Cerulean Magic: A Dragon Mage Novel Page 4

  The trio of siblings could have used a fourth, but a near-forgotten disclosure bubbled up out of Nicholas’s memory and slowed the beat of his wings instead. His new sister-in-law, Amber, had held her tongue for weeks after traveling to the Aerie for the first time at the beginning of the previous winter. In fact, after learning about Nicholas’s knack, the earth witch had done everything in her power to steer clear of his presence and stick close to her mate instead...

  ...Until one evening when mulled wine and a darkened corner of the Plaza drew out secrets not hers to tell. “Our adventure last summer wouldn’t have gone nearly so smoothly,” Amber confided, eyes gleaming with remembered excitement, “if Sabrina hadn’t been able to harness the power of the wind.”

  Sabrina...captain, wind witch, enchanting woman whose presence always made Nicholas’s pulse kick into high gear. Now, he watched her ship through slitted eyelids and wondered.

  Was the damaged vessel canting a little less dramatically than it should have done given the broken ropes that dangled from one side of the overarching balloon? And were licking tendrils of fire winking out more quickly than resistant materials should have been able to squelch dragon flame?

  If so, then there was a lone human remaining aboard the Intrepid. And from what little Nicholas had seen of the airship’s captain, Sabrina might be one of those ornery souls who refused to leave a sinking vessel even at the expense of her own life.

  Stubborn woman, Nicholas thought, sighing out a noseful of steam. But his jaws gaped open with silent laughter while his eyes gleamed with interest. Sabrina was full of secrets...and those copious enigmas weren’t the only thing that drew him to her like a moth to flame.

  Still, a smart moth sometimes charted a more circuitous path toward its goal. With that in mind, the dragon winged higher into the cold upper atmosphere where shifters neither looked nor flew without a reason. Unlike his brothers, Nicholas had no problem appearing cowardly in the moment if he won the long game in the end.

  Plus, I won’t even look like a coward if no one sees me turn tail and run from the battle below.... That was the one bright spot resulting from his tardiness—gaining the belated but powerful element of surprise.

  The thought of Sabrina’s eyes sparking with temper when he saved her ship filled Nicholas with enough satisfaction that the heady emotion counteracted high-altitude chill that would have otherwise shrunk his body’s size even as it sucked out his energy. Meanwhile, the screams of falling sailors faded as he rose, until Nicholas was floating forward with only the sound of wind filtering in through his waiting ear holes.

  By the time he achieved his destination hundreds of feet above the airship’s peak, the struggle below was nearly over. Terrified humans clung to Zane’s and Mason’s backs as the two dragons beat a hasty retreat back toward the Aerie, and Alexander continued to harry the attackers just enough to guard his siblings’ flanks.

  The airship, on the other hand, was in less than optimal shape. Flames and hydrogen didn’t mix, so Nicholas’s nostrils flared in concern as he noted smoke wafting out from beneath the balloon’s massive bulk. Time to descend and determine whether his sister-in-law’s friend required rescuing or whether she—like a dragon—was able to fly to safety under her own magic-fueled steam.

  Using the airship to shield his approach from the enemies still circling below, Nicholas vented energy a bit at a time. Loss of power equated to a loss of lift, so he was soon drifting downward without a single beat of dragon wings, pausing only when sharp talons pressed gently into the padded perch at the balloon’s summit.

  And now that he was closer to the gondola, voices drifted up from below. One female tone was instantly familiar—this was the same wind witch who must even now be holding her vessel together by force of will alone. “...supposed to do my duty when you’ve capsized my ship?” she was demanding when her words finally became clear enough to understand.

  “You’ll follow orders if you know what’s good for you,” a gruff male voice rebutted.

  Nicholas growled under his breath, recognizing the tingle against his skin that spoke unmistakably to the presence of another dragon. A dragon other than his brother aboard the Intrepid could mean but one thing—an enemy landing to gloat...or to kill.

