of survival were all that great anyway.
He considered me for several long moments. “If you submit to a binding oath, I’ll let you go. You will never speak about me for as long as you live, and if you so much as utter a word, you’ll die—and it will be a gruesome death.”
Cold chilled my limbs, but I gathered my determination. “I only need to be able to talk about Nadine.”
Nodding, he lifted the green crystal off my throat, then pulled the other one—a fat ruby red crystal—off my arm. As soon as it broke contact with my skin, strength flooded into my limbs. I resisted the urge to curl up in a defensive ball and instead shoved myself upright.
Standing, Zak crossed to a table and dropped the crystals on the corner before picking up a thick leather tome.
Swallowing back the sick taste in my mouth, I crawled off the bed. The door wasn’t far, but there was no point in running. Even if I made it downstairs before he stopped me—which I doubted I could manage—where would I go? I was still trapped in the valley.
He perused one page after another, and I minced close enough to peer at the book’s contents. Complex transmutation circles, marked with notations and instructions in tiny text, filled every page.
“Don’t know this one by heart?” I muttered sarcastically.
“I’ve never had the occasion to use it before.”
“What if you mess it up?”
“I imagine you’ll die.”
My stomach dropped. As I waited silently, he studied the instructions in the grimoire, then collected supplies from around the room. Uncovering a stick of chalk, he strode to the room’s open center, where a perfect white circle had been painted on the floor. With confident strokes, he marked runes in geometric arrangements around the perimeter and drew crisscrossing lines through the center.
Nerves tightened my gut as he arranged several bottles with different liquids around the circle and added bundles of herbs. Then he placed a bowl with incense sticks at the northern point and lit them with a lighter. Smoke curled toward the ceiling.
As he crossed the room and opened a low cupboard, my gaze jumped to the table. The crimson and green crystals lay where he’d left them. Checking that his head was still in the cupboard, I swiped the crystals off the table and shoved them into my bra. I really needed to put pants on.
I was just tugging my shirt—er, his shirt—straight when he emerged with a white bowl in his hand.
“Sit in the center of the circle,” he ordered.
Reluctantly, I stepped into the white ring. Careful not to touch any of the lines, I moved to the center and sat cross-legged. He passed me the bowl, added a splash of clear liquid from a small flask, then shifted to a spot behind me.
“Are you ready?”
Clutching the bowl, I nodded.
He began the incantation, incomprehensible words flo
wing in his deep, husky voice. The white lines and runes glowed eerily, and shivering power trickled through me. Colored mist rose in strange patterns from the various bottles and smoke puffed from the dried herbs.
Zak paused his incantation and switched to English. “Repeat after me: I swear on my life I will not communicate in any way anything I saw, heard, learned, or guessed about the druid called the Ghost since waking up in this valley.”
I repeated the words, my voice quavering.
“I will not speak of, imply, intimate, or reveal the existence of this oath or the spell that binds me to it.”
Fighting the sick fear in my stomach, I repeated that too.
“If I break this oath, willingly, accidentally, or through coercion, I forfeit my life.”
Once I’d spoken the final words, he uttered the last phrase of the incantation. Light flashed and the swirling colored smoke coiled into a single plume that sank into the bowl I held. The porcelain heated in my hands, then violet light burst from within it.
Zak strode around the circle to stand in front of me. “Drink the potion to seal the binding.”
A small amount of purple liquid filled the bowl. Hands shaking, I lifted the edge to my lips and sipped. Sweetness bloomed across my tongue, taking me by surprise. Sure didn’t taste like a gruesome black-magic binding potion.
I poured the liquid into my mouth and swallowed hastily. Zak checked I’d finished it, then took the bowl.
“It’s done. Do not forget, Tori. If you speak about me or this place even by accident, that’s it for you.” His cold eyes scoured me. “And don’t try to trick your way around the oath. It won’t work.”
I nodded numbly. “Can I leave now?”
“Yes.”
Peering around the room, I mumbled, “How? How do I get home?”
“If you want to help Nadine, I suppose you should return immediately.” He headed for the door. “Let’s go.”
I scrambled up, flinching as the hidden crystals in my bra dug into my skin. Before following him, I darted into the bathroom and retrieved my Queen of Spades card from the pocket of my blood-stained jeans. It had survived without a spot on it.
Zak waited for me by the door. He’d put on a black sweater, the hood drawn up and his face in shadow.
He pushed the door open. “Get some real clothes on. I’ll meet you outside.”
Some of my usual defiance awoke at his commanding tone, and I sneered as I started down the stairs. After shutting the door, he followed me to the bottom, then headed straight for the front porch. I jogged down the hall to the room I shared with the other girls.
Afternoon sunlight beamed through the window, and I puffed a relieved sigh to discover the bunk beds empty. Yanking open the third dresser drawer, I pulled out my original thrift-store outfit. Stripping off Zak’s shirt, I put mine on, then shimmied into the jeans. The Queen of Spades went in one pocket and the crystals went in another. It took an annoying fifteen seconds to stuff the long leather ties out of sight.
Only when I reached the front entryway did I realize my shoes were still upstairs in his bathroom—and covered in dragon blood. Only two pairs of shoes sat in the entryway, both way too small for me. I walked outside barefoot.
A hundred yards away, Zak leaned against the pasture fence, waiting. Panting from the jog, I joined him, the grass cool but prickly under my feet.
“Well?” I demanded. “Take me back.”
“I’m not taking you home. I’m sending you home. Just wait.”
“Sending me? What does that mean?”
