Metal Mage 7
Author: Vall, Eric
Date: 2019-09-07

Chapter 1

I left Qiran and Dragir to argue over the elven scrolls and headed for the path at the base of the cliff.

Dragir was determined to get the ancient scrolls back from his father’s clutches, and it was probably best I left him to the task, since I was about ten seconds away from burying my fist in Qiran’s face.

After the battle against the Master’s army, we’d found the head of House Quyn deep within the chambers of the hidden fortress beside the sea, and the moment we’d entered, he gathered every slip of parchment up and refused to hand any of them over.

Qiran was now wholly dedicated to guarding the scrolls from everyone apparently. Including me.

Dragir hadn’t seemed very surprised about this, and I guess I wasn’t either. Qiran was an elf, after all.

So, I figured I could trust the son to handle his father’s childishness, but if he didn’t have the elven scrolls back by the time I returned from gathering the wares of the battle, I’d just have to lock the old elf in stone until he agreed to give them up. I wasn’t above it.

The four women had made their way down the jetty the moment Shoshanne arrived from the village, and Deya had them perched around her on the rocky embankment to await the return of the sea dragons now.

I took a last admiring glance at the four gorgeous women bathing in the sun, and the murmur of Deya’s silvery voice carried on the salty breeze while she spoke to the others about her ancestors’ livelihood here.

Any other day, I would have joined them in a heartbeat, but I didn’t have the patience to sit still for another moment. So, I turned away and carefully climbed along the cliff face to return to House Quyn.

Qiran’s possessiveness had caught me off guard, but more importantly, my holster was still empty after the heir to House Kylen had kicked my revolver out of my hand. Until the gun was safely stowed at my hip, I couldn’t seem to relax by even a degree. The last thing I needed was one of the Master’s minions getting a hold of a weapon like that.

Or worse, the Master himself.

I quickened my pace at the thought, but I was forced to slow down not far into the jungle when I came to the grove of thorns. Foaming at the mouth for weeks on end would more than hinder my plans, so I wove cautiously between the stocky vines to avoid the long and technicolored thorns jutting out from every direction.

The women and children of House Quyn’s army had worn a small footpath in the moss, and I was able to make it to safer terrain in less time by following their trail. They’d returned to their village only an hour before, and it seemed they’d fared well in the grove with the guards and their dogs to lead them.

I decided to bypass the village itself, though, so not another minute could be wasted. The jungle shifted from broad and exotic leaves to the stout blue foliage that encroached all around House Quyn, and after I’d walked for a little while, I came out of the hidden forest not far from the crystal bridge.

The first thing I noticed was the pungent stench of the corpses still littering the jungle, and the remnants of charred plants mingled just beneath it. The pale pink crystals of the bridge were smeared with blood, but as I nudged a dead elf over the ledge and into the water, I could see the overspray from the raging river below was slowly diluting the mess.

I couldn’t say the same for Bobbie, unfortunately.

I found the Mustang returned to her spot beneath the ferns with a decapitated head wedged in her front wheel well, and there were several dents all over the hood where other skulls had cracked open upon impact. Her glass was smeared with dark red blood, but luckily it was still in one piece, and I grimaced as I stooped to check the interior.

Somehow, the black velvet cushions we’d stolen from House Aelin had managed to escape the onslaught, and Stan was content as ever while he lounged on the steering wheel like it was a hammock.

The second he saw me, he gave a start, pulled himself upright, and jumped down to the cushions to join me at the door.

I smirked. “So, were you in charge of driving or … ?” I asked him as he climbed onto my palm.

Stan shook his head and turned to give Bobbie an appreciative look.

I nodded. “Yeah, she’s a hell of a car, isn’t she? Word has it, she’s made more than an impression with the elves.”

Stan shrugged like he wasn’t remotely surprised, and I chuckled as I set him down in the damp dirt to stretch his legs a bit.

Then I took a turn around the Mustang to take stock of the damage.

Overall, the full steel assembly had held up well, but as proud as I was about the car’s efforts in the battle, I wasn’t crazy about the new paint job. Elven blood and guts really took away from the class of the ’67 model.

I raised my palms and decided to even out the dings in the hood and fenders first, and then I let the car back its way closer to the base of the towering waterfall.

The stray head needed a good few kicks to free it from the wheel well, but once the Mustang was settled closer to the water, I posted myself against a trunk while the overspray slowly trickled across the steel surface. The stench of the corpses was masked better by the dank air of the jungle over here, and the blood and innards gradually softened until they began to drip to the ground.

Eventually, Bobbie 3.0 was glistening with the same sandblasted finish I’d given her the day before, and no one would guess she’d mowed down nearly two dozen elves for us.

Although it could have been more. The guards from House Quyn still hadn’t come to any decisive number.

“Looking damn good,” I assured the Mustang with a solid pat, and the engine gave a low growl as I climbed into the driver’s seat.

Stan sprinted over from a small patch of mushrooms he’d been bouncing around on, and I scooped him up to place him on the dashboard.

We drove into the battlefield until the crunching of the corpses was too gross to continue, and I climbed out to get a look at what was left of the place.

In the daylight, the ferns in the north were mottled all over with blood, and much of the undergrowth was either trampled or made up entirely of the bodies of the Master’s army.

To the south, the wasteland left behind by the fire stretched far in a blanket of ash, but the trees with their bark charred midway up held strong as the canopy continued to sway gently above.

The heat of the day at this hour had begun to rot the bodies rather quickly, and I breathed through my mouth while I rounded the back of the Mustang to soften the seam of Bobbie’s trunk. There was more than enough room in there for a decent restock, so I climbed up to the hood of the car and scanned the fallen soldiers strewn in the jungle around me.

Then I summoned my magic, and a metallic spark sifted through my veins before it began to pulse with the beat of my heart. Around me, several ferns rustled, and axes, swords, daggers and glaives pulled themselves out of their victims or the dirt where they’d been dropped.

Slowly, more weapons rose all over the decimated forest, and the magnetic pull of my powers brought each of them straight to me before I filed them into the Mustang’s trunk. I carefully eyed every weapon that passed in the hopes a revolver would suddenly drift by, but even after half the wares were gone through, no gun had appeared.

I tried not to panic just yet, but I couldn’t help it. The revolver always came right to me when I called it, and somehow, the night before, I couldn’t even sense it nearby when I’d tried to summon it. I didn’t regret abandoning my search to free House Fehryn’s warriors from the raging fire, but now I was determined not to leave the vicinity until the revolver was firmly stowed in my holster again.

Bobbie’s backend began to sag under the weight of all the weapons I’d collected so far, so I decided to store the rest of the wares in a pile near the hidden path to House Quyn. Dragir would no doubt appreciate the addition to his personal collection.

There were only about a dozen Halcyan blades that came to me from the battlefield, but I carefully lined these beside the pile as well where they wouldn’t be crushed by the weight of any tungsten axe. These blades must have been from the very few elves who had been lost to the battle, and it only seemed appropriate they should be returned to the elf who’d forged them to begin with.

Once the weapons were all gathered and sorted, I summoned what I could of the armor from House Syru’s soldiers and left this at the head of the path as well for Dragir to melt down and do with what he liked. Then I resealed Bobbie’s trunk and sent her to wait beside the crystal bridge while I made my way out amongst the corpses.

I tried not to look at the bluing flesh of the dead if I could help it, but the stench was so acrid now, it was impossible to ignore the scene entirely. Smashed in skulls and torn entrails buzzed with giant jungle flies, and I saw several wriggling mounds of what looked like maggots, except they were a blistering orange with beady green eyes and about as big as my thumb.

Sooner than I would have liked, I discovered these guys also oozed a pukish yellow substance when stepped on.

I cringed and swiped my boot on the base of a bloody fern while I continued through the jungle, and I kept my magic drifting all across the bodies as I went.

Bobbie was long gone from sight when I stopped and turned in a circle to get my bearings.

It had been impossible to see much of anything the night before, but I felt like I wasn’t far off from where I’d lost the revolver now, and after weaving around a few more ferns, I came to a place I recognized without question.

The elves whose blood had been boiled at the hand of Dragir were still splayed in the small clearing, and in broad daylight, the claw marks were hard to miss. One of the elves had even managed to hook his lower lip, and his entire jaw was torn open straight down to his collarbone.

I looked away before any more details could jump out at me, and I decided to double down on my probing of this area since it was the last place I had the revolver. Three passes later, I thought I’d maybe sensed something a little ways to the north, and I carefully stepped over a mound of maggots to scour the next area.

Bugs buzzed noisily all around me, and I swatted them away while I tried to focus on the information my magic was sending back to me. I was stooped low to the ground with my palms outstretched when a breeze suddenly picked up, and a swarm of bugs took flight straight into my face. Their pebbly bodies bounced off my arms and face while they coursed past, and I pinched my eyes shut until they’d cleared enough for me to see the terrain again.

When I opened my eyes, the buzzing of the jungle had been replaced with silence, and I moved ahead to scan the next plot of land.

Then my eyes glanced over a talon on the other side of a fern, and I continued to find three more talons extended from a massive four-pronged foot.

I froze where I stood, and after a moment of staring at the gleaming tip of each deadly point, a bluish arm suddenly dropped from the sky and landed beside me.

It had clearly been torn off an already dead corpse, but I had a feeling I didn’t want to know what had done it. There was at least a small chance whatever it was hadn’t noticed me beneath the giant ferns just yet, and if I remained perfectly still, the owner of the talons might pass on.

After a long moment of nothing, my curiosity got the better of me though, and I carefully raised my chin to follow the foot upward.

The legs were knobby, but easily thicker than my own, and the feathers began around the underbelly. They were the dense black of a raven’s, and stout rather than downy, but the fact that they were each longer than my arm was probably a bad sign. By the time I made it past the jutting bones of the folded wings, I knew I was fucked.

I’d seen vultures and condors back on earth, but this beast put them to shame. The others had been unsightly at best. This guy was grotesque to the point of putrid, and it was larger than any bird I’d ever imagined. Its bald and stubbly neck wrinkled in deep purple folds where the feathers ended at the shoulders, and there were at least three shades of mold blooming ravenously in the deeper crevices of its skin.

Just above, the scavenging eyes of the massive bird were trained directly on me. The eyes were stark yellow with double eyelids that blinked a ghoulish green every few seconds, and in the hooked beak, a corpse hung limp and dripped with sluggish blood.

Then the beast tightened its hold, and one of the elf’s legs was spliced off.

It dropped to the ground as well, and the moment it landed, the animal twisted its beak upward toward the sky to swallow the body down with a sharp snip.

I took a single step back while the rotten folds of its neck undulated, but the yellow eyes darted to the movement immediately, and I froze once again.

With a steadying breath, I shifted my focus, and just as the bird snapped its beak in warning, I sent out a wave of Terra magic to tear the ground open beneath the massive talons.

The bird was faster than me, though, and as it spread its jet-black wings in a flash while its talons clawed out for me, I dove behind a crop of ferns.

Despite the beating of the heavy wings that sent ash up all over the place, the beast was practically silent as it hovered above the plants and searched for me in the brush.

I crouched lower while the wind threw the fronds back and forth, and just as I caught sight of the beast’s ghoulish lids blinking down at me, it dove.

I lunged and rolled over a few dead elves to hide in a dense patch of leaves, but I felt the tip of the hooked beak graze the back of my leg for a split second.

Another sharp snip of the beak cut half of my coverage away, and I was forced from my hiding place again by the scavenger’s ear-shattering screech.

I took off at a sprint and leapt over bodies and felled logs as I tried to lose the massive bird, but the ash in the air began to thicken with the beating of the wings, and my eyes began to burn from it.

The next two ferns I hid under were wrenched clean out of the dirt, and I decided to send the ground up to try and lock the feet if I could.

Every pillar I sent up only startled the beast and forced him to rise higher into the air, but then he dove at a ridiculous speed, and I skidded over a boulder and into another pile of bodies.

The talons crashed to the earth with a sickening, squishing, sound from the maggots beneath, and when I lurched backward, my hand sank into the entrails of an elf.

I scrambled to find my footing as my palm slipped deeper, and my boots slicked with maggot juice without finding any hold. My magic sent three pillars with deadly points shooting up to try and pierce the belly of the bird, but the beast quickly took flight with another piercing screech.

I watched the bird circle high against the canopy, and he had a wingspan that must have been as wide as the entire main house of House Quyn. All the while, it kept its talons poised to snatch me from the ground, and I’d just managed to dig my hand free when the creature began to dive again.

My powers sparked in desperation as I scanned feverishly for any weapon I might have missed, but nothing came to my summons, and I didn’t dare call Bobbie. The damn bird honestly could have carried her and I both off.

The raging river echoed not too far off though, and I decided to try and make a break for it one last time.

I sent two more pillars up as I dove between the ferns, but after I’d made it halfway to the crystal bridge, my foot caught on a stiffened arm, and I flew face first into a rotting corpse. The face was a sickly gray and twisted in agony, and I abruptly flipped onto my back to find the bird’s talons clutching greedily only feet above me.

The stark yellow eyes narrowed in on my body, and as my arms sprang out to pull a wall over myself, a shot suddenly fired.

I broke the wall apart as the bird let out a guttural screech, and I saw the wings begin to flail while blood seeped down its stubbly temple.

My heart pounded as the beast fought to keep flight, and as its girth wavered on the brink of crushing me, I lurched once more in panic, and another shot fired.

The beast was thrown into the ferns by the second bullet, and its talons twitched violently as the gurgle in its throat slowly faded.

I remained splayed across the rotted elf as I stared at the dead beast not ten feet away. Then I whipped my head around to find who’d fired the gun.

There was nothing in this realm that sounded so familiar to me as my revolver, and I’d recognized it the moment the first shot went off.

It had to be somewhere close by, but not knowing who’d pulled the trigger kept me where I was.

Without moving a muscle, I sent my magic into the jungle around me, and still, I sensed nothing that resembled my gun. I furrowed my brow and propped myself up to sit as my frustration grew, and after I’d listened long enough to be almost sure no one was near, I carefully stood and craned my neck over the ferns.

As far as I could see, I was the only living creature in a wilderness of death, and I turned back to eye the motionless scavenger behind me. When I came closer, I could tell the bullet holes in its head were fired from the north, so I slowly made my way across the bodies in this direction. The buzz of the bugs returned after a short while, but nothing besides these and the maggots moved around me.

I came to a stop after I’d walked for a while with no indication of where the shot had come from, and I furrowed my brow once more while I thought back.

I’d gotten a peculiar sensation in my chest immediately before the bird was hit. Everyone had always said my life would flash before my eyes if I was about to die, but when I looked up at the massive bird and sent my arms up to block the blow of its beak, nothing like that happened.

My mind was crystal clear, in fact, except for the odd sensation that my powers had suddenly split, and half of my focus had been fully engaged just as the shot went off.

Remnants of the sensations still fluttered lightly in my chest, and I closed my eyes to ease into this. To my surprise, I realized I could taste metal on my tongue as I did, and something that reminded me of sulphur lingered in the back of my nose.

My eyes opened wide.

It was impossible, I was almost sure of it, but I’d suddenly sensed my revolver, although its presence hadn’t come from the jungle.

It seemed to be buried deep in my chest, and it felt as warm and familiar as the smooth handle always did in my palm. Easing into the sensation again came as easily as cinching my hand to pull the trigger, and the taste of metal sparked on my tongue just as another shot cracked through the jungle.

I jumped about a foot and dove to the ground.

My pulse thrummed wildly, and I ignored the maggots under my hands as I tried to make any sense of it. It couldn’t possibly be me pulling the trigger, but with a fresh burst of sulfur in my nose, I was becoming less certain of that.

Finally, I took a steadying breath and closed my eyes. This time, the moment I was fully present in the peculiar sensation, I knew before it even happened that I would pull the trigger.

The gun fired, and a greedy grin spread across my face as I jumped to my feet and ran toward the sound. I slid over bits of brain and through bloodied ferns as I barreled ahead, and I leaned into the sensation to fire the gun again. This time, the shot was so close I thought I caught the streak of a bullet flying past, and when I pulled the fronds aside, I found a stack of dead soldiers.

One of them was smoking from a gaping hole in his back, and I strained to flip the giant body over.

Then I jumped back and gagged.

I could see the handle of the revolver, but it was slicked with mucusy innards and knotted deep in the gut of the corpse like it’d been twisted there. I grimaced and summoned my magic to my palms now that the revolver was partially exposed, and with a deep slurping sound, the gun was finally freed.

It reeked like rotted intestines, but it was definitely my revolver, and that’s all that mattered.

I let out a heavy sigh of relief and headed for the river with the gun drifting ahead of me, and when I got to the bank, I carefully disassembled the weapon and cleaned it.

Once everything was gleaming and mostly smelled okay, I put everything back in the proper place.Then I furrowed my brow as I considered the revolver nestled in my grip.

The feeling of the ivory handle and the weight of the gun in my palm was oddly reminiscent of the familiar sensation I’d experienced in my chest when the gun had fired, and I wondered if I’d developed some sort of connection with the makeup of the revolver over time. I couldn’t even count how many times I’d pulled the trigger since I’d first formed the weapon, but somehow, I’d suddenly fired the gun without even holding onto it this time.

By the look of the dead bird in the jungle, I’d apparently managed to aim true as well.

So, I reloaded the cylinder before I placed it down on the ground and stepped back a few paces.

It was easier to follow the taste on my tongue to the presence of the revolver, and as I zeroed in on the connection, the gun abruptly fired.

It spun wildly across the dirt in response, so the next time, I focused on holding the metal in its place with my powers. With the second shot, it stayed where I left it, but it didn’t fire toward anything in particular, and I smirked as I adjusted my focus once more.

This time, I cast my sights toward the jungle and found a corpse about twenty feet away. The soldier had landed on his side, so his back was fully exposed to me, and I kept my eyes glued to the point directly between the broad shoulder blades. Then the taste of metal seeped across my tongue, and with a final nudge and a burst of sulfur, the gun fired.

I couldn’t help but laugh as the back of the corpse jolted, and the bullet was buried straight through the point I’d been looking at.

“Holy shit,” I chuckled as I scratched at the back of my head.

I went through the same steps with three more dead elves, but I made sure not to physically shift the gun at all when I adjusted my focus to the next target. The revolver remained exactly as it was until the moment I cinched the trigger, and the aim realigned itself each and every time so it could hit what I was looking at.

Even if I wasn’t holding on to the revolver.

I was still chuckling when I retrieved the gun from the dirt, and I admired it for a long moment before I finally stowed it nice and snug in the holster on my hip.

Then I returned to the Mustang, and as I dropped into the driver’s seat, I grinned at the little metal man lounging on the steering wheel.

“You’re not gonna believe this,” I told him, and Bobbie roared to life with a deep growl.

Chapter 2

I was just coming to a stop at the edge of the cliff when I caught sight of Dragir heading up the path from the cove. Based on the set of his jaw and his scowl, I had a feeling he didn’t get the scrolls from Qiran yet, but it was honestly hard to tell with Dragir. Decades of warring with his rune had left its mark, so anger and contentment sort of blended right into the same expression most of the time.

When he turned, I could study the cast of his serpentine eyes more easily, and I decided he might actually be in rampage mode.

Either that or he was hungry.

“How’s it going?” I called out as I closed the driver’s door behind me.

Dragir shrugged, and I realized his hands were clenched into tight fists.

“You heading to the village?” I asked cautiously.

“That would be unwise,” the elf muttered in a low voice. “I am going for a walk so I do not kill my father today.”

I raised my brows and decided to open the trunk.

The plethora of weapons I’d harvested seemed to at least intrigue Dragir, and he furrowed his brow as he picked through the pile a bit.

“It’s kind of ironic you like weapons,” I pointed out. “Aren’t you technically more dangerous without them?”

I thought it’d ease the tension, but Dragir slowly turned a glare my direction, and I cleared my throat before I began unloading everything into the grass.

“What is that on your shirt?” the elf asked.

I glanced down. “Maggot juice? Although, it could be intestinal. I’m not really sure. That patch is just dirt, I think.”

Dragir smirked and lifted a tungsten axe from the trunk. “Weaponry is in my blood,” he said while he tested the edge of the blade with his thumb. “The rune came later, but I prefer to kill things more naturally. It’s as the gods intended.”

I nodded. “Well, I left you a pile about as big as this one near the path at House Quyn,” I told him. “There’s some armor you can melt and recast as well, and a few Halcyan blades that were left in the jungle.”

“Really?” the elf asked. “I have been hoping to gain enough material to give my guards metal armor. It is difficult to come by much in the south.”

“You should be set now,” I assured him as I finished unloading the last of the metal I’d stolen from House Aelin. “It’s a good idea considering the way those soldiers fought.”

I left the bike’s skeleton inside and resealed the trunk, and then I propped myself back on my elbows and considered Dragir more closely.

He was still studying the large axe, and his fist was in a white knuckled grip around the hilt.

“Qiran’s still being difficult?” I guessed.

Dragir snorted before he hurled the hefty axe into the trunk of a tree about twelve feet away. “He is being impossible,” the elf growled and pulled another axe from the pile. “He believes it is an atrocity to let a human keep the scrolls of the ancients, and he has convinced himself the gods meant for him to have them all along. He has apparently been chosen.”

Another axe split a tree with a low thunk, and I sighed as I rubbed some of the sweat from the back of my neck.

“The gods … ” I mumbled. “I’m pretty sure I was the one who handed them to him, but okay.”

“Yes, and perhaps you should not have done so,” Dragir grunted and hurled another axe.

I chuckled. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

The elf took a deep breath and paused beside the pile of weapons. “It was a good idea,” he replied. “Now, it is a problem. The scrolls are of little use to anyone if he hoards them like this, and the way he is raving … I wouldn’t be surprised if he destroyed them just to keep anyone from touching them.”

“Let me talk to him,” I offered. “I can be pretty persuasive. Or irritating. Both have served me very well in the past.”

Dragir cocked a brow, and I reached for an axe.

“If I cannot kill my father, you cannot either,” he warned.

I shrugged and threw the axe, and it spiraled handle over blade to bury itself in a stout log. “Then I won’t kill him,” I agreed with a grin. “I’ll just hold him prisoner until he cracks. I give it ten minutes.”

“There are no dungeons in the caves,” Dragir assured me, and he pulled two axes at once. “And do not fool yourself. My father is spineless and ridiculous, but he is also stubborn to a fault. He would let anything be destroyed if he thought it was meant to be. Just look at Deya.”

I raised my brows as both axes sailed through the air, and their hefty blades snapped the trunk of the tree on impact. There was a low creak, and Dragir and I watched in silence as the tree slowly tipped and crashed into the jungle.

The elf sighed and turned toward the pile again.

I stepped up. “You know what you need?”

Dragir furrowed his brow, and I shifted my gaze to the Mustang.

“It’s called a joy ride,” I informed him, “and it was invented for moments like this.”

“In that thing?”

“Don’t break it,” I ordered and unsealed the driver’s door. “If it starts rocking, you’re probably fine, but try not to flip it. You know how to use a channeling gem, right?”

Dragir nodded and carefully took a seat behind the steering wheel.

Then he jolted and shot back out. “What the hell is that?” he demanded.

“Stan,” I said with a grin. “He’s not included with the car, though. Isn’t that right, buddy?”

Stan was dangling upside down from the steering wheel, and he sent the elf a little wave before he did a backflip and landed on the black velvet.

I gave the little metal man a high five, and then he climbed up my arm and took a seat on my shoulder.

Dragir kept his eyes on Stan as he slowly approached the Mustang, and once he was settled with the door resealed, I gave the hood a good pat.

Bobbie let out a low growl, and the sound was sweeter than honey in my ears.

“There she is … ” I sighed. “Now, the Mustang can handle most terrain, but it’d be great if you could look out for boulders. Other than that, just relax and have fun. Trust me, you need it.”

Dragir’s face was a stone-cold mask, but the elf eventually nodded and placed his hands on the steering wheel.

“This is to change direction?” he asked.

I nodded. “It’s supposed to have pedals down there on the floor, too. One for stopping and one for driving, but I didn’t really figure that part out yet. Deya stole a book of runes for me, though. I might take a look and see if I can find anything that could help with that. Something for velocity, I guess … I don’t know. Does it work if I just carve it on anything? Like a piece of metal?”

Dragir sighed again. “You should not have a book filled with runes you know nothing about using properly,” he muttered.

“You’re right,” I agreed. “I’ll let you show me how it’s done. Good thinking.”

Before he could respond, I headed for my stockpile and let Bobbie know it was time to go.

The Mustang revved, and I chuckled as Dragir’s hands shot to the steering wheel just in time to avoid the cliff.

Once Bobbie and the elf disappeared into the jungle, I summoned my magic to lift the hoard of weapons and began my trek down the path to the cove.

The tidal pools that dotted the slate of rock stretching from the mouth of Nemris’ cave were full from the last tide, and I stepped carefully to avoid trampling any of the little creatures that swam in small circles inside of them. My favorite were the green guys who looked almost exactly like chia pets, but with tiny pink fangs. They had slender tails like a mouse, and on the end was a bright pink stinger Deya said could paralyze an entire sea dragon if provoked.

They were kind of cute, honestly. I stood and watched one of them lazily roll onto his back on the surface of his pool, and when he yawned, the sun glistened on the hundreds of little pink fangs.

“Sleepy guy,” I chuckled, and I had to remind myself not to try and pet one.

The black eels were easy to avoid, but surprisingly safe to be around. They had highlighter yellow eyes and were only as big as my forefinger, so they looked more like sea worms. Apparently, they were harmless, but as I watched one eat his way through one of the green guys, I decided this was to be determined later.

Most of the other inhabitants of the tidal pools were species of miniature fish I’d never seen before in my life, but there were a few bright red urchins here and there, and even a couple jellyfish as big as a thumbnail.

“Do not pet them,” Deya warned once again, and I looked up to see the beautiful elf pulling herself up onto the edge of the rocks.

Her white silk blouse was completely see-through when it was soaked, and as my eyes darted to the buds of her pale pink nipples, the weapons suspended beside me suddenly dropped.

I caught them before they could crush the cute little green guys, and Deya let out a silvery giggle while she wrung the sea water from her hair.

“Do not kill them, either,” she chided.

I had a lopsided grin on my face as I sent the pile of weapons to the mouth of the cave, and then I made my way over to help the beautiful elf dry off a bit.

“Missed a spot,” I murmured and trailed my tongue along her slender neck to catch a drop of water.

Deya giggled again, but then she suddenly pulled back.

“What is on your shirt?” she asked, and she wrinkled her nose as Shoshanne giggled close by.

I glanced toward the water to find my three beautiful women lazily swimming circles around the cove, and the treacherous waves of the early morning seemed to have died down. They came over and perched their elbows on the rock, and I was pleased to see Aurora’s silk tunic was just as revealing when wet.

The half-elf winked. “Looks like you had fun.”

“It was a little messy up there.”

Deya settled her hands on her hips. “Take it off,” she ordered.

“Yes, you definitely should,” Shoshanne purred.

I raised my brows and did as I was told, and Stan made a beeline for Cayla as my shirt dropped to the rocks.

“Where’s Qiran?” I asked.

“Well, Dragir stormed off not long ago,” Deya said as she sauntered closer, “so I would imagine my father will try to make his escape any moment.”

The beautiful elf teased me with a light bite on my bottom lip, and I locked my arms around her waist to pull her flush against me.

“That’s inconvenient,” I sighed before I slid my tongue between her plush lips.

Deya melted against me and wove her fingers around my neck as she kissed me more hungrily, and beside us, my other three lovers giggled and suggested I take off more of my clothes.

“You first,” I replied.

Cayla was more than willing to meet the challenge, but Aurora suddenly looked toward the cave, and the fun was brought to a screeching halt.

“He’s heading through the halls,” the half-elf warned.

Deya quickly stepped a few paces back, and I groaned as I eyed her perked nipples. It was torture knowing the beautiful elf was ready and wanting me, but I had to keep my eyes and hands to myself at every turn.

I scruffed my hair to get my blood flowing northward once more and decided to head to the cave before my willpower gave out completely.

“I’m gonna have a word with Qiran,” I told the women and sent them an apologetic smile.

Aurora wished me luck, but Deya sent me a mischievous smile and slid the silk on her breasts aside for me.

My pulse kicked up a notch, and I quickly checked over my shoulder to be sure Qiran hadn’t arrived yet.

When I turned back around, Deya had my revolver in hand.

The women burst out laughing, and I ground my jaw.

“Fucking troublemaker,” I muttered as I returned to snatch the gun from the elf’s hand.

Deya giggled. “Guess you found it.”

“Yep,” I replied. “Buried between the intestinal tract and the liver, but I got her back.”

Deya crinkled her nose in disgust, and I sent her a wink.

Then I brushed my thumb across her exposed nipple. “Serves you right, you little thief.”

Deya sent me an innocent smile and shifted the silk back in place before she dove into the sea to join the women for their swim.

I sighed and decided she was almost definitely going to get me killed within the week.

Qiran was just emerging from the hidden fortress when I rounded the stone pillar at the entrance, and I caught him by his elbow as his eyes locked on me.

“Don’t tell me you’re leaving already,” I said in a low voice. “I just got back.”

Qiran glowered as I turned him around and escorted him back into the dim cave.

On first entering the place, only the ornate pillars outside might give a clue to what lay inside. The mouth was much like any other, with boulders littered here and there, and an uneven, rocky ceiling. The floor of the cave was worn sleek in one area after thousands of years of foot treads, and following the subtle trail led to a small break in the furthest, darkest corner.

I pushed Qiran ahead of me to enter the passageway, and he let out an irritated sigh as he continued onward.

It was impossible to see anything for quite a ways, but eventually the glow of daylight shone ahead, and we came out into the real entrance of the hidden fortress. I suspected rune magic had been involved in the making of it, because the cliff had been hollowed out so the ceiling vaulted nearly sixty feet above our heads. The rocks were worn smooth all the way around, and the southern face of the cavern was dotted with small windows that illuminated the whole place. Over a dozen humble arches lined the wall, and although I’d only traveled down a couple of them so far, I assumed they each led to various chambers for the inhabitants of the place.

I caught Qiran’s arm once more and turned him toward another hall, and when we came to the first chamber, I pushed him inside and took a look around.

It appeared to have been a small workshop at one point, but the shelves that were carved in the stonework were empty now, and only an old iron table stood against the wall.

“This’ll do,” I said with a nod.

“Do for what?” Qiran grumbled.

I turned and grinned at the leader as his feet sank into the stone to be locked around the ankles.

“For a dungeon,” I replied. “Dragir said they didn’t have one here, so … this’ll have to do.”

Qiran’s eyes flared with anger as he attempted to yank his feet free of the stone shackles, and he nearly fell off balance in the effort.

“How dare you,” he growled. “I am the leader of House Quyn, and this fortress belongs to me. How dare you imprison me in my own--”

“How dare you steal my shit,” I replied calmly, and I leaned against the iron table to cross my arms.

“These scrolls do not belong to you,” Qiran informed me, and his deep purple eyes narrowed into slits.

“They don’t belong to you either,” I pointed out. “I entrusted them to you to guard them for the good of Nalnora, and you did great. Really. Now, you’re relieved of duty, and you’re gonna hand them over.”

“Over my dead body,” he shot back.

I sighed. “Unfortunately, I promised Dragir I wouldn’t kill you,” I replied, but I slid my hand to my holster anyway. “Still, I’m not above starving you out, so you can take as much time as you need to think over your options. Make yourself comfortable.”

As I said this, the head of House Quyn sank a bit further, and the stone locked just above his knees. This time, he started cursing me out in Elvish, and I smiled and nodded along as I lowered him another few inches.

“You done?” I asked as the elf’s eyes widened.

“Traitor.”

I shook my head. “Who’s stealing from whom here?”

“These are ancient ancestral scrolls,” he growled as he pulled a few parchments from within his travelling cloak. “They document the discoveries of our elders’ elders! The gods have brought them to me for a reason, mark my words. The information on this paper--”

“You can’t even read them,” I interrupted. “The elven language has changed drastically since the time of the ancients. You have no idea what’s on those papers.”

Qiran was flustered in his anger now. “That is beside the point!”

I began to contemplate burying the elf up to his nose just to give him some time to think in silence, but then Dragir strolled in.

He stopped the moment he noticed his father was partially buried and cocked a brow at me.

“Dragir, my son,” Qiran preened. “This traitor has imprisoned me, you must hold him accountable.”

A vague smirk came to Dragir’s face.

“Hold him accountable?” he asked and leaned against the wall at his back.

I couldn’t help grinning as the elf counted everything off on his fingers.

“Well …” he mused, “first he saved your life, and then Deya’s. After that, he fought beside your army to save House Quyn from utter ruin, and at some point during that, he saved my life as well.” Dragir looked at me. “Thank you, by the way.”

I smirked. “Likewise.”

Qiran raised his brows. “He saved your life?” he asked, and his voice shook as he eyed Dragir for any sign of harm.

Dragir nodded. “Yes, so I believe Mason Flynt’s own prophecy has been fulfilled, and we are now all wholly in his debt,” he concluded. “And yet, here you are.”

Qiran glowered from his place in the floor while his son sent him a pointed look. “If our ancestors knew you spoke this way on behalf of a human … ”

“That’s … House Aelin, right?” I cut in. “You’re descended from Aeris’ family, if my memory serves me correctly.”

I tried not to smile when Qiran’s cheeks flared.

“House Orrel,” he corrected thickly. “I am descended from House Orrel, there is a world of difference.”

I furrowed my brow. “You sure? I could’ve sworn it was House Aelin. Maybe you just remind me of Aeris.” I eyed him up and down. “No offense.”

Dragir worked to hide his grin, and I was happy to see the head of House Quyn had taken full offense.

“Aeris is a devious and deceitful viper with nothing but his own interests in mind,” Qiran spat. “He is not to be trusted.”

I nodded my agreement. “Sounds about right.”

Qiran cursed as he was lowered to his waist.

“See, this is why I didn’t give the scrolls to Aeris,” I explained. “He’s a devious and deceitful viper with his own interests in mind. You, on the other hand, seemed more honest … more worthy. Was I wrong? Maybe. But I forgot you were descended from House Aelin, so that’s my own fault.”

“House Orrel,” Qiran growled, and Dragir actually snorted, but it turned into a cough somewhere, and his father didn’t seem to notice.

“You’re sure?” I clarified again. “You know what? It’s the jaw line … you both have the same stubborn set. Plus the chin, that’s what’s throwing me off. I’ll get it right, though. Deceitful and selfish is House Aelin, and you’re not from House Aelin, you’re from … wait a minute. Aeris is deceitful and selfish, and you’re…”

I worked it out to myself while Qiran fumed in Elvish for a good minute.

Finally, I shrugged it off. “Honestly, you’re all kinda blending together these days. I mean, who isn’t a backstabbing prick in this place? I should have seen this coming.”

Dragir nodded his agreement, and Qiran snapped his jaw so tight I could hear it from where I stood.

“How’s that fit for you, by the way?” I asked. “Snug enough?”

I cinched the stonework a little tighter around the old elf, and he ground his teeth in silence for a long moment without responding.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I’m probably gonna put the bed over here,” I told Qiran as I gestured to the wall beside me. “I wasn’t expecting company, but there’s only four of us, so you can probably fit right where you are pretty comfortably. We’ll try not to keep you up.”

Qiran abruptly tossed the parchments to the floor in front of him, and I grinned.

“You are not worthy of these scrolls,” Qiran spat.

“Neither are you,” I assured him as I stooped to pick them up. “I think you’ve made that clear.”

I counted the slips of parchment and cocked a brow when I found only six in hand.

“All of them … ” Dragir sighed.

Qiran pulled another few from his robe and kept his eyes averted.

“You’re three short,” I informed him.

“They’re in my boots.”

Once I’d freed the head of House Quyn and raided his boot stash, Qiran stormed out of the chamber and ordered for his son to follow.

Dragir took a steadying breath and considered the ceiling.

“How’d you like that drive?” I asked.

A sinister smile spread across the elf’s face. “I like the Mustang,” he assured me. “I felt much better before I came in here. I think I killed a borian.”

I furrowed my brow in confusion. “That’s pretty cool, I guess.”

“Yes,” he agreed, “quite satisfying. Thank you.”

“Any time,” I chuckled.

Dragir followed the hollering of his father, and I returned to the iron table against the wall to look over the ancient scrolls. They were only a little crinkled after being hoarded by the angry elf, but there didn’t seem to be too much damage, and none of the strange and curling script was affected. Out of habit, I flipped a few of the more annotated pages over and scanned for any symbol I might recognize, but it was a useless endeavor.

I sighed and scruffed my beard as it occurred to me I might never find an elf I could trust to decipher them. If anyone living actually could translate the ancient language, they were likely so old and age addled they’d be even worse than the heads of Houses I’d met with so far.

The thought was a disappointing one, but it did make me realize I might have better luck if I sought the help of the elves who lived outside the hierarchy of the Houses. Deya had told us there were some who managed to live separately, and if I could locate even one elf with the knowledge needed, perhaps they’d be less inclined to steal the parchments right out from under me. For all I knew, the elven scrolls were only valued by the members of the ten Houses.

I didn’t hear Deya enter the chamber, but the irritated sigh tipped me off, and I turned to find her pink brows pinched in anger.

“My father is insisting I return with them to House Quyn,” she huffed as she came over. “He refuses to let me stay here, even after Cayla assured him I would be in her chamber. He is behaving ridiculously and doesn’t seem to realize I am well past the age where his opinions … ”

I ignored Deya’s rant as I gently brushed my lips along her neck, and she trailed off into a sigh as she leaned into my touch.

“Your father knows damn well Cayla sleeps with me,” I murmured and carefully unhooked the chain around Deya’s neck to place the necklace aside. “What does your father think you’re doing right now?”

“Getting my things together,” she muttered as I lifted her onto the iron table.

“That’s not nearly enough time for what I had in mind,” I chuckled.

“Can’t you come back to House Quyn with us?” Deya begged.

“It’s probably best I keep some distance between me and Qiran right now,” I told her. “Besides, this place is perfect for my next project, and I’m starting the building tomorrow morning.”

“I hate this,” she sighed. “I want to sleep here with you. I don’t want to go home and only think about it all night. It makes me … restless.”

I raised my brows and slid my hand down her taut belly. “You’ve been thinking about it?”

Deya bit her lip and blushed. “Constantly,” she moaned.

“Good.”

I pulled Deya closer so her legs spread around me, and as I leaned in to graze my teeth along the tender skin of her neck, my hand slid lower and shifted the silk between her thighs. Even though I’d just lightly touched her, she was dripping wet, and I slid my fingers along her pussy lips before I slipped them into her.

Deya dug her nails into my back to hold me closer, and I let her bite at my tongue while I caressed her and traced circles across her clit. The beautiful elf began to writhe against my grip, and I held her firmly in her place as I pushed deeper.

I could hear Deya’s father hollering for her from the cove, but she was fully distracted and clawed at my arms for more as she began to tremble. So, I slid a second finger into her tight tunnel, and a desperate moan slipped from her lips as she clenched around me.

I quickly brought my other hand up to cover her mouth, and just as Deya reached her climax, she sank her teeth into the side of my hand to keep from shrieking.

Her flesh was like fire and slick from her arousal while she writhed with pleasure in my grip, and I tightened my hold on her as pain shot through my hand and down my arm.

When Deya finally began to go limp, she loosened her bite, and as I slowly slid my fingers from her taut center, her violet eyes fluttered open. They were hooded with lust, and she kissed me deeply as Qiran’s voice began to draw closer.

“I want you,” Deya whispered against my lips, but before I could respond, the beautiful elf pulled the necklace from the iron table and vanished.

I let out a long breath as my blood pounded for another taste of her, but by the time Qiran stormed into the chamber, I was propped with my back against the table and studying the elven scrolls once more.

I couldn’t help sending the old elf a broad grin when he entered.

“I knew you liked me,” I told the leader. “Why don’t you stay a while? I feel like we’ve barely gotten to know each other.”

Qiran looked ready to unleash a stream of fury, but Deya’s sweet voice called from the domed cavern, and he locked his jaw as he abruptly turned his back on me.

“Next time,” I hollered after him.

I could still feel Deya’s heat on my fingers, and it was lucky the chamber was so dim, or her father might have noticed the fresh marks all over my arms. My stitches burned from a couple swipes that came too close, but messing with Qiran made me a little more amused by the circumstances.

Deya may have been owned by the ten Houses of Nalnora, but something told me the beautiful elf would be sleeping in our bed much sooner than anyone expected.

Maybe the caves were getting to me.

The moment I’d first set foot within the bounds of the pillars, a sense of calm and assuredness coursed through me, and Nemris seemed to be drifting in the air of every cavern no matter where I went. I could sense her presence in this very chamber, and in the dim hallways that led me here, and I knew I would win out over Qiran without question.

I would win out over all of them, and Deya would be knotted up in the sheets with me and my women where she belonged.

My blood settled a little as I focused on this, and by the time my three women found me, I was fully intent on keeping everything well concealed as long as necessary.

“You have to see this,” Aurora insisted as she tried to pull me from the chamber. “We found a random hall while we were looking for you.”

Before I let her lead me away, I carefully parted a bit of the stone in the wall and stowed the elven scrolls inside. Then I resealed it completely and let the women lead me back to the vaulted entrance.

They steered me toward one of the many small archways that lined the walls, and Shoshanne giggled with excitement as she ducked inside.

Aurora sent an orb of flames ahead of us when the hall only became darker, and we seemed to be travelling downward by the feel of the stone under my feet.

“How did you go down this far and not realize I wasn’t in this direction?” I chuckled.

Cayla shrugged. “Oh we knew, but this obviously leads to something secretive and amazing, so we kept going.”

I grinned and couldn’t deny the logic.

The air began to feel damp after a little while, and it smelled more strongly of the sea. There seemed to be something about the winding hall that felt more ancient to me as well, and when my magic sparked to sift through the rocks, I could tell they hadn’t been reformed for ages. The hall had been this way for longer than I could sense, and I was just beginning to wonder if Nemris had ever roamed the same path, when Aurora’s flame illuminated a chamber not far off.

Shoshanne trotted ahead and flipped around with an eager smile while she waited for us, and when we joined her in the chamber, Aurora’s flame grew stronger to help me see.

My eyes popped wide open as I turned in a full circle, and everywhere I looked, gilded paintings sprawled along the stonework. The paint shimmered like it was made of real gold, but the soft coloring still held out despite the obvious fading over the years. It looked like a series of murals depicting all manor of things, and I came closer to study the gilded strokes that resembled the ornate pillars at the entrance of the fortress.

“Damn,” I mused and moved on to a strange scene I couldn’t make out the meaning of. There were serpents knotted around the belly of a beast with three horns, and beside this, two elves looked like they were fucking against a tree.

I smirked and shook my head, but Shoshanne caught my arm and sent me a glittering smile.

“This is the best part,” she assured me, and she brought me around to the other side of the chamber before she pointed to a figure on the wall.

Even without the galactic eyes, I knew it was Nemris the moment I saw her. Her hair was soft pink just like Deya’s, but her face was slightly less mischievous. She stood completely naked and painted with gold, and above her, the sky was a wash of ambers and oranges that melted into her hair. Her feet were drowned in the water, and the rest of her mural was made up of the sea dragons we’d seen from the cliff.

They were nearly identical in almost every way except they were much smaller than the beasts who’d rolled through the waves to see Deya. It seemed impossible they could have been alive long enough to have swam with the goddess Nemris, but the notion was derailed as I noticed something else.

The painting of Nemris had what looked like a dragon’s scale in her hand, and although time had worn away a few of the lines, I was certain I could make out the light etching of a rune in the center.

“No shit … ” I muttered.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Shoshanne sighed. “It looks exactly like Deya, but Cayla thinks it’s the goddess Nemris.”

I glanced over to see the healer roll her eyes.

“Obviously, it’s one of Deya’s ancestors,” she continued. “Look at the hair, and the hips … ”

Cayla smirked. “Obviously,” she allowed.

I bit my lip and realized I really had to fill Shoshanne in soon, but a quick movement from Aurora caught all of our attention next.

The half-elf’s head was turned toward the hall we’d come from, and her brows furrowed.

“What is that?” she asked.

I could tell she was listening by the expression on her face, and I came to her side as I strained to hear.

Only silence drifted from the blackened hall, but just as Aurora’s eyes widened, I thought I heard a distant rumble.

“Breathe!” Aurora ordered.

Then the ocean burst from the darkness and threw me to the ground.

Chapter 3

I slammed into the stonework as the water pounded against me and rolled me over and over. My back scraped against the walls, and my limbs slammed against the bodies of the women being thrown around as well. I tried to reach out and catch any of them in the watery chaos, but Aurora’s warning had come seconds too late, and I never did take a breath before the chamber filled with water.

Within a matter of seconds, I was completely out of air, and when I opened my eyes, all I could see was blackness.

Everything around me continued to swirl, and I fought the urge to fill my lungs as panic set in. The frigid water burned my eyes as I continued to fight against the current, and just as my lungs insisted I pull the water in, a strange sensation bloomed in my chest, and I realized it was fresh air slowly seeping in.

The knowledge that Shoshanne was near eased my terror a measure, and I began to slow my thrashing in the water. I let the current carry me instead, and before long, I felt the soft brush of long hair across my chest. I reached out and pulled Aurora into my arms, and the half-elf immediately latched onto my bicep. I could feel her shaking while we drifted in the darkness, and I stroked her arm to calm her a bit before I reached out once more to find the others.

Cayla jolted when she tumbled into the two of us, and she kicked me hard with the heel of her boot like she wasn’t sure what she’d collided with. The air was knocked right out of my lungs from the force, but Shoshanne refilled them within a few seconds to save me. I grabbed Cayla’s flailing arm in a vice before she could drift away again, and the woman tried to rip herself free like her life depended on it.

Then Aurora pulled on me, and she must have reached out as well, because Cayla suddenly eased her struggling and let the two of us bring her closer.

Her hands felt along my chest to be sure it was me, and then she abruptly grabbed hold of my arm and stayed there.

The temperature of the water had plummeted while we’d drifted around the chamber, and the icy sensation caused the two women to shake even worse.

Then a hand suddenly yanked on one of my legs, and I worked to swim downward despite the numbing of my limbs. Shoshanne caught hold of us and pulled us along the wall, and relief washed through me as I felt the stone suddenly disappear.

I pushed the two women through the opening as quickly as I could, and Shoshanne tried to force me in after them, but I hooked her arm and made sure she was ahead of me.

Just as the air in my lungs began to feel stale, it was slowly replenished with a fresh dose from the Aer Mage, and I focused on the fact that I couldn’t drown with her near rather than how fucking cold it was getting. My muscles stiffened as my back scraped along the ceiling of the hallway, and we swam for so long I started to think we’d somehow taken the wrong path.

The current pushed hard against our efforts, and several minutes passed before the silhouettes of the women glowed ahead of me. The water was gradually illuminated by the light of day, and I kicked harder against the frigid chill until we finally came out of the hallway and into the vaulted chamber of the fortress.

All of us gasped as we broke through the surface, and I quickly spun around to be sure all of my women had made it. They were pale and shaking uncontrollably in the icy water, but they were all accounted for, and they treaded water as we looked wildly around the place.

“What the fuck was that?” I breathed.

“T-tide,” Shoshanne managed through her shivering.

The ocean water must have been eight feet deep throughout the whole chamber, and the halls were completely covered by the swell that rolled and splashed violently around the room.

“I’m … I’m … freezing,” Aurora gasped, and my pulse kicked up a notch as I noticed how blue her lips looked.

Shoshanne quickly swam over as a light breeze drifted past me, and I realized she was working to help the half-elf catch her breath. I joined her and kept Aurora above the current that continued to throw us around, and the chill of her skin caught me off guard. The Ignis Mage was somehow even colder than I was, so I pulled her frigid body against me as I looked for any sign of the exit.

Cayla was swimming along the furthest wall as she scanned as well, and she suddenly stopped and looked around at the stonework.

“This is the one,” she told us, “there were three windows past it, right?”

I quickly nodded my agreement, and Shoshanne and I helped Aurora make it to the exit.

“Keep swimming,” I growled when the half-elf took a deep breath, and I pushed her as far as I could as she dove into the opening.

Shoshanne quickly followed with Cayla close behind, and I took a last glance around the flooded chamber before I dove down as well. My lungs refilled themselves after about a minute, and when we finally came up in the mouth of the cave, the water level was only to our calves.

Aurora let out a stream of furious curses as she stumbled and splashed toward the cove, and she threw out her arms to cast a ring of flames in the air around her.

They seared in a blinding white, and I could feel the heat radiating all throughout the frigid cave. Aurora parted the flames to let us join her beside the pillars, and I wrapped her in my arms from behind while I waited for her limbs stopped trembling.

“I f-f-fucking hate being cold,” she stammered through her chattering teeth.

“It’s rare, I’m sure,” I chuckled. “Are you guys alright?”

Cayla was practically blue all over, but she gave a curt nod. “I’m so sorry for kicking you,” she sighed. “I panicked.”

“It’s fine,” I assured her. “I’d hate to come up against you in the dark, though.”

Cayla smiled as she raised her hands to Aurora’s flames, and beside her, Shoshanne was completely calm while she looked out at the cove.

The healer’s brow was furrowed as she eyed the heavy clouds through the pelting rain, and the waves crashed relentlessly against the rocks and the cliff to throw salty water up as well.

The jetty was completely swallowed up with the rise of the tide, and the abrupt change in weather made the whole cove look like it had moved twenty leagues to the north.

“I wish I was an Aer Mage,” Aurora chuckled.

“Hands down, best element,” I agreed. “That was so fucking cool. Was it hard to keep us all breathing?”

Shoshanne smiled back at us. “Not at all,” she shrugged, “I know you all so well that it’s pretty easy to sense what you need. I just sent little bursts of my magic to each of you in turn.”

I grinned. “Don’t make me say it … ”

“I’m an angel,” the healer said with a little smirk. “I know.”

“Agreed,” Cayla purred and left a kiss on Shoshanne’s cheek.

A giant swell suddenly rose up past our knees again, and the chill of the water caused my limbs to throb in pain.

We braced ourselves against the spray that shot up from the waves, and Shosanne shook her head.

“The ocean’s strange here,” the healer pointed out. “It doesn’t change so quickly near my island.”

“Really?” I asked as I loosened my hold on Aurora.

“Figures,” the half-elf mumbled. “Everything in Nalnora tries to kill us. Why should the ocean make an exception?”

I chuckled and laid a kiss in her blue hair. “Come on, let’s get up to the cliff,” I suggested. “And remember how much you loved the place only an hour ago?”

Aurora couldn’t help but nod as we splashed out into the cove and headed for the path along the cliff face, but I doubled back when I caught sight of my weapons half drowned in salty water.

“Shit,” I cursed, and I quickly pulled a broad table up from the slate of rock beneath the waves. Then I lifted all of the weapons and metal onto the surface before I joined the women at the base of the path.

“What are you waiting for?” I hollered as another wave crashed against us, but when Shoshanne swayed to the side, I saw the cascade of mud sliding down the edge of the cliff, and I furrowed my brow as I considered the drop we were about risk.

“Go slowly,” I ordered, “I’ll try and fix it as we go.”

The women carefully began the long climb up the path, and I summoned my Terra Magic to force the mud to stop pouring past our feet. It was surprisingly difficult to fight against the force of the water, but I managed to keep the path solid enough for us to make our way upward.

The raindrops fell so hard they stung as they pelted my skin, and as I squinted through the water and salt dripping down my face, I could see the shoulders of the women beginning to turn bright red from the battering of the water. We finally made it to the edge of the cliff, though, and I let out the breath I’d been holding when the last of my women climbed up to the safety of the grass.

Cayla and Shoshanne caught my arms to pull me up behind them, and Aurora immediately lit a fire for us all.

I almost laughed at the expression on her face as the rain doused it within two seconds.

“Damn rain,” the Ignis Mage hissed to the waft of smoke, and a ring of flames seared itself in the grass so brightly that sparks flew out of her fingertips.

Aurora’s fire held out this time, and she gave a smug little smirk as she dropped down in the wet grass beside it.

I chuckled and was about to pull a wall up for us when I realized I couldn’t get the mud to cooperate, so I shifted my palms toward the jungle behind us and summoned every boulder I could find.

Then I formed a solid wall that arched over us and the fire to provide some shelter from the rain, and when I finally dropped down, the women quickly curled around me for more heat.

The chill of the water seemed to have seeped right through to my bones, but after we sat together beside the fire for a while, the rain slowly let up, and my limbs began to thaw.

Cayla sighed and nestled her cheek against my shoulder, and we watched the clouds dissipate to reveal the setting sun.

Within ten minutes, everything had miraculously settled again, and the waves rolled heavily beneath a blistering red sky while the air warmed once more.

“We should probably sleep up here tonight,” Aurora yawned, and I eyed the flooded cove below.

“You couldn’t pay me to sleep in those caves,” Cayla assured her. “I’m not drowning in my sleep.”

I nodded my agreement and turned my gaze toward the amber glow of the sun. It was already sinking halfway beneath the horizon, and a glint of iridescence caught my eye.

“There they are,” I muttered, and the three women sat up to get a glimpse as well.

The pod of sea dragons dipped and rose amongst the waves with ease, and I grinned when the frontmost dragon dove down deep as they neared the cove.

When it rose again, the dragon let out a long and haunting call, and as the others dove and rose to answer, Aurora let out a sigh.

“I petted one of them today,” she said as she laid out on her belly and propped her head in her hands.

“Seriously?” I asked as I opened my eyes wide. “They’re huge.”

The half-elf nodded. “They’re even bigger up close, but they’re sweet.”

Cayla chuckled. “Don’t glaze over the important part … ”

Aurora glanced back and rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she sighed. “Also, they’re incredibly violent when they’re in predator mode, but they were very sweet with us, so … ”

The half-elf shrugged, and I raised my brows as I looked at the princess.

Cayla smirked. “Deya says nothing in these waters hunts them,” she added. “They’re the most vicious creature in this part of the ocean. The elves in the north have legends about whole fleets being swallowed up by a single pod.”

I narrowed my eyes on Aurora’s back.

“I can’t imagine how they behave like that for Deya,” Shoshanne added. “Their fangs are bigger than my whole arm.”

“You fucking petted one?” I demanded of the half-elf, and she smiled innocently as she crawled over to curl up with the rest of us.

“I was careful,” she yawned.

I shook my head and looked back toward the pod in the cove while the three women settled against my chest for the night. The dragons had finished singing and were rolling around in the waves, and as the sky faded to a soft purple, they slowly turned to head back out to the sea.

We watched them until their fins disappeared beneath the surface, and just before I drifted off, I pulled the wall around us and softened the stone at my back.

Despite the stiffness of my limbs, I woke feeling more rested than I had in days, and the memory of Nemris drifted somewhere in the back of my mind. I couldn’t remember whether I’d dreamed of her last night, but above me, the light of day glowed in a soft peach that reminded me of her mural.

My women were warm and deep in sleep around me, and part of me wanted to lounge there between them all day.

Still, my veins sparked eagerly to get to work, and the metal in the cove seemed to be calling my name.

I wanted to have a full bazooka formed and ready for testing by the next day, and without knowing how the hell I was going to manage it, I knew I should get a head start on the day.

Cayla sighed as I carefully unwound her arm from me, and her eyes parted as she smiled sleepily. “Where are you sneaking off to?”

“I’ll be in the cove,” I told her, but her eyes had already fallen shut again, and she gave me a lazy nod before she curled around Shoshanne.

I left a small opening in the side of the hut once I’d slipped out into the early morning, and I eyed the horizon as I stretched my aching muscles back to life. The sky was crystal clear in every direction, and the breeze off the water was already beginning to warm. My shirt was apparently washed away with the storm, but the fresh air across my stitches was infinitely better than the fabric had been anyway.

The pelting rain untied a few of the ties Shoshanne had made, but it looked like the dagger wound was healing up alright, so I secured my belt and checked my holster before I headed for the path.

The mud had mostly solidified overnight, and the sun peeked out above the water as I made my way down to the cove. Everything glittered in the morning light as if the pelting waves had never been there, and I took a moment to watch the little green guys splash happily in their tidal pools.

They seemed more energetic at this time of day, and a couple even snapped hungrily at my reflection.

I grinned and shook my head as the rising sun warmed my skin, and then I turned to the table with my stock still piled on top of it.

“Looking good,” I mused as I eyed the wealth of metal, and I took a long stretch before I clapped my hands together and decided where to begin.

The designs of the various rocket launchers on Earth had changed many times over the years to make them more effective at longer ranges, but for our purposes, I didn’t need anything nearly so elaborate.

The first bazooka had a range of about three-hundred and sixty feet give or take, and that was more than enough for the jungle warfare Dragir and I were about to enter into.

We knew the Master’s army would travel on foot, and as long as we were prepared to attack just outside of their next target, this firing range would serve us well in decimating waves of soldiers all at once.

So, I decided to keep things as simple as possible in the design, especially since I had no paper for working out sketches this time. Considering the issues I’d already anticipated with the project though, this was the least of my concerns.

I’d grown more uneasy about building the bazooka for several reasons, and without talking it over more with Dragir, I couldn’t even be sure I should carry on with the project.

When I first came up with the idea, I’d hoped Dragir and I could collaborate on the effort since he’d agreed it was a decent plan, and I was still holding out for this. He was guarded about using rune magic at every turn, but Dragir wasn’t an idiot, and he knew what we were up against, too.

Unfortunately, if I couldn’t get him to change his tune, the idea would likely end up being a wash. In the middle of the jungle, I had no way of creating the explosive elements for the rocket, but then there was also the issue of electricity which would be needed for the trigger assembly.

I honestly had no idea to what extent rune magic could be applied, but if Dragir could help me fill in any of the gaps with his own abilities, then the bazookas could possibly come to fruition. They’d just be rigged with a combination of mechanics and magical elements.

Hopefully.

I decided I’d try and get the body assembled for now, and when the time came for it, I’d have to convince Dragir to hear me out.

The original M1 bazooka from World War II would be the easiest to assemble, and it was the launcher I knew the most about given my adopted father’s obsession with World War II memorabilia. I’d even held one at a convention once, and I based a lot of my design on my memory of this.

I knew the original model had used wood for the shoulder stock and hand grips, but mine would be an all steel design, of course. I was also much younger when I saw one, so I needed to account for this when I searched my mind for the dimensions, and I sat down between the tidal pools to think back for a minute.

The pipe in my mind seemed about seventy inches long, but I scaled this down a bit to account for how small I’d been in comparison.

In the end, I decided on a fifty-five-inch pipe for the chamber of the bazooka, and I returned to the table to dig out a chunk of steel while I had the entire image fresh in my head.

First, I carefully formed a tube and elongated it to fifty-five inches. I made the diameter just shy of two and a half inches since I knew this was roughly the size of the M6 rockets they’d used in this model, and I left the steel thick enough to withstand the heat of the blast.

I balanced the finished tube on my shoulder to get more measurements down, but pain immediately jolted through my arm, and the pipe clanged to the ground.

“Godsdamnit.” I took a steadying breath as my stitches flared from the weight of the pipe I’d just dropped on them.

Luckily, the framing design was a simple one, so forming the bazooka from a left-handed mount while rigging it for right-handed use wasn’t too much of an issue.

I propped the pipe on my left shoulder instead as I eyed the placement of the hand grips and the shoulder stock next. I knew the back blast would cause flames to shoot out the breach end, so first I balanced the pipe to allow enough distance to keep from scalding any of us during use.

From there, I dug a notch into the base of the tube to mark where I needed the shoulder stock to end flush against my collarbone, and another two notches marked the rear hand grip and the front hand grip as well.

With my marks made, I formed a prototype of the shoulder stock next. Unfortunately, this chamber housed two batteries in the 1940’s which powered the electrically actuated trigger, and this was when my nerves wavered.

When I’d formed the revolver, the clockmaker in Serin had saved my ass by designing the required gear mechanisms, and once I’d understood how they all functioned, I was able to take it from there in my replications.

Batteries, however, were nowhere in my bank of once useless knowledge from my life on Earth, and the closest thing I’d found to electricity in this realm was the moths in the Nalnoran jungle.

The Ignis Magic of the mages had been essential in powering the train’s engine, but I wasn’t about to install an engine on each of the bazookas.

I chuckled at the thought of using moths and rolled my eyes. They’d probably die inside the shoulder stock anyways.

“What am I doing?” I muttered to myself as I split off a chunk of steel to form the stock. I’d have to sit down and really think through the wiring of the trigger and the battery systems, but for now, I’d focus on getting the frame assembled so the technicalities could be addressed all in one go. Maybe I could rig all of the wiring properly and scour the book of runes for something to provide the spark I would need, kind of like I did with Big Guy.

