Page 47 of Dragon’s Rogue

“If I were you, I’d hurry it up,” Rebel said. She made her way to the rope, but hesitated, unable to tear her gaze away from what was happening on the other side of the French doors.

Inside the workroom, the floor was shaking. The voice thundered in Blaze’s ears, but she didn’t know if it was inside or outside her head anymore.

“I AM YOUR MASTER! FREE ME FROM MY CAPTIVITY!” Another gust of wind almost blew out the flames of their protective circle.

Blaze could feel the dark, rotting power of the idol pushing against her magic. For a moment, it was all she could do to keep it in.

Her heart pounded in her chest. This was insanity. Sooner or later her strength would give out, and then this thing would break free.

It was calling to her. She could feel it pulling at her, tempting her, making her wonder why she was even bothering.

Why should she turn down what it offered? Immense magic, far beyond what she wielded now. And that was just the beginning. Worship. Adulation. The power of life and death…

Oh hell no. This is what it had done to her father, to her coven, to everyone she loved. She was not going down that path.

“JOIN WITH ME! REVEL IN MY POWER!”

There were two voices now, one overlaying the other. As if something even older and more powerful had joined with the idol, both of them speaking with one voice.

“CHILD OF MINE, JOIN ME AND COME HOME!”

It wasn’t only speaking to her. Blaze whipped her head around and stared at Zane. He was surrounded by blue light, every muscle rigid as he stared at the idol.

A sharp, dark shadow sprang from his body, as if a spotlight had been turned on behind Zane. But it was misshapen—not human. Winged, with horns—a demon?

Then another shadow sprang from her. This one was human, but it was still terrifying. Both shadows stretched over the tabletop, into the center of the circle, and touched the idol.

And it pulled.

Everything dark inside her rolled through the shadow towards the idol. All her resentment, her loneliness, her rage and despair. Her fear and her lust for power.

She could see waves of darkness pulsating from Zane, too—through the shadow towards the idol. His face twisted. The flames of the protective spell sputtered lower, nearly going out.

She could hear the idol laughing, rumbling like an avalanche of rocks falling down a mountain.

NO.

Blaze refused to surrender. And she refused to let her darkness drag her down.

She gripped Zane’s hand harder, digging her nails into his flesh. “Fight, dammit!” she screamed over the noise of the laughter.

“CHILD OF MINE, JOIN WITH ME AND COME HOME!”

The doors of the workroom burst open. Three figures in hooded black robes burst in. With a shock, she recognized Liriel and Jerome, two of her friends from childhood. The face of the one in front was frozen like a man who’d died in agony, and he had a gaping black hole in the middle of his chest.

She didn’t recognize him, but she recognized the voice coming from the hole in his chest.

“MASTER! I AM HERE!”

Silas.

Chapter 24

For a split second, Blaze froze.

The sight of Silas lanced through her like a knife. In all the years she’d thought of him, missed him, been terrified of what he might do to her, she’d always prayed she’d never meet him like this.

Evil and dark, totally in the power of the idol.