Page 1 of Dragon’s Rogue

Chapter 1

Blaze McKenna sat at the polished wooden table in her workroom, gazing at the Tarot cards spread out in front of her.

She’d known what they would say, even before she saw them.

Her past was coming for her. It was sitting on her doorstep, hovering over her shoulder, lurking in every shadow and making the place between her shoulder blades prickle with a primitive, visceral warning.

Not just trouble. Evil. Soul-deep destruction. Hell on earth.

Every night for weeks she’d cast the runes, she’d laid out the cards.

Every night she’d prayed for a different answer.

Every night they told her the same thing.

The darkness she’d tried to escape so long ago had never stopped hunting her down. And now it was about to find her.

She stared at the last card she’d dealt.

Death.

She told herself the Death card almost never meant physical death. It represented transformation—leaving behind one phase of life and beginning another.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t as comforting as you’d think.

Over ten years ago, when she was only sixteen, the leaders of the coven she’d grown up in had transformed, all right—when they became possessed by an evil power.

Gradually, they’d turned from witches and sorcerers who believed in using their magic to help and heal, to dark, greedy, power-hungry creatures she didn’t recognize. It had destroyed her father and killed her mother.

The thought of them still made her heart ache.

One by one, the coven leaders had tried to initiate the young witches and sorcerers into their darkening circle. Blaze, unable to stand by and watch the destruction of everyone she’d ever cared about, had done the only thing she could.

She ran. She stole the source of the darkness and took it away with her, hoping to save the people she loved.

Determined never to use it, never to be caught in its web.

She stared at it now, sitting in the middle of the table, wrapped in silk and protective runes, emanating icy black evil.

She’d kept it locked away all these years, afraid to go near it, for fear she wouldn’t be strong enough to resist.

Now it was out of her vault, here in the room with her, and she could hear it calling. Coaxing her, trying to draw her in with false promises that sounded terrifyingly seductive.

Everyone had darkness inside them, no matter how deep it was buried. Whatever darkness lurked in her soul yearned toward the artifact like a twisted tree leaning toward a dark sun. That was its power.

Blaze shuddered.

She studied the Tarot cards again, scanning them for some ray of hope—some sign that, when the time came, she wouldn’t let the darkness consume her the way her coven had. That the light she’d tried to keep alive inside her would keep her safe, keep her strong.

So far, the cards said no. They said the darkness would change her, making her into something she didn’t recognize.

She tightened her lips.

Over her dead body. Blaze McKenna was no pawn of the Universe, and she sure as hell was no pawn of the dark power in the artifact. Magic was all about inner strength and focus—will and intention. With a strong enough will, you could make the Universe follow your intentions, bend events to your choosing.

She’d done it before. She could do it again.

She held the Tarot deck in her left hand, gripping it so hard the oversized cards dug painfully into her palm.