I formed the right triangular shape of the shoulder stock itself and left the inside hollow until I knew what I could do about batteries. With the mockup melded to the base of the tube, I moved on to the rear hand grip that would hold the trigger mechanism.

First, I formed the hand grip in two pieces about two inches wide and four inches long. I would bolt them together once the electrical elements were rigged inside.

The trigger of an M1 had virtually no slack, so the pin that held the lever in place was stout and tightly bolted, and when it was pulled, the lever would press down on the trigger switch contact assembly inside of the hand grip.

This assembly consisted of a lower contact wire which would press into the upper contact wire when the trigger shifted it. The upper wire ran to the batteries in the shoulder stock, and the current of electricity would then travel through another wire into the chamber of the pipe to send the necessary spark to the brass mount on the rocket.

I formed the lever and mounted it tightly with a pin, but I only melded this and half of the hand grip to the base of the pipe. This way, I could rig the contact assembly later and close the grip when I’d finished.

The front hand grip of the M1 had eventually been nixed after the bazooka underwent a few upgrades over time, but I kept it since I knew the women would be operating them, and they might be needed for balancing the length of the steel pipe and steadying their aim. Creating this was as easy as replicating the rear hand grip in a solid piece with no trigger, anyways.

I was just mounting the front hand grip where I’d marked the notch for it, when I heard Deya call to me from the path along the cliff face.

“I thought you were all going to stay in the fortress,” Deya said with a confused crinkle on her brow.

I turned, and my eyes immediately fell to the sway of her hips beneath the thin skirt tied around her waist. Deya’s soft pink hair glowed in the morning sun, and her violet eyes shimmered lightly with the glittering waves.

“We were going to,” I replied. “Then the tide nearly drowned us, so we thought we’d play it safe. Are they still asleep up there?”

Deya nodded and quickened her pace as her worry only increased.

“Is everyone alright?” she asked and eyed me all over as she came to take my arm. “Were you hurt?”

I placed a light kiss on the crinkle between her brows. “Don’t worry, Shoshanne got us out of there.”

“Wh … what happened?” she demanded and finally noticed the mud had shifted drastically along the cliff.

I shrugged. “Just a storm, I guess. We were exploring one of the chambers, and the tide came in all at once and filled the whole damn place. There was about eight feet of water in the entrance chamber alone, it was ridiculous.”

“The tide does not rise that high here,” Dragir said as he came down the path beside us.

“It did yesterday,” I countered. “We had to swim our way out.”

Deya stared around the sundrenched cove. “The storm didn’t reach House Quyn,” she said, but I was already grinning at the expression on Dragir’s face.

“I take it Qiran forced you to come along?” I teased.

“Yes, he is not pleased with you,” Dragir informed me. “Nor with me. I have been demoted to babysitting my seventy-year-old sister for the day.”

“Sixty-seven,” Deya corrected.

“It does not matter,” Dragir said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “It is insulting regardless. I was supposed to begin casting armor for the guards today.”

Deya smiled sweetly and headed for the table behind me. “Is this another rifle?” she asked.

“Sort of,” I told her, and I lifted the bazooka for her. “Here, put this part flush against your collar bone, and then your right hand goes here … left hand on this grip.”

“Do I look very intimidating?” she asked as she let out a silvery giggle.

Dragir snorted as she sent us both a glittering smile. “Not remotely,” he replied flatly.

“I like it,” I assured her as she modeled the bazooka. “You could handle this one, honestly. Shoshanne’s gonna love it. The rifle has a recoil that knocks her on her ass, but a rocket launcher doesn’t recoil.”

“What is a rocket?” Deya asked as she handed the bazooka over.

“A rocket is the ammunition that fires from this chamber,” I explained and gestured to the steel pipe. “They’re kind of like the bullets in the revolver, but they’re shaped different, way bigger, and explode on impact.”

Dragir grinned. “Perfect.”

“Good,” Deya agreed with a curt nod. “You will be aiming these rockets at the Master’s army, right?”

I hadn’t expected Deya’s response to be so calm, so I just nodded blankly.

“I love it,” she decided, and the beautiful elf left a light kiss on my cheek. “I’m going to make sure the girls are doing okay after their scare last night.”

With that, Deya casually sauntered back up the path, and I raised my brow.

“She’s getting better with this kind of stuff,” I pointed out.

Dragir nodded his agreement. “She’s quite angry about the axe to the stomach,” he told me and gestured to where the tungsten axe had nearly split him in half. “I think it has made her more fond of our weapons.”

“You told her about the axe, huh?”

Dragir nodded. “She couldn’t help but notice you were badly wounded for a man who should have had the coin with him. I explained to her what happened.”

I grinned. “You didn’t tell her I nearly got my ass kicked ten seconds later right?”

“Of course I did.” He shrugged. “Luckily, I saved you with my daggers.”

I cocked a brow. “Is that how you did it?”

Dragir gestured to the table to change the subject.

“The bazooka is almost ready?” he asked.

“No quite … ” I admitted as I rubbed my neck. “This is a very basic frame, but there’s a hitch with the ammunition and the power so I’m just working on a general prototype right now. The sights are missing too, but once we test it out, I’ll get those positioned easily. I was sort of hoping you could help me get around a couple things with what you know about rune magic, though … ”

I eyed the elf warily as I explained this, but to my surprise he only nodded along without arguing against the idea.

“What is the problem?”

“Well, the first issue is weapons like this require a powder in the stock of the rocket,” I explained. “A spark ignites the powder to cause a small explosion that propels the rocket toward the target.”

“You do not have this powder,” he guessed, and I nodded.

“I’ve created something similar before for my other weapons, but I had the proper materials available back in Serin,” I told him. “Here, I wouldn’t even begin to know where to find bat droppings, but if you know the land well enough and could--”

“What is a bat?” Dragir asked in confusion.

“Well, there you go,” I sighed as my last idea crumbled.

Dragir considered this for a moment. “Would you require the rune I use to work with the spark you create, or can I replace this element as well?”

I raised my brows. “You can do whatever the hell you want,” I assured him. “The easier the whole rigging is the better. The spark is the other issue, and I do have a question about the overall effect of the runes.”

“Wait a moment … ” Dragir instructed, and he came over to study what I’d made of the bazooka. “Explain to me how this will function.”

“So, this is the chamber where the ammunition is loaded,” I explained and gestured to the steel pipe. “Like I said, this is a very basic prototype, but this is the trigger, and normally it’s electrically actuated, which is a problem we need to address if the weapon’s going to work at all. In this model, the shoulder stock, which is down there, is supposed to house two things called batteries that provide the electricity needed to charge the contact wire that runs--”

Dragir held up his hand to stop me there. “You make no sense when you speak,” he informed me and pointed to the trigger. “This causes the spark to release the rocket?”

“Kind of,” I allowed. “The trigger causes the wires to contact each other and create an electrical spark that’s sent through another wire to ignite the powder in the stock of the rocket. The powder explodes, and this explosion propels the rocket out of the chamber.”

“And the initial energy is contained in this portion,” Dragir clarified as he gestured to the shoulder stock, “but you do not have the material to create it?”

I nodded once more.

“Why do you put it there then?”

“Well, the shoulder stock also dictates where the chamber rests,” I explained, “and you don’t want that to change once the sights are mounted. Mostly though … at this stage, it’s useless in terms of the batteries we discussed because I don’t have any of the contact assembly figured out.”

“Good,” Dragir said. “Do not add anything else. Begin creating the rockets.”

I raised my brows. “You … don’t need any other mechanics?”

Dragir shook his head.

“You’re sure?” I checked again. “This is seriously only the frame … ”

Dragir nodded, and I tried not to sound like a pedantic jerk.

“Okay … because the wiring’s kind of crucial to the rocket,” I continued. “Usually, a wire is soldered to a band of brass around the nose of the rocket and then wound down the stock to the end of the powder chamber, and when the trigger mechanism pushes the contact, the electrical current is sent to this brass and down--”

Dragir halted me once more. “Again, you make no sense. I do not care about your currents or your batters, we do not need them. This trigger is all we will need.”

I frowned. “They’re called batteries,” I corrected, “and I know you’re new to this kind of weaponry, but I really don’t think you understand how necessary--”

“I understand you would like me to use runes on this, yes?” Dragir clarified.

I bit my tongue and nodded.

“Then do nothing else,” he assured me. “This will be enough.” Dragir placed the bazooka down on the table before he continued. “What is your question about the overall effect of the runes?”

I stared for a moment and looked between Dragir and the prototype I’d barely begun to create. The elf waited patiently with his usual stoic expression, and I decided not to argue with him any further now that he was being so accommodating. I just hoped he knew what he was doing.

“Umm … okay,” I mumbled. “My question was about your grandfather’s rune. You know how it’s only effective if you’re the one who engraves it?”

Dragir nodded.

“I was wondering if the same caveat could be applied to who uses a weapon,” I explained. “I’m not too comfortable having something with this much power floating around Nalnora, to be honest. I mean this respectfully, but … elves are fucking murderous bastards.”

Dragir smirked. “Yes, we are quite proud of this. Go on.”

“Alright,” I chuckled, “so … what can we do to ensure this weapon doesn’t function in the wrong hands?”

The elf cocked a brow. “You want the functionality to be exclusive?”

“Completely exclusive” I replied. “I think it’d be best to keep the operation to my women and I, and yourself as well. Maybe Rhys if he decides to join in on this … but no one else should be able to fire them if at all possible. Like you said, never create something that could be used against you too easily. The bazooka is not a weapon I wanna be on the other end of. Ever.”

“That is … difficult,” Dragir said, “but wise, and most likely not impossible.”

“Seriously?” I asked eagerly, and the elf shrugged.

“I will work on it,” Dragir told me. “This will require a different rune than those for the trigger and the rockets, though. We can start there for now.”

“Deal,” I agreed, but I wavered when I eyed the prototype. “You’re really sure this is all you need me to do? Because the wiring is sort of the powerhouse of the entire design, and without it you only--”

Dragir ignored me as he dug through his pocket.

“Stop talking now,” the elf muttered. “I brought something for the Mustang.”

Then he pulled two smooth pieces of metal from his pocket and held them out to me. There were two different runes etched onto the surface of each one, and a broad grin came to my face when I realized what they were.

Chapter 4

“You made the pedals?” I asked and took the slips of metal.

Dragir shrugged. “I believe the contraption would be more fun with them. It is more involved this way.”

“Dude, that’s exactly my point,” I laughed. “You get it.”

I moved to pull the elf into a bear hug, but he jumped back several paces.

“You’re not a hugger, are you?” I snorted.

Dragir furrowed his brows and shook his head.

“That’s cool,” I muttered. “I can respect that. High five?”

Dragir turned for the path without responding, and I smirked as his back as I followed.

It wasn’t even irritating being brushed off by the moody elf anymore. Knowing he could boil my blood, but probably wouldn’t, was enough to make me determined. As we began to head up the path to the cliff, I decided I’d get a high five out of him one of these days, no matter how many times he randomly walked off on me. Something told me he was a high five guy, he just didn’t know it yet.

The sight of the runes as the sunlight hit them caught my eye, and I trailed my fingers over the silvery etchings to feel the grooves of each stroke. Some were thin and looping while others were bolder, striking lines, but each complete symbol looked seamlessly balanced when I took in the overall effect.

I had just rounded the top of the path when an idea occurred to me, and I summoned my metal magic to send it through one of the pedals.

I slowed my pace and came to a stop as I began to sense the presence of the rune, and the sensation was the strangest thing. It reminded me of wearing Deya’s necklace, and how the runes felt like a thin veil around me. Only this time, the metal was veiled, and since I was drifting within the makeup of the pedal, I felt the presence of the rune as it affected the metal it was etched into.

The rune Dragir had engraved murmured quietly in my ear from what felt like a foggy distance, and it sounded vaguely edgy, or antsy in some way.

I grinned. “This one drives,” I decided.

“How did you know that?” Dragir asked from beside the Mustang.

“I can hear it,” I told him as I joined him. “It’s kind of … energetic?”

Dragir looked at me closely. “You can hear the rune?”

I nodded. “My Metal Magic isn’t just for reforming or controlling,” I explained. “At first, I thought it was, but it’s sort of like a conduit, too. I can connect to it in any form and seep into the metal itself. It’s hard to explain … but I’m still here as myself, while part of my consciousness is in the metal. If I focus on the make-up of the metal carefully enough, I can even change it. Aurora says I technically am metal, if that doesn’t sound ridiculous. Lately, I can taste my gun firing though, and I only have to think of it to make it happen. That’s something I need to explore more.”

Dragir stared while he processed this. “That is remarkable,” he finally said. “Does each type of metal feel different when you do this?”

“Definitely,” I told him. “Gold’s sort of cozy but takes a while to warm up to, silver’s more accepting, or… maybe it’s more excitable. I prefer to work with steel just because it has a frequency that matches my own while I’m working, so it doesn’t matter how long I spend on a project, it’s comfortable and easy to be around. Plus, I invented a malleable form that’s practically spongy, it’s crazy. I’m curious about the tungsten, but I haven’t spent much time with it yet.”

Dragir shook his head and remembered to blink. “I was unaware magery was so complex,” he admitted. “I thought it was only controlling a single element.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, me too, but it changes over time. The more in touch you get with your element, the more you can do. That’s how I altered the soil at House Quyn. It’s not just telling the soil to change, I needed to seep into it, measure the acidity and the nutrients, and then I had to shift first. While I focused on these measurements and shifted my consciousness in response, the soil slowly shifted with me, and the balance was adjusted one grain at a time.”

“That sounds exhausting.”

“It is,” I agreed. “Mentally and physically. A mage can die if they don’t rest after using their powers for an extended period of time, or after applying them too intensely. I found that out the hard way, but Aurora had been telling me for ages, of course.” I rolled my eyes. “Can someone die from focusing too much on a rune?”

Dragir shook his head. “No, but a rune can certainly cause you to die,” he explained. “Forming them incorrectly will kill you rather quickly. But if you lose sight of the separation between yourself and the rune, it can take over your consciousness. For example, this Master’s rune. His soldiers are clearly encompassed by it, but what will happen when they do not eat or rest or stop? The rune will not sustain them, it will only force them to do his bidding and disregard all else.”

“That’s fucked up,” I mused.

Dragir nodded. “He may be sustaining them in some other way,” he allowed.

I smirked. “Maybe he’s batch cooking.”

“What?”

“It was a joke, never mind,” I chuckled.

We came around the Mustang, and I unsealed the seam of the driver’s door to crouch down and install the pedals.

Dragir stood behind me and watched as the metal of the floorboard rose in two small mounds, and I placed the pedals aside to adjust the makeup.

With my hand outstretched, I closed my eyes and allowed my focus to seep fully into the steel, and I adjusted the alloys until I felt the familiar spark of the spring steel I’d been practicing with. Then I reformed the mounds into two taut coils before I brought one of the pedals over.

As I sifted through the pedal, the rune began to murmur in my mind, and I grinned as I realized it was the brake. The voice was low and commanding, and it had a sense of being wholly unyielding.

“That makes sense,” I mused as I fused the back of the pedal to the left spring.

Then I did the same with the accelerator and stood up to clap Dragir on the shoulder.

“Now, it looks like a car,” I decided.

Dragir wore a blank expression on his face. “That was frustrating and also amazing to watch.”

I grinned. “Jealous?”

“Yes, that is the right word for it,” he sighed.

A series of giggles called our attention, and we glanced toward the hut a little ways along the cliff where the women had been sleeping.

Shoshanne burst out laughing over something, and Deya giggled as her voice dropped to a whisper.

Dragir abruptly cringed and turned away. “We should go, I do not want to hear this conversation.”

I had a feeling I didn’t want him to hear it either, and I cleared my throat loudly as I stepped aside and gestured to the steering wheel.

“Care to do the honors?”

Dragir nodded immediately and slid into the driver’s seat, and I jogged around the other side to climb in as Bobbie gave a deep growl.

The second I was seated, Dragir floored it, and the studded tires threw chunks of grass and dirt up behind us as we tore into the jungle.

For a guy who’d only driven a car once, Dragir seemed like a damn natural, although he clearly had no fear of accidents yet. We lurched over logs and came within inches of trees without slowing down at all, and I gripped the roof of the car as we took turns so quickly, the tires teetered and left the ground. The suspension held up against the elf’s handling, though, and the jungle bounced by as I tried to stay in my seat.

I really needed to look into safety belts.

I could tell the runes had given Bobbie a stronger kick, and as we roared through the jungle, I realized the elf’s heightened senses made him incredibly suited to the task.

He seemed to anticipate any change in the terrain faster than my eyes could manage, and he reacted in milliseconds to the jostling of the Mustang.

“Don’t forget to test the brake,” I hollered over the engine and the smashing of the ferns around us.

Dragir nodded, and before I could blink, the car came to an immediate stop, and my face would have smashed into the steel dashboard if I hadn’t thrown my arms up just in time.

“Shit!” I cursed as I nearly smashed my face into my arms. It hurt infinitely less than it could have, but I realized I was going to need some way of preventing that from happening to any of my women. I guess, in a way, it was better I was the crash test dummy instead of my lovers.

Dragir snorted. “It works.”

I nodded as I checked to be sure I wasn’t bleeding. My hands were a little tender to the touch from slamming against the dashboard, but nothing felt broken, and my fingers came away free of blood when I checked.

“Now,” Dragir said as he sent me a greedy grin, “bazooka time.”

The car revved, and I slammed backward as Dragir floored it once more, and he took a U-turn so tight I could only see ground passing by my window.

“Shiiiiit,” I groaned and braced myself on the frame of the car, and I heard Dragir chuckle as the tires slammed back to the ground before we barreled over a log.

Then the cliff suddenly appeared straight ahead, and my boots leaped up to the dashboard as I realized I was about to die.

Dragir slammed on the brake at the last second, and the car came to a grinding halt.

I worked to catch my breath and glanced out the window to see the front tires only a centimeter from the edge. My adrenaline was spiked as my pulse slammed in my throat, and I tried to calm my nerves while I looked down at the drop we almost made.

“Holy shit,” I muttered as I rifled my hair.

Beside me, Dragir wore a huge grin on his face while he patted the dashboard affectionately. “I really do like this Mustang.”

I nodded blankly and climbed out the window to drop onto the dirt.

The women had heard the commotion and emerged from their hut, and all of them eyed the look on my face.

“What did you do to him?” Deya demanded, but Dragir only shrugged as he climbed out as well.

“I did nothing,” he told her.

Aurora burst out laughing as I sprawled out on my back and stared wide eyed at the sky.

“I’m alright,” I mumbled. “Good morning, by the way.”

Shoshanne sighed and settled on the grass beside my head. “Good morning handsome,” she giggled.

“Mornin’ beautiful,” I replied with a grin.

“Are you alright?” the healer asked me.

“Totally,” I mumbled. “I can feel my legs again.”

“Work now,” Dragir called over his shoulder, and he headed down the path to the cove.

I slowly climbed to my feet, and Deya grimaced.

“Your brother’s intense,” I told the beautiful elf.

“Yes … he is,” she agreed.

Dragir was already hunched over the bazooka when I returned to the table, and he had a slip of parchment laid out beside him. He was taking measurements and marking them down, and there were a few runes sketched out with exes drawn over them. I looked over his shoulder as I watched him work, but then Dragir muttered to the parchment.

“You are building the rockets, yes?”

“Right,” I replied and quickly turned to the pile of metal. “Rockets.”

The four women were strolling down the path, and Cayla came over to curl around my back. “I’ll make some breakfast,” she murmured in my ear, and I sent her a grateful smile.

“That would be so great,” I told her.

Then the princess left a kiss between my shoulder blades before she headed toward the ocean with the others.

I eyed Dragir’s parchment while I pulled a bit of steel over, and he’d already finished a full sketch of the bazooka.

I realized I’d have to stay focused if I was going to keep up with the elf, and I promptly turned my attention to the rockets.

The original M6 rockets that were used in the M1 bazooka had a conical point at the nose for penetrating the tanks they were designed to destroy, but I wasn’t up against tanks. The later M6A3 rocket had a rounded nose because they realized the conical shape could ricochet too easily if it hit at the wrong angle, and I decided to go for this design against the Master’s army. It still involved a shaped-charge explosive within the head, but as I remembered the runes we would be using, I furrowed my brow.

“You don’t want me to do anything fancy with these, do you?” I sighed.

Dragir shook his head. “They should be able to fly true to their aim,” he suggested. “Other than that, the runes will handle the propellent and the explosion.”

I scruffed my beard. “So … ” I mumbled to myself, “no safety pin, no booster, no detonator, no igniter … you’re telling me you need a fake rocket.”

I’d anticipated the rune magic to be a work around for some of the components, but I never expected it to replace so many.

“Fake by your standards?” Dragir muttered. “Apparently. It will work by my standards, though.”

“Are you gonna explain any of this to me at least?” I asked as I eyed the covered parchment once more.

“If you finish your work before I do … ” he said with a smirk.

I raised my brow and immediately split a chunk of steel off.

In ten seconds, I had six identical fins formed for the tail assembly and moved on to the stabilizer tube that would have been the powder chamber with a fuse and igniter. I created the walls of the tube slightly thicker than I would have otherwise in order to account for how light the hollow rocket would be. Then I created a nozzle to close off one end and mounted the fins around the base.

Less than a minute later, I had the blunt-nosed head formed and mounted to the body of the rocket, and I handed the complete design over to Dragir.

He raised his brows as he turned his head. “You’re finished already?”

“It’s literally just a case,” I told him. “I don’t see how this is going to work, but that’s the rocket, yeah.”

He nodded his appreciation and stood up from his hunching to study the assembly. “This end faces forward?” he asked as he pointed to the head, and I nodded.

“Like this,” I explained, and I took the rocket to insert it into the back of the bazooka. “See how the head rests in this area once it’s loaded?”

Dragir nodded.

“If this was what it should be, that’s where the wire from the shoulder stock would insert and come in contact with the brass on the nose,” I explained as I removed the rocket. “The wire that’s soldered to the brass would wrap around this tube and tuck into the chamber from inside these fins. So, the propellent explosion sparks here and projects it forward like this … ” I gave the elf a general demonstration. “When this head hits its target, a detonator is supposed to explode on impact.”

“Yes, that is easy enough,” he decided.

I cocked a brow, but I bit my tongue. I could only imagine Edward Uhl would have plenty to say about how “easy” this all was to bring about. Personally, I was done trying to explain ballistics to an elf who could boil a man’s blood with a wave of his hand.

We were both out of our elements.

“So, you gonna show me the runes now?” I asked.

“I’m not ready yet,” Dragir admitted. “You finished too quickly.”

I chuckled. “I’ll make the rest of the fake rockets while you work on it.”

I had forty more assembled when my eyes wandered over once more, and Dragir was carefully forming a few strokes on the page. His level of concentration was almost palpable, and the steel in my hands settled back on the table as I casually inched a little closer to the elf.

There were several faint lines that were labeled with degree markers, and on top of this, Dragir traced his pen more visibly across one of the degrees.

He went back over a couple of his other lines to slowly thicken them, but then he abruptly stopped and crossed out the entire design.

The elf let out a low sigh as he redrew his degree markers in another place to start from the beginning.

“What are the degrees for?” I asked in a low voice.

Dragir drew for another moment before responding. “The degrees map the lines, of course.”

“Yeah but … what--”

Dragir sighed and stood up as he stretched his back.

“Why are you working out here in the sun?” he asked, and I noticed the clenching in his fists. “It is too hot to focus on anything.”

“I didn’t wanna drown,” I told him bluntly.

The elf rolled his eyes and picked up the bazooka to head into the fortress.

“The tide cannot flood the caves, let’s go.”

I grabbed a few rockets and followed, and we wound our way along the hallway to enter the vaulted chamber.

Dragir stopped short when he stepped out into three inches of water, and I smirked.

Then he led me to the furthest hall, and we passed by several chambers before he turned into an arched doorway. It was a good ten degrees cooler here, and the ceiling suddenly scaled at least twenty feet above my head with a few humble windows dotting the curved ceiling to allow the dim cast of daylight to illuminate the place. It was a relatively small and circular chamber with crude shelves carved out of the stonework that stretched up toward the windows on one side, and there were a few rickety iron tables that were badly rusted to a greenish tinge from the salty and moist environment.

I furrowed my brow as Dragir set up shop on one of the tables, and I came to his side.

“Hold on a second,” I said and piled everything back into the elf’s arms.

Then I summoned my magic and let my focus seep into the ironwork.

I could feel the effects of corrosion everywhere the rust bloomed, and it felt oddly irritating to my senses. So, I focused on rebalancing the iron-oxide of the rust, and slowly, all of the rust was replaced with unmarred iron once more.

“Do you have any zinc?” I asked Dragir and turned to find him staring wide eyed at the table.

He shook his head.

“Too bad,” I mused. “You can coat iron in zinc to prevent this kind of rusting. But in this environment, you’re really better off working with wood or stone to be honest.”

I pulled two stools up out of the stone floor for us to sit on, and Dragir grinned as he laid everything out on the renewed table and settled in.

“It is a shame magery cannot be taught,” he decided.

Then he shifted his parchment slightly toward me.

“The degrees mark the elemental lines the rune harnesses,” Dragir began, and I tried not to grin like an idiot as I leaned in for my first official lesson in rune magic.

The elf pointed to the faint mapping he’d drawn out, and I noticed there were some gaps left here and there between some of the degrees.

“For example,” Dragir continued, “if the rune is meant to harness the eastern winds, you would draw your mark along the twenty-second degree line you see here.”

“It’s that specific?” I asked incredulously.

Dragir nodded.

“What if you just want to harness air in general?”

“Then you would use the three-hundred and first degree over here,” he said simply.

I snorted and shook my head. “What about fire?”

“What kind of fire?” he asked. “Simple, eternal, predatory …”

“Holy shit,” I chuckled. “That’s awesome.”

Dragir smirked. “Creating runes is rather involved due to these degrees,” he explained. “This is why there are books of general runes, like the one my sister should not have stolen for you.”

“And you can create your own from scratch?” I clarified. “You know every degree?”

“I do not think any living elf knows all of them, but I could be wrong,” he admitted. “These are things the elven scrolls dictated, and they have been lost for many years. But I know several of them.”

“That’s why there’s some spaces left out?” I guessed.

“Yes, it is very dangerous to use a degree you know nothing about,” he assured me. “This is why Deya’s necklace confuses me. My mother used degrees no elf I’ve ever met knows the powers of.”

I raised my brows. “That’s impressive.”

Dragir sent me the first genuinely honest smile I’d ever seen on his face.

“Thank you,” he said. “I am quite proud of her abilities.” Then he abruptly shifted back to business mode and gestured to one of the runes he’d drawn an X over. “The density of your line matters as well. This line is too dense as you can see.”

“What would that do?” I asked.

“In this case, if I engraved this rune on the bazooka, a jolt much like lightning would course through the weapon and instantly kill whoever had pulled the trigger,” he explained. “Which is why this rune is shit, and I must start again.”

Now, I was less amused. “Are you sure we should be fucking with this?” I asked uneasily.

“You should not be, no,” Dragir assured me as he began sketching once more. “You would probably die.”

For once, I wholeheartedly agreed with him on this point.

“What does that line do?” I asked and eyed his work.

“This is a directional degree,” the elf explained. “It dictates whether the rune functions outwardly or inwardly. It’s a pretty standard line. If I were to mirror it in this direction … the balance would cause the person who wields it to be equally affected by whatever they put out. That is rarely ideal.”

“Unless it’s a positive rune,” I pointed out.

“Precisely,” he nodded, “but for our purposes, it would be unwise to balance the directional degrees.”

I furrowed my brow. “So … the runes powering the bazooka will have the degree marked outwardly, right?”

“Some of them,” he muttered as he drew another line. “This particular rune is for the trigger assembly, so it will work inwardly in order to harness the power into the weapon.”

I let out a low whistle. “And the rocket will obviously be outward.”

“The head of the rocket will actually function inwardly,” Dragir corrected. “The rocket needs to do the exploding, so the power harnessed by the rune needs to create this explosion within itself.”

“Godsdamnit,” I cursed. “Okay, that makes sense. But the propelling end will have a separate rune that works … outwardly to create enough force behind the rocket in order to propel it forward?”

Dragir grinned and glanced over. “Correct.”

“Fuck yeah,” I said with a matching grin. “I’ve got this.”

Dragir snorted and continued drawing.

“What’s that degree?” I asked eagerly as Dragir began to thicken one of his lines.

“The forty-third degree,” he replied. “It is responsible for controlling the amount of energy this other line harnesses. You need to counter your own lines if you’re working with erratic forces like lightning.”

“You’re harnessing lightning?” I asked as my eyes widened.

“You said you needed a spark of energy,” Dragir explained. “Lightning will do, as long as I counter it with earth to ground the more unpredictable facets of the element. This will allow us to harness its energy in a controlled fashion. How dense the earth line is will control how much power comes through.”

I raised my brows and considered the complexity of a single line in rune magic, and then I glanced at the elf beside me. “You know a lot about runes …” I said.

“Yes,” he agreed as he drew.

“If the head of House Syru had the elven scrolls and found a way to decipher them, he could have known even more than you,” I continued uneasily, and my gut began to sink at the idea.

Dragir shrugged. “He most likely did,” he allowed. “The head of House Syru was a very powerful elf. I believe he was nearing his seven-hundredth year when you killed him. He certainly had more than enough time to learn.”

“Shoshanne actually killed him,” I corrected.

Dragir grinned. “You surround yourself with rather deadly women.”

“Of course, I do.” I grinned back.

Then an unsettling thought occurred to me, and my grin fell as I looked at the many degrees marked on the page.

“The Master could know all of this already,” I considered and scruffed my beard as I realized how fucked I was.

“That is less likely,” Dragir said. “You do not know who he is or how long he has lived, right?”

I nodded.

“But you can surmise quite a lot by what you know of his tactics so far,” the elf continued, and he began to thicken a line that ran perpendicular to the others. “The Master needed the head of House Syru’s guidance, so he is not very old. No elf of substantial years would ask for guidance from his peers. It is too degrading.”

“What makes you so sure he’s an elf?” I asked.

“Deya told me.” He shrugged.

“She what?” I demanded. My pulse began to thrum as my confusion peaked, but when Dragir spoke, I immediately relaxed.

“Deya said he has a plot to bring the ten Houses of Nalnora to their knees, yes?” he asked.

I nodded again, and Dragir sent me a wry smirk.

“This is a very elven threat to make,” he informed me, and I couldn’t help but chuckle as he continued. “The Master most likely had House Syru’s leader create his rune for him as well, and if this is the case, he did not study long enough to learn the full extent of what I know. He also remains hidden and allows others from various regions and species to do his bidding for him. So, he is either busy, lazy, or … he fears his personal abilities are lacking. My guess would be this Master of yours is both young and greedy, but not necessarily superior in power.”

I stared. “Holy shit,” I breathed. “You’re right.”

“No, I am not,” Dragir countered. “These are guesses.”

I nodded my agreement. “But they’re pretty good guesses,” I pointed out. “He’s not showing his face, he needs help to wield runes, and so far, he only seems to have the one at his disposal. Plus, he’s obsessed with trying to kill me, which obviously means he fears my own powers will outweigh his own.”

Dragir nodded once more and sighed as he drew another X over his rune.

“What’s wrong with that one?” I asked curiously.

“I used the thirty-third degree rather than the thirty-fourth,” he said in irritation, and as he began mapping degrees once more, he furrowed his brow thoughtfully. “An imbalance of power is not something to rely on. Your power is growing, as you said. The Master’s certainly is as well. For all you know, he could remain hidden because his ultimate goals do not require the level of power he is capable of yet. These endeavors of his could be far beneath him.”

I grimaced. “Yeah, that’s been my biggest concern.”

I let the elf work in silence as he hunched only a couple inches from his parchment, and it was like watching a mad scientist at work. Every line was a different length and thickness than the others, and they were placed so precisely that if his pen wavered even slightly from the degree he worked along, the entire rune would be scrapped and started over.

I was watching carefully when, out of nowhere, Dragir suddenly said, “We’re in here,” in a voice no louder than a mumble.

A minute later, Deya and Aurora came in with two platefuls of food.

Aurora’s eyes went wide as she saw what we were up to, and she sent me a giddy smile as she peeked at Dragir’s work.

“You’re using runes on the bazooka?” she asked eagerly.

I grinned. “Hell yeah we are,” I told the half-elf. “Dragir’s rigging the whole damn thing, I only had to make the frame.”

“That’s going to work?” Aurora asked, and she sounded about as convinced as I had.

I chuckled. “Honestly, I’m starting to think it might. Runes are no bullshit. Every one of those degrees represents--”

Dragir sighed and sent me a pointed look. “This is why no one in Nalnora would teach you about runes,” he explained. “This is sacred and ancient knowledge, but you begin sharing this knowledge as if you are discussing the weather.”

I tried not to laugh at the look on his face and nodded. “Deal, sorry,” I mumbled.

Aurora raised her brows and worked to hide her smile. “We’ll just leave you to it then,” she muttered and leaned in for a kiss before she left.

Dragir shifted the plate Deya left for him aside while he continued drawing, and I shook my head as I shoveled a chunk of what tasted like mango into my mouth.

“Sorry about that,” I told him again.

Dragir shrugged. “It is principle. Although, I do not think Defender Solana requires runic knowledge. She’s more dangerous than many elves I know who do wield runes.”

“You know, she can’t even be burned?” I chuckled. “I’ve watched her walk straight through flames and just stay there. They’re comforting to her.”

“That is terrifying.”

“Rhys said the same thing.”

“Speaking of which,” Dragir replied, and he folded his slip of parchment, “Rhys is here.”

I paused in my chewing. “Seriously?”

Dragir nodded. “Yes, he just arrived in the entrance hall and is telling Deya she looks more beautiful every day. And … now he is kissing her hand.”

“What the fuck,” I growled and dropped the plate to the iron table as I turned for the door.

Dragir snorted. “You do not need to be concerned about Rhys. His wife is infinitely more beautiful than Deya.”

I paused at the door and seriously doubted the claim. “You sure about that?” I asked.

Dragir raised his brows, and a glint came to his serpentine eyes.

“Infinitely,” he assured me. Then he stowed his parchment in his pocket and stood up. “Rhys would be an idiot to be interested in Deya. When House Fehryn has their turn, it will likely be his son who breeds with her.”

The statement caught me completely off guard, and I ground my jaw as the elf’s words hit me in the gut. “He will not.”

Dragir looked up and considered me closely. “For your sakes, I hope you are correct,” was all he said, and he brushed past me to make his way back along the hall.

I remained where I was for a moment and wondered if Dragir had been bullshitting about Rhys’ wife. I kinda liked the guy, and it would be much less concerning to me if he had a smoking hot wife of his own somewhere. I grinned as my imagination went wild with curiosity, and I turned from the small room to go meet Rhys as well.

I found Dragir and him speaking alone in the vaulted chamber when I arrived.

“Mason Flynt,” Rhys said with a broad grin, and he offered his hand just as he’d done before the battle against the Master’s army.

“How are things?” I asked him as I shook his hand.

“Things could be better,” Rhys admitted, and he exchanged a glance with Dragir.

“House Fehryn is considering evacuating,” Dragir explained.

I furrowed my brow. “What happened?”

“My scouts have been watching House Syru,” Rhys replied in a low voice. “One hundred soldiers and counting.”

I stared. “Already?”

Rhys nodded in response.

“Well … fuck.”

Chapter 5

Dragir led Rhys and me back to the chamber we’d been working in, and I pulled an extra stool out of the stonework for Rhys as we filed in. His amber eyes darted straight to the bazooka laid out on the iron table, and within two seconds, it was in his hands.

“This is the weapon you wish to use against the Master’s army?”

“Yeah, but we’re still working out the details,” I explained. “This is the prototype.”

“How many will we have?” Rhys asked.

“Six,” Dragir replied, and he seemed to be studying the green-haired elf’s expression carefully.

“That’s not nearly enough,” Rhys muttered and trailed his fingers along the trigger. “We would be better off with twenty, maybe thirty, yes?”

“They’re more powerful than you’d expect,” I assured him. “Six will be plenty.”

Rhys shrugged and returned the bazooka to the table, and then he took the plate of food Dragir had shoved aside. He sent Dragir a grin as he began eating his way through the roasted fish the women had prepared, and while he chewed, he mumbled between his bites.

“With enough of these weapons on hand, we could sidestep the Elven Council and handle this Master ourselves.”

“Defeating his army won’t defeat him,” I clarified, “but between your two armies, the bazookas, and our mage powers, we should have a decent chance at obliterating his entire troop. I figure, if every branded soldier is killed, he won’t have enough minions to regroup so fast.”

Rhys nodded. “I would estimate the same,” he agreed. “The only way he could have built another troop as quickly is by sending the last of his soldiers out to brand anyone they came across.”

I furrowed my brow. “You think he’s abducting his recruits?”

“Why wouldn’t he?” Rhys said with a shrug. “He doesn’t need followers if he has enough soldiers. House Syru are a brawny lot to begin with, and if this Master is branding his runes, he only needs to be sure it’s done properly. I’m sure some of his army don’t mind his ideals at all, but the majority of the elves I know would hear one word of his plan and decide they’d rather kill him and carry out the deed themselves.”

I scruffed my beard as I considered this for a minute. “That gives me nothing to go off of,” I muttered.

Dragir must have known where my mind was at. “I would not worry about who this Master is,” he advised. “Right now, all that matters is that he does not succeed. When the time comes, you can only be as prepared as you are and hope that it is enough.”

Rhys cocked a brow. “You’re taking him on yourself?” he asked uneasily.

“Someone’s gotta do it,” I told him, “and I don’t see anyone else stepping up to the plate. I’m assuming you’re more interested in defending House Fehryn than all of Nalnora and the other nations as well?”

I held the elf’s gaze steadily, and I couldn’t help but chuckle as he wavered and looked away.

“Fuck that,” Rhys said with a grin. “I only just found out about the guy. You’re the one who’s chasing him all over the place. You do it.”

“That’s what I figured,” I replied. “So, where will your village evacuate to?”

“We have a fortress in Orebane,” Rhys explained as he shoveled the last of the food in his mouth.

“How is that possible?” I asked with a frown. “I thought the dwarves hated the elves.”

“Not as much as the elves hate the dwarves,” Rhys countered proudly, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes as he continued. “No one knows about the place, of course, and it’ll stay that way. How soon will you have the weapons ready for battle?”

Dragir shrugged. “It is too early to tell. We are still in the production phase.” Then he turned to me. “You might be leaving for the north soon, as well, yes?”

“Shit,” I sighed. “I forgot about House Orrel.”

Rhys lowered his plate and looked at me. “Why are you going to House Orrel?”

“Dragir said their army’s unparalleled,” I told him, and the elf’s eyes widened.

“Not the Wendigo,” he muttered. “Don’t bring those crazy bastards down here.”

I chuckled. “I’m not too excited about the idea either.”

“They’re well in hand,” Dragir replied, but then he furrowed his brow. “I think.”

“Like hell they are,” Rhys countered. “They’re ravenous. Besides, why would the head of House Orrel take the time to talk to a … mage?” The elf’s tone was condescending as he said this, and he glanced at me with a half-apologetic expression. “You know what I mean.”

“Unfortunately I do, yeah … ”

“He will meet with Mason Flynt,” Dragir assured the elf. “My sister will be with him.”

Rhys snorted. “That’ll do it,” he allowed, “but I’d tread carefully with the head of House Orrel if I were you.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“He’s not what he seems,” Rhys warned. “Don’t let your guard down while you’re there and stay strict to your business around him. Don’t mention my name or House Fehryn’s concerns, either. It’s none of his business.”

I tried not to grin. “You’re about to be attacked by a possessed army,” I pointed out. “Word is going to get out eventually.”

Rhys sounded insulted as he responded. “House Fehryn has never required the assistance of the Elite,” he shot back. “I would not have House Natyr or any other get word that a mage is running messages to the Elite on behalf of my House. This is your war, Mason Flynt, I am only caught in the middle of it.”

I sighed, but before I could respond, Dragir cut in.

“We will send a guard to House Fehryn when the weapons are ready,” he told him, and he pulled his folded parchment from his pocket to get back to work.

Rhys nodded and stood to leave.

“I’ll be leading the majority of my village to the north for the next few days,” he said, “but I’ll be back in the south to ready my men as soon as … ”

The elf trailed off, and his eyes flared at the sight of the runes on the parchment. Then Rhys’ gaze whipped between me and Dragir, and I jumped as he erupted in a tirade of angry Elvish.

At first, Dragir responded flatly and continued his work, but when Rhys wrenched him to his feet by the collar of his shirt, the two began a heated argument I honestly didn’t see coming.

Within seconds, they were yelling over one another as they gestured wildly, and I casually shifted my stool back a ways as I eyed the daggers on their hips.

I’d kind of gotten used to Rhys being a friendly guy, but seeing his reaction reminded me that the first time I’d met him, he was in a murderous battle with Onym and his men, which he’d won.

Rhys suddenly shoved Dragir and spit in his face, and whatever his next word meant, it caused Dragir to swiftly punch him square in the nose.

Rhys staggered backward and mopped the blood from his lip, and I cringed as things inevitably escalated between the two elves.

Suddenly, they were locked together as they pummeled each other around the room between words, and their skulls were rammed against the walls of the cave here and there as they went.

I figured I’d let the two work it out amongst themselves since I couldn’t understand a damn thing they were saying anyway, but around the time Rhys locked Dragir in a choke hold to crush him with full force against the wall, I realized I might have to step in on this one.

I’d just stood up when Dragir’s free arm caught the corner of an iron table, and I jumped out of range as he whipped it around to Rhys’ back.

Rhys’ spine let out a hollow crack as the metal collided with it, and he immediately dropped his hold on Dragir. He was clearly having trouble breathing, and by the looks of it, he couldn’t even stand up straight at the moment, but Dragir picked up the argument where they’d left off with his arm hanging limp from the socket.

Both elves had split lips, battered noses, and blood dripping from their skulls through their hair, but I didn’t doubt more than a couple ribs had snapped with the stonework playing a part in it all as well.

Still, I thought Dragir must be making some headway since Rhys finally shut up and listened for a bit.

Until the green-haired elf pulled his dagger and leveled his opponent with a deadly glare. He spoke only three words in a menacing tone, and Dragir narrowed his eyes as he fell silent.

My magic was already sparking in my veins as I prepared to stop the dagger if it went flying, and the tension in the air was stifling while I waited at the ready.

Then Dragir suddenly moved, and within seconds, it was all over.

Rhys hurled his dagger the moment Dragir grabbed for a table, and before I had time to move a muscle, the iron table smashed into Rhys’ face.

Dragir snorted at the elf splayed beneath the overturned table.

Rhys wheezed as he fought for his breath for a while, but eventually, he shifted and shoved the table off himself, and he wiped some blood from his lips before he tried to talk. His voice sounded strained against the pain of his injuries, but his volume was more controlled, and he argued with tense restraint from the floor for a couple more minutes.

Apparently, the two reached some sort of understanding, because Rhys gave a curt nod and worked to stand up, and he spit on the floor this time instead of on Dragir. He ignored me completely as he turned to leave, and I glanced at Dragir to find an amused smirk on his face.

Then he muttered something in Elvish while he eyed Rhys’ back, and the green-haired elf abruptly stopped in the arched doorway.

I could hear Rhys let out a low and raspy sigh, but he decided not to turn around or respond. He left without a word, and Dragir chuckled to himself as he casually returned to his work.

The two tables were still overturned in the center of the room, and Dragir’s left arm hung limp at his side while I stood blankly against the wall.

I cleared my throat. “You guys good?” I asked uneasily.

Dragir nodded and drew out another line on the parchment.

“Rhys is displeased,” he told me flatly.

I tried not to laugh. “Yeah, I noticed. We’re all still on the same page, though, right?”

“Of course,” Dragir said with a shrug, but then he winced. “Do you know how to put an arm back in its socket?”

“Yeah,” I replied, and I came around to his other side while he continued.

“Thirty from House Quyn plus Rhys’ army,” Dragir mumbled half to himself as he eyed the parchment on the table. “You and your women of course, with the six bazookas. Everything is arranged.”

“How many men does Rhys have?” I asked as I shifted his limp arm and tried to find the right position to get the humerus to realign. Once I’d found the angle, I nodded to Dragir, and the elf gritted his teeth.

“Eighty,” he muttered right before I pushed the bone back into the socket of his shoulder.

There was a dull pop, and the elf grimaced as he massaged his shoulder.

“Thank you. Now,” he continued, “one hundred soldiers recruited in only a day and a half does not put us in a good position. We will be grossly outnumbered by the time Rhys returns if the Master continues at this rate.”

I knew where he was headed with this, but I honestly wasn’t eager to meet another of the Elite leaders of Nalnora. Especially one powerful enough to form his own army of Wendigo. So, I scruffed my beard while Dragir mapped a few more degree lines.

“You really think this guy’s gonna help us out?” I finally asked.

Dragir brushed away a bit of blood from his eye that had run down from a gouge in his forehead. “The head of House Orrel is not a fool, at least,” he allowed, “and has certainly received word of what’s been taking place amongst the southern Houses by now. He could be made to see reason if you approach things carefully.”

I nodded. “You said he might be the guy to trust with the elven scrolls?”

“You will have to be the judge of that once you get there,” Dragir said, and he sat back to get an overall view of the rune he’d been working on. “I have only met him once when I was in my thirty-second year. He seemed less irritating than Aeris, and I know his library is more extensive than any of the other Elite. His House has not taken in new members in over four hundred years, either. They keep their powers well concealed these days, but when the Gorak Knights nearly destroyed the region, House Orrel and my grandfather reached an agreement to arm the Wendigo with our weapons, and the Knights were destroyed in less than three days.”

I let out a low whistle. “That’s the kind of power we need.”

Dragir smirked and gestured to the rune. “This is the kind of power we need,” he clarified.

“It’s done?” I asked eagerly.

“Yes, the trigger is complete,” he replied. “I will finish the rune for this portion of the pipe next, and then we only need two more on the rockets.”

“But how is this rune supposed to interact with the others?” I asked. “What keeps them in sync?”

“Ideally,” the elf explained, “the charge from this rune will agitate the charge of the rune on the pipe, but I need to test out a few different elements to see which reacts the way we need first … ”

I couldn’t help but sigh. “Do you have any copper?”

Dragir cocked a brow. “Of course, it is useless though. It isn’t strong enough for armor, nor dense enough for weaponry.”

I laughed. “Alright, but it’s the perfect conductor, and it’s exactly what you need if you want to sidestep testing a dozen elements out.”

“What are you talking about--”

“Wiring,” I cut in. “I am talking about wiring. With copper wire running from the trigger to the chamber, the rune would have a clear path to follow along, and no guesswork would be required.”

Dragir considered this for a moment. “That does sound easier,” he allowed. “If it works, I can create a channeling rune on the pipe that would simply translate from the trigger directly to the propellent.”

I grinned and nodded.

“Okay, we will try your wiring,” Dragir agreed.

“Thank you,” I sighed, and we both headed for the hallway. “It’ll help out a lot, I promise.”

“I will be back shortly with the copper,” Dragir replied, “but I do not know if runes have ever been used with this wiring. We will see if it works.”

I followed Dragir out to the cove, but as I considered the blood still dripping from his head, I had to ask.

“Hey,” I muttered as I nudged his arm. “What did you say to Rhys before he left?”

Dragir actually chuckled at the question. “I sent my regards to his wife, of course,” he told me, and the same smirk came to his face as he headed up the path along the cliff face.

He chuckled a few more times to himself as he went, and I was just beginning to wonder how well the elf knew Rhys’ wife, when Aurora trotted up behind me and jumped onto my back.

“Dragon babies!” she giggled. “I want one, come pick one out.”

I grinned and let the half-elf drag me off toward the far end of the cove.

“We’re not getting a dragon,” I told her firmly. “We already have Stan, Big Guy, and a giant wolf.”

“But they’re so cute!” Aurora insisted. “Deya said this is the first time they’ve given birth in thousands of years. How can you say no to that?”

“Because they’re sea dragons and we don’t live in the sea,” I pointed out. “There’s also the giant fangs thing, and the top predator status, and … ”

I trailed off as Aurora shushed me and began to step carefully along a pile of boulders.

Then we crouched down low and peered over the edge to find a secluded nest of seaweed with six eggs cracked open and strewn around.

“Oh shit,” I muttered. “Those things are fucking adorable.”

Six fragile fins jutted up from the nest, and they looked almost translucent in the sunlight that warmed the nimble bodies of the babies. Their long, slender tails curled around them and draped over their noses as they slept, and their tiny scales must have been smaller than a pebble. They were a creamy white with a distinct, pearly sheen all over their bodies, and I could see enough of their toes to tell they were webbed with thin pink skin on both the front and back legs. It also looked like they had extra webbing folded between their bodies and their elbows, and their top fins slowly changed into small spikes at the head and tail end.

A few of them twitched in their sleep, and when one opened its eyes just a sliver, Aurora let out a little sigh of adoration.

“The little pink eyes are my favorite part,” she moaned. “And that one has purple on its belly, look. Don’t you want one?”

“No,” I chuckled, and I worked to keep my voice as quiet as I could so I wouldn’t disturb the rest of them. “They’re cute, I’ll give you that, but you see those little fangs? They’re gonna end up being giant fangs that could crush both of us in a single snap.”

“That’s the best part,” the half-elf whispered. “They’re not full grown until they’re nine hundred years old!”

I sighed and shook my head.

Aurora’s emerald eyes glittered as she rested her chin on the boulder to smile down at the little pod of sleepy dragons, and it was hard to say no when she had that look on her face.

But then I glanced back at the fangs already peeking out between their lips.

“We’re not taking a baby dragon,” I told the half-elf and left a kiss in her blue hair as I turned away.

Aurora groaned and reluctantly followed, but she looped her hand in mine as she worked on convincing me all the way back to the jetty.

“They’re loyal if you raise them yourself,” she insisted. “Deya’s ancestors lived peacefully with them all the years they resided in the caves, and Deya says--”

“Deya says you can steal a sea dragon?” I interrupted with a smirk, and Aurora bit her lip. “That’s what I thought.”

The half-elf fell into a pouty silence as we made our way along the rocky embankment toward the three women bathing in the sun, and I chuckled as I tucked her under my arm.

“You know I’d do anything in the world for you,” I assured her, “but I’m not stealing a dragon, and I think that’s reasonable.”

Deya must have overheard, because a silvery giggle drifted along the breeze, and the elf propped herself up to look back at us.

“I thought we went over this,” she chided. “The pod will kill you if you so much as go near their nest. How do you think you will succeed in keeping one for yourself?”

I stopped and stared at the half-elf who was strictly avoiding my gaze.

“Seriously?” I demanded. “You just brought me over there knowing damn well we’d get eaten?”

“They’re not here right now!” Aurora said, and she blushed as she tried to hide her smile. “I was being safe.”

I considered the careless glint in her eyes for a second, before I caught her around the waist and tossed her into the ocean.

Aurora gasped and flailed as she crashed into the waves, and the women on the rocks burst out laughing when she resurfaced spluttering.

“We need to reach an understanding about the decisions you make,” I called to her with a broad grin. “I know we do a lot of dangerous shit, but we’re going to avoid getting eaten by dragons at all costs, deal?”

Aurora glowered and I narrowed my eyes.

“No matter how cute they are,” I added.

“Fine,” she agreed haughtily, “but I’m still allowed to pet the big ones. That’s reasonable, too.”

Before she could blink, I dove straight for her, and Aurora shrieked and splashed to get out of range.

I still caught her by the silky frills around her hips, though, and the two of us dropped beneath the surface while I wrestled to get a firmer hold on the feisty half-elf.

Aurora managed to wriggle free, but instead of swimming away, she caught my hand and pulled me along with her into the cove as she smiled back at me through the water.

I couldn’t resist following the beautiful woman, and the cool water sifted around us in a soft shade of blue that was clear enough to see for quite a ways. There was a thick crop of seaweed swaying beneath us, and not far down, everything faded into blackness. Silver and green fish glinted past me on both sides, and the occasional eel drifted in and out of the shadows below.

Aurora turned to send me a huge grin while her blue hair flowed around her like a halo, and I pulled her into my arms to kiss her as we drifted up to the surface.

She was glowing when I opened my eyes again.

“Don’t be mad,” Aurora giggled as she spun me around, and my gut dropped.

The nest of sea dragons was only a couple of feet away from where she’d led us.

“The one on the right’s my favorite,” Aurora whispered.

“You little … ” I growled, and I dunked her far beneath the waves. Then I kicked hard to get us out of there before any of the pod could show up, and this time, the half-elf quickly swam out of my reach.

I tore after her while she wove to escape my grip, but eventually, I caught her by the ankle and didn’t let go.

Aurora was laughing her ass off when I dragged her to the rocky embankment, and I hauled her out of the water over my shoulder to be sure she couldn’t double back.

“I give up,” I sighed and dropped the squirming woman into Cayla’s lap. “Aurora’s gonna get killed by dragons this week, and we’re all gonna have to be okay with that.”

Cayla giggled and locked her arms around the dripping half-elf.

“I’ll keep a tight leash on her for you,” she assured me.

“Hmm,” Aurora mused. “You promise?”

I raised my brows to the pair of giggling women while I laid out on the rocks, and Shoshanne slipped her thighs beneath my head for me.

“How is the building going?” she asked as she swiped some water from my brow.

“Good so far,” I told the healer. “Dragir’s grabbing some copper, but I think we should be done with the first one by tonight. After that, it’s just replication and engraving the runes.”

Deya crawled over to curl up against my chest, and I laid an arm around her slender waist as she let out a soft sigh. Then her lips brushed lightly across my skin, and I glanced down.

The beautiful elf’s hair was a shade lighter after laying all morning in the sun, and a smattering of freckles had begun to dot her nose and cheeks. She smiled lazily up at me and Shoshanne, and the healer brushed a stray piece of pink hair from her face.

“You look happy here,” she told the beautiful elf.

A sweet smile came to Deya’s face. “I am,” she said. “I haven’t been to this place since my mother left. My father never allows anyone to come here, but I think Dragir has snuck away over the years. He knows the caves better than he would if he’d truly stayed away.”

“Have you explored many of the chambers yet?” Shoshanne asked curiously.

“Not yet,” Deya admitted. “I like it out here too much.”

“There’s a mural in there with some of your ancestors on it,” I told her. “You might like it. Even the dragons are there.”

“Really?” Deya asked, and she sat up. “The same ones?”

“I was wondering about that,” I mused. “They’re much smaller, but there are eight of them.”

“It could be the same pod,” she said with a sparkling smile. “Dragir told me the eldest is over five thousand years old. She’s the one who leads them into shore every evening.”

“How can you tell how old they are?” Shoshane asked.

Deya shrugged. “I can’t, but Dragir can. He said he can tell by the number of scales she’s missing.”

The mention of scales sent my mind straight back to the mural. “Did your ancestors ever use rune magic with the dragons?”

Deya looked thoroughly confused by the question. “How does someone use rune magic with a wild animal?”

I shrugged. “I was just curious. I thought I saw--”

I was interrupted by Dragir calling from the mouth of the cave, and I craned my neck to see him motioning for me to follow as he held up a chunk of copper.

“That’s my cue,” I muttered, and I left a kiss on Deya’s cheek as I sat up. “I’ll be back as soon as we get this bazooka built, but then you’re all taking it for a test run, deal?”

The women heartily agreed, and Deya took my spot on Shoshanne’s lap as I headed for the hidden fortress.

I turned back and eyed Aurora before I’d gotten far, though.

“Short leash on that one,” I called out over the waves, and Cayla sent me a wink.

Dragir was stooped over his parchment when I arrived back in the small room, and I noticed he’d returned the iron tables to where they belonged. His lip was fully healed already, and his skull and nose had stopped bleeding as well. He also had a whole other rune sketched out and was just moving on to the third.

“Is that the channeling rune you were talking about?” I asked as I took the chunk of copper from the table.

“Yes,” he replied. “It is only a simple sketch since I am unsure how this wiring works just yet.”

“It’s kind of like a road,” I told him, and I summoned my magic to my palms. “You set something on the road, and it travels along it to the other side.”

I split a sliver of copper from what Dragir had brought for me, and then I began to feed the copper through my fingers to form a slender piece of wire. I continued to add to this until I had a small spool wound around two of my fingers, and I set it aside as I turned to the bazooka.

“Where’s the rune for the trigger assembly going to be?” I asked.

Dragir looked closely while he thought it over. “I can fit it on the lever itself,” he decided. “That will make it most effective, I think.”

I nodded and pulled the bazooka over while I decided on the proper placement for the copper contact.

I only wanted the trigger to spark when it was fully engaged, so I shifted the trigger and marked where the contact point would be. Then I pulled a small bit of copper from the larger chunk and rolled it into a tiny ball to meld onto this point. Next, I soldered the end of the copper wire to the ball, and from there, I ran the wiring up to the base of the hand grip, and then directly along the pipe rather than to the shoulder stock.

I secured the wire in place with small copper brackets along the way before I picked up a rocket to insert it into the pipe, and I sent my magic through the steel to pinpoint the exact spot where the head rested within the chamber.

I marked this with a small notch on the outside of the pipe, and then I created another copper ball for this end of the circuit. I let the ball drift into the pipe with a nudge from my magic, and while I focused on the mark I’d made on the outer edge, a small pinhole appeared in the metal. Directly on the other side, I could see the glint of the copper appear, and I melded it into place before I cut the end of the wire from the spool and soldered the tip to the ball through the pinhole.

I cinched the length of the wire so it was snug against the pipe with no slack, and with a few more brackets securing it in place, I tested to be sure the rocket would have enough clearance to make it past the contact point.

I had to expand the width of the tube by two millimeters, but other than this, everything fit like a glove, and I grinned as I moved on to rigging the wiring for the rocket.

Dragir pulled the bazooka back to his side of the table and furrowed his brow.

“This is wiring?” he asked as he traced his finger along the copper.

“Yep,” I replied. “If you pull the trigger, you’ll see it comes in direct contact with the ball, and that should route the energy of the rune along to the next point on the inside of the chamber. I’m gonna put a band like the one I described to you around the nose of the rocket and thread another wire to the propellent as well.”

“Fascinating,” Dragir muttered. “If this road works as you say it should, I don’t think I will need the channeling rune at all.”

“That’s the idea,” I told him with a chuckle. “Direct circuit, no nonsense.”

The elf nodded his appreciation, and then he pulled a sharp metal pick from his pocket that reminded me a lot of something my dentist would have used back on Earth. Except this one had a distinct rune etched into the slim handle, and it curled into a very subtle S shape from one end to the other.

“Is that for engraving the rune?” I asked.

“Yes,” Dragir answered as he studied his sketches carefully. “Do not shift the table even an inch while I do this. I don’t want to misalign the degrees.”

I moved my work to my lap just to be safe, and while I secured a band of copper around the head of the rocket, I kept half of my focus on Dragir.

It looked like he didn’t follow any visible degree markers for the actual engraving, and he stooped only a few inches from the metal as he carefully began to copy the rune.

A strange sensation came over me as the metal pick scraped against the trigger, and I slowly set the rocket down after a minute.

“What is that?” I asked in a low voice.

The air felt heavy all of a sudden, and somehow, the silence felt dense in my ears, like I’d stepped inside of a vacuum chamber.

Dragir turned and furrowed his brow. “You can sense that?” he asked.

I nodded.

Dragir looked like he hadn’t expected this. “Interesting,” he muttered. “That is the element I am engraving. Try not to make any sudden movements. It can interrupt the connection.”

I raised my brows as the elf turned back to his work, and I sat in fascination while he slowly etched out the entire engraving. With each new line, the atmosphere seemed to shift, and it was as if a new presence had entered the small room. Whenever he increased the thickness of one of these markings, I could feel the added weight pressing down, and I did my best not to move an inch as my awareness of the elements around me heightened.

I couldn’t identify what they were, only that there was a distinct difference between each one, and they didn’t seem to leave once they’d arrived. The room was crowded with line after line adding to the mix, and their proximity began to feel claustrophobic after a while.

Out of curiosity, I summoned only a tendril of my own magic and sent it into the lever itself, and I immediately noticed the murmuring of the rune was off balance. Some aspects were louder or more grating than others, and they seemed to war incoherently with one another inside the metal. It was an incredibly disorienting sensation, so I pulled my attention out of the lever and focused on the tool Dragir used instead.

