Magical Temptations, page 11
Davies was a little trickier—his body too big. We first thought he could go over, but the beam went a little bit higher to make that too risky. So he crawled under, the stream nearly brushing against his back. He joined us and then we talked everyone else through. Once Tyr made it through safely, we moved on.
“How are you so flexible?” Davies asked when I had to place my feet in two different spots, making it a little hard to stand. But I figured if I could do it, so could they since I was the shortest out of the group.
“I tried to join a circus when I was thirteen. I was with them for about a week before social services picked me up. I learned a few tricks though,” I said.
“Shit, really?” Davies asked.
I nodded. “Best week of my childhood,” I admitted. “Those bastards are sly assholes, and they were the best at it. And I was more than willing to learn.”
“What else did you learn?” Millie asked as I stepped in another spot, shifting my weight enough to not fall over.
“I can throw knives,” I admitted. “But not much else. They found me too soon. I was about to learn how to juggle, too.”
“This is all fascinating, but can we focus for now?” Myr asked.
Millie shook her head and smirked, amused by her teammate.
We walked in silence and when I made it to the other side, I allowed my body to turn into jelly as the tension left me.
I made it. I had to make sure the others did too.
Davies and Tyren needed the most help getting through and Whertz enjoyed himself a little too much. Everyone else made it safely with little fanfare.
Once everyone got safely through, I stayed in the lead, with Davies and Myr at my back. The next couple of hours went by painfully. We ran into three more traps. One where we had to be a little flexible to get through, another that tried to take me out but Myr was kind enough to save me, and the last one we had to follow a pattern on a floor or turn into barbeque.
Myr came off as an asshole, but he was nice enough to make sure I didn’t get myself killed. In my defense, the trap was energy based, and they had the entire area dosed with the same signature, making it hard to sense anything else.
I deactivated the third one, but it took a lot of magic on my part to get the trap to turn off. Otherwise, it would have rained poisonous needles.
When we came to a massive cavern with a ceiling that disappeared into the darkness, we decided to stop. It looked like whoever we were behind had also briefly stopped in the same spot. Chez spotted a piece of bloody cloth and went over to examine it.
“We need to catch up to them,” Shanton said, eyes zeroed in on Chez to get a better look.
“And we will. These traps aren’t a cakewalk. Having us all here makes it easier but doing this alone would have slowed them down considerably,” I said. “We’ll catch up.”
“Better.”
I stared at Shanton as he went over to talk to Millie and Yvenne. His body was tight with stress. This was important to him, much more important than getting a dangerous weapon back to the right people. Made me wonder what he wanted out of this. What would he ask the elementalists?
Shanton called out, “We’ll leave in a couple of hours so do what you need to do to recharge. We’re going to make a harder push.” His deep voice bounced off the cavern walls, echoing through the massive space.
I grabbed my bag and leaned against a wall.
“How are you doing?” Venni asked, standing over me.
When I stared up at him without answering, he sighed and sat down next to me.
“Just tired,” I said.
“You used a lot of magic on that last one.”
“I didn’t do anything I couldn’t handle.” I pulled out a small bottle, about the length of my finger, and opened it.
“What’s that?”
“A boost. It’ll take a bit to take effect but it’ll help replenish me.” I downed it in one go and sighed, ignoring the tart taste against my tongue. I put the empty bottle away and closed my eyes, ready to take a quick nap.
Chapter 10
Of course, as soon as my eyes closed, growling woke me. The air was thick with Shanton’s energy, tense and ready to lash out.
“What is it?” I whispered. Rhett, Venni, and Davies were in front of me, ready to defend and blocking my view.
“Don’t know,” Davies said, completely serious now, expression hard, eyes narrowed.
Shanton let out a roar that echoed off the walls and threatened to burst eardrums. I shoved between Davies and Venni to see. A creature made a weird growling noise and stepped into the light of the orbs.
