Bound to the Dragon King (7 page)

“Swallows?”

“Yeah. Haven’t you ever seen it? It’s near the entrance to the caverns.”

“My father would never let me go to that part of the city.”

Ruby sets off down the street and I follow behind, once again grateful that Ruby agreed to help. At the end of Market Street, the wall of the massive chamber looms ahead. Looking closely, I see the large archway leading into the caverns, lit dimly with a single glowing orb. Ruby veers off to the left and leads us along the wall. Tiny glowing figures zoom in and out of thousands upon thousands of tiny holes dug out of the rocks. I had no idea that this many sprites even existed! A small cough near my right shoulder startles me out of my reverie. Searching out the noise I see a tiny glowing sprite staring at me from his hole.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I sputter. I don’t know if it’s rude to look inside one of their homes so I quickly avert my eyes.

“It’s alright, Miss,” his tiny voice replies. “I only wondered if I could be of service. It can be quite hard to find the sprite you’re looking for if you don’t have wings.” He points up the wall and I see what he means. The holes continue all the way up the wall past where I can actually see.

“We’re looking for Fee. She’s a library sprite,” I say.

“Hmm,” he responds before suddenly flying away. 

“Wait!” I cry after him. I can’t believe the little bugger just took off! Damn. “How rude,” I remark to Ruby. “I wonder if we should ask someone else.”

“I don’t know.” Ruby shrugs. “I think he might be helping us. Maybe we should wait?”

We both stand there for a moment unsure of what to do. I suppose waiting wouldn’t hurt. We watch sprites streak off towards the city as others dart in and out of their holes. It’s quite a spectacular sight.

“Lindy!” Fee cries as she streaks towards us. She zooms around my head, rustling my hair in our usual greeting. “I can’t believe you’re here!” she says excitedly. She flies over to Ruby giggling with glee. “And Ruby too!” I guess that little guy helped us after all.

“This place is amazing Fee,” I say pointing up to the wall of tiny homes. “I should have come to visit a long time ago!”

“Georgia told me you were down here,” she says, hinting that she knows what we’re up to. I’m not sure we can trust all the sprites. I hope Georgia told her what we’re doing.

“We need your help. We’re looking for someone in the Caverns. Can you be our guide?” Ruby asks her.

“Oh yes! I know the Caverns well. I had to get a new job after you left the library, Lindy. Cleaning those apartments is difficult work, but it’s pretty common for the Sprites. It gets less confusing after you figure out the trick to it. Come on, let’s go!”

We tell her about finding Cera while she navigates us through the dark stone hallways. My legs are exhausted from climbing staircases. I can’t imagine doing this every day, I would be in such great shape if this were my commute. Faces peek out from behind doorways, suspicious and wary of us. A group of young creatures follow behind us, giggling and hiding behind corners whenever we look their way. Fee finally stops as we reach the top of yet another winding narrow stairway. She floats just outside of the door, listening for sounds that someone might be inside. I look over at Ruby to see if she’s ready and I receive a nod of affirmation. I knock loudly on the hard metal door, sending booming echoes down the corridor. The door opens just a crack and a buggy brown eye gives me the once over.

“What?” A raspy voice asks rudely.

“We’re, umm… looking for Bettina,” I say, losing my confidence. I can’t tell what has me shaken, but something doesn’t feel right. The door shuts abruptly and I am a little relieved. I turn to leave when I hear the sound of a metal slide lock and the door swings open. An old haggard woman greets us, wheezing and hacking with a wet cough. She shuffles her slippered feet and waves us into the apartment. We follow her into the dim cluttered space. The woman coughs again and points to a pile of laundry before shuffling into the next room. Crazy old lady. I wonder if we’ve somehow gotten lost...

“Maybe this isn’t the right place guys,” I say to Ruby and Fee.

“No, this is it.” Fee flies over to the haphazard pile and knocks a few things to the floor. The whole thing suddenly shifts and a pale arm rolls out of the side.

