Hour of the Dragon - Heather Killough-Walden Page 0,132

“The symbol is a modified Vesica piscis, the circles overlapping one above the other rather than side by side. Within that overlap, a charm has been placed.”

She ran her finger over the lines and images unfolded in her mind’s eye, images of eclipses and blankets and night falling. She stopped her finger, suddenly half-afraid that by touching it, she had been unintentionally activating it.

But Sterling smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry, beautiful. You can’t activate it.” He looked up at Ares. “Only he can.”

Then he took the empty larger pouch and both smaller pocket pouches and said, “I suppose I owe you this one, Mace.” He held all three items out for Ares to take.

Ares didn’t miss a beat. He took the items with zero hesitation and tucked them into one of the inner pockets of his leather jacket. “Yeah, you do,” he said simply. And then he sucker punched Jarrod Sterling so hard, the Nightmare Warlock went stumbling backward several steps to wind up sprawled on his back in the middle of the tarmac.

“Jarrod!” Anna cried out, at once mortified by the attack.

But when she tried to run to him, she found herself not only held back but lifted off her feet by a pair of strong and determined arms.

With her tight against his chest, Ares turned to Cain. The two exchanged a private look, one that Anna wished for all the world she’d been included in, and then Cain nodded at Ares – and the parking lot, Jarrod Sterling, and the Monsters warden clan leader vanished as Ares and Annaleia disappeared without a word.

Chapter Forty-four – The Dragon’s Den

When the world solidified around them again, Anna shoved against Ares’ chest. “Damn it Ares, put me down right now,” she seethed.

He smirked and bent to lower her gently, but she just jumped out of his arms herself and backed up several steps to look around and get her bearings.

She was in a cave. An honest to goodness cave. But this was not your ordinary run-of-the-mill cave. This was a cave that had been turned into a luxury home.

She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised or impressed at this point, given the people she worked with and the realms she’d had occasion to see – such as the fae realm, which could be surreal in its beauty. But everywhere she looked, details of wealth and opulence surprised and impressed her nonetheless.

The walls were not the gray limestone-like rock she would have expected. Instead they were a light tan color, nearly white, and veins of what looked like gold and silver ran through them. She stood on a kind of shelf balcony overlooking a larger part of the cave. There must have been another shelf above her, or perhaps several, because from that higher level, a waterfall poured into an extravagant pool below. The pool’s flooring was an inviting deep marbled blue, and it wound around a kind of spiral area to what appeared to be a separate hot tub. She could see the water bubbling in the tub and even make out the steam rising from it. It looked warm. Anna had the sudden urge to take off her clothes and step into it.

She bit her lip, hugged herself tighter, and kept slowly turning to take in more of her surroundings.

The balcony on which she stood offered perhaps the best view in the underground abode. From here, she could even see other shelf-like balconies on the other side of this part of the cave. Each was lined with safety railings of glass, carved wood, and gold. Access from one level to another was possible via carved-out stairs that sparkled with embedded crystals. However, that was not the only way to move from one level of the cave to another.

Annaleia could see the cylindrical glass of an actual elevator at one end of the cave. Its shining black doors were piped through with gold art deco lines to stunning effect. Anna was finding herself more lost to her surroundings with each passing second.

From where she stood, she could also see that here and there throughout the cave, alcoves featuring plush leather furniture and recessed lighting invited with things like bars or sitting areas or even what appeared to be a small library, its shelves stacked full with books. Small trees and other plants grew from outcroppings along the cave walls, their leaves unanimously healthy, some of the plants in bloom, and some definitely not from anywhere on Earth. She knew