It was only made of silver, but it was somehow sturdy enough to disrupt the surface of the steel, and the tool gave off a soft hum I’d never quite heard before. It was between the beating of a bird’s wings and the drone of a distant plane, but it had a clear pitch it stuck to without wavering.

The elements continued to shift around us while Dragir remained inches from the trigger, and after a while, he finally lifted the tool and sat back to check his work. Gradually, the tumult in the atmosphere began to settle, and within a few minutes, the small room felt clear again.

Dragir nodded. “It’s done.”

“How’s it look?” I asked eagerly, and I leaned over to get a look at the finished product.

I could hardly believe he’d managed to get the details correct in such a small space, but to my eye, the tiny rune on the trigger looked identical to the sketch on the parchment.

“You are finished with the rocket?” Dragir asked, and I sent him a grin.

“Just a second,” I chuckled, and I quickly soldered the copper wire to the band around the head of the rocket before I handed it over. “I’ll secure the last end once you decide where the propellent will be.”

Dragir nodded and turned the parchment around. “I had a design that wouldn’t work very well with the channeling approach,” he muttered, “but it should work with this wiring you’ve assembled. We can start with that.”

“You sure you don’t want to take another minute to go over it?” I asked uneasily. “It is the exploding part.”

Dragir shrugged and placed the tip of his tool on the rocket. “It should be fine.”

I cocked a brow and picked up the bazooka to study the rune while Dragir began his engraving, and I was pleased to find I could identify four of the degree lines by sight.

“Wait a minute,” I muttered as I looked more closely. “Some of these are curved lines. What elements do those correspond with?”

Dragir glanced up. “Those are cohesion lines,” he explained. “They join the elements which fall out of balance with one another in order to hold the rune together as a whole. It is something you learn to sense with practice, and they must be drawn last as the rune requires. Those are the best instructions I can give, I’m afraid.”

I let out a low whistle. “That’s pretty cool,” I mused.

Then I let my magic seep into the trigger again, and this time, the murmuring was steady and constant, much like Deya’s necklace and the pedals. After having explored the metal during the engraving process, I could clearly sense the balance that had been found, and I grinned as I listened closely to the rune.

The energy sounded sporadic and like a force ready to break from behind a wall, but it was different from the way the accelerator had sounded. This force was more powerful but also lighter in weight, and I was so tempted to pull the trigger and see what it was capable of.

The presence of new elements for the rocket pressed around me more by the second, though, and I decided it’d probably be best to wait until Dragir finished his engraving.

I couldn’t help but notice the bazooka as a whole had an entirely different feeling in my palms now that the rune was in place, and I took some time to get familiar with the change while I watched Dragir work on the rocket.

He pinched at the bridge of his nose a couple of times, and a thin sheen of sweat built on his brow while he squinted hard in concentration. The rune on the head of the rocket took longer to create than the trigger had, and judging by the feel of the atmosphere, it was a much more complex one.

Then an extremely uncomfortable shift occurred in the air, and Dragir shook his head.

“Do you have a different rocket?” he sighed in irritation.

“Which line is wrong?” I asked and slowly stood to get a better look without disrupting the elements.

“This one,” he said and pointed to a slender and looping line. “It’s not supposed to intersect with the thirteenth degree. It’s throwing everything off.”

“Let me try something,” I muttered as I summoned my magic, and I carefully seeped into the head of the rocket.

It was surprisingly chaotic in there, and I almost couldn’t focus on my magic with the elements so completely out of balance. I furrowed my brow and forced my attention to stay sharp despite all of this, and as I looked down on the rune, the line Dragir had misplaced slowly faded away.

It took more focus than I’d expected to dissolve the enchanted line, and when I pulled my focus out of the metal, there was a sharp ache behind my temples.

“How’s that?” I asked.

“Irritating,” Dragir chuckled. “Thank you.”

Dragir finished engraving the last three lines of cohesion, and when he was done, we sat in silence while we waited for the elements to settle in their places.

Finally, the room was cleared again, and I shook my head.

“That’s so disorienting,” I mused. “How can you focus with everything out of balance like that?”

“Practice,” the elf said with a shrug. “This is why sketching your rune first is very important. It’s easier to be sure your elements are correct despite their protesting. Then you only need to feel out the lines of cohesion.”

“And you have to do it all by eye for the actual engraving?”

“Yes,” Dragir replied. “Any extra lines on the surface will throw off the connection. It’s admittedly not an easy form of magic to work with.”

I grinned and gestured to the rocket. “Last rune?”

Dragir smirked, and an eager glint came to his serpentine eyes.

“Last rune,” he agreed, and he flipped the rocket around to make the engraving for the propellent.

Chapter 6

Dragir engraved an extra six rockets for the occasion, and we made our way up the path and along the cliff for a test run of the first bazooka. Cayla saw us emerge from the hidden fortress with the weapon and ammunition in hand, and she was the first to hop up and join us.

“Please tell me that’s for me,” she purred, and her blue eyes trailed along the steel shaft with a glint of longing.

“As soon as I’m certain it’s not going to kill us all, you’re on deck,” I told the princess.

Aurora trotted over with an eager grin and announced she was second in line, while Shoshanne and Deya trailed at the back with their arms looped in each other’s.

“You’re both trying this one,” I informed them. “You’ll love it, I promise.”

They nodded their consent, but I didn’t miss the uncertainty in their eyes.

Dragir looked less and less confident as we walked on, and by the time we found a clear space to set up for a trial run, he had a tense furrow on his brow.

“Perhaps the women should stand further back,” he muttered as he laid the rockets out in the grass.

“They’ve seen me almost blow my hands off before,” I told him with a grin. “Should be alright.”

“This weapon is more likely to blow you into pieces, though,” he pointed out, and I faltered slightly.

“You said the runes would work fine,” I muttered.

Dragir only shrugged. “I do not guarantee anything. This is a weapon I have never worked with, and an application I’ve never tested with rune magic.”

“Love the confidence,” I chuckled. “Let’s do this.”

Then I pulled the bazooka from the grass and turned to the women.

“First of all,” I began, “this weapon has what’s called a backblast, which means the exhaust from the initial explosion that propels the rocket is going to shoot out the back of this pipe. Always stand clear of the pipe and stay aware of where the back is facing when you turn and adjust your aim.”

The four women nodded diligently.

“Next,” I continued. “We’ll have what’s called ‘a loader’ for the battle, which will be an elf standing to our side like this … ” I gestured for Dragir to come over and help with the demonstration, and he stood at my right flank. “This person is in charge of loading the rockets for you. Tap them when you’re ready for another rocket, and they will in turn give you the all clear to fire once the bazooka’s loaded.”

“Can’t I load it myself?” Cayla asked.

“You could,” I allowed, “but it’s faster to have someone on hand for that. Now, since this is the first test run, I’ll just come out and say it … this might go horribly wrong. So, stand back a little and … I love you guys.”

The four women instantly crinkled their eyebrows nervously, and I had to chuckle at the line of nearly identical worried frowns.

“Don’t laugh,” Aurora sighed. “I hate this part, but we love you, too.”

“Sorry,” I muttered as I tried not to chuckle “You’re just cute when you’re worried.” Then I turned to Dragir to begin the trial, but the elf only gave me a stone-faced expression.

“You are not testing it,” he suddenly said. “I will test it, hand it over.”

“No way,” I countered. “I got this.”

The muscle in Dragir’s jaw twitched, and he flicked his gaze to the four women standing ten feet away. Then he leaned in and lowered his voice.

“You cannot expect me to let you do this with four women who love you standing by,” he told me. “I engraved every rune on that weapon, and I have never used any of them before. I will test it.”

He had a valid point, and I glanced back at the women to see they’d gone slightly paler since the discussion began.

“Alright,” I relented and handed the bazooka over, “but if you blow up, we’re all screwed as well. You realize this?”

“Yes,” Dragir agreed. “Let’s begin.”

I took a deep breath as I loaded the first rocket, and I spent a minute summoning my magic and checking the alignment of the contacts within the chamber and on the head of the rocket. Once I was sure all the connections were sound, I stepped back a pace and sent the elf an uneasy smile.

“You ready?” I asked Dragir, and he shifted nervously but nodded. “Go for it.”

The second Dragir pulled the trigger, a jolt of electric blue lightning shot from the lever and coursed up his arm, and the elf was thrown back at least twenty feet as the bazooka went flying into the air.

The women shrieked, and I lurched back before I sprinted over to see if he was alright.

Deya was close behind me, but she was shaking so badly with shock, she could hardly do more than stare and ask her brother repeatedly if he was alright.

Dragir’s eyes were wide and blank as he twitched lightly in the grass, but he actually chuckled when I pulled him upright.

“That was my mistake,” he said as he flexed his hand to help control the twitching. “The grounding line is not dense enough.”

“Fucking hell … ” I breathed and rifled my hair. “Are you gonna be okay? That looked like pure fucking lightning shooting through you.”

Dragir nodded and got to his feet. “It was,” he muttered. “Give me one moment, and I will fix it.”

Deya shook her head and caught him with a vice grip on his sleeve.

“You will not,” she informed him curtly, and I raised my brows as the leaves began to tremble around her.

Dragir sighed and glanced up at the trees. “Don’t do it,” he warned his sister, and he sent her an amused grin. “I can assure you, your runes hurt more than the bazooka did.”

Deya considered this for a moment before she finally released her hold, and she kneaded her hands nervously while she continued to shake with worry.

I tucked her under my arm and laid a kiss in her hair. “This is what trial runs are for,” I told her gently. “We have to make sure the weapon won’t malfunction ever again. He’ll be fine.”

Deya nodded along as I handed her off to Shoshanne, and I kept my expression as reassuring as possible until they were all well behind my back.

By the time I joined Dragir where the bazooka had landed, I was almost as tense as him.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” I muttered in as low a voice as I could manage.

“Not remotely,” he answered and pulled the engraving pick from his pocket as we crouched down in the grass.

“Which line?” I asked.

Dragir pointed to the culprit before he lifted his head to call out to the women.

“Do not move if you can manage it,” he instructed. “This will only take a moment.”

We all waited while Dragir carefully traced the forty-third degree to increase the presence of his grounding element, and after a moment of stillness, the rune settled once more, and Dragir took a deep breath.

“It is ready,” he muttered. “I think.”

I nodded and picked up the bazooka, and we returned to where the women were waiting to have another go.

The rocket was still loaded in the chamber, and I carefully double checked all of the components before I gave Dragir the all clear.

Then he took one last steadying breath, and I suspected we all cringed as he pulled the trigger.

There was a sharp zapping sound, but no sparks of blue this time, and a split second after the trigger was pulled, a shot of white flames burst from the back of the pipe before the rocket launched.

Dragir and I stared in anticipation as it coursed through the trees ahead, and the moment it hit a trunk, all six of us dropped flat on our bellies across the ground.

The explosion was three times larger than any bazooka I’d seen in the old war films, and the sound clapped deafeningly like a strike of lightning throughout the jungle. The trunk it had struck shattered as the ferns around it ignited, and I craned my neck to see how wide the zone of destruction was.

The explosion had destroyed an oblong space of about thirty feet across, and the tree took two others down with it as it blasted apart and crashed into the flaming undergrowth.

“Hoooly shit,” I laughed on the ground. “That was fucking awesome.”

Beside me Dragir was grinning from ear to ear. “It works like a bazooka, yes?” he asked, and I nodded heartily.

“Better,” I assured him. “Did you see that fucking range? That had to have been three hundred meters, and it was still flying straight.”

The women were laughing as they came over to join us, and Cayla pulled me up from the ground to give me a fiery kiss.

“You like that?” I asked her with a broad grin, and the princess kissed me once more for good measure.

“I want it,” she told me outright. “I’m next. Please! Please! Please!”

“Hold on,” I chuckled. “One more test run on me, then you’re up.”

Cayla consented and stepped a few paces back, and Dragir quickly handed the bazooka over to me.

He was still grinning as he loaded the next rocket, and once he gave the all clear, I steadied my stance and pulled the trigger.

It didn’t feel like any other weapon I’d ever fired, and I sensed the power of the rune sparking as I cinched the trigger. The connection was perfectly smooth and direct when the lever made contact with the copper, and the kick of the rocket wasn’t anything the women would have trouble with.

The rocket launched and sailed clean through the trees, and this time, we all remained exactly where we were to witness the blast.

As soon as the head collided with a boulder, a blinding flash burst out like a supernova, and an arch of white flames tipped with a violent purple immediately followed. The enchanted fire blazed with hundreds of vibrant sparks and coursed across the jungle in every direction, and it seemed to almost have a mind of its own. It wove around hungrily as it ignited everything in its path for thirty feet around, and Aurora laughed with delight as she watched the strange flames.

“I don’t suppose you can control any of this?” Dragir asked the Ignis Mage as he eyed the blaze.

Aurora didn’t even hesitate to trot off into the flaming jungle, and she raised her palms to douse the mess created by the two rockets. Within a minute, only smoke and smoldering leaves remained, and the half-elf returned with her emerald eyes glittering.

“Those flames are like nothing I’ve ever felt,” she told us as she rolled her fingertips together in fascination. “They’re so soft, but they’re somehow hotter than my white fire.”

Dragir nodded. “That is the idea,” he explained. “I thought it would be wise to use a flame hot enough to melt the armor of the Master’s soldiers.”

“Damn,” I chuckled. “That’s a nice touch.”

The elf shrugged.

“Now … it’s my turn,” Cayla insisted. “Just point and shoot, right?”

“For now,” I told her, and I helped her mount the bazooka on her shoulder before I loaded a rocket. “I’ll install the sights when we get back to the caves, but make sure you keep the nose from dipping down. Other than that, I think you know what to do.”

Cayla nodded and steadied her stance, and I admired the telltale cock of her hip as she took her aim. She looked lethal with the cold steel propped on her bare shoulders, and I couldn’t resist slapping the meat of her ass to give her the all clear.

Cayla chuckled and pulled the trigger, and the rocket sailed straight for the tree she’d had her sights on. The clap of the impact made us all jolt, and the explosion sparked wildly to tear through the jungle.

A devilish grin came to the princess’ face as she turned to me. “This is my new favorite,” she assured me and blew me a kiss.

I fought hard against the urge to rip the leather bodice from her as I eyed the steel shaft still smoking in her grip, and I grinned at the deadly glint in her eyes.

“That one’s yours,” I told her, and Cayla sent me a glittering smile as she stroked the steel affectionately.

“Thank you,” she purred. “I love everything about it.”

Dragir sighed like he hadn’t been ready to part with the weapon just yet.

“I will start on the next one,” he decided, and I chuckled as I clapped him on the shoulder.

“Five to go,” I agreed. “Lead the way.”

We left the rest of the rockets for the women to take turns with on the cliff, and I grabbed a few chunks of steel from my hoard of metal on our way into the caves.

Dragir was still grinning when he sat down at the iron table, and I was glad to see him so relaxed for once.

“I can’t believe those runes,” I mused as I split some steel apart to begin forming the next bazooka. “Three little runes, and the damn thing works like clock work.”

“I never imagined rune magic could be applied in this way,” Dragir admitted and pulled a few rockets over to work on engraving. “This wiring of yours changes everything. I could channel any rune to a specific point, and even project the powers of them from a distance. This is not easy to manage when working organically with rune magic. The ancients never dreamed of applying it in this way.”

I grinned. “You could probably invent your own electricity,” I pointed out.

Dragir furrowed his brow. “What is electricity?”

I couldn’t help chuckling to myself as I formed three identical pipes and laid them out on the table.

“Think on it for a bit,” I told the elf. “I don’t doubt you’ll get there.”

Dragir narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and turned back to the rockets to consider this.

The air became dense as I formed the next pipe, but by the time I had all five lined up and had begun on the shoulder stocks, my focus was warring with the elements in the air.

I glanced over my shoulder, and at nearly the same moment, Dragir looked up.

“Does your magic spark by chance?” he asked.

“Actually, it does,” I told him.

Dragir nodded. “Something of that nature is interrupting the connection, I think.”

“I’ll move to another room,” I decided and gathered up my materials. “I’m having trouble focusing through the elements anyways.”

I left the elf to work on his engraving and headed toward the vaulted chamber once more before I turned down the hallway that led to the room I’d locked Qiran in.

I laid everything out on the iron table against the wall, but before I began on my work, I came to the wall and carefully sifted through the stonework. I found the elven scrolls right where I’d left them, and I carefully gathered them to fold them safely in my pocket.

Then I pulled another stool up from the floor to finish forming and assembling the last five bazookas. I left all of the triggers half-assembled so Dragir could engrave the runes, and then I moved on to running the copper wiring.

When I finished, I realized even though Deya would most likely not be joining us on the battlefront, she may want a bazooka of her own someday, so I quickly created a seventh just in case.

Then I loaded all of them into my arms and headed back to the chamber where Dragir was working.

He had a pile of nearly twenty rockets finished and set aside, and the air in the chamber was heavy with the many elements he was harnessing at the moment. So, I paused on the threshold and waited to enter until Dragir lifted the engraving tool, and the rune had settled itself.

“Delivery,” I announced, and the elf’s eyes glinted when he saw the pile of bazookas. “I made an extra for your sister in case she wants one.”

Dragir snorted. “That is unlikely, but a good idea. She needs to learn to defend herself, especially if she is going to try and keep up with the likes of your women.”

I chuckled proudly and laid the bazookas out beside the rockets.

“They’ll definitely show her how it’s done,” I assured him. “I left the triggers half-assembled until the engravings are finished, but I’m gonna make sure the women aren’t having any trouble up on the cliff while you get those going.”

Dragir nodded his agreement and picked up a bazooka to begin on the trigger.

“Take a few rockets with you,” he suggested. “We can always make more.”

I thanked him and grabbed a dozen before I headed out into the hallway, and then I climbed the path that led up to the cliff.

The waves rolled heavily in the cove as I looked out across the ocean, and I noticed the nest of seaweed was empty. I eyed the horizon for any sign of the pod of dragons, but nothing appeared, and I carried on along the cliff until I found the women.

I slowed my pace as I caught sight of them, and I was glad to see the bazooka mounted on Deya’s slender shoulder.

Cayla had her hands clutched around the elf’s hips from behind, and her head was tilted over Deya’s shoulder to give her instructions.

I heard a silvery giggle drift on the breeze, and Cayla laughed as she shimmied the elf’s hips until her stance was more solid. Then she stroked Deya’s shoulder blades to adjust her posture before she slid her hand along her arm to the trigger.

Cayla gently squeezed Deya’s hand, and she held the woman tight against her front as the rocket ignited and launched into the trees.

The beautiful elf was laughing before it had even met its mark, and I chuckled as I made my way over with a new batch of rockets.

“Looks good on you,” I told the giggling elf, and she flipped around with a sparkling smile.

“Cayla’s teaching me how to shoot,” she said proudly.

“I noticed,” I told her and dragged my eyes along the ribbons on Cayla’s corset. “Mind if I watch?”

Cayla smirked and slid her hand around Deya to pull her flush against her again.

“Of course we don’t mind,” she said with a wink.

I settled in the grass with Shoshanne on one side and Aurora on the other while Cayla loaded the next rocket.

From where we sat, I could see the slip of silk that curled between Deya’s thighs, and she gave a little wiggle when she caught me staring.

I grinned and nodded my approval as Cayla sauntered up behind her, and we watched the princess give instructions while four more rockets were sent into the trees.

Aurora periodically hopped up to douse the enchanted flames, and by the time we’d all taken a few turns and gone through the pile of rockets, all of the women were raving about the bazooka.

When I told Deya I’d made her one as well, she leaped up to throw her arms around my neck and locked her legs at my waist to kiss me until I nearly stumbled off the cliff.

Aurora giggled and pulled us back, and I reluctantly righted the elf on her toes once more.

“Please tell me you’re coming north with us,” I murmured against her ear, but Cayla answered for her without pause.

“She is,” she assured me, and Deya blushed a sweet pink as she nodded her agreement.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Deya giggled. “Although, it’s probably best we don’t tell my father until it’s absolutely necessary.”

We all agreed this would be for the best, and Cayla propped the bazooka over her shoulder as she headed back toward the cove.

We found Dragir with all of the triggers completed, and he was just finishing the last few rockets I’d made early that day.

He seemed almost happy in the small chamber, and his face was surprisingly relaxed considering the amount of concentration he’d been exerting while working on the runes.

“It is easier once you begin replicating,” he explained and set another rocket aside. “But don’t let your concentration falter because of this. Each line is still just as temperamental, even if you know them all by heart.”

I nodded and sealed the other half of the hand grips. “What about the other rune we talked about?” I asked. “The one to make their operation exclusive to only us?”

Dragir rubbed his eyes and stretched. “I have to work on that, but I will dedicate all of my spare time to it while you’re in the north,” he assured me. “In the meantime, I could use some more rockets to work on for the battle.”

“You think a hundred should be good?” I asked, and the elf grinned once more.

“That sounds quite effective, yes.”

I pulled another chunk of steel over and sat down on a stool. “We’ll say one-fifty, just to be safe.”

The women decided to return to House Quyn and gather supplies while I finished up the rockets for Dragir, and once they were out of earshot, Dragir nudged my arm.

“Will you do me a favor?” he asked in a low voice.

I glanced over my shoulder and nodded.

“Do not fuck with rune magic while you are gone,” he said, and despite the wry smirk, I could tell he was completely serious. “I know you have learned a lot, but I don’t think you should practice with this until you are certain of the degrees.”

I considered this. “You’ve got a point,” I allowed. “I’ll stick to magery for now.”

“Good,” the elf nodded, “I think you have time, to be honest. I was thinking over things while I worked on the engravings … you said you could sense the imbalances of the elements in the metal. This will help you a lot in crafting your own runes. It may give you the advantage you need in learning as much as you require in a short time.”

“You really think so?” I asked.

“It is very likely,” Dragir said. “You can already sense their presence without your magery, which is impressive given that you are not familiar with the craft. If you practice identifying the different elements as they are harnessed, and commit the degree markers to memory, I think you could be forming your own runes rather soon.”

As he mentioned committing things to memory, a notion occurred to me, and I placed the two rockets I’d been forming down on the table.

“I have this ability to form visual maps in my mind,” I told him. “I do it when I’m building a lot. If I’ve seen a part before, or if I’ve formed it, the precise measurements imprint in my mind, and I can replicate them flawlessly based on this. Do you think the same would be possible with the degree markers?”

Dragir raised his brows. “If it is, this will help you greatly,” he replied. “You could envision the degrees while engraving your rune, and therefore be sure none of your etchings are misaligned.”

I let out a low whistle. “This is going to be fun.”

Dragir chuckled. “Yes, but as I said, not just yet. I mean that.”

I nodded my agreement and assured the elf I wouldn’t play around with the knowledge he’d started teaching me.

Yet.

“Where should we store the bazookas while I’m gone?” I asked as I finished forming the last of the rockets.

“Here will be fine,” Dragir decided. “No one ever comes to these caves, and I think I will stay here for a little while rather than return to the village.”

“You should,” I told him. “It’s a hell of a place.”

“It is,” he agreed. “I still have not yet explored all of the chambers.”

I furrowed my brow as we headed back into the hall. “Have you seen the one with the mural?” I asked curiously.

Dragir nodded. “It’s very complex,” he pointed out. “I have been trying to decipher the meaning of several of the images for a while now.”

“What do you think the rune on the dragon scale does?” I asked, and Dragir didn’t even need to clarify what I was referring to.

He thought in silence while we headed across the vaulted chamber and toward the mouth of the cave.

When we stopped beneath the ornate pillars, Dragir was still thinking carefully.

“There are seven degree markers on the dragon scale I do not know the corresponding elements of,” he admitted. “Several others appear to have worn away with time as well, which makes it more difficult. I know my mother was deeply in tune with the dragons, but whether she used this rune of my ancestors, I really cannot guess. She could sing a certain note that made them cry, and then climb their backs to gather the tears for medicinal purposes, though.”

I raised my brows. “Wait, that’s a true story?” I asked incredulously. “I honestly assumed that was just something you told Deya to cheer her up.”

“How could I make something like that up?” Dragir chuckled. “It’s ridiculous. But I saw her do it once when I was very young. I hardly remember any of that day, but I know she sang to the dragons and gathered their tears. Whether this has anything to do with the rune on the mural, I’m not sure.”

I shook my head as the four women appeared at the edge of the cliff above us, and they were waving wildly with bags slung over their shoulders. It looked like they were trying to say something, but their words were lost beneath the crashing of the waves in the cove.

Dragir smirked. “Apparently, my father is furious,” he informed me as he trained his ear toward the cliff. “It would be best if you headed north, I think.”

“Shit,” I sighed. “That guy’s gonna fucking kill me if I keep this up.”

Dragir nodded his agreement. “You still have the map I gave you of Nalnora?”

“I do, but I may have tarnished my reputation in the capital if I’m being honest,” I admitted. “Is there a way to avoid going through Lyralus to get to House Orrel?”

“Of course,” the elf said with a glint in his eye. “You have the Mustang.”

Chapter 7

The women had everything loaded into the trunk by the time I got to the Mustang, and I found Ruela sitting behind the wheel.

“The dog’s coming with?” I joked and received four hostile glances from the women.

“Yes, Ruela is coming with,” Deya said curtly.

I sighed and patted the massive wolf.

“Always a pleasure,” I muttered as I casually shoved her over and slid into the car.

Ruela let out a low growl and stubbornly kept herself glued to the cushion, but eventually, Deya cooed to her in Elvish, and the massive beast leapt right over the seats to join her and Cayla in the back.

Then Aurora attempted the same maneuver on me.

“I want to drive,” she grunted and shoved her ass onto my lap.

I chuckled and grabbed ahold of her so her thighs were spread around mine, and I slid my hands along her legs.

“You drove last time,” I reminded her.

The half-elf pressed herself more firmly into my lap, and she sent a coy smile over her shoulder.

“So?” she asked as she batted her blue lashes.

I grinned and let Aurora try to sway me with her allure for a bit, and she pulled my hand up to cup her breast as she rolled her hips against me. I brushed her hair aside to lay a few kisses along her neck, and she moaned softly as she slid my hand to the warm cleft between her thighs.

As I began to tease her clit, I recognized the triumphant giggle she let slip from her lips, and the half-elf gasped as I easily tipped her into the passenger seat.

“Nice try,” I chuckled, “but you’re on map duty.”

Shoshanne snorted as Aurora toppled into her.

“You can snuggle with me,” the healer offered.

Aurora let out a huff while she adjusted the silk of her bodice, but she slid her legs out to rest in my lap as she got comfortable resting against Shoshanne.

“Worth a try,” she sighed. “Where’s the map?”

I sent her a wink and handed over the map Dragir had given me, and the half-elf smirked back as she began to study it closely.

“I’m gonna get you back for that,” she muttered.

“Looking forward to it,” I assured her as I trailed my palms up her sleek legs. “Now, we need a route that’s gonna avoid Lyralus completely. The northernmost house near the coast is House Orrel, and Dragir said it’s about three leagues from the capital, so we should be able to work it out. Still, I don’t want to get lost hoofing it off road like this, so try to keep track of us, alright?”

“It looks like there’s a small road that hugs the coast once you’re directly east of the capital,” Aurora guessed as she squinted at the map. “It’s turns a lot, but it should lead us there. You better just head along the cliffs for now to make it easier. Keep an eye out though, because there’s a big red X maybe … two leagues from here, and it looks like it’s a pretty large area to try and drive around.”

I got Bobbie going and carefully reversed from the edge of the cliff where Dragir had parked her, and just as we were turning to head north, a long and sad call echoed from the cove.

Deya flipped around to lean out the window, and we all took a last look at the sea dragons coming toward the shore before we left.

Ruela let out a whine as she listened from her place on the floor, and Aurora sighed.

“I’m gonna miss those cuties,” the half-elf mused.

“I don’t want to leave them,” Deya said quietly. “I don’t know why, but I just want to be by them all the time. I’ve dreamed about them the last three nights in a row.”

Cayla brushed her hand along the elf’s shoulders. “You’ll be back again,” she assured her. “They’ll be right here waiting.”

Deya sighed sadly and sat back in her seat, and I sent her a reassuring smile.

“We’ll come straight here once we’re done at House Orrel,” I promised her. “That way Qiran can’t lock you up too fast.”

Deya sent me a sweet smile and nodded her agreement, and we left the cove and the hidden fortress behind as we began another journey north.

I was surprisingly comfortable leaving the bazookas behind with Dragir, and I’d moved most of my hoard of metal into one of the chambers for safe keeping as well. I brought a few axes along to keep stowed in the trunk, but I wasn’t too worried about the rest of the weapons for now. Dragir and Deya were probably the only elves in Nalnora I could trust not to use my own weapons against me, and if we were lucky, the head of House Orrel would make the shortlist.

I wasn’t feeling wholly confident on this, though.

I was intrigued to see what sort of rune magic was being concealed within the halls of the ancient House, especially after learning as much as I had from Dragir, and the added promise of the leader being less shallow than the elves in the capital was enough to make me almost excited.

But he was still an elf, and I’d learned to lower my expectations right off the bat.

At this point, I just hoped he wouldn’t try to kill us. That would be enough to make the trip a decent one, but scoring an allegiance with Orrel’s private army would guarantee the utter downfall of the Master’s forces.

Regardless of the resilient power of his rune, I didn’t doubt his brawny soldiers could be torn to shreds and eaten just as easily as anyone else.

The jungle opened up after we’d driven a ways along the coast, and we were able to stick to smoother terrain between tree line and the cliffs that dropped about a hundred feet to the sea.

Cayla and Deya were tucked side by side in the back while they flipped through the book of runes, and I could hear the beautiful elf murmuring the words under her breath as she scanned the pages.

Shoshanne worked on removing the cast she’d needed after the battle at House Quyn, and once she confirmed her wrist was fully healed, she scooted over to remove the stitches from my shoulder as well.

“How’s it look?” I asked as she worked.

“The muscle tissue is fusing nicely,” she told me as she lifted her healer’s bag from the floor. “The surface looks pretty angry, though. Did you do something to this?”

Shoshanne pulled a fresh jar of poultice out to apply to the skin that still hadn’t healed, and I was glad to find it barely stung anymore.

“I think it was the bazooka resting on it,” I told her, “but it’s not as sore now.”

“That makes sense,” she muttered. “This poultice should heal it within a couple days. The healers from House Quyn gave it to me to thank me for my service.”

“Are they as impressive as yourself?” I asked with a grin.

“They have different approaches,” she said thoughtfully. “Working with accelerated healing is so strange. The healers have to rebreak everything, no matter what, because the bones begin to heal in the wrong positions. They don’t have to set the breaks for any more than an hour either, because by then, the bones have already solidified enough, and it’s unnecessary to do anything besides wait.”

“That’s something I wouldn’t mind having in common with the elves,” I mused. Then I called over my shoulder to the women in the back. “Are there any runes in there for accelerated healing?”

“I’ll look,” Deya replied, “but I doubt it. Why would an elf bother with a rune that does what their body already can?”

I sighed and exchanged a glance with Shoshanne. “Spoiled elves.”

“Have you learned to create your own runes, then?” the healer asked as she returned her poultice to her bag.

“I’ve got the general idea, but it’s dangerous as hell to try and wing it,” I replied. “You know how a circle contains three-hundred and sixty degrees?”

Shoshanne nodded and rested her head against my shoulder.

“So, with rune magic, the circle is the map you work on, and every one of those degree lines is connected to an element that can be harnessed,” I explained. “But you need to counter the power of the erratic elements with grounding elements, and even then, the powers are almost fighting with one another while you’re creating the rune.”

Aurora furrowed her brow. “Can you tell they’re doing this, or is it just common knowledge?”

“You can feel them in the air, it’s pretty distracting actually,” I continued. “Then, when you’re done getting all these elements to show up, you have to feel out the imbalances in their powers and draw random lines to make them work together coherently.”

Aurora let out a low whistle. “That’s more complicated than I expected.”

“Right?” I sighed. “Dragir thinks I might be able to use my magic to help me keep track of the elemental lines, though.”

“That would be perfect,” Shoshannne mused. “Could you create your own rune to counter the Master’s rune?”

“I don’t think I need to,” I told her as I thought back to everything I’d discussed with Dragir over the last day. “The Master’s rune is an inward force. One of the degree lines on it signifies the power of the elements he’s harnessed act inwardly on anything that wears it, but the outward degree isn’t marked. Which means the rune can’t affect anything outside of itself. I want to create an offensive rune that could help me in direct combat against the Master himself.”

“What would it do?” Aurora asked.

“No idea,” I chuckled. “Something fucking awesome, hopefully.”

Deya leaned forward to rest her elbows on the back of my seat. “Would you brand it or use a pendant?”

“I’m leaning toward a pendant,” I told her as I considered Dragir’s warning. “Anything violent tends to be a real mind-fuck to live with I think.”

“I wonder if that’s why Dragir dislikes his rune,” Deya mused, “because it’s violent?”

I decided to sidestep the question.

“It’s why the Master’s rune is so powerful,” I pointed out. “If you can’t maintain the separation between yourself and the rune that’s branded on you, it can overrun your consciousness. So, his soldiers will get worse the longer they live with the rune.”

“That sounds horrible,” Shoshanne muttered.

“Then our only choice is to kill them all,” Aurora concluded. “I mean, how do you reverse a branding?”

“You don’t,” I replied. “That’s why it’s smart and stupid at the same time. No one can separate you from the power of the rune you’re wearing, which means they can’t use it against you. But you’re also stuck with the rune and whatever it’s telling you forever.”

Shoshanne lifted her head. “Telling you?”

“They sort of whisper,” Deya explained. “Here, hold still.”

The beautiful elf slipped her necklace off to place it around Shoshanne’s neck, and I glanced over to see the healer’s eyes slowly widen.

“I can’t understand what they’re saying … ” Shoshanne muttered as she furrowed her brow in concentration. “There’s so many of them.”

Deya giggled. “They also speak in Elvish,” she told her, “but some of them whisper about the wind or water, and a few of them are constantly going on about concealment and transparency. It depends what elements they harness, I suppose. Since I have so many runes, it all tends to blend together to me, but overall, I feel secure when I listen to them.”

Shoshanne shook her head in amazement as she removed the necklace.

“They sound beautiful,” she decided. “but I can’t imagine how the Master’s rune sounds … ”

“I’m gonna guess it’s much less comforting,” I offered with a wry smile.

Deya let Aurora wear her necklace next, and she’d just slipped it over Cayla’s head when Shoshanne leaned over the half-elf to look out at the ocean.

“What’s that?” the healer asked.

I was busy navigating the thin strand of terrain I had available, and as she asked the question, it occurred to me we must be coming close to the red X that had been on the map.

“Hey, where’s that X supposed to be?” I asked Aurora, but the women were all looking out toward the horizon.

Then the wheels seemed to snag in something, and I pumped the accelerator to get us back up to speed. It didn’t make any difference, though, so I tried steering us toward the jungle as we continued to slow down.

“Mason … ” Cayla said.

“Give me a second, I’ll fix it,” I muttered as I tried pumping the accelerator once more.

“Mason … ” Cayla tried again.

“Yeah, I’ve got it,” I grunted.

The car was nearly at a full stop now, and I focused all of my attention on the channeling gem at the center of the steering wheel. I tried to force more power into the wheels so they would turn, but it was like the gem had suddenly run out of gas or something.

When the car stopped completely, I finally realized we were slowly sinking into the ground, and I leaned out my window to see the studded tires were more than half embedded in the earth.

“Godsdamnit,” I sighed. “I think that X was quicksand.”

“That might be a problem,” Aurora informed me, “because whatever the hell that is, it’s getting bigger.”

“What?” I asked as I turned in confusion, but then I noticed something out on the horizon, and I leaned toward the window as well. “What is that?”

“That is what I was trying to tell you about,” Cayla said.

“Is it water?” Shoshanne asked, and she squinted into the glare of the sun.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I mumbled as the thing slowly drew closer to shore. It stretched for miles in each direction, and it had grown large enough to begin casting its own shadow across the surface of the sea.

A tidal wave.

I quickly slid back to the driver’s side and climbed out the window.

“We have to get the fuck out of here,” I told the women as I summoned my Terra Magic to try and free Bobbie’s tires.

“Why?” Deya asked nervously. “What’s happening?”

“Well … ” I muttered as I tried to adjust the soil beneath me. “We’re currently sinking further into the ground, and that thing out there is called a tsunami, which means we’re gonna die if we don’t get this car moving fast.”

“What is a tsunami?” Aurora demanded. “Does it have wings?”

I couldn’t help chuckling despite the fact that the ground wasn’t cooperating at all with my efforts. Maybe the humor was just my way of processing the terror rushing toward us.

“It’s not a creature,” I told the half-elf. “It’s a wave caused by a force on the ocean floor that’s strong enough to build into a wall of water. Once that wall reaches land, it’s gonna drown us and drag us out to sea.”

“What?” Cayla gasped. “Get us out of here!”

“Like I said … ” I grunted as I pulled my feet free from the Earth, “I’m working on it, but this fucking sand is being a pain in the ass.”

I kept sinking as I tried to find solid ground, but eventually I was on a sturdy enough surface to focus again. I tried solidifying the dirt since I could easily break it open to free the Mustang from there, but the substrate wouldn’t change. Then I tried seeping into the quicksand, and instead of altering its state, I worked on reversing the direction is was shifting. I tried pushing the ground upward, and slowly, the tires began to reappear.

“Mason, it’s getting closer … ” Aurora warned. “Are you sure it can reach us up here?”

I furrowed my brow and kept trying to force the weight of the Mustang upward. “Does it look big enough to reach us?” I asked.

“Yes,” Shoshanne said flatly.

“There you have it,” I grunted.

The women began to curse as panic set in, and they yelled orders at me to get the car moving while Ruela began growling from all of the agitation.

The suction of the sand fought against my magic, and it got stronger the more I lifted the Mustang. So, I split my magic, and while I fought against the pull of the ground with my Terra Magic, I sent my metal magic into the frame of the car to try and lift it along.

My mind ached with the effort, and I called out to Aurora as I realized it wouldn’t be enough. “Focus on the channeling gem,” I told her. “Get the wheels going.”

Aurora quickly sat behind the wheel and channeled all of her intention into the gem, and as I managed to lift the car another few inches, the tires began to slowly spin in the dense Earth. After another minute, it rose enough to reach the surface, and I propelled the car forward while Aurora continued commanding the power of the gem.

I kept my powers split as I felt through the terrain to find the edge of the sinkhole, and nearly forty feet ahead, the ground regained its normal state again.

We managed to get it there without sinking again, and I sprinted along the tree line to catch up as I eyed the crest of the wave. It was gathering both speed and size and looked to have shifted toward the north, and the moment I dove into the window of the car, I told Bobbie to get us out of there.

With my foot practically buried in the accelerator, we picked up even more speed, and we barreled along the edge of the cliff at what must have been close to ninety miles an hour.

“Can we take cover in the jungle?” Cayla called out over the wind, but I shook my head.

“We can’t get this kind of speed on that terrain,” I called back. “The wave will reach us before we get out of range in there.”

Deya began rambling nervously in Elvish as she worked to calm Ruela down, and my gut dropped as a shadow slowly blocked out the sun.

“Mason!” Aurora hollered anxiously, and my grip tightened on the wheel as I increased our speed another measure.

“Shoshanne,” I called, “push the wave back!”

“What?” she shrieked.

“Blow it back,” I ordered. “Wind can control waves. Throw everything you’ve got at it, now!”

Shoshanne nodded and crawled to the window, and then she raised her palms toward the wave as a violent wind whirled around us.

We sped along the edge of the cliff while the Aer Mage fought against the wall of water, but the force of her powers began shifting the tires dangerously, and I realized I was beginning to lose control over the car.

“Dial it back!” I hollered to Shoshanne.

“I can’t,” she yelled back. “I’m barely holding the water off as it is. It’s too strong!”

“Shit,” I cursed, and I reached over to grab Aurora’s arm. “Take the wheel!”

I pulled the half-elf over me as I moved to the other side of the car, and my heart damn near stopped when I saw the wave.

The crest arched a good sixty feet above the cliff, and the water continued to course upward as it hungrily gathered more fuel. I looked back to see the tsunami had already begun to break across the jungle, and the stout trees bent like twigs under the force.

“Shit,” I cursed once more, and I raised my palms toward the ocean.

I knew some sort of shifting on the ocean floor must have caused the wave, and I hoped a force just like it would be enough to send it back out to sea.

I let my magic follow the edge of the cliff down into the ocean, and then I pushed further until I finally found the bottom. The water must have been about thirty feet deep along the coast here, and I hoped we’d have enough time before the wave was too close to control.

I closed my eyes and broke a fissure along the floor of the ocean, and then I forced the two plates apart. The pressure of the water was almost too heavy to work against, but it served me well when I’d reached the width I wanted.

With a last surge of my magic, I slammed the fissure shut, and I could feel the shock of the force resonate up into the water I’d disturbed.

I opened my eyes and held my breath as the wave began to engulf the jungle only twenty feet behind us, but then the wall of water seemed to shudder.

A giant chasm suddenly broke across the belly of the wave, and it collapsed in on itself as the force from the fissure reached the surface.

The tsunami shook apart with an unnerving roar, and it crashed into a torrent of violent waves that rolled out in every direction as the weight of the wall pummeled the cliffside in the chaos.

We could feel the tremors of the ground through the base of the car, but Aurora kept us at top speed, and as water crashed around us, we were actually able to keep from being pulled over the edge with it.

The wave had lost more than half its strength when it broke apart, and as Shoshanne worked to repel the last few waves, we finally managed to make it out of range of the aftermath.

When I leaned far out the window to look back, I saw the cliffs begin to break away as trees were dragged from the jungle and out to sea.

“Holy shit,” I breathed, and relief washed over me. “It fucking worked.”

Then Aurora hollered from inside the car.

“Hold on!” she warned.

I whipped around to see the dense jungle straight ahead, and I dropped into the seat and braced myself just as Aurora barreled into the brush at top speed.

Shoshanne lurched, but I caught her and locked her against me before she could hit the dashboard, and all of the women shrieked wildly while we bounded over logs and through ferns. Ruela growled and grappled with her claws to get her footing, and her weight slammed against the back of the seat as she rolled around.

Then we hit a boulder and were abruptly thrown into the air, and we sailed between another wall of trees to come crashing out onto a road.

Aurora gasped and tried to gain control of the car, and I grabbed her leg to force her foot down on the brake.

Both of us had the steering wheel in a vice grip as the Mustang fishtailed across the dirt, and Aurora was white as a sheet when we finally came to a grinding stop.

“The one on the left is stop,” I mumbled, and we all sat in shocked silence while we stared down into the giant ravine we’d almost dropped into.

Chapter 8

Once we’d recovered enough to leave the Mustang, I unsealed the doors, and Ruela took off like a bat out of hell to disappear into the trees. Deya insisted she’d come back eventually, but it was just as well that we were stuck waiting, since Aurora hadn’t returned either.

The half-elf had stumbled a little on her feet before she headed up the road a ways, and I hadn’t seen her since.

Shoshanne followed after her to be sure she was alright while I assessed the damage from the boulder, and when the healer returned, she told us to give Aurora some time to calm down. Apparently, she didn’t even light anything on fire, she just sat down at the edge of the ravine and wouldn’t say anything.

Which was concerning, to be honest. Aurora generally got off on near death experiences.

So, I decided to give her some time like Shoshanne suggested while I readjusted the alignment of the tie rods and installed some solid grab bars, but if Aurora didn’t show up by the time I was done, I would go and find her to make sure she was alright.

The axes I had stored in the trunk from the soldiers of House Syru were more than large enough, so I took two of them out and carefully siphoned a solid chunk of tungsten from each one. They still held their shape, only now they were at least ten pounds lighter, which would probably be a good idea if the women needed to wield one anyways.

I came around the side of the Mustang with the fresh tungsten in hand, and then I split off a smaller chunk and dropped into the passenger seat.

I’d have to keep an eye out for a material I could use for seat belts, but for now, I wanted to install some grab bars in the front and back. We’d been lucky enough to escape the tsunami and our rocky ride through the jungle with only some bad bruising, but I didn’t want to have any repeat scenarios.

This way, we’d all have something solid to grab onto in case we needed it.

I formed a solid, two-inch thick bar from the tungsten and fused it to the steel of the ceiling with three sturdy mounts, and then I tested the strength with my full weight to be sure the bar was strong enough. I did the same on the driver’s side too before I moved on to the back seat.

As I worked, I glanced up to check on my women. Cayla was cool and collected as always once she’d walked off her jitters, and she perched on the trunk with an arm wrapped around Deya’s shoulders while the beautiful elf kept her eyes trained on the trees where Ruela had last been seen.

Everyone but the princess was badly shaken after the ordeal along the cliff, and Shoshanne came around to each of us and applied a special poultice to the bruises we’d earned from the steel interior.

It smelled a little like peppermint and cooled the swelling immediately, but I thought there must be something extra in it, because after I’d been working in the car for a few minutes, I noticed a heady sort of high that seemed to calm my nerves completely.

So, I called Shoshanne over while I began forming a long two-inch bar to fuse across the ceiling above the backseat.

“What’s in that poultice?” I asked her with a suspicious glance.

The healer shrugged. “Nothing,” she replied. “Herbs, oils. You know … the usual.”

I nodded. “Is that why I’m stoned right now?”

The healer blushed. “Fine,” she admitted, “there’s some Aldrin pollen in it, too.”

I sent Shoshanne a sly grin. “Like the trees at Howleigh?” I clarified, and the healer nodded. “Damn. Not bad.”

“I figured we could all use a little help calming down,” Shoshanne giggled. “Topically, Aldrin works wonderfully for pain, but inhaling it obviously comes with some side effects … ”

“That’s what that is,” Cayla chuckled from her spot on the trunk. “I thought I’d forgotten how to give a shit for a minute.”

“I feel fantastic,” Deya announced, and she rested her head on Cayla’s shoulder with a dreamy sigh.

I shook my head and tested my weight on the grab bar in the back, and then I climbed out and joined the three women near the back of the Mustang.

All of their eyes were lazily hooded, and they sent me sweet smiles as I propped my elbow on the trunk.

“Looking good, ladies,” I chuckled as I admired their stoned expressions.

“Will Aurora be okay?” Deya asked.

“I’m gonna go check on her,” I told the beautiful elf. “I’m sure she’ll be alright, though. She kinda likes almost dying once in a while.”

“I don’t know,” Shoshanne muttered. “I think she’s actually shaken up this time.”

I furrowed my brow as I tried to imagine the half-elf shaken up. She’d been running headlong into disasters with me ever since I came to this realm, and she had a fiery way of embracing danger that I both admired and sort of feared.

Then I remembered the time I’d almost gotten crushed by a tunnel collapse in Orebane, and I realized I might know what was up.

I sighed and stretched my muscles out a bit, and the bruising on my arms and back didn’t even ache anymore thanks to Shoshanne’s special poultice. The smell of the Aldrin pollen radiated in a cloud around all of us, and as Cayla and Deya tipped to sprawl back against the window, I decided we’d have to dip into this poultice more often.

“How long have you had this stuff floating around in that bag of yours?” I asked the healer.

“House Quyn’s healers gave it to me,” she said as she hopped up to join the other two. “It’s a pretty simple recipe. I think I’ll keep this one around.”

“I like it,” Cayla sighed.

“More please … ” Deya added.

I grinned. “I’m gonna go talk to Aurora,” I told the women. “We’ll be on our way as soon as she’s feeling better.”

Shoshanne nodded her agreement, and I left the women to relax for a while as I strolled up the dirt road to look for the half-elf.

The cliff here was thickly wooded along the road so the ocean was only barely visible through the branches, and on my other side, dense green mountains rolled out for miles to the north and west. From the high road, I could see the towers of Lyralus off in the distance, and a few sphinxes circled in the sky above the jungle’s lower valleys.

If I squinted, I could just make out the snowy peaks of Orebane from this altitude, but the air around me was heavy with humidity and made the dwarven region seem even further away. Still, it was quiet and peaceful on the road, except for the occasional call of a bird in the ravine, and I took a deep breath as the heady scent of the Aldrin pollen wafted around me.

Despite almost dying from a rogue tsunami, it was really kind of nice to be on the road again, and the views always seemed to be shifting in Nalnora every time we set out. I took in the scenery as I ambled up the hill, and soon, I found Aurora with her knees pulled up against her where she sat at the edge of the road.

She stared blankly into the void of the ravine below her, and I sat down at her side as I leaned in to murmur in her ear.

“Hey beautiful.”

Aurora only blinked in response, so I scooched closer to settle my arm around her shoulders, and I considered the gnarled plants that tangled around one another as they spilled into the steep ravine.

“You doing alright?” I tried.

Aurora snorted. “How can you ask me that? I almost killed all of you.”

“No … that giant wave almost killed all of us,” I corrected. “You got us out of there alive.”

Aurora shook her head, and I nudged her with my leg.

“Seriously,” I told her. “You saved our asses. You can’t control where the trees grow.”

“I know,” she groaned and dropped her face into her hands, “but that was fucking scary, and everyone was screaming, and I love you guys, but I couldn’t--”

She trailed off as she shook her head again, and I reached over to pull her hands from her face.

“Yeah, it was fucking scary,” I agreed, “and we’re all okay. You didn’t let the car get pulled off a cliff, and neither of us let the car drive off a mountain. We’re both winning today if you think about it.”

I held out my hand for a high five, and Aurora chuckled as she reluctantly delivered.

“That’s one way to look at it.”

“It’s the only way to look at it,” I said with a grin. “So, let’s get back on the road, yeah?”

Aurora’s grin fell, and she shook her head again.

“Come on … ” I tried as I jostled her playfully. “I’ll even let you drive this time.”

The half-elf sent me a livid glance, and I sighed as I propped myself back on my elbows. We looked out across the mountains for a minute in silence, and I tried to think of something to get my half-elf back to herself again.

“You can fuck me if you want,” I offered as a hail mary.

Aurora’s hand shot out and grabbed me by the belt.

Then she pulled me to my feet and headed down the road as she dragged me behind her.

I raised my brows and stumbled along while Aurora kept her grip locked on my belt.

When we reached the Mustang, the three women glanced over their shoulders at the sound of my boots scuffing over the dirt, and I sent them half a grin.

“We’re ready to go,” I mumbled, and Aurora whipped me around to shove me into the back seat.

Shoshanne snorted. “I’ll drive.”

“What about Ruela?” Cayla asked from outside of the car.

“I believe our earlier ordeal might have frightened her,” Deya replied, “but she will be fine. She knows these jungles, and she knows the way back home.”

I struggled to right myself after being pushed backward into the car, and Deya and Cayla slid in beside me as I got settled.

“Hey guys … ” I said with a hazy grin, but then Aurora ripped my belt open for me.

I quickly resealed the doors of the Mustang as Bobbie gave a deep growl, and the half-elf tore the clasps on her silk bodice open with a single yank.

My jaw naturally unhinged as she slid her naked thighs around me to straddle my lap, and I firmly gripped her plush hips without hesitating.

I dragged my palms along her curves and her slender waist to settle them on her breasts, and Aurora forced my head back to delve her tongue into my mouth.

I had just started to tease her nipples when Aurora caught my wrists and pinned my arms to the seat at my back, and I groaned as I took in the supple curves only inches in front of me.

“Wha--I can’t even touch you?”

“I told you I’d get you back,” she warned, and the two women on either side of me took my arms.

“Godsdamnit,” I muttered as I eyed the ample breasts begging for my attention, and my lust only built up when Aurora sent me my favorite devilish grin.

Then she leaned to bite at my neck, and as her teeth sank into my flesh, a surge of heat shot through me. The half-elf shifted her thighs and began slowly sliding herself across my cock to tease me, and I fought the urge to flip her around and take her right then.

I let her have her way, though, and my breath hitched as she dug her nails into my chest and slowly slid me inside of her.

One inch at a time.

“I said you could fuck me, not torture me,” I groaned, but Aurora only smirked and continued to take her time letting me have her.

She brushed the bud of her nipples across my lips just to tempt me, but she moved away whenever I tried for a taste, and then she locked my neck in her grip to slowly pull me from her slick center.

I ripped my arms free to bring her hips against me again, but Aurora immediately tightened her punishing hold on my neck as I chuckled, and then she sent the two women beside me a coy glance.

Cayla and Deya took my arms once more, and this time, they locked me by my wrists and brought my hands between their thighs.

I slid my fingers into both of them at once to find them wet with arousal, and as they sighed their approval, Aurora finally loosened her grip and took my full length into her.

Her tight center burned for me as she began to gently roll her hips in tantalizing circles, and the two women watched her and began to pant while I caressed them.

The half-elf giggled and blew me a kiss as I dragged my eyes along her sultry curves, but she shook her head the moment I leaned in toward her lips.

I groaned again and let my head drop back as my desire only grew, but then Aurora held me there to sink her teeth into me once more.

I tightened my hold on the two women as the pain heightened, and Deya moaned while Cayla rolled against me for more. So, I slid another finger inside of her and rubbed their clits simultaneously as I forced myself deeper, and they braced themselves on the steel behind them while they watched Aurora tear into me.

The half-elf bit at the muscles of my shoulders and chest while she trailed her tongue across me, and I jolted as bursts of pain rippled from my neck to my arms, but I let her get as rough as she wanted.

Cayla and Deya trembled from the motion of my fingers, and they started to writhe against my grip without reserve.

Then Aurora finally released her bite to grab onto the bar above her, and her breasts heaved against me as her thrusts became more insistent.

I bit my lip and watched her while she shrieked my name, and the heat that began radiating from the Ignis Mage coursed straight through my cock to the base of my spine.

I could hardly hold back as her thrusts came harder each minute, and I took out my frustration on the two women moaning beside me. They clutched their hair and began to fight to keep breathing, and they each let out whimpers of pleasure as Aurora’s taut walls began to spasm around my cock.

The half-elf drove herself firmly against me to bury me deeper inside of her, and I could feel the pulse of her climax as she let out a feral moan and clutched at the bar to steady herself.

I finally let myself climax, and my cum shot up into Aurora’s accepting body by the cup full as the three women quivered simultaneously around me. Then I shook slightly beneath Aurora while she gradually slowed her thrusts and let out a satiated sigh.

Then she trailed her tongue across my lips with a little smirk, and before I’d even eased up on the other two women, Aurora flipped around to climb into the front seat and take the wheel.

“Fucking hell … ” I sighed as I watched the fiery woman go, but then she ordered Shoshanne to the back seat.

I hadn’t moved an inch when Cayla suddenly slid her leg up to straddle me next, and I felt Shoshanne pull my fingers into her as Deya shifted to tear Cayla’s corset open.

Her heavy breasts tumbled free in front of me, but when I moved to take her by the hip, my free hand was immediately dragged away for Deya once more.

“My turn,” Cayla purred against my lips. “Don’t move.”

I let each of the women take turns doing what they wanted with me for the next hour while we drove along the road to the north, and once Deya had finished making Cayla and Shoshanne bite her while she fucked me with my hands locked to the grab bar, we finally collapsed into a heap in the backseat.

I summoned my magic to undo the tungsten shackles Shoshanne had ordered me to lock my wrists in, and the healer let out a husky giggle as she traced a slender finger along the bruises on my neck.

The teeth marks on her supple breasts were already beginning to bloom a deep purple, and I couldn’t count how many times I’d been clawed at since Aurora threw me into the back of the car.

I was more than happy to oblige the four women though, especially when they left trails of kisses wherever the damage was particularly brutal.

Shoshanne’s teeth had broken through the skin on both sides of my neck, but then she let me bend her over the front seats until she shrieked through another orgasm to make up for it.

Now, Cayla was laid out across my lap with her head resting against Deya’s breasts, while Shoshanne left a slow trail of kisses along my shoulder and periodically grabbed my chin to pull me to her lips.

“I can’t move my arms,” I chuckled, and Aurora caught my eye in the rearview mirror.

“Good,” she said with a smirk.

I grinned back. “You let me know when you wanna take out any other frustrations on me.”

“Deal,” Aurora said, “but you still owe me some new chains first.”

I raised my brows, and the three naked women around me giggled their approval.

“Hopefully, House Orrel has sturdy bed posts,” Cayla mused.

“I think we’re getting close, by the way,” Aurora called back, and she dropped the map over the seat.

I caught it, laid it out across Cayla’s breasts, and trailed my finger along the road for longer than necessary just to make her squirm a bit.

When her cheeks began to turn a light pink, I knew I’d found her sweet spot, and I teased her a little longer before I sent her a roguish grin.

“You know I hit harder than Aurora,” she warned, and she parted her legs as she leveled me with a heated look.

“More?” I asked, and when she nodded, I slid my hand up the length of her leg to oblige the princess once more. I gently stroked the moist flesh between her thighs to ease her into my touch, and she let out a satisfied sigh as her eyes fell shut.

Then I noticed Deya slide her slender fingers between her own legs while she watched me with Cayla.

Shoshanne chuckled and took over the map to find out where we were, and while Deya looked on, I stooped to flick my tongue across Cayla’s nipples.

The princess hitched her leg up higher and clutched at my wrist, and she moved me inside of her as her breath began to quicken.

Then a slight moan slipped from Deya’s lips, and as I drew Cayla’s nipple into my mouth, I tilted my head to watch the beautiful elf pleasure herself.

The moment Cayla climaxed again, Deya threw her head back, and her sigh of longing sent a carnal surge through every limb of my body.

I shifted Cayla aside to pull Deya closer, and I dropped down to kneel on the floor and take her from behind this time.

She was so tight I couldn’t resist emptying myself into her one last time, and I pinned the beautiful elf firmly in place by the meat of her ass. Deya shrieked with every thrust as I hungrily pushed deeper, and as she began to quiver with pleasure, she braced herself on the seat and let me pound into her.

Aurora said something from the front seat, but the words were lost in the sound of Deya’s ecstasy, and I didn’t let up.

Then Shoshanne quickly crawled over to clamp a firm hand over Deya’s mouth, and when the beautiful elf immediately climaxed between our holds, I finally released myself deep in her trembling center.

I was still throbbing insatiably inside Deya when Aurora cleared her throat, and as I glanced over my shoulder, I finally noticed the car was stopped.

“What’s up?” I asked as I worked to steady my breath, but Deya was already grinding against me and asking for more.

I clutched her hips and stooped to trail my lips up her spine, and as she bucked in response, Aurora giggled behind me.

“So … that stone archway is the gate to House Orrel,” she pointed out. “I figured I’d stop here until Deya was done being fucked by the wrong guy, but you two just let me know when you’re done.”

Deya giggled as I pulled myself out of her, and Shoshanne couldn’t help but laugh when I began scrambling to find our clothes.

“You definitely could have said something sooner,” I muttered to the half-elf as I scanned the trees ahead to be sure there were no guards who could have heard us.

Aurora shrugged. “I could have,” she allowed, “but I was enjoying the view. You two go at it like animals, I like it.”

I sighed and reached over the seat to catch her neck in my grip, and the naked half-elf lazily laid her head back to send me a wink.

I couldn’t even be irritated with her when she melted against me like that, so I just kissed her and shook my head before I grabbed my pants from the floor and unsealed the doors.

I tripped out onto the road as I struggled to get dressed as quickly as possible, but Cayla sauntered out behind me fully naked and at ease.

“What?” she said with a smirk as I raised my brows. “I’m not forbidden goods.”

The porcelain beauty tousled her jet-black hair, and I leaned against the car to admire her flawless curves while she casually dressed herself right out in the open.

Then she shimmied her hips for me as she bent across the edge of the trunk, and I took my time cinching the ribbons of her corset to lock her in her leather once more.

When I finished the final loop, I came around to the passenger’s side to climb in beside Aurora, and I rubbed my aching neck as the bruises began to swell.

“Everyone ready?” I asked.

Aurora snorted. “As soon as Deya’s presentable.”

“Already on it,” the healer sighed, and I turned to see her applying a soft white paste to Deya’s slender neck.

The elf smiled sweetly and sent me a wave, and I took a steadying breath as I turned forward to look at the ancient archway of House Orrel.

I still couldn’t see any guards around, and as far as I could tell, the road and jungle leading to the entrance was completely deserted.

“We’ve got this,” I mumbled to myself.

“It might be too late to ask,” Aurora muttered, “but … do you have a shirt to cover all that up?”

“Nope.”

“Well … just tell them you got attacked by something,” she suggested.

I glanced down at the bloody claw marks all over my shoulders and chest, and the bruising on my neck throbbed angrily as I did.

