Stolen Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress Book 3) (22 page)

Or had it stolen.

How many times had I been violated here?

I shook away the dark thought and glanced left. Another door, this one smaller.

“Have you checked through there?” I asked Del.

She shook her head, so I set off in that direction, keeping my footsteps light and my hand gripped on Righty, my favored dagger. I didn’t want to use lightning here, not when thunder would follow it. The noise would alert any guards.

Quietly, I pushed open the door. A narrow set of stone steps led down, looking like they were leading to the basement of a haunted castle.

Even farther underground?
The Monster had a creepy underground mole’s labyrinth. But if there were any more prisoners, they would probably be down there.

Slowly, we crept down the stairs, our way lit by the glow of Del’s phantom form. The door at the bottom of the stairs had no lock. After listening for a moment, I sucked in a deep breath and pushed it open.

A wave of malevolence rolled out of the dimly lit room, making my skin feel sticky. Candles perched on tables and shelves, illuminating a large space that was lavishly furnished. A stooped figure sat in a plush armchair in the middle of the room.

The malevolence rolled off of him. If he were a prisoner, which I wasn’t entirely certain of given the lavishness of his quarters and the lack of a lock on the door, he deserved it.

“Who is there?” His voice creaked with age.

“Mr. Orriordor sent us,” I improvised.

“He did not!” The old man’s milky gaze snapped to my own. “You!”

“Me?”

“I recognize you.”

“A seer,” Del whispered from beside me.

I hurried to his side. The stench of malevolence was worse near him. Dark magic. No doubt he helped the Monster commit his evil deeds.

“What do you know about me?” I demanded.

“Payment first.”

I almost growled as I thrust out my dagger and held it at his neck. His hand gripped my wrist, and I shuddered at the feel of his cold skin. Evil seemed to seep through into my flesh as the chill soaked into my muscles and up my arm.

“How’s this for payment?” I demanded and I pressed the knife against his skin. “Tell me what I want to know, and I won’t slit your throat.”

His lips peeled back from his teeth, revealing crooked yellow fangs. I pressed the blade harder until blood welled. His muddy eyes rolled back in his head until only the whites showed.

Was that how he had his visions?

“What do you know about me?” I demanded.

“The gifted.”

“What?”

“The gifted.”

Frustration welled. “Anything more?”

“The gifted.”

Damn it. “What about my
deirfiúr
?”

“The gifted.”

Was he just repeating himself? “What does Orriordor want?”

“Power.” His white eyes rolled in their sockets.

“From who?”
 

“Everyone.”

“To do what with?”

“Destroy them.”

My muscles tightened. Frustration beat in my chest, a living thing threatening to consume me. I met Del and Nix’s gazes and saw the same feeling reflected in their eyes. Destroying people was such a broad, generic villain’s goal.

It was also pretty much the height of evil. And after my nightmares, I wasn’t going to underestimate the Monster.

“Destroy who?” I bit off the words.

“All of them.”

“The children?”
 

The seer shook his head. “They are fuel. Soldiers. Destroy the powerful.”

That was a lot of people.

“Who are the powerful?”

“Destroy them!” His voice boomed in the dark room.

I shook him, wanting any kind of clear answer. But seers weren’t known for their clear answers.

“Stop!” Del hissed. “That’s all he knows. We don’t want him to alert the guards.”

“He’s probably the seer who scried for us!” I said. “And who helps the Monster find the other FireSouls. Who gives the Tracking demons their leads.”

Del’s gaze darkened as she looked at the seer. “Do you scry for FireSouls?”

He nodded, his eyes still whited out.

“Are there any child prisoners here?”

“Not at present.” He licked his lips, and my stomach churned.

“But another time?”

He shrugged. “It is likely. They are often here before they learn.”

“Learn what?”

“Learn. Learn, learn, learn.” He muttered until I shook him. I was losing him. Seers were often not of their right mind, and I didn’t think this one had started out sane.

“Have you told us all you know?” I pressed the blade deeper into his neck. Not enough to kill, but to encourage.

“For now,” he said.

We didn’t have time to wait around and see if he had any more visions. I withdrew my knife and turned to my
deirfiúr
.
 

“We should go,” I said.

“Should we kill him?” Del asked.

I glanced at him, both repulsed by the evil I could feel rolling off him and hesitant to kill someone so physically frail. I hadn’t had a chance to make up my mind when a blur of silver flashed through the air.

A dagger sank into his right eye, killing him almost instantly. There was a brief second where my FireSoul flared, desperate to jump on him and steal his power. I shoved it back, and he died so quickly that I didn’t have a chance to act on the urge, even if I had wanted to.
 

My gaze flew to my
deirfiúr
. Nix lowered her hand.

“You’ve had to do a lot of the hard stuff lately,” she said. “It was my turn. He couldn’t be left alive to scry for more of our kind.”

There would be more seers where he came from, but she was right. He was nothing but evil and had no doubt contributed to many deaths.

“Thanks. Now let’s get the hell out of here and close the portal.”

“Do you have enough juice to teleport us?” Nix asked Del.

Del shook her head. “I don’t want to risk it if I don’t have to. I’m running low as it is, and I want to make sure I get us out of here when the portal closes.”

“Then we try to sneak out,” I said. “Find Aidan and the Nullifier and get this done.”

We left the room and crept back up the stairs to the main dungeon. I shuddered as we made our way down the hall, now remembering the time I’d been dragged from the cell. I’d thought I’d escaped the Monster’s wrath when he’d first held me prisoner.

I’d just forgotten.

We paused at the great wooden door at the end of the hall.
 

I turned to Nix and Del. “We sneak out. Let’s not fight if we don’t have to. I don’t want to alert any more demons to the fact that we’re here.”

