Dragon's Ground (The Desert Cursed Series Book 2) Read online

  I nodded but said nothing. Thirteen years ago, it was hard to believe it had been that long, that she’d ever been that little and that. . . I had cared so much for her. Back then, not now.

  No, I would not go there.

  “I never forgot that,” she said. “You were always my hero. I wanted to be you.”

  I snorted but kept sweeping the area with my eyes as I spoke. “I’m a fucking house cat, Kiara. You don’t want to be me.”

  “But it never stopped you. Even Steve says that. You never let anything get in your way. If you saw something you wanted to do, nothing could be done to convince you otherwise. It’s why. . . he. . . ”

  “Wanted someone who would behave?” I offered her. The Stockyards were quiet for the moment, which was good, but again I kept looking. Watching for a servant or another shifter who might notice us headed toward the boundary.

  “Something like that, I think,” she said, and I heard the frown in her voice. I wondered if she understood that he liked her because she was weak-willed, a damn doormat if ever there was one. Not a fun realization no matter your age.

  “Enough talking. We’ve got to get out of here,” I said. We approached the eastern side of the Stockyards. Ish would expect me to try to escape out the north or the west side, putting me closer to the path I’d need to be on in order to head toward Dragon’s Ground at the fastest speed. I sucked in my cheeks and clamped them between my teeth. This was a piss-poor idea at best, and my nerves suddenly bit at me. If I was wrong, I wasn’t sure I’d get another chance, even with the sapphire hanging on my neck.

  And I remembered all too well the feeling of the flail as it sucked the life out of me, how close I’d come to dying because I’d used it. I cleared my throat.

  “There’s a chance that there could be some kickback for what I’m going to do,” I said. “If I fall over and the barrier breaks, toss me onto Balder and hiss at him, okay? He’ll follow you and Lacey.”

  “Hiss?” She blinked those big golden eyes at me as if she didn’t understand the word. “Why would I do that? And I can’t throw you onto Balder, I’m in a delicate—”

  “Just do it, Kiara. We don’t have time for explanations. And you are strong as an ox even pregnant. Don’t act like suddenly you can’t bench press your own weight two times over.” We were close enough to the edge of Ish’s magic that I felt it humming against my skin, raising the flesh and hair alike. My fingers tingled where I’d burned them the first day of enforced captivity. Yeah, Ish had supercharged the fence she’d put up. A cage, she’d caged me.

  She had to know I would try to fight my way out, even knowing the chances for success were slim. The hair on the back of my neck stood, and I looked around again. Nothing, we were still unnoticed.

  I made a quick check that all my gear was tied down, that the shotgun was lashed in tightly. I was stalling. I could admit that much to myself. I was afraid of what could happen here.

  I really did not want to go head to head with Ish, and that was basically what I was doing by breaking her barrier. I was throwing down a gauntlet, putting myself on one side of a line in the sand and Ish on the other.

  Stupid, this was stupid, but I was doing it anyway. Like the dumb-ass I was because my brother needed me, and now, so did Kiara. She might not have been born with alpha tendencies, but I was. And I couldn’t help but want to protect her.

  “Ready?” I asked with a quick glance at her.

  Kiara nodded and her hands clenched around the reins of the two horses. “Yes, ready. But why do you think this won’t work?”

  I gritted my teeth a moment before answering. “The barrier is keyed to you and me. We can’t see it, but we can feel it. I think if I go forward with the flail, the barrier will think it’s a part of me and try to stop it.”

  “And the Jinn’s magic should break it just because?”

  “Fuck, enough questions, Kiara,” I snapped in part because I didn’t want her poking holes in my theory. Either this would work or it wouldn’t and hesitating would not help us one damn bit.

  I pulled the flail from my back and the wooden handle immediately warmed becoming almost tacky against my skin. Like it wanted to be held, and held a lot. “No doubt a man made you,” I muttered. “Always wanting his stick held.”

  Kiara snorted. “Are you talking to the weapon now?”

