The Jade Dragon (3 page)

Beth shrugged. “Not much. Although, I did dream about you last night.”

“What?” Alanna's attention was diverted. “About me?”

As a Spell Weaver, her sister dreamed people's futures and wove them into tapestries. She was often commissioned to make wedding and christening pieces even though none of the sisters encouraged the public to believe the rumors they were witches. There were very few in Raven's Creek who knew the truth and they preferred to keep it that way. It didn't hurt business though. The Gallery was highly successful and brought a lot of tourists and visitors to the small community.

Beth looked at her intently. “You need to start sculpting again. It's your creative outlet. You need something to do while there's no magic in your life.”

The only outlet Alanna wanted was to be free of Gregori. “I have no creative talent to speak of anymore. It was all entwined with my magical potential.”

“You must try. I'm weaving. I'm even dreaming. It's helping. The fairies in the garden are beginning to return. I can't see them, but I hear them occasionally. They're a comfort.”

Alanna fought hard not to lose her temper. “I'm not a Pollyanna like you. You see the best in everything and I see the worst. That's how the game is played between us. That's my role.”

“Life isn't a game,” Rosa frowned and stared intently at her, as if she could see the worry in Alanna's aura. And maybe she could. “If you don't like the life you have, change it. Don't wait for someone to change it for you.”

Alanna hated it when Rosa went all know-it-all on her. She was the eldest and the bossiest. Well, actually, that wasn't strictly true. “I wait for no one. I control my own destiny.”

“Then start sculpting.” Rosa had been their protector, the one who they looked up to during the darkest time in their lives. Without Rosa's sheer grit and determination to keep them together as a family after their parents' death, they would have been put into foster care. She'd needed to be strong and, at times, bossy.

“Rosa's right,” Beth insisted. “I'd almost forgotten I wove things long before I learned any spells. At least this way, when my magic comes back, I'll be prepared.”

“I thought I was prepared,” Rosa said, the truth shining in her eyes, “until the bells tolled for me.” She spoke to Alanna. “You're strong, and you're powerful. They're likely to toll for you, too. Are you prepared for them if and when they do?”

“Give me a break. That's not going to happen without magic to back me up.” Alanna was definitely feeling antsy, ready to flout authority wherever she found it. It was a game with her, and now it had become a habit hard to shake.

Rosa was deadly serious. “And you don't think that would make an interesting test?”

Beth was horrified. “How would she bind herself to her mate? What if that happened to me? Marylebone is still untangling our magical mayhem.”

“They're not going to do something so silly,” Alanna paused as a waitress placed a creamy omelet in front of her. “Thanks.” She waited for the waitress to move away. “You're plucking at straws. Besides, Goran said you'll get your magic back soon and surely, the fact you can hear fairies and are dreaming means you won't have long to wait.”

“And we all know yours could take years,” Rosa reminded her, not so kindly. “Goran said that, too. The sooner you realize the precariousness of your situation, the sooner you'll be back on the path to regaining your power. What are you going to do until then? Sit around and complain how you've lost your mojo? It's not very attractive.”

“That's downright nasty. Your role is to lift my spirits, not depress them.”

“My role, as you put it, is to train neophytes at Marylebone and make jewelry for the Gallery. I can suggest things, but what you do with my suggestions … well, that's entirely up to you.”

Rosa shrugged as if she didn't believe Alanna would ever listen to anything she said. But Alanna was listening. She just wasn't about to admit it right this second. Obstinate? Maybe. But only when it came to being told what to do by Rosa.

And yet she'd asked for advice, and she'd gotten it. She just didn't happen to like this particular advice or the censure in Rosa's tone, despite deserving it.

Gallery Courtyard - Thursday morning, 5:13
A.M.

It was early. The sun was yet to rise. An eerie silence descended in the courtyard as if the wildlife in it were aware something significant was about to occur. Gregori breathed in, stilling his mind, harnessing all the magical elements he possessed and focused his intention on making his final crack in the jade. He could taste freedom and the knowledge gave him additional strength.

