Page 5 of Must Love Dragons (Sable Cove #4)

Note to self: If a dragon shifter crashes into your backyard, be prepared for a severe lack of gratitude.

Kinsley wasn’t sure where she got the final burst of strength, but she managed to keep Zay from hitting the tile floor with his face and instead set him on his side.

Flushed, she sat back on her heels and looked at Delaney.

“He hates witches.”

“Yeah, it’s weird, right?” Delaney asked.

She saw something on his back where the blanket he’d fashioned into a toga had come loose.

There were what looked like claw marks on his shoulder blade, but instead of a normal-looking scar, they were an odd silver color.

She touched them lightly and Zay stirred, muttering something under his breath but not waking.

“Geez, what makes marks like that?” Delaney asked, leaning over.

“No idea, but they feel magical.” Kinsley shook her head. What the hell had happened to Zay?

Maybe it was related to why he hated witches.

Her heart hurt for him.

“Can you help me get him onto the couch in the other room? Then, we can figure out how to help heal these wounds. They seem like they’re not healing at all, but he’s a shifter, so he should be able to heal.”

“I’ll sure give it the old college try.”

Using the blanket like a sled, they managed to maneuver him into the small room that was mainly used for storage but had a couch that was perfect for a nap or snuggling with the familiars.

But he was too big for them to get him onto the couch by themselves.

By the time they’d dragged him close, the sun had set, and Brody stepped in to help – lifting Zay with effortless strength.

He was tall and lean, his sharp cheekbones and scruff giving him a dangerous, almost effortless charm.

But there was nothing casual about the way he moved – every motion was controlled and precise.

“That’s a dragon, huh?” he asked, slipping an arm around Delaney as if she were the only thing that truly mattered.

“Yeah,” Kinsley said. “He’s been struck by dark magic, but I’m not sure what kind of spell it is. So I guess we first have to figure that out, then we can counteract it.”

“Let’s get our books and gather supplies,” Delaney said. “I’ll call Mother Gibson to come join us.”

“That would be awesome.”

There was a knock on the back door and Brody said, “I called Venice to tell him about your friend here and he said he wanted to tell us something and was going to come over.”

Kinsley and Delaney grabbed their spellbooks and the supplies needed to decipher the type of spell the dark magic user had wielded.

She sat on the edge of the couch next to her sleeping truemate and stared at him for a long moment. He was really good-looking when he wasn’t being a stubborn ass.

Chiseled chin, straight nose, and stubble on his cheeks. And his eyes were a beautiful sapphire blue.

“All right,” Delaney said, “I found my diagnostic spell. We need a bowl of distilled water, salt, ash, sage, and a blue candle.”

“Hey, ladies,” Venice said. The classically handsome blond-haired, blue-eyed fallen angel, who was also the other half of the very small Sable Cove police force, strode into the room.

She and Delaney greeted him.

“So that’s a dragon?” he asked. “I’ve never seen one. I thought they were extinct.”

“Apparently not,” Kinsley said, telling him what she’d witnessed.

“So dark magic, then?” he asked.

“Good magic heals,” she said, “and this is slowly destroying him, so that would be my guess.”

While she and Delaney got the ingredients for the spell ready, Venice told them about what Cassian, the merman who was the lighthouse keeper, had told them he’d witnessed at the marina’s docks.

Warlocks, an unconscious male, and a strange bolt of lightning that hit something large in the sky.

“He didn’t witness anything happening,” Venice said. “He saw that someone had used the docks and checked the cameras.”

Delaney nudged Kinsley. “Maybe he took a family member of Zay’s.”

“Maybe.” She hummed and scooted off the couch, dropping to her knees on the floor where Delaney had set a bowl of distilled water.

Delaney joined her and together they sprinkled dried sage, salt, and ash onto the water, and then Kinsley lit the blue candle and let the wax drip onto the surface as they chanted the spell.

The sage, salt, and ash began to swirl in the water, turning counterclockwise.

That meant dark magic had been used.

She handed the burning candle to Delaney and reached for the crystal on the floor, holding it over the wound on his side.

The crystal pulsed in her hand, reacting to the dark magic.

She tightened her hand around the crystal, and it broke apart, turning to glittery dust that settled into the wound and revealed trails of dark, thread-like energy in the wound.

Shit.

“This is so much worse than a dark magic spell,” Delaney said.

“What’s wrong?” Brody asked.

“Whoever cast the spell against him left a piece of his dark magic inside him. That’s why he isn’t healing. And it’ll be a beacon for whoever it was to find him.”

* * *

The scent of burning sage and crushed juniper berries filled the room as Kinsley and Delaney prepared for the purification ritual. Zay lay motionless on the couch, his breathing steady but shallow. She couldn’t stop looking at him and worrying about him.

She shivered. The dark magic was invisible to the naked eye, but she could feel it in the room. Dangerous. Destructive.

A knock at the outer door made her jump.

“Hello!” Mother Gibson called as she opened the back door.

