Gwen liked to experience the rush, but Jesus, riding a dragon was scary as hell! She clung on and tried to breathe, not easy with the fifty-mile-an-hour wind rushing past her as they zoomed through the sky.
How did people not see them? She supposed some magic created by the Warders, most likely. The same magic that helped keep her seated on the great beast that was Cade’s dragon, and gods, was he terrifying! Nathan wasn’t exactly cute, but Cade had terrified her to look at him for the first few moments. She’d had to berate herself and remind her inner scaredy-cat that it was her mate standing in front of her with glowing red eyes.
Nathan’s huge monster of a dragon gave a roar and veered sharply to the left, Claire holding on serenely as if riding the carousel. All the dragons followed, and soon they began a sharp descent. They landed with something of a thud, jolting the air out of her and scaring her some more as Cade scrambled to a stop.
By the time they’d all landed safely, most of the males were changing back into their human form, but not Nathan, Callum, Aiden, and Dominic. The two younger males were safer in dragon form and more able to join the fight and help, and Nathan and Callum had elected to stay in dragon form. Nathan, to fight in that form if need be, and Callum, to hang back and protect the females and younger males. The Warders all changed form, too, and then they pulled a backpack from Nathan’s back and began to take clothes out of it. Simple garments they could shrug on quickly.
Boots and shoes and things were flung about as people swapped sizes until they all had they needed.
Lilly stood to one side, a little away from the others, and Gwen quietly went to join her.
“Are you okay?” she asked the Havsa sister.
Lilly smiled. “Yes. I’m scared, but I’ve been practicing for this. I’m just preparing myself mentally. I’ve gone over what to do most days.”
“You have?”
She nodded. “Oh yeah. Rhiannon and Kate have taught me well, and I practiced and practiced so I knew I could have a chance against Celine if she ever reappeared. I always kind of knew she would, so this has felt inevitable to me. In some ways, despite my terror, I’m glad this day is here. Beats waiting for it on tenterhooks, you know?”
Gwen gave the dark-haired female an impromptu hug.
“Okay. We’re off. It’s about half a mile in this direction.” Cade pointed to his right and began to jog through the meadow they’d landed in.
The dragons took off and flew over them, keeping low and circling up higher every now and again, she presumed, to look out.
They reached the barn where the Warders sensed the witch held Jay sooner than Gwen was prepared for. Her nerves were really playing up now. She’d never met a witch and didn’t want to. She supposed Warders were witches in one sense, but this Celine was a bad witch, like something out of a scary childhood fairy tale. She shuddered and turned to look at Cade by her side.
A line of trees between them and a few farm outbuildings gave them cover, but she felt her skin crawl as if someone were watching them.
“She knows we are coming,” Rhiannon said.
They got to the dilapidated farm, and Rhiannon pointed at a run-down, circular building, some sort of old grain silo or something. “He’s in there.”
Cade took off at a run. Rhiannon hissed and followed him.
Shit. Unsure what to do and needing to be near her mate, Gwen started to run too, but big arms wrapped around her and held her back. “Uh-uh, sweetheart. You’ll go getting yourself killed.”
She recognized Steffan’s husky voice and stopped struggling.
“Come on, hang back with us, okay?” Mia took hold of her hand and gave it a squeeze.
They followed Cade and Rhiannon at a more cautious pace, and she hated the moment Cade burst into the building with only Rhiannon by his side. But someone shot by her, running so fast they didn’t look human. My gods, it was Awen, and he ran faster than a damned cheetah, and in his human form, too. He followed Cade and Rhiannon into the building. Too curious now to hang back, Gwen broke into a jog. The others followed, and soon they were bursting into the building.
Jay was sitting in a chair not moving. Every time Cade went to reach for him, electricity jolted the air, and Cade gave a cry and stepped back.
“She came in here, thought she meant to kill me, but she did this instead.” Jay’s eyes held Cade’s, and then he flicked his gaze to Gwen.
“Motherfucker!” Cade shouted. “Celine, you fucking bitch, get out here now!”
A tinkling laugh came from somewhere up above them, and Gwen craned her neck to look but saw nothing but the vaulted ceiling.
