Page 51 of Dragon Fires Everywhere
This time, the murmuring is louder.
Carol says nothing, but I canfeelher fury undulating out of her and toward us. So I figure it’s best to move this along. Careful not to shake, I whisper thewords to open the glass case.
For a moment, nothing happens, and I think we’re doomed—but then it opens.
I finally let myself glance over at that golden gleam in the trees again.
It seems to... wink at me.
On a deep breath, I pull the unicorn horn out of the glass with one hand and hold the key made out of malachite, designatedfor our fabulae, in the other. I move over to where my coven is arranged and set both where Azrael should be, letting themhover there above the ground.
Then, with my own key, I take my spot.
“We better hurry,” Ellowyn mutters.
And she’s right. I can feel the Joywood scrambling to find a way to stop us. Their magic is slithering around us, and it seemsto get blacker and more ugly as the seconds pass.
But they’re not having any luck getting through the protected unicorn horn. It’s almost enough to make me giddy, but not yet.We have a spell to do. Anything can happen.
We can’t be the only ones who can feel that magic almostpulsingall around us.
My coven holds hands, grasping each other to create the rectangle of the table. In the middle of us, our keys form a figureeight.
Frost and I both hold an end of the unicorn horn. It has its own magic, and that no doubt helps, but I can also feel Azrael’smagic twining around my hand.
When we all say the words, I can hear him deep inside me, saying those same words.
So it feels like magic, and a vow, all at once—but I concentrate on the spell.
Our magic blooms and pulses, becoming its own figure eight. The keys begin to vibrate, then lift into the air.“With keys collected, unlock the knowledge meant for us. With magic twined, we reach out to the confluence, the pulsing powerof leadership, that begins with truth. Show us how to unlock the truth.”
I canfeelan oily black entity just behind me, and yet it cannotpenetrate. Whether it’s our power, the unicorn’s, Azrael’s, or the fact the Joywood are weakening, I do not know.
But I know we’re winning.
The keys crash together with a great boom that shakes the earth under us, but we hold tight to each other so it doesn’t shakeus. Then the keys break apart into a million little floating pieces, and for a moment, I begin to think I’ve done somethingwrong.
Could I have messed this up after all?
But as I think that, they begin to swirl, together, into the shape of another key. This one isn’t made of a single crystal.It’s made of many—and it’s threaded through with gold.
Just like a dragon’s eyes.
And once it’s complete, the key falls into the center of our imaginary table.
“Protect the keys, the knowledge, the truth. Give us the strength to wield all of this. Confluence, be our light, our protection.”We close the spell and end the ceremony, still holding hands.
I look up at the tree again, and the gleam of gold is unmistakable, but I seem to be the only one who can see it.
I hope I am.
We bow our heads, release our hands, then turn to all the witches gathered here with us. I move forward and pick up the perfectlysolid, warm gold key, shimmering with magic.
A magic I can feel inside me like a kind of map.
And I know what it is. I have opened the witchlore archives.
Weopened the witchlore archives.