I gasped and took a step back, trying to put together what I saw. Nothing about the creature was natural. It looked like a mishmash of parts. Extra limbs were attached all over the body. Two heads sat on wide shoulders. Sinewy muscles stretched as it hunched down, drool coming out of a mouth that looked like it belonged on a feline. The second head looked more like a bird with a long hooked beak and beady eyes. Two tails swished back and forth as its eyes locked on Shanton. Bones peeked out through the translucent skin. The stench of something old and rotten permeated the air.
“What the fuck is that?” Davies whispered, his eyes wide with terror.
My expression reflected his because I didn’t know what we were looking at. If this was done by elementalists, they were definitely fearsome. This creature was alive. I could feel the mash of energy and magic, working together to give this thing a conscience. And right now, it was furious. From the long gash across the feline face, my best guess was that it ran into whoever was ahead of us. By the blood coating the mane of reddish brown fur, I hoped it got its two rows of teeth into the person.
“A dreho,” Shanton growled. “A production of magic to create a living being.”
“Not just magic, but also energy,” I said. The tilt of Shanton’s head was enough of an acknowledgement since he refused to look away from the creature.
“Then don’t be fooled. This thing has thoughts and by the looks of those eyes, enough knowledge to be a true foe. We won’t be able to easily defeat it,” Shanton said.
The creature took another step, and Shanton growled louder. Another set of growls came from the two beside him, and I finally realized what they were.
Wyverns. Cousins to the original dragons. Dragons had complete control of energy. Wyverns’ gifts were in magic, not energy. They weren’t as strong. It was like comparing a kitten to a tiger in terms of strength.
The dreho had had enough of this. It stood straight up, standing at about ten feet, and roared. I covered my ears, trying to protect my eardrums from the onslaught of sound. While we recovered, the dreho attacked, going right for Shanton. It was like watching two walls slam into each other, neither of them willing to give in. Shanton slammed the creature onto the ground with a loud snarl, not at all deterred by its size. It retaliated with its tail and hit Shanton, sending him into a nearby wall. The ground shook, rocks fell. If this fight didn’t end quickly, the caving structure was going to fall on top of us.
“Stay back,” Davies said, eyes hard as he tracked the fight. Myr was in there, attacking when the dreho was distracted with Shanton. Tyren watched the fight just as carefully, and only attacked when the beast was focused on Myr. They kept the dreho’s focus split between the three of them, but they weren’t getting anywhere.
“We need to help,” I said.
“Please, Laila, stay fucking still right now,” Davies snapped.
Venni sighed, his eyes on the fight like everyone else. And yet no one did anything. “Laila, if we go in there, we will get in their way and hinder the fight. We’ve never fought with them before. We need to learn how to move together before we try to join.”
“The girls are cooking something up,” Rhett said.
I turned to look at them. They had gathered close together and were working on something, leaving Whertz to keep Chez safe. I could feel whatever they were doing gather in the air.
The dreho roared, sending my heart rate into overdrive. Rhett took in a deep breath, his eyes flickering over to me. He could smell my fear. He clenched his fists and turned to the dreho, his lips twisting up into a snarl as his golden eyes blazed with his anger and hunger.
He didn’t wait any longer, ignoring Davies’s swearing as he charged into the fight, hopping onto the dreho’s back. The dreho tried to buck him off, leaving his underside free, giving Shanton the distraction he needed to take a swipe at him.
But all those limbs weren’t only for show. One reached at Rhett, grabbing him and tossing him hard into a wall. Another kicked at Myr and the other grabbed Shanton and tossed him hard at the women. They scattered, their magic breaking up since it was incomplete. Whertz made sure to pull Chez out of the way. They were too slow to cast. That was a downfall for magic if a complicated spell was needed. It took too much time to put together.
Rhett tried to get to his feet but fell back down.
“Rhett!” I called out and ran toward him, dodging Davies and Venni as they reached for me. I ran to the vampire’s side, already breathing heavily out of fear and adrenaline. There was a loud bang and the ground shook.
