Dreamwalker (Stormwalker #5) (16 page)

More downdrafts of wind rattled through the clearing. One of the dead trees shuddered and slowly toppled, the sound of its passing smothered by the whooshing of leathery wings.
 

Two dragons touched down, which again, I’d seen in my future. One was black; the other, pure white. The white one I’d seen only once. Her name was Aine, she was one-third of the Dragon Council, and she was a cold-hearted bitch.

The other was Bancroft, who lived in the dragon compound in Santa Fe and gave Drake orders. Drake wasn’t part of the council—he was Bancroft’s flunky.

I didn’t waste time wondering why Bancroft and Aine had come. Whatever their reason, it couldn’t be good. I didn’t like Drake’s words, or the sorrowful tone in which he spoke them.

I ran forward, screw trying to be secretive. The only thing that could take down a dragon, short of a god, was another dragon.
 

There were three dragons against Mick. He was good, but I didn’t like those odds.

The dragons were so busy drawing themselves up and being arrogant that they never saw me coming at them until Drake swung around. His dark eyes widened and a look of vast puzzlement came over his face.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” he said in confusion.

I ignored him. “Stay the hell away from him!” I yelled at Aine and Bancroft. “Go crawl back into whatever volcano spawned you and leave us alone!”

Mick had spun as soon as he heard my voice. “Janet, what the fuck?”

I grabbed his hands and hung on. “They’ll kill you. If you protect me, they’ll condemn you to death. Go and let me deal with them.”

Mick looked at me like I’d gone crazy, and I couldn’t fault him. I hadn’t yet learned to tap the Beneath power in me—I could barely control the Stormwalker.
 

But the Beneath power was there. I could feel it stirring deep in my blood, eager to come out. Bancroft and Aine must have sensed it too, because they drew back, dragon heads ready to strike.

“Drake.” Mick snarled the word as he pushed me forcefully to him. “Protect her.”

He swung away from us and began running, making for the widest part of the clearing. I started after him, but Drake’s hand, wickedly strong, jerked me back.

“It’s his fight, Janet,” he said in a low voice. “And he’s highly trained.”

Mick had vanished behind a cloud of darkness and now rose as a dragon, black shot with red, like his aura. The other two dragons hadn’t attacked before Mick could change—they’d never dream of besting him unfairly.
 

Dragons, Mick had once told me, were all about honor. Me, they’d crush into a smear and not care. But then, I wasn’t dragon.

Is this what had happened while I’d waited, ignorant and worried, in the lakeside motel room, for Mick’s return? Had he fought two members of the Dragon Council and won his way free of them? Dragon issues were so strange that maybe he had to go through this fight before they’d agree that I was under Mick’s parole.

Why didn’t that feel right?
 

The black dragon and the white hit the air then split left and right to flank Mick and dive at him from two sides. Hot air pumped over Drake and me on the ground as fireballs shot out of all three dragons at once.

I gathered my strength. The storm on the edges of the mountains crackled pleasantly with electricity, and I drew all of it into me.
 

In this space and time, I hadn’t been in control of my magics. But the Janet who was dreaming had worked very hard in the ensuing years to conquer them.

I’d also learned how to touch the Beneath magic in me. Here, far from any vortex that contained my mother, I could draw on it without fear of awakening her. I balled my fists, reaching for the power Mick and others had taught me to tame.

I found it, the Beneath magic raw and waiting, gleefully willing me to bring it forth. I wrapped my senses around the storm, gathered lightning in my fingers, and wrapped it around a ball of Beneath magic.

Drake’s hand clamped down on my shoulder. “Janet, no! Let it play out.”

“Are you kidding me?” My fingers danced with fire, and I jerked from him. “They’ll kill him. Why don’t you help him?”

“Because I can’t.” Drake’s jaw tightened, and I saw anguish in his eyes. “This is the way it happened. We have to let it.”

I stared at him in sudden shock. I’d been so distracted with worry for Mick that I missed how Drake had been acting since I’d run up to them. Not as though he’d never seen me before and believed me evil incarnate, but as though he already knew me. He’d called me by name and had given Mick tacit agreement to keep me safe while the three dragons battled it out.

