Page 24 of Dragon’s Golden Mate (Shifter Nation: Enchanted Over Forty #2)

“I’m exhausted,” Colette admitted with a grin. “I’m too jazzed up to do anything about it, though.” Getting to her feet, Colette looked around. “I’m not sure what I should do.”

“Let’s see.” They’d already destroyed enough of the church, and she wouldn’t do any more of that on purpose. A splinter of lathe was sticking out of the wall, though, a piece that was already loose. “Aim for that.”

“Okay.”

The others moved out of the way. Colette no longer moved with the hard, stiff gestures she had when under Cassandra’s control.

She was more comfortable in her body as she pulled her hand back and then threw it forward.

The sphere sped up toward the little piece of wood.

It strained against the energy leash that held it to Colette’s hand, slowing down until it just kissed the lathe and sent it tumbling down to the floor.

The ball slapped back into Colette’s hand.

She stumbled backward, but she was still smiling. “That was cool!”

“What about the rest of you?” Maeve asked.

“Mom, maybe we should all just go home and get a bite to eat,” Tina advised.

“We will,” Maeve promised her, “but I think this is worth exploring right away. I want to make sure the girls are in control of any residual powers left inside them. My guess is that Cassandra unknowingly unlocked a whole new level of magic that they wouldn’t have reached for years otherwise.”

“So these talents were hiding inside of us?” Zoe asked, studying her palms.

“Possibly,” Lucille agreed. “Maeve is right, though. If the onset had to do with Cassandra, then it makes sense to make sure you don’t have anything controlling you. We don’t know enough about that portal to truly know what’s happening here.”

The mention of the portal made Maeve’s throat tighten.

She once again saw as much as felt Kendrick as he’d rushed into it, throwing his life away to ensure that everyone else got to live.

Maeve felt real pain at the memory, and she forced herself not to turn around and look at Kendrick again.

She didn’t want to see that burned, battered body.

Right now, she needed to take care of her coven.

They had to be truly safe when they went back home.

“So, what do we do?” Nia asked.

“Let’s start with Iris’s shield,” Maeve suggested.

Iris’s eyes went wide. “So that really happened? I thought maybe it was a dream, like I’d gotten knocked out and was just imagining it while everyone else was fighting around me.”

“It was real,” Kristy told her.

“But I don’t know how to control it,” Iris protested. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, or get hurt.”

“Honey, you made a shield strong enough to repel a dragon,” Tina said with a tired laugh. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. We’ll start small, and we’ll make sure everyone is safe.”

All the witches worked together. Maeve could see how physically and emotionally wrung out they were, just as she was, but they all understood how important this was.

Iris cast a shield in front of her, and initially, Lucille did nothing more than tap on it.

Then she smacked it, but out to the side where she wouldn’t hit Iris if the shield failed.

Iris giggled when Lucille hit the shield and then pulled her hand back, shaking it.

“I’d say it’s holding!” Lucille announced.

“Let me try!” Walt trotted over, smiling widely at Iris before he shifted into his coyote. He bumped his shoulder against the shield, and then he shoved harder. When it still held, he took several steps back and took a running leap into it. He crumpled to the floor.

Iris let go of her shield and immediately bent over him. “Are you all right? Please don’t tell me I hurt you!”

Walt, quickly shifting back to his human, was laughing. “That was awesome!”

Maeve saw a spark growing between the two of them.

Amanda was helping Zoe, using her own experience as an energy healer. “You can sense it, right?”

“Yeah.” Zoe still looked a little bewildered as her fingers crackled with energy. “There’s a lot of it here. Big, thick ropes of it.”

“The first thing you have to understand is that you do have control over it,” Amanda told her.

“My work is a little more subtle than what you’re doing here, but I think the principles are about the same.

Feel it out with your fingers. If any of it is too much, just let it go.

You can’t hold onto any of it like a battery, so don’t try. ”

As Zoe produced thunderclaps of power, Nia hesitantly tried her own new skill. Her two fingers shook as she curled them over her thumb. “I’m scared.”

“It’s okay to be scared,” Maeve told her. “I still get scared pretty often.”

“You do?” Nia’s big brown eyes looked up at her High Priestess.

Kendrick had never left her mind, but he flashed to the forefront of it once again. “I do. But remember that we’re all here with you.”

“I don’t know shit about magic,” Gavin chimed in, “but I’m here, too.”

“Just try,” Maeve encouraged.

Nia held out her hand. A small ball of light formed there under her shaking fingers, no bigger than a dime. She dropped it, and it bounced to the floor and went out. Nia laughed. “I guess I’m not all that dangerous, after all!”

She kept trying, and soon she had enough control that she could send little marbles of energy rolling across the floor, harmless enough that she was aiming at the bottom of Gavin’s boot.

With all of their new powers vetted, Maeve was forced to face reality once again.

The other dragons had brought Kendrick up from the basement. He now rested in the aisle of the church, not far from where he’d been when the fight had started. The bleeding had stopped, but it didn’t look as though the healing process had begun.

Needing a little privacy, Maeve returned to her wolf.

It’s going to take some time, he told her. His eyes were open all the way now. Lilith has some healing abilities, which helped. They’re going to take me back to the clanhouse tonight to rest, and then I’ll be okay.

Okay? Maeve demanded, pacing in the narrow space of the aisle. Okay? How can you think any of this is okay?

Maeve, calm down.

Don’t you dare tell me to calm down! She stopped her pacing and stared him full in the face, as difficult as it was for her to look at him right now. You knew that I wanted nothing more than for everyone I loved to come out of this alive, but then you went and did something foolish like that!

He blinked slowly, as though it took a great amount of effort. We weren’t getting anywhere. We had to be so cautious with them that eventually they were going to win. We all know what would’ve happened then.

Yes, I know. As scared and sorry as those poor kids were right now, it would’ve been even worse for them if they’d ended up killing Maeve, Kendrick, and their respective families.

The images of the battle would probably haunt them for years, as it was.

Still, you could’ve gotten yourself killed!

I’m just…I’m just so fucking mad at you! How could you do this to me?

She looked over Kendrick’s shoulder, realizing that everyone was waiting for them.

The witches and the shifters were on the altar, discussing where they were going to get some food.

The dragons lingered not far from Kendrick, obviously eager to get their retired Alpha back to the safety of their clanhouse.

Maeve…

The sound of her name in his voice sent a trembling through her body, but she had to ignore it. She had to be strong enough not to give in to all the emotions that swirled through her when Kendrick was around, because she couldn’t handle them.

You know what? It’s fine. It’s all over now, so we don’t have to worry about it. Maeve turned and walked out of the church, ignoring the damp fur in the corners of her eyes.