As soon as Rhyndor entered the room, the air changed. It crackled and fizzed with dark energy. Every hair stood on end on Gwen’s arm, and she had to fight the urge to turn tail and run. Something dark and malevolent stalked this room. An energy so ugly and evil, she wanted to be sick. Vomit kept rising in her throat, and she had to swallow it down.
Rhyndor dropped to his knees by her and put his head in his hands, groaning in pain.
How the hell could one witch, no matter how powerful, be doing all this? How did she keep Jay under some sort of magic to stop him from being able to move, keep the invisible electric fence all around him, and make them all feel so poorly? Rhyndor, in particular.
Rhiannon gave her own groan and began to turn around, her arms in the air as she sucked in deep breaths. She turned to them, her face pale. “We need to leave. Rhyndor must leave.”
She grabbed Lilly. “Get your mate out of here now!”
Lilly frowned.
Mia bent over and threw up and then turned to Rhiannon and Kate. “Do something, Rhi. There’s a lot of us, and only one of her.”
Rhiannon shook her head. “Oh, my child, there’s more than one. This is a trap. A terrible ambush. We need to get out of here. While we can.”
“We’re not leaving Jay.” Cade tried once more to break the electric barrier keeping their bonded male trapped, but it repelled him again.
Lilly walked to the center of the room and held her hands up in the same way Rhiannon had. She began to chant something, and the oppressive air in the room became so dense that Gwen fell to the floor, her head in her hands.
The warriors were dropping like flies all around her, groaning and holding their heads. It seemed the more powerful the male, the worse they suffered.
She hurt, but she could raise her head, whereas Cade, Awen, Lucien, and Rhyndor were all writhing on the ground. Steffan had grabbed Mia and covered her with his body, but he didn’t seem to fare much better.
Mia pulled herself free of her mate, ignoring his cry of dismay as she jerked out of his weakened grasp and ran toward Lilly. She moved as if a hundred-mile-an-hour wind held her back. Eventually, though, she reached Lilly and held her left hand, hers raised in the air too.
Lilly began to chant, and Claire soon joined her, making her own way over to her sisters. The air became heavier, and Gwen swore she couldn’t breathe. She looked over to Cade and screamed. His eyes were red, and blood ran down his cheeks. Oh gods, their males were going to die.
Lilly’s voice rose, getting louder and louder. Rhiannon, Ruth, and Kate walked around the three sisters, chanting and muttering and doing something with their hands.
A burst of lightning rent the air down the center of the room, and a huge crack of thunder followed. Christ, they were creating their own storm with their magical power, or the witches were. Gwen hoped to the gods it was their side.
Jay’s body jerked like a puppet having its strings pulled, and he jumped out of his chair and began to dance in the most horrifying fashion. His limbs went one way, then the other, and he twirled around. Cade roared as Jay began to dance faster and faster, and still, the air grew heavier and more thunder and lightning boomed around them.
Lilly held her head back, opened her mouth, and let out the most unearthly scream Gwen had ever heard.
An answering chorus of cries came from above them, and one by one, five women appeared, their forms coalescing in front of Gwen as she watched. They were all horrifying to behold, but one in particular, with a burned face and evil eyes, scared the crap out of her.
The women fell from the rafters to land on the floor with a heavy thump. The air cleared, and the males around them began to stand.
The burned witch stood and gave a scream as she pointed a long finger at Lilly. She shot something out of her hand so fast, Gwen couldn’t track what it was. Whatever it was hit Lilly, and she went down.
Rhyndor roared and changed. He did it so quickly, Gwen couldn’t tell the exact moment he went from human form to that of a huge and awesome dragon. Then he blew out a white-hot arc of flame right at the witch. She held her hand up, and the flame stopped a foot from her.
Gwen saw the hand shaking, though, and knew the witch struggled to hold off the fire. She’d been weakened by whatever Lilly, her sisters, and the Warders had done.
The males who hadn’t changed into their human form all entered the building at once, and they also began to aim their fire at the witches. Cade changed into his dragon, as did Awen and Lucien.
