Maybe he was someone worthy of her friendship after all.
There was a click inside my mind and I immediately reached for Maddison, hoping to feel her. She’d been there before, long enough for me to know she was okay, but there was nothing now. In fact, it felt like we had no connection at all. She was no longer in Faerie…
My storm exploded, huge bolts of gold slamming into the ground around us. Everything rocked as my power grew, so much more now that I held Sonaris’s energy. Fissures cut through the rock around us, forming small crevices that would soon grow larger if I couldn’t stop.
“Asher!” Rayge shouted. “What are you doing?”
I whipped my head in his direction, reaching out and without touching him, cut off his words, lifting him with my energy. He didn’t fight me, or he tried at first and realized it was futile, so he chose to remain stoic, watching me with those ancient-as-fuck eyes.
“Maddison is not in my bond. She’s gone.”
Braxton dropped his head back, his skin covered in scales as flames spread around him. “Jessa too.”
The guttural nature of his words made it next to impossible to understand what he was saying.
But I understood. We were speaking the same language.
Fear and fury.
Rayge continued to stare me down and I reluctantly lowered him back to the ground. Maddison was not dead, I had to believe that, and I wouldn’t kill someone who might hold more information about whatever this Josephina was up to.
Rayge didn’t wince or rub his throat. “We need to move now,” he said. “Josephina is still on my radar. My dragon can track her. Follow me.”
He shifted so fast it was almost instant. Braxton and Maximus did the same, large beasts filling the space around me. Rayge nudged his head at me, and I knew he wanted me to step onto his back, but I shook him off.
“I don’t need help,” I said, barely managing to speak around the energy filling my body, my throat, my blood. My insides churned. “I can follow.”
Using my powers, I lifted myself into the sky, gold sparkling around me. I was no doubt going to leave a path to follow, but good luck to anyone that did. If a single being tried to stop us from getting our women back, they would regret it.
I’m sending you all back to the Academy,I told my brothers.I’ll let you know when I find Maddison.I used my powers to open a step-through, hoping they would be smart enough to get out of this unknown area.
Focusing on the dragons, I went after them. Rayge zipped across the sky and I followed at the same speed, wishing they could go a little faster. If I had a clue how to track Maddison, I would not be relying on these dragons.
For now, I needed to keep reminding myself that she wasn't dead. That she was in the company of powerful supes. And that my Maddison was both brilliant and powerful. She wouldn't go down easily. She would be fine.
If she wasn’t, it was already too late for the world.
Chapter 21
If this was a Grimm brothers’ story, that rainbow bridge we crossed would have been full of difficult tasks. Trolls. Labyrinths. Impossible riddles and dangerous creatures. That was kind of what I expected after Josephina’s cryptic and downright terrifying “this will be a hard journey” speech.
Instead, we had a clear and smooth path, and in what felt like a single blink of an eye, we were no longer flying. We landed on a round stone platform. Unlike the rainbow bridge, there was nothing glittery about where we stood now. It was hot, filled with an acrid scent: a combination of sulfur and freshly burnt wood. The scent both enticed and warned us we were entering territory that was not our own, and maybe, just maybe, the Grimm’s portion of this journey was about to commence.
“Stay close,” Josephina said, and I couldn’t get over what she looked like now. Her skin was a soft glittering gold. Her eyes were even more unusual, still gold, but with hints of caramel.
“How?” Jessa said. “How are you…” she waved her hand, “like that?”
Josephina smiled sadly, her teeth brilliant white, and maybe more perfect than I’d ever seen on another being. And I’d seen some damn perfect teeth. Still, no one would ever suspect that this golden woman before us was anything other than … well,other.She was flawless.
“As the queen of the dragons, host to an ancient magic,” she started, “I have some abilities not available to my brethren. My mother had the same, and her mother as well. It’s passed down through the maternal line. This is my other form—that of the original dragon gods from whom I descend. There are not many left who draw power from the originals.”
We silently stared at her. “You’re a god,” Jessa breathed, her eyes shiny as she launched herself at the golden figure. “You’re beautiful.”
They hugged for many seconds, and it was such a heartfelt moment that I found myself with a tight throat and shiny eyes. They had never hugged like this … I already knew that dragon to person wasn’t quite the same.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jessa asked as she pulled away.
Josephina shot a rueful smile at her. “It’s not encouraged that we step away from our dragon for this form. My mother always warned me about overusing it, that I would grow addicted to the power in this body. This gold that coats my skin, it’s the same gold of the original magic. It’s filling my body, my blood, my soul. It’s addictive. Inviting it in is never encouraged, even for those naturally acquired of it.”
