Deceived_Dystopian Urban Fantasy by Ann Gimpel

Author:Ann Gimpel [Gimpel, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07588S78K
Publisher: Ann Gimpel Books, LLC
Published: 2017-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve, Bjorn

Somehow, we cobbled another three weeks together in our cozy room beneath Fire Mountain. At least I believe it was that long. Dragon magic spins a web over everything until prosaic items like the passage of time grow blurry. Rowan and Geir and I returned to the pool every day. It strengthened all of us, but especially Geir. I swear he grew half again as big after each dunking. He’d shed his scales so many times, a small pile of them circled the pool.

Nidhogg and Dewi said to leave the shiny golden bits. They were probably waiting until Geir was done molting to clear up the mess and hide it away where no one could find it. Rather like the cord and placenta, any physical matter could pose a danger to our son, if the wrong person got their hands on it.

His head reached to my chest now, and he was too heavy to lift. He still liked to curl up in my arms, though. Rowan’s too. I’d expected him to ask what happened to Rowan’s necklace, but he never did. Perhaps with the innate innocence of the very young, he’d known it was evil but had been drawn to it, anyway.

Its absence might have been a relief. It certainly was for me. Kind of like when you don’t know until a thing is gone that it wasn’t healthy for you. I have to hand it to Ceridwen. She did a masterful job swathing those gems in enough Celtic magic they did feel like they belonged to Rowan. Hell, the jewels had even fooled her.

Sometimes everything made me tired. I wanted to gather up my mate and my child and transport us all to my cottage where I could raise my son, teach him the things that I’d loved as a boy. Except he wasn’t a boy. He was a dragon. He might have a human form, but I hadn’t seen it except at the moment of his birth.

His aptitude for magic was bottomless. He learned quickly and added his own twists to spells. Many blew up in his face, but he’d laugh and start over. He could craft a credible ward—and he still obeyed when I told him to do something—but I didn’t expect compliance for too much longer. Surely, dragons had a phase similar to human children where they refused to do anything.

Nidhogg and Hel had indeed returned quickly, with Odin in tow. After dandling Geir on his knees and coating him with Norse protection spells, he’d growled at me that I was shirking my master sorcerer duties. Nidhogg and he had gotten into it then, and I’d quietly left the room.

Later, I’d asked Nidhogg about whether we should teach Geir to shift, or at least explore whether that was going to be part of his magic. Nidhogg took my question seriously because he’d thought for a while before he said, “Perhaps later. He is stronger and far less vulnerable as a dragon.”

“What about Ceridwen and the gems?” I persisted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.