All the dragons began to breathe their fire at the wicked females before them. Rhiannon, Ruth, and Kate joined the warrior dragons and held their hands up. More fire came forth, and the room became so hot Gwen couldn’t stand it.
Mia and Claire were bent over a still prone Lilly, doing something to her. Something magical, probably.
Gwen felt utterly useless. No help to anyone. And then she looked at Jay, who still danced. Taking a huge risk, she gave a cry and ran at him, hoping like hell the electrical fence was gone. It wasn’t, but it was weakened enough that she crashed through the barrier with no more harm than some burning pain to her limbs and a burst of pain right at the top of her head. She reached Jay and threw her arms around him, holding him still.
He continued to jerk in her grasp, but as she spoke to him, whispering nonsense words of love and affection, he began to slow. Soon, he stood still within her grasp, just the odd twitch of a limb or a muscle. He breathed heavily, and she knew the moment he came back to himself because she sensed it. Like a computer coming back online, one moment he was a shell, and the next he was Jay, back in his own skin.
The witches were struggling to hold off the flame, and Rhyndor advanced on Celine, getting nearer and nearer to her every second. The other four witch females didn’t seem to want to die by dragon fire, and they all looked at one another and made what looked like an instant, unanimous decision. With a grim nod, they vanished. One moment they were there, the next, poof, they were gone.
Now the flames licked right at Celine’s boots, and she couldn’t hold them off any longer. She gave a scream of anger and tried to shoot more magic at them, but it didn’t work. And then the weirdest thing happened. Rhyndor stopped with the flamethrower act, changed form back into a naked and, frankly, magnificent male, and created a ring of fire around the witch using his hands. He signaled for the other dragons to stop with the fire, and they did.
Why didn’t he kill Celine while he had the chance?
“Save her.” Rhyndor looked to where Lilly lay on the floor. “Save her right the fuck now.”
“She hit her with some sort of poisoned dart,” Mia sobbed as she held a limp Lilly in her arms.
“Oh gods.” Callum dropped down beside Lilly, changed back into human form at some point. “Lilly. Breathe for me, Lilly.”
“Fucking save her, and I’ll let you go.” Rhyndor ground out the words.
“No.” Steffan took hold of Rhyndor. “You can’t let her go. She’s after us all now.”
“I saved you. I saved your fucking life, so you could be with your mate. You owe me this, you bastard.”
Rhyndor looked at the males around him with wild eyes. “I did fucking wrong, and I atoned for it and nearly died in doing so. I saved his life—” he jabbed a finger at Steffan “—and I’d do it for any of you. Yet, you hesitate in this. You let this amazing female, who is innocent, pay for my crimes. Let Celine go, and I’ll offer myself as a sacrifice, but you save Lilly.”
Awen sighed. “Celine is pure poison, Rhyndor. She lives, and she can come after any of us at any time.”
“So? She’s been able to do that for the last gods knows how many years, and I didn’t see any of you going on a quest to get rid of her. You don’t save my mate, and it is war. Fucking war!”
Celine chuckled, and Gwen knew this was what she wanted more than anything. To have the dragons at one another’s throats again.
“You must save the girl.” Lara spoke, her voice calm but firm. “If you don’t save her, none of you are males of worth, and I won’t be mating either of you two.” She pointed at Awen and Lucien.
Gwen nodded, and helping Jay to walk, moved toward the group. “She’s right. You must save Lilly. Even if it means letting this bitch go.”
“Careful, child. You have no power, and I’d very much enjoy coming for you in the dark one night when you least expect it.” Celine laughed.
“See?” Cade shouted. “She needs to die.”
“Fucking no!” Rhyndor tore at his hair and turned around, facing all the males one at a time. He looked crazed, about ready to start his war there and then.
“I’ll not stay mated to you if you don’t save her.” Gwen put it out there. It killed her to say it, but she had to. She couldn’t let Lilly die so she could live in peace. It was wrong.
“What?” Cade grimaced at her. “I’m trying to save you. My mate.”
