Ancient Magic: a New Adult Urban Fantasy (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress Book 1) (10 page)

“Security. Origin Enterprises guards things that people want guarded. There’s also an imports and exports division, specializing in things of value. And bodyguards.”

“So you protect things, and I steal them.”

“You’re the shifty one in this pair.” He indicated both of us.

“Hey, my operation is legal.”
 
Primarily because I stayed away from human artifacts and put back the magical ones that I found. “You really want to go on a date with me? I figured you’d want to stay away from slumming with the likes of me.”

“You’re interesting,” he said. “I’d heard of you before. Anyone in the security business keeps up with the people who’re experts at breaking and entering. But it wasn’t until I met you that I realized there’s something different about you. So, you’re a Mirror Mage.”

“Yep.” I tried to keep my face expressionless. He didn’t need to know the extent of my power. Or what I was.

“So that’s how you get past the enchantments that protect the tombs.”

“Exactly.” Being a Mirror Mage allowed me to easily break the enchantments that protect temples and tombs. Because I could reflect back any kind of magic I came into contact with, I was perfectly suited to understanding and breaking enchantments. Fighting fire with fire.

Except the reality was that I used my wits and strength most of the time because my magic was so damned uncontrollable.

“Except I didn’t sense any magic when I went down to the tomb after you broke in,” he said.

“I’m not a very powerful mage, so I don’t leave a lot of trace. And I don’t use it often. It’s more fun to go all Lara Croft on a place.”

“Lara Croft?”

“
Tomb Raider
? Badass chick who’s strong and smart and gets by on her wits?”

He grinned. “Yeah, I see it.”

I relaxed a bit, hoping I’d thrown him off the scent. “What kind of Magica are you? Weather witch? Transport mage?” I asked to distract him. And I wanted to know.
 

He shot me a suspicious look, as if he knew I was trying to change the subject. Okay, so I wasn’t going to get off that easy with him. Distraction was my chosen method of keeping people from asking questions, but Aidan struck me as the still-waters-run-deep kind of guy. Which was a good thing if you were looking for a date—but not if you were trying to keep a secret. He might act like nothing was up and he wasn’t suspicious, but the look in his eyes made goosebumps pop up on my skin. I couldn’t identify it.
 

Finally, he answered my question. “A variety.”

My lips parted in surprise. “More than one?”
 

That was rare. Most Magica were born with one root gift. He was the Origin and a multi-gift Magica? That was off the charts.

“Yes,” he said. “Go on a real date with me, and I’ll tell you what they are.”

I leaned back. “I can figure them out for myself, thanks. I’ll just let you take on the baddies in whatever temple or tomb this scroll is hidden in. Then I’ll see what you’ve got.”

“Maybe it’ll work. Don’t count on it though.” He grinned and it made those damned butterflies start flapping around in my stomach again.
 

Being around him was getting to be too much. He was too much. Too hot, too powerful, too wealthy. Worse, he was too much in the ways that mattered. He was nice, smart, and funny.
 

And he seemed to actually like me.

Nope, I could not handle this. It was way outside my pay grade.

I shoved the last bite of pasta into my mouth and pushed away from the table. “I’ve got to hit the hay. I’m exhausted. We’ll leave early tomorrow?”

He nodded. “6 a.m.”

“Great.”
 

I headed back to the room I was borrowing and collapsed into bed. As I fell asleep, I realized that the expression I hadn’t at first recognized on his face was one that should have made me nervous.

It was patience. As if he knew I had a secret and would wait to figure it out. Or, like he wanted to get to know me.
 

There was no way I could let that happen.

The helicopter hovered over the glittering water of the fjord, its rotors beating in the wind. The noise roared in my ears as the bright sun shone through the glass windows.
 

We’d flown to Bergen, on Norway’s west coast, this morning and picked up a helicopter at the same airport. I had to admit, my job was a lot easier when the way was paved by Aidan’s influence and money.

Norway’s green mountains and glittering fjords spread out beneath us. I’d used my dragon sense to lead us here, following the pull of treasure at the other end of the line. Our pilot, Neilson, had followed my ambiguous directions to a T. She was in her sixties and had chin-length brown hair, cool sunglasses, and nothing fazed her. In short, she was the perfect helicopter pilot.

Aidan and I were strapped into the back. I squinted down at the forest below. It sat in the middle of a valley that ran perpendicular to the fjord. A river poured from it, feeding the massive body of water between the cliffs. The familiar strong tug of recognition pulled at my middle, directing me toward the valley.

“There!” I pointed below. “We need to land there.”

“There’s nothing down there!” shouted Neilson over the rotors.

“Just put us down,” Aidan said.

“You’ll have to use the ropes,” Neilson said. “Nowhere decent to land.”

“Not a problem,” I said.
 

On the plane ride over, Aidan and I had discussed the possibility. Because of Norway’s steep terrain, helicopter was the best way to scout for the site. But since landing a helicopter on a mountain wasn’t always possible, we’d planned on a mid-air descent. Aidan had offered to jump out of the plane first and turn into a griffon so that I could jump onto his back. While it sounded totally badass, and I’d almost taken him up on it, it also sounded way to intimate. No way was I riding on his back.
 

So we were going the old-fashioned way.

Neilson hovered the helicopter over the trees about forty feet from the ground. Once it was stable—relatively—she shouted, “Whenever you’re ready!”

Aidan and I glanced at each other and nodded, then turned to our separate doors on either side of the chopper. I pulled mine open and braced myself against the wind that whipped at my hair. My eyes watered. With my heart in my throat, I looked down.

Forty feet. Not so bad.

Enough to splat, but that was unlikely. At least, that’s what I had to tell myself. I grabbed the hook and cable near the door and latched it to the harness I was wearing.
 

