Page 98 of Dragon’s Rogue

She nodded. “I wasn’t much of a healer, but I was good at telekinesis, and I managed to raise the depressed skull fracture and set the broken ribs, and stop most of the bleeding. That helped enough that he could heal himself, with me lending him my magic.”

And that day had formed a connection between the two of them that they’d had with no one else. “I know his power,” she said. “The way it used to feel, how strong and beautiful it was.” Even though he’d been arrogant, too, always believing he was a bit better than he really was.

“Feeling it now, all bound up with the dark magic he used on Jack, is like going back to visit a beautiful, pristine pond you once loved, and finding it covered in an oil slick. It makes me physically ill.”

Zane dropped a kiss on top of her head, holding her close for a moment. “I’m sorry you have to go through this,” he said. This time, she knew he was sincere. “You’re strong,” he told her softly. “The strongest person I’ve ever known. You can do it.”

His faith in her helped, though they were all still on edge. Tempest was sitting on the floor in another corner, scribbling in her notebook. Every now and then she’d look around the room, but whatever she saw seemed to make her anxious, and she’d dive back into her notebook again.

Tyr kept finding excuses to be on that side of the room, but Tempest wouldn’t make eye contact, and he couldn’t seem to bring himself to interrupt her. Especially since Rebel was sitting a few feet away, toying with her knife and glaring at him every time he looked like he might come near her sister.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they were ready. The six of them ranged themselves around the spell circle, human and dragon alternating. The circle was lined with gemstones, herbs, and candles, all carefully chosen to enhance the spell’s power.

Jack lay near one side of the circle, unconscious. At the other side was a small table with the idol, still in its spell cage. Next to it was an athame—a sacred knife—to cut the magical connections between Jack, Silas, and the idol.

Blaze and the dragons invoked the four elements—air, fire, water and earth—and the corresponding compass directions, raising magic to power the circle, and to contain and focus the energy of the spell.

Once the circle was activated, Thorne began the incantation for the first part of the severing spell—making the connections between Jack, Silas and the idol visible to their sight. Blaze felt the power rising, nausea churning in her stomach.

Something didn’t feel right to her. She glanced at the dragons, but none of them seemed distressed. Nonetheless, the sense of wrongness grew, making her vision waver. She saw Jack’s life force, and the dark webbing of Silas’s power twined with it, connected to the idol but dormant, the glow of the spell cage interrupting the current.

And then, for a split second, she saw something completely different. The spell cage rotting and disintegrating. A thick dark-yellow stream of energy passing through the east wall of the room like a rushing river, pouring into the idol.

And from there, into Jack. Except she could barely see Jack’s energy at all now. It looked like…

Her vision snapped back to normal, and she saw what she’d seen all along. The others hadn’t seemed to notice anything—they were focusing on Jack, as Thorne intoned a tricky part of the spell.

But the feeling of wrongness was tearing her insides apart. The Seal on her back burned. Careful not to interfere with what Thorne was doing, she whispered a tiny spell to enhance her magical sight and see through illusion.

Snap. Her magical sight shifted again, and she looked at the man lying on the floor. It wasn’t Jack. It had never been Jack. The face and voice and body were a complicated, detailed illusion.

It was Silas.

He’d taken Jack’s form and convinced them to carry him in here like a Trojan horse, and now he was pulling power directly from Vyrkos and Corwyn through the idol, gathering it into himself.

Before she could warn anyone, Silas opened his eyes and flung out one hand. “Dianta mortenous capurna!”

Power rolled through the room, augmented by the idol, freezing everyone in place. Thorne’s incantation stopped in mid-sentence, and the severing spell crumbled.

The spell cage holding the idol disintegrated into a pile of dust, and its eyes opened and began to glow.

Chapter 44

Silas gazed around the room, his eyes lingering on Blaze. She drew in her breath in shock.

She could see why he wanted to wear someone else’s face. His was twisted and deformed, the whole lower half looking like he’d been in a terrible accident.

But his eyes were the same as she remembered, dark and arrogant, and so was his voice.

He shook his head. “You should never have stood against me, Ariella.” It was a shock to hear her old name. “I was always smarter than you.” He held out his hand, and the idol floated into it.

He always thought he was the smartest person in the room. And just like when he stood at the top of the ravine, he always overestimated his ability, and underestimated others. Had he forgotten he’d taught her this stasis spell himself—and how to counter it before it took hold of her?

Or had he just thought she wouldn’t see it coming?

“Apparently you’re not.” She stepped out of the stasis field. She could see the dragons fighting the spell, struggling like flies in amber, veins bulging, faces furious. She knew they had magical resistance, but Silas had Vyrkos pouring power into him.

A Draken Lord with power over dragons.