  “No, that’s fucking stupid.” I flicked my wrist and began to spin the unearthly lightweight flail in an ever-increasing loop until I had it going as fast as I could. Smashing the shit out of the magical barrier was now or never.

  With a grunt, I drove it directly into the barrier that held us back. There was a resounding crack, like bone snapping in half, and I grinned. Damn straight, my theory was sound! The air around us shimmered, spider web breaks scattering out around us, thin and barely seen but there. The barrier we couldn’t previously see came into view, fuzzy like one of Bryce’s TVs he worked on with the screen out of focus.

  “Again!” Kiara said. “You have to hit it again!”

  I didn’t like agreeing with her, but she was right. I spun the flail again and smashed it into the distorted screen. It dug into the barrier this time, sticking to it. There was a pulse of black mist that curled around the twin spiked balls and I realized the flail was doing the same thing as when I fought with it.

  “Holy. . . hell fire on the sand dunes,” I whispered.

  The flail soaked in Ish’s magic like it soaked in the blood of my enemies. Horror flickered through me. This was Jinn’s magic, and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Being an idiot, that’s what I was doing.

  I yanked it out with a hard pull, and with a growl of frustration, spun it and slammed it into the barrier again. There was a shout behind us. One of the servants had noticed what we were up to. Seconds, we had seconds before Ish would be on us.

  “Mount up!” I yelled at Kiara as something caught the corner of my vision as it sailed our way, twisting through the air like a snaking cord.

  She scrambled onto her horse just as a net slithered our way. A catch net. The woven threads were black and green and moved as though they were alive, curling and crawling toward me and Balder. He danced sideways, tugging Kiara and her horse Lacey with him. He knew better even if Kiara didn’t. I spun and slammed the flail down into the catch net.

  The magical threads burst apart, dying where they were.

  “The barrier, Zam, it’s still there!” Kiara cried out.

  “Not for long,” I snarled. I had to believe this would work, we were too close to fail now.

  I spun my entire body, throwing my weight into what would be the final blow either way. We’d be caught, or we’d escape. The time was now. A yell escaped me as the flail buried deeply into the barrier and the spiderweb of cracks spun out farther than before, cracking even as the flail pulsed and tugged on my hand. I yanked the flail out and jammed it onto the holster on my back. For the moment, it wasn’t pulling on my life force and even if I didn’t understand why, I would take it as a win. I jumped onto Balder’s back and booted him forward, toward the still-shattering barrier.

  “Are you crazy?” Kiara screamed.

  I grinned over my shoulder. “Fucking bananas, girl.”

  Balder and I hit the barrier and there was a moment of resistance, a stretching sensation that made me hold my breath and pray to the gods of the desert, before it gave way in a sparkling, shimmering explosion that sent dancing purple dust out into the surrounding air around us. I ducked my head and closed my eyes, feeling Ish’s magic slide over my skin as she fought to hold me back. To keep me from going into the world and saving my brother, to keep Kiara where she could control her life too.

  I gave Balder the sign to go, dropping the reins so my hands were free to fight if I needed to, and he bolted forward. Three days of pent-up energy unleashed in a single bound. I reached for the shotgun and pulled it up, but it wasn’t needed. There was no one giving chase.

  Kiara’s horse kept up, and we raced east.
My plan was to come around in a big loop to the north, to throw Ish off our trail in case she did send someone our way.

  Behind us there was a scream that was nothing but pure fury, a screech that made the hair on my neck stand because it sounded so like the Ice Witch I’d faced not that long ago. I looked over my shoulder. Ish watched us as we raced away from the Stockyards, already out of her grasp. Watching us boot it the fuck out of there. Her long hair snapped in the breeze and for just a moment I thought I saw her raise her hand, and I tensed, waiting for a spell to come sailing our way. But it happened so fast, the motion was there and gone before I could be sure.

  When I could no longer see her and the shimmering haze of the Stockyards faded, I let Balder slow, though he still wanted to run. He pranced underneath me as I brought him down to an animated trot. Kiara and Lacey caught up to us. She looked across at me.

  “Ish was never like this before. She was never mean.”

