AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, and there we go again, Ella this and Ella that. At least if I head back now, you can deal with whatever crazy shit your Mate has gotten herself into this time. Do you remember when she jumped off the top of…”
“…Brown Mansion,”I finished with a chuckle.“Yes, I most assuredly do. It was the moment I knew beyond all doubt or what anyone else said that Ella Brown was the girl for me.”
“Because she damned near killed herself in a dare and it’s something you would do? So, that makes you both nuttier than a fruitcake factory?”
“No, Dumbass,”I scoffed.“Because she did it to get my attention, to impress me, to let me know that she liked me as much as I liked her even after every member of her renowned Magical family told her to stay away from me because I was a Null.”
“Oh, brother,”Michael snorted.“You mean to tell me that you’ve been in love with Ella for that damned long?”
“Yep,”I snickered.“But, you knew that.”
“Yeah, I did and it just confirms that you’re seriously as deranged as Nate. Chris and I are the only ones with half a brain. I swear to the Heavens…”
“That you’re just as head over heels with Violet and the only reason you’re acting like you’re not is because you have no clue where she is.”
“I hate you,”was the only response I got which had me laughing so hard that I damned near ran headlong into Mount Christmas Tree.
(Before you ask, yes, there is a mountain range in the northern hemisphere, the location of which is a secret, where every Christmas Tree in all the world is planted, nurtured, and harvested by the famed Forrest Family of Dryads -a fancy way of saying Woodland Nymphs. Don’t tell anyone I told you. I could get in real trouble with the Big Guy with the bowl full of Jelly and that would just not be good. Can you imagine being the Dragon Mated to the Brown Witch who is the Keeper of the Christmas Star and being on the Naughty List? Yeah, it would suck that nasty hard candy that nobody wants.)
Jerking my Dragon’s snout up as far and as fast as I could, I zigged and zagged then tucked my right wing in as tight as it would go, managed a damn-near perfect barrel roll and got myself back upright in the nick of time for the scales of my underbelly to just barely skim the tops of a rather tall clump of Douglas firs. Not a single pine needle was wounded. It was an amazing feat of Dragon aeronautics that made both me and the Dragon King with whom I shared my soul think about taking a bow.
However, my moment of victory was short lived when Mick’s loud, boisterous guffaws filled my mind as he taunted,“And that ladies and gentlemen is how NOT to fly a Dragon.”
“What was that you were saying about going home?”I growled.“I think I can handle this by my… What the fuck?!”
Not waiting for an answer or for Mick to follow, I made a nosedive for the massive, black swirling vortex eclipsing Ella’s entire cabin. Swerving in between, over, under and around violent bolts of malevolent mystical lightning, sporadic and well-aimed Magical explosions and long, viny appendages that resembled the hairy legs of some kind of giant spider, I caught sight of a single, broken candy cane striped crutch.
“ELLA!”Her name thundered through my mind and my Dragon roared to the Heavens.
“What the hell is that thing?”Mick roared.“Isn’t that where Ella’s…”
“Yes,”I snapped, unwilling to let him put words to what I was already thinking – Ella, her cozy cabin that looked like a perfectly decorated holiday gingerbread house three-hundred-and-sixty-five days a year, and her grumpy Familiar, Edgar the Elf were somewhere in that massive malady of malevolent Magic.
“We better call…”
“You call whoever you want,”I snarled.“I’m going after my Mate.”
“Shut the fuck up,”Mick spat.“There’s no way in hell I’m letting you…”
“Who said I was asking permission? You’re the younger brother? Either get onboard or stay the hell outta my way.”
“Hold on one minute,”Mick demanded.“We both know this is not safe, and that we need backup, and that…”
“And that you’re talking too damned much.”
Tucking my wings tight to my body, I did a true nosedive, what my Grandad called a Death Fall, with the tip of my snout pointed at the very center of the maelstrom. Faster and faster, the world around me was nothing but a blur and I couldn’t have cared less. Ella was all that mattered.
Spinning so rapidly that I cut through the airstream and shot past the snapping claws and grabbing piercers of the monster guarding the vortex, I forced all the Magic from every fiber of my being into the Bond I shared with Ella. Slicing through thick clouds of noxious sorcery and pea soup fog of evil witchcraft like a knife through butter, I yelled into the glowing link that connected my soul to my Mate’s.
“Ella! Ella Brown! Ella, please answer me!”
When no response came, there was only silence, I bellowed one more time, giving it all that I had,“ELLA!”
The connection vibrated with an electricity unlike anything I’d ever seen. It flashed like the strobe light atop the one and only Nowhere, USA fire truck combined with the disco ball at Bobby’s BBQ and Pool Hall and lit up every cell in my body. My heart skipped a beat, the fire in my soul flared brighter than ever before, and my Dragon snarled, “Mate!”
“Hang on, Ella! I’m coming! It’s Liam and I’m coming to get you!”
