Chapter 26
Mother turned out to be a deep red dragon that was nearly as big as Laz.
Veyyr and I backed up as the battle-scarred female limped over the edge.
Her back leg closest to us had deep wounds that wept, the ichor and blood still running.
Her head never even swung our way, as if we were of no significance to her.
Laz kept his head down as she approached him and I braced for a battle that we would have to run from. But unlike Laz, I couldn’t hear her voice in my head.
I looked at Veyyr and lifted my eyebrows.
He shrugged, at the same loss as I was—neither of us had any idea what was going on.
The two dragon’s butted heads, gently and then she curled her neck around his and he laid his chin on her back, eyes closed.
A huff of smoke curled from her nose and then she launched into the air, her body nearly failing, her wings struggling to get her high enough. I felt Veyyr move, ever so slightly, forcing a gust of wind up under her wings, lifting her higher.
She never looked back.
Laz stayed there, his eyes still closed and…leaking. His pain a palatable thing in the air between us.
His pain seemed to ripple outward. “Laz…is your mother okay?”
“She flies out as often as her body allows her, to hunt for her rider. And each time I fear she will not come back.”
He opened his eyes then and gave his head a shake. “She also reminded me that if the two of you can hear me, then we are tied together, at least for a little while. But to be clear, I want no rider. I see what it has done to my mother. And it is why my father…”
Why his father died in battle?
“Fair. Thank you.”
He grunted. “Do not thank me. Not until I get you to the Islands. And even then do not thank me for likely I am taking you to your death, Tracker and elemental or not.”
Sorrow cawed. “Sorrow.”
The dragon looked at him. “Sorrowbird or…” His head snaked toward the bird so fast I thought he was going to open his mouth and have a snack. But he stopped, so close that his breath in and out ruffled the bird’s feathers. “Oh…oh I see.” He looked up at me.
“Hurry up then, you have places to be. Souls to free.” He tipped his body and wing to the side, and I ran and leapt up onto his back. Veyyr followed, settling in right behind me, circling me with one arm.
Sorrow was not to be left behind and landed on my thigh, then shoved himself between me and Veyyr.
Laz chuckled. “The Bird is jealous, yeah? I like him.”
“Yes, very jealous.” I confirmed as Sorrow jabbed me in the back with the tip of his beak. I sat a little further forward. Making space between me and Veyyr who shook his head at the bird.
The dragon leapt into the air, my stomach dropped, and once again Veyyr lifted his hand, giving a boost to the wind under Laz’s wings.
“You didn’t need to do that for my mother, but I do appreciate it. I don’t like to see her struggle.” Laz gave a few big sweeps of his wings, and my belly lurched again as we all but shot into the sky.
“I know what it is to see your mother…struggle,” Veyyr said.
The weight of those words held more than they seemed, and I could feel them not only for the two males, but for myself. Something about the truth of it cut deep, too close to home.
Laz bobbed his head. “Does it matter which of the islands you land on?”
That was Veyyr’s department. “The one furthest south. We will make our way to the center from there.”
Laz banked south as we winged out over the open ocean. I made the mistake of looking down.
Everything in me tightened, and not in a good way. If I’d had more food that morning, I would be puking off the side with the way the waves below swirled and danced. I jerked my head up and stared straight ahead.
Sorrow made his way to my lap, giving me something else to think about. Veyyr’s arm circled me again, dragging me tight to his body. “You won’t fall, Mallory.”
His hand slid under my shirt, palm against my belly as if needing the touch of skin on skin.
He leaned forward, his mouth finding the back of my neck, just…pressing tight to me. Breathing me in. I slipped my hand over his pressed against my belly.
There was no pushing away from him here.
The bond hummed between us, a calming force despite the sudden realization that heights bothered me.
Veyyr slid his other arm around, across my upper body so that I was fully held to him, as tightly as could be. I held onto him too, leaning into him, letting the moment wash over me. But it wasn’t me that needed the connection re-established.
Veyyr needed it.
