Wyvern's Lair (Desert Cursed Series Book 5) Page 9

  Lila shot ahead of us, flying like a blue streak of lightning. Her wings were a blur and she was far ahead of us when she yelled.

  “I’ve got hard ground here, and water!”

  “Is it close enough?” Marsum yelled at me.

  I didn’t know, and it was weird that he would ask me that. Had he never fought them?

  “Never on horseback. Always with my magic at hand. I’ve never been weak like this,” he said, once more picking up far more than he should have without me even saying a word. The bond between us was something else.

  All around us, the sand seemed to shimmer and shift, the individual sand specks tinkling and glittering in the hot sun. With a growing sense of horror, I realized it wasn’t just four sand snakes. I whipped around, all but spinning on the front of the saddle as I counted, my horror growing with each subsequent number. I gave up at twenty.

  “Oh sweet baby goddess,” I whispered. “Marsum. It’s a nest, we woke up a goddess damned nest of ophidians!”

  The sand to my right shifted and I drove Balder to the left. He dodged the ophidian as its head shot out to grab his right front leg. I got my first good, close up look at one of the nasty beasties. I’d run from one of them once before but that one had already snagged a meal and had given up quickly, full of whatever wretched creature it had found. Darcy and I had been lucky that it had been only one and we were too much work for it. So fucking lucky.

  The ophidian’s head was diamond shaped, the scales overlapping heavily like armor, and they were the color of the sand so the camouflage was near perfect. Tiny eyes that were bare pinpricks of red glared at me, a set of four horns protruded from its head curling back over its neck, and the fangs . . . the thing hissed at me, flashing its fangs as it sank back into the sand. Fangs the size of my forearms, far bigger than was needed for the size of its head in my opinion.

  I watched the ground around us, yelling to Marsum. Moving both horses left and right, faster and faster the sand snakes came, like a wicked fast game of chess that we could barely stay ahead of.

  “Slow them down!” I yelled at Marsum. We were close to the hard ground, close to what could be a measure of safety.

  “I can’t! They aren’t directly attacking you. They’re attacking the horses. And for some stupid reason, you aren’t afraid!” he yelled back. “Remember the cuffs you two brilliant ladies put on me? I am literally hog tied!”

  “I wouldn’t have put them on you if you hadn’t stolen Maks from me, you fucking piece of work!” Never mind that Maks had been the one to take his head. Those were semantics, in my mind. And he was right; I wasn’t afraid, not yet anyway.

  Balder stumbled and I looked down to see him dodge a snake on his own. “Good boy, keep going!”

  Lila was on the ground ahead of us, the sapphire glowing as she scooted across the sand, whirling about like a dust devil. What was she doing? A split second later, I knew.

  “Damn it, she’s smarter than I gave her credit for.” Marsum yelped as we hit the frozen sand and ice. It wasn’t slick because the sand itself made for a perfect grip under the horses’ hooves and we flew across it, our speed increasing, putting distance between us and the nest of ophidians.

  Better than that, though, was that the frozen ground was hard enough to do some serious damage to the creatures who had no idea it was even there. The first wave of ophidians hit Lila’s booby trap head on, at top speed, cracking it and their skulls as we raced away to safety. I watched over my shoulder to make sure none of them came to the surface.

  The sand bubbled up red, the blood melting away portions of the frozen sand, showing the armored scales of the ophidians. Tails flipped and thrashed in their final death throes as the others from their nest slowed their pursuit. One by one, the bodies of the dead sand snakes were tugged downward, sucked below.

  “They’re going to eat them?” Lila barked the question.

  “You do what you have to in the desert, dragon,” Marsum said, turning away from the image. “Be glad we aren’t their meal. We’re safe.”

  Only we weren’t all safe. I just didn’t realize it right away.

  9

  We slowed our gallop along the hard ground that acted as a refuge from the ophidians behind us. Lila spun around us, grinning like a giddy little monster. “Did you see that? I froze the ground and the snakes rammed it head on!”

