by Charley Case
Mila nodded and glanced over her shoulder at Penny’s door, still not believing they would have baby dragons running around in no time. “We’ll be sure to keep her safe.”
“Okay, Danica. Let’s go.” Finn leaned down and kissed Mila before stepping close to Danica, who formed a bubble. Then they vanished.
“What the hell happened to Finn?” Victoria looked at the spot he and Danica had been standing. “He’s usually so laid back, but that was…intense. He sounded like a commander or something.”
Mila smiled. “He is a dwarf king, you know. That part isn’t a joke.”
“I can see that.”
Chapter Eighteen
“I don’t know what’s happening with you, but it’s not normal.” Victoria stuffed a handful of random underwear and socks from Danica’s dresser into a duffel bag.
They were packing fast, not choosing outfits as much as covering the essentials by grabbing something for the top, the bottom, and the undercarriage. Danica was going to hate that it didn’t all go together. Feeling a little guilty, Mila at least made sure to grab Danica’s favorite shirt and leggings from a drawer before sliding it closed.
“I’m a new Valkyrie. You’re the one who told me I would develop new abilities. Now that I have, you’re telling me it’s not natural?” Mila selected a pair of black sneakers and a pair of leather boots and stuffed them into the bag as well. Knowing her friend better than anyone else on the planet, Mila also grabbed a pair of black high-heeled booties, then went to the closet and picked a red sheath dress and a black skater dress, tucking them into the bag before moving to the bathroom.
“Yes, new abilities, not impossibilities.” She gave Mila a knowing look. “You’re a smart woman, Mila. You know something is strange.”
Staring at the bathroom counter covered in a hundred beauty products, Mila only had the most basic understanding of their intended use. She considered taking them all since she didn’t know what Danica would want. But in the end, she decided to keep it simple with a brush, toothbrush, eyeliner and mascara. They were the four things Mila used every day, and she wasn’t getting any complaints. Danica would have to rough it.
Zipping up the stuffed bag, Mila turned to Victoria. The older woman was giving her a questioning look, her arms crossed and blocking the door.
Rolling her eyes, Mila sighed dramatically. “Fine. You’re right. I know there’s more going on than there should be. But what am I supposed to do about it? It’s happening whether I like it or not.”
Victoria smiled and stepped back, allowing Mila to pass. “I’m not saying we need to stop it. I’m saying we need to understand it. I can only teach you how to do things that, at the very least, are similar to what I already know how to do. I can’t teach you how to channel your raw power into something else. I don’t even have a reference point to start from.”
Victoria followed Mila into the living room, where she dropped the duffel and headed for Penny’s room. “So, what are you suggesting?”
“It’s pretty obvious that Rebecca thinks you’re taking on some of Finn’s traits, and I have to agree. Maybe there’s something there you can use against Azoth, but we don’t know enough to try something.”
Mila quietly opened Penny’s door and peeked in to check on her. She hadn’t moved a muscle since Mila had first seen her.
“I’ll see what Finn thinks,” Mila conceded. “To be honest with you, I think you and Rebecca are onto something. Finn told me that calling down lightning like I did is an ability that the Shield Maidens have passed to them by the Emperor. I think Finn has a little more authority than he thinks he does.”
Victoria’s brows rose slowly as the implications dawned on her, but the popping sound of Finn and Danica returning interrupted her reply.
Mila stepped around Victoria and saw that they had brought along guests. Rebecca and Lance stood beside Finn, Lance in a polo and cargo shorts, and Rebecca in a bikini with a thin robe wrapped around herself.
“Do you ever wear real clothes? I feel like you’re always in some sort of swimwear.” Mila smiled as she stepped up and hugged the blue-haired woman.
“Oh, darling, why would I wear anything but the bare minimum? It’s not like we have any neighbors spying on us.” She returned the hug. “I hear you’re going to be an aunt. Congratulations.”
Mila chuckled. “I guess I am. What are you two doing here?”
“They’re going to help Danica teleport Penny and her hoard.” Finn led them all over to Penny’s room and pushed the door open. “They’ll be able to supplement Danica’s magic with theirs,” he whispered.
“Why didn’t you have Victoria and I do that?”
“Because we have an entirely different kind of magic. Celestial magic doesn’t mix well with others,” Victoria answered. “Not to mention we can’t give our magic to others, at least most of us can’t.” She gave Mila a knowing look.
“Did you get everything packed up?” Danica stepped into Penny’s room and sized up the pile of gold.
“Yeah, it’s in the duffel.” Mila pointed to the bag in the living room. “We should move soon. It’s been an hour, and Remmy texted a few minutes ago to let me know she got everyone out of the building. She’ll be up once she’s packed her bag.”
Rebecca and Lance stepped up behind Danica and put a hand each on her shoulders. Finn came up behind them and put a hand on Lance’s shoulder.
“Okay, this is pretty simple,” Finn explained to the group. “For most races, you three included, magic is limitless but has restricted flow. One person can only direct so much power through themselves, but if we channel our power through Danica, then she can control that much more. She’s going to need a crap ton of power to get all this treasure in one teleport, so be sure to give her all she needs. But, be careful not to give her too much, or it can cause her some real damage. Let her take what she needs since she’ll have a much better feel for how much that is.”