“Yeah, that’ll work,” I decided. “Next time, though, we’re taking a break from the biting. Don’t get me wrong, I dig it, but I can’t turn my head for shit now.”

The four women giggled proudly and refused to make any promises, and I rolled my eyes as I gestured for Aurora to take us onward.

Chapter 9

The road didn’t really end at House Orrel, it was more like the jungle swallowed it up before it made it there. We stopped where the undergrowth began, and ahead of us, a steady stream rippled down from beneath the base of the massive arch to wind its way toward the ocean.

We must have descended since Aurora dragged me to the car, because the mountains loomed above us at our backs now, and the air smelled like brine and seaweed again.

As we stepped into the jungle and slowly made our way towards the arch, the dappled sunlight shone through the canopy and illuminated the fine mist and small bugs drifting around the place. Moss grew over the ground and every rock in sight, and it made an honest effort at overtaking the archway as well. Where the moss ended, old vines that had lost their leaves years ago wound around the aged stones, and fresh vines grew right over them with soft green leaves and cascading flowers that draped down from the top. I could see the nest of some bird peeking over the upper ledge, and I craned my neck to take in the hundred-foot structure as we drew closer.

“Are those the steps?” Cayla asked, and I looked at the stream that poured gently from the base.

Beneath the water, it did look like brittle steps led upward and through the arch, and as I looked around the misty glade, I didn’t see anything else resembling an entrance.

“Must be,” I decided, and I carefully stepped up into the water.

The stones weren’t too slippery, but they were well worn from age and running water. We stepped lightly as we made our way up the large staircase, and when we came to the top, we were looking out at a lagoon on the edge of the sea.

Stagnant inlets wove between trees that looked larger than any we’d seen in the south, and the low-lying branches grew heavily in a knotted and winding fashion. Their leaves provided such thick cover that everything took on a deep green cast, and even the water was more green than blue here.

We left the stream to follow the mossy undergrowth toward a small dock at the edge of the nearest inlet, and a single elf with no weaponry sat with his legs crossed on the rotted planks. He had his back turned to us, but he spoke in Elvish as we got closer, and Deya responded kindly while she came to his side.

The elf nodded to the water in front of him, and a boat drifted from around the bend to our left with no one in it. When it came to a stop at the foot of the dock, Deya stepped in, and I noticed the water didn’t even ripple in response. She sent us a sweet smile and beckoned us forward, and we all strode past the seated elf to climb into the boat.

It rocked with our weight as the five of us tried to fit, but it stayed afloat despite how rickety the wood looked.

Then I glanced over at the elf on the dock, and I realized he didn’t have any pupils or irises.

His eyes were entirely white, and his face was pale and deeply lined with age. His head was completely bald, and he wore a dull brown robe that looked like it had never been cleaned in the elf’s long life. He didn’t speak to us again, but he raised a shaky hand toward the water, and the boat suddenly began to drift from the dock.

I didn’t even bother to rein in the grin on my face as the boat took us out into the inlet, and I looked up at the stout branches that wove not high above our heads.

“Is he blind?” Aurora asked quietly as she kept her eye on the elf across the water.

“Not exactly,” Deya replied. “I’ve only heard of this sort of magic, but Dragir says those who practice this craft do not see what is in front of them, but rather all else. Their vision drifts far from them, but I do not know where it goes.”

My grin only grew. “Hell yes,” I sighed as I looked around the lagoon. “This is what I had in mind when I came to Nalnora. This right here.”

Cayla chuckled. “You imagined House Orrel?”

“Yes,” I said with a hearty nod. “This is the kind of shit I’ve only read about in books. It’s … ”

“Ancient,” Deya finished for me. “This is what the old world was like.”

“I love the old world,” I decided as we drifted around a bend and the elf on the dock disappeared from view.

More inlets wound ahead of us and intersected all over the place, but my eyes were glued to the structures with small lanterns glowing at their doorsteps.

Hovel-type homes were built around the bases of the ancient trees, and moss grew over every roof and steppingstone in sight. Vines hung down and created curtains of flowers along the edges of the water here and there, and mounds of mushrooms dotted the walkways leading to the wooden doors.

We didn’t see any of the inhabitants, but as the boat took us through the maze of inlets, the hovels seemed to go on and on, with a lantern glowing outside each one. Above us, small orbs of amber light dotted the gnarled branches, and their light glittered on the surface of the deep green water. I noticed the golden glint of a pair of eyes between the limbs as I studied the strange orbs, and only when the creature’s head turned to follow us, did I recognize the feathers of the owl.

Once I caught sight of one, I began seeing owls everywhere, and I counted at least fifteen quietly watching from the shadows of the dense canopy.

Then the boat turned us inland, and sunlight shone ahead as we left the maze of inlets behind us.

Where the ancient trees dispersed, a glade opened up at the base of a steep valley, and in the center of the glade, a structure as ancient as the archway we’d walked through was practically overrun with plant life.

The canal ended at another rotting dock, and an elf with white eyes sat waiting with his own hand extended. He looked younger than the elf we’d met on the other side, but not by much, and his humble robes were the same dull brown.

The boat drifted to a stop, and I thanked the elf as we climbed onto the dock, but he didn’t turn or respond at all. He lowered his arm to rest on his folded knee, and Deya walked past him to lead us to a mossy pathway.

The sunlight shone bright throughout the glade while we followed the pathway, and Shoshanne pointed to seven different medicinal plants she recognized as we went. They grew wildly all over the place in various shades of yellow and green, but the aged stonework of House Orrel was covered in a myriad of vines and moss that left only the topmost towers visible.

The main entrance lay beneath a domed roof that must have been copper at one time but had aged to a mottled green beneath the vines, and blooms of lichen dotted the stonework in its shadow.

More steps that had clearly survived the test of time stretched high up to the entryway, and when we finally made it to the top, I turned to see the dim inlets glowing with dotted light far behind us.

There were no doors barring the entrance to House Orrel, and we walked into the shade of the dome to find the walls on the backside opened up to a long walkway whose roof was supported with old stone columns.

To our right and left, the dome was open to the air except for two arching doorways, and an elf in white robes stood waiting at the doors on our right.

We came toward him with Deya leading the way, and when she spoke to the guard, he bowed low before responding.

Then he said two words, and the doors at his back opened themselves.

I followed the four women through the lofty doors, and we all slowed to a stop as we looked around at the aged hall. It reminded me a lot of the hall of the Elven Council, with the floors cracked open to allow ferns and moss to grow up all around, and vines with bright yellow flowers grew in through the large circular windows.

Humble stone benches lined a few of the walls, and white-robed elves moved silently and without haste as they crossed from one side of the chamber to the other on their way to other halls. They carried stacks of books and linens in their arms, but some pushed carts with large cauldrons or goblets.

No one looked as us as we walked out into the hall, and the few who spoke to one another kept their voices low without seeming to comment on our presence at all. We crossed the chamber and headed to the identical arching doorway on the other side, where an elf much like the last guard stood waiting.

He bowed lowly to Deya, and then she spoke with him for a few minutes. Judging by her gestures, it seemed like she was explaining our errand here, and the elf nodded solemnly along before the doors at his back opened themselves. He turned to lead us into the next chamber himself, but he stopped midway into the room to turn and address all of us in Elvish.

Deya listened carefully and nodded her agreement, and then the elf turned to me and asked me something I couldn’t understand.

I looked at Deya for an explanation, and the beautiful elf had a silly grin on her face.

“He is asking why you are not dressed appropriately to meet with their leader,” she told me, and I turned to see the guard eyeing my chest and shoulders before he studied the shadows around my eyes more carefully.

“I got attacked by something,” I said mechanically. “Some … creature. It was pretty intense.”

To my surprise, the elf nodded his understanding and gestured to a passing elf to speak with him in a low voice, and Aurora managed to rein in the grin on her face by the time he turned back to us.

Then the guard motioned toward a long bench against the aged wall, and he left through the doors we’d entered from without another word.

“Some … creature?” Aurora snorted as we all sat down on the mossy bench.

“Shut up, I’m still a little stoned,” I muttered back and rested my head against the stonework behind me.

“Me too,” Deya giggled, and we all turned to find a vaguely red tint around her violet eyes.

I grinned. “Well, that’s cute.”

Deya’s smile spread from ear to ear as she flipped her hair over her shoulder, but Shoshanne immediately pulled the pink strands back into place to conceal her neck a bit.

“I wouldn’t do that in here,” she muttered. “Cayla got you pretty bad on that side.”

Then another white-robed elf silently entered, and he held a stark white shirt folded in his hands. He stooped and held it out to me, but before I could thank him, he was already exiting as quietly as he’d arrived.

“Still better service than House Aelin,” I decided as I pulled the shirt over my head.

Whatever the light fabric was, it felt like cream washing over me, and it didn’t even chafe against the tender marks left by my women. There was an intricate silver stitching just barely noticeable around the loose collar, and although it didn’t cover all of the damage, it was a vast improvement.

“That looks expensive,” Cayla mused as she reached over to rub the fabric between her fingers, and her blue eyes widened as she grinned. “It feels expensive.”

“It feels amazing,” I chuckled. “I can’t believe these elves just hang out in this all day.” I stood to tuck the shirt in, and I grinned at Aurora as I caught her admiring gaze. “How many mages do you think have worn House Orrel’s personal garb?”

The half-elf immediately rolled her eyes. “Well, that went straight to your head.”

I sent her a roguish wink and dropped back onto the bench, and then I turned to Deya.

“What did the guard say to you before he left?” I asked. “Are we just waiting here?”

Deya nodded. “He says we must not speak unless the head of House Orrel speaks to us directly, and we cannot sit in his presence. He will arrive when he is able, and we’re supposed to stay here until the doors at the top of those stairs open.”

I looked up the dilapidated steps on the other end of the hall and was glad to see the doors weren’t made of gold or diamonds here. They were a dark, knotted wood with large brass rings, and no guards stood glaring at us or Aurora for once.

“What did the first guy say?” Aurora asked curiously. “Was it an enchantment to open the door?”

“No, he used runes to do that,” Deya told her. “The guard was welcoming me home. It’s customary since my father’s ancestors were from House Orrel.”

I smirked. “Oh yeah … I think he mentioned that.”

“It is quite an honorable thing,” Deya explained. “Not every elf who left during the great wars was a direct descendant of the original inhabitants, but my father’s family were, so they greet me in this way. It’s House Orrel’s way of extending the offer to return to this place. It’s a very prestigious offer, because they’re only forgiving of their own bloodline. If I were Rhys, they would not say this. They would simply treat him like any other elf.”

“Wait a minute,” I cut in, “Rhys is from House Orrel?”

“Not directly,” Deya replied, “but his ancestors joined with House Orrel thousands of years ago, and then rebelled during the great wars to form House Fehryn in the south. He is not related by blood.”

“I take it that’s why he doesn’t want me mentioning his troubles to the leader?” I guessed.

“Did he say that?” Deya asked with a smirk. “That does not surprise me. Rhys is very proud of his family, and House Fehryn have done well independently, but their standing relies wholly on themselves rather than bloodlines. He would not want the leader to know of any trouble for them.”

I understood where Rhys was coming from, but I couldn’t see how I was meant to gain an allegiance in arms without mentioning Rhys’ House if the Master’s next target was House Fehryn.

So, I just sighed and watched the leaves that sprouted from the floor while we waited in the silent hall, and I ran through everything I’d heard from Dragir since we’d returned to House Quyn.

I knew so little about the many elemental lines available in the craft, but once I understood rune magic more fully, there was virtually no limit for me in this realm. I could control fire like Aurora if I wanted, or harness the power of the air or anything I wanted. As the list grew longer, I began to understand the dangers of that potential for power, and with the endless possibilities overwhelming me, I decided to narrow it down to the most immediate applications.

Having a more acute sense of the balance of the runes through any metal I was engraving would mean I could use it with my own weaponry beyond the bazooka alone. I would probably need Dragir’s assistance at first, but if he’d continue to work with me, I could learn enough to form things I’d never imagined would be possible in this realm.

Power and ammunition would be as simple as harnessing the forces of the elements rather than seeking out exact materials, and if the weapons I created could be made to function exclusively, all of my worries would be absolved.

Not to mention the prospects of branding. I was tentative on this point knowing the long term effects, but there were some things I didn’t want separated from me if I could possibly create them. Accelerated healing would mean I could withstand whatever the Master threw at me, so long as he wasn’t trying to boil my fucking blood.

I drifted off into thoughts of offensive and defensive elements I wouldn’t mind toying with, and I vacillated between pendants and brandings with everything so many times, I lost track of how long we waited there.

The hazy sunlight that filtered through the vines cast a warm green glow that lulled me into drowsy state after a while, and eventually, Aurora slumped to lay on my lap.

We were all nearly asleep when a low creak caused us to jolt to attention.

Two elves exited the doors at the top of the stairs, and as I recognized them from the meeting with the Elven Council, I began to think I might already know who the head of House Orrel was.

If I was right, then it was honestly amazing he was still alive.

We mounted the steps to join the guards at the doors, and they eyed my shirt with disdain before they turned to lead us into the next chamber.

The walls of the room stretched up to the heights of the circular tower, and there were several round windows that spiraled around the stonework as far up as I could see. The design reminded me a bit of House Fehryn, but a few owls perched sleepily in the windows here.

There was no finery or velvet in sight, and mostly vines and broad-leafed plants decorated the chamber where they spilled in through the openings and small cracks.

The only doors were the ones we’d entered from, and a single stone table spanned the width of the room at the far end. It was raised on a platform much like the tables at the hall of the Elven Council had been, and the same aged elf who’d conducted the meeting sat looking down on us.

Sort of.

His milky gold eyes stared listlessly from his weathered face, and they seemed to fall not quite on us, but somewhere above our heads. His white hair blended seamlessly with the white of his robes, and I recognized the same silver stitching around his collar as my own shirt had.

He took a long and haggard breath as we slowly came to the center of the circular chamber, and while he worked on gathering his abilities, I eyed the stonework of the walls.

Unlike the hidden fortress by the sea, the seams of the large stones that were laid to create this hall were clearly defined, and it looked like they had been stacked one by one all the way up to the peak of the chamber, which towered a good two hundred feet above our heads. The whole effect reminded me of a cathedral, except instead of stained-glass windows, bits of moss and lichen crept through the cracks of the walls and bloomed wildly in various shades of sea green, blue, and teal.

The two guards who led us here remained posted at the doors behind us, and I wondered if they were the sons of the head of House Orrel. Several of the guards from that meeting had been the sons of their leaders, but it was hard to be sure in this case since neither of them fawned for Deya’s admiration, and I doubted anything could physically bare a resemblance to the elder seated at the table before us.

He looked just as ready to drop dead as he had when he conducted the meeting with the Elven Council, and the old guy still hadn’t managed to draw a substantial enough breath to speak yet.

Deya smiled lightly and shrugged after we’d waited for a few minutes. Then she walked forward, and she spoke in a gentle voice to the head of House Orrel despite never having been addressed.

His eyes remained drifting around the hall, but I thought I saw the shadow of a smile flicker on his face for the briefest second. Deya waited patiently for him to respond, but instead of speaking, he slowly raised a frail and trembling hand to her.

The beautiful elf quickly climbed the cracked steps that led up to the stand where the table was mounted, and she leaned across the stone to place her slender hand in the aged elf’s.

His voice was raspy and weak when he finally spoke, but whatever he said caused Deya to let a silvery giggle fall from her lips, and she let the leader cup his other hand over hers to hold her there.

The aged elf made a noise that sounded like it could have been a chuckle, and they continued to speak slowly to one another while Deya giggled here and there.

Aurora and Cayla exchanged amused glances while we waited, and it felt like five minutes had crawled by when Deya finally pulled her hand back and turned a sparkling smile our direction.

She spoke in Elvish as her eyes trailed over us all, and the head of House Orrel gave a listless harrumph that Deya ignored.

When she finally descended the few steps to join us again, she was all smiles and grace.

“Luir will see you now,” she told me, and when I mounted the aged steps with Deya beside me, the elf at the table slowly dragged his eyes from the wall to me.

He spoke in haggard Elvish, and I just stood there since I assumed he was addressing Deya.

She didn’t respond at all, though, and when I noticed her smiling at me, I shifted slightly as I cleared my throat.

“I don’t know if you remember me,” I began, and I bowed a little to show my respect to the nearly dead elf in front of me. “My name is Mason Flynt, Defender of the Order of Elementa. I was sent by King--”

“I recall,” the elf interrupted with a long breath. “You once sought … the Council’s … deliberation.”

“Exactly,” I replied. “I don’t suppose the Houses have reached a verdict yet?”

I tried not to smirk as I asked the question, but when the elf stared blankly back at me, I couldn’t help it anymore. He clearly didn’t remember they were supposed to be deliberating and getting back to me, and I was glad I hadn’t bothered to wait them out.

I nodded and continued. “Things take time,” I allowed. “I get it. That’s not why I’ve come here today, anyway.”

Deya cleared her throat lightly, and I glanced to see her send me the tiniest shake of her head.

I furrowed my brow and looked back at the milky gold eyes of the elf still staring blankly ahead.

“Thank you,” I tried instead, “for receiving us in your House. It’s a great honor to experience such an ancient establishment. This hall alone is truly staggering. It must have taken an unimaginable feat of magic to create it.”

The elf harrumphed once more, and then he drew a painfully long breath before he responded.

“No magic … was needed,” he said shakily.

“None?” I asked skeptically.

Deya leaned in to mutter quietly to me. “House Orrel was built before the ancients discovered the power of rune magic,” she explained.

I looked up once more at the towering chamber with its sturdy stonework so meticulously stacked, and I couldn’t help but speak my mind.

“No shit … ” I mused, and I turned in a full circle.

It was a magnificent structure, and as I remembered the ancients had discovered rune magic thousands of years ago, I realized I was standing in a building that had been there longer than any other I’d ever encountered.

I couldn’t resist sending my magic through the stonework just to feel the makeup of the place, and my senses tingled as the ancient hall hit me with a nearly archaic presence. The amount of time since they’d been moved felt like an endless void even more dense than the belly of the mountains of Orebane, and I reveled in the sight for a moment longer before I turned back to the leader.

“That’s impressive,” I told him bluntly. “I mean, if magic created it that would be impressive enough, but this must have taken ages to piece together. Plus, climbing as high as that with each stone, and then keeping it all from collapsing in during construction--”

I trailed off as I realized I’d gotten off on a tangent, but I couldn’t help it. The gilded and diamond crusted charade of the other Elite Houses seriously paled when compared to the sheer artistry of House Orrel.

Still, I made an effort to throttle down while the leader blinked at last.

“Yes … ” he breathed. “Ninety-three … years.”

“Damn,” I sighed. “That’s … more than impressive.”

My grin stretched from ear to ear, and Deya giggled before she spoke to the leader once more.

Whatever she said brought a glow to her cheeks, and the same tired chuckle managed to escape the aged elf’s lips.

Then he drew a rattling breath to respond. “Enough,” he sighed.

I furrowed my brow as I heard shifting behind me, and I turned to see the two guards dismiss themselves and leave through the doors. A flutter of wings followed, and as I looked up, I saw the tail feathers of the few owls disappear as if the smallest bit of noise below had completely disrupted their rest.

The three women still standing in the center of the room sent me nervous glances, but my attention was called back to the head of House Orrel as he wheezed and strained to stand.

I felt like someone should probably give him a hand, but Deya’s eyes flared at me when I moved to help.

So, I just stood there while his bones cracked ominously in retaliation, and his withering body swayed like he may collapse any second.

After a few minutes of death-defying effort, the head of House Orrel was sort of standing, and he supported his weight on his frail arms while his knobby hands splayed painfully across the stone tabletop.

Then he stared somewhere past my elbow with the hollow look of the dead, and I figured this was it.

This was how he was going to die.

Even Deya began to look disconcerted as his wheezing became watery, and just as she reached out to take his hand, the head of House Orrel began to shake.

Not like Deya did whenever she was remotely scared, but like a box of loose bolts rattling around on a bumpy road. His jaw unhinged while his teeth clicked against each other, and his head bobbled freely as his shoulders shook more violently every second.

Deya clasped her hands to her gut and stared with wide eyes, and she grew pale as the leader’s tenuous hold began to slip across the surface of the table.

Then, like someone had slammed a book shut, everything stopped, and the elf took a long, clear breath to fill his lungs before his exterior melted away entirely, and what stood before me could only be described as a fucking charming guy.

Chapter 10

Deya gasped, and her hands flew to her cheeks while the elf gave a deep chuckle.

“It’s you … ” she breathed.

Just based on Deya’s expression, I really couldn’t tell if this was a good or bad development, but the man straightened to his full height, and he leveled Deya with a stern eye.

“You feel foolish,” he told her. “You should. You’re incredibly sweet when you think a man is near death, and I commend you for it, but I know you better than that.”

Then the charming elf flicked his serpentine eyes to me, and the milky gold had deepened to a vibrant shade that glistened with copper lines. He practically oozed virility, and his long silver hair was so sleek it seemed to reflect the light.

“This woman once stole my great grandfather’s sword right off my belt,” he told me in a low voice, and Deya blushed a brilliant pink as she covered her face completely. The man nodded and smirked. “Eleven years old, and she had the audacity to steal such an heirloom from the head of House Orrel.”

“I didn’t know that’s who you were,” Deya insisted as she finally showed her face, and she was nearly as pink as her hair all over. “I thought you were a friend of my father’s … ”

The elf’s grin widened, and he tilted his head conspiratorially in my direction.

“She thought nothing of it,” he assured me, and his tone suggested we’d known each other longer than the last two minutes. “Her father was and is my dear friend, and he told her exactly who I was, but this little sprite was too busy making faces at her brother to listen.”

I couldn’t help but grin back as I imagined the little thief at a younger age.

“That was the moment I knew you would be a world of trouble to Nalnora,” he told the beautiful elf. “I’ve been waiting to see just how much so ever since.”

Deya sighed and tried to shield her embarrassment, and the head of House Orrel seemed to suddenly notice what I was wearing.

He cocked a brow. “I didn’t realize we were swearing in mages now.”

“One of your servants gave it to me,” I quickly explained.

“That would be impossible,” he replied. “I have no servants. Only students.”

The many elves in identical robes began to make more sense to me, but the leader had already sprung into another topic before I’d formed a response.

“Where is your brother anyways?” he asked Deya. “You cannot have come all this way and left him behind at House Quyn?”

“He is busy,” Deya told him, but the leader shook his head as his face sobered.

“He is avoiding me, do not lie to me young lady.”

Deya blushed uncontrollably once more, but she didn’t respond.

“Yes, that is it.” The leader nodded, and he sent me the same conspiratorial glance. “A grown man of his capabilities still hiding from his own destiny. It’s a shame, isn’t it?”

“Dragir has his hands full at the moment,” I answered. “House Quyn was attacked only two days ago by--”

“Yes, I know,” the leader cut in. “This is in part why your presence here intrigues me. No man has ever fought alongside an elven army, let alone allied two southern Houses in the process. And yet, you arrive here with none other than the beautiful Deya at your side. What in the name of the gods are you up to?”

I stared and wondered if I should clarify Deya wasn’t at my side in the biblical sense, but the leader suddenly burst out with a booming laugh, and I jumped about a foot instead.

“You could have just brought the brother if you wanted my attention,” he informed me. “Now, you’ve brought the sister, and I’m forced to show off for you. Clever man. I like the way your mind works.”

I shrugged and grinned like I knew what the hell was going on, but his habit of addressing me like an equal was almost unnerving at this point.

Maybe I’d just spent too long in Nalnora.

Luir gave a hearty chuckle as he looked at me and Deya with complete openness and hospitality, and nothing about his mannerisms would make me guess he had nearly died only moments before.

“Let me give you the grand tour!” he announced abruptly. “It’s been ages since I bothered with any of my guests, this should be fun.”

The head of House Orrel strolled around the table with his broad shoulders back and his chin confidently tilted, but he came to a quick stop when he saw my three women still waiting in the middle of the room.

“Oh,” he said with pleasant surprise. “The mutt’s alive.” Then he sent me an appreciative nod. “Now, that is impressive.”

He gestured around at the stonework of the hall and shook his head as if to say it was nothing in comparison, before he crouched a bit to address Aurora in the most patronizing way she probably had ever experienced.

“Wel-come,” he called loudly. “You are alive. Wow!”

I raised my brows as the leader lifted his arms high to exhibit his shock, and Aurora bristled.

The head of House Orrel didn’t seem to notice he was addressing her like she was from another planet, though. He flashed another charming grin and held out his arm for Deya, and he patted her hand while he led her across the chamber.

“You’ll have to forgive the unsightly entrance,” the leader said. “I couldn’t waste another moment in that rattling body, truth be told. The two of you might be the most interesting things to arrive at my House since your brother last visited.”

Aurora’s knuckles were white on the hilt of her sword when I came to her side, and I could feel the heat radiating from her as she flushed with fury.

“Easy … ” I muttered, but her emerald eyes looked ready to burn a hole straight through the leader’s skull.

Shoshanne patted the Ignis Mage’s shoulder as she sent me an uneasy look, and the four of us followed after the two elves while we kept an eye on Aurora, just in case.

Luir led us back through the doors and down the steps to where we’d waited for ages for his arrival, and then he came to a slow stop and let out a heavy sigh.

“Now … what to do?” he muttered to himself before he glanced at Deya. “What did Aeris do? I know you graced his hideous home with your presence, and he must have made an ass of himself. Come on, tell me what he did first.”

“He … introduced me to his sons,” she admitted.

The leader groaned. “I hate my sons, no,” he decided. “What else?”

“There was a feast and a golden carriage at one point,” I told him flatly, and his buttery eyes flickered with amusement as he glanced back.

“Of course there was,” he chuckled. “No, we won’t do that either.”

The leader swiveled around and headed back toward the entrance of House Orrel, and I jogged to catch up as I considered his long strides and commanding presence.

“Can I ask … how old you are?” I tried.

Luir grinned. “Aging is indescribably irritating, Mason Flynt. The only use for age is as a weapon of deception. Wisdom is involved, of course, but that comes and goes. I knew the moment I started to age that I wanted none of it, so I found my own alternative.”

I grinned back and began to like the leader a little more. “Which is the façade then? Old or young?”

“Both,” he said with a shrug as we came to the quiet chamber where white-robed elves crossed to follow various paths into the glade. “Everyone in Nalnora waits with bated breath for me to turn into dust, and by all accounts, I’m old enough to be dead. On the other hand, I’m currently young enough to behave as stupidly as I wish, and yet I have all the supposed wisdom of my two thousand three hundred and … forty-three? Forty-six years?”

Luir shrugged once more as we turned toward the stone path that led out into the valley surrounding House Orrel. Several robed elves bowed in respect to their leader as we passed, and I didn’t miss the few winks he sent to the more beautiful amongst them.

“So, you’re immortal?” I clarified.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “I’ll find that out eventually, I suppose. At present, I’m more concerned with other aspects. It seems youth can do nearly everything I command of it, although not quite. Here we are.”

We turned toward another stone structure just as overgrown as the last, and white-robed elves strolled in and out of the open archway of the entrance. I honestly couldn’t believe the elf was answering any of my prying questions, but he was also the first elf in Nalnora to offer a personal tour of his House.

I blinked as we came into the shadows of the stone building, and I looked around while my eyes adjusted to the dim cast of the place. Both ends of the room were completely shelved with books from floor to vaulted ceiling, and I realized it must be the extensive library Dragir had mentioned.

There were large stone tables laid out for the students to work around, and we followed the head of House Orrel while he strolled amongst his pupils. Some of them had small brandings on their wrists or arms, but each one looked different from the last, and others wore their sleeves so their skin was completely concealed.

None of the students looked up from their work while we passed, and without any constant glares from the crowd, I was able to focus more directly on what they were doing.

“What are they studying?” Cayla asked quietly.

“Anything they like,” Luir replied. “Remedy, weaponry, rune magic … ”

I looked up to find the leader grinning at me, and I gave the appearance of being immediately intrigued despite the fact that I’d been scanning the mappings and degree lines around me from the second I’d entered.

I was currently trying to discern what the nearest elf was working on, and so far, I knew she was harnessing two of the elements Dragir had used in the head of the rocket, but the forces were directed inward.

I grinned at the glint in Luir’s eye. “You realize I have a thousand questions now,” I told him as I squinted in confusion over the student’s work.

“Good,” the leader returned. “Shall we continue?”

I feigned my disappointment as he led us back to the glade, and Deya smiled sweetly at the leader when he offered his arm once more.

“I never realized you had so many students here with you,” Deya said, and Luir looked pleased by the statement as he slowed his pace a bit.

“No one does,” he told her in a low voice, and his grin widened when she giggled. “Ask Aeris how many inhabitants there are at House Orrel. If he’s in a bad mood, I guarantee he’ll tell you two hundred. On a good day, he might admit to three hundred.”

“And how many are there really?” Deya whispered with a glint in her violet eyes.

The leader leaned closer. “The number would terrify you, my little sprite.”

Deya’s amusement faltered, but she recovered quickly to smile at the leader before he chuckled and walked on.

“What is it you plan to do with so many?” I asked. “Surely you must have an ambition in mind to operate an establishment like this.”

This seemed to amuse the leader, and he thought for a moment before he responded.

“I don’t need an army of elves, if that is what you are suggesting,” he said as we turned toward another set of buildings. “The other Houses believe there is only strength in armies and in wealth these days, and this is true if you have no foresight. I, however, have lived long enough to know better. My students are not so disposable to me as the soldiers in the south. They are worth far more alive than they are dead.”

The leader seemed to anticipate my next question.

“Is it their interest that you value, or their potential for power?”

“Wealth, and the very definition of, falls away with time, Mason Flynt,” he said, and he slowed to a stop outside a small arching entrance at the base of a tower as he released Deya. “Even morality is a thin and malleable veil. Power, on the other hand, is like an endless trove if you feed it well over the years. Let us just say, I feed my trove very well.”

“So … is your objective to fully reclaim what the ancients knew of rune magic?” I asked. “Or to return to the ways of the old world, and do away with the ten Houses completely?”

The leader’s eyes glinted ever so slightly. “You’re a very curious man,” he told me. “You ask many direct questions.”

“I did come to Nalnora for answers,” I replied with a grin.

“Then it is lucky you fell in with Dragir,” he said and started up the spiral steps that led into the tower. “I admit I did not expect that development when I first met you.”

“Why is that?”

The leader stopped mid-step to look past me toward Deya just behind.

“Why would that be, my little sprite?” he asked as he eyed her carefully.

Deya reigned in her blush a bit better this time, but I could tell she was tired of the leader pressing the subject.

“Because my brother is a busy man,” she said sweetly.

The head of House Orrel raised his brows in amusement.

“Wrong again,” he replied, and he continued up the steps. “Dragir could be busy for all I know, but it wouldn’t matter if he was not. I’ve kept my eyes on him as best as I can, but it’s an exhausting endeavor. The stubborn bastard has a habit of disappearing entirely at the most inopportune moments if you ask me.” He was chuckling when he held the door at the top of the long stairwell open for us, and he glanced at Deya as he continued. “It seems even I cannot get Dragir’s attention if he does not wish to give it.”

Deya rolled her eyes playfully and brushed past the two of us with the other three women close behind.

“I guess I’ll count myself lucky he hasn’t brushed me off yet,” I told the leader.

“You should,” he replied more soberly, and he gestured inside.

We came out onto a stone bridge that stretched the width of the giant structure some forty feet above the ground. Several large nests made of woven branches were balanced between the columns that encircled us or along the upper ledge of the great domed ceiling. I realized it must be a rookery for some sort of creature, and just as I was about to ask what was kept in here, a whoosh of wind came in through the columns, and my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

The owls I’d noticed resting in the trees of the lagoon had looked like any other, but the owl that landed in the giant nest on the ledge above us was easily as tall as the Mustang was long, and its wings were virtually silent as it flapped and settled in.

The leader came to stand beside me, and he nudged me in the side as he flashed another grin. “Incredible, aren’t they?” he asked.

“That’s an understatement,” I chuckled as I watched the owl preen its feathers.

Then two more arrived, and I marveled at the silence of their wings as they swooped in and landed without shifting a single branch under their weight.

“Do you hunt with them?” Deya asked curiously.

“They are not like your dogs,” the leader said with a smirk. “We do not own or train them. These are my eyes.”

I furrowed my brow. “The eyes you’ve been keeping on Dragir?”

The leader laughed. “When I want to be frustrated? Yes,” he allowed. “But they travel all over Nalnora for me. They’re transmuters. It’s what they do.”

Deya turned her back on us to move further along the bridge.

“What is a transmuter?” I asked.

A calculating grin came to the leader’s face, and he propped his elbows on the bridge rail beside me. “You’ve already met one,” he told me. “Or rather, you’ve met two.”

I thought back, but before I could respond, Aurora turned her head our direction.

“The elves with the white eyes?” she guessed, and Luir started slightly at the sound of her voice.

We both looked over at Aurora, and I smirked at the cold cast of her emerald eyes as she held the gaze of the leader as if she were daring him to speak to her.

The head of House Orrel nodded slowly, and he shifted to look directly at the half-elf.

“You … you are oddly familiar,” he mused.

Aurora’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve been walking with you for the past forty minutes,” she said thickly.

“Yes, but it’s best not to look directly at a mutt,” Luir explained casually. “Now that I really consider you, there’s something that strikes my memory … have I tried to kill you before?”

I narrowed my own eyes and listened carefully for the answer.

“You’re still alive,” the half-elf replied coolly. “So, I would guess not.”

She sauntered off to join Deya further down the bridge, and the leader shrugged as he turned back to me.

“Touchy creature,” he mumbled. “The mutt is correct, though. The transmuters at the docks channel their powers through two of these magnificent beasts, but there are others here and there around the grounds as well. They are all my eyes.”

Luir said this with pride as he looked down on the owl nesting below us, and while I watched the bird’s head swivel to the side, his eyes flickered and went white.

Suddenly, the owl gave a piercing screech, and he dove to the base of the rookery to snatch what looked like a mouse from the floor.

“They’re so quiet when they fly,” Cayla pointed out from my other side.

“And weightless,” the leader added. “Rune magic has many little uses like this. My transmuters are merely one of my ways of ensuring the security of House Orrel. They’re also quite useful when certain mages lead attacks against infiltrating forces.”

My head whipped to the side to find the leader sending me another conspiratorial grin.

“I think my favorite part was the end,” he informed me, “when you buried the fleeing soldiers alive. Imagine their frustration.”

The head of House Orrel turned to lead us back along the bridge, and I stared at his sleek hair for a moment.

Then I quickly fell in step with him.

“You have an eye on every House then?” I clarified as we headed down the spiral steps.

“Of course not,” he chuckled with a wave of his hand. “That would be remarkably boring, but they’re always on hand should the need arise.”

I didn’t miss the subtle shift in his tone while he said this, and I began to wonder how often the head of House Orrel had sent his eyes to keep watch on me during my time in Nalnora.

The last couple weeks were a blur of ferns and bloody run-ins, but despite how uncomfortable the idea was, it was more irritating to me that Luir had stood by and witnessed the onslaught of the Master’s army.

Now here he was, chatting us up and strolling around his grounds, and I’d never met an elf who would lay all their cards out so easily as this.

The more I considered Luir’s roaming “eyes,” the more I began to fear he might know something.

Overall, it seemed like there was little he could have observed out in the jungle that I needed to worry about. It was no secret I’d been working my way through the ten Houses and creating weapons, or that I’d fought alongside House Quyn and House Fehryn and attacked Houses Syru and Natyr.

Unless any of his eyes were trained on the road when Deya and I’d gotten a little caught up with each other in the Mustang.

My gut flipped at the notion, but when we got to the bottom of the spiral stairs, the leader sent me the same unaffected smile, and I quickly returned it as he gestured down a dirt path flanked with budding trees.

I snuck a glance over my shoulder before I followed him, though, and all of the women had their brows furrowed toward the ground. I could tell they were thinking back just like I was, but it didn’t look like anything too detrimental had occurred to them.

Deya looked displeased, however, and I could at least guess why.

The idea that the leader had been watching her brother for who knew how long was an uncomfortable one, and I wondered if Dragir had known about any of this. At least he could disappear whenever he needed to thanks to the runes on his pendant, but considering the silent prowess of the giant owls we’d seen in the rookery, it seemed likely Dragir might have no idea at all.

I decided this would be my first order of business when we returned to House Quyn, but for now, I came to a stop beside the head of House Orrel where he waited at a simple iron gate.

Delicate tendrils of vines braided themselves up and down the gate, and with the sun lower in the sky and casting an orange glow throughout the valley, the tiny white flowers that dotted the vines all turned their faces toward the west.

Shoshanne’s warm brown eyes widened as she peered between the iron rods, and she sent me a giddy smile.

“Is that helio?” she asked the leader.

“You are a healer,” Luir decided.

“I am,” Shoshanne replied. “I studied at the Order of Pallax.”

“Then you will like my gardens,” he assured her. “Some of these plants were planted by my own father, and the moriet tree was sown by my grandfather before him.”

The leader slowly opened the gates as he worked not to disturb the plants that grew ravenously everywhere I looked, and only a thin and mossy footpath marked the way into the garden.

We followed it in silence while it took us in a large circle, and as other paths branched off, Shoshanne followed them with a soft smile and let her fingertips graze the leaves as she went.

Deya disappeared into the maze at the first opportunity, and I had the feeling she was avoiding the leader now as Aurora followed close on her heels.

Cayla and I followed the head of House Orrel, though, while he named the various species and explained their uses. He had plants for heart ailments, diseases, mortal wounds, and even recreational enjoyment. There was a small grove of Aldrin saplings, and another of naticea, but my favorite was the willowish tree like the ones beside the waterfall at House Quyn.

This turned out to be his grandfather’s moriet tree, and it was nearly three times as tall as those in the south. Apparently, the pink flowers it produced in the spring could be ground into a paste that was a powerful tranquilizer in concentrated doses.

“The seeds from this tree were gifted to House Quyn following the great wars,” he told us, and he eyed Deya through the plants. “A means of harboring peace within the family.”

“How closely related are you to Qiran?” Cayla asked.

“Qiran is my sister’s second son’s, son’s, son’s … ” The leader trailed off as he furrowed his brow.

“One more son,” Deya called, and the leader nodded.

“Yes, that sounds right,” he mused. “They do all trail together after a while. Qiran’s father was the most interesting one in centuries.”

Luir brought us around another small footpath, and I noticed every plant in this area looked like it was locked in the end of autumn with their foliage half-faded. Further ahead, the limbs and stems were bare as they jutted up from beds of rotted leaves, and I realized we’d been walking through a series of seasons this whole time. Summer must have been back near the gate, and spring had been where the moriet tree was just beginning to bud.

“Do you change the seasons or keep them constant?” I asked curiously.

“It depends,” the leader answered, but he sounded somewhat distracted as he slowed his pace. “Some plants can be persuaded to exist in a perpetual state of … ”

He trailed off into silence, and I could tell by the set of his jaw that he was training his ear like Deya and Aurora did.

“In a perpetual state?” I led.

The leader’s gaze snapped to mine.

“Forgive me,” he said as he walked on. “My transmuter to the west was informing me of something. We had better head in for the evening.”

Luir abruptly returned to naming the species while we made our way to the iron gate, and there were some he only hinted at the use of before directing our attention to another. It seemed like anything that could befall an elf at House Orrel had a remedy waiting in this garden, and when we were joined by Shoshanne again, the healer admitted she couldn’t even name every plant she saw.

“Each one more brilliant than the next,” the leader said to the healer as he offered his arm once more to Deya. “Come, the night gathers quickly here. I will show you all to your quarters myself.”

We strolled back along the footpaths to the stone walkway that led toward the domed entrance, and the entire valley paled as the sun slipped behind the peaks of the mountains. The air chilled immediately as bugs drifted up from the throng of plant life all around, and ahead of us, House Orrel’s round windows ignited with torchlight throughout.

Aurora and Cayla flanked me while Shoshanne drifted at our backs and admired the valley, and the few elves who crossed our path only bowed to their leader before they continued to disperse for the evening.

“Thank you,” Deya said sweetly to the leader as he led her a few paces ahead of us. “I did not expect to see you as you are, but I am honored to have seen your home with you today.”

“It’s an honor to share it with you,” Luir replied. “I have worked hard to maintain what our ancestors built here. My efforts with the students evolve with each passing year, and their freedom to explore uninhibited has greatly aided in the discovery of so much that has been lost to our race. Innovative minds are truly invaluable. You will tell your brother this, I hope.”

Deya smiled her appreciation, but she didn’t respond, and Cayla casually stepped up to join the pair ahead of me.

“It was fascinating to see your students at work,” the princess mused. “They’re so dedicated to their studies. Do each of them create their own runes as they please, or are you instructing them on the application of the runes your ancestors used?”

“Both,” the leader replied as we began to follow the path with the columns stacked on either side. “There are limits to rune magic that are difficult to explain, but any experimentation has always been done under my personal supervision. Each new endeavor is thoroughly investigated and approved beforehand, but unfortunately, not all things can be understood simply by trial and error. As I mentioned, death is not something I am willing to risk where my students are concerned.”

I knew the limits he was referring to were the unknown elemental lines, but I was curious how many, if any, the head of House Orrel had discovered the use of with the help of his students.

“I’m sure you can probably predict the outcome of most experiments,” I said, “given your years of experience.”

The leader paused at the arching doors opposite the entrance.

“You would be surprised,” he finally remarked and parted the doors to stand aside for the women. “Then again, perhaps you would not be.”

The leader turned to mount the stairs while I remained where I was for a second and considered the statement, but when I arrived at the top of the stairwell behind the leader, all of the women had stopped dead ahead of us.

Then a familiar, inky black figure caught my eye.

“Nulena, my darling,” the leader said as he brushed between my women.

Luir held out his arms to the Baroness, and my pulse hitched as I watched the woman slip her hands into his and send him a smirk I recognized.

Chapter 11

The Baroness spoke tenderly in Elvish as Luir pulled her against him, and all of us stared openly except for Deya. She just looked naturally confused to see a head of House display intimacy toward a human without reserve.

Aurora nudged me. “Looks like you’re not the only mage with a fancy shirt,” she muttered.

The leader turned around abruptly as if he’d forgotten we were there, and he led the Baroness over with her slender arm wound around his own. Her inky legs were exposed from the crook of her thighs down, and she clearly had nothing on except for a shirt quite similar to my own.

I held the Tenebrae Mage’s two-toned gaze while she sauntered over, and there was something cryptic in her expression that hadn’t been there when she stroked my cheek in the jungle after murdering Onym if front of us all.

“Forgive me,” Luir chuckled as he presented the obscure woman. “This is the Baroness Batonova of Rajeene.”

We bowed our respect, and when I looked up, the Baroness’ eyes flicked away from me.

“I recall this group, I think,” she said to the leader with a sultry smile. “These are the ones who came to the hall of the Elven Council, yes?”

“Yes, but look,” the leader replied with half a grin, and he pointed at Aurora. “The mutt’s still alive. Isn’t that astounding?”

Nulena appraised Aurora with an admiring eye before she said, “Astounding.”

“This beautiful woman was not among this group, however,” the leader continued, and he gestured toward Deya next. “She is the nearest thing to royalty I could present you with in Nalnora. Miss Deya Naera of House Quyn.”

Deya dipped her head to the Baroness, but I could tell she wasn’t sure which of the woman’s eyes to look into.

The jet black one or the ghostly white.

The Baroness curled her lip as she eyed the beautiful elf up and down. “A beauty,” she purred, and the leader nodded his agreement.

“Truly,” he mused, then he leaned to speak more privately to the Baroness. “She’s the one I mentioned.”

The Baroness raised her brows only slightly, and I could have sworn she flicked her eyes toward me for the briefest second.

“You are determined?” she asked carefully.

Luir cocked a brow and challenged the Baroness with a greedy grin. “You doubt me?”

“Never,” Nulena purred and melted into the leader’s arms.

Deya blushed deeply while the two spoke quietly about her, and the leader chuckled when he noticed her reaction.

“We’ve embarrassed the sprite,” he muttered to the Baroness, before he laid a kiss on her inky cheek. “I will be in momentarily. There is something I must attend to.”

Baroness Batonova curled her lips once more and turned her back on us without another word, and the leader enjoyed the view as she sauntered off and disappeared through a door at the end of the hall.

Then he let out a low sigh. “Your quarters are just this way,” Luir informed us and led the way to an alcove of spiraling steps. “I will have your meal brought up to you since I’m sure Deya would only despise me if I arranged a feast for her.”

He sent a wink over his shoulder as we came to the floor above, and the place was barren except for the vines that crept through the large opening at the end of the hall. Luir stopped at a dark wooden door with a single torch mounted outside, and this time, he took Deya’s arm himself to wrap it in his own.

“Mason Flynt, ladies,” he said with a broad grin, and he pushed the door open for us before he patted Deya’s hand affectionately. “And you shall have my own mother’s old room. It’s just this way.”

Deya smiled, but her free hand reached out and looped Aurora’s fingers with hers.

“Defender Solana stays with me,” she told him sweetly.

“You keep her like a pet,” Luir said. “How adorable.”

I half-expected Aurora to light his silver hair on fire right then, but she sent the leader a coy smile as she pulled Deya from his arm.

“Meow … ” she murmured.

I snorted so loudly the leader jolted a little, and he cocked a brow at the pair of women when the half-elf slid her arm around Deya’s waist.

“Which way?” Deya asked with an innocent smile.

Luir cleared his throat and sent me a look of concern. “Qiran is aware the mutt is travelling with you?”

I flashed the leader a grin as charming as the ones he’d been donning for us all day.

“Certainly,” I assured him and clapped him hard on the shoulder. “I should have mentioned … Defender Solana is Deya’s personal guard. I’m sure you can understand. You did have your eyes on House Quyn the other night.”

Luir’s serpentine eyes glinted with recognition. “Ah yes … ” he mumbled, and he furrowed his brows slightly as he studied the chilling look Aurora was sending his way. “Follow me, I suppose.”

I watched the two women sidle off behind the leader, and he moved almost mechanically as if having Aurora at his back finally shook his confidence. He led them to a small archway near the stairwell, and Aurora flicked her emerald eyes my direction before they disappeared down another hall.

Cayla and Shoshanne exchanged a glance. “She’s not going to … ” Cayla mumbled before she trailed off.

“I doubt it,” I muttered, but I waited there for a moment to be sure I didn’t sense any sparks in the air.

When we entered the chamber, I was relieved there wasn’t a speck of velvet in sight. The same dilapidated stonework comprised the entire room, and an alcove cut out from the wall housed a large bed with pure white silken sheets.

Two torches flickered from their mounts on either side, and a small stone seat sat at the base of the one circular window.

“He may be creepy,” I mused, “but he’s got a damn fine house.”

“You caught that, too?” Cayla muttered as she slid her rifle off and propped it in the corner.

Shoshanne placed her bow beside it, but she kept her pack of shuriken strapped to her thigh. “I thought he was nice.”

“It’s Nalnora,” Cayla reminded her.

“Right?” I snorted. “I can’t decide what he’s got in mind, but there’s something up his sleeve.”

I glanced out the window across the bluing valley, and there were still a few white-robed elves crossing the footpaths in the grounds down below.

“Wasn’t he just showing Deya around?” Shoshanne asked as she crinkled her brow.

I shrugged. “He was,” I allowed, “but I got the feeling he was nearly as focused on me, which is a new one.”

“He did say you were one of the most interesting things to arrive here,” Cayla pointed out.

“Exactly,” I said as I leaned out the window to look along the stonework of the building. Then I came to the bed and lowered my voice as I settled in beside Cayla. “I’m only interesting to the elves who want something from me. Everyone else settles for trying to kill me.”

“He doesn’t seem to want to kill you,” Shoshanne mused.

“Not yet.” I grinned. “Look around for a rune on the wall, it has two perpendicular lines running horizontally and a few spirals coming in from the top and bottom.”

“What’s it for?” Cayla asked as we stood and began scanning the stones.

“It keeps any sounds inside this room from being heard by others,” I explained. “The windows are open here, and there’s four others surrounding ours.”

“Does the rune work with windows?” Shoshanne asked more quietly.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “We’ll have to ask Deya when she gets here.”

We finally found the rune chiseled into the bottom corner of one of the walls, and a few minutes later, a light tapping echoed at the door.

I opened it to find Aurora and Deya waiting, and the two quickly slipped into the chamber without a sound.

“Don’t speak,” the beautiful elf whispered at once, and she flicked her eyes toward the window.

“That figures,” I muttered.

“Are we being listened to?” Shoshanne mouthed.

Deya shrugged, then she leaned a little to whisper in my ear.

“Luir’s room is directly below this one.”

I sighed and considered the open window once more as I nodded.

Then I pulled the beautiful elf in for a kiss before Aurora took her hand to lead her back to the hall.

“Sunrise,” the half-elf mouthed, and the two women left as quietly as they’d come.

Cayla looked at the bed. “Now it’s too big,” she sighed with a sad little smile.

After a white-robed elf delivered two heaping platters of exotic fare for us, we ate and curled up together in the silken sheets. The two women tossed restlessly in the large bed, and I couldn’t help but feel like it was way too empty as well. Eventually, they fell asleep with their legs knotted around mine, and I lay awake for another few hours listening to the owls hooting out in the valley.

Somewhere near midnight, I heard the murmur of the Baroness’ voice from the window, and I silently crawled out of bed.

I leaned out the window a ways and recognized the timber of Luir’s voice speaking quietly below, but I couldn’t make out the words from where I stood. The two conversed for only a few minutes before the Baroness gave a seductive moan, and I shook my head.

Another owl hooted from the rooftop as I returned to the bed, and just as I was drifting off to sleep, I wondered if the leader would still be alive when we woke up.

Cayla and Shoshanne were already dressed with their weapons strapped to their backs when I managed to get my eyes to open again, and as I groaned and rolled over, I smelled a familiar pine scent drifting around the room.

“Meow,” I muttered with a grin as I scruffed my hair and worked to get my limbs going again.

Aurora chuckled and laid herself against me to curl in my arms.

“I missed you,” she mumbled with her lips tucked against my neck.

“Did you kill anyone last night?” I yawned.

“No, but I broke into the library with Deya,” she giggled.

I opened my eyes. “What?”

Aurora sat up, and Deya perched herself in the half-elf’s lap with a mischievous grin. “We weren’t tired,” the beautiful elf said. “So, we stole some stuff.”

I sighed. “You didn’t think those eyes of his might be watching?”

“No one saw us.” Aurora shrugged. “Watch this.”

Deya slid her necklace off and wound the chain around her wrist before she shackled the half-elf to her in the same way.

Then the two flickered and vanished from sight, and I heard Aurora give a giddy giggle.

I smirked. “What’d you take?”

“Books,” Deya said as she reappeared, but Aurora was invisible until the elf removed the chain from her wrist for her.

“Many books,” Aurora clarified. “Although, I don’t know why you’re bothering with his lineage. The rune books seemed way more useful.”

Deya shrugged once more and strolled over to the window, and she leaned far out to breathe the cool air of the early morning.

“You might want to take a walk,” she said to the pale orange sky.

“Yeah, we need to talk,” I agreed, and I got up to pull my clothes on.

“Not with us,” the beautiful elf clarified, and she came over to hold her necklace out to me. “Luir has visitors.”

I furrowed my brow. “Who?”

“Aeris and Pyrs arrived before daybreak,” Deya said quietly. “They’re waiting for him right now.”

“Son of a bitch,” I growled, and I grabbed the necklace as I strapped my holster on. “Meet me in those gardens.”

“No,” Deya warned. “There was a transmuter in the back corner. We’ll wait west of the lagoon.”

I nodded and kissed the women before I slipped the pendant over my head, and as the colors of the world faded, I silently left for the hall and made my way back toward the entrance of House Orrel.

I took the back way around the grounds to the chamber where we’d waited to speak with Luir the day before, and I found Pyrs and Aeris sitting stock straight on the stone bench side by side.

It was hard not to chuckle at their livid expressions while they waited to be seen, and neither of them said a word to one another for nearly a full hour.

When the doors at the top of the staircase opened, the same two guards emerged and beckoned the Elite leaders forward, and Aeris let out a tense sigh as he brushed some flecks of moss from his robes.

Then he adjusted the diamond chain around his waist, and Pyrs straightened his golden rings as they mounted the steps.

I followed only inches at their backs, and when we entered the towering chamber, the aged leader of House Orrel was wheezing from his place at the stone table with the Baroness at his side.

“Hello again,” Nulena said with a slight bow.

Aeris looked down his nose at the woman with disdain and nodded curtly.

“Baroness Batonova,” he muttered. “I did not realize you would be joining us today.”

“Luir is not well,” she told the Elite leaders.

They exchanged a brief glance, and the head of House Orrel gave a raspy cough that seemed to rob him of every bit of breath.

Once he’d recovered, he swayed with exertion, and then he took a long and rattling breath before he spoke.

“Gentlemen,” he wheezed. “What can … I help … with?”

“Thank you for receiving us,” Pyrs said with a deep bow. “We came as soon as we were informed of the mage Mason Flynt’s arrival. He is currently in residence at House Orrel, I believe?”

Luir swayed gently and nodded.

“My dear friend,” Aeris sneered as he stepped forward a few paces. “It seemed prudent we travel to meet with you immediately for the good of your household. This may shock you, and I do apologize for causing any disappointments to you at such a difficult time, but I must inform you Mason Flynt has been deceiving us all.”

Something haggard tried to work its way from Luir’s dried lips, but it was unintelligible, and the Baroness leaned in before she spoke for him instead.

“Explain yourselves,” she commanded, and Aeris clearly disliked her lofty tone.

I furrowed my brow and posted myself against the side wall where I could observe everyone at once, and not even a shadow shifted around me while the rising sun illuminated the chamber through the many circular windows.

“I am sure you are aware I received Mason Flynt at House Aelin only a week ago with Miss Deya Naera,” Aeris began. “He arrived under the guise of being her head guard, and I kept a close eye on him while he was with us there. Not only did he lie about this position as Deya’s guard, but he entered into a contract with myself, which was thoroughly breached shortly after.”

Luir stared listlessly at the tabletop. “What … contract?”

“Mason Flynt and I reached an agreement regarding my guards,” Aeris explained. “I am sure you have trouble recalling, it was many weeks ago, but the mage demonstrated a lethal weapon within the hall of the Elven Council, and I commissioned him to create a few of these weapons for my personal guards.”

I cocked a brow and wondered if a few usually meant a hundred and fifty in Nalnora.

“Why?” Luir wheezed, and Aeris shifted slightly.

“There was a threat made against my life,” he replied vaguely. “I believed the only proper measure was to prepare for the worst, but I am certainly not the first among us to employ the mage.”

“That is not all,” Pyrs cut in, but Aeris interrupted him as he raised his voice.

“Not only did Mason Flynt break this contract by failing to deliver what he promised,” Aeris continued, “but he stole countless artifacts from House Aelin while I offered him my greatest hospitality. Half of the jewels of Hilel are missing, along with several volumes of sacred runic texts. I have it on good authority he violated three of my servants, and he stole every piece of metal from my reserves, along with nearly a dozen Halcyan blades before he suddenly disappeared with Miss Deya.”

I managed to rein in my scoff, but I narrowed my eyes at the pretentious leader as he lifted his chin indignantly.

“He deceived me into believing he would assist my House while I entertained Miss Deya,” Aeris told Luir, “but he clearly devised the entire arrangement in order to infiltrate House Aelin and rob me of our most sacred possessions while gaining forbidden knowledge from my personal library.”

Pyrs nodded his hearty agreement. “I received him at House Pree as well,” he said hastily. “The mage flew into a fit of rage and turned his powers against me. He destroyed half of my palace and countless works of art. My sons attempted to fend him off, but even they were not strong enough to counter the mage. I believe he would have killed us all had it not been for my own guards. They arrived just in time and dragged him away, but--”

“How?” Luir interrupted, and I couldn’t help but smirk. “His powers … were hindered?”

This time I nearly laughed out loud at the expression on Aeris’ face, and he looked ready to slap his counterpart as he sighed and looked toward the wall.

“They were,” Pyrs lied. “We were able to shackle him, but four of my guards were slain in the effort.”

I raised my brows and glanced at the head of House Orrel to see how much of this he was buying, but his hollow stare was as blank as ever.

The Baroness however had a subtle smirk on her face.

“How fortunate for you,” she said to Pyrs. “I hope they were not metal shackles?”

Pyrs blanched. “R-rope,” he managed. “His hands were tied with rope once we realized we could not contain him.”

“Was the damage reparable?” the Baroness continued, and she almost sounded bored.

“Completely irreparable,” the leader assured her with a deep frown. “He’s left some sort of enchantment on the rubble. After much deliberation, my guards and I have concluded he must have coerced an elf into imparting further secrets of rune magic on him and has used this power against us as we feared he would.”

Luir drew a long breath. “Who?” he wheezed.

“Dragir,” Aeris cut in without pause. “The mage has made an arrangement with the boy in exchange for his assistance against House Syru’s army, but I do not doubt he will kill Dragir when he’s gotten all that he needs. We cannot take this lightly any longer. Mason Flynt has become a threat to our very way of life.”

Luir was silent for a long moment, and we all waited as his lungs gurgled with every slow breath.

“Is that … all you wish … to say?” he finally asked.

The two Elite leaders looked taken aback, and I couldn’t decide who they wanted to kill more at the moment, me or the head of House Orrel.

Aeris recovered quickly, though, and he made his way forward to mount the few steps leading to the stone table.

“I wish it were,” he said solemnly, “but there is more at stake. Mason Flynt has been casting himself as the personal guard to Miss Deya, but my own scouts witnessed a skirmish between him and the father, wherein the mage was banned from House Quyn entirely. My dear friend, Miss Deya is in grave danger, and I fear Mason Flynt and his women have arranged to abduct her when he is finished wreaking havoc on our nation.”

My pulse quickened, and I watched Luir’s expression for any hint of a reaction, but the sallow cheeks and withering lips remained unreadable as Aeris continued.

“I observed him closely while he was with us at House Aelin,” he told Luir in a low voice. “On countless occasions, the mage exhibited unrestrained lust for Miss Deya, and two of my servants reported spotting them together in the middle of the night. They were walking hand in hand without supervision, and he was later seen leaving her room in the early morning. Miss Deya was incapacitated for the rest of the day, and she was forced to remain with the armed women at every moment following this circumstance.”

Luir nodded slowly but didn’t respond, and Aeris pressed further.

“Mason Flynt’s insatiability will mar our nation if we do not protect Miss Deya at all costs,” he assured the leader. “She is but three short years from fulfilling her duty to Nalnora, and unfortunately, Qiran’s foolishness has endangered the poor girl. He has been deceived, as have we all. Deya is not safe in the mage’s presence, and unless you are willing to risk the unspeakable, we must act without delay. We can only hope it is not too late.”

The Baroness narrowed her eyes slightly as she studied Aeris’ face, and Pyrs began fidgeting with his rings as he waited for any sign of life from the head of House Orrel.

My palms began to sweat, and I wondered if anyone had actually caught sight of me and Deya, or if Aeris had blindly stumbled into the truth. No one had been in the halls that night when Deya and I discussed her necklace and the great wars. The beautiful elf would have easily heard them since we were speaking quietly the whole way to her room.

But I did trip right over Aeris’ sons after ravaging Deya for half the night.

I took a few steps closer while Luir wheezed on, and my tension only mounted while he stared silently at the tabletop.

Finally, he drew a long breath.

“When?” he asked, and my gut dropped.

Aeris looked sickeningly pleased, however, and a greedy grin came to his face.

“At your discretion of course, my dear friend,” he sneered. “Pyrs and I trust you entirely to deliver justice as it is due.”

Luir gave a shaky nod, and Aeris bowed so low his hooked nose grazed the stone table.

I remained exactly where I stood while the two Elite leaders kissed ass a bit longer before departing, and once the room was cleared of everyone but the Baroness and the head of House Orrel, the leader spoke.

“Where did Deya sleep?” he asked the Tenebrae Mage.

Nulena stroked her long black hair absentmindedly.

“I do not know,” she said in a low voice. “The two women were not in the room when I entered.”

My fury ignited as I eyed the careless woman, and I fought the urge to strangle her right there.

I took a steadying breath and slowly made my way to the door instead, and I listened to Luir’s rattling breath at my back while I feared his next response.

His voice was a gravely growl when he spoke again.

“Bring me Mason Flynt,” he ordered.

The Baroness nodded and rose from her place at his side, and I waited beside the doors while she practically strolled across the chamber.