  “That was brilliant!” I yelled, and below me, Balder stumbled again, and pitched my ass out of the saddle. I grabbed at his mane with my claws, hanging there against his side. Sweat frothed along his neck, far more than there should be even for that sprint.

  Oh goddess, no.

  “Whoa, whoa, boy.” I slowed him quickly and leapt off his back, shifting in midair. I landed on two feet in a crouch, stood and grabbed for his reins as Maggi slid from his back. His head hung low, mouth frothing with white foam all around his lips. Every inch of his skin flicked as though he were being eaten alive by a thousand flies. I put fingers under the throat latch of his bridle, finding the pulse in his neck. Rapid, erratic, fluttering. Slowing.

  “Shit, shit.” I ran my hands over him quickly, looking for what I already knew would be there.

  A bite.

  Balder had been bitten by one of those fucking ophidians, and he’d kept going like the huge-hearted horse he was even as he was being killed from the inside out. I was shaking as hard as him as I searched for the wound, knowing what was coming. And there it was, just above the pastern bone on his right front leg, I found the marks. Two punctures, barely there, as though they’d scraped him instead of getting a full-on bite. “Marsum, help me!” Panic clawed at me. Marsum was here. We could heal this. He’d healed me before.

  “I don’t have to,” he said. “And to be fair, it’s not your life so I couldn’t summon up a pinch of magic even if I wanted to. Did you not heal the black lion? Do the same here.”

  “She is in some ways as bound as you by the cuffs. Whatever magic she has is damped down,” Maggi said softly. “I’m sorry.”

  I ignored them both, already trying to connect with my magic, but whatever, however, the cuffs had bound us together, it had put a block on me. Maggi was right about that. A block I didn’t understand and didn’t have time to figure out. “Take them off, Maggi!”

  “They will come off when they come off. I have no control—”

  “Take them off!” I yelled at her.

  “I can’t!” she yelled back. “That is not the spell!”

  I shook my head, fear racing through me. I had no time to wonder if she was telling me the truth or not. Not this, not now. I’d lost too much, the price we’d paid to get this far was too steep as it was. Fear laced every part of me. I couldn’t lose Balder. Too much had been taken from me, I couldn’t go on without him.

  “What if . . . what if we work together?” I looked at Maggi. “Would that work?”

  “It might,” she said. “But I don’t know for sure.”

  “Marsum.” I took a breath, my voice cracking. “Maks. Please. Try.”

  Balder groaned, his legs trembling. I yanked off his saddle and bridle, getting them free of his body before he crashed to the ground. I cried with him as I caught his head, keeping him from smashing it on the hard rock, cradling him as I sat on the ground, holding him. “No, no. Marsum . . . I need your help, please!” I would beg him. I would give him anything he wanted if he would help me now.

  “I couldn’t help you even if I wanted to with this cuff on.” He shook his seemingly bare wrist at me.

  “I’ll give you anything you want if you will at least try to help me.” I looked up at him, not caring that he was seeing me cry, that he was seeing my pain and fear. “Anything.”

  Lila didn’t argue with me. Not even a peep. To save one of my family members, I would make a deal with the devil himself. She would do the same; she understood.

  Marsum squatted beside me as Balder shook, seizing as the venom coursed through his body. “For a horse? You would give me this for ju
st trying to save a horse?”

  “For my friend,” I whispered through the tears. “For family. Maks would understand.”

  He lifted his hand and brushed my tears away, frowning. “You can heal him. You have it in you to be a healer, Zam.”

  “I can’t reach it,” I said. The more I thought about using his magic, too, the more it felt . . . right. “I need your help.”

  Balder groaned and gasped, his head thrashing against me. I clung to him with one hand and reached for Marsum with the other. “I don’t know what I’m doing or why it won’t work this time, but—”

  “You will die one day, trying to save someone who shouldn’t be saved,” he said, but he took my hand, lacing his fingers with mine. He scooted around me so that he sat behind me, me in the shelter of his arms.

  “Lila, you too,” he said.

