Chapter 13
Rian watched the man who just a few months prior had been saved from a century of captivity in a silver box go up in flames.
The Guardsmen all rushed to the aid of their kinsman but with no idea of what to do.
Grabbing his backpack as he ran by, the Dragon Leader pulled the two remaining bottles of Dousing Serum out, uncapped them, and threw them onto the fire that was now as large as a funeral pyre.
The fire spit and sputtered as the Dousing Serum danced on the flames, but after all the liquid had evaporated, resumed its regular burn.
Turning to Maddox, Rian was shocked to see the crazy dragon using the Rose Quartz to speak to Calysta.
He could hear Alicia barking orders in the background.
It was abundantly clear that the young witch was barely keeping her fear in check while watching her mate go up in flames on Kyra’s Looking Glass.
“Rian, get the Focus Stone,” Calysta barked.
“Do you have any purified salt left?” Kyra asked.
“Do you still have the herb cachets I made?” Alicia questioned.
“Got it. Yes. Yes.” Rian answered the witches’ questions in order aloud and in his mind.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. The girls are going to form the Power of Seven Circle again. I’m gonna need you guys to form a circle around the hellhound and Drago. Rian, did you do as I asked?”
“I did.”
“Dammit, Calysta, the boy is doing as he’s told, can you just get on with it.” Maddox was snarkier than usual. It made Rian wonder what the crazy old dragon knew that he didn’t.
“Look, you pain in the ass dragon, I didn’t get to be Grand Priestess by leaving things to chance.”
“Calysta…” Maddox growled before being interrupted by Rory.
“Now, now, kiddies, no arguing until after we get the Assassin out of the fire.”
“Rory...” Calysta, Rian, and Maddox all grumbled in unison.
“Yeah, yeah I know I need to be bitch slapped. Whatever. Do it later.” Rory rolled his eyes but Rian could hear an underlying trepidation in his youngest brother’s voice and noticed the wound on his arm had bled through the T-shirt/tourniquet on his arm.
Wonder why he’s not healing? Gotta be because we’re still in this God forsaken place.
“The kid’s right. What do we do now, Grand Priestess?” Maddox asked with tremendous sarcasm accenting Calysta’s title.
Ignoring the crazy dragon, Calysta instructed, “Put the Focus Stone as close to the fire as possible. Form a Circle with the purified salt. Then y’all stand outside the Circle with your toes as close as you can to the salt without disturbing it.
Close it with this simple spell—Gods, Goddesses, Guardian Angels, and Spiritual Guides, please be present with us during this ritual.
Bless this Circle and keep us protected.
No unwanted entities are welcome here. Only pure, divine beings are welcome into this space.
The Circle is cast. So mote it be. Blessed be.
Blessed be. Then take the bags of herbs and each person drop them at your feet.
“When you’ve done all that join hands and everyone must say the following in unison, “Quench an tine! Quench an tine! Mharú an draíocht dubh! Scaoileadh an dragan! Do you understand?”
Rian had never heard Calysta talk so fast or repeat herself so many times.
She was also moving around so much and so quickly that most of the time he was looking at the leaves on the trees over her head.
The Guardsmen all had a theory about what was going on and it seemed the witches were in agreement but no one was saying it aloud.
“Yes, ma’am. We’re ready.”
“The Circle is closed?” Calysta questioned.
“Calysta, Rian said he was doing it. We’re ready for the spell. Are you?” Maddox answered the Grand Priestess as testily as she had questioned Rian. There was definitely something going on with those two that the Dragon Leader had not the time or inclination to examine at the moment.
Motioning to Audrey, he said, “Come here, a mhuirnín.”
“But…”
“But nothing. You are my mate. This is all part of it. We’re saving our own. The love you and I share, our bond…the one we’ve forged between you, me, and my beast will make our dragon magic stronger.”
He could see the doubt on her face but was overjoyed when she came to him without further delay.
She was part of their clan. Had been from the first moment he laid eyes on her.
No better time for her to realize not all magic was bad.
It was going to take time but slowly, Rian planned to erase the last hundred years of pain with thousands of years of happiness.
As soon as her hand was in his and was tucked between him and Maddox, Rian nodded and the Guardsmen, along with the witches, repeated the spell Calysta had given them just moments ago.