But this was
my
dream—my dream of the past. Drake hadn’t known me a this time. He’d only met me when Bancroft kidnapped me and locked me in the dragon compound a year ago. At that time, both Bancroft and Drake had been convinced that I’d been born to end the world.

Why did he act as though he knew me now?

I narrowed my eyes. “You burned down my saloon.”

Drake switched his dark gaze to me, his brows shooting together. “I paid to have it rebuilt. And you should not know that.”

“I do know that. You do it six years from this time. I’m dreaming this … I think.”

“No, this is
my
dream,” Drake said. “My memories of this night.”

I stared at him again. “Well, this is a hell of a thing.”

“Anything can happen in a dream,” Drake said, looking stubborn. “Because you talk of a shared experience in our future does not mean I am not dreaming. Dreams can juxtapose many things, past and present, memories and wishes, hopes and fears.”

“You studied psychology in college, did you?” I asked testily. “I’m beginning to think this isn’t a shared dream, but an alternate reality.”

“There is no such thing as an alternate reality,” Drake countered.

“Actually, the idea of multiple universes is studied seriously in quantum physics. So Mick tells me. But that’s not what I mean. This is magic. I suspect Emmett has something to do with it.”

Drake’s unease and determination that this was nothing but a dream vanished in a wash of rage.

“Smith? This is
his
doing?” His eyes flashed fire, his fists balling. The dragon wing tatts on his back moved restlessly up his shoulders.

“I
think
so,” I said. “I don’t know anyone else who could do a spell this hefty.”

Drake’s fury didn’t die, but his voice calmed slightly. “To what end?”

“To kill me and Mick and steal my mirror.”

Drake’s puzzlement returned. “Why?”

“Why? Because it’s a seriously magical talisman. If Emmett has it, he’ll be unstoppable.”

“He is already enormously powerful, for a human,” Drake said. Why such an elaborate trick, when he could simply kill you and take the mirror?”

“
I
don’t know. Because he likes drama? Or because Mick and I are hard to kill?”

Three dragons screamed at us in a low pass, buzzing us like strafing aircraft. Drake tackled me, sending me to the ground, him on top of me.

The dragons flew past, two flames arrowing in to blast Mick. Mick rolled out of the way, and the flames hit dead trees at the edge of the forest, setting them alight.

I knew from living in dry country how quickly fires could spread. Before I could think hard about it, I brought out a ball of Beneath magic laced with storm lighting and threw it at the flames.

I’d seen Gabrielle do this, and I hoped I’d figured out the technique. The Beneath magic hit the fire, surrounded it, and squashed it out like fire retardant.

Before I could feel triumph, the dragons circled back, the two older ones right on Mick’s tail. He ducked with a sudden back-push of his wings, and the other two overshot him.

Aine recovered first, turning on one wing like a giant seabird and heading straight for Mick. She attacked, mouth open, taking out a large chunk of Mick’s shoulder before he could spin away.

By that time, Bancroft had banked and now arrowed straight for Mick, bringing his talons down on Mick’s back. At the same time, Aine darted in, her mouth closing over Mick’s sinuous neck. Mick thrashed, his tail smacking her, but Aine held on. Blood spurted from Mick’s neck and showered over Aine’s white hide, staining it scarlet.

I screamed. Mick rolled and flailed, but Aine held on with tight jaws, Bancroft clawing through Mick’s back.

All three of them fell, Mick’s wing catching a line of trees and flattening them as the dragons plummeted toward earth. They went down on the other side of the clearing, shaking the ground like an earthquake. Mick’s outstretched wing shattered with a sickening crunch of bone.

I screamed again. My magic was ready to kill, and I sprinted for them.

I’d never make it in time. The clearing was large, and Aine and Bancroft had landed on Mick and were starting to tear him apart.

Drake was right behind me, but running with me. “This wasn’t what happened!” he shouted, as though that would stop the dragons. “This isn’t what happens!”

“What did happen?” I yelled back at him.

“Mick bested them.” Drake’s words came at me as he passed me, his legs longer, his muscular body in the best training. “He won his point. This time, they’re killing him.”

I tried to increase my speed, but even in a dream, I panted and gasped, trying to keep up with Drake. He ran like an athlete, the dragon tatts on his back moving as he sprinted toward the carnage. Dimly I knew it would take him longer to turn dragon than to simply run, but I wished he’d sweep me up and fly me over there.

