The Dragon of Cecil Court (The Treasure of Paragon Book 5) Page 23

  “This way,” Raven said, chasing after where the image had been.

  “Wait, are you sure?” Tobias whispered, but she was already halfway down the hall.

  The others followed after her. At the end of that hallway, there was a flash of gold to her right and then another around the bend, until she could have sworn she saw the goddess melt through a door in the side of the mountain.

  Raven rushed to the door and found it unlocked. Beyond it, stairs led down into darkness. She held it open as the others rushed into the stairwell and descended. Gabriel helped her close and lock it behind them.

  “What is this place?” Nathaniel asked from several stairs below.

  They jogged down, one flight, then two.

  “I don’t know,” Raven answered.

  Gabriel darted an uneasy glance in her direction. “How did you know to come here? How do you know it’s safe?”

  She opened her mouth to try to explain but couldn’t find the words. Had she really seen the goddess? Or was it just a hunch?

  Rowan came to her rescue as she reached the final level. “I know this place. Raven, you’re a genius!”

  “I am?”

  “How do you know this place, Rowan? I’ve never seen this part of the palace before.” Tobias raised an eyebrow at his sister.

  Rowan lit a torch on the wall and cast light across the chamber. “That’s because you shouldn’t be here. No male should be. This is the sanctuary to the goddess. It’s where dragon females come to lay their eggs.”

  Raven’s gaze roved over the rough-hewn walls of the stony chamber. The temperature and red glow from deep within the cavern beyond were even hotter than the dungeon.

  “It’s too hot for you,” Gabriel said to her. “We need to get you out of here.”

  “I’ve got this.” As exhausted as she’d been moments ago, she suddenly felt a surge of energy. She whispered an incantation, and it began to snow above her head. Instantly, she felt cooler. “Is that the goddess?” Raven asked, pointing to the far wall, closer to the heat.

  Rowan and the others turned to see where she was looking. A mural constructed of gemstones rose from the floor to the ceiling of the cave. It depicted a woman with obsidian hair and red armor that flowed over her torso like lava. She was muscular, larger than life, and reminded Raven of Wonder Woman. This goddess was formidable. She was a warrior.

  Rowan answered. “Yes it is. The Goddess of the Mountain.”

  “Does she have a name?” Raven asked.

  “It is told only to females,” Rowan said. “Technically, I’m the only one who should be down here, and I’m supposed to bring an offering. Her name is Aitna. Mother of dragons.”

  “I thought Circe was the mother of dragons?” Raven had tried to learn Paragonian history but was still putting all the stories together.

  “Circe gave us the ability to transform into our soma forms, this form,” Rowan patted her chest. “Aitna came before Circe. She’s older, from a family of titans. It is said she wove the first dragon from the fabric of the universe.”

  Raven stepped closer to the mural and its altar. There were craters in front of the mural, each just large enough to hold a dragon egg. “Is this where dragon mothers incubate their eggs?”

  “We call it the cradle. Yes,” Rowan said.

  “This is where our child would develop if we were here,” Raven said softly. Her gaze drifted up the mural to meet Aitna’s red-hot gaze.

  Pounding steps came from the back of the cave and Sylas burst into the chamber from an opening in the stone. “There’s a passageway. Looks like an old lava tube. It’s tight, but it’s a way out of the palace.”

  “Wait.” Raven glanced at Rowan. “We have to leave the goddess an offering to thank her for our safe passage.”

  “It’s a sweet thought, Raven, but please hurry,” Gabriel said, glancing up the stairs. No doubt the guards were on full alert by now.

  Raven glanced down at her hand, at the emerald ring Gabriel had given her when he’d asked her to marry him.

  “Raven?” Gabriel asked.

  “You can make me another. It’s the most valuable thing I have. Anything I conjure won’t be a sacrifice. This is the best offering I can give her.” She looked at him with pleading eyes.

  He nodded. “Very well.”

