I blinked until the stinging sensation went away and then took a moment to brush the sap and green bits off my cheek. “Remind me never to high five a tree again.” Savior of the world, my ass. I rolled my eyes and stepped into Maggie’s lair, closing the door behind me.
“Come sit,” she demanded from the small seating area in the far corner of the room. It was the spot farthest from her spell casting kitchen, which was totally fine with me. I averted my eyes from the storage area where I knew she kept her collection of soul bits.
I took the chair next to hers, sliding the little footstool over to rest my weary, dirty bare feet on. I felt like I hadn’t slept in half a century. “So…what’s up, Grandma-to-the-tenth-power?” I rested my head on the back of the chair but tilted it in her direction so I could see her.
She snorted. “Well, the forsaken are coming, we have dragons on the loose, and our Father has gone missing.” She paused. “Any other stupid questions you feel like asking before we get started?”
I closed my eyes for a moment. Dear Universe. Please deliver me buttloads of patience, stat, because I am going to need all of it to get through this little convo. When I opened my eyes again, I found Maggie staring at me and waiting for an answer. “As a matter of fact, yes,” I said, my irises blazing elemental power out at her. I could see their colors reflected in the hazy cataract of her bad eye. “I have tons and tons of stupid questions, and if you don’t mind, I’d like to get answers to them before we do a single other thing.”
She shrugged, leaning back in her chair and making it rock. “Fire away. I’ll do my best.”
I pulled my head off the back of my seat, a little surprised at her easy acquiescence. “Since when did you become so accommodating?”
“Since the moment I realized I was sitting across from an elemental that wields all four elements.” She grinned, giving me a hideously clear view of her gnarly teeth.
I sat up more fully. “Say what, now?” I looked around the room. “Is Ben here? Did he put you up to this?” That would explain her mood change. He could be very charming when he wanted to be. And scary powerful.
“Ben is no more!” she yelled.
I jumped, partially out of surprise and partially because what she’d said had scared the shit out of me. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying he’s dead?” I had literally just seen the guy, and he’d been as alive as I was in that white void. Had he sent me here and literally sacrificed his own life to do it?
I was shocked at how bummed that thought made me. In all the time that I’d known Ben, I would have been happy for him to be gone forever. But that last conversation we’d shared had changed things. He had clearly changed and so had my feelings for him. I placed my hand on my belly, wondering if being pregnant meant that I had gone soft or something. Assuming I was even still doing the whole baby thing. Being lost in the elements and having an elemental slinky inhabiting my inner self might have put an end to that. It made me profoundly sad. Had I lost two important beings from my life? Were either of those losses my fault?
Maggie lowered her voice one notch down from yelling. “Dead? Gone? What’s the difference? He is no more for this realm and therefore no good to us.”
“But…I just saw him.”
“Did you now? Do tell.” She leaned in, way too interested in my explanation.
Whenever she acted almost nice, alarm bells started ringing like mad in my head. This was one of those times. “That’s on a need to know basis and I don’t think you need to know.”
She waved her arthritically knobby, liver-spotted, and blue-veined hand at me. “It doesn’t matter. He’s out, you’re in. We must get you prepared.”
“Prepared for what?” I was not at all comfortable with the idea of Maggie calling the shots in my life.
She rubbed her hands together with evil glee. “For the final battle! The war to end all wars!”
“Why do you look so happy about sending me into a war, Grandmother?”
“Don’t call me that!” she shrieked. “It makes me feel old!”
I giggled. “Newsflash: you are old. Older than dirt and not much cleaner.” I took in her ratty outfit that defied description. What was she wearing, exactly? Was it some sort of ancient tunic? A cape? A bathrobe? It was impossible to determine. Her feet were wrapped in footwear that looked like something from Ish’s time. It reminded me of Tony and the other brave dragon riders who hadn’t been whisked off to hang out in the elements for who knew how long, unlike some people in this room.
“Where are all of my friends? Tony, Jared…”
She cut me off. “All are where they should be. Forget about them. You have business with me, first.”
