Chapter 22
Felix crouched just outside the ring of standing stones, with an awful sense of déjà vu.
The karma that’d been raised on the dark altar was thick and cloying, the blackness of it settling on his tongue and at the back of his throat.
He put his hand on Myx’s shoulders, and the cat flicked an ear, tail twitching, his focus rapt on Jena.
She’d called the corners and set the sacred space, blue flames erupting around the broken shards of an iron cauldron at the circle’s center.
The wind had picked up, tossing her long, dark locks, her eyes glowing a brilliant emerald.
Chase stood behind her, karma prickling through the air as he called on it to manifest his will.
A glow brightened around them, his irises sparking sapphire, and the flames around the cauldron leaped wildly.
Dark threads of vapor rose from the stones as she chanted. It teased around them, traveling up her body. She inhaled, her lips parting to eat sin, and the glow around them grew brighter, the air thickening with magic.
Beneath Felix’s palm, Myx’s fur rose, and a low growl rumbled through his chest. Felix’s gaze went to where the cat was looking. A triangular-shaped head separated from the shadows by the cliffside, followed by a sinuous neck.
Holy fuck. The dragon was coming.
Its eyes narrowed at Jena and Chase, stalking closer. The absolute silence in which it moved was terrifying. A beast that enormous was supposed to lumber, not slip through the outcroppings of rock like smoke.
Felix’s ears tingled, distorting himself and Myx before he’d thought about it, a strange resonance humming between him and his familiar.
Well, that was new, but he didn’t exactly have the liberty to figure it out right now.
Felix stood, edging around the circle to keep the dragon in view.
It slipped around the stones, as if testing the sacred space for weaknesses, then came to a stop by the swamp.
It raised a talon and scraped it down one of the standing stones, sparks flying with a horrific grating squeal.
Chase’s eyes flicked to the monster, his knuckles whitening on Jena’s shoulders, then he raised a hand and flipped it off.
The dragon snarled, its head snaking closer, and its pupils narrowing, totally transfixed.
Jena’s brow furrowed at the sound, but she continued to chant, her tone more urgent.
The flames tinged a sluggish purple, like the node was struggling to answer her call, and the dragon’s tail thrashed.
The flames faded back to blue as ice and muck peppered around the space, and her chant grew louder.
Chase’s voice joined hers. The dragon raised its head and roared, a venomous green cloud spilling from its jaws—
Myx’s claws sunk into Felix’s leg, and he bit back a yelp, glaring at the cat. Myx huffed, and started climbing to the cliff face, then looked back and huffed again. Felix scrambled to his feet. Oh, shit, right, he needed to go.
… “A good familiar usually knows what their practitioner needs before they do…”
Aggie better be right about the stupid cat…not that he’d tell her if she was. Felix swallowed the lump in his throat and followed Myx.
The cat bounded up a narrow path, and Felix fought to keep up with him, even though he was pretty sure Myx was leading him right into a solid wall.
No. There was a crack in the stone. Myx disappeared inside it, and Felix squeezed through after him.
Stone closed around him, the narrow passage continuing for long enough to make him question his life choices, and then it was gone.
A cavern opened up.
To one side, the earth had split, the air thick with sulfur, and a long black slab of stone rested at its side.
Thick tallow candles burned along its length, light dappling over the rotting carcasses of several eviscerated cattle.
Rats and insects feasted on the remains.
Felix’s stomach clenched, and he turned away, retching.
A furious roar came from outside, and Myx butted against him, leading him further in.
Felix stumbled after him, wiping his mouth.
God, this was so not what he wanted to be doing right now.
Honestly, who did these things happen to?
He bit back a sob and hurried after his familiar.
The light of flickering flames played over the stone at the back of the cavern.
Was there another chamber back there? Voices echoed from within as he neared.
Felix stopped beside a ragged passageway in the stone, listening.
“I need your answer,” a woman snapped.
Wait, was that Jenny? Myx looked at Felix and stepped through the opening. He lunged after the cat. Goddamn it—
Holy shit.
Jenny and Liam stood with Sway’s backpack in the center of another cave piled with gold, and Axle lay prone behind them.
