Chapter 20
VALEEN
T his half dragon, half god must be Pricilla’s offspring, and he was likely her most powerful heir sent to get the job done.
It was going to upset her when Valeen killed him.
He held a god blade in his hand; she knew by the particular shade of the golden color.
It wasn’t made of gold, however, gold broke too easily.
This metal, known as luthria, was found in the heart of the winter goddess’s mountain, or a deep cave in her own House of Night, and did not bend or break and would kill just about anything.
Since he’d rather use a sword over scales and talons, he would lean into his god abilities more and depend less on his beast. That was how gods and goddesses usually raised their heirs.
“I am the goddess of night. It’s you that’s in need of a savior.”
He didn’t smile or show any signs of arrogance like his companions before him who now lay dead near her feet. His face hardened, eyes narrowing on her. He grabbed Presco’s desk with one hand and threw it over the balcony’s edge behind him like it weighed no more than a book.
Damn, he’s strong. “I might be impressed if you weren’t here to kill me.”
Pain suddenly ripped into her shoulder, and she clamped her jaw to keep from screaming.
Reaching up, she pressed her hand against the pain, and it came away bloodied.
She snapped her head toward Varlett and one of her attackers had lodged a knife into her shoulder.
It must be made from one of the special metals on Runevale to be able to penetrate her scales, the same as her goddess blade.
She took a throwing star from her belt and launched it at the temple of the man and dropped him like a sack of potatoes.
Varlett gave her a quick nod, jerked the knife free and slashed her talons across the neck of one of the others.
A great spray of blood arched out and hit her across the cheek.
The other slammed her into the bookshelf and she bit down on his forearm.
He screamed and she shoved her black-scaled talons straight through his chest.
Blood and bits of flesh covered her hand as she punched through his spine. Flashbacks of her doing that to Thane, made her stomach roil. Valeen had nearly watched him die because of that witch, and even if they were fighting on the same side, Varlett was still her enemy.
“All your friends are dead,” Valeen narrowed her eyes at him. Varlett stepped over her dead opponents and stood at Valeen’s side. “Now you’re the one outnumbered.” She was more than certain the two of them could take him down.
And he knew it. One step back, two, he started to retreat. The giant of a male before them shifted his gaze back and forth, eyeing the identical wounds. “That’s interesting.”
“Valeen!” Piper’s voice carried up from somewhere in the library below. “Where are you?”
“Up here!”
“We’re coming!” Leif hollered.
A loud crash startled her and a moment later Presco flew over the railing and onto the balcony. The stairs rattled as Piper, Leif, and Fennan charged into the study.
The assassin glanced behind him, shifting from a fighting stance to letting his sword drop to his side.
His dark eyes darted from her to the broken window behind her.
He threw out his palm and Valeen shielded, bracing for whatever magic he would unleash.
A blast hit like an explosion, knocking everyone back.
Bookshelves crashed and books clattered, papers scattered through the air, and Presco’s baubles of potions spilled and shattered.
Even Valeen’s shield took a hard hit. Her boots scraped across the wooden floor, driving her and Varlett back several feet.
The assassin’s boots hit the ground rapidly, thud, thud thud. She dropped her shield and swung Zythara at him, cutting into his thigh but he leapt for the window, shifting mid-air and was in dragon form as soon as he hit the outside.
“He CANNOT get away! He knows about the link!” Valeen scrambled over to Presco and jerked at his arm to help him off the ground.
The others were still groaning but if they were making noise, they were alive.
Leif was buried under a pile of books, with Piper lying next to him.
Fennen dripped with the colorful liquids from the potions and slowly got to his knees.
Next to the railing, her sister held a hand to her bleeding head, but the cut looked small.
And Tif scurried out from under her arm to inspect it.
Presco shook his head, clearing whatever confusion that blast caused.
“I’m getting up.” Together they ran for the broken window; he jumped and shifted to his great pearl dragon.
Valeen braced herself at the edge of the window’s threshold, a gust of cold wind nearly knocking her back.
She gripped the wood, judging the distance to get to Presco and then leapt onto his back.
“Hold on tight! The rain will make my scales slick!”
She put her sword in the scabbard on her hip and wrapped her arms around Presco’s spike. “Go!”
Icy drops pelted her skin, and a chilly wind ripped through her hair like claws. The dark clouds covered the sun and made it difficult to see the navy-blue dragon ahead. Flashes of lightning lit up the sky, cracks of thunder vibrated the very air.
Another flash and suddenly the dragon was gone. A cold dread trickled through her veins. Valeen whipped her head around, searching left, right, behind. “Where did he go?!”
“Impossible!” Presco kept his speed, and his great nostrils inhaled deeply. “I smell him close, but the weather is making it harder to follow.”
Her heart crashed against her ribs. She stood slowly, trying to get a better view. How could he just vanish? Where is he?!
Whoosh, whoosh. There was a second set of wings. Why couldn’t they see him? “He must have invisibility as a power!”
SMACK!
The impact on Presco’s right side knocked him sideways, and she was falling backward. Her stomach pitched and she waved her arms wildly trying to grab hold but there was nothing.
The enemy dragon became visible once again; his massive teeth were sunk into the side of Presco’s neck. His roar was as loud as the thunder that followed it.
“PRESCO!” Valeen screamed, falling away with her hand stretched toward him.
