Dragonslayer (Twilight of the Gods Book 3) (15 page)

Jacey didn’t know exactly what she’d expected to see when they began to cast the spell to lure the dragon—glitter or pixie dust—but the actuality was unsettling. The witches didn’t speak to one another. They didn’t move. The silence that fell around them was heavy and expectant. Jacey couldn’t feel anything happening, but after a few moments Christian’s body tightened, and at the same time, the hounds hunched lower to the ground, their muscles bunched and menacing.

Jacey craned her neck to look to the sky. The other day had been gray, overcast with a bite of frost on the wind, but today was breathtakingly clear. The sky was the same pure cold blue as Christian’s eyes, and the sun was shining. Nothing could hide from sight up there, and she found herself desperately hoping that they hadn’t made a mistake by summoning the creature during the day, when it would be visible to anyone who happened to look up at the right moment.

A rustle went through the gathered clan a moment before she heard a faint, eerily familiar sound. The heavy beat of leathery wings, once, twice, and then silence. The dragon burst from the tree line in a low glide almost directly overhead. Light caught its scales, making them gleam like polished metal. Fleet as a sparrow and sleek as a seal in water.

She wrapped her arms around Christian’s waist, one hand locking around the wrist of her other to keep her in place. Christian tensed his thighs to turn his mount, and readjusted his grip on the hilt of his sword. The dragon rose suddenly, lifting above the trees and extending its wings so that it peeled away from them in a slow arc. Once across the lake, it settled onto the edge of a twenty-foot cliff. Clawed hands gripped the edge and its body curled into a tight little ball. The scales no longer gleamed with sunlight but reflected the colors around it, dark browns and grays. If Jacey hadn’t just watched it land, she never would have noticed it there.

“Is that—?”

“A glamour, yes. Imperfect because we know it’s there, but strong if it was able to work on us at all. Something’s wrong.” He looked toward Raquel, who’d recovered from her trance, and gestured for them to move closer. Christian joined Aiden near the rock. Raquel’s skin, always fair, seemed particularly pale right now.

“The spell should have compelled it to come directly to us,” Raquel said. “It shouldn’t have been able to turn away like that. Not here when we’re so close to the fault. We can’t trigger the containment spell until it comes within the circle of stones down there.”

Raquel held the rune-marked chain they planned to use to bind the dragon. Gleipnir. It was a bright, silky strand of finely worked silver. It didn’t look like an ancient artifact so much as a piece of expensive, if slightly gaudy, jewelry. “We can try to cast another spell to draw it in, but I’m worried we won’t have enough power left to hold the containment spell. What do you want to do?”

As if it were mocking them, the dragon spread its wings again and sunlight shone through its translucent wings. The wings seemed delicate almost, the frame and joints fragile and small. Jacey wondered if its bones were hollow like a bird’s. If it were as intelligent as the glowing amber eyes suggested. She wondered just how mature it had to be before it could actually breathe fire, or if that was just another myth. Its saliva had burned Christian well enough. Perhaps that was where the legend had originated. It might only be a unique type of venom. A thousand questions spun through her head, and then they all faded away.

“God,” she breathed. “It’s beautiful.”

“She is,” Christian said, turning his head slightly. “There’s no crest on her head. This one is female.”

Which meant she would be more aggressive, if Elin’s old books were to be believed. The dragon settled back onto the rock, stretching out her forepaws and resting her chin on them like a cat. When her body rocked forward, an oddly shaped lump on her back caught Jacey’s attention. She shielded her eyes from the sun. “What’s that on her back? A hump?”

Kamis breathed a curse even as a small figure leapt from the dragon’s back and walked slowly toward the edge of the cliff.

“Is that the Vanir warrior?” Aiden asked in a low, dangerous voice. “The one you said was harmless?”

Kamis nodded. “She didn’t bind herself to a jötunn. She bound herself to a dragon. That’s how she was able to cross without triggering the wards. She’s also powerful enough to have deflected the summons spell, although not quite powerful enough to have defied it completely.”

Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “You said she was injured by one of her own. Do we need to be worried about others?”

“I don’t know,” Kamis said, as if it pained him to admit it. “Possibly. Her wound might have come from the dragon. Even bound, they’re not easy creatures to tame.”

Aiden looked back across the lake to where the woman and dragon stood atop the cliff. The dragon drew in her wings, folding them neatly against her body before crouching down beside the warrior, who placed a possessive hand on the creature’s head. “She seems to be doing well enough.”

“If there’s nothing holding her here, then what’s she waiting—” Christian broke off, every muscle in his body tensing as he turned his head away from the dragon. Kamis looked up too, his head cocked slightly to the side as if he were listening to some sound Jacey couldn’t quite make out. In fact, everything had gone very quiet all around them. The birds were silent. Even the sway of the trees in the breeze no longer made a sound. Like a vacuum.

“Fuck,” Christian growled, and with a sharp movement, he wrenched them around.

“Christian,” she whispered. “What’s going on?”

He didn’t answer her, but she knew. Like a vibration in the air from a distant train, she could feel it. A sensation she’d only felt once before but she’d never forget. That night she’d seen Christian for what he really was. When she’d been chased by a monster straight out of her worst nightmare and had been certain that she was going to die. The night Christian had saved her life.

