“That didn’t happen?”
“No.” Zion’s jaw tightened, as if he were clenching his teeth. “As soon as I entered this room the corruption returned to the magic and I barely managed to dump it behind the original barriers before it could consume me.”
Azh slowly glanced around the pyramid-shaped space. There was a mystic quality to the temple. As if it’d been created by an ancient, unknown magic. But there was no sense of impending doom.
“You think the evil is connected to this temple?”
“I couldn’t be sure. It didn’t make any sense at the time,” the male admitted. “All I knew for certain was that I needed to do more research. But as the years passed Gabriela became more and more convinced that the younger dragons were plotting against her.”
Azh arched a brow. “Were they?”
Zion brushed aside the question. “We’re dragons. There is always some sort of plotting. But Gabriela was obsessed with the belief that she could leash the magic and use it as a weapon against her enemies.”
Azh made a sound of shock. “She wanted to use the corruption as a weapon?”
“Yes.”
“That’s crazy.”
“My thought exactly.” Zion visibly shuddered. “I feared our entire world would be destroyed when she released the evil.”
“And you were right,” Azh said, not entirely surprised that Gabriela wasn’t the hero from his legends. There’d already been clues the histories had been more myths than factual accounts of the past.
“No,” Zion’s tone was sharp. “I was wrong.”
“Wrong about what?”
“Everything.” A surge of anger destroyed Zion’s pretense of calm. “As always, Gabriela did exactly as she wanted and touched her fire to the corruption contained in the crevice in the floor.” He pointed to a spot behind the throne. “I was standing in the shadows over there and I could see the magic absorbing her fire. It swirled around her, as if it was becoming one with her magic, then it was spreading through the temple and out the open doors. Before I could stop it, the corruption had spilled across the land, destroying everything in its path. I can still remember the screams of our people.” Zion was forced to pause and clear a lump from his throat. “That’s when I finally saw the truth.”
“What truth?” Azh braced himself, already prepared for the answer.
“The magic wasn’t corrupted. Gabriela was.”
Chapter 21
Wynn hit the ground with enough force to rattle her teeth, but ignoring the shockwaves of pain, she jumped to her feet and searched the shadows for the slimy green magic. She assumed that this was the pit where she’d seen Gabriela and the corruption battling two hundred years ago.
But she couldn’t see any hint of the evil power. Instead, her gaze traced the shimmering strand that she’d seen attached to the back of Gabriela. It coiled over the stone floor and up the wall to disappear in a glowing portal.
Was that the rift? It had to be, right? The place where Gabriela had led her people from their homeland to this world? So what was the shimmering magic? And why was it attached to Gabriela?
The questions were spinning through her mind when she was abruptly distracted by a swirling mist across the pit. Another portal? Inching forward, Wynn realized that the thick fog was oddly familiar.
Keeping a safe distance to avoid being sucked into the opening, Wynn leaned forward, her heart stopping as the mist parted to reveal a pool of the bubbling green and the strands of the evil magic that had reached out to wrap around a large body lying on the ground.
She’d seen this image before. When the stranger had cornered her in Hexx’s apartment and touched her with his powers.
“This is inside my mind.” She blinked, grappling to accept the truth. The Watcher hadn’t taken her into the mist. He’d simply stepped into her thoughts to confront the evil magic. “Just when I thought this couldn’t get any creepier.”
“It’s the corruption,” Gabriela said from behind her. “I’m using my powers to keep it from overwhelming you, but the strange demon is interfering in my efforts. If he would just die all this would be over.”
With a muffled scream Wynn whirled around to confront the dragon who’d silently followed her into the pit. There was no use trying to tap into the magic she’d stored away for an emergency. She was too flustered to concentrate, not to mention the fact she didn’t have any spells that could match the power of a dragon.
Besides, she was suddenly distracted by the greenish tint to Gabriela’s aura. It was no longer veins of corruption weaving around her as if they were in a constant battle for supremacy. The power pulsed through her with every heartbeat.
The power wasn’t attacking Gabriela. It was protecting her.
“It’s you,” she rasped. “The corruption has infected you.”
