Stolen Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress Book 3) (9 page)

Everything else happened in a blur. The healers took Dr. Garriso away on a stretcher, and I was moved to a regular healer’s exam room. Medical implements and magical potions were scattered on the shelves. Magical medicine was a bit like human medicine, from what I’d seen on television. Some things were treated with human means, others with magic. Most with magic, though a good band-aid was never turned down.

Aidan stood by my side. Del and Nix had gone with Dr. Garriso.
 

“How are you doing?” he asked as he stepped around to my wounded arm.

“Great.” My arm burned, blood dripped onto the floor, and the rest of me felt like I’d been hit by a dump truck. “Remind me how many fights I’ve been in today? Three? Four? I think I’m losing it.”

He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “You deserve a nap. But first, let me see if I can do something about this arm. At least make it feel better before the real healer comes in to finish the job.”

Aidan hovered his palm over the wound beneath Del’s scarf. Warmth flowed through my arm, bringing with it relief.

I plopped my head against his chest. “That feels so much better.”

“This scarf is soaked with blood. Do you feel all right?”

Fatigue dragged at me. “Yeah. We need to call the Order of the Magica. Tell them something is up with the portal.”

“I will.”

I swayed on the table. “I don’t feel so—”

The edges of my vision blackened. I reached for Aidan, but blackness took me.

I woke, my head foggy. I was no less exhausted. Darkness cast the room in shadows. I blinked, trying to make out the blurred shapes. Aidan slouched in a big chair near the bed, his chest rising and falling slowly. A sliver of light shined from the crack in a door, highlighting his face.
 

Asleep.

The bed felt like heaven, the sheets like they were a million thread-count.
 

“Hey.” My voice scratched my throat.

Aidan jerked awake, his eyes meeting mine. “Hey, how you feeling?”

“Like shit.”

“No surprise. You lost a lot of blood, as it turns out. That knife wound nicked some big veins.”

Just my luck. “How’s Dr. Garriso? Nix and Del?”

“He’s fine. Sleeping in a room down the hall. Nix and Del also.”

“Are we at your place?” I knew he had a big house in Enchanter’s Bluff, the richest neighborhood in town, but I’d never been there.

“Yeah. It’s close to the hospital. And the security is excellent.”

I thought of the demons who’d showed up at P & P yesterday looking for FireSouls, and was glad to be here. And not just for the great sheets.

“Does the Order of the Magica know what’s wrong with the portal?” I asked.

“No. But they’re trying to work on it.”

Shit.
For being the most powerful magical organization in the world, they didn’t seem to know their ass from their elbows. Or this wasn’t a priority for them.

“We’ll figure it out tomorrow,” Aidan said. “It’s still the middle of the night. And you’re recovering.”

My body felt like it weighed a million pounds, so he was probably right. I wasn’t about to charge at the portal in this shape.

“Why are you in that chair?” I asked. “This is a big bed.”

“Didn’t want to disturb you. And I’m not in the habit of getting into bed with women unless I’ve asked them first.”

I grinned. But he was right. We’d only slept in the same bed once, and I’d been healing that time too. Every time I got near a bed with Aidan, I was too wounded to do anything about it besides sleep.

I really needed a lifestyle change.

“Come on, sleep here with me,” I said, exhaustion slowing my voice. “I need at least another few hours. And that chair can’t be comfortable.”

“It’s not.” He rose and walked around the bed, then climbed in behind me.

I scooted over to climb into his arms and kiss him, but it felt like moving through sand. So I settled for just cuddling up against him. He wrapped a big arm around me and tugged me closer. Comfort—belonging—welled within me.

Aidan leaned down and kissed the top of my head. “You doing okay otherwise?”

“Yeah.” The memory of the other FireSoul in the desert drifted behind my eyelids. I shivered. “There was another FireSoul at the waypoint. When I was separated from you and my
deirfiúr
. I had to kill him to escape. I didn’t want to steal his power, but it was so valuable. Illusion. It would have been stupid to leave it behind to prove something to myself. So I stole it, but this time it wasn’t so bad. I think I had control.”

“That’s all that matters. As long as you made the decision consciously, you’re improving.”

I smiled. “I hope so.”

But as sleep tugged at me, I remembered the joy that had surged when I’d taken the Illusionist’s power. The smile faded from my face.

My heart pounded against my ribs as we crept down the darkened hallway. The stone floor was cold under my bare feet, and the chill air crept through my thin dress, though no worse than I was used to.
 

The dark cell we’d lived in for months—years?—had been colder than this. Darker than this.

“Hurry,” the girl behind me whispered.

“Shh,” hissed the girl behind her.

My two friends, though I didn’t know their names, had escaped with me from our cell just minutes ago. I’d killed the guard who’d come to take one of us. Girls they took came back different. Or they didn’t come back at all.

I’d stolen his magic before I’d killed him, though I had no idea how. It thrummed in my veins, an electric sensation that I didn’t understand.

I tried to keep my breathing quiet as we moved down the hall. When we’d been in our cell, we’d rarely seen guards, but they could patrol these halls. My friends and I were only fifteen—at least, that’s what I thought—and all of us were weak from malnutrition. Though I’d fought off the one guard, I knew I couldn’t do it again.

