Chapter Twelve
Aiden was gone. That sneaky bastard had tricked her. There was no other explanation for it. After unloading mountains of takeout and searching his house, she’d found no trace of him.
Or the equipment she’d designed for him to use in battle.
She could’ve kicked herself. Every instinct had told her he was hiding his vision, the glimpse into the future. She’d assumed he would tell her after he regained his strength and then they’d form a plan. Together.
Instead, he’d sent her on a fool’s errand so he could go off on his own, and with equipment that hadn’t been properly recharged, no less. Typical male. Foolish, stubborn, arrogant dragon male. Didn’t he trust her? She’d given him her trust, her magic, and her heart. Why would he leave?
Realization dawned as dread clawed at her chest and spine. He didn’t think she was incapable or incompetent. She couldn’t believe that. But if he’d foreseen something terrible that might happen to her, or to him, he would do anything to save her.
And he’d no doubt be more than willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
She had to stop him.
Digging her phone out of her pocket, she dialed Rocky.
Please pick up, please pick up, pleasepickup!
“Where is he?” Rocky’s gruff voice sounded as anxious as she felt.
“I don’t know,” she said. “We tapped into his magic and he saw…something. Something terrible is going to happen and he wouldn’t tell me what. He sent me out to get food so he could regain his strength, but he lied, Rocky. He was gone when I came back and I don’t know where he went or what he plans to do.”
“Damn, I was afraid something like this might happen. Did he give you any idea where the wizard was going to be?”
“No,” she said, blinking hard. Tears wouldn’t do her or Aiden any good. She needed to keep a cool head and think. The wizard had been spotted in Kokopelli and would likely stick close to Magic. She’d been able to get a description from Flo, so she could probably spot him.
Think, think, think!
“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath and steeling her resolve. “If I were a wizard trying to capture a dragon and drag him back to Tarakona, I’d probably stay as close to the portal during my downtime.”
She ran out of the house and headed to Aiden’s workshop. He hadn’t taken everything. Her own enchanted glasses remained, as did the practice battle drones.
“Makes sense,” Rocky said. “After showing up in town, he’d expect Aiden to come looking for him since he probably found out that Nadia and Aiden are pledged to protect and defend the town.”
“And keep an eye on the portal, possibly try to close it, which would trap the wizard here on Earth,” she answered while clicking away on one of her computers. Clever dragon. He’d managed to disable the GPS tracking system so she couldn’t follow him. No surprise, but he couldn’t counteract any magical means she could conjure to find him.
“It would be less risky for the wizard to catch Aiden someplace remote rather than near the town. Surely he realizes he’d be outnumbered physically and magically by the people in Magic,” she said, splitting her attention between Rocky and reprogramming the drones, one to seek Aiden and the other to gather some handy allies.
“Yes, but—”
“So I’m going to the portal to find him or the wizard or both. And after we take care of the wizard, I’m going to strangle your son within an inch of his life or kiss him until he can’t breathe. I’ll decide later.”
“You’re just as foolish and stubborn as he is,” Rocky said, but he didn’t argue. “I’ll let the magical authorities know what’s going on. They can be backup so you two won’t be going at this alone.”
“I won’t be alone,” she said as she launched the first drone. “But I’ll send a message as soon as I get a location on Aiden. The town does needs to be prepared in case we can’t stop the wizard.”
The second drone exploded out of the workshop. She packed up the rest of her gear, chargers, and computer equipment and started the van. Rocky was still on the line but had gone silent. That couldn’t be good.
“What aren’t you telling me?” she asked.
“If Aiden can’t defeat the wizard and his dragons by combat, he’ll take the wizard out by poisoning his own magic.”
What? He couldn’t even tap into his own magic without her assistance.
“And how would he go about doing that?”
“There’s a potion. One that free dragons take if they…don’t ever want to be put in thrall by a wizard.”
Oh, dear God. “What would that do to him, Rocky?”
“It will kill the wizard when he uses Aiden’s magic, along with…” His voice broke and it took a moment before he could finish. “Along with the magic’s vessel. He knew the risks when he was in Tarakona trying to close the portal to keep Nadia safe, and he had to make sure he was never captured. He’ll use the poison if he has to, if he thinks there’s no other way to save Earth, and to save you.”
She backed out of the driveway, jerked the van into drive, and floored the accelerator. “Then there’s no time to lose. I’m not going to lose Aiden. I love him.”
“Hurry,” Rocky said. “I won’t be far behind.”
***
She spotted Aiden flying over the portal, banking hard to the right in order to evade two enormous red dragons on his tail. While her first instinct was to call her drones and send them after the reds, it wasn’t the prudent move. These dragons weren’t responsible for their actions. Enslaved by their thrall crystals, they were forced to obey the orders of their wizard master.
