Page 12 of Must Love Dragons
That meant dark magic had been used.
She handed the burning candle to Delaney and reached for the crystal on the floor, holding it over the wound on his side.The crystal pulsed in her hand, reacting to the dark magic.She tightened her hand around the crystal, and it broke apart, turning to glittery dust that settled into the wound and revealed trails of dark, thread-like energy in the wound.
Shit.
“This is so much worse than a dark magic spell,” Delaney said.
“What’s wrong?”Brody asked.
“Whoever cast the spell against him left a piece of his dark magic inside him.That’s why he isn’t healing.And it’ll be a beacon for whoever it was to find him.”
* * *
The scent of burning sage and crushed juniper berries filled the room as Kinsley and Delaney prepared for the purification ritual.Zay lay motionless on the couch, his breathing steady but shallow.She couldn’t stop looking at him and worrying about him.
She shivered.The dark magic was invisible to the naked eye, but she could feel it in the room.Dangerous.Destructive.
A knock at the outer door made her jump.
“Hello!”Mother Gibson called as she opened the back door.
“We’re in here,” Delaney answered.
Mother Gibson walked in wearing a thick cloak in earth tones, a leather satchel over one shoulder.The older witch’s sharp gaze took in the room before settling on Kinsley.
“Your mate, yes?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, let’s get to the business of saving him, then, yes?”
“Heck yes.”
She set her satchel on a nearby credenza and pulled out a worn book with a cracked leather cover.Kinsley stood and joined her as Mother Gibson opened the book to a page she’d marked with a dried flower.
“The dark magic is still in the wound and it’s preventing him from healing,” she said.
“I really thought all the dragons were gone,” Mother Gibson said.“I remember hearing about a warlock attack on a dragon clan somewhere up north.It was brutal.The rumor was that no one survived but the warlocks.”
Could it be Zay’s clan?Brody said the scars on his shoulder were from a warlock.
Had he lost his people to warlocks?
“So whoever did this to him is connected to the attack on the dragons?If it’s his people?”
Mother Gibson nodded.“It’s possible.”She looked at an image in the book of a dragon and a warlock.“Dragon blood is powerful and used in dark rituals.It enhances spells and strengthens the warlocks.The fact that the spell that took Zay down in his dragon form is also laced with tracking magic, means we need to get it out of him immediately.Warlocks that dabble in dark magic are far too dangerous to trifle with.”
After reading the purification spell, they gathered the ingredients and placed candles in a circle around the couch.As each one was lit, the three witches stepped into the circle and enclosed it with black salt to protect them as they removed the dark magic beneath Zay’s skin.
Mother Gibson took silver powder and sprinkled a line of it across the wound while Delaney chanted the spell.Kinsley placed her hands just above his body, closed her eyes, and focused her magic, letting it flow through her fingertips.The dark magic inside him resisted her magic, but she wasn’t going to give up.
And then Zay’s body jerked violently, his lips parting and showing fangs.The candles flickered wildly like a wind was blowing through the room.
Delaney braced Zay’s shoulders to hold him down while Kinsley pushed harder.Delaney chanted louder and Kinsley called for Nysa, who stepped across the salt barrier and joined them, curling her tail around her leg.
A wave of golden energy spread through Kinsley and down into Zay, spreading over his body and into the wound, battling with the dark magic.A strange hissing noise filled the room, the sound of the dark magic being pushed out of him.
The silver powder darkened on his wound as the magic coiled upward in thin tendrils.Kinsley poured all her heart and magic into the spell, focusing on Delaney’s words and the fact that her truemate’s life was hanging in the balance.