“I’m not in immediate danger. Lilly is. The longer we discuss this, the less chance there is of saving her. Save her right the fuck now, or I walk away.”
“Me too,” Lara added.
“Me three. She’s my sister, Steffan.” Mia wiped at the tears streaming down her face and beseeched her mate.
Gwen saw the struggle within Cade. His base, biological need to protect her, his mate, coming up against his need to do the right thing. She saw the moment his honor won out.
“The females are right,” Cade said. “This shouldn’t even be up for discussion.”
“Fuck.” Steffan kicked a stone brick to his right, and it went flying across the room as if made of air.
“Christ.” Steffan turned to Celine. “Do what Rhyndor says and save his mate. We’ll let you go.”
“I don’t want you to let me go,” the witch said with a smirk.
“What?” Rhyndor’s face crumpled. “You must want to live.”
“Oh, I do. But not as much as I want to hurt you. But I’ll tell you what. I’ll let her live, if you let me go and give me a limb.”
Callum stopped tending Lilly and looked to Celine with his face ashen. Rhyndor frowned, nonplussed by her words. “Excuse me?”
“Give me your…right leg. Give me your right leg, and I’ll save her.”
“No fucking way.” Callum stood and pointed at the witch. “You’ll use it and enchant it or something, and we’ll be back to square one.”
“He—” she pointed at Rhyndor with an angry hiss “—defaced me. I shall do the same to him. I won’t keep the leg. He’ll let me take it off, burn it so he can’t use it, and I won’t have it either. Then I’ll save your stupid mate, who thought she could defeat me, and then I will leave. You have my word as a witch. Ask your Warders to test me, I speak the truth.”
Rhiannon and Kate tasted the air and nodded.
“Take my fucking leg, I don’t care, but save her.” Tears began to stream down Rhyndor’s face, and Gwen had to look away.
She hated Celine more than she thought possible. And somehow these people had gone from strangers to her damned family, and she knew this experience would bond them forever.
“Your Warders need to keep their magic to themselves for a moment.” Celine narrowed her dead, gray eyes, and Rhiannon, Kate, and Ruth nodded.
Celine began to chant, and Gwen half expected Rhyndor’s leg to simply pop off or something, but then a huge chainsaw appeared, and she beckoned Callum over.
The male shook his head, openly sobbing now.
“Oh, come, Callum. It’s only right you do this. I won’t let him bleed out. Promise.”
“Just fucking do it.” Rhyndor roared, and Callum looked back to Lilly and then at Rhyndor. “I can’t.” He shook his head and bent over with a groan of despair.
“I’ll do it.” Awen picked up the chainsaw, and Rhyndor nodded.
“Thank you, brother.”
Awen gave a grim nod of his own and gestured for Lucien and Nathan to come and hold Rhyndor down. They did so, Nathan taking off his shirt and rolling it up to place between Rhyndor’s teeth. Then, with dreadful finality, Awen brought the saw down.
Gwen turned and tried to close her ears to Rhyndor’s screams. Soon, so horribly soon, it ended.
She turned to see the Warders rushing at Rhyndor, working their magic to stop the bleeding. Celine walked over to Lilly, watched by Awen, Cade, and Lucien, and she began to chant something. Lilly took a huge breath in and coughed and coughed as if bringing up a lung.
Then she threw up black bile, and Gwen had to fight down her own nausea.
“There.” Celine clapped her hands together as if they were at a tea party or something. “All done. Now I must be off, but I’m sure I’ll be seeing some of you again. Any of you break your word and try to stop me leaving, and the spell on Lilly will return. Once I leave this place and am safely away, all bets are off. You can try to find me, but be sure, I’ll be watching you.” She gave an eerie, tinkling laugh, and then she was walking out the door.
“Why doesn’t she poof out like the others?” Gwen asked Jay.
“I presume she’s not got the power right now.”
Something about Jay seemed off. Beyond his ordeal, he seemed morose. Despairing, almost. “We’re all safe,” she said, trying to reassure him.
“No, we’re not. Rhyndor has lost his leg because of me.”
“Not because of you.” Rhyndor rasped out the words through gritted teeth. “This has been coming a long time, and it isn’t over. I’m going to find her and finish her.”