I grabbed onto Rhett, trying to get him to his feet, but he was too dazed to give me the help I needed. I wasn’t strong enough. Not like shifters or vampires.
“Give him to me,” Venni said, and I sighed in relief as he took the burden off of me.
“Shit! Laila, move your ass, now.” I turned at the urgency in Davies voice as he ran toward us. Then I saw the creature coming straight toward us, both heads looking at us. The feline one was focused on me, the bird-like one focused on Venni and Rhett.
“No!” I pushed out my magic, slamming it into the two next to me, forcing them to get out of the way. Then I rolled to the side, hitting the wall as the dreho slammed into the spot where we’d been.
Something grabbed and lifted me off the ground, their grip steel around my waist. A few of my teammates roared in fury, the air a cold mixture of dragon energy, magic, and the violence of Venni. His energy was potent as it zinged through the air like an electric current.
But none of them could do anything as I went higher and closer to the creature. I pushed out my magic, hoping to get it to let me go. Instead, claws bit into my sides as it tightened its grip, and I bit back a scream. I grabbed onto the creature and shoved more of my magic into it with the intent to hurt it as I begged the magic to help me.
I expected the creature to scream, to lash out, to tear me apart. Something. Anything. Instead, it stilled, the claws pulling out of my skin. My magic easily seeped into the creature, feeling it, feeling everything. I latched onto whatever animated this creature and my inherent curiosity sent it deeper, digging further into the beast, seeking out what made it tick. Pulling back didn’t work—my magic wanted to go further, to stretch out through it and dissect what it found.
Overwhelmed, I moaned at all the sensations, my sight going blurry.
The pain. So much pain. Nothing on the dreho worked right. The fury was in there too. It didn’t understand why it was like this, it didn’t understand why it had to hurt so much. It didn’t understand anything but the need to lash out.
It wanted to die.
“Oh goddess,” I moaned.
“Shit, Laila!” Davies yelled.
“Get her down, now!” one of the women said. “She’s connecting.”
“Break her connection,” another woman screamed.
Something grabbed my legs and yanked hard. The creature didn’t fight to keep me, and I went down.
Moaning, I wrapped my arms around whoever held me. His energy danced along my skin, helping me pull my magic back a little.
“Kill it,” a voice boomed next to my ear, and I realized I was in Shanton’s arms.
“No!” I screamed and thrashed.
“I’ve got you. Calm down, Laila. I’ve got you.”
“Nooo!” I sobbed, wanting to get free. I tried to push away, blinking through my blurry eyes. I couldn’t see, I could barely breathe properly.
Oh goddess, all that pain.
“Let me go!”
“Stop! Laila, stop!”
“What’s wrong with her?” someone asked.
“Let her go,” Yvenne said. “Let her go.” She sounded like she was crying as much as I was.
My feet hit the ground, and I sank down to my knees. I cried hard and if anyone touched me I screamed until they backed off.
The only touch I could tolerate was Yvenne’s. She understood, and we both knew what we needed to do. We helped each other up and stumbled forward. When we were close enough to touch the dreho, Yvenne grabbed my hand and reached out with me.
I cried harder as I felt the cold hard skin. Its pain and fury lashed out at me because that was all the dreho knew to do, to fight, to hurt, to seek revenge for its suffering. I soothed it with my magic as best as I could. I could feel Yvenne pulling at the emotions, taking them away. The creature screamed out, and I heard people yelling, but we ignored all the action, focusing on the now.
Do it, Yvenne said, but not in my ear. I heard her deep in my soul. Release it.
I cried harder, the injustice tearing me apart. I shoved my magic inside the creature, finding the bonds of magic and energy holding it together. Something like this… this dreho… it shouldn’t have ever existed. The poor thing.
You can do it.
I nodded and closed my eyes, pulling on the energy I felt around me, mainly from Shanton and Venni. I drew it in, made it my own, and twined it with my magic, before pushing hard into the creature.
I screamed.
Yvenne screamed.