Her two-toned eyes were cryptically blank, and her hips swayed methodically without concern. As she parted the doors, I fell in step behind her, and I silently followed the obscure woman through the halls of students and out to the domed entrance of House Orrel.

Then the Baroness closed the entrance doors at her back, and I caught her by the throat to pin her against the stonework before she could take another step.

Her eyes flared with panic, and as she grappled and found my arm, I slid the pendant from my neck.

Nulena stared in disbelief for only a split second before she let out a seductive chuckle, and her two-toned eyes looked up at me hungrily.

“I missed you, too,” she purred.

“How long have you been spying on us?” I demanded.

The Baroness curled her lips into a coy smile. “You’re pretty when you sleep.”

I tightened my hold on the woman, but it was clear she was only enjoying the punishment, so I roughly released her and pulled my gun instead.

With the barrel leveled against her temple, the Baroness finally cooled off, and she scanned the copper dome above us as she spoke in a low voice.

“I would be careful, Mason Flynt,” she warned. “You never know who might be watching.”

“No shit,” I growled. “How long have you been following us?”

The Baroness smirked again and pushed herself from the wall at her back, and she seemed unconcerned with the fact that my finger was taut on the trigger.

“How about you follow me?” she said.

I narrowed my eyes.

“One wrong move,” I warned, and I lowered my arm to my side. I kept the revolver trained on the Baroness’ back as she led me off toward the dock, and I noticed a spark in the air around us as we neared the lagoon.

When we came closer to the elf who sat on the rotted wood beside the water, an invisible veil sifted across my skin much like Deya’s. This time, no runes were whispering in my ear though, and I recognized the sensation of the Tenebrae Mage’s powers engulfing me.

We passed the dock undetected and followed along the bank of the lagoon into the jungles west of House Orrel, and the Baroness walked as if she were only taking a leisurely stroll through the woods.

I kept my aim at her back while she trailed her inky fingers along the trunks we passed, and after a while, I heard the voices of my women ahead. They were waiting for me right where they said they would, and it shouldn’t have surprised me that the Baroness knew where to find them.

Nulena came to a stop only feet away from the four women, and none of them heard us arrive as they continued to tell Deya about the Naga we’d fought in the north.

The beautiful elf cringed as they detailed the rotting stench of their milky white flesh, and I prodded the Baroness with the barrel.

She sent a little smirk over her shoulder before the veil around us lifted, and the four women screeched when we appeared out of nowhere.

Cayla had the rifle cocked and aimed before I could blink, but when she saw me with my revolver in hand, she lowered the gun only an inch.

“What is she doing here?” the princess demanded as she looked down her barrel at the Baroness.

“Mason Flynt is upset with me,” Nulena said in a sultry voice.

“What did she do?” Aurora asked, and she raised her flaming fingers at the ready.

“She’s been spying on us for Luir,” I informed them and came to their sides while I kept my aim. “She just gave us up.”

The Baroness raised her brows. “Did I?” she asked coolly. “I thought that was Aeris’ doing.”

“She came to your room last night,” I told Deya, “and she told the head of House Orrel neither of you were there. Aeris came to convince Luir to kill me for the sake of protecting you, and he agreed.”

Deya’s face paled with fear as her limbs began to tremble. “But … we weren’t with you,” she breathed. “We weren’t. We were at the library, I can … I can tell him, I don’t care if he knows about the books, I’ll--”

“It won’t matter,” I assured her as the Baroness dragged her eyes along the beautiful elf’s heaving breasts. “Aeris told him I was seen leaving your room at House Aelin. Apparently, my women are keeping you in line, and I’m a thieving maniac with a bad temper. Oh, and I have a shitty appetite for his servants as well.”

“He … believed that?” Deya asked incredulously.

I nodded.

“Bitch,” Aurora hissed, and the inky woman looked as if her feelings were actually hurt.

“Why do you blame me?” she asked the half-elf innocently. “I was not at House Aelin. I did not say any of these things. I did not even acknowledge that I knew you when you arrived.”

“No,” I agreed. “You just stalked us all over Nalnora and reported Deya’s whereabouts to ensure my throat gets slit.”

The Baroness dropped her innocent façade, and she crossed her arms as she appraised me with her two-toned eyes.

“I was asked a question by a man who values my word,” she said, and her voice was icy. “Yes, I answered the question, but you and I both know Luir needs you more than he wants to kill you … for now. He will summon you and perhaps he will threaten your life. Perhaps he will not. What you do after that is not my concern, but I assure you I have not worked to bring harm to you. You are my friend.”

I scowled at the endearment. “Like hell I am,” I growled. “Onym’s allies think I murdered him because of you. Luir thinks Deya spent the night with me because of you. For all I know, you’re working with every House in Nalnora right now, but you’ve damn sure been sitting in the shadows as often as possible listening in on what we say and do.”

The Baroness grinned. “I have heard many things since I came to Nalnora,” she said smoothly. “Some of them have been rather profitable, some have cost men their lives. There are plenty of secrets in this land, Mason Flynt. I am simply the one who decides which ones are kept.” Nulena’s two-toned eyes took on a deathly cast. “Dragir’s rune, for example. Depending on how much longer you point that weapon at me, I might be inclined to keep this particular secret to myself. Along with your little thief’s kinky appetite.”

The Baroness glanced at Deya, and she lightly clicked her stark white teeth together with a seductive grin.

Deya blushed as her violet eyes widened, and Aurora stepped forward.

“Or I could kill you now,” she decided, but the Baroness swiftly raised her inky palm.

Aurora stumbled to a stop and clutched at her eyes.

Then she staggered back and reached out blindly. “I … I can’t hear,” she gasped. “I can’t see.”

I quickly pulled the half-elf against me, and she grabbed ahold of me as her breath began to quicken.

“Undo it,” I ordered of the Tenebrae Mage.

“If she’ll play nice with me,” Nulena purred.

Shoshanne quickly raised her palm before I could respond, and the Baroness eyed the Aer Mage for only a split second before Aurora was promptly released.

“What the fuck,” the half-elf hissed as she recovered and unsheathed her sword, but I locked her in my arm.

“Enough,” I told the Baroness. “Who are you working for?”

“A friend,” she said, and her tone made the hair on my neck stand on end. “But this conversation is no longer a private one.”

The Baroness took a few steps back as she flicked her two-toned eyes to the trees above.

“It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mason Flynt,” she said with a sultry smile. “Luir will meet with you now.”

Chapter 12

I told the women to wait for me while I went to meet with the head of House Orrel, but aside from Deya, they were having none of it.

“I don’t want to see him,” the beautiful elf insisted.

Aurora hooked her arm in Deya’s and spoke barely louder than a whisper. “It will look worse if you don’t go,” she told her.

Deya gave a worried nod, and I slipped her pendant into her hand before we all proceeded to follow the Baroness back toward the lagoon.

The elf on the dock paid no attention to us as we passed, and we wove along the mossy path that led to the domed entrance of the house.

I could hear Aurora muttering quietly to Deya along the way, and when I glanced back, the beautiful elf had a calmer countenance at last. I only hoped it would hold out under the scrutiny of the head of House Orrel.

There was a single white-robed elf waiting for us at the doors, and he didn’t question the Baroness when we approached. He opened the hefty wooden doors without a word, and within two minutes, we were mounting the steps that led to the towering chamber.

When we entered, the younger Luir was standing at the long stone table with three students, and the elves were all considering an open book and slip of parchment laid out on the table. The leader seemed to be instructing them in their studies, and when he looked up, he sent us all a charming grin.

“Mason Flynt!” he called by way of greeting, and he beckoned for us to join him while he quickly finished his lecturing with the students.

We came to the stone table with the Baroness trailing behind now, and as the leader dismissed the three white-robed elves, I noticed four different degree maps sketched on the parchment.

The leader slowly folded the parchment to hand it back as he chided one of the students in Elvish, and when they headed for the doors, he turned to extend a hand across the table to me.

“Looks like you’re healing up,” he pointed out as he shook my hand heartily.

“Shoshanne works wonders,” I replied.

The leader greeted the women next, even Aurora, and then he came around the table to hold his hands out to Deya.

To my relief, the beautiful elf behaved as naturally as ever as she slid her slender hands into his, and he placed a light kiss on her forehead.

“I trust you slept well, my little sprite?”

Deya sent him an apologetic smile. “I’m afraid not,” she admitted. “I couldn’t fall asleep, so Defender Solana escorted me around the grounds for a while. I did not realize there was a pond in the valley. Is that an everly tree you have back there?”

Luir was caught off guard by her statement for a split second, before he chuckled.

“You would know an everly tree, wouldn’t you?” he said admiringly. “It is, in fact. Did you get to see the blooming take place?”

“It was beautiful,” Deya sighed. “The moonlight almost sparkles on the little bits of pollen.”

The leader looked well pleased with the elf all of a sudden.

“That’s my favorite part,” he told her before he glanced over to me. “And did you and your lovely ladies sleep well?”

“Like a rock,” I told him with an easy grin.

“Excellent!”

The Baroness was leaning against the table a little ways behind us, and the leader spoke to her in Elvish for a brief moment before she sauntered from the hall without a word.

Then he looped Deya on his arm and headed for the doors as well.

“Come, we’ll have a short breakfast,” Luir called over his shoulder.

Cayla glanced sidelong at me as we followed, and I shrugged.

It seemed like Deya might be able to deflect the leader’s concerns for the time being, but I didn’t wholly trust the complete one-eighty his mood had taken since I’d snuck from the hall behind the Baroness.

So, I kept the three women close at my side while we left a wide berth behind the leader and Deya.

He chatted with her and teased her all the way along the footpaths of the valley, and Deya giggled for him while she shook her head or told him how her family were doing in the south.

The furthest building in the valley was a long, gabled structure with a copper and lichen-flecked roof supported by stone pillars.

Luir led us under the arching entrance, and as I brushed a few vines aside, silence fell in the hall.

We were standing at the head of a large chamber with the morning breeze drifting in between the columns, and every white-robed elf stood from the long stone tables to turn and face their leader in unison.

There must have been well over three hundred students gathered for their meal, and Luir gave a well pleased nod before he began to make his way to the only empty table at the head of the chamber. As we followed, every elf the leader passed bowed their respect, and I noticed Luir exchange more than a few smiles with his lady students.

The majority of them gave a telling blush.

The silence in the hall was almost oppressive by the time we made it to the head table, and only when Luir had taken his own seat did any of his students return to their meal.

Luir settled Deya at his left side, and he beckoned for me to take the seat on his right while the three other women filed in around us.

Aurora placed herself next to Deya as conversation resumed throughout the hall, and I noted the leader eyed the two women before he turned to me.

“Mornings are rather crowded here, but it’s important for the students to understand I am merely another student of this world,” he explained, and he looked out across the hall with pride. “I learn as much from them as I have passed on in turn.”

“What happens when they finish their studies?” I asked as three large platters were brought out by white-robed elves and placed along the table in front of us.

“They do not,” Luir said simply. “The members of my House live here for the duration of their lives, and their freedom to continue their work is, for the most part, unbounding.”

I nodded my appreciation. “That’s pretty amazing,” I mused. “You must be close to fully recovering the knowledge of your ancestors then, with centuries of experimentation taking place.”

Luir smirked and began to fill his plate. “I won’t pretend you are a novice,” he said with amusement. “Dragir must have at least explained some of the craft to you during your time at House Quyn. Let me ask you a question, Mason Flynt.”

I shoved a sizeable chunk of meat into my mouth just in case and nodded.

“I am half certain you do not know how to wield runes, but you are aware of the mapping required to do so, yes?”

I chewed for a moment and shrugged before I answered. “I know there’s degree lines that are tied to elements,” I told him. “That’s as much as I could get out of Dragir.” I sent the leader a wry look. “You’re the first elf to approach the topic without arguing or hurling a dagger at me.”

Luir chuckled heartily. “That is the way of our lands, I’m afraid,” he replied. “Rune Magic was once an honored art in Nalnora. Over the years, those who would use it as a weapon tarnished the craft, and it was decided that this sort of knowledge could not be entrusted to just anyone. I’m sure you can understand. Your own weaponry seems to create the same predicament.”

I nodded once more. “That’s true,” I admitted. “There have been a few offers I’ve declined for the same reason. Even Aeris was among them.”

“I know,” the leader informed me. “I had a visit from our friend Aeris this morning. Pyrs as well.”

I considered Luir out of the corner of my eye, but he seemed completely unbothered with entering the conversation, and with so many witnesses, I figured it might be safe to feel out the situation.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes,” Luir mumbled through his bite. “You are not a very popular man amongst the Elite.”

I swallowed. “We didn’t see eye to eye on a few things,” I explained. “Aeris wanted a hundred and fifty rifles, and I wanted to leave Lyrlus the moment I entered it.”

The leader laughed loudly. “I can understand the sentiment,” he replied. “Although, I was unaware Aeris was so ambitious. That is quite a lot of weaponry.”

“More than I’d trust a man like Aeris with,” I told him bluntly. “He was pretty upset about it.”

“Yes, he’d like me to kill you for him,” Luir said casually before he took a long sip from his goblet.

Then he gestured to a student who was stooped over a slip of parchment with a spoon hanging limp in the other hand.

“That is Itham over there with the bronze hair,” Luir muttered. “He’s working on an elixir that would give the drinker a similar bile to that of the Raxis. He seems to think this would be useful in some way. So long as he doesn’t spit on the other students, I suppose it can do little harm.”

I stared as the leader shoveled more food into his mouth.

“I … didn’t realize Aeris was that upset,” I tried.

Luir shrugged. “He’s a petty man,” the elf remarked. “In truth, I have no interest in the squabbles of the other Houses. Whether or not you stole his precious jewels hardly concerns me. You would be wise to steer clear of Lyralus, however.”

The leader nudged me and sent me a broad grin.

I grinned as well and chuckled my agreement, and Luir gestured to another student with long purple hair as if the topic was entirely closed.

“Rhuenar at the end of that table is my most prized pupil at present,” he said. “She recently performed an experiment on a sphinx carcass that proved the beast’s internal organs can be harvested and altered in order to replicate our own.”

“She … turned the sphinx organs into elven organs?” I asked as I slowed my chewing.

“Yes,” he said proudly. “Remarkable, isn’t it?”

I was about to ask what purpose this could possibly serve, but a white-robed elf approached the table to converse with his leader, and Luir wiped the food from his lips as he stood to follow him.

“Pardon me,” he said to us all, “I have a few students who require my input.”

I watched the leader stroll off to a table at the far end of the hall, and I leaned back in my seat as I finally let the tension in my shoulders relax. I’d been expecting a threat at any moment, or for every student in the vast hall to suddenly turn on us, but Luir seemed uninterested in Aeris’ favor.

His amusement on the topic was actually pretty close to what my own had been before the Baroness outed Deya, and as long as the beautiful elf kept up appearances, we may have just dodged the bullet completely.

I glanced toward Deya while the leader was occupied, and I was pleased to see she kept her focus everywhere but on me.

Which meant I might have finally walked into a position where I could seek genuine input on the elven scrolls.

Luir’s knowledge was clearly extensive, and his over two thousand years of wisdom had to have something of the ancient language in it. At the very least, with so many dedicated students on hand, I didn’t doubt someone could shed light on what the ancient texts dictated.

The scrolls were currently burning a hole in my pocket, and as I watched Luir carefully sketching something out for his students, I decided I kind of liked the guy. If he could brush off the bullshit of the Elite and talk runes without being a prick, he was exactly who I needed to get to know in Nalnora.

Even if there was something unsettling about those handsome grins. Smiling really didn’t seem to come too naturally to a lot of elves, though.

“He’s so involved with his students,” Shoshanne admired from my side. “At the Order of Pallax, there’s so much protocol that it’s difficult to get a moment to discuss privately with any of the instructors.”

I smirked at my plate. “Oh, he’s definitely involved with them.”

The students Luir was currently speaking with were gathered around him at the opposite corner, and as he explained his work, his hand slid to rest on the lower back of a pretty elf with stark orange hair.

“You said your family are always welcome to return here?” Cayla asked as she leaned around Shoshanne to speak with Deya.

“If we wanted to,” the elf replied.

“Would you not be permitted to return to House Quyn if you did?”

“I think not,” Deya said, and she lowered her voice a little before continuing. “Dragir has declined the invitation on a few occasions.”

“That makes sense,” Cayla mused. “Isn’t he expected to take your father’s place as the head of House Quyn one day?”

Luir’s eyes snapped straight to Deya when the princess asked this, and I realized the elf had been listening to every word.

Deya must have noticed too, because she returned to her natural tone when she answered.

“He will,” she said, “and I look forward to it. Dragir takes his responsibility to his own House very seriously. He will make my father proud when the day comes to carry on the legacy of my family.”

Luir was already back to lecturing his students when Deya finished, but his expression struck me as an odd one.

He’d mentioned Dragir several times while we toured the grounds, and I thought back over the many comments while I worked through my plate. By the time Luir returned to the table, the women were discussing the enormous rookery of House Orrel, and the leader began explaining the intricacies of using wild animals as transmuters.

I kept half my focus on the discussion, but I couldn’t shake one of the leader’s less subtle comments he’d made just outside the same rookery the day before.

Luir told me I should count myself lucky Dragir had bothered with me at all, and that he couldn’t get his attention if he tried.

With his “eyes” trailing Dragir and watching from the sidelines during the battle in defense of House Quyn, I began to think I might have figured out what the head of House Orrel wanted from me.

Why he was determined to get at Dragir was beyond me, though.

The Halcyan rune of his grandfather was certainly impressive, but if a deal had been struck centuries ago to arm Luir’s soldiers with the blades, it seemed unlikely he needed more access to the enchanted weapons. Not to mention, the Halcyan blades were scattered all over Nalnora, and a man like Luir could easily obtain them if he wished.

There was something more he wanted.

Luir was detailing the blending of the senses between a transmuter and their chosen channel when I stretched and stood, and the leader promptly abandoned the conversation.

“I think I’ll take a walk around the grounds,” I told him as I turned to leave, and just as I expected, Luir was up in an instant.

“We’ll join you,” he said happily. “You’ve yet to see the furthest reaches of House Orrel.”

I nodded as the women stood, and I decided I’d start pushing the discussions toward my own interests today and see if I couldn’t play into the leader’s own game.

Whatever Luir wanted with Dragir, the elven scrolls would likely distract him. Given that Deya’s brother had suggested the idea first, it might be just the thing we both needed at this point.

With Luir at my side and Deya on his arm, we headed between the stone pillars, and the leader gestured off toward the glade that stretched into the valley behind House Orrel.

“You mentioned the mapping of degrees,” I said after a moment. “Can you decide what a degree will harness, or is this something that’s already determined?”

Luir smiled. “If only it was as simple,” he mused. “The mapping of rune magic was discovered by the ancients, so these elements were come upon. We can’t define them any which way we please because they are already there. The degree mapping simply allowed us to realize them. But if we can’t identify the elements the map is capable of connecting to, or in some cases name them directly, they are entirely inaccessible.”

I furrowed my brow. “Name them?”

“Yes” The leader nodded.

He released Deya as she drifted to follow Shoshanne down a branching path, but he stayed beside me as we headed into the wilds in the further reaches of the valley.

“If an element only needed a line to be drawn in the right place, any fool could wield the power of rune magic,” Luir explained. “There is a reason it was, and still is, considered an art form and a science. Unless you can work with clear intention to harness an element, there is no access to its power. If I draw a line on the map, I must know what I draw it for, or else it’s only a line.”

“That’s probably a good thing with some elements,” I pointed out. “You wouldn’t want a mad man harnessing lethal powers by some happy accident.”

Luir chuckled. “But a completely sane man wouldn’t mind the help,” he added.

I smirked. “Are you the sane man?”

“I am,” the leader sighed. “I have worked for centuries to restore what has been lost for my people. In some instances, I have been lucky, but without a clear path of intention, I fear the endeavor is an impossible one. My students are dedicated and innovative individuals, but you cannot create something from nothing. You cannot access all knowledge simply because you want to, or have worked your entire life to do so.”

The leader paused to scan the plants around us for the women, and I considered his statement for a moment.

“What would you do if you could?” I finally asked, and I studied his expression carefully.

“If I could complete my life’s work?” he asked with a grin, and he looked even younger at the prospect.

I nodded.

Luir furrowed his brow thoughtfully, but after a long moment, he smirked and shrugged.

“I can’t imagine what I would do,” he admitted, “but I know that is not the answer you want. You expect my age to supply a better one, but my years have made me acutely aware of changeability. Age doesn’t bring constancy. What I would do if I could complete my work and fully restore the knowledge of my ancestors would depend on the circumstances.”

I was surprised to get such an honest answer, and I couldn’t disagree with his logic. It wasn’t wholly reassuring, but it was better than pretending to be a saint.

“You did say you keep your trove well fed, though,” I pointed out, “that power was the only thing that could sustain.”

Luir grinned and beckoned for Deya through the leaves as he caught sight of her.

“I stand by my word,” he assured me. “The study of rune magic is extensive enough to sustain through multiple lifetimes. In this way, a man never falters if he continues his work and shares his knowledge with his subjects. Only by carrying the study onward can I truly remain in my place. It’s not wealth or age that keeps me here.”

Deya smiled sweetly and gladly took the leader’s arm as she joined us.

“It’s an honorable endeavor,” she told him.

“It is,” Luir agreed, “and one I would hope your brother could learn the importance of.”

Deya’s smile faltered. “He respects your work immensely,” she assured him, “but his place is with his House.”

“His place is within the walls of his ancestors,” Luir corrected, and his tone was less playful with the woman than it had been all morning. “Dragir’s true place is at my side, and if you cared for the future of your race, you would respect this.”

“I … I do care for the future of our race,” Deya stammered in her confusion.

“Then dedicate yourself to the work,” the leader commanded.

His eyes suddenly took on a more dangerous cast, and Deya paled a degree as he stared her down.

“You have wasted years wandering through the jungles, Deya,” Luir continued. “What are three years to an elf? I have dedicated centuries to our nation. Begin your work as you should and stop behaving like a child. Both you and Dragir are sorely misled from the paths you were made to travel down, and it’s an insult to our kind that you should be as selfish.”

Deya bristled. “Those three years belong to me by law and--”

“And what do you need them for?” the leader interrupted coldly. “To tend to your ridiculous father and play with dogs?”

I watched the leader’s hold on Deya’s arm tighten as she flushed, and when she spoke again, her voice wavered slightly.

“In three years, I will have to serve Nalnora for the rest of my life,” she told him. “What do you care if what I do now is for myself?”

“What you do now could determine how miserable the rest of your life becomes,” Luir warned.

“It will be miserable regardless,” Deya countered, and she ripped her arm free as her eyes began to well with tears.

My first instinct was to reach out for her, and I remembered not to a split second too late.

Whether the leader noticed the slight shift in my arm, I couldn’t tell, because he quickly closed the gap between himself and Deya to snatch her back, and as he held her elbow in a vice, the beautiful elf refused to meet his penetrating gaze.

The other women came along the path to find the three of us like this, and when the leader saw them, he flashed what would have been a charming grin if Deya’s arm wasn’t turning purple in his grip.

Then Luir directed his unsettling eyes toward me for a long and silent moment before he abruptly turned.

With no shadows falling at Deya’s feet, I knew how easily Luir could control the weightless elf, and he roughly pulled her along with him as she stumbled to keep up.

“Come,” Luir ordered over his shoulder, “we are nearly there now.”

Aurora fell into step beside me and sent me a worried glance, but I minutely shook my head at her. A part of me, a very large fucking part of me, wanted to rip Luir’s arm off for the way he was touching Deya, but I knew if I flew off the handle now, it could cause some serious problems for us. So, I just gritted my teeth as I marched after the Head of House Orrel.

Still, I couldn’t help but think Luir had been completely at ease only moments before he’d started in on Deya, and I wondered if the sudden shift was a test to gauge my own reaction.

Unfortunately, it was fucking working.

I tried to ignore the way the leader was handling Deya as he dragged her with him through the overgrown glade, but my hand settled itself on the handle of my revolver as my fury mounted.

Aurora clutched the hilt of her sword, and both Shoshanne and Cayla gripped their bows with white knuckles.

The plants weren’t tended this far from the main house, and the paths had disappeared some time ago when we came to the far corner of the valley.

Luir continued straight up the steep ridge without a word, and after we’d climbed for ages, he turned into a dense grove to follow a concealed and unkept path.

“Have you ever encountered a Wendigo, Mason Flynt?” the leader suddenly called back.

Deya whipped her head around to look at me, and her violet eyes were wide with fear.

“Once,” I replied, but my gut clenched uneasily as a ridge appeared through the trees ahead.

“Unsightly things, aren’t they?” Luir said with a low chuckle. “There is much to appreciate about the breed, though. Especially when you can witness them at their full potential.”

The leader brushed the last few branches aside and let them thrash Deya as he dragged her to the edge of the ridge.

Aurora and I quickened our pace to join them, and the half-elf swiftly planted herself beside Deya.

Every ounce of feeling in my limbs gave out as I looked down into the next valley, and when the leader dropped a heavy arm on my shoulder, I jolted and nearly lost my footing.

Luir gave another deep chuckle.

“Power comes in many forms,” he mused darkly. “This is my other little trove.”

The army below snarled and shrieked as they tore into each other where they amassed in the barren valley, and the overwhelming stench of rotted flesh wafted up on the breeze like nothing I’d ever smelled in my life.

Beside me, Cayla gagged uncontrollably and turned away, and Shoshanne covered her nose and mouth as her eyes flared with terror.

I could taste the rot on my tongue, and my eyes began to burn while my stomach immediately protested. I swallowed down my bile and made sure my footing was secure, but I couldn’t do much more than stare.

What must have been close to a thousand Wendigo crawled like vermin over one another as they consumed their own, and their deformed limbs clawed out to peel the rotting flesh from each other’s mangled bones.

Others seemed to be hatching from corpses littered with maggots and mold, and while some of them towered at nearly seven feet, the scraggly ones scuttled around the ground and tore the tendons from ankles as they passed.

Deya stooped and threw up at the leader’s feet, but he didn’t let go of her arm, and when she tried to back away from the ridge, Luir wrenched her forward to lock her in front of him.

The demented shrieks of the Wendigo became louder as several noticed the sudden movement on the ridge. Deya’s boots were centimeters from the edge while Luir held her firmly against him and forced her to look down on the ravenous army.

They attempted to claw their way up the valley’s edge, but the grade was too steep. One by one, they dropped back into the swarming mass, and although their limbs snapped on impact, they only dragged themselves up once more.

Then Luir pressed his lips against Deya’s ear.

“You don’t have to worry, my little sprite,” he growled, and my hand tightened on the revolver as I watched him with the beautiful elf. “I won’t let them hurt you.”

The leader slowly raised his palm, and with a sickening crunching of bones, every hollowed and crazed face in the valley turned to look directly at us.

They ceased their shrieking to fall into a ghostly silence, and they stood stock still with their gawking eyes boring into us as blood and entrails steadily dripped from their yellowed teeth.

“See?” Luir continued. “They do anything I wish.”

Then the leader’s gaze locked with mine.

Chapter 13

Deya gasped when the leader abruptly released her, and Luir brushed his hands off as his expression shifted to an unaffected smile.

“Feel free to look around, by all means,” he said pleasantly and turned to head back along the path. “Do watch your step.”

Deya stared across the barren valley, and she’d turned an ashy gray as she held Aurora’s arm in a death grip against her, but none of us moved an inch, and Luir whistled lightly to himself as he disappeared into the trees.

The Wendigo erupted in a frenzy of gnashing teeth as soon as the leader was gone from sight, and they crushed one another and ripped at their bones while they fought to get at the ridge.

“We’re leaving,” I decided, and the women all nodded silently.

Then Cayla stepped forward to tug Deya gently away from the ridge, and she turned her face away for her when the elf only remained frozen with her eyes on the rotting army below.

“Why didn’t you use your runes against him?” Cayla asked with a crinkled brow.

“Dragir told me not to,” Deya answered as she blinked and swayed a little. “He said whatever happened, don’t let Luir see the pendant. He wouldn’t even let me bring the coin here.”

I furrowed my brow as I recognized the hazy look on her face, and before she could pass out, I quickly came over to rub her frigid arms and get her blood going again.

“Breathe,” I instructed. “You know Luir wouldn’t kill you. You’re too valuable, and besides, I would never let him. He’s just trying to get to me. Breathe.”

The elf dropped to her knees and threw up once more instead.

“Shit,” I sighed.

“I’m going to kill that guy one day,” Aurora hissed and stooped to help Deya back up.

I shook my head and eyed the unbridled army stacking itself against the ridge.

“As much as I agree with you, I wouldn’t advise it,” I told the half-elf.

No matter my own personal feelings for the prick, the prospect of unleashing an unrestrained mass like this one was worse.

Once Deya got a firmer hold on her nerves, we headed back along the path and down into the dense glade as the shrieking of the starved Wendigo faded. White-robed students strolled the grounds without concern, and the sun shone down on the ancient, overgrown stonework of House Orrel ahead.

“I need to get the books from our room,” Deya suddenly remembered.

“You don’t need the books,” Aurora sighed.

“I do,” the elf insisted. “It’ll only take me a moment.”

I halted and looked back. “We’re not stopping for books,” I told her bluntly. “That guy’s gonna kill us if we don’t get out of here.”

Deya furrowed her brow, and I knew by her expression she wasn’t about to listen.

Then she vanished into thin air.

“Godsdamnit,” I cursed, but I managed to grab the elf’s invisible arm as she passed.

I heard her give a curt sigh just before she flickered back into view, and I pulled her into my arms to be sure she stayed put.

“I’m not a fan of watching Luir dangle you above a man-eating army,” I informed her, and she melted against me with a shudder at the mention of it. “Leave the books.”

Deya nodded reluctantly, and I snuck a kiss from the beautiful elf before I led the women to the far edge of the glade.

We skirted the back edges of the valley as we carefully made our way toward the lagoon, and we were just turning to head for the dock when I heard the quiet flap of a wing.

I froze and quickly scanned the trees for a transmuter, but I couldn’t see any giant owls lurking in the branches.

The five of us looked all around to be sure none of the leader’s eyes were trained on us, but as we slowly proceeded through the undergrowth, Luir’s two guards appeared out of nowhere on either side.

Deya vanished the moment they arrived, and I pulled my revolver as the three women readied their own weapons.

“Luir requests that you join him in the tower.”

“I decline,” I told the guard as I cocked the revolver.

The guard smirked. “I can deliver the message if you like. Luir is prepared to unleash his army should you choose to flee.”

My knees went numb at the thought, and when I glanced toward the dock, I realized the elf in charge of the boat wasn’t there.

So, I slowly lowered my gun.

“We’re gonna die,” Cayla sighed, and she shifted her rifle as she sent me a pointed look.

“No, we’re not,” I assured her. “We’re gonna have a short chat with Luir, say our goodbyes, and get the hell out of here.”

Aurora gaped at me from behind her drawn bowstring. “You’re not serious.”

“I am,” I told the three women. “I didn’t come here to get an army like that on my heels, and we can’t afford another horde of murderers after us. There’s bigger things at stake.”

Shoshanne nodded her agreement and looped her bow over her shoulder, and Aurora cursed as Cayla finally lowered the rifle.

“The Master’s army could be ready to move out any day,” the princess muttered. “Say whatever you have to to get us out of here.”

“Deal,” I agreed, and I gestured for the two guards to lead the way.

“He’s still going to try to kill us,” Aurora mumbled.

“Oh, he’s definitely gonna try to kill us,” I said with a nod. “He’s an elf. I’ll just have to persuade him otherwise.”

Deya was still invisible, but I was more than relieved she didn’t reappear. I was about worn out watching Luir toy with the beautiful elf.

So, Shoshanne, Cayla, and Aurora followed at my back as the guards led us along the bank, and I sparked my magic as I turned my palm ever so slightly toward the water.

I easily found the Mustang way over on the road, and my bow silently slipped into my hand by the time we made it to the mossy path that wove its way to the entrance of House Orrel.

I looped the strap of the bow over my shoulder as Cayla and Shoshanne caught the two axes, and Aurora had a spare rifle in hand without either guard noticing a thing behind them.

The students eyed our weapons cautiously while we crossed through the dilapidated halls, and when we came to the doors of the towering chamber, the guards didn’t enter with us.

They pulled the doors open with stern brows and gestured for us to enter, and then they shut them firmly at our back to leave us alone with the head of House Orrel.

“Mason Flynt,” Luir said with an ominous grin. “I see Deya has chosen not to attend.”

He was sitting at the stone table with his hands folded patiently, and I didn’t respond as the four of us strolled out to the center of the vast hall.

“What a pity,” the leader muttered, and he eyed the two axes. “I rather enjoy Deya’s company, but she did look as though she might not be feeling well.”

“You sent for me?” I cut in.

The leader cocked a brow.

“Very well,” he said. “Let us get straight to business for once. Either you came here for my army, or you came here for my word. Which is it?”

I furrowed my brow. “What word would that be?”

“I am not a fool,” Luir assured me. “Dragir would not have sent you here if he were not without options. Perhaps you thought you might get at my own army in the process, but I understand the balance of things in the south better than the south might realize. This Master of yours has nearly done away with three of the southern houses. Which means only three remain. With four Elite to the north, I do not doubt it has occurred to Dragir that you and your new allies might be in a spot of trouble.”

I nodded slowly. “Is that why he sent me?” I asked curiously. “I didn’t realize, but to be honest, I’m not too concerned about the Elite. House Fehryn hasn’t fallen, and I assure you they won’t. Which leaves four Houses in the south.”

“I am not speaking about House Fehryn,” the leader said with a smirk. “House Ceres in the west have not been heard from in days. My eyes are awaiting their fall at any hour.”

“And you’ve done nothing to stop it?” Cayla challenged.

Luir behaved as if the princess had made an amusing joke. “Why would I?” he asked. “House Ceres is a plague.”

“House Ceres is fuel for the Master’s fire,” I countered. “Continue to sit by, and he will make his way through every house in Nalnora and rest assured, you will be one of them. The Master was a student himself under the head of House Syru, and whatever knowledge he gained there is the threat you should be concerned with. I’m not gonna sit around Nalnora defending everyone.”

Luir snorted. “I doubt the head of House Syru possessed any magic that could counter my own students. I had my eyes on him for centuries. He did little more than shut himself up in that dull chamber of his and build his brutish army.”

“And you never wondered what he might be up to in there?” I asked pointedly.

The leader looked at me for a long moment before he slowly leaned forward and narrowed his eyes.

“I have, in fact,” Luir replied, and his gaze darkened. “So, Mason Flynt. What is the real reason Dragir sent you to me if the Elite are of such little concern to the two of you?”

“He didn’t send me,” I said with a shrug. “I came to ask you a few questions. Dragir suggested I gain an allegiance in arms while I’m up here if I could, but frankly, I don’t need your army. I’ll handle the Master’s attack on House Fehryn myself.”

Luir furrowed his brow curiously. “Go on then. Ask your questions.”

I smirked. “I did. You’ve already told me what I came to find out. Now, if you’re done here, I’ll be on my way.”

The leader began to look furious, and I waited patiently for the imminent threat. I could tell by the set of his jaw it was coming any moment.

“You did not come here to trick me into giving you information,” Luir growled.

“I did,” I said and sent him an apologetic grin. “I was curious what you had to say on a couple topics. Everyone told me the head of House Orrel had such immense wisdom and knowledge at his disposal. I was a little disappointed on those points, but it wasn’t a wasted trip. I saw your House and your extensive grounds, witnessed the strength of your army, and learned a few things. Like you said, that’s what really matters. Knowledge. I’ll leave a wiser man.”

The leader stared, but slowly, his expression twisted into an eerie grin, and he began to chuckle to himself.

“I like you, you know,” he told me as he stood and made his way around the table. “I have kept my eyes on you ever since you exhibited the power of that infernal weapon of yours within the hall of the Elven Council. I knew without a doubt that every House in Nalnora would either want to kill you or enslave you, and I have been curious to see which it would be.”

“Well, I’m still alive,” I pointed out.

Luir’s grin widened. “Enslavement, then.”

“Not yet,” I assured him.

The leader’s expression gradually sobered, and he folded his arms across his broad chest as he leaned against the stone tabletop.

“You know, no elven army has ever fought alongside a human,” he mused, “and yet you have gained a firm allegiance with both House Quyn and House Fehryn and managed to ally their own armies against this supposed Master. But tell me, do you really believe you will escape this land?”

I shrugged. “I’ve done alright so far.”

Luir looked less than amused. “I could name forty elves who would slit your throat the moment they saw you, and that isn’t even counting the armies at their disposal. Or myself.”

“What did I do to you?”

“Disappointed me,” the leader replied simply. “I welcomed you into my home and shared my knowledge with you, and you repay me by tarnishing my little sprite and probing me with duplicitous questions. It’s a shame we could not work together, but killing you will ease my conscious where Deya is concerned at least.”

“You really think I’m worth dragging that army out?” I asked. “That’s kind of flattering.”

“No, I won’t bother with them,” the leader said as he waved a dismissive hand. “My guards will do just fine.”

I couldn’t help but snort. “Well, for the sake of sparing you further disappointment, it’s gonna take more than two guards to kill me.”

The leader’s serpentine eyes glinted. “If you insist.”

I furrowed my brow at the giddy expression on Luir’s face, but Aurora suddenly grabbed my sleeve, and when I glanced over, she pointed up with the axe.

Every cutout that spiraled around the massive tower’s walls had the silhouette of an owl silently perching in it, and a chill ran down my spine as I felt them all looking down on us.

They weren’t the unusual breed the leader’s transmuters used, but they were the same common owls I’d seen in the trees above the lagoon.

Then, almost in unison, the owls blinked, and I realized their eyes had a slightly serpentine quality to them.

Luir began to chuckle to himself once more, and just as I took a step back, the owls abruptly took flight.

They swarmed the upper tower in a torrent of brown and white flecked feathers, and the women gathered closer around me as we watched them circle above and completely blot out the heights of the chamber.

Then they swiftly dove to the ground, and as they landed, their feathers melted away to reveal the crouched and brawny forms of House Orrel’s guards.

There must have been forty or more silver-haired elves with identical copper eyes surrounding us, and I eyed the four gleaming blades that splayed from the top of each knuckle like talons.

The guards slowly stood as they pulled their swords from their hilts, and Luir shifted casually to get more comfortable where he watched from the stone table.

“Now,” the leader said, “before I have you all killed, I feel it’s only fair I in turn ask you a few questions, Mason Flynt. I, however, will be quite direct about them.”

I’d begun scanning the metal of the room to take stock of the weaponry we were up against, and amongst the blades and swords, I suddenly recognized a very small piece of metal lurking behind the large stone slab that mounted the table.

I honestly wasn’t too surprised to find the pendant there, but the fact that there was a dagger poised about six inches above the slip of silver changed things a bit.

Not to mention, my own revolver was stowed several inches south.

My pulse surged while Luir studied me for a long, unsettling moment, and as his copper eyes bore into mine, I carefully brushed my arm against my side to find the holster on my belt was fucking empty.

Then the leader spoke, and his voice was low and commanding.

“What did you discover at House Syru that you are concealing from me?” Luir asked. “Answer quickly enough, and we can spare my guards the effort of applying any leverage.”

I took a steadying breath, and the entire flock of identical guards took a single step forward.

I nodded to myself. “You know what? That won’t even be necessary,” I assured the leader. “The answer wouldn’t matter at this point.”

Luir sneered. “Why is that?”

“Because you’ve already taken Deya,” I told him.

Cayla snapped her eyes to mine, and the leader raised his brows.

“Well done,” he finally said, but his tone was strictly pissed. “If you were a student of mine, I might be proud of you. You are correct, of course. I have already retrieved Deya.”

Luir glanced over his shoulder and motioned for her to join us, and four guards escorted Deya from behind the sturdy slab that mounted the stone table above us.

She was gagged with her hands tied together in rope, and the four elves brought her to a stop at the base of the few stairs below the leader’s boots.

The one who held the dagger poised at her throat sent me a familiar grin as he tightened his hold, and as infuriating as the gesture was, I reminded myself Deya was nothing but bait to the head of House Orrel.

Knowing the guard himself would likely be executed if that dagger accidentally slipped, I kept my expression unreadable as Luir let out a tired sigh.

“It would probably be much more fun to toy with the two of you a bit more,” the leader mused, “but I’ve run out of patience I’m afraid. Dragir will simply have to join me here if he wishes to see the little sprite again. I would ask you to tell him for me, Mason Flynt, but you’ll obviously be dead.”

The leader sent me a sympathetic shrug before he tilted his head to address Deya.

“By the way, my little sprite, these are my sons,” Luir said as he gestured to the several elves surrounding us. “You may have your pick of the litter if you learn to behave.”

Then Luir beckoned for the guards to attack, but I raised my palm at the same moment and wrenched the dagger from the elf who held it at Deya’s throat. In the same movement, the other three guards were disarmed, and as their weapons clanged against the back wall, Deya lunged forward.

Luir raised his own palm, though, and before she’d made it to us, Deya screeched and was lifted off her feet. She soared back to slam into Luir’s arms, and he quickly pinned her against him as he placed two fingers at her throat.

Every guard awaited his order, but the leader kept his serpentine eyes on me.

“Would you like to give a guess as to what this weapon does?” Luir growled as he kept Deya from wriggling free. “Here. I’ll give you a hint.”

The leader shifted just slightly, and as his sleeve slid down, I saw the runes branded all along his inner arm. There were six that I could see from where I stood, but I couldn’t tell how many more he might have.

Deya’s violet eyes slowly flared, and she struggled more desperately in Luir’s hold as she began to gasp for air from behind the gag.

It was more elaborate of him than I’d expected, but now that the leader had laid out all his cards and had a bit of fun, I decided it was a good time to turn the tables.

“It really is a shame we couldn’t work together,” I told the leader calmly, and I flicked my eyes to the pendant buried in Deya’s cleavage as she looked at me with mounting terror.

Then I slid my hand into my back pocket and pulled a pile of folded parchments out to hold them up.

“I kind of liked you, too,” I told Luir as his eyes sparked with a fiendish greed, and I could tell he instantly recognized the elven scrolls. “I’ll hang on to these, though. Maybe someone else will find them … informative.”

Everything happened at once the moment the leader gave the order in Elvish, but Deya was quicker than he was as she channeled her own runes against him.

With his arms locked around the beautiful elf, the man gave a violent jolt of pain and was thrown clear across the table at his back to crumple on the floor.

Aurora sent a stream of flames out to eat away at the tethering around Deya’s wrists, and by the time she had the gag off, four of Shoshanne’s shuriken impaled the necks of the guards who had closed in around us.

I ducked and dodged the talons that swiped for my face, and as my fist hit the ground, I buried the scrolls far beneath the stonework of the chamber.

Luir’s sons drove at us from every direction, and Aurora sent a spiral of flames out as she flipped to plant her boot in the gut of a guard.

The burning elves’ screams echoed around the tower above, and I loosed four arrows in quick succession to take down four more. Then I summoned my metal magic to tear the blades from the fist of an oncoming guard and sent them straight into his own chest.

Cayla spent her magazine on ten elves in less than ten seconds, and she swiftly shouldered her bow to whip the rifle around her back and finish off another two.

Shoshanne managed to take down three elves headed for Deya by embedding her barbed shuriken into their necks, and with another three arrows loosed shortly after, she took down the next line that jumped to grab the beautiful elf.

I could see Deya’s chest heaving in panic from across the room, and my nerves just about gave out when she reached into her boot and pulled my revolver out.

Deya held a shaky aim and cocked the revolver as her eyes flashed around the room in panic, and I tasted the metal on my tongue a split second before I targeted my gaze on the elf in front of her.

Deya stared at her hands in shock as the gun fired and moved on to the next for her, and I couldn’t help but send her a wink as she looked out across the guards at me.

I directed her aim toward another elf as I swiftly loosed another two arrows, and Deya was grinning by the time she’d finished sending bullets into three elves’ heads.

Then four blades struck me across my back, and as pain coursed through me, I whipped around to wrench them from their mounts on the guard’s fist. They impaled his neck before he could even react, and I ducked another blow as I loosed my last arrow.

Aurora had hurled her axe into a carcass at my feet, though, and I pulled it free to send it into one of three guards surrounding Shoshanne. Then I summoned it back and sent it into another skull.

The healer flung her shuriken into her attackers’ hearts, and as they lurched in shock, she swiftly caught one of their swords and spun around to help Cayla fend off another four guards.

The princess had spent her bullets, but she didn’t miss a beat before she flipped the gun around and bashed in the face of the next elf with the butt of the rifle.

Everywhere I looked, the silver-haired elves dove and drove their blades out in practiced form, and I noticed there was something almost graceful about the way they moved that reminded me of the owls swarming above us before they’d morphed into their true forms.

Luir had trained his stealthy spawn well, but I still felt some enjoyment in catching them off guard while I disarmed them and used their own weapons to slit their throats or stop their hearts.

Their copper eyes flashed with cold-blooded determination, and each one I came up against was nearly identical to the last with Luir’s same chiseled jawline.

Aurora’s sword clanged loudly and echoed through the hall as she sparred with any elf near her, and she wore a devilish grin on her face as she worked to lure more in. Once the Ignis Mage was surrounded with seven flashing swords, she shot her free arm out and engulfed every one of them in flames with a merciless chuckle.

I smirked as I hurled the axe once more, and this time, both axes came to me when I summoned my magic again.

I whipped around to block the onslaught of another horde of guards, and as soon as I found my opening, their talons flew from their fists and into their chests.

The guards began to pile up on the blood slicked stone, and when I looked up, Deya was in hand to hand combat with a guard. Her runes were sending shockwaves of pain with every blow, and she actually had an incredibly decent side kick.

But Luir caught my eye as he finally pulled himself up on the edge of the long stone table, and he looked straight past Deya to me.

Before I could blink, I was thrown twenty feet into the air, and when I came crashing down, I softened the stone just in time. My head still smashed against the floor with a dizzying blow, though, and as I stumbled to my feet, I was immediately hurled backward to crash against the stout wooden doors.

This time, the breath was knocked completely out of me, and I fought to fill my lungs as three guards cornered me where I landed.

I summoned an axe to bury it into one of their spines, and Cayla’s rifle cracked another’s skull open on impact.

I was about to wrench the last elf’s talons loose when Luir’s power yanked me from my place again, and I grappled to catch hold of anything as I was dragged over bodies and blades.

My thighs were shredded by a couple of them along the way, and just before Luir threw me into the wall, I managed to soften my landing enough to spare my bones once more.

Blood dripped down both of my legs when I finally stood again, and as Luir rose as well, Cayla let out a furious shriek.

Aurora swiftly scalded the arms of the elf who’d managed to grab Cayla from behind, but the princess had lost her rifle and was finally out of weapons.

Aurora had only her sword left as she sparred with three seething elves and tried to help Cayla, and Shoshanne sent the very last of her shuriken out.

I immediately scanned the bodies for anything I could send to the women, but Luir started chuckling once more, and when I looked back to him, his serpentine eyes weren’t on me anymore.

Then all three of the women in the center of the chamber were knocked from their feet and slammed together with unbelievable force, and when the leader raised his palm to throw them, my vision clouded a vibrant red with my rage.

Everything around me seemed to slow as the hollow crack echoed loudly throughout the tower above, and the three women were poised to drop in midair as Luir looked up in terror.

The crack in the ancient stonework sprawled out and began to spread around the entire tower, and as I held a deathly glare on the head of House Orrel, the elf barked a command for everything to end.

I ceased the breakage, but the only thing keeping the tower from falling into ruin now was my own powers, and I waited with the whole place on the brink of collapse as the leader released his hold on my women.

They clutched at their limbs where they’d crashed into one another, and I could tell Cayla was having trouble standing even though she kept her jaw set firm. She finally stooped and retrieved her rifle from the bloody floor, and Aurora stumbled to help her as she propped her weight on the gun.

My fury had only mounted as I took stock of the damage, and I didn’t shift by an inch when the last guards started to back away in surrender.

I held my arms in place with the weight of the ancient stones pressing down and urging me to let them collapse, and Luir looked around the place like he really couldn’t decide whether to run or cry.

“Enough!” he bellowed desperately, and a cruel smirk curled at the corner of my mouth as I slowly stepped across the bodies of Luir’s sons to come to the center of the towering chamber.

The stone above me creaked ominously as I went, and Luir clutched the edge of the stone table as his golden youth seemed to pale completely.

“Enough,” he growled once more.

“You gonna ask nicely?” I said with a smirk. “I was fine with just killing your sons off for you, but after the way you’ve treated my women, I think I’d rather bring the whole damn place down instead.”

Luir’s fury began to twitch somewhere near his left eye, and the dozen or so remaining guards fought for their breath while they continued to back away toward the doors.

“Please,” the leader managed to spit through gritted teeth.

The three women nodded when I looked over to check on them, and I called for Deya as I strained against the weight of the tower.

The beautiful elf quickly descended the steps and joined the other women, and another ominous creak echoed while I slowly stooped to my knee.

I retrieved the elven scrolls from beneath the stones of the floor, and Luir began to tremble with rage as his eyes darted to the parchments.

“Hand them over,” he ordered through gritted teeth.

I grinned maliciously. “You sure?” I asked.

As I spoke, a hefty slab of stone broke free from the peak of the tower, and Luir stumbled and tripped back in panic as his jaw went slack.

Just before the slab hit the ground, I caught it with a turn of my hand, and the leader let out a harried breath and braced himself on the stone table.

I recognized the defeat in Luir’s eyes, and I nodded.

“Like I said, I think I’ll hold on to these,” I told him, and I slowly raised the massive slab to return it to its place some hundred feet above us.

As the stone fused into place, Luir gave a frantic nod, and his shaky hand motioned for the guards to step aside.

Once the women made it to the doors, I looked up, and as I focused on carefully directing my powers, the ancient stonework gradually began to mend itself.

Every angry crack sealed as the stones groaned and shifted back into their places, and when the final blemish of the towering chamber was undone, I finally lowered my arm.

Luir looked like his legs were about to give out, but I couldn’t tell if it was the state of his sacred tower, or the bodies of his many sons littering the floor that hurt more.

Then I slipped the parchment back into my pocket, and Luir’s gaze narrowed menacingly.

“You have no use for them,” he growled. “You don’t need them. Leave them with me at least. They belong here.”

“I’d love to discuss this with you,” I told the leader. “I’d hoped we might have time to actually, but my women seem to be pretty badly injured at the moment. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you take some time to figure out how you’re gonna make this up to me? Considering you’re running out of sons, I’d say it’s your best option at this point.”

I turned my back and headed for the entrance, and Aurora smirked as she shoved the doors open with her good arm.

“Three years, my little sprite,” Luir warned from across the chamber. “I think I’ll keep you for myself, though. My sons haven’t taken much of a liking to you.”

I heard Deya let out a sigh at my back, and I turned just as the beautiful elf flipped around and raised the revolver.

From behind her shoulder, I could see her aim was directed straight at Luir’s heart, and before I could move, Deya pulled the trigger.

“No!” I ordered, and my arm shot out as my veins surged.

Chapter 14

The bullet skirted just beneath the stone table and struck Luir’s kneecap as I attempted to redirect it, and he dropped hard to the floor as he yelled out in pain.

Half of the guards ran to his aid while the other half barred their teeth, and as they clamored over the bodies to get to us, I grabbed the gun from Deya.

Then I quickly hoisted Cayla over my shoulder, and we all bolted down the aged steps toward the entrance of House Orrel.

The students in the halls stared at the blood all over us as we pushed past, and several of them immediately changed course to seek out their leader. They sent us accusing looks as they went, and I quickened my pace as cries of alarm began to echo at our backs.

“Get to the dock,” I ordered before I glanced at Deya. “What the fuck were you doing with my gun?”

“I’m sorry,” she groaned. “I didn’t know what else to do. I disappeared, and the Baroness was there. She could see me.”

We’d just made it to the copper dome, and all of us stopped dead as the doors shut behind us.

“What?” Aurora demanded of the elf.

“The Baroness,” Deya said once more. “She could see me, and when you guys followed the guards, she told me to take the gun. She insisted I needed it.”

Aurora’s emerald eyes flared. “And you listened to her?” she groaned.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Deya said as she blushed. “She said they would find me, and to take the gun. To be fair, it did end up being useful.”

I furrowed my brow as I tried yet again to find any sense in the ways of the Baroness, but I could at least acknowledge the gun had served Deya well.

But Deya’s thieving had also left me without it, and I couldn’t see a whole lot of logic in handing a revolver to a woman who didn’t know a thing about firing one.

The voices on the other side of the door began to draw nearer, though, and we quickly descended the last of the stairs as we ran for the dock.

“The next time a random woman tells you to disarm me, don’t listen,” I muttered over my shoulder. “Let’s just make that a rule.”

“Okay,” Deya immediately agreed, and she sent me such a sweet smile I could hardly stay irritated.

I sighed. “You need to know how to use a weapon before you start pointing it all over the place,” I told her. Then I shook my head. “Dragir would fucking kill me if he knew I let you use that gun without knowing how.”

Deya crinkled her brow at the thought. “I know, I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

I sent the beautiful elf a grin to let her know I wasn’t too upset, but then Aurora’s sword slid from its sheath to derail my attention completely.

I almost barreled right into her as she came to an abrupt stop, and the Baroness stood between us and the dock.

Her inky arm was propped on her slender waist, and she had a bag dangling from her other hand.

Aurora leveled her sword at the woman’s throat, and the Baroness curled her lip as she held the half-elf’s gaze without concern.

Then she glanced at Deya.

“You forgot these,” Nulena informed her, and she strolled past the lengthy blade to drop the bag into the elf’s arms.

I trailed the Baroness’ every movement while she passed us by, and she didn’t bother to look back as she spoke again.

“Safe travels, my friends,” she murmured. “Be careful near the water.”

Aurora narrowed her eyes, but I reached out to keep her from following the Baroness as I settled Cayla on her feet once more.

“What is in the bag?” the princess immediately asked the elf.

Deya shifted the bag and looked inside, and her brow furrowed slightly.

“My books,” she said with some surprise.

Aurora sighed. “Fucking books,” she hissed, and she stowed her sword as she stepped onto the dock. “The boat guy’s gone, of course. What do we do?”

“Shit,” I cursed.

We looked along the bank for any sign of the boat or the elf who ferried it across the winding lagoon, but there was nothing to help us in crossing, and the clanging of bells began to rise up somewhere in the ancient structure of House Orrel.

“We’ll swim,” Cayla decided, but Shoshanne eyed the princess’ leg.

“You can’t swim like this,” she told her. “We’ll go around.”

“We don’t know how far the inlet reaches,” Aurora pointed out. “That could take ages.”

“Well, we can’t stay here,” I decided. “Shoshanne and I will help Cayla along.”

The women nodded their agreement, and I looked across the lagoon into the dim shadows of the gnarled trees.

Unlike the last time we’d crossed, fog was rising up from the waters and obscuring the view, but with the voices hollering louder all the time from the house, we stepped to the edge of the dock.

Shoshanne dropped down and slipped her legs in, but then she gasped and yanked her blistering thighs up to her chest.

“It’s too hot,” she told me.

I furrowed my brow and crouched to stick my hand into the lagoon, and the water was practically boiling.

When I quickly ripped my scalded hand back, Aurora cursed loudly.

“What the fuck is with this water?” she growled. “I’m so sick of water.”

“The Baroness?” Cayla muttered in a low voice, but my mind was already racing through everything we’d been through the last few days.

My gut began to churn as I looked out across the steaming lagoon, and I pulled Dragir’s map from my pocket even though I already knew what I would find.

There were no red X’s marking this area of map.

“Shit.”

“What is it?” Aurora asked.

“There’s no X,” I mumbled mostly to myself. Then I quickly pulled Cayla over to hitch her over my shoulder again. “Get to the jungle, get away from the water.”

“Wh-what?” Deya stammered. “Is it the students?”

“It’s no elf,” I assured her, and the women promptly followed as I led them further from the bank to leave a wide berth between us and the lagoon, and Aurora quickened her pace to come to my side.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

“The water,” I told her. “The Baroness was right.”

“Did she enchant it?”

“No, she’s a Tenebrae Mage,” I muttered back, “but it’s just like you said. What the fuck is going on with the water lately?”

I held Aurora’s gaze for a moment, and her emerald eyes widened as she caught up to my meaning.

“You don’t think … ” she mused.

“I do,” I told her, and we rounded the back edge of the inlet we’d been running along. “Which means things are worse than we thought.”

We scaled a steep hill as the jungle became denser, and the thick steam from the boiling lagoon sifted through the trees around us.

“What are you talking about?” Shoshanne asked nervously, and I slowed to a stop to be sure no one had followed us so far.

Cayla winced as I helped her to her feet, and Aurora and I both began to scan the area.

“First the tide, then the tsunami,” I muttered as I summoned my Terra Magic and sent it out through the soil. “Now the lagoon.”

“What does that mean?” Deya demanded, and she looped her hand in Cayla’s.

“It means the Master’s been busy,” Aurora told her while she trained her ears carefully to the jungle.

“A Flumen Mage … ” Shoshanne breathed, and I nodded.

“He’s branded mages before,” I explained, “but only when he was after Illaria.”

“They must be somewhere close by,” Aurora said as she squinted through the steam. “They have to be if they’re controlling the water.”

“You don’t think the Master’s been working in Illaria while we’ve been in Nalnora, do you?” the healer asked uneasily.

“Let’s hope not,” I said, but my focus hitched on something I was sensing in the soil to the west. “There.”

“You’re sure?” Aurora asked as she lifted her palms at the ready.

“They’re a ways away,” I told her, “but there’s someone standing in the undergrowth. I can feel them.”

The half-elf immediately sprinted into the trees to find whoever was affecting the water in the lagoon, but before she’d made it ten feet, a low gurgle bubbled at our backs, and I flipped around as a geyser shot up from below.

“Move,” I ordered and looped Cayla’s arm over my shoulder as we all headed for the cover of the trees.

Boiling water pelted down around us and scalded my neck and shoulders, and Aurora sparked her flames as she veered off to head directly west.

“Leave them,” I called out to the Ignis Mage. “We need to get out of here before Luir sends someone after us.”

Another burst of water sprayed up as I spoke, and Aurora eyed the onslaught as a wall of steam billowed out.

Then the bubbling became louder, and as I slowed my pace and looked back, I saw the water of the lagoon begin to rise.

“Faster,” Shoshanne warned.

Cayla cringed as she hobbled beside me, and I caught her behind the crook of her knees to lift her into my arms.

“Get to the Mustang,” I commanded, and the women made an all-out sprint through the jungle.

Deya swiftly scaled the felled logs, and we followed her trail to weave around ferns and trunks as another geyser erupted to our left.

Cayla masked her face as the boiling water pelted us in heavy drops, and Aurora sent a stream of flames back to create a barrier along the hillside just as the water line swelled to run out across the ground.

I couldn’t tell how far the road was as we blindly tore through the jungle west of House Orrel, but my boots began to slosh as the water caught up to us, and Deya led us further into the jungle to get out of range.

Then we skidded to a stop at the edge of a cliff that dropped about sixty feet to the canopy below.

The women gasped and stepped back, and Aurora sent another wall of flames out behind us to try and barricade the water.

The enchanted fire sizzled angrily against the force of the Flumen Mage’s power, and all of us stared as Aurora’s flames were extinguished and overrun with a flood of boiling water.

I quickly whipped around and raised my palm, and as my veins began to pulse with power, I carved a steep path into the cliff face and sent it down to the jungle below us.

“Don’t look back,” I ordered as I caught Shoshanne’s arm, and the women hesitated as they all looked down on the treacherous drop.

“Go!” I ordered once more.

Aurora pushed past to begin the long descent, and rocks rolled and fell from the edge as we skidded down the path as quickly as we could.

I expected the water to wash over the edge of the cliff at every moment, and I summoned my magic to raise the ground and form a wall along the ridge.

None of us stopped for even a second while we barreled down the rocky path, and mud began to trickle down beside me.

Cayla clutched at my back as I held her over my shoulder and pushed through the branches of the canopy to continue downward, but then I heard the rush of water above.

“Jump!” I called to the women, and we all leapt from the path to tumble through the trees and land some twenty feet down.

I softened our fall just before we crashed into the undergrowth, and then I dragged Cayla up from where she’d landed as the women rose and ran.

I glanced back and saw the boiling flood pouring through the wall I’d formed and coursing down the cliff’s edge, and it washed the path away in an instant.

My magic sparked as I scanned ahead of us for the Mustang, and when I sensed it to the east of us, I directed the women to it while Cayla braced herself in my arms.