He sat up with Callum’s help. Mia and Claire got Lilly to her feet, and she ran over to Rhyndor with a sob and broke down in his arms.
Gwen watched with a huge lump in her throat.
“There, come on, Lilly, it’s not so bad. I can live without a leg.”
Callum shook his head. “Fuck’s sake, Rhyndor. We’re going to fix this. We’ll be able to reverse the magic or something.”
“No.” Rhyndor’s words were sharp, final. “Celine is strong. You’ve all seen how strong today. This isn’t over. But until she’s dead, nothing is being reversed. She has a twisted and weird sense of honor. So long as the game is being played, then it should be played by the rules. She won’t hurt Lilly as long as I don’t have my leg. This is my punishment for burning her. She hates us all, and I am sure she’ll regroup and be back. I’m not going to sit around and wait for that to happen. I’m going to find her and end her. But until then, we keep our word. And I live without my leg, which is infinitely preferable to living without my mate.”
With those words, he pulled Callum and Lilly into his arms, and soon the three of them were rocking back and forth, holding one another, kissing and whispering to each other.
Tears ran down Gwen’s cheeks, and they were tears of joy because, despite the horror she’d just witnessed, these three people had triumphed and done so because of their love for one another. She knew, deep down in her soul, that Rhyndor would truly be okay. He’d be in pain, and he’d need to learn how to walk again, but he’d be okay because he had the love of his mates keeping him going.
She looked around at the weary, shell-shocked faces surrounding her and felt so much love it hurt. She realized then, she and her mother hadn’t lost anything by embracing their dragon side. They’d gained love and a family and the sort of bonds nothing could shake.
“We are all going to go after that witch for this,” Steffan said. Nathan nodded, as did Cade.
“You’re our brother, Rhyndor, and she tried to kill one of our females. She must pay.”
Rhyndor tried to stand but gave a sickening cry of pain.
“I’m going to use some magic to stop the pain, so you can stand and we can get you home,” Rhiannon said.
Rhyndor stopped her by putting a hand on her arm. “Will I still be able to take my dragon form?” he asked.
She nodded, but it was somber. “But you might be missing a limb in dragon form too. Thank the gods she didn’t take an arm, or you’d not have your wings.”
“We all need to get home and get some rest.” Nathan began to organize them all, getting them ready to leave, making sure they all had a way to get back.
Gwen was grateful for his stern competence right then, and she truly saw what made Claire love him.
A few hours later and Gwen soaked her aches and pains away in a hot bath. She kept getting a shudder whenever she remembered Celine’s words about watching for them, waiting for her in the dark. Her spine would tingle and her skin crawl, and she’d have to push it away. She couldn’t live her life in fear, and she knew some of the males were already planning to go and find the witch and end her no matter what.
Not Cade, though. They’d decided among themselves that the ones to go would be Rhyndor, Steffan, Awen, and Callum, along with two dragons she’d never met before, Trent, another powerful male, and a female called Lilith, who apparently possessed some of the greatest magic of their kind. She’d been living abroad for many years but had agreed to help after a phone call from Nathan. She felt the threat was so great now it could harm all their people.
The reasons for choosing only some of their males to go was simple. They said they needed to have enough warriors to find her and defeat her, but they had to leave enough behind to protect the Dragonea if those who went after her weren’t successful. They’d decided the old-fashioned way by drawing names out of a hat.
Call her selfish, but Gwen was grateful her male wouldn’t be one of those going on what might be a suicide mission.
She finished up in the bath and dried off. She headed out of the bathroom and straight into Cade’s bedroom, where her males were lying on the bed, both exhausted and wrung out. Jay ached everywhere, he said, from the strange dancing spell put on him. Cade seemed subdued by the events, still.
She climbed into bed and crawled between them, needing their big bodies on either side of her. Protecting her.
Strong arms wrapped around her, and the horror of the day began to recede. She snuggled down farther into the bed and smiled to herself as the scents and sounds of her mates soothed her.
She closed her eyes and realized she never wanted to be anywhere else.