Oh God. Was he hurt? Felix swallowed roughly, his pulse pounding in his ears.
Myx huffed at him over his shoulder. Outside, the dragon roared again and the stones around them trembled.
Right, right. One way to find out. Felix gingerly stepped around a mound.
Distortion didn’t render him completely invisible, and if he knocked into one of the piles, she’d know something was up.
Jesus, how many billions of dollars were in this room?
Guess all that stuff he’d heard about a dragon’s horde was true.
“An answer, Liam,” she barked, her hands fisting at her sides.
“No,” he growled back.
Felix picked up a jeweled ale mug. He didn’t want to hurt her, but if he could knock her out—
Coins chimed and his eyes snapped to Myx. He’d jumped onto to Axle’s lax body and was crouched on the boy’s chest. The cat sniffed Axle’s forehead, then licked it, karma sparking between the two.
What the hell was he up to?
“Not even to save, Felix?” she asked coyly, oblivious to whatever the cat was doing. “He will die, and Salsibar won’t be merciful.”
Axle twitched, and her head snapped to him. “How—”
Felix hauled back and swung the mug, cracking her across the back of the skull.
Liam opened his mouth to tell Jenny to fuck off, and she crumpled into a heap. He fell back a step. What the fuck—
Felix popped into view dropping a heavy jeweled mug like it’d burnt him.
“Shit. Do you think I hit her too hard? Oh my God! She’s pregnant?” He put his hands to his mouth horrified. “I am so going to hell.”
Liam threw himself at the warlock and hugged him tight, burying his face in Felix’s neck. Any stoicism he’d cobbled together left him in a rush of tears. “I don’t know how you got in here, but I am so fucking happy to see you,” he wept.
“Ditto. I was so worried about you two,” Felix said, sniffling as he hugged him back.
Another roar sent the stones trembling and coins slipped down the piles around them.
“But it’s not over, and we need to get out of here.
The dragon’s outside with Jena and Chase.
I don’t know if they’re going to be able to do what they planned on. We need to go.”
Shit. They really were out there with that monster?
“Liam? Uncle Felix?” They turned at Axle’s voice. The boy stood shakily, his eyes enormous. Myx butted him, and he stumbled off the pile of coins. “Why is your cat here?”
“He missed Liam, obviously,” Felix said as the cat wound around the were’s legs. “What are we going to do with her?”
They all looked down at Jenny, and an enraged roar shook the cavern.
“Shit. Leave her. We’ll figure it out later.” Felix bolted from the room the same way Jenny had earlier, and Liam came up against solid stone, swearing. Fuck!
“Felix!”
The warlock reappeared. “What? Come on, we gotta go!”
“Yeah, I know, but we can’t. You just disappeared through solid stone!”
“What? No, I didn’t, it’s wide open. There’s not even a door.”
Shit. That had to be the dragon’s illusion.
“Well, that’s not what I see.” Liam glanced back at Axle, and the boy shook his head, dragging over Sway’s backpack. How the hell was he moving that? It had to weigh over two hundred pounds with all those coins stuffed inside of it.
“I don’t understand!” Felix wailed, popping back into view. “I’m not—did the dragon mess with your minds?”
“No, Axle’s been out cold since we got here, and Jenny said it couldn’t because there’s a shit show between my ears,” Liam spat, eyeing her lax form. Felix should’ve hit her harder. “It’s gotta be an illusion, but I’ve got no idea how to break it or why it isn’t affecting you.”
“Okay, not for nothing, but Jenny’s a bitch, and I have no idea how to make you not see what isn’t there.
I can’t sense anything at all.” Felix raked a hand through his curls, and Myx jumped up, licking at his pants pocket.
He batted the cat away, and it went for him again.
“What the hell? Hey, stop it. There’s nothing—” Felix’s face went slack for a breath, then he dug into his pocket. “God, I hate her,” he muttered.
“Who?”
“Aggie.” Felix pulled out a little white pill and snapped it in half with his nail. “Eat it,” he said holding out the two halves to them.
Liam’s brow bunched. “What is it?”
“A quaalude. It’ll give you an entirely new outlook.” Felix pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh my God. Just eat it, there isn’t time to explain.”