They all stared at the fire as they repeated—Quench the fire!
Quench the fire! Kill the black magic! Release the dragon—over and over.
The longer they chanted, the more the fire changed colors, like a kaleidoscope. First red, then orange, then yellow, repeatedly, color-to-color on a loop until they were whirling so quickly it was a blur.
“Throw the last bag of purified salt on the fire and say the chant one more time as loud as you can,” Calysta commanded.
No sooner had the white crystals hit the flames than they burst to the ceiling, hissing and whistling before immediately falling to the ground. The fire became translucent although still holding the same colors, only washed out as if they’d been bleached.
Rian couldn’t believe his eyes. A quick glance around the Circle confirmed that all the Guardsmen were either opening and closing their eyes or shaking their heads in disbelief.
He could hear their thoughts of utter shock and awe and wondered if maybe it was a mass hallucination caused from way too long in hell.
Audrey and Maddox seemed to be the only ones taking the craziness before them in stride.
“You okay?” he asked his mate, squeezing her hand for reassurance.
“Would you be surprised to know that’s not the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen down here?” She snickered, melting away some of Rian’s anxiety.
Turning to the crazy dragon, the Dragon Leader watched Maddox take the stone of Rose Quartz out of its polished silver setting.
He noted the burn marks on the tips of the older dragon’s fingers from contact with the caustic metal and figured that was why he was dismantling the amulet, but true to form, the crazy dragon was full of surprises.
Discarding the silver, Maddox uttered, “Ara is chugainn mo dheartháireacha,” and threw the stone into the fire.
A blast that reminded Rian of the land mines him and Kellan had led their men through during their time in the armed forces filled the cavern. Thankfully, there was no shrapnel with this explosion. The only side effects were the ringing in their ears and the black dots before their eyes.
As the dust settled, the picture was clear. The fire had been extinguished. The sigils on the box had ceased to glow. And what they had all believed to be a figment of their imagination was lying right in front of them. There was no denying it.
“Just to be sure I’m not losing my mind, y’all see what I see, right?” Lennox asked. It was the first time he’d spoken since their descent.
“Yes, Lenn, we all see it,” Pearce responded as Zen as always.
Maddox walked forward, knelt down, and shook his head. “I swear I’m getting too old for this shit.”
Rian could only nod in agreement as he looked at Drago lying unconscious with no physical signs of having spent several long minutes in a blazing inferno, but also another man of the same Force the dragons had memorialized close to a century ago.
Kayne’s shoulder-length white-blonde hair was stringy and matted but still matched the color of his majestic golden beast. His body had many scars that had his dragon been allowed to, would’ve been healed, but their brethren had apparently been cut off from his dragon for almost as many years as he’d been lost to his kin.
It was the only explanation Rian could come up with and it also explained why none of them had known their brethren was trapped in the body of a hellhound.
Groaning, first Drago then Kayne rolled over and sat up.
The Assassin squinted then laughed aloud.
“Leave it to you to make a grand entrance. Always had to live up to your birthright didn’t you?
” Just before a pair of sweatpants that Kellan had retrieved from his bag hit the golden dragon in the chest, followed by a mumbled “Cover up, my man.”
The group erupted into laughter as Kayne looked at each Guardsman with utter disbelief until his gaze landed on Audrey.
His lips opened and closed several times.
He cleared his throat then tried again to no avail.
Declan tossed a bottle of water to Drago, who opened it and handed it to his brethren.
Downing it in one gulp, Kayne again cleared his throat and this time got a deep, scratchy growl to emerge. Shaking his head and coughing, he tried again, and this time was able to say, “You killed the bastard,” before managing a crooked smile.
Guess as a hellhound, he’s outta practice.
Smiling one of her beautiful smiles, Audrey stepped forward after Kayne had stood and pulled on the sweats and stopped in front of him.
“Thank you. I owe you my life. In between the beatings and the cages of the last month, I realized how many times over the years you did your best to keep me out of harm’s way, even when my mouth insisted on pushing every one of Adramelech’s buttons.
I know you did what you had to do to survive, we all did.
But you always tried to do it so that I wasn’t hurt, unlike Bás and the other hounds, who took pleasure in anyone’s pain but their own. ”