He needed to smell fresh air, feel the brush of wind on his skin. He needed to raise his face to the coming sunlight — it would be here soon — to warm his chilled, almost frozen soul. Today, the rays would warm his skin first and not the stone in which he was encased.

Today was a day to rejoice.

• • •

Alanna bolted upright in bed. Something was terribly wrong. She hurt like hell all over. She'd felt as if her body had been pinged by a thousand rubber bands. Her heart thumped an erratic beat against her ribcage. She pressed her hand against her breast. Her pulse sounded unnaturally loud.

She sucked in a deep breath.
Focus, Alanna. Focus
. She closed her eyes and went inwards, hoping to see and confirm which ward surrounding the courtyard had been broken. But she saw and felt nothing. Her magic was an empty silent hole that gave her no solace. Only further disquiet.

“Gregori,” she whispered. It was dark still. Eerily silent. No early morning bird chatter. She peered at the digital clock at her bedside. Five fourteen winked at her. She tossed the covers aside and slipped into a lightweight dressing gown and her fluffy slippers before looking over towards the window once again.

She hesitated. Why bother going to see what she already knew; Gregori had broken free of the jade dragon. She wondered whether Marylebone, too, had felt their prisoner break his bonds, break the Maori Blessing, break through their wards.

Surely Rosa would have felt something?

Wait until daylight,
the sensible side of her brain told her.
Don't be such a wuss
, the not-so-sensible side muttered. She fisted her dressing gown at the neck with one hand and marched downstairs, turning on lights as she went, each flick of the switch illuminating the way ahead. She punched in the security code to turn off the alarm and headed across the Gallery floor to the courtyard doors.

The automatic sensor lights were on. Her skin crawled. She stared through the beveled glass door, her hand on the handle, and looked to the pond where Gregori should have been. Instead of his familiar statue, all she saw were hundreds of jagged shapes, no piece any bigger than a small coin littering the courtyard.

“Sweet Goddess,” she murmured. “What kind of power does this person have?”

She stayed on her side of the locked door and systematically surveyed the courtyard, but the sensor lights switched off, once again plunging the area into darkness. She waited for her eyes to adjust then inspected for any shadows, foreign shapes lurking in corners. Nothing.

“Thank you, Goddess!”

She recited a protection spell, knowing it wouldn't work, but it made her feel better all the same, and then, because she refused to be a coward, she pushed the door open and stepped outside.

There was an odd stillness to the air. No early chitter-chatter of birds broke the silence. “What the hell do I do now?”

Gregori — or whoever he was — had escaped and she had no way of informing Marylebone without breaking her oath of secrecy to Anton.

“Witches' Warts! Looks like I'm going to have to break witch law again.”

• • •

A cynical sneer lifted one corner of Gregori's mouth upwards as the lure of Alanna's essence reached out to him. There was fear in her aura.

What kind of protector was she?
He'd noticed over the past few weeks she was visiting him more often, investigating the cracks in the shell he'd just cast aside. He'd looked forward to seeing her each morning.

He watched her as she searched the courtyard. She was surrounded by the most incredible aura of magic, but she wasn't using it. He paused, finally understanding why.

My God, her magic was bound! What in the name of Hades had she done?

Cursing softly, he melded further into the shadows, not wanting to be discovered. He'd fought too hard for his freedom. He was never going back into that stone, no matter how much Marylebone pleaded with him. No matter the lure of his future mate standing only a few feet away from him, even if this meant his life was forfeit.

The bells be damned. He was sane and still in control. The prolonged stay inside the dragon had given him time to build the strength to escape. Now, after his exertions, his physical energy was depleted and his magical energy virtually spent. He would need time to recover and recharge.

He'd used the last of his energy to cast a shielding spell, making himself invisible. The spell would give him the chance to escape undetected from the courtyard, but the walls surrounding it were high and the only way out was through the Gallery. His spell was weakening already and would soon dissipate.