When we finally came to the road, the Mustang was waiting right where we left it with the trunk still open, and we chucked our weapons in the back before I resealed the steel.

Then I laid Cayla in the back with Shoshanne and Aurora so the healer could tend to her injuries before I dropped into the driver’s seat with Deya beside me as Bobbie roared to life.

The ancient archway of House Orrel stood peacefully in the hazy glade ahead of us with the stream flowing gently from the base, and I took a last admiring look at the dilapidated and overgrown stonework before I turned us to the south.

“Mason, we need to contact someone at the Order,” Aurora decided as she leaned over the seat. “They need to know a mage has been possessed. There could be others.”

I nodded my agreement as we sped down the dirt road.

“Fucking figures,” I muttered. “Wyresus is a sniveling shit, he’s not going to be able to protect the Order if the Master’s set his sights on Illaria again.”

“Who is Wyresus?” Deya asked.

“He’s the head of the Order of Elementa,” Aurora explained. “He replaced our last head mage after …”

The half-elf trailed off, and I could tell she still struggled with admitting the truth on the subject.

“The last Head of the Order was a mage named Abrus,” I told Deya for her. “He was a very talented mage, and he trained Aurora when she was studying at the Order.”

“Why has he been replaced with this Wyresus?” Deya asked, and she glanced with concern toward Aurora.

“He was working for the Master,” the half-elf said quietly, and she sat back in her seat as she turned her attention to the jungle instead.

“I’m sorry,” Deya said, and she reached back to place her hand on Aurora’s leg. “You must have been disappointed.”

Aurora nodded, but she didn’t respond, and I decided to steer the conversation away from Abrus for her.

“Wyresus is the new head now,” I told Deya. “Let’s just say, he’s less than qualified in my book.”

“He means well,” Shoshanne allowed as she rummaged through her healer’s bag. “Mason dislikes his approach to teaching, though.”

“He locked you up with a hundred books the moment you arrived,” I cut in. “How the hell is any mage going to realize their potential sitting in that library with a guy like Wyresus flipping through page after page of useless--”

“Wow, you really don’t like him,” Deya giggled.

I sighed. “I have no problem with him,” I said with a casual shrug. “But if he’s too busy staring at a shelf to notice he’s lost a Flumen Mage to a mad man, then I think the situation speaks for itself.”

Aurora snorted.

“You’d probably like him, Deya,” she teased.

The beautiful elf smirked and pulled the bag in her lap a little closer.

“Books are important,” she said tersely. “I can’t believe the Baroness gathered them for me.” Then the elf glanced at me. “Who’s side is that woman on?”

“Fuck if I know,” I sighed, and Aurora leaned forward once more.

“Do you think Luir will come after us?” she asked in a low voice.

I wished I had any kind of answer for her, but I honestly didn’t know where we stood anymore.

I’d hoped he might come around eventually now that he knew I had the scrolls, but after Deya shot him, I couldn’t guess what might happen.

“We’ll see,” I told Aurora with a shrug.

“You should have let me kill him,” Deya grumbled.

I smirked. “The thing about killing people is you have to consider the scope of repercussions,” I told the beautiful elf. “You kill Luir, and that army of his is set loose on all of Nalnora. He’s the only one who can control them. Not to mention, he’s the only elf who’s lived long enough to be able to decipher the elven scrolls.”

Deya’s eyes widened as she realized I was right.

Then she dropped her face into her hands. “Gods,” she groaned. “I can’t believe I almost killed him.”

I chuckled. “He definitely deserved it,” I allowed, “but unfortunately, we need him alive. For now, anyway.”

“Fine,” Deya said as a mischievous glint came to her eyes, “but in three years, I don’t care what anyone says. I’m the one who gets to kill him.”

“Not if I get there first,” I countered with a broad grin.

Shoshanne tended to all of the women’s injuries by the time we began to near the sinkhole that had nearly trapped us on the cliff, and the coast looked indistinguishable from when we’d left it last.

The tsunami had uprooted most of the trees, and the cliff was torn away in several places so the earth collapsed in deep grooves that spilled down toward the oceanside. Much of the undergrowth had been dragged out to sea as well, but it made navigating inland easier while I drove us around what remained of the quicksand.

“Stop here,” Deya suddenly said, and she leaned out the window to give a loud whistle.

We waited for a moment while Bobbie idled, and I grinned as the heavy footfalls of the wolfish beast pounded through the trees to the west.

Ruela had apparently been roaming wild since she’d vetoed the trip north, but when I unsealed Deya’s door to let her in, she leapt up with a gaping grin.

Her snout and chest were just as bloody as they’d been when she’d defended us from the Wendigo, and I leaned back a ways as she laid out and thumped her sable tail in my lap.

Deya cooed to the wildish beast as if she wasn’t covered in dirt and who knew whose blood, and I shook my head as I continued on through the jungle.

The tsunami hadn’t hit further south, so we were able to travel back along the grassy cliff’s edge to bring us to the path that led to Nemris’ cove, and the moment Bobbie was parked, I quickly came around to the back to help Cayla out.

The princess smirked and let me pull her to her feet, and I stooped to check the bandages around her knee.

“I’m fine,” she assured me with a chuckle. “Shoshanne says it’s just a bone bruise.”

I ground my jaw as I grazed my hands along the bruises blooming around Cayla’s porcelain thighs.

“I really should have killed that prick,” I growled.

Cayla hooked my shirt with her fingers and pulled me up, and then she looped her arms around my waist as I gently pinned her against the Mustang.

Her icy blue eyes looked up at me with amusement. “Elven scrolls, Wendigo, knees heal … ” she reminded me with a smirk, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at her carelessness.

“You sure you’re alright?” I asked, and Cayla sent me a curt nod.

“Of course,” she purred, “but I love when you nearly destroy things that have lasted thousands of years for us. It’s sweet.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Now,” Cayla said as she set her jaw back to business. “Where’s that bazooka you promised me?”

I grinned and let the princess pull me into a fiery kiss, and my hands slid to the ribbons knotted at her back as I silently thanked the gods for the cool-headed woman.

“There he is,” Aurora called from the other side of the car, and Cayla released me with a giggle as she looked out toward the cove.

Then she sent me a giddy grin. “I get first pick,” she informed me, and I nodded my agreement as I looped her arm in mine to help her down the path along the cliff face.

Dragir was sitting far out near the end of the jetty, and he didn’t hear us coming until we’d begun to make our way along the rocky embankment.

He stood and grinned as Deya trotted out to jump into his arms, and the two were talking in Elvish when we joined them.

Dragir wasn’t grinning anymore, though, and he turned his angry eyes my direction.

“You let her shoot Luir?” he demanded.

I sighed. “You know damn well I have no control over that woman,” I muttered.

“Why would you give her a gun?” he countered. “She knows nothing about operating this weapon, she could have--”

“Hold up,” I said and raised my arms at my side. “She stole the fucking gun from me, and I have no intention of letting it happen again.”

Dragir’s eyes flared as he looked back at Deya, and the beautiful elf blushed under her brother’s furious gaze.

Then he took off on a lengthy lecture which I couldn’t understand a word of, but I could appreciate the sentiment at least. He was clearly as unnerved as I was at the thought of Deya attempting to use weapons she didn’t have a clue about, but after he’d gone on for well over a minute with no sign of stopping, I casually cleared my throat.

Dragir sighed and sent his sister a solemn shake of the head before he finally turned to me.

“How did it go with Luir, otherwise?” he asked tensely.

“It could have gone better,” I admitted. “How did it go with the bazookas?”

“Excellent,” Dragir said with a nod. “They are finished, and I had four hundred rockets prepared after I casted a few more while you were gone.”

“Hell yeah,” I said with a grin. “That’s the kind of news I needed to hear.”

“Wait a minute,” Aurora cut in. “Did you say you had them, or have them?”

I furrowed my brow, and Dragir sent me a pointed look.

“I had them,” he clarified. “Now, they are gone with all of the bazookas as well.”

Chapter 15

Cayla’s icy blue eyes narrowed, and she stepped forward as she leveled Dragir with an accusing look.

“Where is my bazooka?” she demanded in a tone that abruptly reminded me of her status back in Cedis.

The elf looked uneasy as the princess cornered him at the end of the jetty, and I placed a steadying hand on the woman’s elbow.

“She means what happened?” I clarified, but Cayla shook her head slowly.

“That is not what I mean,” she assured Dragir.

The elf sighed. “A lot has happened since you left,” he told us. “I did not intend for the bazookas to be taken, but I am not wholly surprised given the circumstances.”

Dragir mostly addressed Cayla as he said this, and the lethal woman crossed her arms stubbornly.

“Explain yourself,” she ordered.

“Rhys returned from the north this morning,” Dragir continued. “His son has been taken, and he suspects he was abducted by House Syru’s soldiers.”

Cayla’s jaw immediately went slack with shock as all of her anger dissipated, and we all stared for a minute as the words sank in.

“The little guy with the green hair?” I clarified blankly, and I recalled Rhys’ young and scowling son who’d led his own troops during the battle at House Quyn.

Dragir nodded. “His mother says he disappeared the day Rhys left to move his village to their fortress in Orebane. No one has seen him since.”

“Son of a bitch,” I cursed.

Aurora crinkled her brow. “But … I like Rhys’ son,” she mumbled sadly. “He told me I kill good.”

“He’s a remarkable warrior,” Dragir added. “His father has been training him since he was four. Now, he has likely been branded with the Master’s rune, and Rhys has decided he is going to attack House Syru.”

“With only his army?” I asked as my pulse quickened.

“And all of our bazookas,” Dragir replied. “However, Rhys does not know about the rune I added, so he will hand the bazookas to his soldiers and when the time comes … ”

“They won’t fucking work,” I finished and rifled my hair.

“Yes.”

“This day just keeps getting better,” I groaned. “How the hell did he manage to get them all anyway? Couldn’t you have fought him or threatened him or something?”

“I did,” Dragir scoffed in insult. “I did everything I could short of killing him, but then he cut my fucking hand off.” Dragir raised his right hand. “I had to go get it reattached.”

Deya gasped, and all of us cringed painfully as we noticed the heavy bandaging around the elf’s wrist, and the half-blue hand mounted on top.

“Will it heal?” Deya asked, and she gingerly tapped the only two fingers that weren’t discolored.

“I think so,” her brother said with a shrug. “The entire appendage was blue at first. Now, these two fingers function.”

He flexed his thumb and forefinger as a demonstration.

“Trigger finger works at least,” I pointed out.

Dragir grinned. “Exactly, but I couldn’t do much about Rhys while I was bleeding all over the place. So, he has all of our bazookas and the rockets, and you are coming with me to get them back.”

I nodded my agreement. “Not much of a choice. House Fehryn will be decimated if we don’t catch Rhys before he moves out. When is he planning to attack?”

“Today.”

“Of course,” I muttered.

“Is Luir going to lend his army, or has my sister’s stint ruined that?” Dragir asked, and Deya blushed lightly as she dropped her violet eyes to the rocks beneath her.

“I wouldn’t put any blame on her,” Aurora snorted. “I doubt Luir would have given you his army regardless. He’d much rather feed your sister to them these days.”

Dragir jaw locked furiously, and I quickly spoke up as I recognized the look in his eye.

“He wouldn’t have dropped her,” I assured him. “Luir was trying to get a reaction out of me.”

Dragir nodded tensely. “Then he knows about you two.”

“He thinks he knows,” I corrected. “I honestly don’t think he’s got any solid proof, but he suspects because … Aeris and Pyrs showed up trying to get Luir to murder me for them.”

“They did?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “It’s been a long day. Plus, I’m about ninety percent sure there’s a possessed mage running around, so just keep an eye on the water, alright?”

“The water?” the elf asked in confusion, and he eyed the thrashing ocean surrounding us.

“We think it’s a Flumen Mage,” I explained. “Their element is water.”

“We should probably get off this jetty,” Shoshanne murmured, and we all promptly agreed.

Before we made our way to the Mustang, though, I stopped off in the hidden fortress to gather a few more weapons.

Cayla and Aurora strapped glaives to their backs and slipped a couple extra daggers into their belts and thigh straps.

I grabbed another axe and a spare sword, and Dragir crossed his back with two glaives while sliding three daggers into the many sheaths along his belt to join both his Halcyan sword and serrated saber.

Then I turned to where Deya stood hovering in the arching doorway of the chamber. She was looking around with a distracted air, and when she caught my gaze, she quickly sent me a smile.

“I’ll stay here,” the beautiful elf decided.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea with all this water around,” I pointed out, but Deya shook her head fervently.

“I don’t want to go to House Quyn,” she insisted. “I will stay here and wait for you all to return.”

Dragir nodded his agreement without a word and left a light kiss on his sister’s cheek before he headed for the cove, and I pulled the beautiful elf into my arms.

“Be careful,” I warned, “and don’t go too deep into the caves. That tide was no joke, and without Shoshanne here--”

“Don’t worry about me,” Deya said. “I am safe here. Focus on Rhys’ son and House Syru. I’ll be waiting.”

The three women bid Deya farewell while she fussed over their weaponry to be sure they were armed well enough, and then we reluctantly left the beautiful elf beneath the ornate pillars of the fortress entrance.

She was still waving sweetly up at us with Ruela by her side when we mounted the cliff and looked back into the cove, and my gut gave a twitch as I eyed the rolling waves at her feet.

“She’ll be okay,” Shoshanne assured me as she wove her arm around mine. “The Flumen Mage is focused on you.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t so sure about this.

Still, the wolfish beast was standing guard with blood smattered all over her coat, and I tried to let this ease my mind as we turned away at last.

Dragir was already seated in the passenger’s seat of the Mustang kneading his bluish hand with his brow furrowed, and the three women slid into the back as I dropped into the driver’s seat.

“You really think she’ll be safe here?” I asked Dragir immediately.

“She’s determined to stay,” he told me as his third finger twitched slightly. “There is little you could do to change her mind. She says she had a dream about the place.”

I furrowed my brow. “You’d let her stay over a fucking dream?” I asked incredulously.

Considering how much of Dragir’s life had been devoted to protecting Deya at all cost, I was honestly floored he was taking this so lightly considering the several impending threats closing in around all of us.

“House Quyn respect the nature of dreams,” the elf said simply. “If Deya saw herself waiting here while we are fighting House Syru, then she should be here. Nemris wills it.”

I let out a sigh as Bobbie roared to life.

“You make no sense to me most of the time,” I mumbled, and I drove us into the tree line to make our way to House Fehryn.

Once we made it out of the denser growth of the far south, the jungle slowly became overrun with ferns once more, and when we came to the road that crossed between Rhoemir and Lyralus, we decided to take the quickest route west.

The dirt road skirted the jungle that surrounded the hall of the Elven Council, and I could barely make out the mottled stonework where the head of House Orrel had conducted our initial meeting with the ten Houses. The ancient corner of the armistice city was deserted, but as we neared the marketplace, every eye in the crowded square was turned toward the road.

The merchant huts of Rhoemir were all that separated us from the elves who watched with harried confusion as the Mustang sped past, and my eye immediately caught on a few turquoise clad elves from House Natyr.

Oryk’s silver hair shone starkly amongst them, and as he turned to the guards beside him, Luir’s warning about how many elves had a price on my head came to mind.

I tried to remind myself destroying the Master’s army and sparing House Fehryn was the only thing that mattered right now, but I did begin to wonder if I’d really make it out of Nalnora alive.

With three of the four Elite now thoroughly pissed, and Onym’s allies standing by, the jungles had become even less hospitable than they’d been when only the sphinxes and the Raxis were trying to kill us.

I let out a steadying breath as we left Rhoemir behind and turned north at the bank of the River East, and Aurora leaned over the seat near my shoulder.

“I think I saw Oryk back there,” she told me. “He gave some kind of order to his guards.”

“I know,” I sighed, and then I turned to Dragir. “How many allies do you think Onym had?”

“There’s no telling,” he replied. “Onym had his own plans for House Natyr’s future once he took his father’s place. I know he had many members from House Kylen on his side, and a few from House Syru and Ceres. The Master may have won a few of them over by now. If not, I would expect they are housed at House Natyr since their army have been so diluted, but those from House Ceres could be--”

“House Ceres is falling,” I informed him. “Luir’s been watching them for the last few days.”

There was a long moment of silence while Dragir processed this.

“Then the Master is prepared for attack,” the elf decided.

“Most likely,” I agreed. “By the way, Luir’s been watching you, too.”

“I know,” Dragir said with a shrug.

“You do?”

“Of course,” the elf said. “It’s hard to ignore his “eyes” when they’ve been trailing me for decades.”

“Decades?” Aurora clarified. “What could he possibly want with you that he’d waste decades scouting you at his age?”

Dragir scanned the canopy for a minute before he answered in a low voice that barely carried above the deep growl of the engine.

“Luir has witnessed many things over the years with his prying, and some have cost me greatly,” the elf admitted. “When I murdered a few of his guards over it, he was watching as well, and now he believes I may be in possession of runic knowledge which he is without.”

It took me less than two seconds to realize Luir’s eyes had been responsible for exposing Dragir’s relationship with the half-elf who had carried his child. The fact that Luir hadn’t killed Dragir after he’d delivered a torturous death in return to House Orrel’s guards almost made sense, though.

After meeting the leader myself, and witnessing the extent of his studies, his obsession with Dragir made complete sense if the leader’s suspicions were true.

I glanced over. “Is Luir right?” I asked. “Do you know something he doesn’t?”

“Of course I do,” Dragir replied. “Seventeen degrees worth, by my estimate. Luir’s been trying to get me to return to House Orrel and serve the greater good. Or rather, his greater good. He is desperate to know the elements of the degrees he lacks.”

“Holy shit,” I chuckled. “How did you manage to figure out seventeen unnamed degrees, though? I thought you needed to be able to identify their elements before you could harness them?”

“This is true,” Dragir allowed, “and Deya’s necklace solved this problem. My sister has spoken to me at great length about the runes on her pendant over the years, and I’ve been able to figure out a few things with a lot of trial and error. I still do not know all of the missing degrees, but I know a great deal more than Luir has managed, despite his endeavors at House Orrel.”

“He seems almost as dedicated to teaching as he does to getting his hands on you,” Aurora told the elf. “You and Deya should be careful. He’s getting impatient.”

“He is,” Dragir agreed, “but it doesn’t matter. I will replace my father as head of House Quyn, and then he will not be able to risk anything with regards to me. To remove a head of a House is an act of war in Nalnora. Killing my sister as well.”

I raised my brows. “So, when I killed the head of House Syru … ” I led.

“You were lucky,” Dragir snorted. “No Houses would ally with House Syru, but if my foolish sister had succeeded in killing Luir, we would all be fleeing the nation right now. I do not intend to let Luir’s army devour my entire household.”

Aurora and I exchanged a glance.

“Good thing you managed to shift Deya’s aim,” the half-elf mused.

“I didn’t,” I told her as I thought back. “Deya’s aim was firmly set when she pulled that trigger. I moved the bullet.”

“At that speed?” Aurora asked in shock.

I sent her half a grin over my shoulder. “I couldn’t believe it either,” I admitted. “I thought that was it for him.”

Dragir was staring at me from the passenger seat when I brought Bobbie to a stop just south of House Fehryn’s village, and he shook his head in disbelief as I unsealed the doors.

The three women came around the trunk to restock their ammunition, and Dragir and I considered our next move before we all decided on a plan.

“We’ll talk to Rhys and figure out where he’s keeping the bazookas,” I told the women, and then I looked at Aurora. “Keep your ears trained and be ready to get them back. We’ll keep him busy and try to convince him to stick with the original plan, but if things go south, I want those bazookas already posted in the west. The Master is probably nearly prepared by this point, and if they move out, we still need to be ready to fight.”

Cayla and Aurora nodded diligently, and Shoshanne filled her quiver with another set of serrated golden arrows.

“Try not to lose a hand,” the healer advised me with a smirk. “I won’t be able to reattach yours.”

I grinned and kissed the three deadly women. “I’ll meet you in the west,” I promised. “Help Shoshanne conceal herself in the trees, and I’ll select a few guards to be our loaders once Rhys is in hand.”

“You think he’ll listen?” Cayla asked.

“He doesn’t have a choice,” I said as I checked the cylinder of my revolver.

Dragir and I left the women at the Mustang to prepare their weapons while we carefully made our way toward the boundary of House Fehryn, and we crouched in the undergrowth as we looked out at the twisted structures of the village.

The winding vines that formed the teardrop shaped huts at the base of the trees were deserted, but the grounds were flooded with warriors in dirty white tunics and brown leather vambraces. They had their signature golden bands across their brows as they readied themselves for battle, and the majority wore my bows across their backs. I saw the head of House Fehryn conversing solemnly with a large troop on the other side of a few huts, but Rhys’s thick green braids were nowhere to be seen.

“Couldn’t we just talk to the head?” I whispered to Dragir as I gestured toward the leader.

Dragir shook his head. “Rhys leads the army of House Fehryn,” he told me quietly. “His father trusts him explicitly.”

I nodded. “Where can we find Rhys then?” I asked.

“He’s currently screaming at his wife,” Dragir answered. “This way.”

I furrowed my brow as I followed Dragir to sneak along the tree line that enclosed the village on all sides, and as we came to the furthest corner, I heard the heavy crash of what sounded like wood shattering.

Dragir crouched and waited as he peered through the dense undergrowth, and he kept his serpentine eyes trained on a hut not far into the clearing.

Torchlight illuminated the cutout windows between the twisting vines, and I could hear Rhys’ furious tirade echoing in Elvish from the hut. Then another crash rang out, and a woman’s voice cut over his.

I couldn’t imagine what was being said, but given that their son had been abducted, it seemed fair that tensions might be a bit high between Rhys and his wife.

I glanced sidelong at Dragir. “This sounds kind of personal,” I muttered. “Maybe we should hold off for a minute ‘til they finish.”

Dragir actually grinned. “It does sound personal,” he agreed, and he swiftly left the cover of the trees to stroll over.

I jogged to catch up to him, but as the screeching in the hut only became louder, I looked around uneasily to be sure no one saw us creeping over. Rhys was bellowing angrily at his wife, and I saw a chair shatter against the wall in response through a small opening in the vines.

Dragir looked completely at ease while he stood directly outside the door and listened in on the couple, and after a few more violent exchanges, he casually rapped on the planks of wood.

I stood beside him with my hand ready on my revolver, but when the door flew open, I kind of forgot what I was doing there.

A thin slip of leather barely concealed the ample breasts of the woman who glared at us, and her thighs were fully exposed from the joint of her hips down with only half a skirt in place. Her skin was warmed to a deep cinnamon from the strength of the jungle sun, and her exotic curves drew my eyes like a fucking magnet despite the threatening gaze she sent me.

The moment the woman registered Dragir, though, her vibrant orange eyes softened seductively, and her lush lips curled into a tigerish grin. Then she tousled her deep purple hair and hooked the strap of Dragir’s glaive to pull him closer.

I stared openly while the woman murmured in a sultry voice steeped with innuendo, and Dragir chuckled as he let her trail her hands all along his torso.

He spoke to her quietly for a moment, and the woman sent him a heated look in response before she unabashedly pressed her ample breasts against him and slid her arms around his waist.

Then Rhys hollered something from inside, but Dragir made no effort to remove the man’s wife from his hold.

Instead, the tigerish woman sent a lethal glance over her shoulder before she tilted her chin defiantly and pulled Dragir into a heated kiss.

I raised my brows while the woman let out a soft whimper and bit hungrily at Dragir’s lips, and when Rhys came storming over to the doorway, the two continued to ignore him completely.

Rhys sent me a furious look and caught his wife roughly by the arm to remove her himself, and Dragir blatantly admired the woman’s full figure as she was ripped away by her husband.

Then he muttered something in Elvish which the tigerish woman seemed to like quite a lot, and which Rhys vehemently scolded.

I shifted uncomfortably while the two men exchanged a few coarse words, and the whole time, Rhys’ wife continued to eye Dragir like she was about ten seconds away from tearing his clothes off.

Finally, Rhys shoved her past the two of us and ordered for her to leave.

The wife gave a dirty chuckle and bit her bottom lip as she appraised Dragir once more, and all three of us stared at the sway of her broad hips when she turned away and headed off through the village.

Her cinnamon waist cinched her figure into an hourglass shape, and the scrap of skirt around her hips left both cheeks of her ass bare without any apparent concern. I eyed the muscular build of the tigerish woman’s back and thighs and decided she wasn’t technically more beautiful than Deya, but definitely sexier than I’d been prepared to encounter.

Unbelievably so.

Dragir had a familiar smirk on his face when we finally dragged our eyes away and turned back to Rhys, and the green-haired elf looked ready to skin us both alive.

He only locked his jaw, though, and left us standing in his open doorway as he returned to the dim hut.

I leaned toward Dragir. “You and his wife didn’t … ” I muttered as I gestured to the hips still swaying in the distance, and the elf grinned shamelessly.

“What?” he asked. “I met her first.”

I could hear Rhys spit angrily inside the hut, and Dragir looked more pleased than I’d ever seen him as he smirked and entered the home without need of an invitation.

I tried to reign in my shit eating grin as I followed, but Rhys’ exotic wife was still overrunning my thoughts.

I worked to focus on the task at hand despite the fact that my mind’s eye was still admiring her tantalizing curves, but the heavy jostle of her warm brown cleavage when she’d brushed past me was hard to forget so quickly.

There was something about her piercing gaze that heated my blood just at the thought, and I figured Dragir was of the same mind, because he posted himself against the vines of the wall and crossed his arms while he thought quietly for a minute.

Rhys was readying his arrows on a table in front of the spent fireplace, but after he’d frowned more than a few times at Dragir’s expression, he finally dropped his work and sighed.

“Wipe that look off your face,” he growled at the elf, but Dragir only grinned more.

“You cut my hand off,” Dragir shot back. “The least you could do is let me fuck your wife again.”

Rhys overturned the table as he lunged for Dragir, but I had my revolver drawn and cocked before he made it halfway.

The braided elf stumbled to a stop as he immediately raised his arms.

Rhys sent a deathly glare at both of us as his amber eyes narrowed, but Dragir hadn’t moved an inch from where he stood against the wall.

“She’s bored with you,” Dragir informed Rhys. “Why didn’t you mention it? I could have distracted her for a while.”

Rhys bared his teeth.

“Mind your tongue,” he warned, “unless you would like me to cut it out for you.”

I glanced between the two elves as I took stock of how many weapons there were between the three of us in the small hut. Considering the sudden brawls the two had been falling into lately, I decided to clear my throat and distract the situation a bit.

“Maybe we should leave the wife out of this one and focus on the more prevalent issues.”

“Alright,” Dragir agreed flatly. “Give me the weapons, or I’ll fuck your wife in your own bed the next time you head north.”

I gave the elf a pointed look, but he shrugged.

“She offered,” he added. “I am giving him another option. That is fair.”

I sighed and turned to find Rhys scowling at the floorboards.

“Yes, I heard her,” he snapped, and he didn’t look up as he continued. “My son is missing. I will not sit by while this Master attempts to destroy all I stand for, everything I’ve dedicated my life to.”

“We’re not asking you to,” I told him, “but those weapons are more powerful than anything you’ve ever witnessed, and they sure as hell weren’t created for your army. If you want us to protect your House, you’ll tell us where they are. If not, you’re on your own against the Master’s army, but you should know he’s gathered House Ceres since his last attack.”

Rhys looked up abruptly, and I could tell he was wavering in his resolve.

“You’re sure about this?” he demanded.

I nodded. “Luir’s known about it for days, and he won’t offer his army in our aid,” I explained. “You need Dragir’s help if you’re going to survive, and those weapons won’t do you any good without me. Hand them over, and we’ll honor our original agreement. Otherwise, you and House Fehryn will fall, and Dragir will be comforting your wife in any way she sees fit.”

Rhys ground his jaw as he considered this, and his hand tightened on the hilt of his sword in his fury.

“The bazooka cannot be that difficult to operate,” he muttered.

Dragir spoke up in Elvish, and he must have explained the new rune he’d added to the weapons, because Rhys’ face finally went slack as he stared.

“You lie,” he accused the elf.

“Would I have left them all sitting there if I thought anyone could use them?” Dragir challenged.

Rhys cursed to himself and shifted his weight while he thought, and after he’d eyed to two of us darkly for a long moment, he finally gave a curt nod.

“Fine,” he relented. “The bazookas are in the storehouse at the other end of the clearing. The ammunition as well, but we move out within the hour.”

Dragir sighed. “See some sense, Rhys,” he advised. “The Master will be at your doorstep within the day. Abandon your revenge and let him fall into our trap. We have every chance of defeating him if we wait. Move your army out, and you guarantee your defeat.”

“I will not be told how to lead my own army,” Rhys growled.

“And I won’t offer my own to be led to their deaths,” Dragir countered. His jaw was set firmly as he returned Rhys’ gaze, and I waited with my revolver still drawn as the two remained locked in silent hatred.

When I realized neither would abandon their stubbornness without losing another hand or two, I cleared my throat once more.

“Shoshanne’s already in position, and my women are retrieving the bazookas as we speak,” I informed Rhys. “We can help you if you let us, or we’ll leave with the weapons. Final offer.”

Rhys slumped slightly, and a tortured glint suddenly came to his serpentine eyes.

“Don’t kill my son,” he ordered in a strained voice. “I don’t care what they’ve made of him. Don’t kill him, you hear me? Either of you.”

I glanced at Dragir, and the elf furrowed his brow.

“If he’s been branded--” he muttered, but Rhys growled over him.

“Your word!” he demanded. “You will not kill him.”

Dragir sighed and pushed himself from the wall. “You have my word,” he said in a low voice as he headed for the door, “but I cannot speak for my army or yours.”

Rhys’ expression twisted painfully as he fought to remain composed.

“You have my word as well,” I assured him. “Are your scouts keeping an eye on House Syru?”

Rhys nodded to the floorboards.

“Good,” I replied. “We’ll meet you in the west.”

Dragir was waiting in the clearing when I emerged from the woven hut, and he led the way toward the other end of the clearing without a word. We passed the deserted homes of House Fehryn and several soldiers along the way, and the few who had fought beside us at the battle at House Quyn nodded their respect while we passed.

“So … you and his wife,” I mumbled with a half a grin. “When was that?”

“A couple months ago,” Dragir replied, but when he noticed my confused stare, he nodded to himself. “Oh, you mean the first time. About fifteen years ago.”

“Holy shit,” I chuckled. “Does Rhys know you’re still at it?”

Dragir smirked. “Aliasa has made sure of it,” he replied. “She knows it pisses him off, and she likes to get her way. If Rhys denies her anything, she usually tracks me down.”

“I can’t believe he hasn’t killed you,” I admitted as I considered having a wife like her.

Dragir furrowed his brow. “Why would he?” he asked. “Rhys knows Aliasa is a difficult woman to maintain. I’m doing him a favor, really. His wife fucks her frustrations out with me and doesn’t set his village on fire. Rhys gets pissed about it and gives her whatever it is she wants, and my own House lives without much concern about House Fehryn.”

I was laughing heartily when we came to find Cayla and her rifle barring the entrance of the storehouse where Rhys had once retrieved spools of bowstring for me to create the magazine bows.

The princess cocked a brow at our filthy grins as we approached.

“I take it everything went well?” Cayla asked.

“It’s all sorted out,” I said through my last chuckles. “You found the bazookas, yeah?”

“Aurora is getting the last of the rockets now,” Cayla informed us as she nodded toward the storehouse at her back. “Shoshanne is posted in the west, but two scouts arrived a few minutes ago. They’re speaking with the leader over there.”

I looked beyond the elves who eyed Cayla’s rifle nervously and kept their distance, and the head of House Fehryn was just turning from his guards to bolt in the direction of Rhys’ hut.

“Shit,” I muttered and turned to Dragir. “Take the Mustang and get your army moving fast. We’ll hold them off as best we can until you arrive.”

Dragir shook his head. “They’ll be here any minute,” he told me without concern. “I sent them out a few hours ago.”

I cocked a brow at the scheming elf, and he shrugged once more as he continued.

“Rhys is terrified of your revolver. I knew he would cave.”

Chapter 16

Within five minutes, every elf in the village of House Fehryn was in motion divvying up arrows and securing newly sharpened blades in their sheaths. Rhys joined his army with his anger palpable in the way he spoke and moved amongst his men, but when he approached Dragir and me, he behaved as if no conversation had taken place in his hut.

Dragir and Rhys conversed in Elvish to quickly arrange their troops, and the head of House Fehryn himself took the missing son’s place with a troop of his own. He was nearly as tightly wound as Rhys was, and he barked orders at anyone who crossed his path. I heard each of them say the word “Rali” enough times to realize this was Rhys’ son’s name, and every elf nodded curtly in response to their orders.

Dragir’s army arrived not ten minutes after Cayla and Aurora had the storehouse emptied, and by the time I left with them to join Shoshanne in the west, all of the troops had filled the village and overrun the surrounding jungle as well. Dragir must have upped his end of the bargain, because it looked like all of House Quyn’s army were there, and between the two Houses, there were well over two hundred warriors gathered and awaiting orders from Dragir and Rhys.

The two men decided the ravine just west of Black Rock would be ideal for the initial ambush, and we all agreed their troops should span the jungle between Black Rock and House Fehryn, but no closer. With the bazookas and our mage magic as the primary weapons, it was best no stragglers could possibly end up in the crosshairs, so Rhys and Dragir made sure their men knew to stay back from where the initial attack would take place.

This meant we’d only have the ravine to work with before House Quyn’s army took on the next attack east of us, and beyond them, House Fehryn’s army would be strewn through the jungle as a barricade around the main village.

Cayla and Aurora led the way up a steep embankment within the trees, and I suspended the bazookas and ammunition ahead of me as I followed close behind.

We could barely see the concealed troops who sprawled throughout the entire jungle beyond the large black and moss-covered boulder at the bank of the River East. Every now and then, a glint of a sheer Halcyan glaive would flick out above the ferns, but this was the only hint that another force waited in the jungles at our backs.

I only hoped we’d be able to hold off the brunt of the oncoming soldiers for them.

Dragir and Rhys joined us on the embankment with six guards in tow to serve as our loaders, and Rhys eagerly took hold of the first bazooka he came to.

I gave the guards a rundown of the safety precautions needed while operating the bazookas in order to avoid scalding anyone with the back blast, and then I explained how the sights I’d secured to each bazooka worked.

“You’re going to look through the nearest sight to find your aim, and each notch on the furthest sight marks the gradation of the distance you’re working with,” I explained to my firing squad as I mounted a bazooka on my shoulder to demonstrate, and the others did the same. “If your target is at one hundred yards, you’ll align your sight with the top gradation. Two hundred yards is just below, and on like that to four hundred yards. The further your target is, the higher you’re gonna need to tilt the barrel.”

Dragir explained the loading process in Elvish for the guards who joined us, and they all stared wide eyed at the hefty steel weaponry as he spoke. Then they gingerly held the runed rockets in their palms, and Dragir furrowed his brow as he realized they were afraid to touch them.

He sighed impatiently and caught a rocket from one of the piles at his side, and then he clanged it against his good palm to show there was nothing they needed to worry about. The guards nodded uneasily and took their positions at our flanks, but I could tell the unrecognizable runes had concerned them.

Dragir made each guard load the bazookas one at a time for him to be sure they had the process down, and once everyone was prepared, I finally scanned the treetops around us.

I could have sworn I saw the flick of a large, tawny wing somewhere, and I ground my jaw.

Luir had no doubt sent his transmuters to catch the show, but I worked to ignore this as I tried to find any sign of our Aer Mage.

“Where did you put Shoshanne?” I muttered to Aurora at my side.

“She’s over there,” the Ignis Mage responded in a low voice, and she gestured to the canopy across the ravine from us. “She climbed up from that stack of boulders, and she says she can climb down easily without being seen if she sticks to the limbs on the southern side.”

Two embankments flanked the ravine and created a low pass that turned its way through the jungle toward House Fehryn, and both sides were far too steep to scale very quickly, which eased my mind a bit.

I didn’t like the idea of Shoshanne being separated from us by a sea of possessed soldiers, but she had her own bazooka, bow, shuriken, and her Aer magic to protect her. So, I could probably afford to relax a little.

The line of trees that jutted up from the ravine floor to form the canopy was too dense for the army to bother tearing through, but the majority of the ravine’s base was flecked with ferns and exotic plants that would be wholly destroyed by the time we were done with the initial attack.

Dragir shifted on my left and nudged me with his arm. “Where is the healer?”

Rhys frowned and leaned around the elf. “What healer?” he asked. “What do we need a healer for in the middle of battle?”

“Shoshanne’s an Aer Mage,” I explained. “She’s in that tree over there, so watch your aim.”

The two elves nodded and eyed the canopy, but I could tell neither of them could see her either. Another tawny wing twitched, though, and I slid my bow around from my back.

“What does the Aer Mage do?” Rhys asked and sent a nervous glance toward Aurora.

“Shoshanne can take the air from anyone’s lungs, but she doesn’t need to be near them to do it,” I told him bluntly. “She’s concealed so she can focus on taking down groups at a time. Think of it like mass suffocation, but no hands required.”

Rhys’ amber eyes stared blankly for a second before he gave a harried nod.

Then I took my aim with the magazine bow and let an arrow loose.

The serrated arrow pierced the massive owl between the eyes before it could take flight, and Dragir snorted as the body fell to the ravine floor with a muffled thud.

Rhys looked over. “The head of House Orrel will kill you for that, you know.”

“Luir already wants to kill him,” Dragir informed the braided elf.

Rhys nodded as if this required no further explanation.

“If any of you see Rali, tell me immediately,” he muttered as I returned my bow to my back. “I need to get him out of there before Aliasa kills me.”

Dragir glanced at me like he didn’t want to say it, but we both knew it needed to be said.

“There’s very little we can do if he’s among the first troop,” Dragir admitted. “We are without our armies here, and the mages will be--”

“He’s only eleven,” Rhys cut in, and he looked past Dragir to me and Aurora. “Please. You have control over where you aim your powers, yes?”

All of Rhys’ fury seemed to have given way, and I realized he’d begun to acknowledge the odds of his son making it out of this battle alive.

“We’ll do what we can,” I told him. “If he makes it through, your troops will be waiting for him, whatever their orders are.”

Rhys nodded his agreement, and Dragir leaned over to mutter to the braided elf.

“Aliasa will not kill you,” he assured him, but Rhys shook his head.

“Like hell she won’t,” he shot back. “She tried to slit my throat less than an hour ago. I only managed to get the dagger from her shortly before you arrived. Then she went for the torches instead.”

I raised my brow and looked over at the two to find Dragir chuckling to himself, and I noticed half of Rhys’ sleeve was burnt away with a few blisters flecking his skin.

“You should have sent her over,” Dragir said with a smirk. “I would have had time this morning … if you hadn’t cut my hand off that is.”

Rhys grinned maliciously. “I’d cut it off again,” he assured him, and the threat seemed to cheer the braided elf up by a degree.

“Aliasa would smother you in your sleep.”

The two elves exchanged a glance, and I could tell by Rhys’ expression this wasn’t bullshit.

The braided elf cursed and looked away, but after a moment of looking down into the ravine, he was grinning once more.

“You know … ” Rhys mused, “there will be a lot of soldiers down there. If you happened to slip and fall, who is to say which elf is responsible for your injuries?”

Dragir sighed to himself and chose not to respond, but I noticed him glance nervously at his bandaged wrist as he flexed the four functioning fingers. His pinky was still a deathly blue, and although the rest of the appendage wasn’t quite the same color as his arm, it still seemed to be making a decent recovery.

Rhys noticed Dragir’s concern as well, and he chuckled in a tone that actually began to make me nervous.

It was unnerving what passed for loyalty in Nalnora, and I couldn’t help wondering which of the two elves would finally kill the other one day.

My money was probably on Dragir, but Rhys had a point about the impending battle.

Anything could happen, and who would be able to say one way or the other when all was done.

Dragir looked mostly unconcerned, though, as he kept his serpentine eyes trained on the mouth of the ravine. Rhys eyed him carefully over the barrel of his bazooka, but I decided I’d just have to leave the elves to be elves.

What mattered was that the Master’s army not have a chance of rebuilding themselves this time.

The guards crouching at our flanks fidgeted as tensions rose, and I checked to be sure they understood Dragir’s instructions explicitly.

They promptly changed their positions in response as we tested our aim a bit, and despite their clear unease handling the rockets, I figured they’d probably do fine.

My loader was a stern-faced elf from House Fehryn with dense golden braids tied at the base of his neck and pale green serpentine eyes that constantly flicked over his shoulder toward the west.

Aurora’s loader must have been at the battle at House Quyn, because he remained as far from the Ignis Mage as possible. The way he averted his gaze whenever she looked back wasn’t anything like the usual disgust the elves showed her. It was more like he thought looking at her might cause him to catch fire by proxy.

I narrowed my eyes when I sized up Cayla’s loader, though. He was a smaller man who wore the garb of House Quyn’s army, and his own gaze was currently glued to the princess’ ass.

I cleared my throat, and when the elf’s dull grey eyes met mine, he visibly paled by several degrees.

“You sure you’re up to the task?” I asked him pointedly.

The elf stared back without speaking, and as he looked between Cayla and me, his gaze fell on her ass every time like a bad tick.

I sighed, and Dragir must have looked over, because he suddenly said something in Elvish to the man that made his eyes go wide with fear, and he remained staring diligently at the pile of rockets he was responsible for instead.

“He doesn’t speak English,” Dragir explained.

I furrowed my brow. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him you would skin him alive and feed his innards to his own family if he kept it up,” Dragir replied. “This is accurate, yes?”

I grinned. “It’s a little elven, but yeah, basically.”

Dragir nodded, but then an ear splitting clap of thunder broke from above, and we all looked up to see the sky suddenly shadowed with thick blue clouds.

“Looks like another mage will be joining us,” Aurora warned. “Everyone keep an eye on the water.”

“We won’t have to worry about any raging fires this time,” I mused.

“Might get a bit slippery, though,” Rhys added darkly, and he smirked over the barrel of his bazooka at Dragir.

Then Cayla’s loader suddenly tapped her arm and gestured toward the west.

“They’re here,” the princess informed us, and Dragir and Rhys snapped their attention back to the mouth of the ravine.

The air became thick as the humidity in the jungle heightened, and just as the rattling of armor began to echo from the west, heavy drops of rain started to fall from above.

What remained of House Syru’s soldiers led the Master’s army now, and even from a distance, I could tell their skin had become sallow and almost green under the possessive power of the Master’s rune. Their bulky muscles cut at sharp angles along their broad shoulders and arms, though, and each of them carried a tungsten axe in both hands. They moved mechanically with hollow eyes and bared teeth, and my first instinct was to put them out of their misery.

There was something about the way their backs hunched against their own bulk, and the mindless determination of their expressions, that really drove Dragir’s warning home. The longer the rune possessed them, the worse they got, and I could tell they were locked in a strange balance that left them deteriorating just as much as they were gaining in stature. Still, they hulked bearishly above all of the others at their backs, and as they began to file past, House Kylen’s remaining army looked to be taking a similar turn for the worse.

Without any metal armor to hide their forms, it was easier to see the way their brawny backs curled as if they were nearly starved, but they trudged forward with nothing but bloodlust burning in their eyes.

The newly acquired elves of House Ceres were easy to recognize, not only because they had some semblance of health, but because they greatly resembled their leader who caught my eye immediately.

His blaze of red hair was slicked back and knotted with dirty bones, and his bright yellow eyes flashed hungrily as a slightly crazed smile twitched at the corner of his lips.

The head of House Ceres had been one of the members at the hall of the Elven Council when we first came to Nalnora, and his clear hatred and viciousness had been notable to me then. Now, the members of his House stuck out just as much despite their builds being less brawny than Kylen’s or Syru’s.

The several bones, teeth, limbs, and pelts of beasts which they wore knotted in their hair and around their necks made them prominent in their own way, and I noticed several women littered amongst the unwashed horde as well.

Scrappy and unkempt pelts were tied haphazardly around their bodies, and they moved like feral cats with blades hanging from their leather belts that were already stained with old blood they’d never wiped away.

There were no children anywhere, though, and not even Rali appeared to be present.

I furrowed my brow as I carefully scanned the hundred or so soldiers marching through the ravine below us, and the only hierarchy in the masses seemed dependent on House Syru’s soldiers, who trampled everything in their path as they advanced toward House Fehryn.

The entire ravine was filled from one embankment to the other, and still more soldiers continued from the west while the footfalls of the extensive army trembled through the ground.

We remained silently looking down from the cover of the undergrowth along the upper embankment as the possessed army filed by, and none of them saw the attack coming.

At my order, all six bazookas fired at once, and when they met their marks amongst the frontline of House Syru’s soldiers, the explosions burst with a deafening bang and echoed throughout the entire ravine. The purple flames sparked on impact and tore their way across the elves’ flesh, and I could see their metal armor melting right into their chests as they wailed in agony.

The fire only continued to spread, though, until row after row were engulfed and left writhing on the ground.

Our loaders leaned forward with their jaws dropped as they watched, and when I nudged my own to reload the bazooka, he returned to his post much more eagerly this time.

Aurora’s loader was grinning to himself as he watched her fire the next rocket he’d loaded, and I could have sworn I heard him chuckle when she curled her lip into a ruthless smirk and motioned for another.

Then another clap of thunder rang out, and the rain pelted down in earnest from the sky.

It wasn’t a downpour, but sheets of heavy drops that struck painfully across my arms and never let up, and I realized the moist jungle was more than enough fuel for the Flumen Mage to work with for as long as they wished.

The rain made an honest effort at squelching the runic flames that bubbled across the flesh of the Master’s army, but six more rockets met their marks and ignited the next several lines regardless.

Just behind them, at least a dozen soldiers suddenly stumbled and clutched at their throats, and as Shoshanne slowly siphoned every bit of oxygen from their lungs, they dropped hard to their knees. When they finally lay twitching in the sodden ferns, another dozen soldiers froze and began grappling at their chests as well.

Each pull of the trigger sent a palpable surge of power through my grip, and there was something more that my senses tuned into as I became more familiar with the runes at work. Beyond the charge of the trigger rune, I began to feel a heightened connection to the weapon, and I wondered if this was the rune Dragir had added while we were in the north.

The weapon emitted its own energy field, and I eased into it until there was virtually no line of disconnect between myself and the bazooka. I could feel the strength of its power billowing around me, and a heady sense of assuredness came with each pull of the trigger.

Dragir and the others readied their bazookas once more, and I shifted to raise my palm toward the oncoming troops far off down the ravine.

I let my Terra magic sift into the drenched soil beneath their feet, and I traced deep fissures into the ground as I went. Then, with a clenching of my fist, the fissures abruptly broke open, and just as another onslaught of rockets seared their way through the ravine, waves of soldiers began to plummet into the earth.

Thick black mud surged in after them as the rain poured angrily from the sky, and the soldiers began to trample each other and slide while they shoved blindly ahead.

With their formation broken and nearly every one of Syru’s army burnt away, the rest of the troops became unbridled.

Aurora swiftly sent out a wall of searing white flames, and she ignited those who clambered up the edges of the ravine to escape the deluge of rain flooding the place.

Then arrows began to fly in our direction, and we all ducked the oncoming volley.

The arrows of House Ceres struck the piles of rockets around us with tinny clangs, and I looked uneasily at Dragir, who was also eyeing the ammunition with concern.

When our eyes met, we seemed to reach a mutual agreement, and we swiftly tapped our loaders to get them back in order as fast as possible.

Both of us fired three more rounds from the bazookas before the next volley came soaring up with a few axes, and my stomach did a flip when I saw a tungsten blade spiraling toward Cayla’s pile of ammunition.

I threw my arm out and pulled every loose rocket toward me just before the axe buried itself into the ground, and then I called out for the two women to change their positions.

Cayla and Aurora nodded, and they locked their bazookas against their drenched chests to crawl along the muddy undergrowth and up the embankment with their loaders close behind.

Once they were in a safer position, I sent their ammunition up to them, and then I swiftly fired another two rockets into the fray.

The army had erupted into chaos below as they either grappled for air or found their skin being peeled away by runic flames, but several still managed to break away in packs and barrel onward toward House Fehryn.

Aurora sent her own flames after those who made it past, and I tore the earth open any chance I could to drag them eight feet into the ground before they reached House Quyn’s army.

The rain continued to batter us until my eyes were blinded by sweat and water, and I wiped my face on my sleeve as I steadied my aim once more. I was just about to pull the trigger when a glint of deep green in the masses caught my attention, and Rhys shot to his feet at the same moment.

Dragir lurched to grab the braided elf, but Rhys tore himself free and barreled down the edge of the embankment and into the swell of soldiers below.

I stared in shock as he met with three brawny soldiers from House Kylen at once, and every elf in his vicinity turned on him like a pack of dogs.

Dragir cursed furiously, and he scowled for a few beats before he dropped the bazooka.

“Do not shoot us,” he growled over his shoulder and bolted after Rhys.

Nothing but possessed and ravenous elves waited for them below, so I turned to the loaders, who sat looking at me for their next orders.

Countering the initial plan of the armies’ leaders seemed like a dangerous move amongst the elves, and I knew Rhys and Dragir had given unyielding instructions for their armies to disperse between Black Rock and House Fehryn only.

Many soldiers had already slipped past our ambush to make their way west, but considering Rhys and Dragir neglected their own orders when they dove into the ravine without a damn army at their backs, I figured, plans change.

“Get to your troops,” I commanded the guards. “Bring as many as you can spare and tell your leader that Rhys has gone after Rali.”

The two loaders nodded diligently and disappeared into the undergrowth, and as I squinted into the chaos below, I motioned for the golden-haired elf at my flank to load another rocket.

Rhys’ green braids were already a third of the way into the mass, and he sliced the necks of every soldier he passed without pause while the possessed elves closed in from every side.

Dragir was close behind and driving his glaive into their guts while he spliced the rest with the serrated blade in his other hand, and I swiped more rain from my eyes as I tried to find Rali.

I finally saw him at the far edge of the ravine, but as I really considered him, he didn’t look anything like he had when he’d fought at House Quyn.

Rali’s own thick braids had been sheared clean off so only a short crop of shaggy green hair remained, and despite his small size, he violently shoved one of Kylen’s soldiers out of his way as he pushed forward toward House Fehryn. His ruddy orange eyes flashed wildly with fiendish determination, and he didn’t hesitate to shove straight past the swinging axes that came within inches of him.

I couldn’t imagine what the hell Rhys planned to do with his already deadly son now that he was irreversibly cold-blooded, but there was no way Dragir or Rhys were going to make it to the kid alive at this rate.

The braided elf was locked in a group of feral elves from House Ceres who had taken up the discarded axes of the burnt soldiers, and they swung at him with heavy blows while he struck back with two glaives at once.

I fired another three rockets into the fray where the Master’s army continued to file in, and as the purple flames enveloped another thirty elves, Aurora ignited a line of nearly twenty soldiers at once to match me.

Shoshanne was still handily wiping out the troops a dozen at a time, and Cayla kept her bazooka trained on the new arrivals while her loader managed to keep up with the deadly woman’s demands.

With my women handling the masses, I sent the last of the unused ammunition up to Aurora and Cayla before I dropped my bazooka and slid down the embankment with my revolver drawn.

Dragir was cornered by five guards with his glaive flipping tirelessly as I sent bullets into three of their skulls, and when the last two turned on me, Dragir’s serrated saber pierced one of them straight through their back and out their ribs.

The last one had his axe high above his head when I wrenched it from his grip with a turn of my hand, and I let the hefty blade drop through his skull as Dragir and I ducked into the next line of troops.

Rhys was lost somewhere in the swell, and as I scanned for a glimpse of him, I drew my sword with my left hand while I fired my revolver with the right.

Every blow I blocked was returned with a bullet between the eyes, and when the cylinder was spent, I slid the gun into my holster and used my magic to reload while I drove my sword into an oncoming soldier and slit the throats of two more.

The possessed elves continued to wield their own swords despite the blood spilling down their chests, but within a minute of heated sparring, they finally bled out and dropped twitching at my feet.

I worked to catch my breath as the rain continued to beat down, and the mud in the ravine mixed with the blood of the dead to create a slimy mixture that had already risen to my calves.

Then House Quyn’s army tore in from the east, and they scaled the logs and the rocks along the embankments to leap and bury their daggers into the necks of their enemies.

Halcyan blades began to flash everywhere I looked, and the clanging of swords and axes was almost drowned out by another ear splitting clap of thunder.

Two more rockets arched across the canopy and flew toward the west, and even without a range of vision, I knew the Master’s soldiers must still be marching in.

I pulled the revolver out just as two bone-laden soldiers loosed their arrows in my direction, and as I ducked into the cover of some ferns, I slipped in the bloodied mud to crash onto a pile of fallen soldiers.

Their faces were melted off from the bazooka attack that had taken them, but I recognized their metal armor as House Syru’s. Above their heads, water poured in along the embankment, and I looked up to see a mudslide beginning to course along ridge just above the ferns where Aurora and Cayla crouched with their loaders.

The mudslide was nearly five feet across with a torrent so strong it uprooted the plants it overtook, and I swiftly raised my palm to divert the river of mud and debris before it could wash over my women.

Then I redirected it to pour in on the horde of soldiers from House Ceres to my left, and as they stumbled and slipped with the mud flooding in up to their knees, I quickly whipped my bow around to empty the magazine into each of them in quick succession. Then I reloaded the bow with my Metal magic as I emptied the revolver into the surrounding fray.

Another handful of elves began to suffocate to my right, and as Aurora’s flames flew over my head, I finally caught sight of Rhys again.

Half his face was covered with blood despite the rain pelting down, and I could tell his skull had been split open on the right side. Still, he pulled his dagger out of his attacker’s eye socket with a ruthless laugh, and behind him, a hulking guard raised an axe.

I didn’t have any decent opening, but the bullet I fired met its mark in the elf’s stout bicep, and as he lurched and roared in pain, his hollow gaze narrowed directly on me.

The axe flew straight over Rhys’ head in my direction, and I deflected it to kill off another soldier on my left as Rhys flipped around to drive his sword into the elf’s heart.

The soldier caught him by the throat, though, and Rhys fought to free himself with one arm as he twisted his sword deeper with the other.

My next shot split the elf’s jaw wide open, and when the third bullet buried itself in his brain, Rhys was finally dropped to the ground.

Then a low rumble came from the embankment at my back, and I looked up in time to see another mudslide spilling over the upper ridge and tearing toward me.

Before I dealt with that, I swiftly disarmed every elf in my immediate line of sight, and as I drove their own blades into their throats, I pulled a wall from the ground at my back.

The deluge of rain made it impossible to maintain any kind of structure with the soil, though, so I wrenched a deep pit open instead and let the mudslide fill it in as I lunged to shove all of my weight against a line of hulking soldiers.

They growled and gasped as the mud poured around them and filled their lungs, and the next three soldiers to attack me met the same fate.

As I watched them all sinking lower into the sludge, I remembered the strange makeup of the quicksand we’d been trapped in on the cliff, and I grinned.

Then I sifted through my mind for the memory of the sinkhole as I sent my Terra Magic into the ground to the west.

My blood pulsed heavily as I struggled to ignore the chaos around me and focus instead on the makeup of the soil, and slowly, I felt the ground at the mouth of the ravine ease into my will.

I expanded the sinkhole nearly thirty feet across before a body slammed into me, and I crashed into the slop of mud with a feral woman pinning me beneath her. She had what looked like old chicken feet dangling from a band around her head, and I cringed as she snapped her yellowing teeth at me.

Then she planted her hand on my face to shove me under the surface.

The last thing I saw as I gasped for breath was the rusted blade she pulled from her belt, but before she could make her mark, I grabbed blindly for her arms to pin them back as I fought to throw her off me.

My revolver was drawn before she’d recovered from her landing, and I swiftly fired a bullet straight through the back of her head.

The feral woman flailed and whipped around to gnash her teeth once more, but as the blood oozed from the hole in her forehead and blotted out the crazed glint in her eyes, she began to slump into the sludge of blood and mud, and eventually collapsed face first.

I swiped the mud from my eyes as I stood and tried to find any sign of Rali in the crowd, but Rhys was gone once more, and I’d lost track of Dragir ages ago.

So, I settled for emptying my magazine and barrel in turn as I cut my way across the ravine, and Shoshanne must have been trailing me from above, because any elf I didn’t manage to get at fell to their knees as their oxygen was taken away.

House Quyn’s army remained light on their feet as they flipped and dodged the blows of the soldiers around them, and just as another clap of thunder shook the canopy, House Fehryn’s soldiers arrived from the far east.

The first line of magazine bows were emptied within seconds, and before I could blink, the elves swapped with those at their backs to reload as the next line sent a stream of serrated arrows into the skulls of the Master’s army.

Despite the endless wash of rain streaming down, Aurora’s flames stubbornly flashed throughout the ravine, and with every bit of plant life trampled or drenched through, she set her aim on the soldiers themselves.

While the swift maneuvering of Dragir’s men confused their single-minded attackers, one by one their skulls would ignite with Aurora’s vibrant amber flames.

I couldn’t help but smirk as the warriors on our side clutched their Halcyan blades closer and stepped back a ways, but as they got the hang of working with her, they eventually raised their brows and quickly continued on their way.

It was the sudden strangling by some invisible force that they couldn’t seem to make sense of.

Cayla’s bazooka had been relentlessly decimating the oncoming troops since I’d followed Dragir and Rhys into the ravine, but after I’d formed the giant sinkhole, she switched to her rifle.

I had just finished disarming another row of elves and spearing them with their weapons as the crack of her rifle ripped across the ravine once more, and shortly after, the familiar sound of a revolver echoed from somewhere near my back.

I jumped and grabbed at my holster in confusion, but there was no taste of metal or sulfur on my tongue, and the revolver was still loaded at the ready on my hip.

For a second, I figured I must have mistaken the sound in all of the chaos, but then another retort tore from Cayla’s rifle, and I was positive I hadn’t misheard.

I knew the sound too well.

The mud in my eyes blurred my vision, and I squinted against the pelting rain as I swiped my face again and turned to scan the ferns around me.

When I found Rali’s ruddy orange eyes burning into my own, my gut practically dropped through my ass.

The young elf was less than ten feet away with a revolver clutched in his slender hands, and the barrel was aimed steadily at my heart.

Then he pulled the trigger.

Chapter 17

It had been a while since I’d stared down the barrel of a loaded gun.

Finding a kid on the other side of that barrel was probably the more terrifying part, though.

Rali’s serpentine eyes blazed with the kind of reckless determination only an eleven-year-old boy could muster, and the rune overpowering him seemed to add a glint of savagery to his expression.

So, I didn’t doubt for a second the kid would pull the trigger from the moment I locked eyes with him, and the second he did, my hand shot out as my vision faded into a tunnel.

The bullet stopped within an inch of my outstretched palm, but before I’d fully processed this, Rali bared his teeth and cocked the hammer of his revolver again without pause.

This time, I managed to dive behind a fern as the bullet whizzed past, and I grappled at the gun on my belt out of instinct to make absolutely sure it was still there.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t dreaming.

There was another revolver in the ravine, and whoever created it had seen fit to hand it to Rali specifically.

I heard the hammer cock only a few feet away, and I closed my eyes as I searched for the spark of the revolver in the kid’s hand.

Then my power surged, and I swiftly wrenched it from his clutches just as he pulled the trigger once more. The bullet flew within a few centimeters of my face, but the kid’s gun soared directly into my hand right after.

Rali let out a furious growl, and I lunged from the cover of the ferns as I shoved the second revolver into my belt.

The young elf landed on my back as I went, and he clawed at my face and eyes while I struggled to get rid of him. Rali was unbelievably strong for his age, though, and my arms were pinned to my side as he locked his knees, ripped my head back by my hair, and drew a dagger from his belt.

So, I flipped and slammed myself back against the nearest trunk, and when Rali’s sheared head slammed into the tree with full force, he abruptly released his hold and dropped into the sludge at our feet.

Rali was up again like a shot, and I drew my own sword as he jabbed his dagger at my thigh. I couldn’t believe I was struggling to keep up with the blows he delivered, and my nerves heightened as I locked eyes with the young and ruthless elf.

I stumbled and backed into two big soldiers while I attempted to keep Rali at bay, and the soldiers nearly caught me by the arms from behind. I managed to dodge all three elves when a few of House Quyn’s warriors leapt between us, and by the time I looked back, the two large soldiers had fresh slashes oozing from their necks.

Rali tore one of the axes from their hands and hurled it at me while I ducked the blind swing of one of the almost dead elves, and I instinctively sent the axe right back at the kid before I remembered who I was fighting.