Liam and Axle popped them into their mouths. “Now what?”
“I don’t know? Chew? You’re either going to be stoned out of your gourds, or the damned illusion you’re seeing—”
“Will disappear,” Liam finished as the wall melted and an opening stood in its place. He grabbed Axle’s arm and threw the backpack over his shoulder. Maybe he could get some of his money back, unless that was an illusion, too. “Come on, it’s gone. She said that was a quaalude?”
Felix grunted as they entered into a wide cavern. “Holy shit,” Liam said, his gaze falling on the rotting corpses littering the table. He put a hand at his mouth. That’s where he’d been—
A hiss came from the shadows, and they all spun towards it.
One of the twins grinned at them from the shadows, its teeth as pointed as the dragon’s.
Jesus. Liam blinked, running a hand over his face.
Was this what they really looked like? Its features were sharp and reptilian, and its spine was misshapen.
The little monster raised a talon-tipped finger, pointing up.
Before Liam could look, the other twin fell on Felix, and a third creature rushed them. Liam went down hard, the breath knocked out of him, then he screamed as the dragon spawn’s serrated teeth sliced into his shoulder.
“No! You leave him alone!” Axle screamed, rushing forward in a burst of black vapor and whoosh of crimson flame.
Liam recoiled, his hands over his face. What the fuck?
! One of the little monsters shrieked, its body crushed between the massive slavering jaws of a hellhound.
Liam scrambled back, his eyebrows frizzling and the skin on his face tight.
Jesus fuck, the heat—he clambered to his hands and knees, pulling Felix away from the fray.
The creature in Axle’s jaws dangled limply, and he flung it against the cave wall with a sickening crack.
Axle growled at the other two, standing between them and Liam and Felix.
The ground beneath Axle’s dinner plate-sized paws smoked, the stone burning, and long ropes of saliva dripped from his jaws, clouds of acrid smoke rising from where it spattered.
He lunged at the other two. One fell beneath his flaming paw, its pale skin blistering and splitting as it writhed, then burst into flames. Its head exploded, searing gray matter and gore shooting across the cave.
The last of them ran into the stone chamber with the horde, Axle on its heels. A horrific scream rent the air and then cut off sharply. An inferno erupted from the opening, and the stench of burning stone and metal seared Liam’s nostrils.
“Tell me I’m not seeing that,” Felix squeaked against him, fisting Liam’s shirt, his eyes enormous. “A hellhound. A fucking hellhound! I knew he was some shade of demonic.”
“Yeah. Good thing he likes us,” Liam croaked, licking his cracked lips.
Felix laughed manically. “Fucking Felicia. Sirens, hellhounds, I swear Poe’s part banshee, and whatever the hell Sway is—you’d think my sister could’ve settled down with a nice warlock. Hell, I’d even take a sidhe at this point.”
Liam slowly got to his feet and helped Felix up. “She definitely has a type.”
Felix glowered at him. “A type is blond or brunette, not the upper end of malicious—”
Axle staggered out of the inferno and collapsed. The flames behind him snuffed out.
“Shit,” Liam said, helping Felix to his feet. “I’ll get him.”
“Is he hurt?”
Liam pulled off his flannel and wrapped the boy up in it, wincing at the wound on his shoulder.
It was hard to tell with the black tee, but he had a bad feeling it wasn’t bleeding red.
God help him, but he was positive that little shit’s bite was poisonous, and Liam didn’t think his tetanus shot was gonna cut it. They needed to move before he couldn’t.
“No, but your first shift takes a lot out of you,” he said, picking Axle up and trying to keep calm for Felix’s sake.
The chamber beyond was thick with smoke and the stone glowed red. Nothing remained of the dragon’s horde but heaps of carbon. Liam blew out a slow breath and carried the boy back to Felix. “You’re gonna want to bring Sway’s bag. Everything else is gone.”
Felix slipped it over his shoulder with a grunt. “Remind me to thank my mom for spelling it then.” Another roar shook the cavern and their heads whipped around to the entrance. Myx was waiting for them. Felix’s throat bobbed. “You ready?”
Liam shook his head. “Nope. Let’s go.”