  Acting without conscious thought, the defender shifted and began the slow climb down the side of the balloon in human form. He placed each foot gently into rung after rung, hoping the feral dragon would remain too engrossed in not-so-cordial conversation to notice another shifter’s approach.

  But either Nicholas hadn’t been stealthy enough or the other shifter had already finished with whatever he’d come to do. Because a gust of heated air signaled a return to draconic form. Then wide gray wings swooped out from beneath the balloon, whipping a few additional ropes awry in the process.

  The enemy turned back to stare into the center of the ship for one long moment. Finally, without peering upwards or otherwise acknowledging another shifter’s presence, he twisted around to face the sky. With a dozen beats of speedy wings, the feral beast was gone.

  Chapter 6

  Sabrina thought her heart would pound right out of her chest. This entire disaster—the potential injury or death of her crew, the Intrepid itself barely hanging together by a thread—had been nothing more than a chess move. The gunmetal gray dragon had boarded her ship to introduce himself, had threatened Sabrina with even more dire punishments should she fail to deliver her living cargo in a timely manner, then had left as quickly as he came.

  Despite being captain of an airship and chief pawn on the enemy’s playing board, Sabrina turned out to be little more than an audience to Gunnar’s heated monologue. Still, she was now certain of two things. Her blackmailer’s employer was a force to be reckoned with. And she herself was furious.

  “Anger won’t save my ship,” she muttered beneath her breath, bringing her mind back around to the task at hand. Off the starboard bow, yet another strained rope snapped, the deck jolting beneath her feet before settling back into place...just a slightly more tilted place than it had been previously.

  Bringing the Intrepid safely to port was well nigh impossible given its current dilapidated condition and Sabrina knew it. But she wasn’t willing to relinquish the airship, not even if its loss would remove Gleason from her life forever and counteract the forces begging her to betray her closest friend.

  No, the Intrepid equated to independence, and Sabrina planned to hold onto that freedom unto her dying breath. So she remained firmly anchored in place, hum turning into song as she called up magic to do her bidding.

  Immediately, threads of wind danced around the captain’s head, air rushing past her face so rapidly it whipped tears from her eyes. She’d never attempted anything of this magnitude before, had always been careful to keep her powers deeply hidden. So Sabrina wasn’t quite sure what she could and couldn’t do. All she knew was that the energy expenditure sent her chest heaving in search of oxygen that had recently fled.

  Still, the effort appeared to be working. As Sabrina sang, the gondola nudged its way gradually upwards. And sooner than she would have thought possible, she stood easily on level deck rather than straddling a slant.

  She’d done it. The Intrepid at least appeared whole, even if song and magic rather than polyester lines held her airship in place. She’d won some hard-earned breathing space. Now, all she had to do was keep it.

  Sucking in a gasp of breath to allow the music to continue, Sabrina was shocked when the momentary cessation of sound was enough to jolt the recently straightened deck downward beneath her feet. This song-laden wind that had risen on her command was nothing like hum-drawn zephyrs. No, a stronger air current apparently possessed a mind of its own and was quick to assert itself when Sabrina’s control slipped.

  Still, she pulled breath and magic back around her before the ship could break apart further, then walked more carefully than she ever had before across the swaying deck until she reached the roll of hefty rope lodged
against a distant railing. Still singing, her tone deep and respectful this time around, the captain worked as quickly as she was able to unroll the bitter end and apply two sheet bends to attach singed tips back together.

  One line down...eleven severed supports left to go.

  Sabrina’s head swam with the effort of harnessing wind, and she knew she was nearing the end of her metaphorical rope. She wasn’t at all sure she could sing and tie at the same time over and over again. So the question became—would a single line hold the gondola in place long enough for her to complete the job manually, or would the deck fall back out of true as soon as she relinquished her airy grip?

  Fall back out of true and force those existing lines to strain and break. The captain knew exactly how they felt because her own legs were turning rubbery from the strain of holding a heavy gondola aloft. Her vision was dimming, stars dancing in front of her eyes. All it would take is one pigeon landing on this deck to break the camel’s back....