The tungsten blade shifted direction at the last second to impale one of the soldiers, and just as the second one finally bled out, Rali lunged and caught my leg.

He tripped me with a swift maneuver I’d honestly only seen in movies, and I cursed as I dropped into the blood and mud with Rali and his dagger.

Elves flew past on either side as I caught the kid’s slender wrist in a vice grip and tried to wrestle the dagger from him, and his free hand planted a fist so firmly in my eye that my vision cut out completely on my left side.

“What the fuck?” I growled, and I quickly blunted the edge of the dagger since it was clear there was no way Rali was giving it up.

It still hurt like hell as he jabbed it into my gut, but it didn’t pierce the skin at least, and Rali’s frustration sent him over the edge.

I didn’t know if it was a growl or some sort of elven insult, but whatever the kid said sounded like a death sentence as he lunged to lock his hands around my throat.

My head was forced down into the swell of mud, and I lost my grip on my Halcyan sword as some sprinting elf trampled us both.

Someone must have pulled Rali off me, though, because I suddenly resurfaced to draw a desperate breath into my lungs. The stench of death and blood permeated from the mud all over me, and I could still hear Rali’s vicious snarling close by.

The sound sent a chill straight down my spine while I smeared my face on the first fern my hand found, and as the pelting rain rinsed the last of the mud away, I squinted to find the elf who’d been my loader grappling with Rali.

The golden-haired elf had a hold on the boy from behind, but Rali managed to pull the guard’s dagger from his sheath. Before I could summon it, Rali drove the blade into the elf’s side, and when he was finally freed, he wasted no time in coming straight for me again.

“Godsdamnit,” I muttered and dodged his grasp while I tried to find my sword in all the sludge.

Rali already had his other dagger drawn, though, and I pulled my revolver instead.

Then Rhys’ voice boomed from behind my back, and Rali let out a venomous hiss.

He hurled the dagger past me to impale his own father in the gut, and when I whipped around, Rhys’ face was twisted in a mixture of rage and shock.

Rali laughed indignantly and grabbed another dagger from the sheath of a nearby elf, and while Rhys ripped the blade from his bleeding gut, I ducked and dove for the kid’s legs.

His dagger sliced the back of my shirt open, but I managed to tackle him hard and knock the wind from his lungs long enough for Rhys to reach us.

The braided elf and I proceeded to try and wrestle the bloodthirsty kid into submission, but he screamed and thrashed with the fury of a dozen men, and his dagger caught Rhy’s arms repeatedly.

“What the fuck do you expect me to do with this?” I growled at Rhys.

The man glared back as Rali’s boot tried to kick my teeth in before I dodged.

“Don’t shoot him,” Rhys snarled through a clenched jaw.

Rali impaled his father’s gut once more while the man was arguing to spare his life, and when his breath hitched, I locked the kid in a choke hold as best as I could.

“Either he’s dying, or you are,” I told the braided elf as I eyed the deep red blood drenching his tunic, but Rhys only shook his head and tried to lock his son’s wrists in the shackle of his large hands.

Rali’s kicks were unyielding, though, and when he planted his heel in his father’s face to send him crashing backward into a line of brawny soldiers, I caught a glimpse of the rune on his calf.

The familiar branding looked fresh and about as large as the handle of my revolver, and while Rali bucked to knee me in my temple, I swiftly wrenched his last dagger from his iron grip.

Then I caught him by the scruff of his tunic from behind, and as soon as Rhys finished killing two guards, I shoved his vicious son at him and ordered him to hold his arms.

The braided elf actually managed it after a violent wrestling match, during which he slammed his son against another tree to try and subdue him a bit.

I raised my brows and drove the dagger into the skull of a passing soldier while I waited, and when Rhys dropped to the mud with as strong a hold as he could muster, I quickly joined him and attempted to grab the runed leg.

“Don’t kill him,” Rhys ordered as he lost his hold and grappled to get it back.

“I won’t,” I growled back, “just hold him still, damn it.”

A line of soldiers lost their air supply behind Rhys’ back as I spoke, and the golden-haired loader suddenly reappeared clutching his side.

He joined Rhys in the effort of wrangling Rali, and I finally caught the kid’s boot just before it could hit my jaw.

I flipped around and locked Rali’s leg under my arm, and even though the other clocked my skull hard from behind, and my left eye was still useless, I focused on the branded rune in front of me.

It was the exact same as all of the one’s we’d been tracking from one region to the next, and I took a steadying breath before I placed the tip of the dagger at the base of it.

I didn’t even pierce the skin, but Rali was already raging as if I had, and his bellows became deranged in his fury. He sounded nearly as ravenous as the Wendigo, and out of nowhere, Dragir crashed into me and ripped the dagger from my hand.

“What do you think you are doing?” he demanded. “The rune will turn on him, it’ll fight you.”

I snatched the dagger back. “What the fuck do you suggest, then?” I countered, and Rali’s other boot slammed my neck forward with blinding force.

I cursed and attempted to regain my vision as pain seared through my spine, but I kept the kid’s leg locked in my grip while I placed the tip of the dagger down once more.

Rali’s screams heightened immediately, and Rhys swore as he and the loader struggled to contain his raging son.

Dragir’s eyes flared while he watched, but then he dropped beside me and worked to steady Rali’s leg as well.

“This could destroy him,” the elf warned in a low voice. “We don’t know what that rune will do if you attack it.”

“We don’t have much of a choice,” I muttered back as I gritted my teeth against another kick.

Then I sent my magic into the dagger to sharpen the blade to a glinting, razor’s edge, and as I began cutting through Rali’s skin, he let out a torrent of terrifying Elvish.

Dragir snapped his attention to the young elf as his eyes practically popped out of his head, and I was glad I couldn’t understand a word of the angry tirade.

I did hear my name a few times, though, but I focused on splicing around the rune in a shaky rectangular shape.

Several soldiers stumbled to a stop as they heard the wails of the young elf become more crazed, and just as Dragir grabbed my hand to stop me, Shoshanne dropped into the mud beside us.

She raised her palms toward Rali, and he immediately spluttered and began to gasp for air.

“Don’t kill him!” Rhys ordered furiously.

“I’m not,” Shoshanne assured him, but the kid stopped wailing and fell limp in my hold as she said this, and the healer looked at me urgently. “Hurry, you don’t have much time.”

I nodded and finished splicing the last line, and then I slid the tip of the dagger under a corner of flesh. With the bloodied skin pinned between my thumb and the blade, I firmly wrenched the flesh from his leg.

Dragir and I both cringed as it went flying, and while blood spilled from the sinewy patch now exposed on Rali’s calf, Shoshanne hurried forward to place her palms on the pale child’s ribs.

I flipped around to find Rhys’ face ashen as he looked down at the blue lips of his son, but Shoshanne slowly filled his lungs for him, and the boy gradually seemed to be regaining his color.

Then his eyes shot open, and he lurched as he screamed wildly.

All of us jumped back, and for a second I thought the rune was still infecting his mind.

Rali stumbled and clutched at his torn leg, but when Dragir caught him by the arm to hold him steady, the young elf suddenly blinked up like he hardly recognized the elf.

Dragir spoke to him urgently in Elvish and pulled him out of the way of two sparring soldiers, and his father swiftly joined the two as Rali gave a small nod.

I finally let out the breath I’d been holding when the boy grabbed hold of his father’s arm and buried his face against his bloodied tunic, and Shoshanne looked about ready to keel over beside me.

“Gods,” she breathed. “That was horrifying.”

Without a word, I pulled the healer into my arms, and as I pinned her to the tree at her back, she chuckled against my kiss and melted into my hold. Blades clanged around us as flames sparked and rain poured down relentlessly, but I kept the healer locked in a fiery kiss until she began to tremble for me. Her skin was heated despite how drenched she was, and her fingers wove through my bloody hair while she pulled me against her.

If a dagger hadn’t impaled the tree beside our heads, I might have hitched her legs up right there and fucked her brains out.

Shoshanne gasped and whipped her head to the side as we stared at the blade only an inch from our faces, but I turned her back toward me to give her one last tender kiss before I finally loosened my hold on her.

Dragir wrenched the blade from the trunk for me and sent us both a pointed look before he flipped around and drove it into another soldier’s eye.

Shoshanne blushed deeply and tried to hide her smile, and she pulled her rumpled dress back over her thighs with a soft giggle.

I groaned and shifted the velvet of her top for her a bit when I realized her nipple was nearly exposed, and the healer bit her lip in a way that only made me want her more.

“You’re an angel,” I murmured in her ear, and she sighed as she slid her arms around me again.

“Are you done killing elves yet?” she moaned. “I want you to pin me to those boulders up there.”

I chuckled and glanced at the embankment above us.

“Almost,” I assured her, but then Rhys caught my shirt and dragged me away from the caramel beauty.

“Fucking focus,” he growled and shoved the hilt of a sword into my hand, and Shoshanne giggled once more as she quickly ducked behind the tree to scale the boulders on the embankment.

I watched the rain-drenched woman disappear with her cheeks a deep pink, and I still had an admiring grin on my face when a low grunt echoed at my back.

I turned just in time to miss being fully impaled, but the dagger the brawny soldier had hurled still tore a deep gouge across my arm as it passed.

“Godsdamnit,” I cursed as I ducked the next blade to come flying, and I didn’t miss the curt sigh that came from Dragir a few feet away.

Rali was nowhere in sight now, but Rhys and Dragir continued to strike out at every elf they passed, and I was relieved to find the Master’s army was well thinned out.

Bodies floated in the muck that had risen to our knees with the torrential rain, and I sloshed back into the fray as I drove the Halcyan sword into the gut of a feral elf.

With the enchanted blade in my grip, the wound on my arm remained staunched, and I made sure not to drop the sword while the three of us cut our way through the ravine relentlessly.

Everywhere I looked, Aurora’s flames flashed, and as more elves struggled for air, the rest of the troops from House Quyn and House Fehryn poured in from the east.

They were bloodied from their sparring east of Black Rock, but they joined us in the final throes of the battle as the Master’s army began to panic and flee.

“Don’t let them get away,” I hollered up to half-elf on the embankment, and Aurora raised her palms at the same time as me while we turned toward the west.

The sinkhole I’d formed caught several of the elves, but those who started to scale the embankments to get around the death trap were barricaded with a line of searing white flames. Then the ground opened beneath them, and as mud and rain poured in around them, the possessed elves sank into the earth with gargling screams of terror.

I shifted a pile of boulders next to send them tumbling down the further ridge, and they flattened another pack of fleeing soldiers with a thundering crash.

Shoshanne had several of the possessed elves dropping mid stride all over the place, and when Aurora lit the entire mouth of the ravine on fire, the last of the soldiers were subjected to a fiery death.

The ruthless elves who continued to fight their attackers were swiftly dispatched as Rhys and Dragir’s men turned on them in groups of five and six, and I finally lowered my sword when the last wails of pain rang out and faded beneath the sound of rolling thunder above.

I could hardly take a step with the submerged bodies of the Master’s army strewn in every direction, but Dragir and Rhys stepped on the backs and skulls of the dead as they gave orders to their armies.

A few troops were sent west to scan for any escapees, and several more began pulling any of their own injured men from the sludge.

With Halcyan blades locked in their grips, the muddied elves were hitched over shoulders to be carted off, and the armies stumbled to avoid the mudslides still pouring in all along the embankments.

Cayla and Aurora smirked as they waved to me from across the ravine, but they were hardly recognizable under all that mud.

I couldn’t help but chuckle when the princess’ loader crawled out from the underbrush behind them. He looked at Cayla like he’d worship her for the rest of his life, and the princess carelessly dropped her bazooka into his arms as she gestured for him to return to House Fehryn.

The elf nodded fervently and tripped at least four times while he hustled to do her bidding.

Cayla just sent me a little shrug and blew me a kiss.

Then Shoshanne sighed at my back, and I grinned as the healer curled her arms around me and left a light kiss between my shoulder blades.

“You’re covered in blood,” she mumbled.

“Not this side though,” I pointed out, and I shifted to show her the dagger wound on my arm. I still had the Halcyan blade in my hand, and the wound hadn’t lost a drop of blood. “These blades are fucking incredible.”

Shoshanne nodded her agreement and gingerly peeled my sleeve aside to study the wound.

Her copper curls clung to her muddied cheeks, and her warm brown eyes glowed in the dim green cast of the jungle. With her velvet dress thoroughly drenched, it clung to every wonderful curve on her body, and heat began to pulse through my veins as I eyed the pillow of her cleavage while she stooped at my side.

“I should stitch this,” the healer muttered, but when she looked up, her lips curled into a smirk at my expression.

“Got a minute?” I asked with a roguish grin.

Shoshanne giggled and swiftly hopped to throw her arms around my neck, and as I caught her thighs and locked them around me, the sword slid from my distracted hand.

I must have had more injuries than I thought, because the sudden swell of blood seeping out of me made me stumble. My head became light, and my knees buckled, and as I crashed back with Shoshanne still in my arms, the healer let out a surprised shriek.

I managed to return the woman’s heated kisses for a bit before the pain began to catch up to me though, and I winced as mud seeped into all of my open wounds.

Shoshanne didn’t miss a thing, and she abruptly pulled away to narrow her eyes on me.

“You’re too wounded for this,” the healer told me sternly.

I tried to catch her waist, but she stood too quickly, and the spliced muscles in my arm protested angrily at the attempt.

“Fuck that,” I sighed, and as the woman hauled me to my feet, I locked her against me for good measure. “If you’re on top, it doesn’t matter how wounded I am, does it?”

Shoshanne giggled as her blush deepened, and Rhys sighed.

“You’re going to die over your women,” he told me bluntly as he passed. “I am finally sure of this.”

“You have no idea how accurate that is,” Dragir muttered.

I glanced over to find him hauling one of his men from the mud with the help of a guard, and I quickly released the plush hips I was kneading between my palms.

“Sorry,” I mumbled with half a grin, “let me help you with that.”

Dragir snorted. “I believe you have your hands full. Your other women are currently vying for your attention as well.”

Rhys shook his head to himself, and I cocked a brow.

When I looked out across the ravine to find Aurora and Cayla quickly descending the embankment and waving me over, I immediately cut across the river of bodies and the mud to get to them.

Their eyes were wide as they barreled past the warriors, and when they got to me, Aurora caught my arm to pull me along with her.

“What’s wrong?” I demanded.

“The rain,” she gasped as she trudged toward Black Rock.

“What about it?” I asked.

The rain had eased up at some point, and with the mudslides waning to steady streams, I couldn’t see any immediate danger.

“It’s stopped,” Cayla said with a pointed look.

I smirked in confusion, but within a second I caught up. I’d been so relieved when the last of the Master’s army had been destroyed, I almost forgot the battle wasn’t over yet.

“Shit,” I cursed. “Where did the mage go?”

“I don’t know,” Aurora called back as she slipped over a muddy corpse, “but I’ve got a guess I really hope I’m wrong about.”

My gut clenched, and I halted to flip around and holler to Dragir.

The elf furrowed his brow where he and Rhys were working to free a warrior who was pinned beneath a brawny corpse, but when I told him we had to get to the cove, his face went slack, and he abruptly dropped the elf into the mud.

Rhys was staring in confusion as all of us sloshed out of the ravine without another word, and when we finally made it out of the flood, we barreled through the jungle as fast as we could. The warriors were carrying their wounded back to the village, and we wove between them without looking back.

The village at House Fehryn was already strewn with elves patiently waiting to be tended. They propped themselves against the woven huts and on old stumps, and while we swiftly leapt over them, they looked on with concern.

Then someone called Dragir’s name, and he came to an abrupt stop.

We all turned to see Rhys’ wife with Rali smooshed tightly against her ample breasts, and the young elf looked irritated as hell to be locked in his mother’s embrace.

His leg was swollen to a vibrant red where we’d torn his skin off, and Shoshanne immediately doubled back to check on the kid.

Dragir joined them and finally freed the young elf from his mother’s clutches, and as Rali rolled his ruddy orange eyes, the tigerish woman yanked Dragir into her arms.

She practically climbed the guy while she devoured his lips, and Dragir stumbled to brace himself against the hut beside them.

Aurora’s jaw dropped as she watched the two, and Cayla turned her wide eyes toward me.

“Is he kissing Rhys’ wife?” she asked with obvious confusion on her pretty face.

“Yes, he is,” I sighed. “I don’t know how to even explain it besides just saying that elves are fucking weird.”

“That’s been the understatement of the last few weeks,” Cayla agreed.

The sultry woman eventually released Dragir to send him a heated look, and I heard him chuckle and mumble something to her as he gestured over his shoulder.

Then the woman’s vibrant orange eyes snapped on me.

Dragir smirked and led the woman over to where Aurora and Cayla stood gaping on either side of me, and I couldn’t help but admire the heavy sway of Aliasa’s exposed hips beneath the scrap of leather she wore. Her unruly purple hair was drenched and clinging to her skin as it tumbled down across her ample cleavage, and her eyes bore into mine like a cat prowling for its dinner.

“This is Mason Flynt,” Dragir told her. “He is the mage who--”

Dragir trailed off when Rhys’ wife snatched the collar of my shirt, and as she pressed her plush breasts firmly against me, the woman forced her tongue between my lips.

I didn’t fight her a damn bit, of course, and I let the sweet scent of honeysuckle overrun my senses while the woman devoured my lips hungrily. She was soft all over and apparently determined to let me enjoy every inch of her, and she forced my arms around her waist as she moaned softly into my mouth.

My hands naturally slid to her ample hips, and the woman rolled wantonly against me in response. I honestly thought she was ten seconds from pinning me down right there, but when she tore the few ties on my shirt collar open, Dragir cleared his throat.

I glanced over as Aliasa stubbornly held me closer, and when Dragir nodded to the right of us, I realized Rali was storming over with Shoshanne close behind.

I immediately raised my hands to release the erotic woman, but only when her son began berating her in Elvish did Aliasa finally slide her tongue from my mouth.

Her stark orange eyes were hooded with lust as she sent me a tigerish grin, and she let her son drag her away while she waved coyly at me.

I swallowed hard and focused on redirecting my blood flow for a second, and Dragir chuckled as he watched her go.

“She likes you,” he muttered.

I raised my brows and eyed the warm cinnamon hue of Aliasa’s exposed backend across the clearing.

“Maybe she was just thanking me for saving her son?” I winced.

“That might be a small part of it.” Cayla giggled. “You probably shouldn’t let Rhys know she tried to taste your tonsils.”

Dragir turned around and nodded soberly. “Yes, he will kill you if he finds out you did that.”

There were at least twenty elves chuckling to themselves around the clearing who absolutely saw everything, and I stared blankly at Dragir.

“I didn’t do that,” I countered. “That was all her. Why don’t you tell him to control his damn woman?”

“You were a bit involved,” Aurora pointed out, and the half-elf returned my stern glance with a broad grin. “Maybe we should have her visit Illaria sometime. Show her the sights … give her a nice warm bed to spend the night in.”

I sighed and caught the half-elf’s arm to steer her the other direction.

“If Rhys would kill me, he’d damn sure kill you for luring his wife into our bed,” I mumbled. “Now-- cove, possessed mage, lovely elf you’re actually allowed to play dirty with...”

“Shit,” Aurora cursed, and she bolted ahead into the tree line as she finally regrouped.

Chapter 18

I summoned the bazookas and the remaining ammunition to me once we made it to the Mustang, and by the time everyone was loaded up and piling into the car, the weapons came through the trees and lined themselves in the base of the trunk.

I practically planted my foot through the floor to take us back to the road, and with Bobbie growling loudly, the merchant shops of Rhoemir were nothing but a mossy blur as we sped past and headed for the coast.

Everyone braced themselves on the grab bars when we reached the turn that would lead us north to Lyralus, and I quickly veered off to barrel through the ferns toward the south. I kept my Terra powers aimed ahead of us to overturn the undergrowth and help keep up a decent speed, and Shoshanne passed around Tiorlin berries to everyone along the way,

She left a light kiss on my neck before she slipped two onto my tongue, and then she attempted to tend to a few of my wounds between the jolting of the Mustang.

Aurora’s emerald gaze was calm and calculating while she looked ahead of us, and Cayla worked on applying another dose of poultice to her injured knee. She’d been largely ignoring the wound much like I usually did, but I could tell by the tension in her jaw that the pain was getting difficult to overlook.

“I want you up on the ridge when we get there,” I said as I looked back through the rearview mirror at Cayla. “The ammunition’s in the trunk but find a place the water can’t get at you too easily.”

Cayla nodded. “Watch out for the rockets,” she replied. “I’ll probably start with the rifle, but if things look bad, I’ll switch to the bazooka.”

“Do not destroy the fortress,” Dragir warned, and the princess nodded again.

“Will the boy be alright?” she asked the elf.

Dragir let out a sigh. “I do not know,” he admitted. “I have never known an elf to cut a branding from their flesh.”

He sent me a sidelong glance, but I just shrugged.

“Seemed to work fine to me.”

“You did not hear what he was saying,” Dragir countered. “He is lucky your Aer Mage was there. I was worried he might lose control of his mind if it carried on for much longer.”

I furrowed my brow. “I heard my name a few times. What was he saying about me?”

“It is not important,” the elf replied vaguely, but his expression looked deeply worried. “I believe this Master has instilled a certain … hatred for you in his followers, though. Rali seemed deliriously angry with you.”

“Yeah, Mina said the same thing,” I mumbled.

“Who is Mina?”

“She’s an Ignis Mage at the Order,” Aurora explained, and she propped her elbows between us. “While we were in Orebane, she was possessed by an enchanted piece of ice, and when she came back around to being herself, she told Mason she really, really wanted to kill him. She said she wanted to tear his flesh off, even.”

Dragir cleared his throat. “That is similar to what Rali said,” he muttered. “He was rather explicit about his own ideas on the matter. Although, I would imagine these were the Master’s ideas more than his own.”

“Can the Master harness that kind of specific hatred with a degree?” I asked in confusion.

“No, but he can control the thought patterns of those he possesses,” Dragir explained. “The twenty-ninth degree is the surest path to the workings of the mind when paired with the inward directional degree. Once someone is under the power of his rune, he may be as specific as he pleases about what they should do or how they should think. With so many soldiers at his command, he most likely singled out Rali to hunt you down and generally informed the rest of his wishes.”

“He must know you’ve worked with House Fehryn before,” Cayla mused. “To choose Rali and turn him against you, I mean.”

I shrugged. “He probably knows a hell of a lot more than that,” I allowed. “I’m just wondering where the fuck he got the gun.”

“What gun?” Aurora demanded.

I shifted and pulled the rogue revolver Rali had fired at me from my belt, and as I passed it over to Dragir for him to study, Aurora furrowed her brow.

“That doesn’t look like one of yours,” she decided.

“It’s not,” I agreed. “It’s pretty shit craftsmanship to be honest, but it looks like it’s been replicated from my design. Those bullets in the cylinder, though? Those I made myself.”

Aurora and I exchanged a glance.

“Where could the Master have possibly gotten your own bullets from?” she asked uneasily.

“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” I mumbled.

Dragir looked over. “Have you made revolvers for anyone beside you and your women?”

Cayla cursed from the back seat.

“His revolvers are all over Illaria and Cedis,” she told the elf. “With plenty of ammunition.”

“We have to get out of Nalnora,” Aurora decided. “Something’s not right back west, I can feel it.”

I sighed and slowed Bobbie a bit as we turned to head along the grassy cliff edge, and with the dense jungle opening up, I could see stacks of black clouds gathering along the coast.

“Things aren’t looking too great in the east, either,” I remarked.

The ocean rolled heavily far below and was a deep gray, and a frigid wind howled up from the ocean as the sky darkened to an ominous green.

“We have to find Deya,” Shoshanne said uneasily.

“Once we get there, scan for her lungs, alright?” I told the Aer Mage. “We’ll look through the jungle for the Flumen Mage while Cayla sets up. They’ll probably be stalking around somewhere, but if Deya’s in trouble, you and Dragir--”

“No, I will kill this mage,” Dragir interrupted. “You get Deya.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m more equipped to battle a mage than you are,” I pointed out. “Unless you’re willing to boil their--”

Dragir sent me a stern look to silence me before I said any more.

“Nevermind,” I mumbled.

Aurora’s keen gaze flicked between the two of us, and Dragir cleared his throat.

“I will look for Deya,” he agreed, “but as soon as that is handled, I will rejoin you. I am curious to see what this Flumen Mage is capable of.”

I smirked. “You’re looking forward to this, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” Dragir replied thoughtfully. “Magery is rather fascinating to witness. Harnessing power over the element of water is a dangerous trick in the jungle. The ocean, the soil, even the air holds water.”

“Rune magic is pretty fascinating to witness, too,” Aurora casually added. “You have a rune of your own, right?”

Dragir sighed.

“Yes,” he finally replied.

Aurora grinned eagerly and waited where she perched on the edge of the seat, and after I sent Dragir a shrug, he rolled his eyes and leaned over to mutter in the half-elf’s ear.

I watched her emerald eyes slowly widen while Dragir explained his rune to her, and when he finished, her jaw was unhinged.

“Don’t tell Deya,” Dragir ordered, and Aurora immediately agreed before she turned to me.

“You’ve seen this?” she asked me incredulously.

“Yeah, it’s pretty fucked up.”

“What is it?” Cayla asked curiously. “What does the rune do?”

“Nothing,” Dragir sighed. “I am not wielding my rune against this mage, so it does not matter what it does.”

I nodded my agreement and parked the Mustang a little ways from the path that led into the cove.

“It would be great if you never used your rune in front of me again,” I muttered to the elf.

Then I unsealed the doors and the trunk, and while Cayla headed for the back to prepare her arsenal, the rest of us scanned the surrounding area.

Aurora and Dragir trained their ears toward the jungle at our backs, and I sent my Terra Magic into the ground as I searched for any sign of the Flumen Mage’s presence.

The trees along the cliff swayed violently in the frigid wind coming in off the sea, and their trunks groaned against the force while they bowed and smacked together to send bits of debris down on us.

Shoshanne called to us from the cliff’s edge after a minute.

“No need to look around,” she informed us. “She’s right there.”

“Deya?” Aurora asked eagerly and jogged to the healer’s side, but Shoshanne shook her head.

I eyed the two women from where I stood near the trees with Dragir, and when I recognized the predatory stance of the half-elf, I quickly joined them near the head of the path.

The cove below looked more treacherous than ever with the heavy clouds looming overhead, and the choppy surface of the water roared loudly as waves slammed into the inlet and against the walls of the cliff.

There was a figure heading out along the jetty despite the dangerous swell surrounding her. The woman wore a long and tattered mage’s robe that hung loosely around her slender form, and she strolled out toward the open ocean while she balanced like a tightrope walker from one boulder to the next.

Her pale and lanky arms were extended to the sides, and her long black hair appeared to be matted and unkempt while it whipped wildly around her. She seemed completely unconcerned with the ominous storm gathering over the sea, and as she reached the end of the embankment, she slowly turned back to continue her balancing act amidst the thrashing waves.

“Is she talking to herself?” Shoshanne muttered uneasily, and Dragir nodded.

“It sounds like a child’s song,” he mused, “but a very creepy one.”

I strained my ears as the wind swept up from the cove, but I could only make out a few eerie notes that drifted by like a whisper. It reminded me of something I might have heard on a haunted carousel, and with the thunder echoing overhead in the deep gray clouds, I began to feel like I’d walked into a nightmare.

Then the wind caught in the woman’s long strands of hair and lifted them straight up, and as the mage’s pale face was exposed, Aurora furrowed her brow.

“I think I know her.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“From the Order,” the half-elf told me. “I barely saw her there, though. She never really acknowledged anyone who spoke to her, but I think her name is Yvette. I’d see her walking in the hills while I was on my patrol once in a while. She was always alone and sort of … talking to herself.”

I glanced over at the half-elf as she crinkled her brow with pity, and just beyond her, Shoshanne sent me a sad look.

“We can’t kill a crazy lady, can we?” I muttered, and the healer shook her head fervently.

Dragir snorted. “Why not?”

“Because,” I shot back, “it’s … I don’t know. It feels wrong.”

“She’s fucking possessed,” Dragir said. “Kill her.”

I sighed and ignored the man’s very elven advice as I turned my gaze back toward the woman tiptoeing along the jetty. She still hadn’t seen us looking down from the ridge, and she absentmindedly chewed on a long strand of hair while she continued to sing to herself.

“Hold off for a bit,” I told Cayla as she came to my side with her rifle in hand. “I’m gonna try and talk to her.”

All of the women stared at me, but I nodded my resolve.

“We got the rune off Rali,” I continued. “The least we can do is try to save her from it.”

“She’ll drown you before it’s done,” Dragir assured me flatly.

I realized he had a decent point, but as I watched the woman stoop and pick up a small shell to study it, I decided we couldn’t avoid taking the risk.

“I don’t doubt she’ll try,” I allowed, “but every other creature in Nalnora with any connection to the Master is dead. If we’re gonna get information about his plans from anyone, she’s our only bet now. We could just shoot her in the head, but we have no idea what the Master’s next move is. He’s already been several steps ahead of us so far, I don’t want to give him more of a lead.”

I glanced back down at the mage in the cove. The bones of Yvette’s spine jutted out beneath her raggish robes, and her petite frame made her look practically harmless from this distance. I imagined her wandering around the hills around Serin all alone, and as she slipped the shell between her lips and took a bite, pity began to settle firmly in my stomach along with a plan.

“Yvette,” I mumbled to myself while I considered the solitary mage.

Almost the moment after the word left my lips, the Flumen Mage turned, and her gaze snapped to the five of us standing on the cliff’s edge.

Her deep blue eyes gleamed against the gray waves at her back, and I could see the dim shadows beneath them from where I stood. She looked a little frail and tired as she spat the bits of shell out, but then a smile twisted on her lips, and the expression sent an instant chill down my spine.

Even from this distance, there was something maniacal about the grin and the intensity of her gaze, and she slowly raised a bony hand to send me a little wave.

I hesitated for a second before I waved back, and then the mage curled her finger to beckon me down into the cove.

“That bitch looks crazy,” Cayla decided.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I have a bad feeling about this one, but either we save her from this rune, or we get some answers before it’s time to put her out of her misery. Don’t worry. I’ll stay on my toes.”

Yvette stood waiting for me on the jetty, and her robes clung to her slight frame in the coursing wind and the spray of the waves. I reminded myself of the tsunami that had nearly dragged us out to sea just to be sure my guard wasn’t wholly dropped, and the memory of the boiling river that chased us through the jungle helped quite a lot.

“Where’s Deya?” I asked Shoshanne.

“She’s in the caves with Ruela,” the Aer Mage replied. “They’re both breathing still.”

I nodded and let this ease my nerves a degree. “There’s a chance the mage doesn’t know she’s there, then.”

“Deya may not know either,” Dragir warned.

“We’ll approach Yvette first,” I instructed. “Don’t give any sign you’re trying to get to the fortress. Stay calm and alert, and if you’re sure she’s distracted, and any of you have an opening, get in there as fast as you can. Deya can sneak away if she uses her runes. Whatever you do, though, don’t throw out the first attack. We’re avoiding that as long as possible. If it’s possible.”

Everyone agreed to this, and after a steadying breath, I eyed the blanket of clouds waiting to break open above us before I led the way toward the path along the cliff’s edge.

Cayla remained waiting for my order on the ridge, and I kept half my focus on the Flumen Mage while we descended the thin footpath into the stormy cove.

We came to a stop in the middle of the slate of rock that led from the mouth of the fortress to the sea, and the Flumen Mage sent me another little wave as her knotted hair shifted with the breeze to conceal half of her face.

“It’s Yvette, right?” I called out above the howling wind.

The woman’s blue eyes sparked with something a little like glee as she nodded.

“We came here to help you,” I told her, and I kept my tone as reassuring as possible. “I can remove the branding the Master has given you if you’ll let us. You could go back to being yourself again. We’ll bring you home.”

The mage raised her jagged brows toward the roots of her black hair.

“I am myself,” she said in a high, clear voice.

“Yvette, the Master’s rune has taken over your mind,” Aurora told her gently, “but you don’t have to do his bidding like this. Please, let us help you.”

Yvette began giggling like an amused little girl as she covered her twisted grin with her hand, and when she spoke again, her voice rose and fell in another eerie sort of song.

“Master didn’t give me his rune,” she informed us, and she turned in an absent-minded circle while she watched her fingers dance lightly through the air above the thrashing waves. “Master says I’m a good girl. He knows I listen to what I’m told.”

I furrowed my brow and exchanged a glance with Dragir.

“The Master hasn’t branded you?” I clarified.

The woman’s long hair whipped up around her as she looked back over her shoulder, and she sent me a wide and toothy grin.

“She really is crazy,” Aurora muttered in a low voice.

“Godsdamnit,” I sighed before I called out above the wind once more. “Look, why don’t we just talk for a bit, alright?”

“I cannot hear you,” Yvette said, but her tone carried clear across the cove.

I could tell she wanted me to join her on the embankment, and I eyed the waves that continued to crash wildly around the Flumen Mage.

“Kill her,” Dragir muttered at my side.

“Dude, she’s not even runed,” I shot back. “There’s a reason the Master sent her specifically.”

“Yes,” Dragir said with a nod, “she’s unstable and unpredictable.”

“She’s clearly more than just an assassin to him,” I continued, “or the Master would have made her as mindless as his soldiers. We couldn’t even question his army because they’re too feral, but she’s just … you know. Crazy.”

“You believe she will tell you anything of value?” Dragir asked skeptically, and he looked at the mage on the jetty like she was some strange species to him.

I shrugged. “She’s clearly dangerous as hell, but you saw how many soldiers the Master gathered in only a few days. He’s getting more powerful. We need to know what his next move will be, and Yvette might be our only angle. If she’s not, then I’ll shoot her, alright?”

Dragir furrowed his brow, and I could tell he saw the logic.

“Very well,” he muttered, “but I would approach her carefully. The cove does not normally experience this sort of storm. She’s up to more than singing songs out there.”

“Agreed,” I mumbled as I looked far out toward the horizon, where the greenish clouds had begun to take on a spiraling shape.

Then I raised my voice and beckoned to the Flumen Mage.

“Why don’t you come over here?” I called, and I sent her a friendly grin. “We’ll talk by the cliff.”

Something in Yvette’s expression changed at the offer, but her features all seemed to contradict one another, and it was hard to tell what she was thinking.

The mage’s stark eyes lit up like a child’s while her lips twisted at the corners, and before I could process much more than this, she suddenly raised her arms to the side and pinched her fingers together.

Then her bony figure burst into hundreds of water droplets, and a giant swell billowed up over the slate to swallow her up.

Within seconds, the wave towered above us, and we all stumbled back in shock just as the water came crashing down. I could have sworn I saw a shadow of a face in the wave just before I was thrown down, and my head slammed hard against the slate as I was dragged across the cove by the swirling water.

When the swell drew back, I squinted against the salt stinging my eyes to see the others scattered around the slate and spluttering for breath.

Yvette’s bare and knobby toes were planted only a foot from where I fought to steady my spinning mind, and when I dragged myself to my knees and looked up, the Flumen Mage smiled down at me with her black hair dripping steadily.

“Hello,” she softly.

I swallowed and shot up to my feet.

Yvette didn’t move an inch, but her piercing gaze followed my every movement, and she stood with her thin arms limp and streaming with water while her fingers continued to weave absentmindedly through the air.

I stared into her severely pale face for a moment and worked to remain set on finding out all I could from her, but whatever the hell that trick had been, it left my stomach in a knot, and my own magic sparked at the ready.

Still, there was no way I was going to chicken out on the opportunity, so I extended a hand while the other settled on the handle of my revolver.

“I’m Mason Flynt,” I tried.

At first, I wasn’t sure she’d heard me because she remained like a statue, but then her bony hand shot out and caught hold of mine.

She yanked me closer with surprising strength for her size, and her icy grip sent another chill up my spine. Yvette didn’t smile or speak, and now that we were standing so close together, her clear instability shone vividly in her wide and blank blue eyes. After she’d clutched my hand for nearly a minute in silence, I pried mine free, and my mind ran a mile a minute as I tried to decide how to handle the mage.

It was likely her obscurity and solitude singled her out at the Order, and if the Master had been able to lure her in with any semblance of friendship, I hoped I could get away with the same approach.

As I considered Yvette’s slight figure and raggish robes, I actually felt a little sorry the Master preyed on her so easily.

Only a little, though.

The fact that he didn’t even need to put his rune on her to keep her in his hold probably meant her insanity did the job well enough. Either that or the Master decided the crazed mage was more dangerous without it.

With no rune to remove, there was little chance we could save her if this was the case, but as I watched Yvette’s shoulders twitch lightly beneath her thin robe, I decided to keep the conversation as casual as possible until we had no other choice. If there was anyone who could speak coherently with us about the Master, it was the unpossessed mage he’d had under his wing for who knew how long.

“We’re from the Order as well,” I told the mage, and I kept my tone friendly. “How long have you been studying there?”

Yvette’s blue eyes snapped to mine, but she didn’t respond.

I nodded anyway. “That was pretty impressive,” I tried and gestured toward the place where the Flumen Mage had evaporated just before the wave overtook us. “Did Abrus teach you that, or Wyresus?”

“I’ve never seen a mage do something like that,” Aurora added as she came to my side, and I could tell by her tone she was trying to join me in engaging the mage if at all possible. Her expression and her vice grip on my arm gave away how little she trusted the approach, though.

“He likes me,” Yvette said blankly.

I furrowed my brow. “Wyresus? Yeah, he’s a nice guy.”

One of Yvette’s eyelids twitched a little, and her lips curled the smallest measure before she slowly shook her head.

Aurora shifted uncomfortably. “I studied under Abrus, too,” she told the woman. “He must have really seen promise in you, to teach you something like that. Is it very advanced?”

The compliment had no visible effect, and I was beginning to think talking with Yvette would get us nowhere. The longer she stared unblinkingly at me, the more worried I got.

After what seemed like ages, she finally spoke, and her voice was oddly childish and put out for her age.

“Abrus wouldn’t teach me,” she said.

“I’m sorry to hear it,” Aurora offered. “He exhibited poor judgement in many ways when he was head of the Order. What did you do while you were staying in the Occulus?”

“Watched,” Yvette replied as her eyes bore into mine, “and waited.”

I worked to keep my tone casual, but my spine shivered lightly under the woman’s intense gaze.

“Waited for what?” I asked.

“A teacher who didn’t fear me,” Yvette replied.

I fought the urge to step back as the maniacal grin twisted at the corner of her mouth again, and I didn’t even hear Dragir approach on my other side.

When I looked over, his serpentine eyes were narrowed on the Flumen Mage, and he discreetly dropped the silver coin with the rune on it into my pocket.

A low rumble of thunder rolled through the clouds above the ocean, and it slowly travelled to where we stood in the cove with Yvette.

Dragir flicked his gaze toward her weaving fingertips, and I tried to decide what my next move should be. Yvette hadn’t given me anything useful to work with yet, and even though fear was admittedly a finicky concept, the idea of Abrus genuinely fearing Yvette made me question if I should cut my losses early on this one.

Then again, he wasn’t too fond of me from the start, and the look on his face when I’d destroyed his staff could only be defined as fear. Or rage.

Hell, it was probably both.

The frigid breeze that had been biting at my skin only moments before grew hot and muggy in the cove, and the smell of brine and seaweed overpowered the scent of rain drifting in from the ocean. It mingled with the subtle hint of pine coming from Aurora at my side, and I could tell she’d already sparked her magic and was only waiting for my signal now.

I cleared my throat.

“Abrus wasn’t too eager to teach me either,” I told Yvette, and I hoped she would find some sort of comradery in this. “I mostly learned by practicing, and with the help of a few mages I’ve met. Did you teach yourself as well?”

“For a while,” the Flumen Mage admitted.

“I’m guessing the Master helped you a bit here and there?” I led, but I kept my tone unconcerned.

Yvette’s left eye twitched again. “Yes. He likes me.”

I nodded slowly. “I’m sure he does,” I allowed. “You’re talented. The Master needs as much power behind him as he can get.”

Yvette didn’t seem to like my reasoning, and her head tilted ever so slightly as her fingers abruptly stopped their weaving.

“He likes me,” she insisted again, and her voice dropped threateningly. “I make him smile.”

“What do you two talk about?” Aurora asked gently. “What makes him smile?”

Yvette turned her piercing gaze toward the half-elf, and she continued to stare unblinkingly at her for a long moment before she suddenly spoke.

“He smiles because he likes me,” Yvette snapped. “He smiles because I’m his friend, and he wants to be near me. I make him smile.”

“I can understand that,” I told her with a smile of my own. “You’re a fascinating woman.”

Yvette’s lips curled to reveal her pleasure at the acknowledgement, and I made sure I didn’t cringe as the crazed glint in her eye fell on me.

“You are fascinating, too,” she assured me, but her brief kindness slowly diminished as she continued. “You destroyed my beautiful wave, and then you escaped my boiling flood. You defeated my Master’s army that we worked so hard for, and you even peeled the flesh from the bones of a little child.”

I swallowed at this last accusation while Yvette’s gaze became disgusted.

“I wasn’t trying to torture him,” I quickly clarified. “I was saving him from the rune possessing his mind. It isn’t right to brand a child. Your Master should have known better, don’t you think?”

“I branded the child,” Yvette hissed angrily. “I worked hard to drown him, but not too much. I made my Master very proud with the brat, and my Master certainly does know better than anyone.” Yvette relaxed by a degree, and she took a small step in my direction while she continued in a low voice. “My Master knows how to make creatures bend to his will, and he can give me power unlike anything the Order could teach me. Abrus could not even do this for me. He could not even do this for you.”

I furrowed my brow as she finally hit the mark I’d been waiting for.

“What sort of power?” I asked. “Did the Master teach you to evaporate like that?”

“He taught me to hold still and accept pain,” she responded hollowly.

Dragir abruptly stepped forward. “You lied,” he accused the mage.

Yvette’s deep blue eyes snapped to Dragir as she sized him up, and her lip twitched angrily while her fingers began to weave once more.

Dragir nodded to himself. “How many times has he branded you then?” he demanded.

I looked back at Yvette in confusion, and her twisted smile peeled her lips back from her still bloody teeth.

Then she began to giggle.

The giggles turned into nearly hysterical laughter, and we all stepped away as she threw her head back and shook with unrestrained enjoyment.

When the mage finally calmed down again, she had tears streaming down her cheeks, and the remnants of her giggles still shook her slight shoulders.

Then she pulled a sleeve up one of her bony arms, and I realized why the Master valued Yvette. The mutilated flesh she exposed was a brilliant red in several unhealed areas with the rest made up of blistering pink scar tissue, and every mark formed a different rune he’d tried out on her.

I couldn’t even count how many there were in every size, but some were recognizably branded, while others appeared to have been violently carved into her pale skin.

Dragir’s eyes went wide, and the Flumen Mage studied his reaction with a twisted smile on her face.

“I lost count,” she told him, “but I like to practice for myself sometimes. He likes when I am creative. It makes him smile.”

“Yvette,” Aurora breathed, “he’s destroying you.”

The half-elf’s voice was tight as she crinkled her brow, and she avoided looking too long at the woman’s tender flesh.

Her concern fell on delirious ears though, and after Yvette tore her sleeve down to cover her arm, she quickly slashed Aurora’s cheek with her nails before anyone could blink. Then she spit her words like an angry cat while she came within an inch of the half-elf’s face.

“He’s creating me!” she hissed, but Aurora held her ground while the woman raved louder. “He’s making me more than any mage has ever been, and more than even you, Mason Flynt! More than any of you!”

Yvette’s slender frame trembled with her fury, and as the temperature dropped again to bring a frigid wind into the cove, she closed her eyes and straightened her stance.

A serene smile spread across Yvette’s face, and she calmly tilted her head up toward the darkening sky.

“We will all be more soon,” she said softly to herself. “We will all be more than we could have been. The Master will help us to rise.”

When Yvette’s eyes slid open, they landed on me with a hazy smile.

“And you will thank him, Mason Flynt,” she told me. “You will be honored to be his masterpiece.”

“You’re confused, Yvette,” I countered as I took another careful step back. “The Master wants me dead.”

The Flumen Mage’s smile spread painfully wide, and an attempt at tenderness flickered in her eyes while she came closer to me.

I flinched when her icy fingers settled on my cheeks, and the woman held me there while she stroked my skin reassuringly.

“Do not think this,” she urged and shushed me. “He will not kill you, not now. You are too valuable. You are worthy, Mason Flynt, and he will help you to rise. You will help him to change the world. We both will.”

Chapter 19

My eyes went wide as I stared at the deranged devotion gleaming in Yvette’s penetrating gaze, and while I tried to pull my head back, she only held me closer.

“Yvette,” I mumbled, and I reached up to pull her arms down and free myself, “let go of me now.”

The vice grip it took me to pull her away caused her smile to waver, and her face seemed to twitch between at least five varying expressions at once.

I patted her arms to try and settle her a bit, but I casually pushed her back a ways at the same time.

The fact that Yvette was apparently more focused on trying to get me to come with her than kill me was a perk, but I didn’t doubt that line of attention was paper thin with this lady. As unpredictable as her demeanor already was, the scores of runes adding to her mage powers made her even more of a time bomb just waiting to explode, and the clock was already ticking.

Dragir’s hand was locked around the hilt of his sword, and with Aurora already poised to strike, I slowly cocked the hammer of my revolver as I loudly cleared my throat.

“The Master does have plans for our world,” I allowed, “but I don’t think I can join you in this one, Yvette. He’s not going to help any mage to rise. If he carries on like this, he’ll turn us into killing machines and use us to overrun every region. Only the Master will rise. Not you or me.”

Rage twitched in Yvette’s left eye by the time I finished, and I’d just begun to summon my Terra magic to hold her in place so we could strike fast, when her piercing gaze snapped to my hand just as I slid the revolver from the holster.

“You are ungrateful,” she hissed, and she swiftly slammed her palms into my chest to shove me back.

As her hands struck me, a strange sensation settled behind my ribs, and I began to cough.

Then I couldn’t seem to fill my lungs all the way, and when I forced another cough to clear my throat, water gurgled up my esophagus and filled my mouth.

I spluttered and gasped, but there was nowhere for the air to go, and I dropped to my knees as I gagged and fought for air. Saltwater surged up my throat and poured from my mouth, and Yvette sighed while she looked down on me.

“Be more grateful, Mason Flynt,” she advised. “I could kill you, but I will save you instead. I came here to help you.”

I vomited another gallon of saltwater as the woman extended her hand to me, and my head began to spin as my chest expanded with water.

“Please,” Yvette urged, “come with me.”

I shook my head and collapsed forward onto the slate of rock, and I heard Aurora curse before the air sparked with her flames.

The Flumen Mage and Dragir both jumped as the ring of Aurora’s fire closed around her, and I swiftly locked her ankles in the stone beneath her feet.

My lungs swelled again, but they seemed to be warring against Yvette’s powers, and as I caught a glimpse of Shoshanne emerging from the mouth of the cave, I realized the Aer Mage was countering the attack.

Meanwhile, Yvette giggle gleefully and clapped her hands at Aurora’s flames, but then she dissipated into droplets of water that leapt clear over the barricade and dove into the sea.

Another gallon of water forced itself from my lungs, and I braced myself on the stone as air finally won out.

I desperately filled my lungs through the grating of the salt left behind, and Dragir stooped to pull me to my feet.

“The coin will not let you drown,” he assured me as I swayed and coughed violently, “but it will allow you to suffocate and remain conscious through it.”

“Fuck that,” I choked out as more water spilled from my lips. I spat and gagged at the rancid flavor of seaweed on my tongue, and Shoshanne came to a quick stop at my side.

She was out of breath and held her palms on my chest while she worked to steady my breathing, and after a few deep breaths, my vision gradually stopped swirling.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what was happening,” the healer said. “Yvette was distracted, and I crept into the caves to find Deya like you said.”

“Did you get her out?” I asked hoarsely.

“No,” Shoshanne replied, and she sent Dragir a strange look. “She’s busy.”

Dragir furrowed his brow. “What do you--” he began, but an ear splitting crack of thunder suddenly shook the sky and caused us all to jump.

All of our attention shot toward the ocean, and just as my gaze settled on the jetty, a wave crashed and threw spray up all over the embankment, only for the water to converge and form the watery figure of the Flumen Mage.

Yvette shifted into a solid state, and her deep blue eyes peered at me through strands of streaming black hair. Then she raised a bony hand to send me a small wave, and another clap of thunder rolled through the clouds.

“Now, we kill her,” Dragir decided.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s cool.”

There wasn’t much more I could learn from the woman if the Master had sent her to abduct me and bring me in for my own branding, and there was no way in hell that was happening.

Crazy or not, Yvette had to go.

I raised my own hand to return the woman’s creepy wave, and as I did, the boulders that stretched behind her rose up and came crashing down.

Yvette looked up, and when a boulder struck her forehead, she burst once more into droplets that cascaded into the sea.

Then she fell from the next wave to break, landed in a crouch where the jetty met the land, and without missing a beat, she thrust her palms out in front of her.

A massive swell surged over the slate, and we barely had time to fill our lungs before the full force of the water slammed us back against the cliff face.

I could feel Shoshanne working to keep me breathing as I was dragged across the rock, and I grappled to catch hold of anything along the way.

Aurora was dangling beside me at the edge of the slate when the water coursed over us, and we kicked hard to get back onto land while I looked around for the others.

Yvette was laughing maniacally from the jetty, and Dragir was sprawled far off near the nest of the baby dragons. It looked like he’d been knocked unconscious when his head hit the cliff, and Shoshanne was trying to crawl to his side.

“Shit,” I cursed.

Then a shot rang out, and Yvette abruptly fell silent.

I whipped around but the mage had exploded in a rush of water and disappeared.

“Godsdamnit, that’s irritating,” Aurora growled.

The wind became stronger, and the air grew muggy once more, and I turned my gaze to the spiraling clouds not far from shore.

“She’ll reform herself soon,” I called out over the howling wind. “Be ready to light her up.”

Aurora nodded, and I sprinted toward Shoshanne.

The healer had Dragir conscious again and propped up against the rocks at the edge of the cove, and the elf held his bleeding head between his palms.

I dropped down at Shoshanne’s side, and I kept half an eye on the cove while I scanned for any sign of the Flumen Mage.

“You alright?” I asked Dragir.

His gray hair was stained with blood all across the top, and I thought I saw a glimpse of bone between the deep splice in his skin.

The elf nodded, but I could tell he was waiting for his skull to heal before he did much more than that.

“I need you to counter this storm, fast,” I told Shoshanne. “It might be too late, but we’re gonna have a fucking hurricane coming at us if we can’t control the temperature.”

The Aer Mage furrowed her brow in confusion, but as she looked at the clouds, understanding dawned on her face.

“She’s changing the water temperature,” she breathed.

I nodded. “Cold to hot and back again,” I explained. “If she keeps this up, that storm’s gonna break loose right on top of us. Can you counter the effect the water’s having on the air?”

Shoshanne nodded diligently, but before she could speak, I heard Aurora give an angry hiss.

Flames flew across the cove toward the Flumen Mage on the embankment, and I raised my palm to lock her legs in stone up to her knees this time while I ran to Aurora’s side.

Yvette only giggled and looked down, though, and before the flames could reach her, a wall of water shot over the jetty and drowned out Aurora’s fire.

Another flash from the Ignis Mage’s fingertips sent out an even larger jet of flames, and Cayla’s rifle fired as I ripped a few more boulders up and hurled them at the Flumen Mage.

All three onslaughts converged on Yvette’s twisted smile, and fire peeled around the boulders that struck and shattered across the jetty.

Then Aurora snuffed out her flames, and only rubble lay crumpled where Yvette stood seconds before.

“Fuck!” I growled and scanned the thrashing waves. “How the hell is she doing that?”

“It must be one of those runes,” Aurora said and kept her palms extended. “We need to catch her off guard.”

I nodded and turned toward the cliff, and then I waved to Cayla and motioned for her to change her position. I sent her further south to the cover of the trees where Yvette couldn’t see her take aim, and as she pulled her bazooka from the ground, I turned back and eyed the layout of the cove.

“Shoshanne’s handling the storm, but if she can’t get it in line, we’re gonna need to take cover,” I told the Ignis Mage beside me. “We need to hit hard before that happens and not let up. There’s no way she can’t be injured if we move fast enough. I want you at her back and ready to shoot your flames at any opening, alright?”

Aurora nodded. “Where will you be?”

“Anywhere she is,” I muttered as a giant wave broke against the jetty.

Yvette reformed and stood grinning at me from the embankment, and when she curled her finger toward me, I walked out to meet her.

“What are you doing?” Aurora demanded, but I kept my pace without looking back.

The coin in my pocket would at least spare my life, and although I didn’t look forward to drowning again, I knew this was my best hand against the Flumen Mage.

She had no idea I could withstand mortal injuries, let alone heal them.

So, I strolled to the edge of the embankment, and when I began to make my way along the rocks, Yvette’s smile spread across her pale face.

“Come with me,” she called out above the crashing waves. “The Master is waiting, and he does not like for me to be late.”

I waited until I was within a few feet of Yvette to shake my head, and her expression fell immediately.

Then I broke the jetty apart and let her plummet into the sea, and the moment the droplets of her form rained down behind me, I flipped around and hurled another boulder straight through her.

She scrambled and broke apart just in time, and when she tried to settle into a solid state again, I already had another boulder headed her way, with a third spiraling from behind her back.

This time, Yvette let out a yowl of pain when she dissipated, and I nodded to Cayla on the cliff as water rained down once more.

The bazooka fired a split second before Yvette was reformed, and as the rocket struck the rocks at her feet, I dove into the sea.

Rubble shot in every direction around me, but I swam madly to get out of range while purple flames danced above the surface. I was just crossing over the crop of blackened seaweed in the middle of the cove when I headed for the surface, but something caught my ankle.

I flipped over to see Yvette wrenching at my leg, and her black hair plumed around her ghostly blue face while she clawed to pull me into her grasp.

I kicked hard and planted my boot against her jaw, and when she jolted in pain, I was able to free myself.

Then I swiftly pulled the floor of the ocean up from beneath the seaweed, and I rolled the sheet of sand and stone right over Yvette’s flailing body.

She thrashed her arms and legs furiously until they became tangled with the seaweed, and finally, the weight began to drag the knotted woman downward.

I wasn’t even surprised when she escaped by dissolving into the water, and I was already swimming like hell for shore in case she reformed and snatched me again. When I dragged myself up onto the slate and whipped around, there was no sign of the Flumen Mage anywhere.

“Did you get her?” Aurora asked and ran to my side.

I shook my head, and the half-elf cursed.

Rain had begun to fall from the sky, and as it increased and formed blankets of gray that drifted inland, another violent wave broke against what remained of the jetty.

Aurora didn’t hesitate to send her flames to the spot where the Flumen Mage landed, and I felt a brief flicker of hope as Yvette’s robes ignited in searing white flames.

Yvette hissed and wrenched her arm up, though, and a wave engulfed her entire form to douse the enchanted flames.

The next jet of flames had just left Aurora’s palm when another rocket flew overhead, and the Flumen Mage let out a furious yowl as she broke into a thousand droplets.

I immediately turned my hand and caught every bit of water in a bowled out chunk of stone, and then I sent it flying toward the cliff face with as much force as I could.

When the boulder smashed into dust, Yvette suddenly crashed to the ground with the remains. Blood blotted her robe and streamed into puddles beneath her, and she trembled as she worked to right herself.

Aurora had her flames flying toward the Flumen Mage before she could stand, but there was nothing for them to engulf by the time they got there.

I ran over to the place she’d vanished, and my fury peaked as I eyed the tidal pools littered with water. Rain coursed down and slicked every inch of slate around me, and I realized there was no way of knowing where the bits of Yvette had landed.

“Godsdamnit,” I growled and pulled a chunk of rock about twenty feet across up from the slate.

My own footing shifted dangerously as deep cracks began to spread across the cove, and when I slammed the shard of slate against the cliff to shake the Flumen Mage loose again, mud cascaded down with the heap of rubble, but no bodies came this time.

I squinted through the rain as I turned in a circle, and I caught sight of a strange sort of shadow that seemed to flit across the raindrops above me.

“There!” I pointed as I realized Yvette had dissipated into the storm itself, and I worked to keep an eye on the dull shadow while Aurora whipped around and swiped her blue hair from her eyes.

A deep crack gave way under my feet, though, and I quickly channeled my Terra magic into the slate to repair the damage before we broke away from the cliffside entirely.

When I looked back, the shadow was still passing across the droplets and heading higher toward the clouds, and I pointed it out for Aurora before we could lose her.

The moment she caught sight of the rippling shadow, Aurora threw her flames out, but then a clap of thunder broke so loudly we lurched to grab our ears.

A bitter and howling wind followed shortly after, and I squinted through the downpour to see the clouds above the ocean churning and gathering speed.

A loud snap came from the cliffside, and a tree tumbled over the edge while the wind picked up and almost threw me right off my feet. Shoshanne slammed into me, and she tried to force me toward the fortress while Dragir bolted past.

Rogue branches snapped free and flew over the cliff to tumble out to sea, and sticks and plants were swept up in the force of the wind.

“I can’t stop the storm,” the Aer Mage hollered above the violent waves echoing all around the inlet, and she kept her palms toward the sky as she braced her back against the cliff. “Cayla’s taking cover. Get to the fortress, and I’ll--”

Whatever Shoshanne meant to say was drowned out by the wall of water that suddenly overtook us, and I snatched her arm before she could be dragged away by the torrent of frigid water.

We fought hard against the current, but I knew the cove was long gone now, and everything became darker until only blackness surrounded us. I couldn’t even tell which way was up or down as I kicked through the icy water with my hand locked around Shoshanne’s wrist, and just as I thought I caught sight of daylight, the water pressed in and forced itself into my nose and mouth.

I fought the urge to panic as I realized the Flumen Mage was trying to drown me once more, and the saltwater tore through my lungs to snuff out my last bit of air.

The fact that I didn’t feel any pain told me the coin must still be with me, so I gritted my teeth against the suffocating sensation and kept my hand on Shoshanne’s arm.

I could feel the Aer Mage fighting to fill my lungs with air, and I was locked between the force of the two mages for longer than I could tell. Yvette continued push us downward, and eventually, my mind became fuzzy from the lack of oxygen.

My limbs felt too tired to kick against the pull of the Flumen Mage, but the coin continued to keep me conscious, and I could feel my heartbeat slowing and becoming heavy. I even began to hear strange noises echoing around me, and as a melancholy sort of note rang through mind, I focused my attention on not letting my grip on Shoshanne loosen.

Somewhere behind the constant ringing in my mind, I began to recognize the merciless presence of air again, and Shoshanne’s familiar hold on my lungs brought me back around. She must have been slowly winning out over the Flumen Mage, but I didn’t have more than a second to feel relief.

A rush of water suddenly overtook us like we were being dragged by something, and I was half sure we were being pulled straight to the bottom, except things were becoming lighter.

When we suddenly burst through the surface and were propelled into the sky, I hardly noticed at first because the storm was causing a torrent of water and wind that was almost as disorienting as drowning had been.

But as feeling returned to my body and the air whistled past me, I realized we were falling back toward the ground, and fast. So, I summoned my Terra magic and prepared for a hard landing. The slate of the cove sparked seconds before we hit, and I only had time to soften the rock by an inch as I rolled to keep Shoshanne safe before we slammed against the rocky surface.

Several of my bones still cracked on impact, and water spewed from my lungs and stomach, but I managed to brace myself on the rocks before another wave crashed over me. Shoshanne groaned and crawled off me to collapse on the slate, and I could tell she was forcing my lungs to breathe despite how little strength I could muster.

I was grateful I couldn’t feel any of the injuries I’d gained from the landing, but I could feel the broken bones along the back of my body were carefully fusing themselves into place, and I laid still and waited while they slowly began to feel solid again.

By the time my legs regained feeling, my breath was already coming more naturally, and even though my head spun still, the tremors in my limbs abated as sweet oxygen found its way throughout my body at last.

With heavy drops of rain hammering my skin, I gritted my teeth and flipped onto my back, and when I pulled myself up and looked around the cove, nothing was the same.

The jetty was completely destroyed, and the slate around me had shattered. I realized my Terra magic must have sparked as I crashed down, and the result broke the cove into jagged peaks all over the place. Massive trunks hitched on the corners of the rocks and piled up, and wave after wave rocked from one end of the inlet to the other.

