To Hell and Back by L.B. Gilbert

Chapter Thirty-Two

There were three witches on the other side of the deck. In a V-formation, a grey-haired man stood in the front and a younger blond on the left, but it was the red-haired woman on the right who had spoken.

Their presence up here meant one was a teleporter, who had probably seen them from the ground. Remembering how the alert lights had appeared out of the walls, Valeria knew that they hadn’t come up through the interior of the house. Because a brownie’s domain was everything in the house…even the deck under the open air.

Valeria clutched the baby to her.

“Aggie,” she whispered, unsure if the brownie could hear. “We’ve been boarded.”

The deck exploded.

Gasping, Valeria nearly lost her footing when the wooden boards rolled under their feet, lifting like asphalt in an earthquake.

Some boards splintered, becoming dangerous projectiles, a wall of flying wooden stakes flying like shrapnel.

Curling away instinctively, Valeria hunched over Lanaa as she braced herself to be pierced. But the shrapnel was only flying in one direction. Twisting her head, she saw Ravenna was already flat on the ground.

“Go,” Valeria yelled, pointing to the door leading to Rhys’ office.

Self-preservation had never been one of her mother’s problems. Ravenna crawled toward the opening like a soldier in boot camp.

A chair flew in Valeria’s direction, almost hitting Lanaa when she tried to follow.

The witches weren’t dead. All three were on their feet, the one in front with his hands extended, his fingers pinched together as if holding a barrier in place. From the looks of the shrapnel falling around them, it was a shield of some kind.

The house responded by opening a hole in the deck in the area with nothing underneath. They should have fallen, but, after a quick jump, they popped into existence on another part of the deck.

Valeria didn’t know if one of the witches were telekinetic—that gift was sometimes tied to teleportation. It was also possible that their protection was the result of a spell. Not that it made a difference. All that mattered was that they’d come prepared.

It made the house angry.

The deck kept disintegrating, throwing shards at the trio, but their spell held. The telekinetic responded by lobbing things at her, cutting off her avenues of escape.

Valeria’s extra sense licked out, trying to identify and copy their magic. It should have done so automatically, the very instant they appeared. Instead, her talent bounced back…almost as if they had known and prepared for her gift.

Mother told them.That was why Ravenna wouldn’t meet Valeria’s eyes, and it was why the witches had come even after her mother had failed to report in.

They took the chance because they had already been prepared for Valeria’s magic. But not right away, because whatever spell they were using to block her was complicated and likely took days, possibly weeks, to prepare.

She should have told me.Her mother’s betrayal was a punch in the gut.

Then the rain of shrapnel around the witches stopped. Aggie had used up most of the space on the deck. If the brownie took any more wood from the frame the whole thing might collapse, taking her and Lanaa with it.

And then she heard a magical sound—the roar of a beast so angry and feral it vibrated the deck despite the fact it was still some distance away.

Every head on the deck turned to the horizon where two dots had appeared. They swiftly grew larger and larger.

Rhys and Naveen, the two fastest fliers in the clan, were the only ones visible, but Valeria knew they were just the vanguard. This was Rhys’ home, the center of their territory. Every dragon would be coming.

“What the hell is that?” one of the witches cried.

“They’re dragons,” Valeria offered helpfully. “You’ve violated the territory of the Draconai Imperia. One of them thinks he’s my mate, by the way, so even if you get me, they’re going to kill you all.”

“Fuck,” the blond male witch spat. “I told you we couldn’t trust that bitch Ravenna. She said they were bears.”

And that had been dangerous enough for them to delay for a few days. But they must have been watching the bug they planted on the phone, noting that it didn’t move after that message. So, they had chanced it, and now they had put targets on all their backs.

But that wouldn’t save Valeria, because they weren’t about to turn tail and run.

“It doesn’t matter,” the woman at the side said, her voice a whiplash of hurt and a blistering anger. “We finish this now—for Riaz. For Jude. Everyone but her dies.”