“We’re in here,” Delaney answered.

Mother Gibson walked in wearing a thick cloak in earth tones, a leather satchel over one shoulder. The older witch’s sharp gaze took in the room before settling on Kinsley.

“Your mate, yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, let’s get to the business of saving him, then, yes?”

“Heck yes.”

She set her satchel on a nearby credenza and pulled out a worn book with a cracked leather cover. Kinsley stood and joined her as Mother Gibson opened the book to a page she’d marked with a dried flower.

“The dark magic is still in the wound and it’s preventing him from healing,” she said.

“I really thought all the dragons were gone,” Mother Gibson said. “I remember hearing about a warlock attack on a dragon clan somewhere up north. It was brutal. The rumor was that no one survived but the warlocks.”

Could it be Zay’s clan? Brody said the scars on his shoulder were from a warlock.

Had he lost his people to warlocks?

“So whoever did this to him is connected to the attack on the dragons? If it’s his people?”

Mother Gibson nodded. “It’s possible.” She looked at an image in the book of a dragon and a warlock.

“Dragon blood is powerful and used in dark rituals. It enhances spells and strengthens the warlocks. The fact that the spell that took Zay down in his dragon form is also laced with tracking magic, means we need to get it out of him immediately. Warlocks that dabble in dark magic are far too dangerous to trifle with.”

After reading the purification spell, they gathered the ingredients and placed candles in a circle around the couch. As each one was lit, the three witches stepped into the circle and enclosed it with black salt to protect them as they removed the dark magic beneath Zay’s skin.

Mother Gibson took silver powder and sprinkled a line of it across the wound while Delaney chanted the spell.

Kinsley placed her hands just above his body, closed her eyes, and focused her magic, letting it flow through her fingertips.

The dark magic inside him resisted her magic, but she wasn’t going to give up.

And then Zay’s body jerked violently, his lips parting and showing fangs. The candles flickered wildly like a wind was blowing through the room.

Delaney braced Zay’s shoulders to hold him down while Kinsley pushed harder. Delaney chanted louder and Kinsley called for Nysa, who stepped across the salt barrier and joined them, curling her tail around her leg.

A wave of golden energy spread through Kinsley and down into Zay, spreading over his body and into the wound, battling with the dark magic. A strange hissing noise filled the room, the sound of the dark magic being pushed out of him.

The silver powder darkened on his wound as the magic coiled upward in thin tendrils. Kinsley poured all her heart and magic into the spell, focusing on Delaney’s words and the fact that her truemate’s life was hanging in the balance.

Then, with a final burst of light, the dark magic spell shattered, the piece of the warlock’s dark magic disintegrating into nothing.

The air went still.

The candles’ flames calmed.

Zay let out a deep sigh, going limp against the couch.

Kinsley exhaled shakily, her hands trembling.

Nysa hopped up onto his chest and curled up with a purr, her fur glowing with residual magic.

“It’s gone?” Kinsley asked, peering over her fluffy cat to see that the wound on his side was healed.

Mother Gibson gently brushed the silver powder from his skin and nodded. “It’s out of him and gone, yes. But that doesn’t mean whoever cast the spell won’t try again.”

“I’m just going to say that was freaking amazing,” Brody said from the doorway.

“Powerful stuff,” Venice said next to him.

Kinsley smiled and brushed the damp strands of hair from her forehead. “When will he wake up?”

“He’s been through a lot, and he needs time to heal. I don’t know how long, though. Did anyone look in his bag?” Mother Gibson asked.

“I’ll check it out,” Brody said. He picked it up from the floor where they’d set it before the spell casting and unzipped it. “Phone but it’s passcoded so we can’t get into it. And a change of clothes. No ID.”

“Damn,” Kinsley said. “So we know his first name but that’s it.”

“He’ll tell us when he wakes up,” Delaney said. “In the meantime, let’s reinforce the protections around the yard and rescue in case whoever cast that nasty spell comes looking for him.”

Kinsley nodded. “Let’s do it.”

After fortifying the protection wards around the yard and rescue, they said goodbye to Mother Gibson, thanking her for her help.

“I have to get going,” Brody said, checking the time.

“Some tourists decided to have a bonfire on the walking trail and nearly caught the whole damn place on fire last night, so I’m going to post extra caution signs and set up some trail cams to catch people before something stupid like that ruins the park. ”

“I’ll stay here until he wakes up,” Venice said, folding his arms and leaning against the side of the building.

“Thanks, Venice,” Kinsley said.

She patted his shoulder and walked into the rescue, taking a seat next to Zay with a book about dragons on her lap that Mother Gibson had brought. He looked better, less knocking-on-death’s-door. She should have been relieved, but there was an ache in her chest.

Fate had given her a mate who hated what she was.

She couldn’t change being a witch any more than he could change being a dragon. And maybe when he woke up, he’d leave.

And maybe she should be okay with that since he hated her and all.

But she wasn’t.

Not even a little.