The creature bellowed.
Then the bonds within it crumbled, breaking apart until there was nothing left.
It stopped bellowing, I stopped screaming. Arms wrapped around my body, and Yvenne rocked me like I was a baby. I gripped her hard and just cried, unable to handle so much pain and misery. This was pure torture. Nothing about the dreho was right. It didn’t work right and had to exist in agony.
You put it to rest, Laila. You’re okay. You did it.
I cried harder and someone pulled me away from Yvenne, but I could still feel her connected to me, helping me with all the emotions threatening to pull me apart.
“Baby, speak to me. What’s wrong?” Davies asked. His voice sounded so broken. I pushed my face into his shoulders, allowing the fact that he didn’t hold magic and barely any energy give me comfort. My skin felt raw against any metaphysical touch. Even the brush of Rhett’s energy when he got close put me on edge. Davies didn’t have that and it allowed for numbness to spread through my body.
“She connected to the creature and felt what it felt. That dreho shouldn’t have ever been made.” Yvenne’s voice broke at the end.
“What do you mean?” Shanton asked, his voice deep and growly.
“Nothing was right, and it knew it. It felt so much pain from being put together, but was powerless to do anything about it. Madness ate at its brain because it couldn’t handle what it was. That creature should not have existed. It raged because of the injustice. Whoever made it was cruel. Dr. Porter felt it all, and she unmade it.”
“Unmade? What does that mean?” Venni asked. I tightened my grip on Davies, unable to do anything but cry. I didn’t cry often, I never really had anything to cry about. Not until now. Not until I realized how cruel people really could be. And for what? I shook my head. Why?
“She broke the bonds,” Yvenne said. “But to do that, she had to be a part of it. Inside that creature is not a place to be.”
“Baby, you’re okay,” Davies said, rocking me back and forth. We stayed like that until I stopped crying and dozed off from exhaustion. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep my eyes opened.
“Sleep, Laila,” Shanton said, hovering over us. He rested his hand on my forehead. “Go to sleep, little one. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
Those were the last words I heard as darkness took over.
Chapter 11
A feeling of wrongness woke me. I could still feel the creature’s thoughts and anger inside my head. I moaned and hands shook me.
“Laila, Babe, wake up.”
I gasped, taking in deep breaths as I realized what was real and not trapped in my head. I sat up slowly as Davies removed his hands from my shoulders. I looked around the room. Someone had managed to create a pit and had started a fire.
“How do you feel?” Shanton asked.
“Like claws are scraping at the inside of my head,” I said.
“Do you remember what happened?” Chez asked.
I glared at him. “You mean the fact that someone created an abomination and left the poor thing down here to suffer?”
“Whoa, Laila, calm down,” Davies said.
I sighed and rubbed my face. “Sorry. That shit messed with my head a bit.”
“What do you remember?” Yvenne asked.
I blinked at her. “You there, anchoring me.”
She nodded.
“I got lost. All I could feel was that thing, all I could see was how it was put together. It was all wrong and cruel.”
“You tore it apart,” Millie said. “You unraveled it.”
“I did what?”
“You unmade that creature.”
“I can’t unmake anything. That thing was living.”
“But because of magic and energy,” Shanton said, moving closer. “Even if it was alive and had some kind of consciousness, it still only existed because of power. You tore that apart.”
I didn’t say anything as I got up and collected all my things, needing normalcy. I checked my bag to take quick inventory, then I checked the boys’ bags to make sure Davies, Venni, and Rhett had everything. I moved a couple of things around and everyone left me to it.
My fingers shook, and I just needed a little control back in my life. Losing myself like that hit too close to home. Memories mocked me as they drilled into me that I didn’t have control as a child and that I could easily lose it now if I wasn’t careful. Magic should never be used in a way that the wielder didn’t understand. They should be aware of what exactly it was that they did. What I did to that dreho was unexplainable. I shouldn’t have had been able to do it. And yet I did. Did its creator understand what they were going to put it through?
