Page 20 of Dragon’s Golden Mate (Shifter Nation: Enchanted Over Forty #2)

“Like hell they are,” Maeve replied. “Nia, Zoe, Iris, Colette. Come over here.”

None of the girls responded to their names.

Pure horror rippled through Maeve at seeing battle lines drawn within her own coven. They were all sisters, women who trusted each other above all else. Young and old, experienced or novices, it didn’t matter. But she’d never seen such vile looks from those she loved.

She recognized the three young men who were with them, too.

They’d been on stage earlier at the concert.

The one Nia clung to must be her boyfriend, Gavin.

Maeve didn’t know the names of his bandmates.

One had a shaved head and a thick chain around his neck.

The other had long, scraggly hair that went past the bottom of his leather jacket.

“That’s just pathetic,” Cassandra said dismissively. “What are you going to do, Grandma? Punish them when they don’t get home before curfew? Please. They know who’s really in charge now.”

“Why?” Maeve demanded. She didn’t care about the insults. She only cared about what was happening with her sisters. And truthfully, she cared about the gargoyles, as well. “What’s the point in all of this?”

“We know you’re a banshee,” Kendrick added.

Cassandra chuckled slightly to herself. “Oh, did you figure that out? Gold star for you. I’m surprised you noticed anything beyond the stunning architecture of the building.”

“Clearly, that wasn’t your concern with the place,” he growled.

“Look, I’m going to simplify this and save us all time.

” Cassandra shook her hair out and took a breath.

“My kind have been used as harbingers of death for centuries.

We were chained to old families, forced to carry out ethereal and eternal missions.

We issued warnings. We guarded the veils between this world and others.

We were used, never allowed to be ourselves.

“But I’ve broken free,” she continued, her smile turning wicked. “I know how to use my talents for my own good now, and that portal makes me stronger.”

“What is it?” Maeve asked. If Cassandra was willing to talk, she wanted all the information she could get.

Cassandra lifted one shoulder. “It seems to be an entry into another dimension, one where no mortal can live. I’ve learned to pull power from it and make myself stronger. My voice is no longer just a warning of imminent doom. Want to see?”

She tipped back her head and flung out her arms, just as she had at the concert and in the visions the gargoyles had shown her before. Her piercing cry ripped through the air.

It was a screech so high and powerful that Maeve could hear it clearly even when she covered her ears. It reverberated against the inside of her skull and shook her bones, threatening to turn her guts into liquid.

A sharp rain began falling inside the church. No, not rain. Glass. Every single panel of stained glass had exploded, no match for Cassandra’s wailing. Shattered glass crashed to the floor in rainbow shards, illuminated by the haunting glow emanating from the portal beneath.

“A nice parlor trick, but that’s not going to get you far.” Kendrick let his dragon out quickly, unrolling his tail and unfurling his wings.

“Shiiiiit,” Leather Jacket said with a little laugh. “I haven’t seen a fucking dragon in…ever.”

“Shut up.” Cassandra whipped her hand behind her.

Though Maeve saw no visible magic transferring from Cassandra’s hand, Leather Jacket’s head whipped back on his neck. When it straightened again, his mouth was a hard line. His pupils had dilated to the point that they took over his irises.

Cassandra took a step forward, her shoes crunching on the crushed glass.

“I can use my voice to command other supernaturals. Given how many of them are in Salem alone, I’ll rule this whole city in short order.

I’ll be strong enough to free the rest of my people, and it’ll finally be our turn to order everyone else around. ”

Desperation expanded in Maeve’s chest the longer she stood there and listened to this awful plan.

Cassandra was not just a banshee; she was also a wise woman who possessed extensive knowledge about people.

She was mixing her voice in with the music at the concert, which meant she could take control of a whole crowd of people all at once, without their knowledge.

From what she was showing them, Cassandra had pursued the younger supernaturals —the ones who were more vulnerable and still seeking some sense of order and purpose in their lives.

“This won’t work,” Maeve told her, trying to convince herself at the same time.

“People don’t want to be controlled any more than you did.

You might be able to play them into your hands for a little while, but it can’t last. And then what happens when the rest of the world starts to notice?

Someone is going to realize that things are happening here in Salem. ”

“Who? The humans?” Another tittering laugh bounced off the walls.

