Page 81 of Dragon’s Rogue

Tyr joined them, scanning Blaze magically. “There’s definitely something wrong here. It’s like a magical immune reaction. Maybe the necklace—”

He broke off as the smell of burnt cloth filled the air, and then the back of Blaze’s robe began to smoke. A hole burned through the robe over the small of her back. Zane suddenly remembered her tattoo, the way it had felt hot after they made love this afternoon.

Now the damn thing was about to set her robe on fire. As the fabric smoldered and disintegrated, light glowed from the tattoo, and he could see it was a circle with a dragonfly inside.

“What the hell is that?” Thorne asked.

“Fucking hell,” Tyr breathed. “I think it’s the Seal.”

Chapter 35

Zane felt like he’d been punched in the stomach.

Thorne stared at Tyr. “It’s fused into her?” he said. “How could she not have known that?”

“We were looking for an object,” Zane said. “We didn’t know it could take the form of a tattoo. Why the hell should she?”

Tyr said, “I did wonder how she resisted the lure of the idol for so long, when no one else in her coven could. This would explain it.”

“Then why isn’t it working now?” Thorne demanded. “If it’s the Seal…”

“It’s designed to keep the tomb locked,” Tyr said. “Not to fight the influence of pissed-off sorcerers. The protection aspect is probably more of a side effect of the—”

“This isn’t the time for a lecture on magical side effects,” Zane snapped. “We have to scrub the idol’s influence out of her before it’s too late.”

He carried Blaze to the circle and laid her gently inside, while Tyr tuned the harmony stone to her necklace.

“Her connection with Zane’s hoard seemed to help before,” he said in answer to Thorne’s questioning look. “It can’t hurt.”

He had Zane sit in the center of the circle with Blaze, supporting her against his chest, while Thorne kept the stone tuned and Tyr removed the dark magic.

Zane held Blaze while she convulsed in his arms, screaming as the pain ripped through her. He closed his eyes and held on, whispering comforting words that he didn’t know if she could hear.

It was worse than going through it himself.

Finally Tyr stopped. Blaze, soaked with sweat, curled up half-conscious in Zane’s arms, clutching weakly at him and whimpering softly.

“Is it gone?” he asked.

Tyr was still wiping the darkness from the crystal—he was on his second cloth. The first was completely black. “I hope so,” he said, looking troubled. “I got out all I could, but I’m not completely sure there isn’t a little seed of it still in there.”

“Why?” Zane demanded. “You got it out of us, didn’t you?”

Tyr sighed. His face was grayish and his eyes shadowed. Zane felt a twinge of guilt—Tyr had exhausted himself healing them. But this was Blaze. Nothing could happen to Blaze.

“We have a natural immunity to magic,” Tyr said. “She doesn’t. And she was weak from expending all her magic fighting the coven, so it got a good hold. But the Seal is still helping to protect her, and we’ll keep an eye on her.” He touched Zane’s shoulder briefly. “She’ll be okay.”

“We have to get the Seal out of her,” Thorne said. “It has to go in the tomb.”

Zane turned on him with a growl. “Did you not hear what Tyr just said? If there’s any more of that dark magic in her, the Seal is the only thing protecting her.”

“Do we have to do this now?” Tyr said. “She’s passed out, and she’s going to be weak for a couple of days. She doesn’t have the strength to do anything with the Seal for the moment.”

“Well, we can try to get it out ourselves—” Thorne began.

Zane snarled at him.

“Freely given,” Tyr reminded him wearily. “Whatever’s going to happen with the Seal, she’s the one who has to do it. We’ll just have to hope Vyrkos doesn’t wake up before she does.”