Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7) Read online

Tobias kissed his mate, Sabrina, who huddled in the cabin’s shade. As a hybrid, the vampire could be awake during the day, but the sun burned and weakened her quickly. She gave Raven a sympathetic look from the shadows as Tobias dove overboard, transforming into a silvery-white dragon that followed Gabriel into battle. Rowan’s fiery red scales followed, her mate, Nick, swearing fiercely at the ship’s wheel. Alexander’s coppery beast flew next, his mate Maiara scaling the mast with superhuman speed and drawing an arrow from her quiver. She lowered it quickly, however. No arrow, no matter how well aimed, could reach Eleanor, let alone pierce her dragon hide.

  Xavier took Avery by the shoulders, his eyes twinkling. “Use that piece of metal on yer back if ye need to, woman!”

  Avery touched the hilt of the sword she called Fairy Killer. “Bring her close enough and I’ll use it to pry out her citrine heart.”

  He gave her a firm kiss on the lips. “That’s my curaidh.” He dove overboard, transforming into his amber-and-blue beast and beating the air to catch up with the others.

  On Raven’s hip, Charlie fussed, probably picking up on her growing anxiety. She bounced her and patted her back as she made her way across deck to Clarissa, whose mate, Nathaniel, had followed the others into battle, his amethyst scales glinting in the sun.

  “How fast can you get us to shore?” Raven asked her sister.

  “I’ll have you and Charlie on the island before that bitch can think her own name.” She turned in the direction of the sail, opened her mouth, and sang. A gust of wind filled the sail, powered by her voice. The boat jerked and picked up speed, careening toward the island and the dark figure between them and it.

  Charlie’s whines turned into full cries. Raven tried her best to soothe the babe while keeping one eye on Gabriel and the pack of dragons that would collide with their mother at any moment. Avery swept in. “Here, give her to me. Maybe she wants her aunt Avery.”

  Raven handed over the baby to her sister. “If we make it to shore, maybe the three of us can perform a spell together to knock that bitch out of the sky.”

  Avery frowned, her eyes drawn back to the darkness under the water. “I don’t think the empress is the only thing we have to worry about.” Charlie cried harder in her arms. “That’s not a whale.”

  Raven’s skin prickled as she watched the thing undulate under the surface, not far in front of the boat. “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure, but I thought I saw… I mean, it looked like…”

  “Spit it out, Avery!” Raven demanded.

  In the distance, Gabriel and his mother collided and grappled in midair, his brothers and sister backing him up. Avery was distracted as Xavier’s claws sank deep into Ransom’s shoulders.

  “Fuck,” Avery murmured. “The fight is on.”

  Beside them, Clarissa stopped singing. The boat slowed. “Did you see that?”

  Raven tore her eyes away from her mate to look at her oldest sister. “See what?”

  “Tentacles. I think it has tentacles.” Clarissa’s face went chalky white, and she pointed toward the dark blob ahead of them. “I hate tentacles.”

  Avery released a trepid moan. Charlie was positively inconsolable in her arms. “We’re almost on top of it. You don’t think that a Greek goddess’s island would be protected by a Greek monster, do you?”

  Raven felt her eyes stretch wide. “Oh hell no—”

  A monstrous tentacle drove straight up out of the water and slapped down across the deck of the ship between where Raven and her sisters stood and where Nick controlled the wheel. The creature’s suction cups clung to the wood and halted the ship’s progress. The ship groaned, threatening to come apart in the monster’s grip.

  Nick swore. “It’s going to take us under!”

  Above them, Maiara howled and released an arrow into the tentacle, but it had no effect. The thing had to be twenty yards long and three feet in diameter. How big was the monster it was attached to? In a blur, Sabrina rushed from the belly of the ship, tore the tentacle from the deck with vampire strength, and tossed it over the side. It took several chunks of wood with it, but they were freed. Nick banked hard to the left.

  From under the hood of a dark cloak, Sabrina glared at Raven and her sisters as they all shifted their weight to counter the hard turn. “Okay, witches, time to fire up that three-sister’s magic. I don’t have the energy for much more in full light.”

  Charlie screamed and pointed her chubby finger. The monster’s head and body rose from the water to their right as Nick desperately tried to steer around it. Raven resisted competing with Charlie for the loudest scream.

