Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,144

demand further investigation into the Glen Grove bombing, would any of the perpetrators face justice now? At the end of the day, it was the bombers who had set this all in motion. Mariela was responsible for a lot of death and suffering, but none of it would have happened if it weren’t for their bigotry.

A spell fractured with a puff of foul odor and an echo of death. Mariela’s black magic spell that had invoked Typhon had broken. Now that she was dead, we could bury Typhon. How the hell we were supposed to do that, though, I had no idea.

Typhon rumbled and started to rise. The wound in his head was already healing. Blasted immortals.

To my surprise, Esme raised her head again and let out a feeble cry. Overhead, something screeched in reply. Another burst of lightning illuminated the source of the sound: a dragon so huge, it dwarfed Typhon. It was either the one from the walls of Edis or the same species. The dragon swooped toward us, moving so quickly I had no time to get out of its way.

As it turned out, I was not its target.

The dragon grasped Typhon in its claws and settled its massive body on top of him. The giant looked like a mouse in the talons of a hawk. Typhon bellowed and roared as the snakes that made up his body attempted to bite through the dragon’s scales, but it didn’t seem to notice their attacks.

To my surprise, the dragon didn’t take off immediately. Perched on Typhon’s body, its weight crushing the giant to the rocky ground, it leaned down toward Esme. Its teeth were larger than Ronan’s sword, and there were dozens of them.

I didn’t stop to think. I ran in front of Esme and found myself face-to-snout with the dragon. Like Esme’s, its eyes were brilliant, glittering emerald green.

The dragon puffed warm, magic-tinged air in my face in what might have been exasperation. It carefully nudged me aside and lowered its nose to Esme’s bloody face. My little dragon raised her head and touched her nose to the newcomer’s much-larger snout.

The dragon shimmered with violet magic. Warm air and magic blew from its nose and swirled around Esme, wrapping her in a shimmery blanket.

Violet magic was fae magic. I’d seen it only twice before—not counting the traces of fae magic in my aura thanks to a distant fae ancestor—and its beauty and power would never cease to leave me breathless. Daisy paced at my side, clearly uneasy about such an enormous dragon so close to her little pack mate.

The magic faded, revealing Esme curled up in cat form, fast asleep. Her fur was bloody and dirty, but her wounds were gone. I let out a little sob.

Moving very slowly so my gesture wouldn’t be interpreted as an attack, I rested my palm on the side of the dragon’s head. Its scales were hot and pulsed with magic. “Thank you,” I whispered.

Two of the vipers that made up Typhon’s body hissed and tried to strike me. The dragon whipped its head around, bit off the snakes, and swallowed them. Yuck.

Under the dragon’s claws, Typhon roared. The dragon made a satisfied noise and looked down at Esme.

“I’ll take care of her,” I promised. “Stuff that asshole back under a mountain, will you?”

The dragon puffed warm air at me and took off with Typhon struggling and bellowing in its grip. Though it was careful not to hit us with its enormous wings, the downdraft knocked me flat. The dragon snuffled in what might have been an apology.

I sat up and watched it rise high into the air and fly off in the opposite direction of the distant mountains, toward a pitch-black horizon and hopefully the deepest pit the Underworld had to offer.

I hurt all over and the knot in my stomach felt like the size of a baseball. I was so hungry that the gnawing sensation was painful, but it was just one more pain I couldn’t do anything about at the moment.

Lucy’s voice startled me. “Was that a dragon you were talking to, or was I hallucinating?” She sat up, pale and shaky, but alive.

“That was most definitely a dragon. Luckily, it was on our side.” Using a rock for support, I got to my feet. I scooped up Esme and headed for Ronan, who hadn’t moved since he went down with Mariela’s blade in his ribs.

When we got to him, his wings had disappeared, as had his flaming sword.