The Christmas Dragon by Reid Ruthanne

Author:Reid, Ruthanne [Reid, Ruthanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 4th Floor Publication
Published: 2014-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

3 The Crow King

Maybe I had made the wrong decision.

Bran’s castle stood exactly where an old Ever-Dying castle once had, though from the placard, the human version had survived only twenty years before burning down. The world of the Mythos and the world of the Ever-Dying often build in the same places. We just shift our buildings to exist few seconds apart from the ones humans build, technically in the same place, but not at the same time. Of course, after a while, we figured out it wasn’t actually the same place anymore, either.

We’d successfully created parallel worlds. We’re big on parallels in magic. It saves so much trouble, and our Earth is in much better condition than yours.

“This is such a bad idea,” Grey said.

Looking at this place, I had to agree. The Crow King went for “imposing,” evidently. All black stone, it rose in unsubtle phallic splendor, lambent windows spreading gold-red light into the night sky, and its walls carved with deep, jagged runes bigger than a VW Bug.

The wards on this place were completely out of bounds. Understand, there are wards, and then there are wards. These were high-class, royalty-level, Fort-Knox-Crazy wards, so thick that even though the magic in my blood let me see this hidden castle, it appeared all fuzzy and out of focus.

Grey turned in a slow circle. While the night was beautiful, and tiny towns lit it up in the distance, none came too close to this isolated tower. That was weird. Magic-users usually cluster around bastions of power like moths around a flame.

“Where is everybody?” Grey.

Well, not here, apparently. “No idea. Why have I never heard of this guy?”

“Something about this whole situation is hinky,” said Grey.

“Hinky?” I stared at him. “Hinky? Really?”

“That’s the technical term,” he dead-panned. “Are you sure we should do this?”

Lying would do no good. “No. But my uncle said to come here, and now there’s a dead dragon we need to take care of —”

“We need to take care of it?”

“— not to mention making the baby safe, so we need the help. I don’t know what else to do. Do you?”

“Pretty weak, Kate,” said Grey.

Now wasn’t the time to say I liked how he said my name.

I pulled my bag’s strap over my head and across my body to secure it. “No sense waiting.”

“I beg to differ,” Grey said, but he followed me as I climbed the hill. “What’s with this day and steep inclines, anyway?”

I ignored this. “It should be pretty simple. We knock on the door, ask if my uncle is there, and if he’s not, we leave.”

“I’m sure.” Grey rubbed his arms as if cold. He was probably more sensitive to the go-away wards than I was. “It will absolutely be that simple, because it’s just like borrowing a cup of sugar from a sweet old lady. Seriously, how long have you been out of the magical world?”

I didn’t answer him. I didn’t feel like it. So there.

I’d never encountered such an unwelcoming place.

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