“You actually have confidence in them to swoop in here and save a bunch of witches and shifters? I don’t think so.

Face it. You’re on the wrong side of history, and this is your only chance to fix it.

Otherwise, you’ll have to fight.” Cassandra lifted her palms to encompass the group behind her.

“I’m not going to fight my own people.” Maeve balled her fists at her sides.

“And they won’t fight us,” Kendrick asserted. “You might have them under some kind of spell, but they’re still the same people underneath. They have no allegiance to you.”

“Don’t they? I’m not a fool. I know that people—supernatural or not—need a reason to fight. That’s why I gave them exactly what everyone wants: power. Colette, demonstrate for them.” She curled her fingers, bringing the young witch forward.

“It’s all right,” Maeve whispered as Kendrick moved up next to her. “She’s got promising talent, but she hasn’t been through much training yet. She has a lot to learn.”

Colette, however, moved with a strong, stiff confidence. Her tank top showed off the muscles of her arms as she made a fist and pulled her hand back toward her hip. She opened her hand, revealing an energy ball of whirling light that more than filled her palm.

The orb was far bigger than anything Colette had been able to produce at the covenstead, and it crackled with a remarkable amount of energy. Even seeing this, Maeve was ready. Colette would throw the orb at them, and she could deflect it.

But Colette didn’t throw it. She flung her arm out to the side and slung the orb forward.

A string of energy kept it tied to her hand as it impacted the floor behind Maeve.

Splintered hardwood filled the air as Colette twisted her wrist, sending the orb charging through board after board in a massive circle.

Then she flicked her hand backward, recalling the energy sphere right back into her hand.

“Holy shit,” Amanda said, ducking out of the way of the flying debris. “I didn’t know she could do that.”

Maeve pulled her behind the safety of a pew. “Neither did I.”

Kristy was next to her, her green eyes alight with fear. “I’ve never seen anyone do that.”

“Look!” Lilith pointed behind them.

Where the floorboards had fallen away, the portal in the basement was exposed. As they’d suspected, it stood open. Its pulsing light burned bright through the church now.

“Can you feel it?” Cassandra’s hair waved in the interdimensional wind, but it wasn’t flying around her like it did when she used her power. She breathed in deeply. “It’s wonderful, if you know how to use it. Nia, maybe you could show them your skills.”

Nia let go of Gavin. She held up her index and middle fingers and curled them over her thumb.

A rather small orb formed in the gap. She pulled her hand backward, and as she pushed it forward again, the orb blasted out.

Another came right behind it, and then another.

Tiny spheres shot from her fingers like machine gun fire, pounding into the pews and the floor.

The hawk gargoyle shrieked as it swooped down from the gallery. Nia’s head jerked toward it, and she changed her aim. The rapid-fire orbs flew through the air just behind the gargoyle’s tail, hammering into the plaster wall behind the altar.

“All right, you’ve made your point,” Maeve said. True fear coursed through her bloodstream. These girls hadn’t been able to do that the previous day. They hadn’t even been close. Somehow, Cassandra’s power had unlocked something inside them, something truly terrifying.

“Have I? I don’t think I have. Iris? Zoe?”

“Stop,” Maeve begged. “You don’t have to use them like this. Let them go.”

“But now that they know what was truly inside them all along, I don’t think they’ll ever want to let go,” Cassandra asserted.

Iris came forward, walking all the way up to Maeve.

She was a slim, pale girl and somewhat shy.

It was only once she’d joined the coven that she’d started to come into her own.

Now, she looked at Maeve as though she were nothing more than a target.

Iris turned on her heel to face Zoe, who still remained next to Cassandra.

When Zoe curled her fingers over her palms, she didn’t create orbs at all.

Long stretches of brilliant plasma arced up from the floor and into the backs of her hands.

She pulled against them, and they stretched like rubber bands.

Her brow crinkled, and her shaking arms showed that this took true strength.

“She’s tapping straight into the ley lines,” Griffin told them, his voice cracking a bit at the realization. “Direct energy, straight from them.”

With a sudden burst of strength, Zoe clapped her hands together and sent a wall of energy down the church aisle.

Just as quickly, Iris put her hands up. She stood stiff and straight, her fingers spread. The blast of magic from Zoe slammed against her, but she didn’t move.