  Raven tossed the ring at the feet of the statue.

  Outwardly moved, Rowan hastily removed her shoes and tossed them next to the ring. Immediately she began to sob.

  “Why are you crying?” Raven asked her.

  “Those were Louboutins.” Rowan wiped under her eyes and strode toward Sylas and the lava tube. “They were works of art… and really comfortable.”

  Gabriel tugged at her hand. “Come, little witch.”

  They followed the others into the tube. Eventually they emerged in the front garden, just as the suns rose over the horizon.

  “Link arms—this isn’t going to be easy,” Nathaniel said.

  Alarms blared in the distance.

  Raven looped one arm through Gabriel’s and then her other through Nathaniel’s. Tobias, Rowan, and Alexander linked on his other side.

  “Where’s Sylas?”

  They all searched, but he was gone.

  Nathaniel frowned. “He was never going with us. He has a rebellion to lead.”

  “Get us out of here, Nathaniel,” Gabriel said.

  Nathaniel blew a puff from his pipe and unlocked the ward surrounding the palace, then with a sweep of his ring sliced open a portal between worlds. All six of them toppled, panting and drained, onto a Persian carpet in what appeared to be a manor parlor.

  Dragging six people through a portal between worlds had only required Nathaniel to move a few steps, but it felt like he’d carried a house on his back as he did so. It had required all his strength and all his magic. He landed limp, exhausted, and sore in a cozy room with a blazing fire.

  A scream of delight pierced the space and then a woman with bright red hair swept Tobias off the floor beside him as if the dragon weighed nothing and kissed him like the only oxygen left in the world was in his lungs.

  “I take it that’s Sabrina,” Nathaniel murmured, trying to sit up and failing. He gave up and lay flat on his back again. No one answered him.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Rowan collide with Nick, the human spinning her around in front of the bookshelves. Gabriel and Raven rushed to hug Avery and coo over the egg, which pulsed happily in the fire. Maiara and Alexander approached each other slowly, touched foreheads, and closed their eyes as if their spirits were connecting first before their bodies followed suit and they embraced each other.

  Nathaniel watched the happy reunion and longed for his own. But when he inhaled deeply, trying to place her in the room, he couldn’t smell Clarissa. She wasn’t here. He swallowed hard. He needed her right now.

  “It is good to see you, my dragon,” Tempest said, his pale face appearing over him.

  “Where is she?” he whispered to the oread.

  “At the O2. Preparing for the concert this evening. Her voice was restored.”

  His heart sank. He’d wanted her to go, wanted her to sing, but her absence was crushing. Cold, hard doubt seeped into his soul. What if she hadn’t truly loved him? What if everything that had occurred had been a ploy to get him to do what she wanted? She had what she was after now. He’d restored her voice. Would she leave him as she had before? His heart felt hollow and his body ached just thinking about it. What if she left for good again? Would she even come home after the show? Or just leave without another word? He closed his eyes and longed for the feel of her fingers in his hair.

  “I need the treasure room,” he whispered.

  Laurel appeared by Tempest’s side, and the oreads helped him to his feet. That caught the attention of his siblings, who promptly circled him. He refused their offers of help and hobbled toward the parlor door.

  “She wanted to stay,” Avery called, cutting through the murmurs around hi
m. Everyone quieted and turned their attention on her. “Clarissa would have been here if we’d known when you’d be back. It absolutely tore her apart to leave. But she told me you made her promise. We waited for you. She’s hardly slept since you’ve been away. It’s been days since we did the spell. She would have stayed had she known. No matter what.”

  He closed his eyes and allowed her words to sink in. Avery wasn’t a liar. Her face was genuine and sure. He believed her. Her words were a balm to the ache in his heart. “Thank you.”

  Avery smiled softly. “It’s the least I can do. Thank you for bringing my family back.”

  Her family. He supposed she was talking about Raven and Gabriel, but the way she said it, he almost felt like she meant all of them. Avery Tanglewood was a unique woman indeed. A fitting sister to his Clarissa.

