Destiny Kills (Myth and Magic 1)

You may not care about living or dying in that place, but the kids don’t deserve it. There was more anger in my voice than I realized, and I could feel her shock ripple down the psychic lines.

No, you’re right. They need to get out, before it’s too late for them, too.

Fear slivered through me. What do you mean?

She didn’t answer, and the power of her presence faded. I hit the water with my free hand in frustration, sending up a huge splash. Damn it, what the hell was going on over there? I continued to caress the water as my gaze ran across the dark hills, but there was absolutely nothing to see and no further response from my mother.

“No luck?” Trae said softly.

“Yes and no.” I rose and stepped out of the water, much to the disappointment of the waves. “I managed to contact her, but she keeps saying I can’t help her.”

He wrapped his arms around me and held me close. The beat of his heart was strong and sure against my chest, his arms filled with a strength I knew I could depend on no matter what.

“What now?” he murmured, his breath gently stirring the hairs on the top of my head.

“Now, we go to bed. I’ll summon the dawn magic to do a more thorough investigation, and we can decide how to proceed from there.”

“That,” he said with a smile in his voice, “is the best suggestion I’ve heard yet.”

We made our way back to the cottage and then to bed, but sleep didn’t figure a whole lot into the equation. The night was a long one, filled with passion and tenderness, richened by the emotion that lay in every caress, every kiss, every sigh. We never said the words, but we didn’t need to. Not yet.

We finally fell asleep entwined in each other’s arms, sated and exhausted. If I dreamed, I didn’t remember it.

It was still dark when we woke the following morning. After showering and getting dressed, we headed out into the predawn darkness. Slithers of pink had barely begun to caress the sky with their warmth, and the air tingled with the power yet to come. It played across my skin, an energy that seemed more dangerous, and a lot wilder, than the energy that came from most lakes.

We crossed the A82 and walked down to the rocky shoreline, following it around the bay. As the streaks of pink intensified and changed, becoming bands of red and yel

low that tainted the dark skies, the morning mist folded down across the hills, hanging so low it danced in wispy streams across the water, making loch and the surrounding land look somewhat dark and mysterious.

Once again, part of me longed to dive into those waters, to cavort and play and simply enjoy, as my ancestors had done for centuries. But I couldn’t—not until the scientists were gone and it was once again safe for my kind.

But there were things I could do—powers I could still call on—that might help my quest to free my mother. And the scientists, for all their equipment and sensors, wouldn’t have a clue as to what I was doing.

“Is it true they have a fiberglass statue of the monster over there?” Trae asked, his soft tones riding the stillness without jarring against it. “One that the kids climb all over?”

I pulled my gaze away from the loch and looked toward Drumnadrochit, a smile touching my lips. “I think so. Dad used to tell me stories about it when I was a kid, and about how he and Mom used to go get photographed beside it on special occasions, just for the fun of it.”

“How right did they get the shape?”

I smiled. “From what Dad said, she looks more like a castoff from the dinosaur period. Even pregnant sea dragons don’t look that bad.”

He grinned. “So I gather the color is wrong, too?”

“Yeah. They seem to think gray is a good color for sea dragons, but I think that’s the only color we don’t have.”

“Maybe they’re just too used to dolphins and whales, and think loch monsters would fancy the same shades.”

“Or it’s just a lack of imagination on the artists’ part. I mean, all they have to do is look at the other sea life. It’s not all gray. Far from it.”

Dawn’s energy began to beat through the air, flaying my skin with its raw power. I breathed it deep, feeling it fill me, warm me. Welcome me.

“It’s time,” I said softly to Trae, and untwined my fingers from his. “Wait here.”

I stepped into the water, letting the dark energy of the loch lap around my ankles and mingle with the force of the rising day.

On the horizon, the slivers of red and gold became a flood, streaking across the sky and obliterating the night. The energy in the air grew frantic, crawling across my skin like fireflies and making my hair stand on end.

There was so much raw, untamed power in this place. It filled me, enriched me, made me believe I could do almost anything.