Page 61 of Light Magic

Speaking of which … “Where are the eggs and the little dragons?”

Kaz took a large step to the side, allowing me to see past him. Down a short hill were the four eggs and the three little dragons playing with each other.

One was a dark blue, the other was a dark green, and the third one was black. Their scales were shiny, and they looked like oversized stuffed bears—but with sharp teeth and a breath of fire.

The blue one jumped on the green one. The green let out a small puff of fire that touched the tail of the black one, who turned to the other two and lunged, biting the wing of the blue one. They rolled together, play-fighting like any other animal.

It was a magical, surreal moment.

“They are incredible,” I whispered.

“They are.” Kaz crossed his arms. “You should have seen Evelyn when she first saw them. She freaked out. Even Ash did.”

“Has she visited your island?” I asked, my gaze on the little dragons.

Kaz shook his head. “No, the council won't allow it.”

“She’s a witch, a stranger,” Trolin said, his tone harsh. “We don’t allow outsiders in.”

“But she calls when she finds bones with magic, so I can take them to the island and give them a proper rest,” Kaz said. “We always meet here.”

I nodded. Poor Evelyn. It must kill her to know there was a hidden island out of reach where the creatures she loved so much lived together.

“Here,” I heard Abbie say.

I glanced at them. The three witches finished drawing a pentagram on the smooth black floor connecting all five pillars. Evelyn put small white crystals on the inside corners of the stars, Lacey spread some powder along the lines, and Abbie placed a pink crystal the size of a football right in the middle of the pentagram.

“We’re almost done here,” Evelyn announced.

At that, Kaz and the other dragon shifters went down the hill. They picked up the eggs, while talking to the little dragons. The black one snapped at Kaz, but Kaz was firm with him, and he dropped his head low.

Reluctantly, the little dragons followed the men to the pentagram. Kaz and the others put the eggs down, right in the center, and Kaz told the little dragons to step in and stay.

My nerves picked up as the witches grabbed my shoulders and pushed me inside the pentagram too, right beside the dragons and the crystal. I stilled as they looked at me, their heads tilting to one side or the other, curious. The “little” dragons couldn’t be more than a few weeks old and they already reached my chest. If they stretched their necks up, I bet they would be taller than me.

“This should be simple,” Evelyn said. Right. Because everything in my life had been simple so far. “I’ll pull the magic out of the dragons, and as it’s coming out, Abbie and Lacey will split it. Ariella’s magic will go back to her, and the rest will go to the pink crystal.”

Since we were taking my magic out, Kaz had asked if we would take all of the foreign magic from the dragons and the eggs. But I also didn’t want any magic that didn’t belong to me, especially because Paimon probably had absorbed a lot of dark magic, and I didn’t want to deal with that.

So, Abbie had brought a special crystal where they would store the foreign magic, and then she would take that to the Grand Eternity Hall and hide it from the world.

The witches stepped out and stood outside the drawn line while the others—Levi, Ash, Kaz, Trolin, and Velak stayed outside of the circle created by the pillars.

I glanced at Levi, knowing he could feel how nervous I was right now. His brows were curled tight, but his gaze never wandered away from me.

“Ready?” Abbie asked.

I inhaled deeply and nodded.

The dragons looked at Kaz. “Just stay there,” he said, then repeated it in their language.

Evelyn, Abbie, and Lacey held hands, closed their eyes, and Evelyn started speaking Latin in whispers—the spell.

A hum started under the pentagram and the magic swirled around us. The eggs trembled and the dragons squawked.

“I can feel it,” Evelyn said, her eyes still closed. “There’s a lot of foreign magic here.” Her brows turned down. “I got it from the eggs!”

The pink crystal shook and then I felt something, like an invisible snake, slithering around my ankles, up my legs, around my middle. I did my best to stay still, but my nerves were frayed and I didn’t like the way this magic tightened around me. It wrapped around my chest and my shoulders, covering every inch of me. Then, it pressed against me. I groaned as the magic seeped through my skin and my muscles, pooling at my core.

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