Chapter 19
Wynn bolted out of the cottage, awkwardly stumbling as the ground continued to surge and heave beneath her feet. It was like running on waves that were about to crash into the shore.
Passing by the overgrown hedges that blocked her view, Wynn had a glimpse of Azh battling against a blinding silver light that burst out of a crack forming along the edge of the circle.
“Azh!”
Her heart squeezed with terror as the crack widened and Azh was sucked into the pulsing glow. Scrambling forward, Wynn desperately sorted through her strands of magic, seeking something that could wrap around Azh to hold him in place until she could reach him.
She was still futilely racing forward when the light abruptly disappeared and the crack snapped shut. Wynn cried out as she reached the spot that Azh had disappeared from and fell to her knees.
Pressing her hands against the ground, she could feel the searing heat from the powerful magic, but there was nothing to reveal that the earth had been split open. Not unless you counted the charred bits of grass.
“Azh,” she rasped, swallowing a sob as the tremors beneath her slowly faded.
A second later the night was silent, as if the violent quakes and blinding light had never happened.
Wynn resisted the urge to frantically dig through the dirt in the hopes of locating Azh.
As desperate as she was to reach him, she clung to enough sanity to know that the magic that had taken him wasn’t a common protection spell created by the witches.
Azh wasn’t being held in a pit a few feet underground.
Whatever had captured him was powerful enough to trap a full-grown dragon. He could be anywhere.
The question was how did she follow him?
Wynn straightened, grimly refusing to give into the panic. She couldn’t follow Azh through the closed crack, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t another entrance. And she knew exactly where to start looking.
Without giving herself time to consider the wisdom of running through the dark in search of the creature responsible for kidnapping Azh, Wynn headed into the nearby woods.
The light that she saw wrapped around Azh reminded her of the glow that had split open the ground when she’d been attacked by the coven.
It couldn’t be a coincidence. Now she just had to find the spot where she’d fallen into the pit.
With no idea what she intended to do after she got there, even assuming she could find the precise location, she raced up the slope of the hill.
Right now this was her only plan. It made the decision easy.
Tripping over a hidden log, Wynn reluctantly slowed her hectic pace. She wasn’t going to be any help if she broke her stupid neck. Besides, the rich scent of moss and thick green vegetation was starting to stir her faded memories.
They were nothing more than flickers of visions that danced too fast for her to entirely take them in, but she could catch images of herself as a child, walking among the trees to gather the mushrooms and herbs that grew wild in the fertile soil.
There was a tall, stern-faced woman standing behind her, but Wynn didn’t recognize her.
Was this her mother? Possibly. She didn’t feel any emotion as the woman waved for her to join her.
The memories flickered to an older version of herself as she secluded herself in the shelter of a blackberry bush, ignoring the sharp female voice calling out her name.
Another flicker and she was dressed in a long robe, walking up a narrow pathway.
She was carrying a basket of flowers to place on the altar at the top of the hill.
Yes. That’s where she wanted to go.
Zigzagging through the trees, Wynn used the fragmented images to lead her to the narrow trail that carved through the woods.
The ground was uneven and overgrown with weeds, but she picked up her pace.
She trusted Azh to be able to defeat whatever magic had snatched him, but the fact that his presence had been muffled was unnerving.
Not that long ago she’d been furious at the sensation she was being followed by a mysterious stalker. And even after she’d accepted she needed Azh to get rid of the destructive magic ruining her life, she hadn’t realized how accustomed she’d become to the constant pulse of his thunderous power.
Now her heart instinctively clung to the distant connection, as if he were a vital part of her soul.
Continuing upward, Wynn was huffing and puffing as she charged out of the trees and climbed the crest of the hill to reach the top of the peak.
It was one thing to scamper through dark alleys and down city streets; it was another to battle against mother nature and a steep incline that made her calves burn from the effort.
Or maybe she was just getting old, she wryly acknowledged, panting as she came to a halt next to the tall pile of stones.
She didn’t know who’d originally stacked the rocks into the formation of a pyramid, or what it was supposed to do, but she had a vague impression that the coven had considered it a holy place.