His hood twitched as he moved his head, and I gritted my teeth. I wanted to see his face. I wanted to read those green eyes to determine how nasty he was feeling toward me. My neck prickled and I spotted various mythics watching us: Morgan and Miesha in the garden; Omar and Kayden standing by the open barn doors; and Terrance, Jasper, and Shanice walking back from the orchard.
“By the way, Tori.” A shiver ran down my spine at the sweet malice in Zak’s voice. “The interrogation spell you stole is a dark arts artifact. Don’t use it in front of anyone with a moral conscience.”
I sucked in a sharp breath.
“It lasts twenty minutes and takes a day to recharge. The fall spell lasts an hour and takes about eight hours to recharge. They need to be touching the target’s bare skin before they’re triggered.”
My hand went to my pocket where I’d stashed the crystals. “You … you’re letting me take them?”
“Do you remember the incantations?”
“Pretty sure I do.”
He studied me—at least, I thought he did—then patted his pockets, searching. He pulled out a pen. “You’re going to forget them. Give me your hand.”
“I won’t forget.” Despite my protest, I extended my hand. Better safe than sorry, I supposed.
He took my wrist and wrote across my palm. Still holding my arm, he used the pen to push his hood back enough that sunlight hit his green eyes. “If you get Nadine back, I’ll take her. This time I’ll keep her safe.”
Looking into his eyes, I knew that though he was a threat to me, to Nadine he was a guardian. He would protect her.
“If that’s what she wants,” I murmured, “I’ll get her back to you.”
He nodded and glanced skyward. “He’s here.”
I squinted into the sun—and all hell broke loose.
The sunlight darkened. Animals squealed and bolted. Humans screamed. With the air shimmering and rippling around it, a monstrous dragon glided out of the clear blue sky. I reflexively grabbed Zak’s arm, my fingers digging into his sleeve as the super-sized reptile landed in front of us, its wings booming from the air pressure.
I gawked at its dark, sleek body lined with those swirling galaxy patterns. Its head, framed by elegantly curving horns, dipped down until the giant nose hovered at chest height, nostrils flaring.
Zak pried my hands off his arm. “Echo owes you a favor for helping treat his nephew. He’s agreed to take you home.”
“But—but—how did you—so fast?”
“I’m a druid,” he replied like that explained everything.
I fought the urge to touch the dragon’s muzzle, only a few feet in front of me. “His nephew? I thought he was the father.”
“No, Tempest is his sister.”
My brow furrowed. “Tempest and Echo?”
“If you call their names silly, he’ll probably eat you.”
“Their names are lovely. Very majestic.”
A quiet sound of amusement slipped from the shadows of his hood. “Their real names are unpronounceable with a human tongue. Those are approximate translations.”
My eyes narrowed. Was he making fun of me? Before I could complain, he took my elbow. “Ready?”
“Hold up!” I dug in my heels. “That’s a dragon. Is it safe for him to fly over a city when—”
“He’s a wyldfae, Tori.” Zak pushed me toward the huge beast. “Don’t underestimate him. Just picture where you want to go in your head, and he’ll get you there.”
“That—that’s it? Are you sure this will work?”
“Yes.” He stepped back. “Trust me.”
I didn’t trust him, except … maybe I did. Under specific circumstances only. He was a cold-hearted creep but also a surprisingly noble, baby-dragon-saving warrior. In other words, a big walking contradiction, and I had no clue how to feel about him.
The dragon stretched one enormous front foot out and gently wrapped its claws around me. I grabbed its scaled toes—fingers?—and held on tightly as the creature lifted me into the air. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shiiiit. I was being carried by a dragon and it took all my concentration not to hyperventilate.
Zak tipped his head back, sunlight catching on his face. Our eyes met.
The dragon’s wings opened with a boom. Echo leaped into the sky and my stomach stayed on the ground. I clung to the dragon’s foot as his wings propelled us upward. Zak shrank to a black dot by the line of the fence, and for a brief m
oment, I was hanging in the air a mile above the valley, staring down at the rolling green fields, wooden barn, and rustic cabin, bordered on all sides by forested mountain peaks.
Then the air rippled. Hot, electric magic rushed over me, and with a soft hiss, the world disappeared into shimmering distortions.
Chapter Eighteen
My weightless stomach informed me I was falling. Or at least descending. Plunging to my death?
Wind whipped across my face and my vision blurred in and out, colors rippling all around me. The feeling of movement and the blurry swirls had been going on for a while, but I’d lost all sense of time. Only the dragon’s claws around my middle felt real. Scrunching my eyes shut, I focused as hard as I could on the Crow and Hammer. My bar. My guild.
Our movement slowed and I pried my eyes open. Everything was still rippling, but now I could make out boxy gray shapes dotted with green. Wait. That was a city. I was looking at a city!
Wings spread wide, Echo spiraled down. The closer we got, the more the weird ripples dissipated until I could make out the familiar skyscrapers, the long piers of the marina, the deep blue ocean. Afternoon traffic zoomed along the streets and pedestrians swarmed the sidewalk in ant-like droves.
How would all those people react to a dragon in the sky? Could they see us?
Echo drifted into another wide spiral, moving away from the skyscrapers as his head swung to one side then the other. With a quiet rumble, he pulled his wings in. We plummeted, hitting terminal velocity in seconds. I choked on a scream as he stretched his neck out, nose pointed into the dive. Buildings rushed toward us.
Way too close to imminent death, he snapped his wings open. My stomach kept falling at full speed as I felt like I was pulled upward. His wings shimmered, then his whole form blurred. The pressure of the dragon foot around my middle disappeared.
For a terrifying second, I was falling. Then something else closed tightly around me.
Dark Arts and a Daiquiri (The Guild Codex: Spellbound Book 2) Page 16