I stood, out of patience and out of time. I knew where I had to be, and it wasn’t with this old bag of bones in her crusty old house full of rat poo and empty souls trapped in boxes. “Nope. I don’t. I have business with the Light Fae council, and I’m starting to get hungry.” A glance at her kitchen made me queasy. “And I’m definitely not staying here for dinner.”
“Do not go out there!” she yelled at my back.
“Why? Is there a boogieman waiting for me?” I was only partially kidding. Ben’s words still had me spooked.
“Not yet! But there will be!”
I opened the door to her place, a little surprised that she hadn’t tried to lock me in. “Well, let me know when he gets here. I’ll blast him in the asshole with The Green and then take that nap I’ve been putting off for about an eon.”
“You need training, Elemental.” Her voice had lost all of its anger. The only thing left that I could hear in her tone was concern, which was right up there with seeing Ben crying on the weirdness scale. “You cannot control all four elements without help.”
I turned to look at her, beyond tired and absolutely done, done, done with the drama. “You need to stop talking nonsense. I control two elements, not four. If you want four, you need to get Ben back here.”
“Ben is no more. You are all we have.” Her voice was soft and filled with what sounded like genuine emotion. It was the only thing that stopped me from shutting the door in her face.
I turned to square up with her. She was on her feet behind me. “I don’t understand what you’re saying, old woman, and I’m not sure that I want to either.”
Her eyes were watery, but it was impossible to tell if it was emotion making them that way or if her cataracts were flaring up. “Denying reality does not make it any less real.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard that somewhere before.” I rolled my eyes.
“The fae need you. Humans need you.” She pressed her misshapen hands together. “We all need you.”
I felt myself getting angry at her desperate act. Maggie was about as desperate for my help as I was desperate for a dinner served from her kitchen. “Would you please give me a major break? I’ve heard that before too! Why is it always me, huh? Why can’t someone else save the world for once?!”
She shrugged. “They tried. They failed. They do not have what it takes.”
“Well neither do I!” I walked out, slamming the door behind me.
I only got about five steps away from her tree before she followed me out, shouting, “Where are you going?! Get back here!”
I threw my arm out behind me, intending to slam her door so I didn’t have to hear any more of her nonsense, but what came out of my hand were not the tendrils of Green power I had expected to see; instead, a fairly large fireball burst from my palm and rushed at her face.
She lifted her hand and absorbed the fire, turning it into a shower of sparks like it was no big deal.
I froze in place, trying to figure out what had just happened. My hand wasn’t hot or even warm, but it had definitely just sent a fireball raging at my grandmother. I looked at my palm. There was nothing there but a sleeping dragon eyeball reflected from inside the fused scale.
“As I suspected,” she growled. “No control! No finesse! Raw and unleashed! You are a danger to
everyone until you learn how to control yourself!”
I felt sick over the idea that she could be right. That Ben really could have somehow transferred his fire element over to me and that I was the least qualified person on the planet to manage it. I glared at the bossy old lady witch who was once again raining on my parade. I was so, so tired of being put in this position. I just didn’t have the strength to deal with it in that moment. “Can it, lady, or I’ll set your house on fire.”
“I’d like to see you try,” she taunted.
Rather than take her up on that very tempting offer, I turned away again. I closed my eyes and lifted my arms. If I was going to be a holy terror of elemental power, I might as well have some fun with it. I was tired, I was hungry, and I wanted to go home.
Let’s see if I really have all the elements at my disposal. I created a vision in my head of Wind arriving to sweep me off my feet and deliver me to the doorstep of the light fae compound. Unfortunately, I only pictured the picking up and the putting down parts…an error in planning that was made painfully clear when I was suddenly swept off my feet by a tornado, spun about a thousand times, and then plopped onto rubbery legs by the infinity door about fifteen seconds later.
I collapsed immediately and then rolled over onto my side to vomit in the grass. “Oh, Jesus God, what did I just do…?” I vomited a second time when my stomach and head refused to stop spinning.
The door opened a few moments later and moccasins appeared next to my face. “Oh…hi, Jayne. I thought I sensed something going on out here. When did you get back?”
I looked up to see Scrum smiling down at me. He had a long pink scar going down the left side of his face from eyebrow to jawline, and his hair was shaved almost to his scalp, but he was alive and he looked happy to see me.