He'd also wasted precious energy repairing all the wards around the property. The Maori Blessing, miraculously, had repaired itself. If only he had time to inspect it from the outside; he marveled at the skill of the Blessing.

“Is anyone there?” Alanna called softly.

Ah, there was the other beauty in his life. He was tempted to answer her call, just to startle her. But the joke would be one-sided and he wasn't going to scare her just for the fun of it. He remained still, watching her turn slowly around as she searched the courtyard. He looked upward; the sun was beginning to rise. What cruel fate was this? He was still unable to feel the warmth on his skin, almost as if he were still trapped.

Her gaze reached the area where he hid and it was as if she saw him, doing his best to meld into the stone wall.

“Where are you?” she whispered. “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

Gregori's mouth tilted upwards.
I am here
, he silently intoned.
Come and get me
. He was intrigued. His mate was as interesting as she was beautiful. He admired the fact she stood fearless — as a true wielder of magic should — when it was unmistakable from her aura that she was more than a little disturbed.

She pivoted in a circle before bending to pick up one of the larger jagged pieces of his former prison and walked back towards the Gallery. One more time, she peered over her shoulder towards the corner where he hid, before heading inside and closing the door behind her.

Curse it! She would be back to sweep away the broken shards and he needed to be gone before then. So why was he reluctant to move from his hiding place? Despite his link to her, all he wanted was to flee this place, this town, from the memory of that night when he'd come across the bodies of the Greenwoods. He wanted to run from recalling the night he was incarcerated by Marylebone — the first time and every time since — lessening the time he had left to bind his magic with Alanna or any other witch with potential enough to balance him and prevent him from flaming out and turning rogue.

His invisibility spell had finally waned and he stepped out of the corner, crept to the door and tried the handle. “Damn it!” It was locked. Wanting to swear vehemently and bang his fist against the glass, he spun round, looking at the high stone walls surrounding the courtyard. He was going to have to scale them, despite the fact he was weak, thirsty and hungry, and his limbs were heavy and uncoordinated from lack of use.

He walked to the stone wall surrounding the courtyard and splayed his fingers across the cold wall. He focused his thoughts, willing the energy from the stone into his body, weakening the integrity but fortifying his. Long jagged cracks split the concrete wall.

“Warlocks' Oath,” he muttered. “I'm as weak as a day-old dragonette.” Had he been at full strength, he could have felled the wall with a single thought.

He breathed in disgust and exhaled determination as he forced his weakened magical body to try one last time.

• • •

Alanna dropped the piece of jade she'd brought inside into a box, with the intention of sweeping up the rest later. Her mind was a muddle of thoughts, mostly wondering what to do next. Somehow, Marylebone needed to be informed. She'd hoped they would instantly know that the jade had been shattered, but no messenger had appeared demanding an explanation. And what could she tell them, when she didn't have a clue, except to say Gregori was gone.

The sun was on the rise, its face glowing on the horizon. It was still early. Six thirty; over an hour since she'd was woken so abruptly. Where were Rosa and Beth? Surely they had felt the wards snapping, too. Then she remembered; Rosa was with Aden at Marylebone House, and Beth was probably still asleep and without magic. That, and she was inside Lavender Cottage, so she wouldn't have felt any shift in energy around the Gallery.

Beth would arrive around nine as she was scheduled to work in the Gallery today. Alanna went through the motions of showering and forcing herself to eat breakfast. A wrinkled apricot and a couple of spoons of yogurt. She wasn't hungry and she nearly gagged at the thought of eating anything else.

Go back outside. Go and check again.
“Maybe it was a dream,” she whispered to herself. Shoulders hunched, hands in the pockets of her baggy summer top, she slouched down the stairs and peered out into the courtyard. It was daylight now, less freaky and although she couldn't see anyone from this vantage point, she was half afraid she would see a wild, out-of-control warlock. She supposed that was why he had been encased in stone, to protect him from going insane and unleashing unmanageable magic on the world.