“The smallest island,” He called out again. “The one at the furthest tip. We need to prove ourselves.”
Laz sighed. “Terrible fucking idea, if you ask me.”
“If there is somewhere else you can suggest we get Water from the Heart of the Veil, I am all ears,” Veyyr said.
“No, you’re right, this is the last remaining place in the entire world, above or below, that has…ah fuck, look at that pile of giant shit.” Laz tipped pointing off to our right. The water was darker, black, and it looked strange, like it had thickened into a jelly.
“What is it?”
“A Rift,” Laz said, “right through to the demon realm no doubt.”
I stared, and Veyyr tensed. “Are you sure?”
Laz didn’t circle back, but kept on flying. “I don’t dare get much closer, but it’s not the first that’s opened. The Coven works to close them, but that’s a doozy, it will take them some time.”
The nausea that had hit me earlier was gone and I couldn’t help but stare at the water.
The Rift had to be two hundred feet across and looked more like a whirlpool than a Rift that we would see on land.
Water bubbled up, belching out of the opening like a plugged toilet slowly reversing everything it had taken in.
“So…the witches are good then?”
“Well…it’s self-serving. Demons are drawn to witches, so it’s in their best interest not to get possessed.”
I thought back to the scene with Thorn and how she’d fought with herself, as if there were two people arguing and not a single woman. “Would they…argue with themselves if they were possessed?”
“Possibly, Usually the demon overpowers the witch quickly.”
I didn’t ask the question out loud, but I had a feeling that Thorn was not an ordinary witch, not by a long shot. And if she was possessed…fuck, that would be bad. “Can you save them?”
Veyyr’s hands warmed against my skin, but I waited for Laz to answer.
“No. There would have to be another body that would be able to take on the soul of the witch. A new start. But there is no way a demon would allow that to happen. They don’t like to lose their souls that they control.”
Even if Thorn was possessed, there would be no saving her. Not that I wanted to save her, I just didn’t want her to keep hunting me.
Laz began to slowly spiral toward an island.
We cut through a bank of clouds and the chain of islands was clearly visible.
I did a quick count. Twelve islands, all connected by thin strips of land, and then a thirteenth sitting right in the middle.
They varied in sizes and terrain, here and there I could spot buildings even, but it went by quickly and what little I could map in my head would be of little help.
There were just too many to remember which one had the river, which one the smaller huts, which one the large trees or the small.
“We have to cross them all?”
“And hope they allow us to do so,” Veyyr said.
Laz tucked his wings.
The world dropped.
There was no warning beyond the shift in his muscles beneath us, no count to three, no gentle dip. One second we were riding the air and the next it vanished, stolen from under us.
My ass lifted clean off the dragon’s back and weightlessness punched the breath from my lungs. The wind roared up around us, tearing at my clothes, ripping my hair free of its tie. My stomach climbed straight into my throat, and I bit back a scream that clawed to get out.
Sorrow cawed sharply as I let go of him, and he folded his wings to dive, catching the next current beside Laz like this was a game.
This was not a game.
The earth was a blur below us. Sky above. Nothing in between.
Me?
I grabbed the only solid thing in reach.
Veyyr. My hands clamped onto his arms, knuckles whitening, but that wasn’t enough.
He caught me before the wind could.
One arm came around my waist, crushing me against his chest. The other went back around my chest, palm splayed over my shoulder, holding me in place like I was something precious instead of a liability mid-fall.
The heat of him was calming against the cold rush of air. Solid. Unyielding.
His mouth pressed close to my ear, breath warm despite the wind tearing around us. “I won’t let go. You won’t fall.”
The words threaded through me deeper than they should have.
Because this wasn’t just about gravity.
I turned my face and buried it against his neck, cheek scraping against the rough line of his jaw as the wind screamed past us. I could feel his heartbeat through his chest—steady, controlled. Not a flicker of doubt in it.
I tightened my grip anyway. “I hate heights.”
“I know.”
My fingers curled into his arms where they locked around me, holding on as much to the promise as the man.
And if I was honest…I wasn’t just afraid of hitting the ground.