“Guess that’s her,” Ruby says. She grabs a hunk of clothes and pulls it away, revealing the girls face. Her thin nose is covered in a smattering of freckles. She snorts in her sleep and rolls over causing a cascade. I can’t believe she’s still asleep.

“Bettina!” Ruby prods her arm with a finger.

She opens one eye sleepily. “What do you want?” she groans.

“We need to talk to you,” I reply sternly.

“Fuck off,” she moans and covers her face with her hands. I smell the pungent scent of alcohol wafting off of her.

“What should we do?” Fee asks anxiously.

I still can’t shake the bad feeling that I’ve had since we walked up to her door. My gut tells me that she’s not going to work for our coven. I send out my magical probe and find her spark. It’s dark and foreboding, reminding me of my cousin Delilah’s. There’s no way either of them can be in the coven, I wouldn’t be able to work with that twisted energy in the background. I feel guilty for wanting to leave Bettina here like this, but I know that we don’t have any other option.

“Let’s go while she’s still sleeping,” I whisper. “She’s not right for the coven. Let’s find the next candidate.”

Ruby and Fee thankfully don’t question me further. Back in the hallway, we look over our list finding two more potentials in the Caverns. One of them was with us during the first coven disaster and doesn’t take any convincing to get her to agree to join our coven. Ruby sets up a way to get in contact with her and we set out to find the other. She’s an older witch who repairs broomsticks for a living. She’s meek and quiet but I find that she’s got quite a magical glow. She seems hesitant to join us until we tell her about Asher and the whole Dragon thing. Her eyes light up unexpectedly and she drags us to a curio cabinet filled with tiny Dragon figurines.

It’s a long day of searching all over the Underground, and my quest to seal my coven is constantly being interrupted by thoughts of Asher. I hope he’s alright. Actually, I don’t. I hope he’s as upset about that fight as I am. And just as excited to see me again.

We only have one spot left to fill. The next candidate, Cadence, is another woman from the first gathering that I definitely got a good vibe from, so this should be an easy one. We take a quick break on the corner and watch an elf play a sad tune on his lute. A few passersby throw coins into his open case as they hurry past on their way home. The once lively stalls of the market begin to close and a group of sprites zoom in to clean the streets. Every muscle in my body is screaming in exhaustion. This has been an incredibly long day, stressful day.

I stretch my arms over my head and let out a loud yawn. As I lower my hands I notice a flash of light from my wrist. The bracelet is glowing and it’s pulsing with warmth, the final gemstone flickering with light. I can go to him. My heart threatens to beat its way out of my chest. 

“Ruby I’ve got to go,” I say turning towards her. 

Chapter Eight

“What’s wrong?” Ruby turns towards me but her eyes scan the crowd. “Is it SIGMA?”

“No, it’s Ash.” I show her the bracelet. “It’s a portal. I’ve got to go to him. Now. I can’t explain, I just need to go. Can you handle the last candidate?”

“Of course!” she says. “Go on. We’ll be fine. We will meet you at the entrance to the forest, just tell us when.”

“Ruby, when I activate this you’ve got to go. I’m not sure if it will attract SIGMA, but it’s dragon magic so it probably will. Go, find her. I’ve got a good feeling about her already.”

I pull her into a brief hug and we set off in opposite directions. I walk farther down Market Street and start to activate the portal to Ash, but the hair stands up on the back of my neck. This will definitely trigger any magical alarms SIGMA has around and I should give Ruby more time.

I move to the edge of marketplace, near a vendor hawking a rare type of metal that has a good chance of distorting the energetic signature of the portal so they won’t be able to follow. But the people around me will certainly notice a circle of fire appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the street, so I need to do this quickly.

I trace my finger around the black sapphire on the bracelet and concentrate on Asher. Within seconds, the portal opens. A sparkling eyed Fae woman next to me gasps but I ignore her, leaping through the flames. Asher is crouched on the ground in front of a massive dragon’s skull, sifting around in the dirt. His spine stiffens when he hears the crackling pop of magic sealing together behind me.