Aiden wouldn’t want them harmed. And it would be a strategic mistake to give away her presence and position yet. Fortunately, her tiny spies had arrived ahead of her. The blue pixies weren’t as visible in the midday sun, but they made their presence known by circling Gillian’s head and landing on her shoulders, speaking in their strange, incomprehensible language.
She pulled out her phone and concentrated. With any luck, she could enchant the voice recognition technology to translate for her.
“Aiden is in trouble,” she said. The flat, robotic voice that normally told her where to turn in GPS mode emitted a series of strange squeaks and something akin to static. Those didn’t exactly sound like pixie clicks, but she hoped it would do.
The pixies became more agitated and swarmed around her. She pointed to the sky and marveled as the tiny creatures turned in unison to watch Aiden and the two red dragons swoop overhead. Thank goodness they had some cover. The junipers were just tall enough to shade her parked van, and she’d conjured a concealment spell using modified reflectors that she hoped would blend her into the landscape.
Now for the tricky part. Communicating a simple message like “danger” was easy and worked across many languages. Complex instructions were tougher. She hoped the visual would help. She waded through the flying swarm of pixies that had congregated around her under cover of junipers and said into her phone. “You can help Aiden. I’ll show you how. Follow me and watch the large screen.”
They followed but seemed confused, flying in all directions but failing to pay attention to her computer. Shit. They had no idea what a screen was. Pointing had worked before, so she did it again. The creatures turned their collective attention to the screen.
“Each red dragon has a magic crystal somewhere inside its body.”
A diagram of a dragon appeared on the screen, flashes of light blinking at random sites on the three-dimensional rendering. Would they understand?
She’d never know unless she tried. “Can you see magic?”
They seemed excited and spun around in formation, looping around her van, her phone, and her glasses. Then they aligned themselves to form an outline of a pixie while a few stragglers fluttered around the outline and blinked blue lights.
She cocked her head, wondering what they were trying to tell her.
This pixies dispersed and reformed in the shape of a stick. The pixies at one end lit up and glowed before bursting from the outline. What was that supposed to mean?
Oh, of course. It was a magic wand.
“Yes! That’s right!” she yelled into the phone, which translated her words if not her enthusiasm. “Find the magic crystal in each of the red dragons and take it out. Can you do that?”
The pixies seemed to be chattering amongst themselves. It was a lot to ask of them. Compared to the dragons, they were as insignificant as gnats in terms of size. But that would work to their advantage. The dragons were so busy pursuing Aiden, they wouldn’t notice some tiny, translucent creature sneaking up to extract a crystal.
Well, unless the extraction proved painful. Perhaps this wasn’t such a great plan. The pixies swirled around her face. She watched in awe as they formed a perfect outline of a red dragon. No, it wasn’t quite perfect. Two pixies had apparently linked legs to form a diamond shape within the outline of the hind leg. After a moment, the two linked pixies floated to the outline of the dragon’s head.
They understood.
“Can you do take the magic crystals out without hurting the dragons or yourselves?” she asked, waiting for the phone to translate and relay the message. She would do almost anything to save Aiden, including sacrifice herself, but she couldn’t risk these creatures.
She waited, wondering what their answer would be. All of a sudden, the pixies flew at her. Then they were gone. What had happened? She barely had time to wonder when a strange sensation filled her body, vibrating beneath her skin before settling in the back of her mouth. It didn’t hurt, exactly. It just tickled a bit.
Were they inside of her?
Before she could be horrified or scared for her life, the pixies emerged and swirled around her hand, tugging it until she placed her palm up. They dropped a shiny object into her hand. The oddly shaped smidgen gleamed silver in the sunlight. Wait a minute…
She twisted her tongue, running it over her back teeth until she found a gap that hadn’t been there before. It was previously occupied by a metal filling. Those little imps had messed with her dental work.
She thought about asking them to put it back but thought better of it. She’d go see a dentist if she lived through this. They’d made their point. The pixies were up to the challenge.
“Thank you,” she said into the phone. “Go save our dragon.”
They pixies flitted into the sky while Gillian donned her protective shielding and glasses. She scanned the area for signs of magic. The portal gave off the most powerful signal, but a smaller presence lingered nearby. The wizard was less than a mile away, but she couldn’t risk driving to him, nor could she fly. Tamping down on her sense of urgency, she began her slow, stealthy journey to intercept him.
A roar reverberated from the sky. Gillian stifled a scream as Aiden’s silver dragon form transformed into that of a human man while he plummeted toward the ground.