Page 73 of Ancient Magic

“It’s the past,” she finally concluded. Skye couldn’t explain the sense of age that pressed against her, but she was absolutely certain that she was glimpsing a place from the far distant past. “A memory.”

He sent her a confused glance. “Whose memory?”

“I’m not sure, but it was deliberately captured and stored in the book,” she explained. “I’ve heard of the spell, but I’ve never seen one or known a mage capable of creating one.”

A minute passed and then another and another as they stared at the image that hung in the air.

“Intriguing, but I’m not sure it’s going to help us.” Micha abruptly broke the silence.

As if his words had prompted the spell to reveal its secrets, a shadow flickered at the edge of the cavern and a tall, slender woman wearing a fur cape that brushed the mosaic floor appeared. Her red hair was curled in an elaborate braid that looked like a crown and held hints of fire in the soft lighting. Odd. Even more odd, her face glowed with a metallic bronzed sheen.

But it was the fire that surrounded her that captured Skye’s attention. Not the aura of a demon. It blasted around her like solar flares around the sun. A fiery, ruthless power.

“Dragon,” Micha muttered in shock.

“Really?” No wonder the magic felt old. Although she’d been surrounded by demons most of her life, she hadn’t spent much time or effort studying their history. Her secluded childhood meant she had a lot of catching up to do to learn how to be a mage. She didn’t have time for anything else. But she did have a vague idea that the latest dragon hibernation had started around thirteen thousand years ago, prompting the beginning of the last ice age, but honestly, it could have been even longer ago. “Are you sure?”

“I have no memory of the beasts in my current form, but I’ve done enough research to recognize one.”

Skye nodded. “That explains her outrageous aura. If she was standing in the room I would be blinded. And she’s not even in her natural form.”

“There are writings that claim that earthquakes shook the ground when they walked and a flap of their wings could cause typhoons,” he added.

A sudden realization smacked into Skye like a freight train. The spell might be revealing the past, but it was connected to her vision. She was absolutely certain.

“And breathe flames that could destroy the world?”

Micha stiffened at her soft words. “It’s possible.” Then he shook his head. “But only if they were wakened.”

A shiver inched down Skye’s spine. “Yes.”

A shadow flickered in the image and the dragon turned as she was joined by a male. He wasn’t much taller than the female, but he was twice as wide with heavy muscles that rippled beneath a leather tunic that left his arms bare and ended at the leather boots laced up to his knees. His skin was a rich brown and his head was shaved to reveal an intricate tattoo that swirled from his brow to his nape. The fact that he had no aura revealed he was either a human or a vampire, then he came into sharp focus and Skye didn’t have to guess what species he belonged to.

His fangs could rival a saber-toothed tiger’s.

“Tatis,” Micha said, a hint of wonderment in his voice.

“You know him?”

“Only through the stories that were passed down. He was killed during the last demon wars.”

The name didn’t mean anything to Skye. “I assume he was famous for a reason?”

“He negotiated the treaty that ended the reign of the dragons. Which means the female must be Zanna, Queen of Dragons.”

Skye arched her brows, watching as the dragon and vampire stood in the center of the cavern, their lips moving as if they were having a heated exchange. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the flares of fire that danced around the dragon and the layers of ice that coated the rock floor warned they weren’t exchanging pleasant chitchat.

“I’d heard there was some sort of treaty, but I thought that was a myth,” she admitted.

He sent her a baffled glance. “The dragons?”

“No, that a vampire managed to convince them to go into hibernation.” She shrugged. “I figured it was time for the dragons to sleep, like a bear during winter, and a vampire decided to take credit for their disappearance.”

His lips twitched even as he shook his head at her audacity. “Not an unreasonable hypothesis, I suppose, but according to vampire lore, it was a joint decision to prevent our mutual extinction.”

“You were at war?”

He hesitated, his expression smoothing to unreadable lines. Her lack of education wasn’t the only reason she wasn’t overly familiar with demon or vampire history. They were notoriously secretive. Vampires rarely shared anything about the inner workings of the Cabal or how they’d gained power over the Gyres.

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