I stumble, widening my stance for balance as the world around me spins rapidly. I hate this part, but it’s surprisingly quick this time. When reality fades back in, Asher is on his feet taking a step toward me.

There’s probably a hundred feet between us. I’m not sure why I wanted this much of a buffer when I opened the portal. It could have something to do with the giant dragon bones in every direction, their ghostly white ribs rising into the air. The skeleton Asher was investigating is obviously the one of the oldest, with crumbling jagged ends on the spiky vertebrae that make the bones look so brittle they should be blowing away in the wind whipping around us. Despite it’s age, the a magical aura around those remains is stronger than the others, a deep pure red. But I’m too distracted the the pained expression on Asher’s face to focus my witchsight to learn any more about it.

“Hi,” I murmur when he’s just a few steps away.

“Where were you?” he says. His voice is borders on accusatory, his eyes narrowing as he looks me up and down and sniffs the air.

“I… I went to see Georgia. She gave me a list of the other candidates.”

Asher closes the distance between us. “And?”

“I took Ruby to feel them out until we found as many as we needed.”

Tucking a stray curl behind my ear, his touch leaves a trail of sparks across my skin. “Are you alright, Lindy?” he asks. I look around at the dragon graveyard we’re standing in and wonder the same thing about him. What did he do all day? He looks completely exhausted. “Did that Council make you… I mean, did you try to-”

“I’m fine,” I reply, skimming my fingers over his lined forehead. Ash takes a deep breath, his eyes closing as he wraps his hand around my wrist. My stomach flutters as my lips curl into a wide smile. My mind’s eye flashes to a younger version of Asher, somehow more carefree even though he was trapped and confused in the dark. This reunion is sort of like finding him in my dreams after a long, lonely day. Everything is so familiar, but crazy different at the same time.

With a sigh, Asher pulls me into his chest, resting his chin on the top of my head. We hold each other for a while, watching the sun sink below the horizon. “I killed a cow,” he finally blurts out.

“You what?”

“Three of them, actually.”

“While you were a dragon, right?”

“Of course,” he laughs. “I was flying overhead and they were just too tempting, but now… What if those three heads of cattle were the difference between feast and famine for that rancher’s family this winter? I thought about going back and leaving some gold there in the middle of the brush, but what if someone else finds it? Or worse, SIGMA senses it somehow and raids their home, or-”

“Ash,” I interrupt his guilty ramblings, brushing my lips against his. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to compensate him.” Nodding, he wraps his arms tighter around my waist. My cheek is pressed against his chest as I stare in the direction of a skeleton that’s less than half the size of the others. A sparkling trinket half buried in the sand catches my eye, and I squint to get a better look at the indigo energy swirling around it. “Asher, how did you get here?”

His body tenses up in my arms, pulling away. “You just left,” he snaps, his angry dark eyes flaring crimson as they stare down at me.

“I felt like I had to. You were being such a… well, a total jerk to be honest with you,” I shoot back.

“Lindy, that’s how you have to be around werewolves, they are very…”

I wait for him to finish, but he clearly doesn’t intend to. “What?”

Asher huffs in frustration, running his hand through his hair. “Primitive,” he replies. “Brutish. Hierarchal. And you decided to completely emasculate me in the middle of the desert in front of a feral, dangerous creature we knew nothing about, possibly with more of his pack on the way and-”

“Emasculate? Really? I was simply disagreeing with you,” I explain.

“You were more than just argumentative, Melinda, you basically-’”

“So were you!”

Lurching forward, Asher growls loudly as he wraps his strong fingers tightly around my forearm until I feel my pulse in my hand. “Stop interrupting me,” he demands, his breath heating the skin on my neck.

My pulse rises and I lick my lips. I don’t know what my problem is, but I really liked that. His dark eyes meet mine and his perfect mouth widens into that cocky grin he wears whenever he knows I’m struggling to resist my body’s response to his feral behavior. Why does he have to be so hot when he’s being a brute?