  As if in response to her silent words, something fell onto the riveted sheet metal behind her. Something much larger than a pigeon, its gait surprisingly human. Had Gunnar come back to gloat and command?

  Spinning, Sabrina gave in to her weakening body and allowed music and magic to fade out of the air. The line she’d so carefully lashed together creaked...but held.

  Still, relief was short-lived because the sight that met her eyes did nothing to calm her tightly stretched nerves. Because the newcomer was indeed a dragon, but he wasn’t the gunmetal-tinged enemy who had burned her ship into near wreckage moments earlier.

  Instead, one of her friend’s three brothers-in-law strode toward her on feet far more steady than her own.

  ***

  Despite growing closer to Amber during every recent visit to the Aerie, Sabrina had only spent a few hours in Nicholas’s presence over the last eight months. That small amount of contact, however, was enough to assure her that this dark-haired twin was the most dangerous of the dragons who called the Aerie home.

  Nicholas’s threat quotient didn’t emanate from his bulging biceps, even though his sheer animal strength was likely sufficient to crush a human neck with a single fist. And the problem wasn’t due to his feral beauty, either, even though that characteristic drew the female gaze and caused mere humans to stumble over both words and feet.

  No, the danger of this particular dragon lay behind his canny eyes. Nicholas was too clever by half...no way would he believe that Sabrina had just been singing at the top of her lungs from the joy of floating freely in midair.

  “How long have you been there?” she demanded, thinking of the even more incriminating conversation that had come before. Because being a wind witch wasn’t precisely illegal even if magic use itself was frowned upon in post-Change society. But plotting with feral dragons to kidnap a visitor out from under the Aerie dragons’ noses? Surely Nicholas would have already taken Sabrina into custody had he overheard Gunnar’s curt demands.

  Instead of answering, the shifter strode toward her, those dark eyes burning relentlessly into her own. His hand crept behind his back then pulled forth a knife whose blade was nearly as long as the sword belted at the captain’s side.

  She might have been able to knock the weapon out of his grip, but the deck shifted beneath both of their feet at that moment. Off to her right, another line snapped, the smell of smoke abruptly heavier as eddying air currents reminded her of the source of the current travesty.

  A dragon had recently ruined her ship, and another dragon now stood before her with weapon in hand. Still, Sabrina wasn’t yet ready to accept defeat.

  Twisting her body to regain her footing, the captain reached toward the hilt of her sword.

  ***

  “Pay attention,” Nicholas snapped as he rode the ship’s roll. He could almost smell the captain’s secrets pushing their way out of her skin, could see her fingers creeping toward the hilt of the sword belted around her waist.

  That second gesture made him smile, invigorated by the idea of a female who wasn’t a wilting flower and who was instead ready and willing to defend her own. But there was no need for her to pull a weapon...a fact that she seemed intelligent enough to gather on her own as long as Nicholas failed to make an aggressive move.

  So, ignoring the armed mage behind his back, Nicholas paced on by and sawed rapidly at the length of rope trailing beneath the recently mended line. Then, speaking without bothering to glance over his shoulder, he asked, “How long?”

  “How long since...?” she began, the first in a long line of disclosures already seeking to bubble up out of her mouth. Given the snippet of conversation recently overheard when an enemy shifter had been standing near this very spot, those were secrets Nicholas was duty bound to ferret out.

  But the ship was canting worse than ever and he didn’t particularly want to be the cause of its demise. So Nicholas sighed and explained himself instead. “The rope. What length do you need for each knot?”

  Sabrina’s laugh was short and self-deprecating. But the sound still tickled at Nicholas’s lips, pulling them upwards by way of reply. “About yea long.”

  Unruly feet begged him to turn and take in the visual he knew was being offered. Leg muscles tensed in preparation to move. But Nicholas remained poised, facing out into the blue sky instead.

