Home > Dragon's Ground (Desert Cursed #2)(7)

Dragon's Ground (Desert Cursed #2)(7)
Author: Shannon Mayer

But maybe there were more reasons than that.

Kiara’s mouth dropped open, and she stumbled back a few steps. We’d all been at the mercy of the Jinn’s magic more than once, so I wasn’t exactly surprised by her reaction. We’d all lost loved ones to their strength and their spells. And maybe I relished the reaction she had a little more than I should have. But come on, I’m not perfect.

I smiled as I opened the stall door and handed her Balder’s reins. “You hang onto the horses and get ready to blast through when I say.”

“Okay. What happens if you can’t break it?”

My hand went to the sapphire, but I stopped myself from touching it, lifted my hand higher and rubbed the base of my neck. No need to tip my hand to her, just in case she was lying about wanting to get away. In case she was still somehow working for Ish. “I have a backup plan. I don’t want to use it if we don’t have to.”

She nodded, trusting me, which was nuttier than a peanut bush in my eyes, and then she fell into step just behind me. Submissive to me. I was older, that was likely it more than anything else. That and I’d just told her that I had something of the Jinn’s magic.

Though she was Steve’s mate, and he was playing the alpha right now, she was still so young and really, she was no alpha to begin with. Hell, she wasn’t even out of her teens. I drew a slow breath, knowing that no matter how old she got, she would never be an alpha. She just didn’t have the spine or the heart for it.

Some were born alphas. Some weren’t. She was most certainly in the second category.

“I remember when you found me,” she said softly as we walked. “You fought off the gorcs trying to kill me near that muddy watering hole.”

I nodded but said nothing. Thirteen years ago, it was hard to believe it had been that long, that she’d ever been that little and that. . . I had cared so much for her. Back then, not now.

No, I would not go there.

“I never forgot that,” she said. “You were always my hero. I wanted to be you.”

I snorted but kept sweeping the area with my eyes as I spoke. “I’m a fucking house cat, Kiara. You don’t want to be me.”

“But it never stopped you. Even Steve says that. You never let anything get in your way. If you saw something you wanted to do, nothing could be done to convince you otherwise. It’s why. . . he. . . ”

“Wanted someone who would behave?” I offered her. The Stockyards were quiet for the moment, which was good, but again I kept looking. Watching for a servant or another shifter who might notice us headed toward the boundary.

“Something like that, I think,” she said, and I heard the frown in her voice. I wondered if she understood that he liked her because she was weak-willed, a damn doormat if ever there was one. Not a fun realization no matter your age.

“Enough talking. We’ve got to get out of here,” I said. We approached the eastern side of the Stockyards. Ish would expect me to try to escape out the north or the west side, putting me closer to the path I’d need to be on in order to head toward Dragon’s Ground at the fastest speed. I sucked in my cheeks and clamped them between my teeth. This was a piss-poor idea at best, and my nerves suddenly bit at me. If I was wrong, I wasn’t sure I’d get another chance, even with the sapphire hanging on my neck.

And I remembered all too well the feeling of the flail as it sucked the life out of me, how close I’d come to dying because I’d used it. I cleared my throat.

“There’s a chance that there could be some kickback for what I’m going to do,” I said. “If I fall over and the barrier breaks, toss me onto Balder and hiss at him, okay? He’ll follow you and Lacey.”

“Hiss?” She blinked those big golden eyes at me as if she didn’t understand the word. “Why would I do that? And I can’t throw you onto Balder, I’m in a delicate—”

“Just do it, Kiara. We don’t have time for explanations. And you are strong as an ox even pregnant. Don’t act like suddenly you can’t bench press your own weight two times over.” We were close enough to the edge of Ish’s magic that I felt it humming against my skin, raising the flesh and hair alike. My fingers tingled where I’d burned them the first day of enforced captivity. Yeah, Ish had supercharged the fence she’d put up. A cage, she’d caged me.

She had to know I would try to fight my way out, even knowing the chances for success were slim. The hair on the back of my neck stood, and I looked around again. Nothing, we were still unnoticed.

I made a quick check that all my gear was tied down, that the shotgun was lashed in tightly. I was stalling. I could admit that much to myself. I was afraid of what could happen here.

I really did not want to go head to head with Ish, and that was basically what I was doing by breaking her barrier. I was throwing down a gauntlet, putting myself on one side of a line in the sand and Ish on the other.

Stupid, this was stupid, but I was doing it anyway. Like the dumb-ass I was because my brother needed me, and now, so did Kiara. She might not have been born with alpha tendencies, but I was. And I couldn’t help but want to protect her.

“Ready?” I asked with a quick glance at her.

Kiara nodded and her hands clenched around the reins of the two horses. “Yes, ready. But why do you think this won’t work?”

I gritted my teeth a moment before answering. “The barrier is keyed to you and me. We can’t see it, but we can feel it. I think if I go forward with the flail, the barrier will think it’s a part of me and try to stop it.”

“And the Jinn’s magic should break it just because?”

“Fuck, enough questions, Kiara,” I snapped in part because I didn’t want her poking holes in my theory. Either this would work or it wouldn’t and hesitating would not help us one damn bit.

I pulled the flail from my back and the wooden handle immediately warmed becoming almost tacky against my skin. Like it wanted to be held, and held a lot. “No doubt a man made you,” I muttered. “Always wanting his stick held.”

Kiara snorted. “Are you talking to the weapon now?”

“No, that’s fucking stupid.” I flicked my wrist and began to spin the unearthly lightweight flail in an ever-increasing loop until I had it going as fast as I could. Smashing the shit out of the magical barrier was now or never.

With a grunt, I drove it directly into the barrier that held us back. There was a resounding crack, like bone snapping in half, and I grinned. Damn straight, my theory was sound! The air around us shimmered, spider web breaks scattering out around us, thin and barely seen but there. The barrier we couldn’t previously see came into view, fuzzy like one of Bryce’s TVs he worked on with the screen out of focus.

“Again!” Kiara said. “You have to hit it again!”

I didn’t like agreeing with her, but she was right. I spun the flail again and smashed it into the distorted screen. It dug into the barrier this time, sticking to it. There was a pulse of black mist that curled around the twin spiked balls and I realized the flail was doing the same thing as when I fought with it.

“Holy. . . hell fire on the sand dunes,” I whispered.

The flail soaked in Ish’s magic like it soaked in the blood of my enemies. Horror flickered through me. This was Jinn’s magic, and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Being an idiot, that’s what I was doing.

I yanked it out with a hard pull, and with a growl of frustration, spun it and slammed it into the barrier again. There was a shout behind us. One of the servants had noticed what we were up to. Seconds, we had seconds before Ish would be on us.

“Mount up!” I yelled at Kiara as something caught the corner of my vision as it sailed our way, twisting through the air like a snaking cord.

She scrambled onto her horse just as a net slithered our way. A catch net. The woven threads were black and green and moved as though they were alive, curling and crawling toward me and Balder. He danced sideways, tugging Kiara and her horse Lacey with him. He knew better even if Kiara didn’t. I spun and slammed the flail down into the catch net.

The magical threads burst apart, dying where they were.

   
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