  A round, bulbous head covered in stringy seaweed towered above them, or was that its hair? She didn’t plan to get close enough to find out. Three rows of eyes stared down at them from over a gaping maw sporting row after row of razor-sharp teeth. No discernible nose marred the face, but what appeared to be gills worked behind the open mouth. The chinless jaw melded into the torso. The rest of it disappeared beneath the surface and controlled a number of tentacles that now emerged all around them.

  Maiara drew her bow and let arrow after arrow fly. Her aim was true. One sank directly into the thing’s eye. The monster roared.

  “What’s she doing? She’s just pissing it off,” Avery yelled.

  “I’ve got this!” Raven concentrated. Unfortunately, she’d sacrificed her emerald ring as an offering to the Goddess of the Mountain when she’d escaped Paragon months ago. Without it, she had nothing to focus her raw power. She took a deep breath and did her best without it, throwing the first spell she could think of at the thing. “Pagoma!”

  An intense ripple of magic plowed into the beast. Even without her ring, Raven was well practiced with the petrification spell. The monster halted, frozen in the water.

  “There, I—”

  The monster lifted and thrashed the deck in retribution. The wood railing cracked, a piece breaking off and falling into the water. At this rate, it would either tear the ship apart or swallow it whole.

  “I’m not strong enough!” Raven cried. “My magic won’t last.”

  “It must be resistant,” Avery yelled. “Clarissa, try using the water around it rather than attacking it directly.”

  “Leave it to me.” Clarissa opened her mouth, releasing a barrage of powerful notes.

  A tower of ice erupted between the boat and the thing’s teeth. She kept singing, and the ice formed a dome around the creature, thickening, caging it in. The tentacles retreated. Behind the ice wall, the monster roared and thrashed against its enclosure.

  Raven gripped Clarissa’s hand. She couldn’t keep this up forever. She was already running out of air. The note gave out, and Clarissa gasped for breath.

  “Maybe it will hold!” Raven prayed it would, but it wasn’t to be. The ice shattered. The enraged creature thrashed itself free, reared, and reached for the ship again. A tentacle slapped the bow, sending pieces of wood flying. How were they even remaining afloat?

  Avery handed Charlie back to Raven and drew her sword. “Raven, levitate me over it! I’ll use my power to drain its magic. Then you two attack.”

  It was a good idea. If Avery was brave enough, Raven could be brave too. Raven drew a symbol in the air with her hand and sent her sister flying over the monster. For one harrowing moment, she pictured the thing tipping its head back and snapping Avery right out of the air. Thankfully, the creature didn’t seem capable of moving that way. Avery landed on its grotesque head and thrust her sword into the top of its skull. She clung to the anchor as the beast swayed and roared, then placed her hands on its eel-skin flesh.

  “Which spell?” Raven yelled to Clarissa. She had to yell to be heard over Charlie’s wailing.

  “Do we try to freeze it again? Or tear it apart?” Clarissa asked.

  “I’m afraid if we eviscerate the monster, we’ll potentially hurt Avery. She’s immune to our magic, but the fall might kill her. The thing has to be fifty feet tall.”

  “Then w
e freeze it. You hit it in the gut, and I’ll sing.”

  “Ready!” Avery’s voice came on the ocean breeze.

  Raven raised both hands, centering her energy and directing it at the monster. “Pagoma.”

  She’d just spat the word out when another tentacle slapped down on the wooden ship. It was too much for the ancient vessel to bear. The wooden hull splintered in two, and Raven dropped into the sea. She gripped Charlie, terror’s icy fingers digging in where the cold water left off. They descended into dark blue. Above her, the light of the sun danced on the surface of the water. She kicked hard and swam with one arm, but the weight of her jeans was dragging her down, Charlie still gripped tightly to her side. Oh dear goddess, Charlie! She had to get to the surface.

  She closed her eyes, searching her memory for any spell that could help. It came to her from the cobwebs of her brain. “Fysallída.”

  They rose like a bubble in a straw. Hungry for air, she gasped when they broke the surface. Little Charlie coughed over her shoulder, her wings working uselessly on her back.