Presco’s back legs clawed at the enemy’s underbelly, raking across his scales and leaving great red lines. They whirled and snapped, clawing, biting as they tumbled toward the ground.
Wind rushed by as she fell, her heart felt like it was still on Presco’s back.
Shit, shit. She flailed, and managed to flip over to face the ground, plummeting faster and faster.
A scream ripped from her as the tops of the trees came closer and closer.
She’d hit in seconds. Get yourself together!
She shifted to shadow and slowed until she hovered above the dark tree line. All Mother, this is the unnamed forest.
She looked up; Presco and the other dragon crashed through the trees, snapping them like toothpicks, then a great boom followed. Dropping to the ground, she drew her goddess blade and sprinted toward the sound of snarls and growls.
“Presco!” She leapt over a fallen tree, weaved around trunks, and ducked under branches, breaths coming faster. “Presco, I’m almost there!”
She broke into the clearing of downed trees to see the enemy dragon tear into Presco’s wing and drag him to the ground.
Shadow ripped from her like an ink cloud, and she pointed Zythara at the dragon’s chest, then threw it.
It arched through the air, flipping end over end.
He shifted to his human form and disappeared from sight.
With a thud, her blade embedded into the tree behind him. Damn it all!
Then it hit her, he was invisible, not gone and it was pouring rain.
It was nearly impossible to hear over the drumming of the rain and thunder but there was still a chance.
Scanning the woods, she searched for drops splattering where they shouldn’t and found it.
A hint of an outline of a head and shoulders as he sprinted away.
She ran for her sword, gripped the handle, and jerked it free.
But Presco’s groan halted her. Rivers of red ran over his light scales, the great slashes and punctures opened to his pink muscle underneath.
Presco . The mud squashed around her boots, and she slid to a stop next to his head.
“Where are you hurt the most?” All Mother, his wing was bent in ways it shouldn’t, the leather torn and shredded in places.
The teeth marks looked deepest at his neck, where he took the initial hit.
His deep heaving breaths that moved his belly up and down began to slow. “Presco!” She darted to the wound on his neck and gently placed a hand on him. “Don’t you dare die on me! That is a command from your queen! I need you to shift into your human form.”
“Can’t,” he groaned.
HEL! she screamed through their bond and drove her sword point into her palm to draw her own blood. HEL!
She couldn’t find words. She just needed him.
She dipped her fingertip into the crimson in her hand and drew the healing rune on Presco’s scales near the wounds.
The healing spell quickly left her lips.
She kept repeating it over and over, as she pressed the blade point into her own flesh.
The spell required her own pain and the more she felt the faster it would work.
“Come on!” she snarled. The wound barely moved.
She pressed harder until the pain was so much, she started to feel nauseous, and blackness began to encroach at the edges of her vision.
She’d shove this blade straight through her hand if it healed him fast enough to save him.
It was his dragon scales. They repelled magic, even healing magic.
Footsteps fast approaching forced her to pull the blade point from her flesh and face the intruder breaking through the dark tree line.
Lightning flashed, illuminating Hel’s face, all shadows and fury, as he took her and Presco in.
He vanished in a puff of gray smoke then reappeared at her side and ran his hand over Presco’s neck wound. “Was this another dragon?”
Valeen nodded, letting her sword fall to her side. The wound on her hand was already crusting over, but Presco’s wasn’t. “Help him,” she pleaded.
“You need to shift, Presco. I can’t heal you otherwise.” His voice was husky.
“He’s too weak.” His breathing was shallow and slow now. Hot tears burned her eyes.
“Shift now!” Hel pressed both palms flat on his neck, and a warm amber light illuminated beneath them.
Presco let out a throaty cough and Valeen ran to his face and gently rubbed the smooth scales between his huge nostrils.
“Presco, you can do this. I am here for you. I will protect you.” Dragons didn’t shift during an injury because they didn’t feel safe to do so.
It was a natural reaction. He let out a puff through his nostrils and slowly nodded.
A shimmer worked across him and then he was a man again, lying on his side.
Hel dropped to his knees and touched each of his wounds, while she took one of his huge hands in both of hers.
After a few moments there was no trace of the attack on his body, but he was paler than usual. “How do you feel?” she asked.
He slowly blinked at her but couldn’t seem to lift his head off the mossy ground. “I’ll survive.” His voice was hoarse but strong. “Forgive me for failing you, my queen. I should never have let you fall.”
The tears she’d held back slipped out and she threw herself across him and cried in relief. “You’re alive, that’s all that matters. I should have protected you.”
“A dragon protects his rider, my queen.” He managed to lift an arm and sling it across her back.
“Who did this?” Hel’s voice was eerily low, it made goosebumps rise across her skin. He was standing now. Darkness shadowed his face, hardened anything that was soft.
“I don’t know who he is but he’s a half-god, half-dragon. Likely the heir of Pricilla. We killed the others but…” her heart sank when she remembered what he witnessed. “He knows about Varlett and me.”
“How the fuck does he know that?” Hel growled.
She grimaced and rose up. “He saw her get injured and watched the same happen to me.”
Hel turned on his heel and marched in the direction the enemy dragon had gone. Toward the stone portal. She stepped to follow him but then glanced down at Presco. She couldn’t leave him like this. What if someone else came? There was no way Presco could defend himself. “Hel, wait!”
His march turned into a run until he disappeared.