  Because something told him that if he looked directly into Sabrina’s eyes, he wasn’t going to remember that her secrets were endangering precious family members new and old. Instead, he might notice the same things he had at their original meeting, visuals that had flickered through his mind dozens of times over the days and weeks since he’d seen Sabrina last.

  He might notice the way sun glinted against ebony hair, the way dozens of small braids danced across soft skin with playful impunity. He might calculate how far the captain’s chin would have to tilt upwards before her lips could brush against his own.

  Sabrina was as deliciously long-legged as she was strong-minded. So surely that angle would be no more than an easy-to-access fifteen degrees or so....

  “Nicholas?” the object of his musings asked when his pause had extended a little too long. And, reluctantly, the shifter glanced backward over one shoulder by way of reply.

  The captain’s hands were spread about three feet apart, which was all he really needed to see in order to complete his task. But, as expected, Nicholas’s gaze rose to her face instead...and stuck.

  He lost himself for one long moment in the way eddies of wind teased hair out of its confining braids. He noticed how the tint of his companion’s eyes exactly matched the blue of the sky. And he felt her deep hum within his bones as the wind witch shored up the deck tilting beneath both of their feet.

  Clearing his throat, Nicholas turned back around to peer more intently than he really needed to at the hank of rope lying idly in his hands. “How many?”

  “A dozen,” Sabrina replied, her voice quavering ever so slightly as if the moment had affected her every bit as profoundly as it had him. Then, returning to business: “And if you don’t mind burning the ends so they won’t fray, my ship might actually make it back to port intact.”

  My ship. The claiming implicit in those words was dangerously attractive. What would it be like to hear a similar possessive tone applied to him?

  Perhaps that’s why Nicholas’s head nodded despite his previous intent to focus on the Aerie’s best interests. Perhaps that’s why, rather than teasing out secrets while his companion was at her weakest, he merely murmured assent before setting back to work mending the traitor’s tattered ship.

  Chapter 7

  There was no way to disguise the magic fueling Intrepid’s limp back into port, so Sabrina didn’t even try. At least now that knots had been tied, she was able to relinquish that heady wind and depend on gentle breezes instead, resting her hoarse throat after what felt like hours of singing at the top of her lungs.

  Still, she couldn’t quite force herself to relax. Instead, the captain stood ramr
od-stiff at the prow, not even bothering to place her hands on the wheel and pretend she was steering with fingertips rather than using the power that had nearly drained her dry.

  “Your magic doesn’t make any difference to us,” Nicholas rumbled behind her back. The words sounded like a pep talk, but the unspoken continuation of his short sentence sent a shiver shimmying down the captain’s spine. “Your magic doesn’t make any difference,” her companion might as well have added, “but your intentions do.”

  “There are some it’ll make a difference to,” Sabrina countered, ignoring the implied addendum and instead eying the rooftops arrayed before her. This was decision time and she couldn’t afford to split her attention between a maybe-problem in the future and a right-here, right-now problem bound to emerge from her recently rescued crew.

  Because there were two locations where the Intrepid had touched down within the Aerie in the recent past, and choosing a landing site today meant choosing the path of her soon-to-be future. Originally, the ship had always docked atop the Holston like any other untrusted trader. But since last summer, Sabrina had forged a closer relationship with the dragons who called this city home. As a result, she’d been invited to land on the Plaza proper as if she and Amber were sisters rather than mere friends.

  The trouble was, two dragons currently unloaded Sabrina’s troublesome crew in that very spot. And if the Intrepid’s captain brought her damaged ship in alone, there would be no way to continue pulling the wool over her employees’ eyes about long-hidden magical leanings of their not-so-beloved boss.

  Even as the nose of the ship veered toward the safer destination, though, a shout went up from one of the figures atop the more distant high-rise. Dozens of eyes turned as one to take in the sight of a massive airship that had been considered lost cruising into port none the worse for wear.