Shoshanne had tucked herself against a trunk to get some coverage from the debris flying around, and I was relieved to see she was remarkably uninjured compared to the beating I’d taken when we landed.

“Are you okay?” I hollered as I stumbled over on shaky legs.

Another branch snapped loose, and I ducked behind the trunk beside Shoshanne to pull her into my arms. I immediately checked her skull for any injuries, but the healer brushed me away and shook her head.

“I’m fine,” she hollered back, “You make a decent landing pad. Are you okay, though?”

I chuckled and nodded. “Glad to help,” I told her.

Then I quickly scanned the cove, and my gut dropped.

“Where’s Aurora?” I demanded.

“She got to the cave just before the wave hit,” Shoshanne said.

I motioned for the healer to stand and caught her elbow to help her, but when we looked over the tree at our backs toward the fortress, Shoshanne’s legs gave out, and she dropped back down. Another swell of water rose up to pummel the mouth of the cave, and when it settled, the tide reached halfway up the ornate pillars.

There was no way it wasn’t completely flooded.

“Shit,” I breathed, and I hauled Shoshanne to her feet while she gaped in horror.

“Go!” I ordered. “Get them out of there!”

A wave broke against the rubble at my back just as I shoved Shoshanne toward the cave, and she scaled the felled trees and debris without looking back.

Then a high-pitched giggle joined the chaos in the cove, and I flipped around to see Yvette laughing with her head turned up toward the stormy sky.

She was balancing her bony feet on a shattered bit of slate, and as pure rage bloomed in my chest, I threw my arms out toward the giddy woman.

What was left of the cove shook violently beneath our feet, and the Flumen Mage stumbled to catch her balance.

I locked her ankles in place knowing what her next move would be, and then I swiftly pulled a wall up at her back to let it crash down.

Yvette burst into droplets, of course, but I was ready this time.

I twisted the slate up to catch every bit of water that broke apart, and with a furious wrench of my fists, I slammed the slate in on itself.

Yvette was covered in blood when she crumpled onto the ground, and I lunged to grab hold of her before she could vanish again.

My hands caught her around the broken arm, but by the time I yanked her to her feet, my grip closed around nothing but water. My fury mounted as rain pummeled me and ocean spray shot up all around, but as I considered the pool of Yvette’s blood washing away, a sense of calm came over me.

I nodded and looked out across the thrashing waves, and I double checked that the coin was still buried in my pocket as I climbed across the shattered cove and headed for the shore.

“See that?” I hollered to the storm. “The Master didn’t make you more powerful.”

I raised my arm and slowly began gathering shards of boulders from the cove to reform the rocky jetty that stretched out toward the sea, and as I continued, the water line rose to my knees.

“You can’t drown me,” I told the Flumen Mage. “You can’t even fight me head on. All you can do is flee, over and over again. It’s a nice trick, but it doesn’t make you powerful.”

I began making my way out along the embankment as the last few boulders settled into place, and the water pummeled the jetty so hard I could feel it sway beneath me.

Still, I kept my steady pace.

“He sent you to scare me, Yvette, but guess what?” I called out, and I shrugged just to piss her off. “I don’t fear you. Maybe Abrus saw something worth avoiding in you, but to me, you’re just a batshit crazy mage. That’s what the Master likes about you.”

I could feel the fury of the Flumen Mage in the pelting of the rain and the waves that broke against the jetty, and I was nearly thrown over into the swirling current more than once. The air became dense with humidity and heat, and the waves began to scald my skin as they sprayed up around me. Luckily, the pain didn’t register with the coin in my pocket, but watching my flesh bubble up definitely caused my nerve to waver a bit.

I crawled back to my feet, though, and then I checked my drenched revolver. I’d been submerged enough times to make me half-certain it would do me little good now, but I pulled the trigger just in case, and only a dull click echoed back.

“So, come on then,” I continued as I replaced the gun and beckoned the mage back to me. “Your Master’s waiting, and he doesn’t like when you’re late. I’m gonna stand right here for you, but you’re gonna have to face me if you want me to go with you. A few drops of water won’t cut it.”

I slipped as boiling hot saltwater drew back and crashed down to throw me flat across the rocks, but I managed to keep my hold on the jagged boulders despite my blistering skin. When a last wave rose up several feet above me and came crashing down, I gasped for air and found the Flumen Mage had finally reformed herself along with it.

Steam billowed around her where she stood not ten feet away on the embankment, and the stains of her blood were streaming from her robe in the torrential rain. Her face was split open on one side where the bones of her cheek had shattered, and the gaping wound sent more bright red blood coursing down her neck.

Yvette’s sleeves and most of her robe had been burned away by Aurora’s last attack, and I could see dozens of runes gleaming up and down her bony arms and spindly legs. As I looked more closely, I started to notice the difference between the various symbols, and I decided her own madness had driven her to attempt most of the designs.

I didn’t doubt there were dozens more covering her whole body.

As I eyed a particularly fresh symbol that was clearly a real branding right on the tender underside of her wrist, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of her insanity had been spurred on by the constant presence of so many runes muttering in her ears. In fact, there was a good chance this could work to my advantage.

“They must bother you,” I guessed as I gestured to her arms. “A constant chatter of runes trying to sway you one way or the other, and not a moment of peace. Can you even focus enough to wield any of them with all of that going on?”

Yvette didn’t respond for a long moment, and I knew I’d struck close to home. Her piercing blue eyes bore into mine without blinking, and her slight body trembled lightly either from pain or from the frigid rain she refused to let up. The drops sizzled as they met with the boiling ocean below, and steam built up in the cove to cloud out everything around us.

Yvette remained right where she was with blood pooling around her bony feet for several minutes, and then her left eye twitched.

She curled her lip into a manic smirk, and when she spoke, her voice was barely loud enough to hear.

“The runes give me power no mage could ever learn to wield at the Order,” she insisted. “I am more than any of you now.”

“Prove it, then,” I challenged. “I’m curious what all this power looks like. Can you stay and fight me, or did the Master only teach you to flee?”

My words provoked the Flumen Mage, and I watched her war with her rage while her eye twitched uncontrollably.

“You should be grateful,” she hissed. “You will be grateful, and the Master will be grateful, too. He will tell me I’m a good girl, and he will smile.”

Yvette suddenly threw her arms out to the sides, and just as boiling water shot up on either side of me, I pulled a dagger from my belt and hurled it straight at her heart.

For a split second, I was sure I had her, but as Yvette’s deep blue eyes flared, her wrist turned, and the dagger changed course to fly into her open hand like a magnet.

I’d never met any mage who could pull this stunt except for me, and I stumbled back in shock while the Flumen Mage’s bloody face shone with delirious pride.

Boiling water coursed down to burn across my skin, and Yvette raised her arm to throw the dagger at me while I tried to shield my eyes from the spray.

I managed to duck in time for the blade to fly only inches over my head, and I heard a bazooka fire from the cliff behind me at the same moment.

This time, the Flumen Mage refused to disappear, though.

She lunged out of the way and came crashing into me just as the rocket struck the jetty where she had stood, and the explosion broke the embankment apart.

Yvette and I went flying while she clawed at me wildly, and I summoned a rogue chunk of the embankment over to catch us before we could crash down into the boiling cove.

I shifted and let her entire left side slam against the rocks as we landed on the block of boulders, but she continued to struggle with her good arm as she rolled over me to pin me down. Blood oozed from the side of her body that had shattered on the rocks, but she kept tearing into my face relentlessly while she snarled and screamed in a crazed state.

Whatever her scores of runes did, Yvette was too far gone to summon their help now, and I could tell my taunting had worked. Once I was sure the Flumen Mage was wholly caught up in her raving, I carefully locked one of her knees in the stones beneath us before I easily threw her off me.

Yvette let out a furious shriek as her locked leg snapped and split open, and with jagged bones piercing her flesh, she could only raise her shaking hands like claws above the water.

We were far out from the cove now, and I struggled to keep from falling into the ocean where I’d be too easy for the Flumen Mage to play with.

Then Yvette began to form a giant swell beneath us.

The searing wave gathered in size as it drew itself further back from the shore and towered higher every minute, and from the teetering edge of the crest, I watched the cove become smaller in the looming shadow.

I readied myself to be smashed against the slate once more, and beside me, Yvette began wrenching at her shattered leg to try and free herself.

With the bullets in my revolver too drenched to do me good, I began running over several means of cracking the woman’s skull with the few boulders beneath us.

Every second, I expected her to give up and dissipate like a coward, but she stubbornly remained fighting the hold of my Terra powers, and I watched the crazed woman tear violently at even her own wound while I carefully timed my attack.

If I missed my mark, I’d be lost in the Flumen Mage’s own element and completely screwed this far from shore.

I took a steadying breath, but then Yvette abruptly stopped her struggling, and she turned a deranged smile toward me.

“It’s healing,” she said with a hideous giggle, and I looked down to see she was right.

Her bones were actually fusing, but at the wrong angle, and her shattered cheek was nearly closed up as well.

I stared at the dozens of runes all over her limbs as I wondered which had given her the miraculous ability, and then I grabbed hold of a boulder as the water began to bubble and turn white along the crest beneath us.

The Flumen Mage let out a hysterical laugh while she watched me, and just as I furrowed my brow and prepared to catch her off guard, my metal magic sparked, and I saw a dagger come flying out of nowhere.

I tried to redirect it, but whatever rune Yvette was using sent it spiraling with unbelievable force, and before I could overpower the rune, the blade impaled my forearm.

The muscles in my hand gave out immediately, and with the wave billowing at least a hundred feet above the ocean, I lost hold of the rock and dropped toward the sea.

Yvette was giggling when she leaned out far and sent me a last little wave, and with the wind rushing past me, I knew the drowning would come next.

I sparked my magic to pull any kind of landing out to me, but as I drew a deep breath into my ragged lungs, all I could think was, what if Shoshanne didn’t know I was plummeting into the sea this time?

I tumbled end over end through the air knowing I could be locked in a boiling hell between life and death any minute, and just as my magic sparked on a rogue slip of slate far off near the bottom of the cove, a strange shadow in the face of the wave caught my eye.

Then the gaping jaws of an iridescent dragon burst from the blackened water, and it tore upward through the wave as the crest curled in on itself.

The last thing I saw before the water engulfed me was the hungry glint in its violet eyes as it snapped its vicious fangs around the Flumen Mage.

I felt a hollow crack in my spine as my body hit the water, but I didn’t care at this point. The wave collapsed on top of me and shoved me straight to the bottom of the cove, and I rolled through rock and seaweed for longer than I could tell while my skin blistered in the water. My head knocked into more than a couple grating things as I held my eyes closed tight, and I felt the water begin to seep through my nostrils.

Still, nothing seemed to be fighting to pull me deeper this time, and the force and heat of the water around me had lost most of its strength.

Gradually, my crack in my back fused itself together while I drifted in the swirling current, and when I finally began to rise again, I fought like hell to reach the surface.

My limbs were going numb by the time I gasped for air, and I found myself alone and drifting outside the inlet of the cove. I quickly checked the skin of my arms, and I let out a harried breath as I saw the burns healing over already.

“Holy shit,” I sighed as I splayed out on my back in a hazy state of relief, and I looked up at the churning clouds overhead.

The rain was slowing already with the flighty Flumen Mage destroyed, and while I treaded water and worked to steady my spinning head, it occurred to me that the giant beast who’d seen to the task might still be hungry.

Yvette was only a bony bit of a mage, after all.

The glint in the dragon’s eyes made me shudder to think of the black expanse beneath me, and I rallied my limbs to book it back to shore.

As I drew closer, I caught sight of Cayla high up on the cliff with her bazooka slack at her side, and she dropped it the moment she saw me drifting like a speck in the swell. Then she sprinted for the cliffside path, but I knew she couldn’t see the path was obliterated from where she stood. Cayla skidded to a stop as she came closer, and I swam faster as she looked out desperately at me.

I motioned that I was okay, and the princess cupped her hands around her lips and hollered out to me.

The waves were settling their thrashing now, but I still couldn’t make out her words over the remnants of rain falling across the water.

Then she pointed toward the mouth of the cave.

As I squinted against the salt and water in my eyes, I realized the slate of the cove was completely gone, and water still sloshed more than halfway up the large ornate pillars of the fortress.

No one had emerged in all this time.

I kicked and swam like hell for the mouth of the cave, and when I finally made it to the far back wall, I filled my lungs and dove as deep as I could.

I fought the current rebounding around the cave while I felt along the walls to find the passageway into the fortress, and I swam through complete darkness to come out in the vaulted chamber. Relief washed over me as I found the swell in here was only up to my chest, but no one was around. I could tell the water was considerably cooler though, and I hoped the Flumen Mage’s boiling endeavors hadn’t reached them.

The thought made my adrenaline peak, and I pushed my way toward the arches lining the far wall while I called out for Aurora.

Only my voice echoed back to me along with the rippling water in the chamber, but after a long moment, sloshing came from somewhere nearby, and the half-elf finally stumbled out of a hallway at the far end of the chamber.

I breathed at last when I saw she was only a little bruised and drenched but not burned, and the odd expression on her face became my next concern.

Aurora’s emerald eyes were blank while her jaw hung slack, and when I swam to her side, she grabbed my arm and dragged me behind her.

“Get in here,” she ordered.

I slipped on the stones and tried to keep pace against the pull of the water, and the whole time we pushed through the darkness, my nerves became more and more panicked.

The water line was slowly dropping now, but with the ceiling dripping down on us, I could tell this part of the fortress had been fully flooded at some point during the Flumen Mage’s attack.

Anything could have happened to the others while I was out on the jetty with Yvette, but my wild imagination derailed completely when a dim glow appeared at the end of the hall.

I could tell immediately it wasn’t the glow Aurora usually created with her flames, and as we came to the end of the long hall, my own jaw dropped.

I was looking up at the same mural of Deya’s ancestors, only now, thin copper wiring was mounted to encircle the walls, and it spiraled downward around the whole chamber. Along the wiring, tiny orbs of light gleamed to illuminate the place, and I realized Dragir had done it.

He’d fucking invented electricity.

My gaze dropped directly to where he stood just inside the entrance, but neither Dragir nor Shoshanne were looking at me.

“Have you guys just been fucking standing here while I’ve--”

Aurora tugged on my sleeve to silence me.

“She told us to,” the half-elf muttered, and I followed the direction of her line of sight while I worked to catch my breath.

Down on the floor, sitting in water up to her waist, was Deya.

The giant wolf sat beside her, and both of them were as drenched as all of us, but my attention was locked on the pearly dragon scale Deya held in her palms.

There was a rune carved into the surface, and I stared between her and the mural of Nemris that looked down on her from behind her back. There was no doubt in my mind this rune was the very same one that had worn away from the mural.

I didn’t know what to do or say as I processed this, so I remained in silent shock and studied Deya’s blank white eyes.

They were identical to those of the transmuters at House Orrel, and she didn’t move a muscle for so long I wondered if she was still alive.

I was about to nudge Dragir and ask if we should approach her, but then Deya suddenly closed her eyes, and we all jumped at the unexpected movement.

When Deya’s eyes opened again, they were a vibrant violet, and as she registered me standing there, a mischievous smile spread across her lips.

Chapter 20

The glint in Deya’s eyes distracted me completely, but it wasn’t her beauty this time. It was something oddly familiar about the hungry look of her.

Then I realized it was the same glint I’d seen in the dragon’s eye as it swallowed Yvette, and I stammered a bit while I tried to wrap my head around this.

“Wha--did--” I tried and failed. Then I shook my head. “Did you just eat that crazy bitch for me? Is that what this is?”

“Mmhmm,” Deya said with a little nod, and her gaze drifted off thoughtfully as she continued. “She tasted surprisingly good.”

The beautiful elf smacked her lips lightly, and I raised my brows.

Aurora was practically losing it beside me, and I couldn’t remember a time when I’d seen her jaw quite so unhinged.

“You did what?” the half-elf demanded. “What the hell have you been doing all this time?”

Deya attempted to explain she’d transmuted with a sea dragon and killed Yvette, and the minute dragons came into it, Aurora dropped to her knees and insisted the beautiful elf explain everything.

Shoshanne nodded to herself. “I can see why you would like the taste of her,” she mused, and I stared at the healer. “Remember what Luir told us at breakfast? That his transmuters’ senses blend with those of the animals they embody. They share smell and taste, as well as touch and all the others.”

“I must have missed that part,” I mumbled blankly.

Deya just shrugged, and I turned toward Dragir, who hadn’t said a damn word.

His face was much paler, and judging by his blank expression, I figured he was as unprepared for this as I was.

“You ate someone,” he finally said flatly.

Deya’s silvery giggle echoed around the glowing chamber, and she sent me a sweet smile. “You’re welcome.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the beautiful elf, but my mind was overrun with at least a hundred questions. Namely, how the fuck she just managed to transmute.

“I found this chamber while I was exploring the fortress, and I was admiring what Dragir had built--”

I had to pause her there.

“By the way,” I muttered to Dragir as I gestured to the ceiling, “this? This is electricity.”

The elf smirked. “I thought it might be. I like this quite a lot,” he said and looked around at the spiraling copper and orbs overhead. “I think I will use this at House Quyn.”

I chuckled. “The elves wanted to get at you before,” I told him, “but if they see this, they’re gonna stop being so sneaky about wanting to abduct your ass. This is incredible.”

Dragir snorted. “I believe you are the one who must worry about abduction at present.”

“What are you talking about?” Deya asked as she furrowed her brow.

“We can get into that later,” I assured her. “Go on about the dragons and the eating the mage thing.”

“Anyways,” Deya continued with a grin, “I found this chamber and was admiring the beautiful woman on the wall.” She gestured to Nemris, and I didn’t bother to hide my smirk. “Then I felt strange, almost as if I was in a trance, and I needed to sit down. My eyes fell shut, and I began to hear a voice. It was soft and sweet, and I felt as though I had heard it a hundred times before in my sleep. There was something about it that reminded me of the stars too … ”

Deya trailed off as she thought back, and my grin grew wider.

“Nemris,” I told her.

Even by description, I would know her voice anywhere.

Deya looked up with a smile. “That’s what I thought. It must have been Nemris guiding me. She spoke so softly I could hardly hear her words. It was more like a murmuring from very far away, or from long ago. Thousands of years ago.”

“The rune,” Dragir cut in as he shifted impatiently. “How did you create the rune from the mural? This is impossible, you know nothing of runes, Deya.”

“I know a little,” the beautiful elf scoffed.

Her brother cocked a brow, but she ignored him.

“I formed the rune while I was sitting here,” she explained. “I was listening to the voice, to Nemris, and I began to trace lines on the scale--”

“Where did you get a dragon scale?” Aurora interrupted eagerly. “Can I have one?”

Deya giggled once more, and Dragir let out an irritated sigh as he propped himself against the wall impatiently.

“I was swimming with the dragons shortly after you left for House Fehryn,” Deya told the half-elf, “and the eldest dragon lost a scale. I thought I would keep it for good luck.”

“But you engraved a rune on it,” Dragir pressed. “You cannot just draw a rune and have it miraculously work, Deya, how did you--”

I cleared my throat.

“She’s probably getting to that, man,” I told him with a smirk.

Dragir rolled his eyes, but he did make an effort to be less impatient with Deya.

I really couldn’t blame him, though. After everything he’d taught me about runes, this was the point I was most curious about as well.

Without knowing any of the elements, how could she have possibly harnessed them?

Deya sent me a sweet smile and continued, but she took a moment to relieve Dragir of his frustrations.

“You left your little metal stick in the other chamber,” she told him as she pulled his engraving tool from beneath her leg.

“Little metal stick,” Dragir snorted. “See how much you know of rune magic? That is an engraver. It’s a very specific tool, not just a stick of metal.”

Deya worked to hide her smirk. “The tables were all overturned, and there was blood everywhere. I assumed you must have forgotten it when Rhys cut your hand off.”

“Fucking Rhys,” Dragir said, and he snatched his tool back.

“Is his son alright?” Deya asked.

“Yes, he is fine,” Dragir assured her dismissively. “Mason peeled his skin off for him.”

The beautiful elf paled on the spot, and I sighed.

“That makes it sound way worse than it is,” I muttered. “I just … ”

Aurora snorted. “Peeled part of his skin off,” she finished for me.

I sent the gaping elf on the floor an apologetic smile. “To remove the rune,” I clarified.

“That works?” she asked incredulously.

“Apparently,” Dragir muttered.

I could tell by her face she was picturing it all with way too much detail, so I casually nudged her in another direction as I cleared my throat.

“You were saying?”

“Well,” Deya began again, “umm … I sat down, and I drew this rune onto the scale, and I was sitting here wondering what it was for, when I was suddenly not here. I was deep in the water with the pod of dragons swimming around me, and they were singing to one another, but I could sing back. I could feel the water on my scales--their scales--and I could taste the water I breathed.”

Shoshanne shook her head in amazement. “That must be why you didn’t drown,” she mused, and I whipped my head over.

“What?” I demanded.

The healer nodded, but an eager Aurora spoke up before she could.

“We found her sitting just like that,” the half-elf told me, “and we didn’t know what to do. I was going to go back out and help you, but then she spoke to us. It was incredibly creepy.”

Deya blushed, and Dragir chuckled.

“You sounded like a demon,” he told his sister teasingly.

“I do not sound like a demon,” Deya muttered, but everyone else nodded their heads.

“It was creepy,” Shoshanne agreed, “but it did make us listen to you.”

“She told us to stay here, and that you would be okay,” Aurora continued. “So, we did, but then the chamber flooded, and Shoshanne kept us all breathing while we just sort of … waited.”

“I thought you would need my help,” Shoshanne told Deya, “but your lungs were breathing on their own. It must be the blending of your senses with the dragon.”

I raised my brows. “Well, that’s fucking awesome.”

Deya nodded. “It was incredible to experience,” she said with a sparkling smile. “They felt so familiar to me, and I think they knew I was among them. They swam around me and sang, and the little ones played with my tail for a while before I heard you.”

“You could hear us?” Aurora asked.

“I could hear everything,” Deya mused. “For miles and miles, I could hear anything in the water and above it. I even heard the storm brewing, and as I travelled closer to it, I could hear you all speaking with the mage, and I waited outside the cove to be sure you would all be okay.”

“I thought you were going to eat us,” Shoshanne admitted.

I furrowed my brow. “When?”

“When that hideous woman tried to drown you,” Deya said, and I felt the air shift a bit as her anger returned. “I was so angry when I found you two like that, I decided I would eat her and teach her a lesson, so after I swam by and threw the two of you out of the water, I waited for the proper moment. I was worried if I missed my chance, you would fall into the water, and she would only torture you more.”

I grinned. “That’s exactly what I was up to on the boulder. I was waiting for my opening, but then that damn dagger came flying.”

“What dagger?” Shoshanne and Aurora asked immediately, and the healer came over to check me for any injuries with her brows crinkled.

“Coin,” I reminded her with a smirk, and I pulled the runed piece of silver out to pass it back to Dragir. “Thanks, by the way. That saved my ass.”

Dragir shrugged and turned back to Deya.

“I do not understand how you managed to engrave this rune,” he insisted. “You know nothing of these elements and by all reason--”

“Wait a second,” I cut in. “You said you sat down and started engraving what came to you while you sensed the presence of Nemris, right?”

Deya nodded. “Yes, that is all I did. I know it makes little sense, but this is the best I can describe it.”

“The same thing happened to me.” I nodded. “That’s how I made Stan. I had a dream about Nemris, and when I woke up, I had this overwhelming urge to create something, and I just sort of let my mind take over. I engraved the rune I’d seen in my dream, and like you said, it was a lot like being in a trance or something.”

“This goes against everything I know of rune magic,” Dragir muttered as he considered his sister. “What did you hear? What did Nemris say about the rune? Did she show you the rune in your mind and you copied it, or did it come to you while you worked? Was it from your dream the other night? Were your eyes open or closed when you did this? Could you sense the elements around you? Could you name them? Please tell me you could name them.”

We all chuckled at the man’s determination, and Deya sent her brother a sweet smile.

“Perhaps we should sit down and go over this later,” she giggled.

Dragir sighed in exasperation, and he settled for brooding over all of this to himself while he stared at the dragon scale on the floor for several minutes.

“The dagger,” Aurora led anxiously.

“Right.” I nodded. “Some of those runes on Yvette obviously weren’t real, since she just carved them in for fun.”

Shoshanne cringed, and I returned the sentiment.

“But some of them were real brandings the Master must be practicing with,” I continued. “Which could be a major problem. When I threw my dagger at Yvette, she fucking pulled it to her palm and sent it right back.”

Aurora’s eyes went wide.

“Only you can do that,” she muttered.

I nodded. “And the Master’s clearly working to counter it,” I told her. “I dodged the throw, though, but then the jetty exploded, she was on me, and shit got intense. Either way, she must have summoned it to her again is all I can figure, because she was laughing her ass off right before it came flying out of nowhere.”

“Crazy bitch,” Aurora growled.

I grinned and dropped my arm around the woman to lay a kiss in her blue hair.

“Don’t worry,” I chuckled. “Deya ate her.”

None of us could help laughing at the ridiculousness of the statement, and Deya blushed as she rolled her eyes.

“Don’t tell my father I did that,” she begged.

Dragir abruptly looked up from his brooding. “I will not tell our father as long as you explain everything about this rune to me right this instant.”

I shook my head and clapped the elf on the shoulder. “Don’t you have an army you should be checking on?” I reminded him.

“They will heal,” Dragir said with a shrug, but when I gave him a pointed look, he finally groaned and agreed. “I will go to House Fehryn only briefly to be sure all is well, but as soon as I return--”

“I will tell you about this rune,” Deya sighed.

Dragir gave a curt nod, and I helped Deya up from the floor of the chamber.

“I’m gonna work on fixing that cove,” I told Dragir. “It’s looking a little rough.”

Deya and her brother halted.

“How bad is it?” Deya asked uneasily.

The vaulted chamber only had an inch of water in it now, and I was relieved to know the beautiful place wouldn’t be flooding like this anymore. With Yvette gone, the fortress of Nemris’ family would be left in peace again, and I admired every inch of it on our way back out to the cove.

Dragir and Deya were too shocked to speak when they looked out on the rubble and debris that made up the once beautiful inlet of their ancestors, and I was honestly pretty upset myself.

From the moment I laid eyes on the cove and the hidden fortress, the place had felt like a second home, and I assured the two elves I would have it back exactly the way it was by the time Dragir returned.

He seemed skeptical about this and avoided looking at the cove any longer than necessary, and then he made his way to the cliff without a word.

I let him take the Mustang to cheer him up a bit, and as soon as I reformed the path along the cliff that had disintegrated, Cayla joined us at last and hopped into my arms.

She was limp by the time I finished kissing her, and she let out a sigh as she curled against my chest.

“I feel like this has been the longest day in a while,” she mumbled.

“No shit,” I chuckled. “It’s hard to believe we were looking at a Wendigo army after breakfast this morning.”

“That was this morning?” Aurora asked incredulously.

“Let’s never do that again,” Deya added. “We will start our days with sex and dragons from now on. No Wendigo.”

“Yes,” Aurora immediately chimed in. “Can you teach me to be a dragon? You can be first with Mason for the next month if you say yes.”

I shook my head and headed into the cove while Aurora took to outright begging the elf, and Cayla soberly countered the half-elf’s right to hand over exclusive firsts with me in bed to anyone.

The sun began to dip down over the jungle at our backs, and the storm was gradually dissipating while the clouds became softer and dotted the sky with soft orange tufts.

I stood in the destroyed cove and admired the serenity finally returning to the coast, and as I stretched my limbs and prepared to get to work, I realized I was completely uninjured for the first time in a long time. More than anything, I wanted a coin of my own like the one Deya’s mother had created for them, but I knew this was impossible. Still, all of my injuries from the battle at House Fehryn had begun to heal the moment Dragir dropped the coin into my pocket, and the sensation of my shattered bones healing themselves during Yvette’s attack was something I couldn’t seem to stop going over in my mind.

To be able to heal this way permanently would be a complete game changer where the Master was concerned. Given that he was likely an elf with the natural ability to heal quickly, being close to possessing the same ability would be ideal when the time came to face him. Even against Yvette, I wasn’t sure I would have made it out if not for the healing powers of the runed coin, and she was only his test subject.

I wondered what it would take to convince Dragir to figure out a rune to help me out in this department, but I honestly doubted there was anything I could possibly come up with. He was so wholly against the idea of branding anything these days, and after the grotesque process of removing Rali’s branding, I could sort of see where he was coming from.

The fact that a rune could act independently when attacked was more than unnerving. I was so used to magery and the embodiment of an element, but I wasn’t sure rune magic could work in as subtle a way. Deya was extremely familiar with her runes, and the way she discussed them reminded me a lot of magery. She had said their presence was comforting to her, but there had to be at least a thousand middle grounds between her runes and a rune like Dragir’s.

Imagining what it was like for Yvette to live with so many runes all over her was enough to make me question the idea completely. The last thing I wanted was to be as disconnected and unstable as her, or as violently minded as Dragir’s rune had forced him to become.

I continued to circle between the pros and cons of branding and the possibilities while I took stock of the damage in the cove, and I discussed a few options with Cayla as Aurora began burning the large trunks and branches away for me.

“I feel strangely connected to the bazooka now,” the princess mused. “As if it knows me or likes me to use it. Is this because of the runes?”

“I noticed that too,” I agreed. “I think it’s the rune Dragir engraved to make their operation exclusive to us. Something about firing the bazooka changed after he added that. I could feel the power of the weapon in my own veins.”

Cayla’s lips curled in pleasure. “I like it,” she informed me. “We should do this with your other weapons. Do you think you would be able to?”

I shrugged. “I’ve got a lot to learn still,” I told her, “but if I could figure out a way to engrave my own runes, and actually knew what the hell I was doing, there’s no end to what I could create. Ammunition wouldn’t be an issue ever again, and creating more advanced weaponry would be simplified a hundred times over.”

Cayla’s icy blue eyes gleamed at the thought. “Could you create something that fires faster?” she asked, and I didn’t miss the longing in her tone. “I want to be able to pull a trigger and have several bullets fire one after the other. Very fast. Is that possible?”

“That’s called an automatic weapon,” I chuckled, “but if I made something like that, I would definitely need to be able to use Dragir’s rune. That shit is no joke.”

“It would make the Master’s armies easier to obliterate,” she mused. “With a line of bazookas, and then these automatic weapons … perhaps you could mount them on some sort of stand to make the aiming of the weapons easier … revolvers for more close hand attacks, of course.”

I raised my brows at the calculating woman’s ideas, and she blushed lightly when she caught my gaze.

“It’s only something I was thinking of up on the cliff,” she mumbled. “Easier loading with a faster delivery.”

“I like where your head’s at,” I assured the deadly woman with a grin.

With all of the trees burned away, Shoshanne used her Aer magic to clear out the rest of the debris, and when only rubble remained, I raised my palms and began reconstructing the cove.

I separated the shards of slate rock out first, and I closed my eyes as I searched my mind for the image of the cove as it had been. Then I laid the shards out and carefully fused everything together while I focused on the particular angle of the slope that had led from the cave to the shore.

Repacking the cliff was needed as well, but the mud cooperated well enough for me to get everything in place, and then I seeped into the soil to solidify the makeup a bit more. Once everything looked exactly as it had, I walked circles around the slate and began carving out divets so the little green guys could have their tidal pools back.

Deya was smiling from ear to ear as she watched, and the women gathered near the mouth of the cave to enjoy some fish Aurora prepared over a fire with exotic fruits from the jungle.

I joined them once the final boulder was in place on the jetty, and as I laid out with my head resting on Shoshanne’s plush thighs, the sky started to dim toward a soft purple.

The sea dragons were just beginning to make their way to shore when Deya looked over with a worried expression.

“What did Dragir mean about you being abducted?” she asked uneasily.

I sighed and considered the iridescent crests rising and falling near the horizon.

“I thought the Flumen Mage had been sent to kill me like all the rest of the Master’s minions,” I told her, “but it seems I’ve caught his attention in a not very ideal way. He’s got it in his mind that he wants to get me on his side now. Apparently, I’m too valuable to kill.”

Deya stared. “The Master’s going to steal you away like Rali?” she asked quietly.

“He’ll try,” I allowed. “He probably wants to get that fucking rune on me so I can make weapons for him.”

“Mason … ” Deya muttered, but I sent her a reassuring grin.

“If the guy can’t even manage to kill me, there’s no way he’s gonna be able to snatch me, either.”

Cayla smirked and helped to ease Deya’s concerns a bit, and then the princess curled up with her head against my chest.

I let the subject drop so the women wouldn’t worry, but after facing off with Yvette, I’d realized this change in the Master’s plans was a pretty bad development. It meant I needed to watch my back tenfold, and my women especially.

Gathering massive armies and possessing mages to kill me was one thing. Now, the Master could use any average creature to try and catch me off guard or lure me in. The thought of him trying to get at my own women to do it though, made my blood burn, but I didn’t doubt he’d be foolish enough to try it.

It was all pretty elven, actually, and the thought relieved my irritation a little bit. At least I’d gotten used to the approach over the last few weeks.

While I tried to enjoy a brief lull in our constant efforts in defeating the Master, Aurora took to asking Deya nearly as many questions as Dragir had tried, but she couldn’t care less about the rune. She wanted to know everything about the sea dragons.

The beautiful elf was wondering aloud over whether she could transmute through all dragons, or only her sea dragons, when the half-elf suddenly shushed her and sat up at attention.

“What’s wrong?” I asked immediately.

Aurora furrowed her brow and listened closely while my hand slid to my holster, but then her eyes went wide, and she gasped.

Before anyone could move, the half-elf leapt right over us and sprinted for the path, and she quickly disappeared over the edge of the cliff without another word.

“Shit,” I cursed and hopped up with my revolver drawn and at the ready.

Cayla held her rifle in hand when we left Deya safe in the cove and ran after Aurora, and I racked my brain as I tried to imagine who the hell had shown up to kill us this time.

Luir was my first guess, but given that Oryk had seen us pass through Rhoemir only this afternoon, I was half-expecting an ambush in Onym’s honor any minute.

Then again, Aeris and Pyrs could have taken matters into their own hands for once.

We’d just made it to the ridge of the cliff when I heard Aurora’s voice through the trees ahead, but it sounded a lot like she was laughing rather than screaming.

I furrowed my brow and came to a stop, and while I waited in the grass at the cliffside with Cayla and Shoshanne, all I could hear was heavy rustling and more guttural laughter that was drawing closer every second.

I wavered with my revolver still in hand, but then a fern shuddered at the edge of the tree line, and Aurora emerged giggling and strewn over the shoulder of a giant figure.

Even in the dim evening light, I could tell his skin was distinctly green.

“I thought I told you to get control over your woman?” Haragh grunted with a smirk as he hoisted Aurora off his broad shoulder.

Chapter 21

“Haragh!” I boomed. “You’re in Nalnora! And you’re not even eaten, look at you!”

“Damn near was,” the half-ogre chuckled. “The horse wasn’t so lucky, but I made it. Whatever I’ve got growing here is festerin’, though.”

Haragh tipped his elbow up to show us a giant blue boil with bright orange patches of what looked like fur growing on it.

“Whoa.” I cringed and wrinkled my nose against the strange odor permeating from the boil. “I haven’t seen that one yet.”

Shoshanne let out a husky chuckle and came over to leave a kiss on Haragh’s cheek.

“I have something for that,” she assured him.

“There we go!” I said with a decisive clap of my hands. “Problem solved.”

Aurora gave a giddy little bounce as she latched herself around the half-ogre’s massive waist, and she sent me a huge grin.

“This one’s always too excited to see me,” Haragh grunted.

“Maybe it’s because I like you, you big old grump!” Aurora snorted.

Seeing the two of them side by side made me happier than I’d been in weeks, and I sighed as my grin became almost as broad as Aurora’s.

“Oh man,” I mused. “Can we take a minute and talk about how much I missed that big green face of yours? Now you’re here, and alive, and that’s a beautiful thing.”

“Yeah, well I’m not marrying you either,” Haragh informed me with a smirk.

I laughed and came over to clap the half-ogre on the shoulder, but he abruptly caught me up in a bear hug that caused my back to crack in at least four places.

Part of me wished Dragir was there for it. He needed to learn a thing or two about bear hugs.

When Haragh released me with a guttural laugh, I craned my neck to get a good look at him, and I’d almost forgotten he towered nearly two feet above my head.

“No daggers, no bites taken out of you,” I pointed out. “Nalnora’s not so bad, is it?”

Haragh furrowed his brow. “How’d you know about the daggers?”

“Everyone’s always throwing daggers here,” I told him with a shrug, “but you made it! How the hell did you find us?”

“I ran into a mage friend of yours somewhere near a river,” he explained. “She seemed a bit off her rocker, but she said I could find you at Quyn something. So, I followed her there, and then some bastards tried to tranque me, but I managed to get away with only a bit of a headache. Long story short, I heard an engine coming from this direction and figured I’d probably find you and Bobbie if I wandered around a bit.”

“Damn,” I muttered. “You’re lucky you didn’t catch those thorns back there stumbling around in the dark.”

“Wait a minute,” Cayla said as she came over. “What mage led you to House Quyn?”

“A pretty strange one,” Haragh said as he raised his brows. “Claimed she was a Baroness. Patrove? Patanove?”

“Baroness Batonova,” I corrected.

“That’s the one,” he nodded, “real strange bird, but we’re friends now, I guess. According to her, anyway.”

I snorted and exchanged a glance with Cayla.

“Well, she got you here at least,” I muttered.

Haragh nodded and was about to speak again when the smashing of ferns echoed from the almost black jungle, and the faint glow of headlights glistened through the undergrowth.

The Mustang came from the treeline with a heavy thud and a jolt as it barreled over a last log and came to a hard stop.

The deep growl of Bobbie’s engine idled for a minute before it cut out, and Haragh’s eyes went wide.

“You’ve been busy,” he said, and his admiring eyes roved over every inch of the Mustang as he rubbed his palms together.

I grinned. “Yeah, Bobbie got an upgrade,” I told him proudly. “You’re gonna like this one.”

“I like it already,” he assured me, but then Dragir climbed out the driver’s side window and stood with deep disgust written all over his face.

Aurora awkwardly released her hold on the half-ogre and stepped back a ways.

“What the fuck is that?” Dragir demanded.

“Go fuck yourself,” Haragh shot back.

“Alright,” I interrupted, and I quickly placed a steadying hand on the half-ogre’s shoulder as I beckoned for Dragir to join us. “Hey, I want you to meet a buddy of mine! This is Haragh, he’s my best friend from Serin and a Terra Mage. Haragh, this is Dragir.”

The two men glowered at one another without a word.

Then Dragir sighed and sent me a pointed look.

“Have you listened to nothing I have told you about my House?” he asked flatly.

I stared. “But … he’s not half-elf,” I tried. “He’s just half-ogre, that’s totally different.”

“No.”

Haragh let out a low growl, and Dragir’s jaw locked as he returned the threatening glare the half-ogre sent him.

I cleared my throat. “Look, no one from House Quyn is around,” I pointed out as I eyed the trees. “Couldn’t you just--”

“No,” Dragir said again, and he walked right past us to head down the cliffside path into the cove.

Haragh sent his glower my direction and crossed his massive arms.

“This is gonna sound like bullshit,” I admitted, “but he’s really a cool guy. Hell of an elf.”

The half-ogre snorted.

“You know, your standards have really taken a shit,” he informed me.

“Come on,” I offered, “we’ve got some food down in the cove.”

Aurora giggled and leapt up onto Haragh’s back, and he shook his giant head as he easily carted the half-elf down the path and into the cove.

Dragir must have stopped off to talk with Deya before he disappeared into the fortress, because the beautiful elf did a decent job of hiding her shock at the sight of Haragh descending the path behind me.

She hopped up from beside the fire and came over with a sparkling smile, and when she tucked herself under my arm, she tipped onto her toes to give me a kiss.

Haragh raised his bushy brow.

“This is Deya,” I told him. “She’s Dragir’s sister.”

Haragh smirked. “That explains it,” he mumbled, and then he extended a large and calloused green hand. “I’m Haragh. Pleasure to meet ye’, miss. I hear your brother’s a real swell guy.”

Deya took his hand without hesitating and sent him such a sweet smile, I saw his eyes go hazy while his grin became lopsided.

“He is,” the beautiful elf agreed, “thank you. Would you like to join us? You must be quite tired after your journey.”

Deya motioned for him to follow, and she led us to the fire at the edge of the water.

Aurora dragged Haragh down to sit next to her, and Cayla settled in on his other side. She squeezed his arm affectionately and sent him a warm smile, and Shoshanne sighed happily as she curled up with me and Deya.

“It’s so good to see you,” the healer told him. “We’ve prepared plenty of fresh fish, and there’s fruits on that platter there, too. Help yourself.”

Haragh chuckled and looked at me as he pulled the platter toward him.

“And I was worried you’d be dead,” Haragh grunted, “but here you are surrounded with beautiful women and lounging about on your own private beach.”

“I can’t even begin to explain the bullshit we’ve been through the last couple weeks,” I laughed, “but what brings you all the way to the jungle?”

“Ah … yeah, well that’s less fun,” Haragh admitted as he shoveled half a fish into his mouth and slurped the meat right off the skins. “We can get right to it, I suppose. You remember Wyresus?”

“How could I not?” I snorted. “He’s a damn peach.”

Haragh chuckled. “Well, he’s in a spot of trouble, it seems. King Temin thought I ought to come get ye’.”

I furrowed my brow. “If this is about Yvette, we already killed her off, but I’ve got some words I’d like to share with the guy about it.”

“Never heard of her,” Haragh said with a shrug, “but Wyresus is about as possessed as a banshee, tell ye’ the truth. Unfortunately, half the order’s behaving like they’re under his command as well.”

My stomach dropped.

“The mages?” Aurora asked uneasily.

“Aye.” Haragh nodded. “Please tell me all this elven business is sorted out already.”

“Not really,” I mumbled. “Elves aren’t that easy to work with.”

“There is an army of possessed mages?” Dragir suddenly asked, and I turned to see him standing beside one of the ornate pillars of the fortress.

“What is he, an eavesdropper?” Haragh grumbled, and he eyed Dragir suspiciously.

“No, he’s an elf,” I told him simply.

Haragh rolled his eyes as I headed over to Dragir.

“Now, before you say no,” I started, “I’m just throwing it out there--you could use a break from Nalnora. Get out of town, see some new places. Plus, your army is spectacular. If you and I could--”

“No,” Dragir interrupted, and he turned to head back into the cave.

“Okay, but hear me out,” I said hastily and made to follow. “You’ve already seen a few mages at work, so you’ve got a good idea of what we’re dealing with here. Luir’s gonna be after you more than ever, and you could dodge that in the process. I’m not saying it’d be a vacation, but--”

“No,” Dragir said once more, and then his entire form began to flicker.

“Don’t do it,” I warned. “Just give me two seconds.”

Then Dragir vanished, and I lunged, but my hands only grabbed at air.

“Godsdamnit,” I sighed.

I scruffed my beard as I returned to the fire at the edge of the cove, and I found Haragh joking with Deya while she let out a wash of silvery giggles and blushed.

“Great guy, that one.” Haragh nodded solemnly when I sat back down. “He likes you.”

“That actually is like for him,” I mumbled, “and he is a great guy, by the way. There’s a lot of layers there. And weapons. Sooo many weapons.”

“Good ones?” Haragh asked.

I let out a low whistle of approval.

“Check this out,” I told him, and Aurora handed over the Halcyan dagger Dragir had given her before the battle at House Quyn.

Haragh turned it over to admire the strange iridescent material of the blade, but I nudged his arm.

“Not like that, just hold it by the hilt,” I instructed, and I pulled my own Halcyan sword from its sheath. “Don’t let go, alright?”

Haragh cocked a brow and shrugged.

Then I quickly sliced a bit of his bicep, and the half-ogre jolted and gave a vicious snarl. The dagger immediately dropped from his hand as Haragh cupped his arm, and while blood began to seep through his massive fingers, he looked at me like he’d like to skin me alive.

“What is this?” Haragh growled. “Some bullshit game of chicken the elves taught ye’?”

Deya fell into another fit of giggles.

“Dude, you can’t lose your grip,” I explained. “Here … ” I retrieved the Halcyan dagger, and once I handed it over, I motioned to my own arm. “I’ll show you how it works. Cut my arm. Only a little though, don’t be a dick.”

The half-ogre narrowed his eyes, but then he planted his fist in my face instead.

I clutched at my throbbing nose while the women stifled their laughter, but I still managed to keep my grip on my sword.

Haragh snorted. “Don’t be a dick …” he muttered. “You sliced my fuckin’ arm open.”

“Yeah, but see?” I said and pointed to my face. “No blood!”

Haragh raised his brows. “No shit.”

“Right?” I laughed. “Dragir makes these blades, and he designed a few runes for the weapons we used against the Master’s army that are unbelievable. They fucking decimated.”

Haragh’s face fell. “The Master’s what?”

The women had all fallen asleep with their heads resting either in my lap or on one another by the time I finished explaining everything to Haragh. I told him about the head of House Syru’s hand in helping the Master with rune magic, the Elven Scrolls, and Luir’s army of Wendigo. I even caught him up on the laws involving Deya, the Baroness’ questionable appearances, Rhys’ wife and his deadly son, and finally, the Master’s future plans where I was concerned.

The half-ogre nodded along in silence, but by the end, he was just staring blankly at the lapping waves, and he looked about as overwhelmed as I’d been feeling since I arrived in the jungle.

“So … ” he mused, “you’re gonna fucking die here.”

I sighed and dropped back across the slate rock. “Don’t say that,” I groaned. “Everyone says that. I can’t die in Nalnora.”

“Maybe you should’ve considered that sentiment before you got half the damn region comin’ after you.”

I smirked. “Hey, I’m just doing my thing,” I told him. “They’re elves, I can’t help that.”

“Well, you’re gonna have to slip by ‘em all somehow,” Haragh decided. “It’s three days journey to get back to the Illarian border, and King Temin’s losing his mind. He’s noticed the mages are acting strange, and he’s worried they’ll turn on the civilians and try to overrun the capital.”

“Fucking hell,” I groaned and sat up to rifle my hair. “I just battled a mage who wasn’t even possessed. This is going to be … ”

“Bad,” Haragh grunted, “but you won’t be alone in it. Not every mage is under Wyresus’ puny little thumb.”

“Pindor?” I asked uneasily.

“Still normal,” he said with a nod. “Well, sort of.”

I furrowed my brow. “What’s that mean?”

Haragh smirked. “To be blunt, I’d say the kid’s got it in his head that he’s your stand-in, except he’s annoying as all hell about it. Mina wants to kill him. She probably already has. I left Serin a week ago.”

“When did you leave Orebane?” I asked.

“Few days before that,” he told me. “I’ve been up at the mines finishing the last of the tracks to Aurum with Thrungrig and the metal guy.”

“Big Guy?” I asked eagerly, and a grin finally returned to my face. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s a hell of a contraption,” Haragh chuckled. “Thrungrig’s got him doing all the heavy lifting, and Dorinick taught him to balance ten pints on his arms at once. Doesn’t spill a damn drop.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh good. That’ll be really useful.”

Haragh let out a throaty laugh, and as Deya shifted in her sleep, he gestured to the beautiful elf whose soft pink hair plumed across my thighs.

“That one’s alright, at least,” he decided. “You would find the only decent elf in this stinking place.”

I grinned. “Wait ‘til you see her trick with the dragons,” I replied. “I’d tell you about it myself, but Aurora would kill me if I beat her to it.”

The next morning, we began preparations to head west, and the first thing I did was haul out my entire stock of weapons I’d harvested after the battle at House Quyn, and I set them down within the mouth of the cave. Some of the metal would be ideal for reforming down the line, but the craftsmanship of many pieces was just too good to even imagine altering.

Deya stood in the shadows near the wall of the cave and watched me go over the weaponry with Cayla, and she sent me a little smile when I looked over before she headed out to sit on the embankment for a while.

Cayla and Stan began sorting through the pile of weapons, and I decided to leave it to the woman’s judgement to stock an arsenal in the trunk of the Mustang. I did place an order for several tungsten axes, though, and all but one bazooka would be coming with us as well.

Then I strolled out to the end of the jetty and sat down beside the beautiful elf.

Deya was admiring the inlet as the sun glittered on the waves, and to the right of us, the cove lay as if Yvette had never been there.

“Thank you for restoring it,” Deya said sweetly as she settled her head on my shoulder. “It looks as beautiful as ever.”

“It was my pleasure,” I assured her. “Your ancestors had an amazing home here. I know it matters to you and Dragir that it continues to exist as they created it.”

“Dragir’s going to live here, you know,” she told me. “He doesn’t want to stay in the village any longer. I do not know what made him change his mind.”

I considered the striking cliffside with vines spilling over the edges and blooming in every color imaginable. The tidal pools were dotted with bright green and black critters splashing around without a thought, and further off, the ornate stone columns of the fortress stood hidden in shadows at the mouth of the cave.

“I can understand it,” I admitted. “I don’t want to leave either, to be honest. There’s such a strong sense of the thousands of years that have passed since your ancestors first settled here. I can feel it in the stonework. It’s a powerful place.”

“I don’t want to leave it either,” Deya muttered quietly.

I nodded in understanding, and we sat in silence while the ocean rolled lazily into the inlet and sent waves splashing up along the boulders beneath us.

“I love you,” I told her after a long moment, “but I know this is your home, and you’ve learned so much about where you came from lately. As much as I want to bring you all over the world with me, I won’t be like everyone else in Nalnora and force you to do something against your will. I hope you will join us, though. I’d be more than happy to kill any elf who tried to stop you.”

Deya lifted her head, and there were tears glistening in her violet eyes.

“I have learned very much,” she agreed, “but I never would have if not for you. Everything has changed since you arrived at House Quyn. I knew the first time I saw you that Nemris had sent you to us, and now, I only want to continue to see what happens. I want to be with you, wherever you go.”

The beautiful elf smiled sweetly, and I grinned as I looked down on her pixie-like face and soft pink hair blowing lightly in the sea breeze.

“Then come with me to Illaria,” I said.

Deya giggled as she climbed onto my lap, and she pulled my lips to hers with her hands clutched around my neck.

Her supple hips rolled against me as she pinned me back against the rocks, and I let her kiss me as long as she wanted while the heat between her thighs began to build.

When Deya finally released me, her cheeks were stained a deep pink, and she sent me a sparkling smile.

“I’ll go pack my things,” she murmured against my lips, before she hopped up and ran off down the jetty.

I craned my neck and watched the lithe elf spring gracefully from the boulders to the slate of rock, and something in the sway of her hips reminded me of Nemris.

A sense of calm washed over me like a silky veil, and I knew the goddess was as relieved as I was to know Deya would be free from Nalnora.

Her life could be whatever she wanted, and I’d be there to make sure no one tried to decide otherwise. Although, my women were nearly as dedicated to the task as I was at this point.

Deya returned to House Quyn with Dragir to gather her things, and her brother didn’t seem to have a single objection to the plan. I saw him smirk to himself while she nervously explained what she wanted to do, and after a curt nod, they both agreed Qiran should not be informed she was leaving. Dragir went along to keep his father well distracted while she packed her life up, and I watched the two elves disappear over the edge of the cliff and head into the jungle.

Aurora and Shoshanne began gathering provisions from the jungle for the journey, and while Haragh stood in shock and gaping at the sea dragons now circling the inlet, I worked on wiring the headlights of the Mustang.

Dragir decided his electricity would be much more adequate than the enchanted flames we’d installed, and I couldn’t agree more. Deya even got him to agree to some dim lighting in the backseat so she could read while we travelled, and I worked on rigging the copper so the elf could engrave his rune as soon as the two returned from House Quyn.

When the dragons began to make their way back out to sea, Haragh joined me up on the cliff, and he laid his giant body across the hood with a loud stretch.

“Hell of a place,” he mused. “I can see why you’ve been putzin’ around out here for so long.”

I sent him an unamused glance, and the half-ogre chuckled.

“It’ll be good to have ye’ back,” he admitted. “The mines are going like clockwork, and the train’s enroute from Gyton all the way north to Aurum. Trade’s up, money’s flowing, and King Temin’s army have been running drills since the day you left Orebane.”

“That’s a relief,” I replied. “Anyone shoot their hands off yet?”

“Nah, they don’t go in for your weapons much these days,” Haragh said. “Set in their ways and all that. Captain Torganet ended up packing ‘em all up.”

I finished my last copper clamp to secure the wiring in place and stood up.

“They’re packed up?” I asked as I furrowed my brow.

Haragh nodded and scratched at his bristly cheek. “Last I heard.”

I shook my head to myself. “Godsdamnit,” I cursed, and I chucked the last of the copper wire into the back seat.

“What’s up?” the half-ogre asked.

“No one’s keeping an eye on hundreds of guns, that’s what,” I growled. “The Master managed to replicate one of my revolvers, and when I checked the cylinder, my own fucking bullets were inside. Where the hell did Torganet lock them up?”

Haragh sat up, and the muscles in his jaw flexed tensely.

“No idea,” he admitted, “but if your bullets have made it out … ”

“Exactly,” I groaned, and I leaned back against the doors. “Set in their ways … it doesn’t matter if they don’t like using the guns, they can’t just leave them laying around all over the place. For all I know, every one of them is gone by now, and no one’s even noticed.”

Haragh nodded his agreement.

“Come on,” I sighed and headed for the path. “We gotta make sure Cayla’s stocking this trunk until it’s bursting.”

The princess became even paler than her normal porcelain tone when I told her about Captain Torganet and my concerns, and she immediately pulled another six axes over. Stan held his head and dropped onto his metal ass, and by the time Dragir and Deya came down into the cove, we had a hoard of weapons arranged by type stretching all the way out the mouth of the cave.

I was building extra rockets for the bazookas so Dragir could engrave them before we left, and Deya trotted over to hop up into my arms with a silvery giggle.

When I caught her, she held up a hefty book she had tucked under her arm.

“All packed,” she told me with a glittering smile.

“You sure you’re ready to duck the law and follow my ass to a whole other nation?” I asked with a grin. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”

“Absolutely,” Deya purred, and she left a playful bite on my lower lip. “Aurora has told me everything about your city of Serin, and I want to try these things she calls quail. Apparently, they are made in the marketplace there and are better than anything I have ever tasted.”

I chuckled. “Oh yeah! From Owin,” I recalled as I remembered the elderly man and his young son who Aurora always went out of her way to buy from. “Damn, it’ll be good to be back. We’ll stop at his cart first thing, those quail are delicious.”

Deya nodded her agreement as I settled her back to the ground, and a flood of recollections came to mind about Serin that made my heart ache for the place. I decided I’d stop by the clockmaker’s shop to visit Elias, too, and I was just wondering if Aurora’s cherished horse Nerfrina would be awaiting her return when Dragir caught my eye.

He hadn’t said much of anything to me since his return from House Fehryn, and he remained quietly brooding to himself while he looked over the rockets I was working on.

Judging by the disgusted glances he kept sending over his shoulder, I figured he still hadn’t warmed up to Haragh yet.

The elf was piling a few rockets into his arms when the half-ogre brushed past, and I could immediately tell the hard knock Haragh bumped him with had been on purpose.

The rockets clanged across the floor of the cave, and Dragir had his sword drawn within a second.

Haragh eyed the serrated blade leveled at his throat, and I sensed his Terra magic spark as he took a step closer and towered over the elf.

“Alright, you little shit,” he snarled at Dragir. “I know you’re supposedly a real cool guy but don’t think I won’t snap your neck for ye’ if you keep up the shitty looks and--”

“Woooah alright,” I cut in.

Dragir’s eyes glinted in a way I recognized from the battle at House Quyn, and I quickly came over to shove Haragh back a few paces.

“Let’s just stop it there and get you well out of range,” I murmured to the half-ogre.

Haragh was practically seething as he glared over my head at Dragir, and the elf didn’t move an inch or lower his blade.

“Sorry about that,” I called over my shoulder. “I’ll sort it out, and we’ll just … we’ll be right back.”

“Oh, you’ll sort it out will ye’?” Haragh growled.

“Would you just … ” I sighed and leaned all of my weight in to force him toward the path, but the half-ogre planted his stubborn feet instead.

“I’m literally helping you out, what the fuck?” I muttered as I shoved at him harder.

Haragh grumbled under his breath and sent Dragir another firm glower.

I motioned to the path with a pointed look, and after he’d taken his sweet time deciding, Haragh finally turned and led the way up to the cliff.

I passed him up at the top and headed into the jungle, and I spoke as quietly as I could while we went.

“Tensions are high, and I get that,” I allowed, “but the elves are racist shits, and there’s nothing I can do about that one right now. More importantly, Dragir’s got a rune on him you don’t wanna fuck with. So, just play nice, be the bigger man, and stop threatening to snap him in half. He’ll let you live, and we can get out of here by tomorrow, alright?”

Haragh stopped on the spot.

“He’ll let me live?” he roared. “How fucking generous. Did it occur to you I could skin the bastard in a single--”

I shushed him loudly and checked to be sure no one was following us.

Haragh rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

“What’s this rune do then?” he asked. “Can it bring a boulder the size of a mountain crushin’ down on the bastard’s head?”

The cliff was still visible through the trees, so I pulled the half-ogre a little further along and motioned for him to be quiet.

“Can he hear us from here?” Haragh whispered, and he mimed long elf ears on either side of his head.

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “I’m a little vague on the details. This looks about right, though.”

We came to a stop, and Haragh stooped forward with his eyes wide and waiting.

I grimaced. “Have you ever boiled water?” I asked in a low voice.

I detailed the complexity of the various systems of the body slowly boiling away at Dragir’s will, and I’d just started explaining the effect the violent rune had on his disposition when a twig snapped.

Haragh turned to see the elf standing there, and he jumped so high his Terra Magic sparked and shook the ground beneath us right open.

I stumbled and grabbed a trunk to keep from falling in, and the half-ogre threw his arms out to settle everything down again.

“Sorry about that,” he mumbled nervously.

This time, Haragh only nodded at Dragir when he joined us, and then he abruptly turned his gaze toward anything else he could possibly find to look at.

I cleared my throat.

“Hey,” I said with a casual grin.

Dragir clearly heard everything I’d said, but he didn’t bother pointing this out. He just sighed and kept his scowl trained on Haragh while he spoke to me.

“Deya is rather nervous about this Master’s plan for you,” he told me.

“Yeah I know,” I muttered. “It’ll be alright, though. I’ll keep my eyes open, and I promise, nothing will happen to her. You have my word.”

Dragir nodded and finally dragged his serpentine glare away from the half-ogre.

“Stalking and ambush, abduction … this is all rather common in Nalnora,” he said frankly. “You know this.”

I snorted. “Yeah, I did notice that.”

“I can offer you some assets to ensure you make it back to Illaria, and hopefully not become possessed by this Master’s rune shortly after.”

I cocked a brow. “Yeah? Like what?”

Dragir pulled a slip of parchment from his pocket and held it out to me, and when I unfolded it, there were three runes sketched out.

“Oh, hell yeah,” I chuckled, and a grin spread across my face. “What do these do?”

Dragir gestured to the top two runes on the parchment.

“Acute hearing and sharp sight,” he explained. “They will not be too invasive to live with, and they’ll help you stay alert. Your range of detailed sight will be about a sixth of a league, and any sound within the same radius should register.”

“Fuck yes!” I laughed. “This is perfect! Seriously, thank you. What about the one on the bottom?”

Dragir shifted and took a steadying breath.

“I have thought it over carefully,” he told me, “and I am willing to bargain with you for the third rune.”

I furrowed my brow. “What does it do?”

“Accelerated healing,” Dragir replied. “Deya mentioned you were looking for something like this.”

I chuckled my appreciation and turned my face toward the sky to thank the gods.

“This is amazing,” I laughed. “What’s your price? Name it. Anything you want.”

Dragir nodded. “Okay,” he muttered. “I will brand this rune on you only if you will help to remove my own. That is my price.”

My smile immediately fell, and I stared.

“The blood-boiling one?”

“Yes, of course,” Dragir said impatiently.

“Didn’t you say the runes lash out when they’re attacked?” I clarified.

Dragir nodded once more, and I looked down at the slip of parchment in my hands.

The three invaluable runes the man was offering practically glistened up at me, and my chest tightened as my nerve wavered.

“Shhhhit,” I sighed.

Seemed like I had one last dangerous mission before I got the hell out of Nalnora.

End of Book 7

End Notes

Thank you for reading Metal Mage 7. Once I hit 100 reviews I’ll start working on the next book! Please leave your reviews here! Thank you!

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2019 by Eric Vall