I was afraid of what would happen if he ever let go in any other way.
“Terrible fucking idea!” I muttered. “All the way across the board.”
But I would help him do this quest, we would resurrect the person that he was so desperate to bring back to life, and then I…I would go and find my soul sister.
Simple, right?
Laz snapped his wings out at the last possible second and we were jerked to a stop, twenty feet above the land. “Hurry, I think the Undines are pissed you skipped over them. Once your feet are on land, their sirens call will not touch you.”
Veyyr jumped off, landing lightly on the beach. I patted Laz on the back, still shaking from the free fall. “Thank you. I think.”
“It’s hard to deny a woman who says you have beautiful eyes.”
Laughing, I slid off his back and landed in a crouch.
“I will circle back here every few days, see if you are ready to come back.” Laz surged upward, the downdraft of his wings sending sand spraying every direction.
I dusted myself off and checked my weapons. Everything was still there, the falcata, two daggers, bow and arrow, hip bag with a few odds and ends. My finger found the ring and I spun it slowly. Best not to think about that when I had a bunch of witches to deal with.
“Crazy fucking idea, one. Boring ass ideas. Zero.”
Veyyr didn’t so much as blink, just motioned for me to catch up as if I’d not clung to him all the way down. “This way.”
Sorrow flew in a lazy circle around our heads as we headed what I felt like was north and east. Laz had dropped us on the furthest island south. Before the drop, I’d seen the full shape of them. They curled around one another not in a circle, but in a spiral.
This one felt warm, tropical if the large ferns and huge palm trees meant anything. Sand under my feet, but up the beach it shifted to more solid ground.
“You want to tell me what the exact plan is here?”
He pointed and I followed the direction of his hand to something further up the beach that looked like a cloth house, only it was square and seemed to be two stories high.
A yurt maybe? If a yurt had been made with magic and an insane distaste of building engineering.
Little bits of colored cloth fluttered from the corners of the building.
“That is the first witch we must pass by. Each one will have a challenge or task that they will require of us before they allow us to cross their land.”
“Thirteen tasks?” Funny how he’d not mentioned a thing about the number of tasks before we’d arrived.
A laugh cackled out of the building—tent, yurt, whatever—and the first witch stepped out into the sunlight. “You think you have it in you to conquer an entire coven?”
She was very attractive, and yet…not. Her body was slim and her waist cinched incredibly tight which only accentuated her bosom and the flare of her hips.
Her hair was long and dark, curled perfectly, but her face…
her face was…I couldn’t put my finger on it.
As if someone had taken her face and scrambled the parts up.
Eyes off kilter, one super high, the other far too low and tiny, nose too big but also twisted with the nostrils tipped forward so I could nearly see to the back of her head, and her lips were closer to her cheekbone than to the tip of her jaw.
I half wondered if I gave her a shake if the pieces would fall back into their proper places. But I did not open my mouth, and I did not ask a stupid question like, “Were you cursed? And please don’t ask me to fix your face because even the gods themselves would struggle to make that right.”
Veyyr grunted like I’d punched him, and that made me wonder how much the bond gave him from me, then bowed at the waist. “We wish to pass to the next island, what price lady witch?”
Both of her strange eyes narrowed. “What, do you not know my name? You cannot even name me to ask me properly?”
Sorrow landed in between us and looked up at the witch, spread his wings and cawed loudly. She stumbled back. “Cursed bird! Begone with you!”
She made a shooing motion with both hands. But no magic. Sorrow hopped closer and she screamed and backed up. “Get it away! Get it away!”
“May we pass? We will take the bird with us,” I said.
“Fine! Go! All of you filthy cursed ones!” She fell back through the door of her cloth house and the walls shuddered, rippling.
“Good job, Sorrow.” I headed to where the first land bridge was between the first island and the second. “Keep this up, and we’ll be through in no time.”
Oh for the faint of heart, it was not ‘no time’, and I might as well have cursed myself by speaking so fucking flippantly on an island that a witch called home.