Aine and Bancroft were peeling Mick’s hide from his bones. Mick fought, snapping and snarling, catching them with claws and teeth.
 

I gathered all the magic I possessed, grabbed at the lightning and hail, and hugged them to me. I shot enough magic at the ground to lift me and sail me through the air to land just behind Drake.

“Stop!” Drake was shouting at the dragons. “You must stop!”

Bancroft turned around and shot a ball of fire at him.
 

I jumped in front of Drake, shoving him aside and taking the ball of fire fully on myself.
 

The flames eagerly surrounded me and bit into me, plunging me into a furnace. My voice died, not even letting me cry out as my skin began to melt.

Chapter Sixteen

I was dying. Flames ate my body and liquefied my skin. I couldn’t even scream.

Even so, Mick sensed my anguish somehow. Through the red of the fire I saw him lift his head and look at me, just before my sight failed. I heard him bellow in rage and grief, and then I heard nothing, felt only pain so great it had no meaning.

I tried to draw on my Beneath magic, to dampen the fire as I had on the trees. Nothing happened. I didn’t know if I could do nothing because this was a dream, or the dragon fire had destroyed me too much for there to be a
me
anymore.

If the dragon fire consumed me in this dream, would I awaken? Would I be lying in my bed, with Mick and my friends surrounding me as they had the first time? Or was killing me in a dream Emmett’s only hope of taking the mirror?

Sweet dreams, Janet,
he’d said.

I seemed to hear Emmett’s voice even now. “Don’t move,” he said in his cold tones.

Was he talking to Drake? I certainly couldn’t move as I burned to ash.

Something hit me. I felt cool earth on my face, then another wash of pain roared through my body. I gasped and inhaled dirt.

Then I floated upward, agony dragging through me. But it was the pain of my heart beating, my blood flowing, air flushing into my lungs. My skin solidified and swept back over muscle and bone until it was whole, tight, and clean.

Sight, sound, and smell came back to me, as well as taste. I spit dirt from my mouth and blinked at the flash of fire on a pristine pair of eyeglasses.

Emmett stood in front of me, his tie not even crooked. “You back with me, Janet?”

I took a long breath—that didn’t burn—spit out more dirt, and said, “What the hell are you doing here?”

He gave me a cool smile. “I’ll take that as a
yes
. Fireballs smart, don’t they?”

I recalled Emmett exiting his limo after Mick had flamed it, brushing off his coat as though merely annoyed. Had his skin fried off his bones with the same searing pain I’d felt before his spell saved him?

At the moment, I wasn’t much interested. “Mick,” I choked.

Aine and Bancroft were killing him. Drake had gone dragon and even now was attacking Bancroft in Mick’s defense, but I knew it was too late.

I gathered the storm to me once more and reached for the Beneath magic, ready to blast Aine and Bancroft to dust.

“That won’t work,” Emmett said quickly. “Not with dragons. They’ll eat the storm magic, and your Beneath magic isn’t strong enough this far from the vortex.”

My hands glowed, magic pulsing through my blood, fueled by rage. “What does work? Tell me
now
.”

“Nothing. Dragons are hard to kill. They intake magic of all kinds and rapidly heal themselves. Only a dragon or a god can kill another dragon.”

I’d known that. But Emmett was the most powerful mage in the world. Who knew what
he
could do?

“Concentrate on saving Mick, not killing the dragons,” he said.

I stopped. As much as I hated taking advice from a ruthlessly dangerous man like Emmett, he was right. A fledgling Stormwalker wasn’t going to best two of the toughest dragons on the planet.
 

Mick, on the other hand, ate my storm magic for breakfast and declared himself stronger for it. “Help me,” I snapped at Emmett and darted forward.

I had no idea if Emmett would do anything to assist me or not. But, if it was in his best interest to see me and Mick die, why had he just saved me? And hinted at how I could save Mick?

I tamped my Beneath magic down to the tiny spark from which it had begun, then swept up lightning now happily raging above the trees. I sprinted the last distance to Mick, crackling with electricity, and ducked under the attacking dragons.

Drake had drawn off Bancroft, who screamed in fury and struck Drake with outraged intensity. Aine, on the other hand, concentrated on disemboweling Mick.