Page 63 of Kingdom of Ashes & Bone
I worried about him.
Zion was healing, but very, very slowly. He refused to take any blood from me or Zariah, claiming he was fine. I agreed that Zariah needed to keep his strength up, but I wasn’t doing anything but riding around! Why wouldn’t he let me help?
Then, during the second week of travel, we rested in a shady grove of trees in the middle of a forest. Zion and Zariah had declared the area empty of anything other than wildlife.
Which was why when the woman walked straight into our encampment, we were shocked.
Zariah shifted immediately, taking our several trees and our fire as his massive dragon body filled the clearing.
The woman stepped right up to him with no fear, but did give him a grudging look of respect. She was barefoot and wore a green dress, her brown hair long and wild down her back. Brown eyes took in the three of us, her eyebrows so high they practically melded into her hairline.
“Well, I never thought I’d see one ofyouin person. Let alone meet two.” She narrowed her eyes on me. “And a half.”
“Who are you? What do you want?” Zion asked, putting himself halfway between me and the strange woman. Zariah growled as he towered over us, smoke wafting from his nostrils.
The woman clapped her hands together as though we’d performed some clever trick.
“Ooh, I can’t wait to tell the coven. We thought dragon curses were simply bedtime stories meant to frighten the witchlings. This is incredible!”
Her words finally registered.
“Wait, you know about cursed dragons?” I asked in awe. “Please! You must tell us everything! How does the curse work? What happens next? Where do we—”
The woman held up a hand and I paused. With a flick of her wrist vines and roots sprung from the ground, forming a perfect little seat under her. I stared. Zion jerked and Zariah growled again, ready to burn every twitching vine to a crisp if it came anywhere near us.
“Sit.Sit!” the woman commanded, gesturing imperiously to us. Vines and leaves shot out of the ground, and in the blank of an eye, enough seats had sprouted out of the ground for everyone.
Warily, I touched the one closest to me, not entirely ruling out thorns or any other nasty surprises, but the seat was soft and spring, like rich moss. I sat, but wasn’t going to let up on my questions. “You’re a witch then?”
She tossed her hair playfully over her shoulder. “You don’t get out much, do you?”
I grinned. “First time. I’m Mari. This is Zion, and the brute is Zariah.”
The ‘brute’ rumbled from behind me, but at least hunkered down on all fours so he could see and hear the woman better.
“Where to begin?” she breathed out softly, mostly to herself. “Right. Well, as I said, dragon curses were thought to be myths. It’s powerful magick, but chaotic magick. White magick of the highest order!”
I settled in firmly against Zion’s back, his arms coming to rest around me. “In our kingdom, a witch laid a curse on the queen to turn into a dragon because she had enslaved an entire group of people. These two are her sons, and they are also dragons,” I explained.
Her head tilted to the side. “And had they also enslaved people?”
Zion flinched, and I rushed to his aid. “They were bound to obey the queen. They did what they could to correct the wrongs.” I paused. “There were also demons. The Nobles who had benefited from the slavery were cursed to turn into demons. The women would turn too, but quickly die. Do you know why?”
It was one blistering question that had never truly been answered.
The witch gave me a look like I was a simpleton. “So there can’t be more demons, obviously.”
Obviously.
The witch frowned. “Back to your dragons. They weren’t the original party cursed?”
I glanced up at Zion.
“No,” he answered. “Though someone else postulated that the curse was transferred to us through her womb.”
The witch nodded and smiled as if everything made sense. At least someone understood it all.
“Yes, curses can be transferred through the womb, even if centered only on her.” The witch glanced between the three of us. “She is your mate then? How fortunate!”