  He nodded his adieu, and with the last of his energy hobbled to his room and took refuge in his treasure.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Aborella could still hear the voices of Eleanor’s filthy, indignant children as she curled on her side on the cold obsidian, her limbs wrapped protectively around Eleanor. She brought her hand to her face, and her skin was so pale it was nearly white. The runes carved into her flesh had dulled, even the ones she used for restoring herself. When she swallowed, her throat ached. Truly she was in need of healing, but she’d saved the empress. She’d done her duty.

  Eleanor’s eyes opened and her lips pulled back from her teeth. The growl that came from deep within her seemed to reverberate in the room as the empress scrambled to her feet. “Get. Off. Me.”

  Aborella looked up at her, unable to rise herself. She was too weak.

  “Find them! I want their hearts mounted to my throne! I want to water the gardens with their blood!”

  “I… I don’t have magic yet,” Aborella admitted, showing the empress her depleted skin.

  “Guards! Guards!” Eleanor yelled, ignoring Aborella entirely.

  Pounding feet approached and then a dozen men in red and black entered the room. They unwrapped Ransom from his tapestry cocoon. The captain woke, shaking his head.

  “Find them. Find them!” Eleanor commanded, spit flying from her lips. “Search the castle. They can’t have gone far.” She cursed as the men rushed from the room, her blazing stare focusing on Aborella. “That’s not true is it? They can go anywhere. My son wields the same magic I do, and now he has a witch by his side whose power is unparalleled.”

  “How?” Aborella shook her head. “How did she get her power back?”

  The empress spread her hands. She was already healed from the attack, and yellow lightning zapped between the tips of her fingers. “You tell me! Someone must have rebound the three sisters.”

  Aborella had to do something. As a seer, she should have known this would happen. Only, she’d never fully recovered from the damage Alexander and Raven had inflicted on her in Sedona. She needed rest, but Eleanor kept pushing her to do more. There was always a reason the empress demanded her at her side. She’d barely slept and hadn’t had enough time in the forest to rejuvenate herself since she’d returned.

  Still, if she didn’t do something about this situation, Eleanor would have her head as well as the others. She got to her feet. She had no magic to fuel her second sight, but she could still see. She would search for them herself.

  “I can fix this,” she said.

  Eleanor bared her teeth. “You’d better, or there will be consequences. Do you know who Raven is? She is the one from the prophecy, Aborella. She is the one who can bring this kingdom down.”

  “I told you we should have killed her before—”

  “Find. Them.” The empress whirled and charged from the room.

  Aborella pulled herself together and searched. At times she thought she could smell them, but then she’d lose the trail. After an hour of searching every room in the palace, she was at a loss. Where could they have gone? Then again, with the power the empress claimed they had, they truly might have escaped. The suns were rising and the Obsidian Guard, who’d spread out and searched within the palace and over the grounds, had similarly come up short.

  Exhausted and only half-alive, she made her way to the gardens and into the forest beyond, passing effortlessly through the wards thanks to the rune Eleanor had burned into her skin. She leaned against one of the trees and closed her eyes. Waves of energy flowed into her, and for the first time in hours, she took a long, deep breath.

  The leaves above her turned yellow, then brown, then fell from the branches to the ground around her. Her skin darkened. When the energy stopped, she moved to the next tree. She had just placed her hands on the third tree when Ransom’s rich baritone reached her ears. He was calling her name.

  She hastened back to the palace and found him in the garden.

  “They’re gone. We’ve searched every inch of the grounds and the palace.”

  Aborella cursed. “Have you told Eleanor?”

  “Not yet. I thought you could… do what you do.” Ransom focused his large brown eyes on her. The man was pretty but truly dumb, and his eyes held less intelligence than a mountain horse.