The portal was opening.

And this time she was right on top of it.

Chapter Nineteen

Christian cursed. The portal shouldn’t be opening, not now. The moon was near full. Like all Æsir, he could feel the pull of the lunar cycle. More accurately, he could feel what it did to the ley lines, the streams of magic that wrapped this world. Ragnarok was built upon the nexus of two such streams. It was what caused the fault between worlds. So much magic flowing through a single place worked upon the fabric of the universe like water cutting through rock, forming weak spots between worlds. It was what allowed the Æsir to maintain a connection to their home world, without which they would perish. It was also what allowed the demons to push through the gap when the wall was at its thinnest…new moon and full. Christian’s whole life was tied to that cycle. They weren’t at full yet. Very few people could force a breach at any other time. Raquel wasn’t doing this, nor Aiden, and Kamis looked as horrified as he felt. That left the Vanir warrior to blame. Possibly the dragon. They still didn’t understand the extent of its ability to manipulate energy.

Christian grabbed hold of Jacey’s wrist when she tried to lean around him to see what was happening.

“Hold on,” he snapped. “No matter what happens. You need to hold on.”

If the fall didn’t kill her, the demons would. Shoving that unwelcome thought aside, he watched as the first jötunn pushed through the gate. There was a shimmer in the air. Space stretched around the demon’s form like cellophane, and then it was through, momentarily disoriented and staggering to the side as it found its balance on the ice. It wasn’t fast enough to avoid the swift downstroke of Aiden’s blade. Glowing Skimstrok sliced through its flesh as easily as a knife through butter. It caught on the bone of the jötunn’s neck, and Aiden jerked it free as the creature fell, turning his mount even as another demon pushed its snout through the portal. And another. They would come faster now until the portal could be resealed.

The hounds surrounded the witches, who bent their heads together, speaking urgently with one another. Raquel shook her head viciously, but after Kamis pointed toward the cliff where the dragon watched, she straightened and then nodded. Christian followed their gazes to the dragon. Hooded amber eyes met his. Like a challenge, that. Like the damned thing was sitting up there laughing at them.

Jacey squeaked at the same time Ben lunged forward to take down a slender female demon who’d made a break for the lake. Ben jumped on her back and broke her neck before she’d taken more than five steps. Another black shape snapped at his horses’ legs, and Christian turned slightly, extending his blade and then lifting the tip to angle his blade under the demon’s gaping jaw. He pulled back as soon as he made contact, opening the thing’s throat and then moving aside so that the blood spatter wouldn’t burn Skadi’s legs.

Jacey clung to him so tightly that she restricted his movement. Still, he managed to cut down another, smaller demon that launched itself from the left. He got his arm up in time to change the angle of its flight, shoving it over the neck of his horse and then slicing into its back as he let it go. It landed hard in the dirt, and Hagan was on it a second later to finish it off.

For the first time in his life, Christian wanted to retreat before the fight was over. Race back to Aiden’s, shove Jacey in his car and send her back into town with a warning for the clan. He’d have done it, too, given the opportunity, but there was none. No way to safely retreat without leaving her exposed and the rest of the clan shorthanded. Next time…if there was a next time, she was staying behind.

Another demon darted forward, making Skadi sidestep. Aiden got that one, and Christian took the next. There weren’t as many jötnar pushing through as there would have been when the moon was full. At least there was that. The portal was still somewhat constricted. They could hold this line for a very long time. But not forever.

“Drop me off over by that rock,” Jacey said, voice clear and determined.

“What? Hel no.”

She pinched his thigh. “By the rock. I can climb above the fight. I’ll be safe there, and if the dragon flies closer, maybe I can get a shot at it.”

He groaned. Her gun. He’d forgotten that she’d brought along her tranquilizer gun. “It won’t work here.”

“You don’t know that. You told me it’s unpredictable. It might work, and you’ll be better off without me getting in your way.”

She let go of his belt to reach for the gun. He grabbed her wrist to hold her in place. “I told you to hold on.”

She growled at him, and despite everything—Aiden stabbing a demon in the neck only a few feet away, Fen wrestling another to the ground and the blood flying everywhere—despite all of it, he smiled at the sound. “We do this together.”

“I’m not doing anything but holding on right now. I want to help.” She hitched her knee up behind his back and slipped off the horse before he could stop her. He had no choice but to let go of her wrist. Either that or let her hang there.

“Christian,” Aiden shouted as one of the demons slipped through their circle. He cursed, watching it dart out of the clearing.

Jacey jerked her gun free of the scabbard he’d attached to the saddle. “Go,” she said, stepping back. “I’ll make it.”

Aiden called his name again. Christian cursed, but he turned his back on Jacey to run down the escaped demon. He gave the horse free rein, letting it dart through the trees. Skadi had been with him for a long time. Æsir horses tended to live longer than Midgard stock. Skadi was smart, fast, a born hunter, just as Christian was.