  She didn’t hesitate but dropped onto Balder’s neck as he began to slow in his seizures. Dying in front of me. Batman drew close, and lowered his nose to his friend’s face, then went to his knees, laying his face on Balder’s neck. Comforting him the only way he could. He gave a low whinny, as if to call his friend back from the brink.

  Just a horse.

  Just an animal.

  But one of my truest friends, and I would fight for him as I would fight for Lila, for Ford, or Kiara. I would not turn my back on him, even though it would cost me something. My body was a small price to pay.

  “Open yourself to your magic, both of you, with whatever that is,” Marsum said, his voice resonating through my body with the magic that was uniquely a Jinn’s. “The only chance we have to work through this, is if it is all of us.” I didn’t think that was true at all, but this was not the time to argue.

  Dark blue and black mist spooled up around us as I leaned over Balder’s face, my lips against the curve above his eye. Marsum’s hands tightened on mine and then Lila’s little claws were there too. A spark slipped through us, a spark of lightning and fire, of acid, and a love so fierce that I didn’t understand at first that it wasn’t me or Lila.

  It was Maks.

  He was the one driving this. Using Marsum and the Jinn master’s knowledge to help me heal my horse. I didn’t think I could love that man more, but I was wrong. He understood me and the importance of saving Balder.

  I gasped as his arms tightened around me and his chin rested on my shoulder. One hand laced with mine, the other pressed against Balder’s neck, Lila touching us both as she sat with Balder.

  This was more than when I’d healed Ford, more than when I’d healed Batman on my own.

  All that power that had been blocked rushed through the three of us, growing and shifting, becoming more than any of us could ever have accomplished on our own, and it wove through our hearts and into Balder.

  Maggi gasped.

  Batman whinnied again, softly, his eyes fluttering closed. “He’s getting the backwash,” Maks said.

  Maks, not Marsum. There was a different cadence to his voice that I’d not heard before. Subtle, a gentle touch that took the edge off what he said.

  “Will it hurt him?”

  “No.” He rubbed his face against the side of my neck and let out a sigh. “This feels amazing.”

  Hell, yeah it did. Damn amazing. The magic swirling between us was sweet and soft, and despite how strong it was, there was safety in it.

  Love, this was love inside the magic.

  I massaged Balder’s neck and he lifted his head, blinking a sleepy eye at me. He gave a long, low snort and lowered his face back to my lap. I ran my hands over his neck to find his pulse.

  Strong, steady, and very much alive.

  Lila looked up at me. “The Toad is right, this feels amazing. Should we stop?”

  I stared at her, really looking at her, and I tightened my hold on the hands laced with mine. Toad. Maks. Marsum. I wasn’t sure who I was holding, not really. The thing was, with all this power coursing through us, I could see something on Lila that I’d never been able to see before. A layer of magic that was ugly and hard.

  I could see the curse on her. I wanted to reach out and snap it open.

  “Do you see what I’m seeing?” I reached out with my hand still linked with his and ran a finger through the layer of magic that looked as though it were tied to her with hooks that burrowed under her scales.

  He leaned closer, his chest pressed hard against my back. “The curse? Yes, I can always see it.”

  Lila startled as though we’d shocked her. “You can see my curse?”

  “Yes,” I whispered, then grinned as Balder blew out a huge snort against my legs. Horse boogers . . . I’d never have thought I’d be happy for them. “If we can see it, shouldn’t that mean we can break it?”

  He sighed. “Maybe, but not today. You aren’t feeling the lag yet, are you?”

  “The lag?” I twisted around to see those blue eyes so damn close, close enough to kiss him, and I knew that it wasn’t really Marsum talking to me. Sure, he was there, but not as bad as he could have been. Maks was sitting with me.

  He licked his lips and squinted against the sun. “We saved your horse, Zam. There is going to be a cost to that.”

  I couldn’t help myself. “Was there a cost when you healed me?”

  He gave a half grin. “Maybe. But I count it a good cost to keep my mate alive.”