  Think. Think. Think. She had to assume the spell to unbind the three sisters would no longer work, even if she’d had more hair from the three of them. Nathaniel would never allow lightning to strike twice. He’d make sure protections were in place. Protections. Security. Exposure. She thought back to all she had learned on Earth and had an idea.

  “Go to Eleanor and tell her what you’ve told me. I will handle this.”

  Ransom scoffed, incredulous. “How? You know she’ll want specifics.”

  Aborella took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The three sisters can’t be bound if one of them is dead.” Today it was kill or be killed. “Tell Eleanor I am going to end this once and for all.”

  Clarissa stood backstage at the O2 arena, thinking of Nathaniel. What if he returned while she was doing the show? Then again, there had been no word in days. What if he wasn’t coming back at all? Her stomach clenched at the thought. Would she feel it if something happened to him?

  Surely some kind of madness would come over her if half her heart was torn from her body? She was only here because he had made her promise she’d do the show, voice or no voice. He’d said he’d come with her on tour. He was ultimately supportive of her career.

  But as she stood backstage, waiting to perform the song that he’d inspired, she had a hard time remembering why this was so important to her. Her career felt empty and cold tonight. A false love.

  Tom came up behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders. “You’ve got this, babe. Do your thing. Prove to all these people you’ve still got it.”

  A harsh laugh broke from her throat. “Is that what this is? My opportunity to prove I’m worthy? The millions of records I’ve sold haven’t done that?”

  “You know how it goes. You’re only as good as your last performance.”

  She sighed and turned to face him. Tom had been handsome when they’d started working together. He’d been a Rob Lowe look-alike with a square jaw, blue eyes, and a dark coif. But now, all she saw was the Botox, the thinning hair he tried to hide with a thick layer of product, the contacts he wore to make his eyes more blue. He wasn’t much older than her, but this life, the loneliness, the constant travel, it aged you.

  He was her Dr. Frankenstein, and soon her prescription would include a surgeon’s knife or a syringe. She knew it. Even with her magic, she would never be enough for him or for the audience.

  A deep sense of peace came over her. In that second, she knew exactly what she wanted. For millions of people, what she was about to do was a dream. They’d do anything to be right where she was. And she realized, down to her bones, that she was no longer one of them.

  She nodded at Tom. “Then let’s make sure this one brings down the house.”

  She turned around and he slapped her on the ass. She would have said something, but the beat dropped and it was time
. She strode out onto a stage of leaping dancers and joined in, stomping and swaying with the music. Her magic sparked to life, twinkling between their bodies and syncing their moves until they were one organism, pulsing to the musical heartbeat.

  She opened her mouth and began to sing:

  Your night, it crawls to meet

  the darkness inside me.

  Don’t you know that your energy

  is the thing making me me?

  The train she was wearing detached and rose behind her as if carried by a breeze, folding itself into an origami beast, a dark, twinkling dragon with huge wings that flapped above her and the dancers. As always, the crowd went crazy. That’s how she noticed her. The redheaded woman who’d stolen her hair, who’d taken her power. She was there. The only body motionless in the front row. Aborella.

  I was once a dying thing.

  You helped me find my wings.

  Though you were my everything,

  I broke away and felt the sting.

  Free from you, free from us.

  Free to rule the skies above.

  She had no choice but to keep singing, although her stomach tightened. What was she doing here? Aborella wouldn’t dare attack in public, would she? She was too far away, and if she tried to get any closer, her security team would take the woman down.

  Bring on the night.

  I will be its queen.

  Bring on the night.

  I will rule the wind.

  Bring on the night.

  I welcome it. I’m ready. I’m ready.

  She spread her arms and climbed the pyramid of stairs that rose out of the floor until she stood on a platform, the origami dragon hovering over and behind her.

  But it’s cold without your fire.

  It’s cold without your fire.

  If I could take the blame

  and lure back your flame

  I’d hold you once again

  and things would never be the same.

  Your flames, they lick my skin.

  Let it burn.

  Your love, it changes me.

  Let it burn.