“And those Tracker demons probably went to fetch the Monster,” Del said. “So let’s hurry our butts outta here before he shows.”

I nodded, then led the way up the stairs, a horrible sense of deja vu stalking me. I couldn’t escape this hell hole soon enough. Maybe this place held more secrets about what had happened to me, but I wasn’t going to stick around to find out.

We reached the top of the stairs. Experimentally, I tried using my new Illusion power to turn myself invisible.
 

“Whoa,” Del whispered. “Good work. But I can still see your head.”

Damn. It’d have to do. I’d be sure to practice my new skill more if we made it out of here.

Slowly, I pushed open the door at the top of the stairs and peered out. A smoke demon stood a few feet down the hall. His head whipped toward me, his black gaze meeting mine. His eyes widened.

Shit.
 

I flung Righty through the crack in the door, then yanked Lefty out of its thigh sheath. As the demon collapsed, I pricked my fingertip with Lefty. My blood ignited the spell that called Righty back. It pulled itself out of the demon’s chest and flew through the air toward me. I snagged it. I might not have used my daggers in a while, but it was like riding a bicycle. A pointy, sharp-as-hell bicycle.

But where there was one smoke demon, there was usually more.

“We’ve got trouble,” I whispered back to Nix and Del as I pushed my way out into the hall.

Four smoke demons waited. One muttered into a comms charm that was similar to the one hanging around my neck.

“Fight fast,” I said. “Reinforcements are coming.”

Del drew her sword and swung it in a graceful arc as she stepped forward. She dodged a blast of burning smoke and swiped out with her blade, removing the hand of the demon who’d threatened her.
 

I called on my Mirror Mage powers, reaching out for the demon’s magic. Time to fight fire with fire. Or smoke with smoke, in this case. The smoky bite of the demon’s magic filled my nose as I gathered up the blazing cloud and threw a blast at the demon nearest me.

The heat singed my fingertips as it left and bowled him over. Nix leapt upon him, her fist gripped around a long dagger that she’d conjured. Quickly, she slit his throat.

Del finished off her demon by plunging her blade into his heart while I threw another blast of smoke at the biggest demon in the bunch. Nix finalized the job with her blade.

Del and I tag-teamed the final demon, satisfaction lancing through me as she plunged her blade deep into his heart. We were a good team.

A shout sounded behind us. I glanced back.

Shit.

Six demons charged down the hall.
 

“Run!” I yelled.

We sprinted down the hall, jumping over the bodies of the demons we’d felled. I passed the room where I’d had my power obliterated and just barely repressed the urge to vomit. We skidded out into the foyer and sprinted for the door, an eerie reproduction of our first race to freedom.

I threw myself at the door, shoving it open and bursting out into the heat of the desert. We clambered down the stairs, our feet sinking into the hot sand as we raced for freedom. I wished Aidan were here so that I could mirror his griffin power. I might turn into an ugly beast, but I was so freaked out right now I knew I could definitely fly both my
deirfiúr
to freedom.
 

No luck, though.

The demons burst through the door behind us as the scenery began to waver.
 

Please put us back in that dance club.

I could definitely lose these guys in there.

Instead, we got my worst nightmare.

Lava stretched out in front of us, a seething ocean of neon orange death.
 

“Shit!” Nix screamed.

Magma rolled toward us, an oncoming wave of heat and molten rock.
 

“Go back!” I spun on my heels, Del and Nix at my side, and ran back toward the smoke demons.

Screw stealth.

I called upon my lightning, letting it crackle and burn beneath my skin as I built up a big enough bolt. At my side, Nix conjured a bow and arrow and fired into the crowd of shadow demons. She liked weapons as much as I did, so her aim was good. Three demons fell in quick succession.

I sent a massive bolt of lightning at the two demons nearest me. Thunder cracked as the bolt struck, and the demons collapsed.
 

Del raced ahead, safe in her phantom form. When she reached the last remaining demon, she turned corporeal long enough to take off his head with a flying leap and sweep of her sword.

She landed and turned to us, panting. “We cannot get a freaking break.”

I glanced at the lava that flowed toward us, then back at the Monster’s mansion. More enemies would come from it soon if we didn’t get out of here. The Trackers still hadn’t shown up with the Monster, but they would.

The air didn’t waver. No change of scenery was coming.

“I think we gotta risk it, Del,” I said. “The waypoint is weird, right? So it’s not as far a distance as out in the real world.”

“Yeah.” Her gaze clouded with doubt. “But I don’t know if I’ll be able to get us all back when the portal closes.”

Indecision warred within me. I could feel the heat of the lava at my back and the glower of the Monster’s mansion ahead of me. But it was the sight of him striding out the door and down the stone steps that made up my mind. Now that I realized how many powers he’d likely stolen, he seemed invincible.
 

“Risk it!” I sprinted to Del. “Monster incoming!”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A second later, we arrived back at the bazaar where we’d first been snatched. Sound and color were a wild cacophony around us as the heat of the desert and hundreds of bodies pressed in on us. A woman dressed in colorful scarves shrieked about fish for sale and a man who looked just like Aladdin—the cartoon one—shouted over her, trying to sell CD players.
 

“Fates, I hope that didn’t screw us,” Del said. “I really don’t know if I’ll be able to get us all back.”

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes.” A man jostled into me and I shoved him away.
 

“Wench!” he spat, then disappeared through the bustling crowd.
 

We needed to get the hell out of this bazaar. I focused on my dragon sense to find Aidan and the Nullifier. The familiar tug pulled at my middle.

“Come on!” I called. We raced through the stalls, not stopping to say “excuse me” or even “move your ass.”