Trees flashed by on either side. The ground ahead was trampled, the demon making no effort at all to hide its trail. The thing had taken off like a shot, and as near as possible was running in a straight line…toward the town. In this direction, it would reach Holly’s house first. A widow with a teenage son. Her maternal grandmother was Midgardian, and she had no power other than an unreliable ability to sense weather patterns. They were training her son to be a hunter, but he would be in school now. Holly might not be home either, but just two miles past her place were the Folkners with a newborn and twin girls who’d just learned to walk last month.

Christian leaned down over his horse’s neck, ignoring the bite of the wind on his cheeks, the vibration in his bones and his fear for whatever trouble Jacey might be getting into at the moment. She was an adult. Her rifle might work. There was a chance of that. And Aiden would keep an eye on her until Christian got back.

Distracted, he grunted when Skadi cut sharply to the right. They passed down a gully and over a fallen, half-rotted tree trunk. Rock rose up on either side of the trail here. It narrowed up ahead. It was a gamble following it, but jötnar weren’t particularly good climbers. Christian let out his held breath when he spotted the thing trying to scramble up the wall. It slid down, dragging loose earth behind it with its hooked claws. Easy work to kill it. Sometimes he wished it were more of a challenge.

It was true that it would be disastrous if any of the jötnar got free to ravage the soft, rich world of Midgard. True, too, that the jötnar had entered a spellbound contract with the Vanir to destroy all of the Æsir. He shouldn’t pity the enemy of his blood, but he did.

He killed it quickly, cleanly, and then turned Skadi around in the tight space, leaving the corpse behind. They’d run cleanup later, placing a rune-spelled stone on each of the bodies to destroy the remains. They left no trace behind, neither blood nor bone. Not a scrap of DNA that would make anyone suspicious.

Now that they were no longer on the chase, Skadi had lost his sense of urgency, and Christian had to urge him back to the fight. When he reached the clearing, he paused for a moment to get his bearings. Raquel and Kamis had the portal closed and the fight was already winding down. There were two demons left, both cornered by hounds. Aiden held his sword arm close to his body. His leather armor and skin were shredded, and blood seeped from between his fingers.

And Jacey…

Jacey had made it to the rock. She stood on a narrow ledge about forty feet above the lake. Her body was turned, angled away from him. Her hand shaded her eyes as she looked toward the dragon. No, wait. The dragon was no longer perched on the opposite bank. Jacey was watching the sky.

He followed her gaze up and then shouted a warning when he saw what she was staring at. Everyone except for Jacey looked at him. Jacey calmly raised her gun and fired at the dragon. The dragon dropped from the sky and her first shot missed. The dragon kept coming, claws extended like a hawk. The Vanir warrior clung to its back, arms wound around a leather strap that served as a sort of makeshift saddle. Jacey fired again, a solid hit straight to the chest, which would have worked fine if she’d been shooting at anything other than a fucking dragon. The tranquilizer dart bounced off the scales and fell away.

Jacey dropped the gun and ran for the edge of the cliff.

Christian moved forward at the same time, dropping his blade so he had his hands free. He’d never dropped his weapon once before meeting Jacey. Now he’d lost it twice in one week. His father would have tanned his hide for such carelessness, but at that moment Christian didn’t really give a damn. He was too busy trying to figure out how to catch a woman falling off a cliff.

Behind him, Aiden shouted his name, but Christian couldn’t take his eyes off Jacey. When she reached the edge, she didn’t even break stride…brave, stupid girl. She just hurled herself right over the side and fell so fast that he knew he’d never make it. The dragon cried out in rage, and Jacey screamed too.

The sound cut short as she fell into a shimmer of light that was similar to the way the portal looked when dormant. Spatial displacement—that was what his teachers had called it. The stuff of Asgard pushing its way into this world. It was part of the magic that kept them alive here.

What he was looking at now was magic too, slowing her fall. He swung his gaze around the clearing and spotted Kamis, eyes white but directed toward Jacey. Kamis’s hand was extended, open, his palm raised to the sky. As Kamis lowered his hand, Jacey drifted lightly toward the ground. Her feet touched down, and her knees bent to absorb the slight shock as if she’d jumped five feet instead of forty. At the very least, Kamis had saved her a pair of broken legs.

Christian started to breathe again. Jacey…Jacey looked up and grinned at him as he finally reached her side.

“That was so cool,” she shouted. “Did you do that?”

He bent in his saddle and grabbed her under her arms to haul her up. Settling her across his lap, he pulled her around to face him. “What the Hel did you think you were doing?”

“What I came here to do.” She waved in the direction of the fleeing dragon, barely visible now. “We came for the dragon, remember? The demons were just a distraction.”

When he muttered a curse, Aiden laughed. The Odin stood only a few feet away, holding his bloody arm. Fen sat beside him with his head tipped to one side. Grace lifted his sword. “You dropped this.”

“Bring it back to the house. I’m taking her home.”

“Your house or—”

Christian didn’t hear the rest of what she said. He was already moving away from the portal and his clan. He’d come back later to find out what they planned to do about the Vanir warrior and the dragon. Right now, he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He had to get Jacey away from there to see for himself that she was okay.

Over his shoulder, he called, “I’ll come pick it up later.”