“Ready?” Aidan shouted against the wind.

I met his gaze. “Yeah!”

“Watch out for the trolls!” Neilson added.

Of course there would be trolls.

We both crouched at our door. With one last look at his ridiculously handsome face—I was weak, what could I say?—I lowered myself out of the helicopter. My weight on the rope made the gears kick in and it slowly lowered me to the ground. The wind buffeted me. Hell of a ride.

When my feet touched down, I unhooked my harness. Aidan did the same. We stood in the middle of a sparse forest, the narrow-trunked pine enveloping us. With a wave, Neilson took off. We’d call her when we needed to get back out.

“You good?” Aidan asked.

“Better than.” I closed my eyes and focused on the tugging sensation at my middle. “We’re close.”

“Good,” Aidan said. “Because something is coming our way.”

My ears perked up. There was a rumbling in the forest, as if something huge were running at us. I hadn’t noticed it because I’d assumed it was the noise of the chopper flying away. Wrong.

I met Aidan’s gaze. “Trolls.”

Neilson hadn’t been joking. Some parts of Norway had a bit of a troll problem. They were huge. Fifteen feet tall on average and weighed about two thousand pounds. I’d never actually seen one, but I knew they liked to hang out around ancient sites.

“Follow me.” I set off through the forest, dodging tree trunks and jumping rocks. We were so close I could feel it. I assumed it was an ancient ruin of some kind, so we just had to get inside. If it was too small for the trolls to enter, they likely wouldn’t destroy it. They had too much respect for the ancient sites.

Getting out would be a problem, but we’d deal with that when the time came.

Water sounded in the distance, which increased the likelihood someone had once built something here.
 

“We’re close!” I shouted at Aidan, who ran at my side.

Suddenly, the trees thinned. Nothingness loomed before me. I skidded to a halt and looked down. A waterfall poured into a crystal pool about twenty feet below. The water sparkled, blue and inviting, surrounded by boulders and ferns. It looked deep enough to jump into.

“Oh no,” I breathed.

“Where is it?” Aidan asked.

The thunder of the trolls chasing us grew louder.

“In there!” I pointed to the pool.

“What do you mean?”

I freaking hated this part. That water was going to be icy. “It’s the entrance.”

“So we jump?”

I liked that Aidan took it in stride. I personally wanted to bitch and moan for a little longer. Swimming in my boots sucks, but there was no way I’d leave them behind.
 

But I ran out of time. A roar ripped through the forest, and I looked back to see two trolls burst from the trees. They were well over fifteen feet tall and looked like they were made of stone. As if the mountain had come alive and spit them out. They each carried an enormous club.

“Jump!” I threw myself off the cliff, my stomach threatening to leap out of my mouth. Wind whipped by as I plummeted. I crashed into icy cold water.

Pain.
 

It was so cold my muscles froze up, and a pounding headache speared through my head. I kicked for the surface.

When I burst through, Aidan was beside me, his dark hair plastered to his head.

“Where to now?” he asked.

“Below. Swim down and look for a hole in the rock, probably. Then swim along until we get inside.” Inside what, I wasn’t sure. But I’d been in three tombs like this before, and I hoped this would be the same. My job didn’t involve a whole lot of certainty.

The trolls above roared and I flinched. I treaded water and glanced up. They leaned over the cliff, glowering at us. Their roar made the leaves on the trees tremble.

“We can—”

The trolls leapt, crashing to the ground beside the pool. They’d jumped! I knew they couldn’t swim—rock sinks, after all—but they had long enough arms that they could grab us.

“Now!” I sucked in a breath and dove, the icy water enveloping me. It was beautiful and blue as I swam down, kicking as hard as I could. A dark patch in the rock caught my eye, and I swam for it, praying the tunnel wasn’t too long.
 

I grabbed a rock near the tunnel entrance and pulled myself toward it. There was only blackness beyond. It led into the mountain. This was it.

Aidan swam beside me, but he let me go in first. I kicked forward, my lungs burning and my boots making me slow. I really needed to practice my breath-holding. For a treasure hunter, this was pathetic. Lara Croft would be ashamed of me.
 

The tunnel was only about four feet in diameter.
Don’t think about the size.
Tight spaces had never gotten me before. I hated them but I always won. I kicked and pulled myself along the rocks—anything to reach the end.
 

But the end wouldn’t come. It was still dark and closed in. My lungs were on fire. If I wasn’t halfway there by now, I was dead.

I scrambled around, ready to retreat. My number one rule in cave swimming—if you only have half your breath left but can’t see the end, abort. It’s your only chance at living.

I pushed at Aidan, expecting him to turn and swim back out. He didn’t move. Fear surged in my chest. I wanted to scream at him. Though I knew I could make him hear me through the water, I couldn’t let go of my air like that. I kicked myself forward, pushing. I couldn’t get around him—there wasn’t enough space. Didn’t he know my lungs were smaller than his?

Suddenly, he pushed me forward. Panic clawed at me. I fought him, but he pushed me faster. I was flying through the water, completely disoriented.
 

Was I going up? What was—?

I broke the surface and sucked air into my burning lungs. It was dark all around me. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, deafening in the dark. Where was Aidan? I fumbled in an inner pocket of my jacket and pulled out a charmed lightstone. I shoved the ring onto my finger. It was too clunky to wear as jewelry, but the addition of the ring band made it easy to carry in situations like this.

I relied a lot on charmed objects like these. When I held it up, its glow illuminated the giant cave. An underground lake with a domed ceiling of stone soared above.

I spun, then jerked back, splashing. A creature with a smooth head and narrow snout looked at me.
 

Holy crap, a sea lion. A haze of gray light obscured the sea lion’s head. When it faded, Aidan treaded water in its place.

“Seriously? A sea lion?” My voice echoed in the cavern.