  I nodded my agreement but kept my thoughts on Ish to myself. “We’ll loop north after another mile or so. It’ll take us longer but if we get too close to the Stockyards again, I think she’ll try to bring us in.”

  “She doesn’t leave the Stockyards. Not ever. And the servants are no match for us. We’ll be fine, we can cut close and save time,” Kiara said. She straightened her back and lifted her nose. Like she was going to run the show now.

  If I kept rolling my eyes like this, they were going to fall out of my head.

  “And from what we know, she’s never been cruel before either,” I pointed out. “Things are changing. I don’t want to take the chance that we could get taken back by someone we think might try to kill you and your cub. Do you?”

  She bit her lower lip, her eyes lowered and her posture softened. A moment or two passed before she spoke again. “The jewel. . . I mean, the Dragon’s gemstone. You don’t mean to bring it to her, do you?”

  I’d give Kiara at least that much, she wasn’t stupid even if she was dumb as a bag of brightly colored rocks when it came to Steve. “No, I don’t. Whatever is going on, I don’t think we can trust her with more power, and I think the gemstones are giving her that. It’s not just about her life, it’s about strength. Steve is trying to get it for her regardless of that fact. He can’t see past his own desire for power to realize Ish is becoming dangerous to us all.”

  Kiara said nothing, and we rode in silence while we continued our road east. I didn’t think she agreed with me, but she didn’t argue on Steve’s behalf, which was a nice change.

  I could only take so much of “how great Steve is” before I wanted to start killing things.

  “How do you know where to turn north?” Kiara asked.

  I glanced at her, reminding myself she didn’t leave the Stockyards often. “There’s a stone that’s been cut in half. It’s the marker to let people know that any further east and they are headed out into the wilds.”

  She shivered, and I kept my eyes forward, watching for the stone.

  Whatever waited for us out there, no matter how bad, was better than sitting in the Stockyards waiting for word of my brother’s death. No one would fight for him like I would.

  Just like I believed he would fight for me. Like I believed Darcy would have fought for me. I frowned, not liking the comparison my brain made between the two people who I thought were the most important in my life.

  Oh, if only the desert gods were not so cruel, that would have been true about Bryce fighting for me. But the truth was far uglier than even I knew.

  A truth I would learn soon enough.

  Chapter 4

  Merlin leaned back in his seat before the orb, watching Zamira break free of Ish’s magic. His eyebrows shot up and he had to blink a few times to see if he was in fact seeing what was really happening. “I did not expect that.”

  Flora snorted and smacked the back of his head. “You did it, didn’t you? You softened the barrier for her to get out. She’s better off there. As crazy as Ish is becoming, Zam needs to stay safe.”

  He rubbed at his head where she’d messed his hair up. “Actually, I didn’t.” And that was what concerned him. The magic of the flail was a creation of the Jinn. That it hadn’t taken retribution on Zamira when she’d used it against the barrier was at the very least alarming. The flail was designed to kill any who held it who were not a Jinn. But he knew that as a weapon of magic, it would want to be used. . . it might be growing attached to Zamira, and that could be as dangerous to her as if she were being attacked by it.

  “Excuse me?” Flora leaned so she was right in his face. “Did you just say that the weapon is meant to kill any who aren’t Jinn?”

  Merlin cleared his throat and then smiled. “Said that out loud, did I?”

  “Guessing you didn’t mean to?” She arched a brow.

  He sighed. “No, I didn’t. The weapon is important, Flora. The Oracle said so.”

  “No, she didn’t, Merlin. Unless you have something more to tell me?” Flora didn’t move an inch. The woman had the stare of a hawk when she wanted to with those sharp green eyes of hers, and Merlin began to squirm. Flora, in her days as a priestess of Zeus, had been formidable. As she’d aged, her temper had mellowed and her true strengths had shown—wisdom, cunning, and the ability to see to the core of people. Now it seemed that since her youth had been given back to her, she’d managed to blend both that fierce spirit and the wisdom she’d gained.

  Her gaze narrowed farther. “Unless you mean you asked the Oracle questions before or after I was there? Hmm?”

