Page 28 of Galadon
“I told her that she should have a drink at the tavern.” Lorcan shrugged, amusement in his gaze at my reaction. “She was the one who was so traumatized by whatever you said to her that she had to drink her cares away—after we made her eat a hearty meal. I may have also let it slip that you warned our whole toriq against harming her. Interestingly, she believed it and let her guard down to guzzle alefire.”
“You let her drink alefire?” I growled.
Three mugs were enough to leave a large shifter crawling to his home afterward.
Lorcan chuckled. “I didn’t let her do anything. My suggestion had been mead, but she said she preferred alefire, and who am I to argue with a distraught slayer? I value my life, you know. So she drank it—and to my shock—she hardly stumbled afterward. Titan stayed close just in case, but he assured me he’d seen her drink as much before and be fine afterward.”
I wondered what I would have done in his place. Stop her? I never guessed she could handle it so well, but I should have known better. Her compact form hid a female tougher than any I’d ever known.
“I take it she safely departed the next day?” I asked, ignoring the fact that Lorcan had told her about my protection order. She would have known the warning was given before our latest conversation, so it didn’t counter the slayer’s demand to stop saving her. I’d continue safeguarding her in the ways I could from afar because I couldn’t help doing otherwise.
“Yes, Titan flew her back to the Taugud fortress so she could retrieve her horse. From there…” He shook his head. “It sounded like she’d go back on the hunt again.”
“She has no choice,” I said through gritted teeth, forever hating that part of her.
Lorcan rubbed his chin. “Perhaps not for much longer. I received word that the first trial with the slayer potion worked for about ten days. The female who took it said that during that time she had no urge to kill dragons whatsoever, and she’d already gone five days without hunting prior to ingesting it. Javier—the sorcerer developing the formula—plans to tweak it more to extend the time, but he believes it’s promising.”
“Can you get a vial of it?” I asked, thoughts churning.
Surprise lit the shifter’s face. “Do you plan to give it to Rayna? She implied that she had no intention of returning to visit you again, and that’s how you wanted it.”
“Just get some in case the opportunity arises to offer it to her,” I said. If there were a way to curb her killing urges, perhaps it could allay my fears enough to give her a chance.
“I already requested a few vials in case we need them for the slayers in Texas.” He gave me a discerning look. “I can give you one, but on the condition that you attend the naming ceremony, and you will accept four shifter guards I will personally select to protect your territory.”
Except they’d see the circle and feel the artifact, which I could not risk.
My mother cleared her throat and grasped my arm. “I’ll be here, and I’ll make certain they don’t go anywhere they’re not wanted. You should go, Galadon.”
I still didn’t like the idea, but while I hadn’t forgiven Ujala, I trusted her to protect the secrets on my land. If I werebeing honest with myself, she had sacrificed a lot for this place, too.
“Very well.” I crossed my arms and looked at the male shifter. “I will go if you promise to take me for a drink after the ceremony.”
Lorcan grinned. “Excellent. We’ll make a night of it, and you will let yourself relax for once.”
Something told me I would live to regret this idea.
Chapter 12
Rayna
The Kandoran dragon wasn’t going to get the best of her. Just because it was one of the largest Rayna had ever seen didn’t mean she couldn’t kill it. She just had to fight past the pain in her sword arm, where the beast had bitten and nearly ripped it off.
Holding her blade with her other hand, she regained her fighting stance and drew as much inner power as possible until it flowed from her fingertips. The first time she’d hit the dragon with lightning, it had barely flinched. The damn thing was so massive—probably from eating too many humans—that its girth protected it to some degree from her magical attacks.
Rayna wouldn’t hold back this time.
Drawing energy from the atmosphere around her until it crackled, she screamed as she flung every bit of herself into creating the most powerful bolt she’d ever formed. Pointing her blade at the Kandoran’s head, she channeled it right between its eyes. The air cracked, and a blinding stream of light hit her opponent with enough force to knock her backward to the ground. Stars danced in front of her eyes as she sat up.
The dragon’s head had been obliterated with chunks strewn across the scorched earth.
Well, that solved that problem. The rest of the body crashed to the ground, and the remains of its shredded neck sagged like a hot dog heated too long in the microwave, making her more than certain this enemy wouldn’t rise again.
Rayna turned her gaze to the right, where her black stallion stomped the heads of two Kandoran humans. Onyx had singled them out while she fought the bigger enemy. He was putting his new horseshoes to good use, though she didn’t look forward to cleaning them out. He’d be going for a swim in the lake by the tower when they returned, whether he liked it or not.
She brushed a bloody chunk of something from her shoulder as she rose to her feet. “Onyx, they’re dead. You can stop now.”
It had taken a couple of hours traveling north before finding any enemies to kill. If they hurried, they could make it back before dark, and she could check her snares. The Kandoran nest came out and roamed in more significant numbers once the moon rose. She wanted her horse inside before then. There was little game left after the massive army they’d defeated came through and ate nearly every sizeable animal in the western half of Oklahoma.
