She shrugged as the hellhound stood and walked to the dead Demon Lord. Sniffing the body, Balor growled low in his throat. The fur around his neck and down his spine stood on end. His red eyes glowed. Snarling and baring his teeth, he looked at Audrey just as Adramelech’s hand shot out and grabbed the hound by the throat.
Rian moved with incredible speed, raised his broadsword above his head, and with one well-placed forceful strike, removed the Demon Lord’s head from his body. There were no words. The cavern was completely silent. Audrey could feel everyone’s relief but also hear the questions running through their minds.
“What the hell? Doesn’t anyone down here stay dead?” Rory’s questions echoed through the chamber.
“Well, it’ll be hard for the bastard to come back now. One of your brothers took his head and the other is dropping it in the fiery pit,” the scarred dragon said.
Everyone spun around just in time to see Royce dropping Adramelech’s ugly mug into the fire. Balor dropped his head as if to nod his thanks to Rian before walking toward Audrey. The hound made it about halfway before her mate had the tip of his sword against Balor’s neck.
“Watch it there, buddy, or you’ll go the way of your master,” Rian warned.
At the mention of Adramelech, Balor growled and fire jumped in his eyes. Audrey knelt. “Rian, let him come closer, please?”
Her mate looked at her as if she’d lost her mind but withdrew his sword. One slow step at a time, Balor walked toward, her stopping just out of reach and laying down. Rian still stood with his sword at the ready, protecting her as she tried to figure out why this hound was still with them.
Fire continued to burn in the hellhound’s eyes. Footsteps to Audrey’s left alerted her to the approach of Maddox and Drago.
I am so glad I had years to learn all these people’s names and faces.
The two older men stopped beside Rian. “Here’s your stuff. We still need to find Kayne. I’m not leaving without him. Even if I have to do it myself.” Drago’s tone was unyielding. It was obvious there was no way he was leaving without the dragon that’d been lost for so long.
Handing Rian his backpack, the same large pendant she’d seen her mate pull from his pants when the witches freed them, and a large silver box covered in bronze mesh, Drago returned to stand by the hole in the ground.
Rian went to move the amulet from one hand to the other but fumbled it. Audrey watched it tumble through the air and then land on the mesh-covered box. Balor’s head snapped to the side. His eyes locked on the chest. Markings she hadn’t known were there suddenly glowed.
“What the…?” Rian yelped.
“Drop that shit, boy,” Maddox ordered.
Doing what he was told, Rian let everything in his hand hit the ground and rushed to Audrey. He held her close as Balor stood and stalked directly to the glowing box. Sniffing it, then moving it with his paw, the hellhound pushed the box over to Drago and head-butted the back of the man’s leg.
“What do you want?” Shaking his head, the man they all called Assassin knelt down and looked into Balor’s eyes as he asked, “Do you know where my brethren, Kayne, is? Nobody else had a clue.”
The hellhound moved his snout toward Drago’s face and whined. The Assassin’s eyes grew large. He turned his head a little bit to one side and then the other. Audrey remembered Rian telling her Drago’s eyes were still not healed from his many years in captivity and knew immediately the Assassin was trying to focus. He squinted. Time seemed to slow to a stop as everyone in the cavern watched the dragon and the hellhound staring at one another.
“Well, I never saw that coming,” was all they heard as both Drago and Balor burst into flames.
13
Rian watched the man who just a few months prior had been saved from a century of captivity in a silver box go up in flames. The Guardsmen all rushed to the aid of their kinsman but with no idea of what to do. Grabbing his backpack as he ran by, the Dragon Leader pulled the two remaining bottles of Dousing Serum out, uncapped them, and threw them onto the fire that was now as large as a funeral pyre.
The fire spit and sputtered as the Dousing Serum danced on the flames, but after all the liquid had evaporated, resumed its regular burn. Turning to Maddox, Rian was shocked to see the crazy dragon using the Rose Quartz to speak to Calysta. He could hear Alicia barking orders in the background. It was abundantly clear that the young witch was barely keeping her fear in check while watching her mate go up in flames on Kyra’s Looking Glass.
“Rian, get the Focus Stone,” Calysta barked.
“Do you have any purified salt left?” Kyra asked.
“Do you still have the herb cachets I made?” Alicia questioned.
“Got it. Yes. Yes.” Rian answered the witches’ questions in order aloud and in his mind.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. The girls are going to form the Power of Seven Circle again. I’m gonna need you guys to form a circle around the hellhound and Drago. Rian, did you do as I asked?”
“I did.”
“Dammit, Calysta, the boy is doing as he’s told, can you just get on with it.” Maddox was snarkier than usual. It made Rian wonder what the crazy old dragon knew that he didn’t.
“Look, you pain in the ass dragon, I didn’t get to be Grand Priestess by leaving things to chance.”
