Magic, New Mexico: Silver Bound (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Jody Wallace

Author:Jody Wallace [Wallace, Jody]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kindle Worlds
Published: 2017-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

When Shula hadn’t attacked after three days, even Barnabas could admit to a degree of apprehension. They spent the sunlit hours practicing with Earth-style weapons called guns, probing the area covered by the town barrier, strategizing with Barnabas’s amulet collection, and testing the blood tracker. That particular amulet was highly unreliable when Barnabas was outside the barrier, so they’d agreed Nadia should remain inside it at all times.

And at nights, they made love. Once he taught her to avoid the power explosion, she displayed no reluctance to end that side of their relationship, and he quickly found he had some difficulty denying her. He did attempt to stand firm on her more foolhardy suggestions. No, they would not tie her to the railroad tracks and let her be sacrificed. No, he would not transport her to the desert island she’d mentioned and leave her there. No, sending her back through the portal with a suicide vest on her person was not an option.

She had said, their first time together, that she might love him. The very memory of it threatened to give him another cockstand and choke him with emotion at the same time. Yet in the daylight she avoided touching his skin, as if their nights weren’t happening. As if her earth hadn’t been shattered.

Perhaps it took more to shatter a dragon. He was merely a wizard, and he’d already had cracks in his heart from the moment he’d known about her existence.

Sundown on the third day after they’d fought Shula was nigh. According to the map Theo had obtained for them, they were close to the western edge of the barrier near a hilly area of yucca, creosote bushes, and mesquite. They had hired a cabbie for the day rather than use up the magic in the transportation amulet. The gnome drivers—it took several of them, sitting atop one another—remained in the vehicle playing some infernal game of dice while Barnabas and Nadia searched the arid desert for signs of Shula, Charmaine, and anyone from Tarakona who didn’t belong here.

They had discovered plenty of foot traffic near the portal to Tarakona, which was in an area that wouldn’t ordinarily have foot traffic. A few consultations with keen-nosed wolf shifters in town had confirmed but not located Tarakonan dragons besides Nadia. Apparently Tarakonan dragons smelled sweeter than other types.

A large outcropping of grey stone embedded in a steep incline provided some shade as they planned their next step. According to his calculations, the barrier was atop this hill in about one hundred paces. A cactus bloomed between two rocks with incongruously lovely red flowers that reminded Barnabas of—well, blood, really. Which was rather morbid.

Nadia dangled the silver locket that the iron wizard had used to create Barnabas’s tracker as if it would signal a direction to try next, like a water dousing charm. “It’s really not fair dragons can’t use their own magic.”

“We’re a trimorphic species. We’re intended to support one another beneficially.” What would she do with

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