We had no idea where we were, or how we’d gotten here, only that we had to get out. That meant moving forward, though I was so tired I wanted to lie down on the cold, hard floor. I’d grown accustomed to sleeping upon it and could be dreaming in seconds.

But if I did that, I’d never wake up.
 

Heavy wooden doors ran the length of the hall to our left. We didn’t dare open them, though I’d have bet anything they were locked. A dark wooden door marked the end of the hall.

I glanced back at my friends. Frightened blue and green eyes met mine, wide in pale faces. They both nodded. I turned back to the door and gripped the handle, praying.

It opened.

Probably because the cell doors were locked and the inhabitants kept starving. How would they ever escape?

But we had.

Almost.

We crept silently up the stairs, stiffening at every little noise. The hair on my arms stood on end, prickling uncomfortably. When we reached the top, I was vibrating with fear. Slowly I pushed the door open.

A dimly lit hallway stretched out on either side of us. Wood floors and pale silk wallpaper gleamed dully in the light of oil lamps. The luxury of the hall was so at odds with the dungeon below that it turned my stomach.
 

Whoever had imprisoned us liked the good life.

The smell of dark magic stuck in my nose, making me gag. It smelled like rot and decay. Tentatively, we stepped out into the hall. As soon as I crossed the threshold, my soul felt lightened. Buoyed. The magic that seethed in my veins became more comfortable. As if it fit me better. Or worked, somehow, whereas once it hadn’t. Maybe the dungeons had suppressed our magic.

I looked at my friends, startled by how thin and drawn they looked. As if they’d lived underground for a year and were just now seeing the sun.

Which I supposed was almost true. And I probably looked the same.

I jerked my head left and right, silently asking which direction to go. They both shrugged. Frustration welled within me. We were so close. I just wanted to escape.

An invisible, almost intangible tug about my middle pulled me left, so I followed it. Our bare feet were silent on the smooth wood beneath. We came to an open door on our left and stopped, peering in. An expansive library spread out before us, thousands of books tucked neatly into dark wooden shelves. A fire crackled warmly, making me ache to feel its warmth.

I looked away, searching the room for a person. None. We crept past the door, repeating our inspection at the next two rooms, a sitting room and an office. We were nearly to the end of the hall when a noise sounded from the open door ahead.

I stiffened.

Someone was in the next room.

The girl behind me gripped the back of my thin dress, tugging me to stop. It was unnecessary. I halted, dead still and trembling. The same dark magic scent seeped from the room ahead, turning my stomach.

Slowly, silently, we crept forward.

“You’ve disappointed me, Villiers,” a cold voice said from within the room.

“Master, I’m…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” The voice trembled, weak with fear.

“You know I can’t have that kind of poor performance within my ranks.”

“I know. I know. I will do better.”

“I am not so sure.”

I shuddered at the tone, so cold and dark.

“Please, Master. Just one more chance.”

“I think not, Villiers. I am no longer patient with you. You don’t make proper use of your gifts. I thought I’d give you a chance to prove yourself. To use your gifts on my behalf. But I see I was wrong to do so. I could make much better use of them.”

“No!” A scrambling noise sounded, as if the man were trying to run away.

A crash and a scream.

The hair on my arms stood up as dark magic welled, feeling like bee stings against my skin. It came from the man with the cold voice. It had to. And he was going to hurt the other man.

He needed help. I had no idea if we could provide it, or if I was even brave enough to try, but I crept forward, compelled. Slowly, I peered around the side of the door.

A tall figure, dressed all in black, clutched a smaller man by his shirt. My heart thundered and my skin turned ice-cold.

“No!” The smaller man cringed away.

My foot twitched, as if to step forward, but I caught sight of the smaller man’s face then.

One of the guards.

Then the scarier man must be the one in charge. The Master. He gave the command to keep us locked up. He took the girls who disappeared.

My foot stilled. I watched, appalled, as the dark magic swelled in the air and gray flame licked over the skin of the Master. His face twisted in pain, then in joy, as the flame spread onto the smaller man, enveloping him.
 

“I am going to enjoy this,” he said. His voice was cold and precise. So controlled that he bit off each syllable with a crunch.

The smaller man screamed, his eyes rolling back in his head. The flame enveloped them both.

I backed away, horrified, then glanced back at my friends.

“Run,” I mouthed.

Now was the best time. The Master was distracted. He was the biggest threat.

On silent feet, we raced past the door. Fear banished my caution. We sprinted out of the hall and into a great foyer. The glass dome above gleamed with light. Great wooden doors on the other side of the foyer beckoned.

Freedom.

My feet pounded the marble floor as we ran from this nest of vipers, desperate to reach the outside. I grasped the brass handle and flung open the door, throwing myself out into the sunlight.

I stumbled in sand. Fell to my knees.

When I looked up, a great golden desert spread out before me. We’d never make it across that endless ocean of sand with nothing but what we had on our backs. And we couldn’t go back into the mansion.

We were trapped.