Ancient Magic: a New Adult Urban Fantasy (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress Book 1) (22 page)

Nix shrieked in pain as one grabbed her arm. She lashed out with her blade, but it too passed right through the Phantom.

Ten feet ahead, more silvery bodies formed a barricade at the end of the street, blocking the manor. On either side of us, Phantoms closed in, reaching out with silvery claws.

“We’ll have to run through them!” I said.

“We can’t,” Aidan said. His face was twisted with pain. “It’ll tear us apart.”

From the searing pain that hit me wherever they touched, I believed him.

“Turn into a griffon!” I shouted.

“Can’t.” His voice was tight with pain. “The Phantoms stop me.”

“My blades don’t work!” I shrunk back as they closed in. They surrounded us like a pack of snarling wolves, their faces ravenous for misery and their claws outstretched. My head hurt so badly that I could barely see straight. We had only seconds before they converged upon us with their blade-like touch.

One grabbed Del and pulled her into the crowd. It wrapped its arms fully around her body, enveloping her fully. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t scream in pain. But being touched by so many should be excruciating.

Del began to fade, turning a slivery blue.

“No!” I screamed, lunging toward her.
 

They couldn’t turn Del into one of them. Not my
deirfiúr
.
 
That shouldn’t even be possible. But she had turned silvery blue, and her blade glowed like cobalt flame.

The three of us attacked the Phantoms that surrounded Del. I plunged my blades into the first one I came to, trying to beat my way to her. They flew straight through, and I had to pull back before I stabbed myself in the thighs. The feeling of my arms plunging through the transparent body was like being sliced by a thousand icy knives.

The Phantom grabbed me, wrapping its arms around my waist as the other had done with Del. The feel of thousands of knives slicing my skin was excruciating. I shrieked.

No! I didn’t want to be a Phantom, cursed to haunt this island for eternity.

Through blurry vision and searing pain, I realized that my skin wasn’t turning transparent silvery blue as Del’s had done. Near me, Nix and Aidan were struggling in the arms of other Phantoms. Tears poured down Nix’s face, but she still looked human. Aidan as well.

Only Del was blue.

Del swiped out with her sword, severing the arm of a Phantom. It screamed and collapsed.

Holy magic, Del was part Phantom. Del’s sword moved like lightning as she cut down the Phantoms nearest her. From behind, she beheaded the one that clutched Nix and jabbed her blade into the shoulder of the Phantom who held Aidan. They released their prey. Del lunged at me, plunging her blade into the side of my Phantom.

“Run!” she screamed.

“Not without you!”

“I’m coming.” She beheaded another Phantom with a swipe of her sword. “Go!”

More Phantoms converged on us, reaching out with clawed hands. Del could fight better without us in the way. I ran.
 

I hated to leave her, but knew I had to. We all had specific battle skills—apparently, this was one of Del’s.
 

The three of us sprinted down the street toward the great garden that stretched out in front of the manor house on the hill. A tall stone wall and a wrought iron gate marked the end of the street and the beginning of the palatial property. My lungs burned as we raced for it.

Aidan reached the gate first, Nix just behind him. He stopped and turned, kneeling on the ground and cupping his hands in front of him to provide a step for her.
 

Without stopping, Nix stepped onto his hands and he vaulted her up. She grabbed the top of the tall gate and scrambled over, dropping onto the other side.

Just as I reached him, Aidan knelt and did the same for me. With a long stride, I planted my left foot in his hands and he heaved me upward. I seized the gate and pulled myself over. Aidan leapt over a second later.

I collapsed on the ground, aching and panting. I gripped the gate bars, watching Del fight with my heart lodged in my throat. She fought like a woman possessed, all those years as a demon hunter paying off. Her silvery blue hair whipped as she spun around and cut straight through the waist of a Phantom who reached for her. Her eyes glowed bright with rage and she turned on another, her blade flashing like blue flame.

“I can change now that I’m away from them,” Aidan said. “I’ll go get her as a griffon.”

I shook my head. “It looks like she’s got this in the bag.”

Del had always been a good fighter—stronger and faster than most Magica—but her Phantom speed was insane.

And she looked pissed as she swung her blade.

“No, I’m getting her,” Aidan said. His magic swelled around him, evergreen and chocolate flooding my senses.

I reached out a hand and grabbed his arm, never taking my eyes off Del. “Seriously, she wouldn’t want you to.”

I hoped she wasn’t stuck as a Phantom forever. But if she was, she’d want to be the one to kill every last one that had turned her. Being
rescued
by Aidan halfway through having her vengeance would just piss her the hell off.

“Fine.” Aidan’s voice was clipped, but I didn’t give a crap if he was displeased. I was too busy being worried about and impressed by Del.

She slaughtered the last Phantom and stood, her sword hanging at her side. She glowed a pale silvery blue as she surveyed the carnage. Then she turned and walked toward us, her steps deliberate and her face set.

I glanced at Nix. “She looks like a freaking badass.”

“Seriously,” Nix breathed. “She needs a superhero name.”

Del neared the gate and we stood. Instead of climbing over, she walked straight through the bars.

If I hadn’t been so scared the change was permanent, I’d have complimented her on her awesome new gifts. Instead, I said, “What the hell happened?”

“No idea,” Del said. Slowly, she was turning corporeal again. The blue tint to her skin faded, replaced by her normal skin tone. She looked down at her hand. A relieved sigh heaved out of her. “Oh, thank fate.”

I reached out and touched her hand. She felt normal.

“So, no one here knows why Del just turned into a Phantom?” Aidan asked.

We shook our heads.

“No idea,” I said as I turned and got my first good look at the garden. “But we’ll have to figure it out later, because I think this garden is gonna be a problem.”