I lifted my hand. “Help a girl up, would ya?”
He stepped gingerly around my upchuckage. “Looks like you had a difficult re-entry.”
“You could say that.” I got to my feet with his help and hung onto his arm until the world finally stopped spinning. “Could you take me to get some food and then to see Dardennes?”
“Uhhh…sure. But maybe we should go to your room first?”
I paused to look up at him. “Why?” I wiped my face with the back of my arm.
“Because everyone is kind of waiting there for you.”
I nodded, too tired to try and figure out what that meant. “Take me there, then. Let’s get this out of the way.” It was time for me to make some major apologies and find out about everything that I’d missed. My brain was a jumble of facts, guesses, estimations, hopes, and fears, and I needed to get it all straightened out into actual reality. Had all my friends made it back in one piece? What had happened to their dragons? Was Tony okay? Were Loony Long and Murderous Mike here too? Had Brad had his fae blood awakened? Had Ben really disappeared forever? Did Spike still love me? Did we still have a baby on the way? And what did they know about the forsaken?
“No problem,” Scrum said, holding the door open for me and offering his arm for support. “It’s great to have you back, Jayne. We’ve missed you a lot.”
I shuffled on achingly sore bare feet through the doorway and into the cool tunnel. “That’s good to hear.” And I meant it. I had missed my life and family here more than I could express, and it felt so good to be back, even knowing there was probably going to be a lot of shit to deal with.
“So, how bad is it?” I asked Scrum as we shuffled along.
“Umm…not so bad. Not really.”
I nodded. “Don’t tell me anything. Let’s just…enjoy this moment of nothing happening before the shit hits the fan again,” I said, sighing heavily.
Scrum patted my hand. “No problem. I can do that.”
I rested my head on his shoulder as I slowly but surely walked toward my future.
The saga continues!
Winged Warriors (War of the Fae Book 10)
Coming June 25, 2018
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elle Casey, a former attorney and teacher, is a NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and Amazon bestselling American author who lives in France with her husband, the youngest of her three kids, and a number of horses, dogs, and cats. She has written more than 40 novels in 6 years and likes to say she offers fiction in several flavors. These flavors include romance, science fiction, urban fantasy, action adventure, suspense, and paranormal.
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CLICK HERE TO FIND OTHER BOOKS BY ELLE CASEY ON KOBO
CONTEMPORARY URBAN FANTASY
War of the Fae (10-book series)
Ten Things You Should Know About Dragons (short story, The Dragon Chronicles Anthology)
My Vampire Summer
Aces High
DYSTOPIAN
Apocalypsis (4-book series)
SCIENCE FICTION
Drifters’ Alliance (ongoing series)
Winner Takes All (short story prequel to Drifters’ Alliance, Dark Beyond the Stars Anthology)
The Ivory Tower (short story standalone, Beyond the Stars: A Planet Too Far Anthology)
ROMANCE
By Degrees
Rebel Wheels (3-book series)
Just One Night (romantic serial)
Love in New York (3-book series)
Shine Not Burn (2-book series)
Bourbon Street Boys (4-book series)
Red Hot Love (3-book series)
Desperate Measures Mismatched
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
All the Glory
Don’t Make Me Beautiful
Wrecked (2-book series)
PARANORMAL
Duality (2-book series)
Monkey Business (short story)
Dreampath (short story standalone, The Telepath Chronicles)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book, like all my others, could never have made it into reader hands without the support of many special people. I’d like to thank my beta readers: Colleen M., Ashley P., Sharon B., Lucy Y., Wendy S., Leanna D., Gracie, Margaret (www.editingbymargaret.com), Sarah W., Melissa A., and Velma H. This book is better because of your efforts! Also, I’d like to extend a big thank you to all of my readers who were patient and kind during the period between books 8 and 9 of the series, especially those who sent uplifting and supportive emails or online comments that brightened my days. I hope you found this book worth the wait. To the Ellementals who hang out in the Inner Sanctum, thank you for being such dedicated and enthusiastic fans. And to my family, many thanks for riding the waves with me. . .we finally made it to shore!
Elle Casey, Dragon Riders
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