The water starved his power, just as the children’s rhyme predicted, but why hadn’t it affected Vlad? Morgan said her sister Wizards had reversed the spell, but it sure didn’t look that way to him. “Stop! You’re killing her.”
“That’s the general idea.”
“Let her go. It’s me you want.”
“At first, that was true. But you have aligned yourself with the wrong side. Distrust has grown between the Talons and the Grey Council. The time for negotiation and peace has ended. They did the magical community a service when they rediscovered Oculist stone. But now their usefulness is over. The Grey Council willtake over and Dragons will be our new weapon against all who oppose us.”
“You are mad if you think you can control a Dragon.”
“I told you. They like gold. It will be a business proposition, one that will benefit us both.”
“You and I have always held two different world views,” Rowan said, buying time, knowing that Morgan was working on a plan to neutralize Vlad. “I want to bring people together. You want to tear them apart. Your belief is that a broken and fearful world is easier to control. Morgan has earned the right to be called Female Wizard and as such is not a commodity to be bought, sold or bartered.”
Rowan worked to keep his balance in the churning water. “Have you ever wondered what the Atlantis scientist who gave his name to the stones was really searching for when his lab exploded, triggering a chain reaction that destroyed his home world?”
Vlad ground out his words. “You speak of myths, meant to discredit a great man. He did not destroy his world; he was murdered because he wanted to make Wizards invincible.”
“Now you are rewriting history.”
“Not rewriting, Clarifying. What if I were to tell you,” Vlad continued, but his voice sounded weaker and it looked as though the waves were eroding his legs, making him shorter. He grunted, clearing his throat. “Oculist was a Wizard, an Earth Wizard, to be exact, and a direct ancestor of my clan. He didn’t just want to make male Wizards invincible. He wanted us to reign supreme over humans and over the magical community. There were many who were afraid to see that happen, even in the magical community.”
“History tells us that Oculist was insane.”
“Not insane. Inspired. His goal was to create a potion that would unleash Dragon power.” Vlad paused as though trying to catch his breath.
Rowan hadn’t imagined Vlad’s diminished stature. He was definitely shrinking. Rowan edged closer as Vlad continued.
“And he was close,” Vlad said, his voice raspy and shallow. “Oculist recorded that many of our male Wizards who’d taken Oculist reported their powers increased. Unfortunately, none of them shapeshifted into Dragons. Instead, they died horrible deaths. Oculist was trying to find a solution when his experiments were cut short.”
“You mean when he was blown up and turned into bite-size shark chum,” Rowan interrupted.
Vlad glared at him. “True, the explosion of his lab and his death were unfortunate and cut short his experiments, but you fail to see the big picture. With the help of Constantine and the Talons, we discovered Oculist’s journals and have been perfecting his work. Your brother’s existence proves that Oculist was right.”
A short distance away, three women emerged from the water. They joined hands and focused on Vlad.
In that instant, Morgan broke free of Vlad and dove into the sea, swimming toward her sister Wizards, Zephra, Aisling and Bridget.
Vlad’s strength was not what it had been on land. As Rowan had guessed, the water had eroded his power just as it had tried to extinguish Rowan’s flame. But Rowan had one thing Vlad lacked—Morgan’s brand battling to keep his fire alive. He could feel its power creating a protective barrier around his core.
Rowan sent a ring of fireout of his hands. It floated on the surface of the water, its flames dancing and spreading to engulf Vlad in its deadly embrace. Waves curled around Morgan and her sisters. Their arms were outstretched. Their chants flowedlike currents as they repeated over and over a line from the nightmare poem—
Steal the earth and boil the seas.
Steal the earth and boil the seas.
Steal the earth and boil the seas.
Vlad cried out. Water poured from his mouth. He held out his hand and turned a tortured glance in Rowan’s direction. “Help me!”
Rowan reached out, knowing at that moment that he wanted Vlad punished for his crimes but not dead. It was too late. Vlad’s flesh dissolved like grains of sand as he sank into the ocean’s watery grave.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Six months later, Orca whales broke the surface of a white-capped blue sea along the coast of a transformed island in the Canadian San Juans. The spring days of the Wizard Fertility Festival of Bealtaine was a distant memory, while snow and ribbons of a crimson-and-gold dawn welcomed a Winter Solstice wedding.
A light dusting of snow frosted the trees and glistened like sugar in the morning light. Cottages, resembling those in the valleys of the Black Forest in Germany with their multicolored doors and window boxes, replaced the gray tents and Vlad’s stolen castle.
Bells tolled on the village clock as a pair of white horses drew the bride toward the church.