He glanced around to be sure everyone understood the instructions and got a round of nods from everyone.
“Okay. Danica, you have the wheel.”
Mila stepped back to be sure she could see the whole show.
Danica started by forming a large bubble that encircled the entire hoard, the light of the single desk lamp in the room reflecting off its surface. When she had given all she could to the spell, Mila saw that the surface of the bubble was still quite thin compared to when she teleported them around.
“Okay, I’m going to draw power,” Danica warned.
Lance’s hand glowed, followed a second later by Rebecca’s hand, then Finn’s. Mila watched as the power flowed into Danica with enough strength that Mila could see it. A mist-like haze rose from the elf’s shoulders as she closed her eyes and flexed long fingers that crackled with power.
The bubble thickened, and its surface gained the iridescence Mila was used to seeing. It looked like everything was going to plan as the bubble continued to solidify. Then it suddenly stopped, and Danica grunted with effort.
“I need a little more,” she said through gritted teeth.
“I’m giving you everything I have,” Rebecca replied, followed by a “Me too,” from Lance.
“That’s it from me as well,” Finn rumbled, his eyes narrowed in concentration.
“I only need a little more. It’s so close.” The frustration in Danica’s voice was clear, but there didn’t seem to be anything she could do about it.
Mila stepped forward, wondering if maybe she could somehow convert her celestial magic. Azoth could do it, so why not her? She already showed abilities similar to the Drude, so perhaps this was one of those things Victoria was talking about. Mila could already push her magic into things, which Victoria had said was impossible. This was only taking that one step further, right?
Mila took another step and reached for Finn’s shoulder.
The click of the front door opening then latching closed made Mila look toward the kitchen. Remmy walked down the hall, a backpack o
n her shoulders. She was whistling the tune of a popular song on the radio and didn’t seem to have a care in the world.
“Remmy!” Finn shouted, making Mila jump back, her hand dropping to her side.
“What’s up, boss?” Remmy came around the corner and saw them all struggling with the spell. Her eyes went wide, and she dropped the pack to the ground as she ran up to Rebecca and pressed a hand to her back.
A green glow flowed from Remmy, dimmer than the rest of them, but still enough that Mila could see it. The pained look of concentration on Danica’s face relaxed, and with the added power, the bubble snapped into existence around Penny and her nest of treasure.
Danica’s shoulders slumped as she breathed out a long breath she had been inadvertently holding. “That was intense.” She chuckled, rolled her shoulders, and smiled over her shoulder at her helpers. “Thanks for the save, Remmy.”
“No problem, simply doing my part.” Remmy tossed her long white braid over her shoulder. “We blowing this tooter stand or what?”
Danica laughed. “Yeah. You want to come with Penny and me?”
Remmy snatched up her bag and shrugged it onto her shoulders. “Sure. Might as well be a part of the most expensive teleport in history. Has anyone figured out how much all this treasure is worth?”
Mila raised an eyebrow. “Actually, no. There must be quite a few tons of gold alone. But to be honest, those gems might be worth more than the gold. That ruby is bigger than my fist.” She pointed out a particularly bright red stone half-buried in the coins.
“Right now, it’s worth more than your life if you try and mess with it,” Finn warned. “Penny might be sleeping now, but you mess with her hoard and she’ll bite your face off before she’s fully awake. I recommend you don’t touch anything during the trip.”
Remmy stuck her hands in the pockets of her leather bodysuit and stepped close to Danica, who had already taken her position in the large bubble.
“Good call.” Finn chuckled.
“See you in a few minutes.” Danica waved.
The bubble popped.
Instead of the quiet noise that normally came from the teleport spell activating, this time it sounded like a bolt of lightning had struck the building. Everyone stumbled back from the concussive blast as dust rained down from unseen cracks in the ceiling.
“Holy shit, I did not expect that,” Mila shouted, her voice sounding muffled in her ears.
“What?” Rebecca shouted, but only sounding like a whisper to Mila.
“I didn’t expect that!”
“I don’t know how they made cars.”
“What?”
“What?” Rebecca retorted, completely lost.
Finn rolled his eyes, walked over to the duffel bag, and began digging through it. A second later, he stood holding five healing potions from the box Mila had packed earlier. He passed them out and indicated that they should all drink.
Mila thought it was a bit much for something that would eventually fade on its own. That was until she saw a trickle of blood run down Rebecca’s cheek from her ear.
When she pressed a hand to her ear, it surprised Mila to see her fingers come away with blood on them. She drank the potion.
Ten minutes later, they were all standing close to Lance who created a teleport bubble around them.
“What was that about cars?” Mila looked up at Rebecca.
“What?”
“Not this again,” Finn sighed.
The bubble popped, leaving the condo empty.
Chapter Nineteen
The hallway cutting through the center of Rebecca’s house had grown since they were last there a day and a half ago. Instead of two guest bedrooms, there were now four rooms total—three bedrooms and one thick-walled, reinforced chamber that currently held several tons of treasure, one faerie dragon, and three eggs.