Suspecting Riaz and Jude were some of the witches who’d died in the alley, Valeria stepped closer to the edge. Her ability couldn’t reflect nothingness, but she had a lot of raw power. Without any other options, she battered at their shield with sheer brute force.

Lanaa whimpered in her arms, sensing her tension. Her lips parted, ready to ask Aggie to take the baby, when she remembered the brownie couldn’t afford to split her focus.

“Lanaa, you have to shift back,” Valeria whispered, bobbing the baby as she jerked her head back and forth between the witches and the incoming dragons.

Already she could distinguish the different colors on the wings that beat pell-mell in their direction. But they wouldn’t get here in time. Meanwhile, the baby stayed resolutely in human form.

But Lanaa staying human wasn’t an option anymore. Their secret was out, and the little girl was safer as a dragon.

“Please shift. You have to change,” she cried, turning her back on the witches. All the while, Valeria continued to lob haphazard power strikes—they were raw and undisciplined, but she knew from experience that they hurt.

But none of that would have made any difference if Aggie hadn’t been on the defensive. She kept the witches busy with a barrage of missiles thrown at them through one of the holes in the deck—her choice of weapon anything she could get her hands on.

Already, Valeria had caught glimpses of chairs, heavy-framed paintings, and an armoire.

One of her haphazard strikes hit, managing to crack the side of the shield. One of the witches fell from the deck with a scream.

A loud thud signaled from a stone jug she’d seen on a pedestal in the hall. This was followed by the pedestal. But despite their combined efforts, the remaining two witches were steadily moving closer. Was it the teleporter and the telekinetic? That would explain why they were so good at deflecting objects.

All this time, she kept bobbling Lanaa, urging her to shift by pointing out the wings on the horizon.

Valeria didn’t know whether it was the sight of the other dragons barreling down on them or the sensation of air rushing past her soft human skin, but Lanaa finally got the message.

Valeria waited only long enough to see the glittering shimmer of the change before creeping to the very edge of the deck. With one eye on her adversaries, she stroked down the child’s back, confirming it was scales under her fingertips.

Pressing a kiss to the top of Lanaa’s scaly head, Valeria prayed Sanaa and Thomas had kept up with the gliding training Rhys had said they’d started. “You have to fly.”

The words came out strangled. One of the witches had grabbed hold of Valeria telekinetically. They were trying to choke her. Already, her vision was starting to darken at the corners.

Valeria was out of options and time. But Lanaa wasn’t.

Winding up, she threw the mottled baby dragon off the balcony. Someone screamed. In the distance, a bear roared in agony.

But little Lanaa’s wings snapped out, the sight and sound remarkably like a kite catching wind. Soaring with a susurration that sounded like pure joy, Lanaa swooped down the hill—a winged creature taking flight for the first time and loving it.

One of the dragons altered course to intercept her.

Realizing they were so much closer now, a kilometer or two away, Valeria tried to reach out with her other sense. She couldn’t reflect what was shielded by the spell, but there was another option—Rhys’ fire.

Desperately, she reached out for his flames, but he was either too far away or she was too weak. Her vision was a narrow tunnel at this point.

Trying to pry away the invisible hands on her neck failed. So, she did the only thing she could. Valeria backed up few steps, getting a running start.

Then she jumped.

It must have taken the telekinetic by surprise because the invisible hold on Valeria’s neck slid off abruptly as she cleared the wooden boards.

The wind rushed past her ears like a jet. Paradoxically, she saw everything in slow motion—Rhys and two other dragons were literally yards away.

Stretching out her hand, she strained her arm, trying to grab Rhys’ clawed hand as he barreled closer…and missed.

Bouncing off his leg like a pebble glancing off a boulder, she fell backward.

Above her, Rhys tried to adjust, but it was too late. Tensing for the impact, she waited to hit the ground.

But the ground had other plans. It opened…and swallowed her whole.