  “Before,” he muttered. Damn it, he had a hard time lying to this woman. Probably part of the reason he liked her so much. He didn’t like weak women. Though Flora was almost too strong, too stubborn even for him. As a priestess of Zeus, she was used to taking control of situations and the people in them. Including himself. He found a smile had worked its way onto his face.

  “Gods, you are. . . impossible! Why did I think you and I could work together? I was a fool to marry into your family.” She pushed away from him, her curvy figure swaying as she walked.

  “Marrying into my family saved your family line, if I may remind you.” He pointed a finger at her. He only wished he had convinced her to marry him instead of his brother.

  She waved a hand at him. “Do not distract me. What else did the Oracle say?”

  Hard to sidetrack that one. He grinned again, and then the smile slipped. “The weapon she has, the flail, is important. As are the last four gemstones Ishtar is collecting. We need her to collect them, but. . . ” He didn’t know how to say the last part. Because he’d kept it from Flora for this reason. Part of him had hoped that Steve would be the one to face down the guardians of the wall. That he would be the Wall Breaker they needed. Mostly because he didn’t think much of the Bright Lion that had cheated on Zamira, and in general been a self-serving ass. So if he died in the process, there would have been no real loss.

  He’d hoped that he could spare the young woman he was coming to admire that same loss.

  “How bad is it?” Flora asked softly, those green eyes of hers sucking him in with the sincerity in the depths. From hard to understanding in a flash, she was like lightning in a bottle.

  “It is very bad, Flora. The Emperor is waking. We have maybe a week at best before he is fully aware of the world once more.” He rubbed a hand over his face. The Emperor was the strongest mage the world had ever seen, stronger even than Merlin. And he’d gone batshit crazy with that power.

  Flora slumped to the floor, her legs buckling. “I could call on Zeus and the pantheon. Alena would come; I know she would.”

  “No.” Merlin shook his head. “Do not bring them into this unless there is no other choice. And only if Zamira fails the tasks in front of her. They. . . are not stronger than the Emperor.”

  Flora approached him slowly, taking his hands in hers. “You put the Emperor to sleep once. You can do it again. I know you could.”

  He closed his eyes and tightened his hands on h
ers. “The humans believe I put the barriers up to keep them safe, and I did. But not from the supes, Flora. From him. I did it to keep them safe from him. And I tricked him. That’s how I got him to drink the draft that knocked him out. He won’t fall for it again.” He grimaced. There was more to putting the Emperor to sleep than even that, but he could not say that to Flora. The steps taken had been many, and he knew in his heart there would be no duplicating them. Much as he hated it, they needed Ishtar to regain her power.

  He opened his eyes, expecting to see anger flashing in those green jewels of Flora’s.

  Compassion was written clearly in her eyes and the lines of her face, taking him back to the woman he’d known the longest, the older, wiser Flora. “We’ll find a way, Merlin. While Zamira lives, there is hope.”

  He looked at her, wishing and hoping she was right but knowing the truth of it already. “That’s just it, Flora. In creating the wall as I did, I am bound by my own spell, and it forces my hand. I am bound so that I cannot fight my father if he breaks free. It is the balance of creating a wall like this one and holding him back for so long. It is the price I had to pay.”

  Her fingers slid from his. “What are you saying?”

  He drew a breath, opened his mouth, paused, and then finally spoke. This was not going to be an easy sell. “Either Zamira finds a way to break the wall and stop the Emperor, or the world—human and supes—will become his slaves, and you and I will be among the first to be killed.”

  Flora raised her eyebrows. “Oh, is that all? Good thing you picked the strongest of all the supes here to save us then, right?”

  Merlin turned to face the spinning orb, and it zoomed in on Zamira’s face. On the sharp lines of her cheeks, and the determined turn of her mouth, but more than that was the fire in her eyes that reflected the strength in her soul.

  He nodded, feeling the certainty flow through him. “She may not be the strongest in body, but she is the one, Flora. She has the strength of a hundred lions flowing through her veins and driving her heart. She only has to find it.”