  Raven bobbed on the surface in a bubble of her magic, but she knew it wouldn’t last. She eyed a floating beam and reached for it. Thankfully it was large enough to hold Charlie, and she laid her on her stomach and patted her back. At least she’d stopped crying. Imminent drowning overcome, she turned her attention to the next crisis.

  Slowly Raven became aware of Clarissa’s singing. Her sister had done it! The monster stood before them, a giant ice sculpture. Avery waved to them from its head. Sabrina was nearby with Nick and Maiara, floating in what appeared to be the ship’s dinghy. As Raven watched, Avery sheathed her sword and dove into the water, swimming safely to their boat.

  “Let’s get to shore, baby,” she said to Charlie.

  Although she was drained from overusing her magic, she forced herself to kick, navigating around the remains of the creature and praying it did not come to life again. She could see the island now. Closer. Closer.

  A colossal splash behind her turned her head. Rowan’s dragon popped up among the waves. She shifted back into her soma form and started swimming toward her. Raven was relieved when she realized her feet could touch bottom. Scooping Charlie into her arms, she walked toward shore, feeling like a waterlogged mess. Clarissa was already there, staring at the battle overhead.

  Rowan stumbled out of the water, shaking her head. “By the Mountain, the bitch stunned me!”

  Behind her, Alexander’s dragon collided with the surface, then Tobias’s. Gabriel, Nathaniel, and Xavier still battled above, bending and snapping around Eleanor and Ransom.

  Sabrina, Maiara, and Nick rowed up.

  “Thank fuck Sabrina was able to free the dinghy in time,” Nick said, pulling Rowan into his arms. “I would have been fish food.”

  An exhausted Sabrina stumbled to meet Tobias as he reached the shore. She collapsed in his arms. Alexander met Maiara halfway. He held her as she rambled out the story about the monster and he comforted her with soft words. Together, they all turned to watch the battle still going on above them.

  “What do we do?” Raven asked Avery and Clarissa. “It doesn’t look good up there.”

  Flashes of dragon fire exploded in the sunny sky.

  “No spell we put out from here is going to help them up there. It’s too far away,” Clarissa said.

  “Her claws…” Rowan worked to catch her breath at Nick’s side. Raven noticed her wing was torn and a wicked bruise was growing across her cheek. Raven hadn’t known a dragon could bruise like that. “They’re enchanted. It’s like being hit by a Paragonian grenade every time she touches you. I’d go back up, but I have nothing left to give.”

  Alexander held up his arm, torn deep but healing slowly. “She got me too.”

  Tobias rubbed the back of his neck. “My ears are still ringing from the shock she gave me. I can’t shift yet. So much for the theory that she can’t use magic in her dragon form.” Tobias squinted. “Wait a minute… What’s that?”

  Raven’s human eyes saw what Tobias’s sharper vision had picked up a few seconds earlier. A dragon the color of rich garnet was heading straight toward Eleanor and the others, coming up directly behind her. “Who is that?”

  “Sylas!” Tobias cheered.

  “Sylas! Of course! He must have seen us from the island.” Rowan squealed. “Go get ’em, little brother!”

  Sylas was the reason they were all here. Nathaniel had left him a shadow-mail candle after rescuing him from the dungeon. After Charlie was born, a message had come through the candle, warning them to evacuate Nathaniel’s home, Mistwood Manor. Although the message had simply said that Eleanor was coming and to run, Nathaniel had assumed it was from Sylas and thus had led them to Aeaea. Sylas had mentioned hiding here before. Without any formal communication though, they hadn’t known for sure he’d be here. Now it seemed clear they’d made the right move.

  Sylas collided with Eleanor, digging his talons into her back and shifting his weight, throwing her off-balance. Gabriel dodged and Xavier used his hold on Ransom to turn the gray male. In a clever, coordinated move, the two thrust Eleanor and Ransom into each other. There was a flash of purple as Eleanor’s talons, sandwiched between their bodies, stunned both Ransom and herself. The two dragons fell from the sky into dark waters.

  Raven cheered along with the others and was relieved when Gabriel, Nathaniel, Xavier and Sylas made a beeline for her. Before long, they stood triumphant on the beach. She pulled Gabriel, bruised and battered, into her arms while Nathaniel and Xavier reunited with their mates beside her.