  My heart thumped and Lila gave a tiny gasp. I motioned for her with my fingers to be quiet. Marsum had never called me his mate. And I didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that this was not Marsum, for fear that he would push Maks down again.

  I wanted to kiss him so badly. I wanted to wrap myself around him and breathe him in until we were both drowning in the sensation of skin on skin, of hearts beating in sync and love conquering all. Believing that a kiss could break Marsum and the Jinn master’s hold on him. But that was the fairy tale, not reality.

  Of course, that was when the lag, as he called it, hit me. I slumped where I was and the power faded from our fingers even though we were still hanging onto each other. Lila sighed. “I have to go to sleep.”

  “We all do. Dangerous damn time to fall asleep,” he growled and there was Marsum again, the tone sharper, harder, meaner.

  I didn’t care. Maks was in there, and he was trying to come to the surface without Marsum realizing.

  For the first time since Maks had taken Marsum’s head and we’d been forced apart, hope lit me up from the inside. Real hope, hope based on more than just a dream and a wish, but on tangible evidence that Maks was not lost. And if he was not lost, I could bring him back.

  I touched his face, drawing his eyes to mine. “If I would go to this length to save my horse, what do you think I’m willing to do to save Maks?”

  I smiled as I spoke, smiled as I slid into the oblivion of sleep, the last thing I saw being the shock on his face, the shock and an echo of my own emotions.

  Hope.

  10

  Merlin

  Flora and Merlin rode hard after the fleeting figure on horseback that he was fairly certain was another bastard sister of his. A bastard sister who was trying to free their bastard of a father so he could take over the world and most likely kill a whole swath of people Merlin cared about.

  He didn’t doubt that a family reunion amongst his relatives would be nothing short of horrendous, full of daggers and deadly spells hidden in the dark. Or maybe more accurately put, made of devious spells and more devious plots to take one another down.

  “Any idea who she is?” Flora asked. They’d been riding hard for days, using their magic to boost their horses’ endurance. A second horse bought from a caravan going west made some difference, but not enough if they kept this up. In the short term, it would help, but if they didn’t give their steeds a break soon, the magic would drain them, and they’d drop dead under them in mid-stride.

  There was always a price to pay with magic, and the user or the one used would bear the brunt of that cost one way or another.

  He wov
e another tiny spell through the horses as he thought about it, fueling them for the next hour. Flora shook her head. “It will be a matter of who can keep their horses going the longest unless we do something else to slow her down.”

  As if that were the cue the other woman had been waiting for, she pulled her horse up and spun it to face them.

  “Looks like you just got your wish,” he said, his mind already working around just what his sister was thinking. What was she up to?

  They slowed their horses to a blowing, snorting trot, advancing still, but not racing forward.

  Merlin took the lead. “You blew out all your magic on Marsum, so let me do the talking.”

  “Your ‘talking’ can cause more damage than my magic,” Flora muttered.

  He grinned back at her. “You are not wrong, my love.”

  “I am not your love,” she said, but there was very little heat in the words.

  “Let me have my dreams,” he said and turned back to face his sister. Half-sister, really. As they drew close, he wasn’t sure this was a good idea at all. Because he recognized her, this half-sister he’d never met. She was the spitting image of her mother and that gave Merlin heart palpitations, ones that made him want to turn and run the other way. He wasn’t a coward exactly, but he also wasn’t always the bravest of men.

  What if she wasn’t a half-sister at all? What if she was . . . something more? Something closer to him?

  “Fuck.” The crass word escaped him before he could catch it and he saw Flora’s eyebrows raise. While cursing wasn’t beyond him, he usually stuck to the light words. The thing was, a string of hard and soft profanities lined up to fall out of his mouth the closer they got to the woman.

  Long, straight, jet-black hair, bright blue eyes, and the heart-shaped face that came from her father’s line no doubt, as her mother had a more angular long face. She wore a red dress split at the sides, riding leathers underneath. Her eyes flashed and she lifted a hand, magic spooling out around her.