Was that the reason the witches had chosen the spot to burn her? Maybe. Right now, she didn’t care.
Nothing mattered but finding Azh.
Falling to her knees, she pressed her hands against the ground, desperately seeking any hint of her dragon. Or even an echo of the magic that had saved her from the witches.
She cursed when she felt nothing.
No magic. No heat. No lingering quakes. There wasn’t even a fault line visible from where the ground had been split open two centuries ago. It was as if it’d never happened.
There was...nothing.
No. Wait. That wasn’t true. She leaned down to press her head against the mossy grass. She could hear something echoing through the earth. A distant thud, as if someone was banging a drum. Or something was pounding against a barrier.
Wynn sucked in a sharp breath, leaping to her feet as she was struck by a sudden realization.
She’d sensed that Charlotte was unhinged, but she’d allowed the woman’s confession that she was trying to raise the dead distract her from her original suspicion that it had a connection to the corruption. That was the sort of thing a person did out of grief, not to gain power.
But what if the corruption was forcing her to open its prison? Or even using her as a conduit to spread his evil through the world? Charlotte was a witch who could channel magic and yet human enough to be easily manipulated. The perfect tool.
A sharp cry echoed through the air, and Wynn whirled around to run back down the hill.
She didn’t consider the fact that she might be rushing into a trap.
She was convinced that Charlotte was the key.
Not only to locating the magic that had abducted Azh, but the corruption that was spreading through the world.
When she’d fallen into the pit two hundred years ago, the white light and the green slimy magic had been imprisoned together. She was betting that they were still there, in an endless battle for dominance.
Reaching the edge of the trees, she skidded to a halt, discovering Charlotte in the center of the circle. The older woman was kneeling next to the cauldron, her head tilted back as she screamed in pain.
Wynn still held on to the strand of magic that contained the spell of darkness, but she had no idea what was causing the witch’s pain. Any attempt to help her might make things even worse.
Glancing around to make sure there was nothing lurking in the shadows, Wynn slowly crept forward to step into the circle.
The power of the magic hit her without warning, nearly driving her to her knees.
She hissed. It was no wonder the witches had decided to build their coven in this spot.
It wasn’t a Gyre, but there was a core of magic directly below the circle that sent out shockwaves of energy.
As if they were standing on top of a nuclear reactor.
Taking a second to regain her balance, Wynn was stepping toward the sobbing witch when the tremors returned. She braced herself, a surge of hope racing through her. This was exactly what was happening moments before Azh disappeared.
Charlotte lifted her head, as if belatedly sensing Wynn’s cautious approach. Her features were frozen in an expression of sheer terror.
“Blessed goddess, what have I done?”
The words were still trembling in the air when Charlotte’s eyes rolled back in her head and she tumbled to the side, as if she’d been knocked out by some unseen force.
Wynn didn’t have time to worry about the witch as the ground buckled beneath the bubbling cauldron before it abruptly collapsed and the pot disappeared along with the fire. The hole continued to spread, dropping the unconscious witch into the empty space.
Wynn stumbled back, lifting her hand to shield her eyes as a blinding light abruptly burst out of the opening.
At the same time, an intense heat washed over her, searing her skin until she felt blisters form.
With a muttered curse, she tried to back out of the circle. The power was going to destroy her.
But despite her mental command to run away, her feet refused to budge. She glanced down in confusion. She was stuck in place, as if she’d stumbled into a magical quagmire.
Grimly struggling against the invisible bonds, Wynn felt another blast of heat. She lifted her head to glare at the light that was obviously determined to finish what the witches had started two hundred years ago, only to feel an unexpected stab of hope.
The light was shrinking. As if it’d reached a critical mass and was about to implode. Then her hope died as quickly as it appeared. The light wasn’t shrinking, it was being sucked into the creature that was currently crawling out of the hole.
Wynn’s mouth dried as the light continued to flicker around the slender form of a woman.
“Stay back,” Wynn commanded, ignoring the massive surge of magic that swirled through the air.
This creature could destroy her with ridiculous ease.