  “Oh my goddess,” Raven muttered. Her hand flowed over Gabriel’s face, his shoulders. “Are you in one piece?”

  “Fine.” Gabriel kissed Charlie’s head.

  When Raven raised her eyes again, Sylas was speaking to a slender woman draped in a silver toga, her irises so pale they looked white and her hair blond with streaks of green.

  “Greetings, travelers,” she said, her silvery voice ringing like a bell.

  “A water sprite,” Nathaniel whispered beside her. “Favored companions of Circe.”

  A beautiful dark-skinned fairy seemed to appear out of nowhere and fluttered to Sylas’s side. She threaded her fingers into his.

  “Sylas and Dianthe of Everfield seek asylum with the goddess along with our family.” He gestured toward the rest of them.

  “Welcome back. Circe will be pleased you have returned to us.” Other sprites arrived with clothing for the dragons. “Dress quickly and follow me. I’ll take you to her.” The sprite turned and led the way into the forest bordering the beach.

  Clarissa elbowed her side. “Did I hear her right?”

  Raven raised her eyebrow. “It sounds like we’re going to meet the goddess herself.”

  Chapter Four

  All Dianthe wanted to do was curl into a ball and sleep. After watching Everfield burn and then having her mate have to battle his wicked and deadly mother all in the same day, it was all she could do to set one foot in front of the other. Hollow and exhausted, she fell in line behind Sylas as they climbed the path toward Circe’s forest temple.

  Circe’s palace wasn’t a white-pillared monstrosity like the ones portrayed in pictures of Mount Olympus. On top of the hill that rose near the center of Aeaea, her sacred house was a massive ivy-enshrined wood cottage covered in blooms. The natural materials reminded Dianthe somewhat of the homes in Everfield, only it was far larger and made from cut wood rather than living branches. Still, it was clear the goddess loved to live among the wilds.

  They reached the oversized doors of the entrance and found them open. Illith, the water sprite, welcomed them inside. Dianthe accepted a hug from her old friend as she passed into the homey temple. A fire blazed in the grate in front of a set of comfortable chairs and a spinning wheel that took up an entire corner. The room was otherwise filled with plants, drying herbs, and the sound of wind chimes from a set that hung in the open window.

  “Goddess, I bring
you weary travelers asking for asylum on your shores,” Illith announced.

  The growl of a wildcat cut through the temple and Circe appeared, flanked by two golden pumas that eyed them as if they might be their next meal. Dressed in a white toga, the goddess glowed, her black hair wild around her shoulders.

  Dianthe had met Circe before when she was last here with the rebellion, but she didn’t expect the goddess to remember her. An immortal such as herself could hardly be expected to remember a few short encounters. But when Circe’s eyes met hers, the goddess gave her a knowing smile of recognition.

  “Captain Dawn?” the one she’d heard called Avery asked from beside her.

  Dianthe hadn’t yet been formally introduced to the others, although she felt like she knew them from Sylas’s stories.

  The goddess ignored Avery’s question and asked, “Who speaks for you?”

  Sylas squeezed her hand and stepped forward. “I do, my goddess.”

  “Sylas and Dianthe, welcome back.” Circe tilted her head. “What has brought you to my island?”

  “Relations with Paragon have grown far worse,” Sylas said. “Eleanor, empress of Paragon, has burned Everfield, the entire Empyrean Wood, to the ground.”

  At that news, Circe scowled in a way that bolstered Dianthe’s soul. She saw in the goddess’s expression the same hatred for Eleanor that Dianthe felt in her heart. It was comforting to be back here, under her protection.

  “Do you still lead the rebellion?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what of your latest mission?”

  “I await the return of our emissary to Rogos.”

  “You are welcome here, Sylas.” Circe turned her attention to Dianthe. “It is good to see you, Dianthe, as well.”

  Dianthe bowed low. “My pleasure, as always, Goddess.”

  “I sense your second sight will be useful to the resistance. You are welcome here.” Circe smiled.

  Sylas cleared his throat. “Dianthe’s gift of sight has proven unreliable as of late. She is here as my mate, not in her former role.”