Page 46 of Dragon’s Rogue

“We have to get this to my workroom,” Blaze snapped. “Create a circle of protection. Can you help me?”

“I’ll try.” He didn’t know how his magic would interact with hers, or what had set this thing off. Him and Blaze making love? How? Why? What the hell was that idol, and how did it connect to them both?

Zane conjured a leather jacket before she could reach for the box again. The black fog felt damp and slimy, like the tentacles of some swamp thing. “Here. Wrap it in this.”

Blaze tossed the jacket over the box and bundled it inside. Zane spared a moment to restore their clothes—it was bad enough facing this thing without having to do it naked. Blaze paid no attention to whether either of them was naked or dressed. Wisps of fog were beginning to seep out of the folds of the jacket, groping at her fingers.

They ran for the workroom. It seemed like miles, though it was only down a couple of hallways. When they got there, Blaze dumped the bundle on the worktable and dashed for the shelves with the herbs, gathering jars into her arms. “White candles!” she called to Zane. “Four of them! And salt!”

He complied, pulling items off the shelves and bringing them to the table. The leather jacket was moving like there was something alive inside it. It gave a great heave and the wooden box tumbled out, the lid clattering open. The idol rolled out. As they stared, mesmerized, it began to vibrate, bouncing off the tabletop until one shuddering bounce set it on its base.

The golden eyelids blinked and the ruby eyes began to glow.

“Holy fuck,” Blaze muttered.

She dumped salt in a circle around the idol and sprinkled handfuls of herbs in with it, drawing runes with her finger.

“Find me shungite, black tourmaline, angelite and selenite,” she commanded.

Zane tore himself away from the animated idol and headed for the trays of semi-precious stones on her shelves, picking out the ones she needed. Black tourmaline for protection, shungite for purification, angelite for calling on the forces of light, and selenite for creating a positive energetic field.

By the time he got back to the table, they could both hear the idol murmuring. “Come to me. Set me free. Come to me. Set me free. Come to me…”

Its mouth gaped open. More black fog billowed out, spreading out along the tabletop, tendrils reaching out.

Zane set the candles at the four compass points of the circle. Blaze arranged the stones, and then Zane flicked his fingers and the candles lit all at once.

Blaze grabbed his hand, rushing through an invocation to the Elemental Powers. “Guardians of the East, South, West and North, we invite you to our circle. Accept our offerings and lend us your powers of protection and strength, to contain this evil and banish its spirit, returning it to whence it came.”

Zane felt her magic surge through him, powerful and beautiful, shining white. It mixed with his blue dragonfire and streamed through the fingertips of their free hands. Sparkling blue fire swept around the perimeter of the circle, rearing high in the air as though a circle of gasoline had been poured on the table.

The black fog drew back as if the fire burned it. The idol’s mouth opened again, and an angry noise like a faraway freight train emanated from it. It grew louder and louder, as if the train were bearing down on them.

“COME TO ME!” The words rolled out into the room, filling it with sound, and a rushing wind hit them, blowing Blaze’s hair back and forcing them to shut their eyes against the fetid smell it brought. The flames around the circle of protection bent and flickered, nearly going out.

Zane felt Blaze throw more power into the circle, and he gave her everything he had. But he was deathly afraid it wasn’t going to be enough.

Rebel crouched outside Blaze McKenna’s window, hidden in the shadows on the balcony. She’d felt the evil magic as soon as the rogue witch let it loose. Hell, whole cliffside had trembled like there was an earthquake.

And now it was out of control. She’d seen the panic in McKenna’s eyes as she raced into the workroom with her boyfriend and dumped that box on the table. She was clearly throwing every kind of protective magic she knew against the idol, and it was about to annihilate all of it.

Rebel backed up, moving towards rope dangling from her grappling hook, attached to the chimney two floors above. She’d disarmed McKenna’s security system like she promised, both at the front gates and in the house, so Jack and his dark wizard friends could get inside undetected. Now it was time for her to get the hell out. She had a feeling things were about to get ugly, and she wanted to be far away when they did.

She spoke into her headset, twin to the one she’d given Jack. “Tell those guys they need to get in there now. I don’t know what McKenna did, but whatever it is, she fucked it up, because that thing’s about to blow.”

The deep, gravelly voice of Jack’s boss came over the headset, overlaid with Jack’s, as if they were speaking at the same time.

Because the boss was speaking with Jack’s mouth. He’d taken over Jack’s body and was using it as his own. Rebel shivered.

“Where in the house are they?” he asked.

“The magical workroom.” The sorcerers knew where it was—she’d shown them on the plans. “I’m on the balcony outside. It looks like they did a spell that went wrong—there’s some kind of entity trying to get out of that damn thing. They’re trying to put it back in, but it doesn’t look good.”

“We are at the front, preparing to breach the magical defenses.” Fuck. That voice. Even without seeing Jack’s vacant eyes, the idea of his body being used by this sorcerer gave her the willies.

But it seemed like she hadn’t made the wrong call after all. Because however dangerous Jack’s associates were, whatever that rogue witch was doing in there was even more dangerous.

A sense of wrongness filled the air, and the hair stood up on the back of Rebel’s neck. They had to be stopped.