Ash Burned (The Fae Universe: Greatdrakes #4)
Dragons, Witches, and The Devil
The Celts weren't the only people who had to contend with fae creatures over the centuries or who guarded gateways into other realms.
Before men with their sharp weapons and a new god drove them almost to extinction, Italy, too, had dragons. In those ancient times, when the gods of the Greeks, Romans, and Sabines were worshiped, dragons, fairies, spirits of the lands, and many more lived with the humans.
If you ever needed to negotiate, placate, or petition those beings, it always helped to go to a witch.
Sacred to their goddesses, the streghe and stregoni guarded the secret rituals, cures, and songs.
When they saw their ways trampled and fading, they carried their knowledge underground.
They were the keepers of the old religion, and as times changed and changed again, they made sure to pass their secrets on to their daughters and sons.
They got better at hiding, changing their gods and goddesses to local Santa Marias, painting new saintly faces over the statues of their old deities, but staying true to the heart of who they represented.
They adapted and survived through accusations of Devil worship, witch hunts, and burnings, the birth of alchemy and science, and all the ever-changing power plays of politics.
No matter how the currents of the world shifted, some things never changed. The common people knew where to turn when they needed magic, and they were clever enough to call it a miracle when they got what they asked for.
Centuries changed all things, stories mutated, and new myths were written.
Some whispered that the streghe were taught their knowledge from Aradia, daughter of Lucifer and Diana, the moon goddess who made stars and rain and became the queen of all witches.
Others said they were not witches at all, just 'keepers of natural medicines and folk practices. '
Spirits, gods, and fairies still walked the fields, forests, and paved cities alike.
The dragons, those precious few, hid away in deep ocean caves, wild mountains, lakes, and forests until they became stories in which knights would slay them for access to treasure, wells of immortality, and to rid them from the lands and rivers they wanted to claim.
Their witch allies suffered alongside them, getting more demonized, burned, and exiled.
But time had cleverly shifted again. With the fae returning to England in such a loud fashion, it had made other creatures slowly come into the light in their own countries. Witches had never disappeared entirely in Italy, but now they didn't have to hide what they were unless they wanted to.
As for the Italian dragons, they had yet to reveal themselves to the world once more. In the meantime, Italy was about to gain six more that they didn't expect.
The Greatdrakes were hunting their lost family member. They just needed to find the right witch to help them.