The only decoration in the room was the floor-to-ceiling window that made up the entire wall opposite the door. The view looked west, out across the strangely beautiful bayou. Over the last hour, Mila had watched the sun fall closer and closer to the canopy of cypress trees spread out below the suspended house. Now she half-watched as the sun’s orange orb finally set in earnest. The sky slowly changed from a crystal-clear blue to a warm orange color that continued to darken while Mila watched. As if by magic, the orange changed to purples and pinks that streaked across the horizon in a final show of beauty before the last of the sun disappeared, marking one more day gone.
It had taken Mila an embarrassingly long time to realize that the view was impossible. At least, it was impossible if she weren’t standing in a semi-sentient house that used magic to rearrange itself in the blink of an eye.
The room was in the center of the house. Rebecca’s and Lance’s bedroom suite should have been where the window looked out on the bayou. Not to mention the wall faced south, not west. But Mila didn’t sweat the small stuff like cardinal direction and physical walls anymore. She had seen too much, become too much, and done too much for it to bother her.
Now, she simply appreciated the view.
Mila leaned against the doorframe of Penny’s room, her arms crossed, lost in thought about what exactly she would do in the coming battle. She watched Penny’s chest rise and fall in slow, methodical breaths. Once in a while, a puff of flame from one or the other of her nostrils punctuated the calm. Each puff created a tiny smoke ring that would steadily rise until it broke across the dark gray ceiling. Twitching tremors occasionally ran down Penny’s spine, letting Mila know that she was dreaming while in that coma-like sleep. Mila couldn’t decide if that would be a good thing or not. With a small shrug and a half-smile, she decided it all depended on what the dream was about.
Not for the first time in the last hour, Mila wished that Penny was awake. She could use her advice on how to plan out the coming battle. Penny was their strategist, the brains of their little trio. Without her, they were a little like the straw man from Oz—full of good intentions, but more than likely being taken apart by crows.
Normally, Mila wouldn’t worry too much. She and Finn were smart, capable people after all, and she knew they could get through most situations without much trouble, even if they made mistakes. But, this time was different. This time, they were betting the lives of billions that they could take Azoth down.
To make matters worse, this wasn’t the same Azoth she’d faced before. This Azoth was more powerful than he’d ever been, even in the first battle with the Valkyries.
But that wasn’t the only question she wrestled with.
There was the question of the device working as it was designed to do. So far, it did exactly what it should—it stored power like a champ. But, she had to remind herself that it was designed by a witch who had only seen a Drude once and got most of his information from a single Valkyrie, and one that was currently the slave of that same Drude.
Gregory was obviously a genius, but even they were wrong from time to time. Would the device discharge fast enough? Were the hundreds of charges enough to wipe out Azoth’s stored power, or were they vastly underestimating him? How close did she have to be to activate the device?
She had decided that she would use the most obvious answers to those questions. She had to trust that the device had sufficient flow. It would have as many charges as they could pack into it in the time they had left. And she was planning on activating the thing as close to the Drude as possible.
Was that enough to bet the human race on success?
Mila shook her head, trying to banish the doubt. She didn’t have a choice but to move ahead with the scraps of a plan. What was at stake was far bigger than this planet. If the Drude got their hands on the Reaper, they would be able to permanently shift the balance of power in their direction. They would become unstoppable, crashing over the universe like a tsunami and leaving nothing in their wake. That would never happen if Mila had anything to say about it.
Looking up, Mila realized how long she had been standing there, lost
in thought. The sun was well below the horizon, and the constant chirp of the peepers had taken on a more subdued pace with the veil of night blanketing the endless stretches of swamp.
A tiny puff of flame lit the room in warm light for a heartbeat, drawing Mila’s attention to her friend curled around her newborns. A smile spread across her lips as she watched Penny sleep.
Mila spoke quietly to the sleeping dragon. “I could use your help, Penny. This is a big one, and there might be too many variables for me to see it all. If you think of anything we might have missed, let me know, would ya?”
Another puff of flame that left a rising smoke ring was the only reply.
Mila pushed off the doorframe and smoothed down the front of the black skater dress she wore before turning and heading down the hall. Her bare feet padding down the hardwood floor barely made a noise as she headed toward the sounds of sizzling food and friendly conversation.
She had grabbed the skater dress from Danica’s closet, intending it for the elf, but after a quick shower, Mila had realized that she only brought jeans and her leather pants along. She felt like wearing something light and breezy while she had the time to relax before the confrontation with Azoth. So she pulled the dress out of the duffel and put it on without a second thought.
The truth was that the dress belonged to both of them, as did most of the dresses in their closets. When one of them bought a dress or top, both assumed that they would wear it at some point. No one would ever guess that they shared so many clothes after looking at the two women standing next to one another. Danica was more than a foot taller than Mila’s 4’10”, but all of that extra height was in her long legs. They had remarkably similar body measurements, as long as you excluded their legs. Mila’s chest was smaller than Danica’s, but it wasn’t such a big difference that it changed the actual size of the clothes. So, while the light cotton dress came to just over Mila’s knee, it only covered a third of Danica’s shapely thighs, giving them a vastly different look from the same dress.