The moon and stars were bright, shining down on the garden that stretched out on either side of the narrow road that led up the long sloping hill. At the top of the hill sat the elaborate manor house. In moonlight, it looked like a crouching dragon. Statues of mythical beasts lined the drive. Behind them, wild topiaries of animals snarled.

“Who the heck maintains this place?” Nix asked.

“No one,” I said as the garden’s magic washed over me. There were dozens of scents and tastes—so much magic running amok, some of it decaying from age. As if it weren’t controlled by a Magica, but by itself. “The magic feels old and strange. It’s decayed and some has gone wild.”

“Our thief lives here?” Del asked. “Verrry depressing.”

“It’s great from a security perspective,” Aidan said. “If you’re a wanted criminal, this island does a damn good job of keeping you hidden and deterring those who’re after you. All the thief has to do is transport straight into the house.”

Good point. If this thief had been filling his house up with treasure for years, it had to be awesome. I itched to explore.

“Follow the yellow brick road?” I asked.

“Only if I get to be Dorothy,” Aidan said.

I glanced at him. He loomed beside me, his shoulders broad and his face intensely masculine. “You would never pass for a Dorothy.”

“Fair enough,” he said.
 

I drew my blades, and we set off up the road. The air tingled with magic, prickling against my skin. Actually, it felt like a lot of things—bugs crawling, blowing sand, slimy cold. All of them bad.

We’d only made it past the first pair of stone statues when the magic changed. It surged to life, vibrating on the air.

“We triggered the magic,” I said. Just like in one of my tombs.

Stone creaked and groaned on either side of us. Two great, horned beasts with bulging stone muscles jumped down from their pedestals. The ground vibrated beneath their hooves.
 

Stone minotaurs. They each raised an enormous clawed hand to obliterate us.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Del swiped out with her sword, aiming for the arm of the one closest to her. Metal bounced off stone.

“Shit!” She jumped back.

Well, my daggers wouldn’t stand a chance.

Aidan threw out his hand and blasted magic at the minotaur on his side of the road. It ricocheted off. “Damn it. Their stone is enchanted against my control.”

Damn. If the Elemental Mage couldn’t control these lumps of rock, we were screwed.

Nix held out her hand. Light glowed and the flowery scent of her magic washed over me. A huge mallet appeared. She gripped it with both hands and swung it at the minotaur who was closing in on her.

He shattered beneath the blow.

“Nice,” I said.
 

She tossed me the enormous mallet. I caught it. “Oof.”

Weighed a ton. I swung it at the other minotaur as she conjured three more and handed them off. We set off down the road, swinging our mallets at the stone beasts that came to life. Monsters of all shapes and sizes shattered at our feet.

“This is pretty fun!” I said as I swung at a two-headed snake that rose high above me. My arms shook when the mallet collided with stone, but the monster shattered into a hundred pieces.

Got him!

An enraged roar vibrated my eardrums. Hot breath blew from behind, wafting my hair in front of my face.
 

Oh, holy magic, I’d spoken too soon.
 

Dread soured my gut as I turned and stared into the green eyes of an enormous three headed dog. Like Cerberus.

He looked like the topiary I’d just seen.

Come to life?

His breath reeked of rotten meat and his fangs dripped yellow slime. I stumbled back and raised my mallet, but it was laughably small compared to the monstrous dog.

Behind him, other topiary beasts shook themselves and shed their leaves to become monstrous animals. Winged serpents, giant alligators, and raging hippos burst to life, their growls rumbling through the night.

“Oh, holy magic, we’re screwed,” I breathed.

Gold flashed at the corner of my eye, then a horrifying roar broke through the beasts’ growls. I whirled to face it.

Aidan was a griffon.

He was the one who had roared.
 

Damn, he was scary.

Aidan crouched low, then launched himself into the air. He roared at Cerberus again. Cerberus bowed his head low. It looked a hell of a lot like a gesture of respect. Cerberus then turned and ran, his giant strides eating up the ground. With a giant leap, he cleared the stone fence and disappeared into the night.

Something hard crashed into my shoulder and knocked me to the ground. Pain shot through my shoulder. An enormous stone werewolf loomed over me, his hunched back and giant wolfish head unmistakable. He wasn’t the real sort of werewolf shifter, but rather the fantasy kind. The extra-scary, monster kind.

He swiped out with his huge stone claws, and I rolled to escape, then scrambled to my feet. I grabbed my mallet and swung, hitting him in the shoulder.

Aidan’s roar rent the night again as half of the werewolf exploded. I swung again, aiming for the other side. My shoulder screamed in pain as my mallet crashed against stone, but the werewolf finally burst into a pile of rubble.

I glanced skyward. Aidan swept through the night, roaring at the topiaries as they shook themselves to life. They bowed immediately, then took off.
 

On either side of me, Nix and Del fought stone monsters that animated as soon as we crossed their pedestals. At least they all didn’t come to life at once.

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, the magic in the air swelled. It battered my senses, a hundred awful scents and tastes at once. Ahead of me, the remaining statues burst to life even though we weren’t anywhere near them.

“The magic is mutating!” I shouted. It was responding to our threat and changing to meet it.
 

“I hate smart magic,” Del grunted as she slammed her mallet into the side of a two-headed goat monster.

Maybe the thief hadn’t enchanted this island to remain hidden from mariners. Maybe the island had enchanted itself as the magic had aged.

Great.

The stone monsters charged us. I glanced skyward again. Aidan was still subduing the giant topiary beasts. If he stopped to help us, those monsters would come from behind and devour us.
 

It was up to the three of us to beat our way to the house. Nix and Del charged the stone monsters, swinging their mallets with precision. I joined them, trying to ignore the pain in my shoulder. Rocks exploded into the air as our blows landed.

By the time we’d destroyed the last stone monster, Del and Nix were both limping and my arm hung uselessly at my side.