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Chapter Thirteen
Everything happened so quickly. In less than the span of three heartbeats, Ellie was infused with the inherent Magic of all the MacLeish Witches, wearing the scales of her Mate's Dragon, and best of all, she was riding on the back of none other than the embodiment of King Carrodoc's Warrior Dragon.
Talk about dreams coming true. It was a close second to having Ranger in her life. Shame, one of the happiest moments of her life, had to be right alongside one of the worst.
How could her aunt have done all this? Why did Gwen think having magic was more important than the life of her own sister? Had madness driven her to a complete disregard for life? Forced her to kill? Made her the Leader of the Chimera, of all things?
It was all too much to believe, but there it was. Right in front of Ellie. The insanity that was her aunt, Gwendolyn MacLeish. She was almost unrecognizable. The hate, the madness, the inescapable evil of her actions had warped the person Ellie knew and loved into a monster.
Mind-to-mind with Ranger, she shared every thought, every intention. They were indeed one in body, heart, and soul, and nothing had ever felt so right. Looking at Gwen, seeing her beloved auntie, the woman she'd adored for all her years with her own eyes, recognizing the abomination she'd become was heartbreaking. With the enhanced depth and perception of her Dragon King, it got worse. Ellie took note of the broken blood vessels in Gwen's eyes, and the way their usual watery, light blue color had turned a vicious, hateful onyx.
Black inky lines running parallel with her crow's feet and laugh lines were grotesque and deep. The bloody grooves lining her arms, the marks she'd inflicted upon herself by scratching at her own flesh, the instincts of whatever was left of the real Gwendolyn MacLeish trying to rid her body of the tainted magic made Ellie sick.
“The black magic is eating away at her.”Ranger’s deep grumble rumbled through Ellie’s mind.“Not only is she mad, her mind beyond repair, but her physical body will never recover. The best thing we can do for her, for you, for…”
But the decision was taken away as Zach burst into the cavern. In his alternate form, the one inherited from his grandfather, Chief Cheveyo of the Thorntree Wolf Clan of the Cherokee Nation, the fourth MacAllen brother was an absolutely massive black Timberwolf. Bounding into the cave, Jianna, in full armor, her sword at the ready right behind him, the two were ready for battle. Snapped out of her stunned stupor by the appearance of two very large, very able combatants, Gwen spun to the left and took a step back.
"Go around!" The older MacLeish screamed at the Chimera henchman, who Ellie knew from Ranger's memories had stabbed her Mate with a silver-bladed sword and laughed as he walked away, leaving the Dragon Guardsman to die.
Raising her hands, ready to rid the world of a worthless vermin, her Dragon instantly read Ellie’s intent. Acting more quickly than she could, Ranger opened his mouth and incinerated the man with little to no effort.
“Let me do the killing if at all possible. It’s what I was made to do.”
The words were still floating through Ellie's mind when her Mate turned and zeroed in on Gwen.
Watching as Jianna and Zach expertly handled everything the Chimera Leader threw at them, Ellie tried to make the hardest decision of her life. Bobbing and weaving, the formidable Warriors herded Gwen towards the couple. In that very second, Ellie knew she didn't have the heart to kill her own flesh and blood. She was also well aware that her aunt would never stop, nor could she be contained any longer – if she ever had been.
Just the fact that Gwen had become the Leader of the Chimera and ordered the murder of Ellie's parents while diagnosed as clinically insane and committed spoke volumes. Add to it the fact that she amassed such power and was able to hide it from everyone, including the incredibly impressive staff of the Paranormal Institute of Psychological Studies, it was more than enough evidence for the Council of Witches to order her execution. There was no hope, Gwen MacLeish would die. The only question was, would it be after a long imprisonment or in the cave where they stood.
“Do what you have to,” Ellie whispered to her Mate.“You were right. I’m not built for it. I can’t.”
Knowing that Ranger read the love in her heart and the pain in her soul, Ellie's man once again made her proud to be his Mate as the deep, rumbling voice of his Dragon King reverberated through the cavern. "Gwendolyn MacLeish, you have been found guilty of the ultimate crime – the willful, premeditated murder of your kinsmen. How do you plead?"
All motion stopped. It was as if the air had once again been sucked right out of the cave. Even the dust molecules hovered in the air as Gwen slowly turned to face them.
The deep black lines on her face had lengthened, gotten thicker, and were snaking down her neck, disappearing under the collar of her blue jean jacket. Bulging and bulbous, barely contained in their sockets, her eyes were huge black and red balls of hate, evil, and malice.
Thin and bloodless, her lips pulled back farther than should have been possible, they completely disappeared, revealing short black teeth, the canines sharp, resembling fangs. She was literally being eaten alive from the inside out by the black magic she'd absorbed.
“There’s nothing of my Aunt Gwen left,”Ellie murmured, as much to herself as Ranger.
Looking straight at her niece, her expression merely a mask of abhorrence, Gwen seethed, "You rotten little bitch. They gave you everything they took from me. Poured it into you like you were the fucking savior of us all." Taking a step closer, her hands up, malevolent magic popping and crackling in the air around her, the Chimera Leader raged on, "Mom, dad, Gretchen, Matthew, all of them, every fucking, worthless one of them, stripped away my powers. Locked me in that miserable, Goddess-forsaken pit. They said I was reckless, that I couldn't handle my gifts. That I would hurt myself if left to my own devices. Little did they know, I wasn't trying to kill myself, I was trying to kill them."
Another step forward, more heinous Sorcery building up in her hands, in her very being, the air around her turning gray and foggy, Gwen screeched, "But I showed them. I showed them all. Mom and dad may have died before I got to them, but they know, they saw, they watched from the fucking Heavens as I killed Gretchen and Matthew with my own hands."
Cackling with utter maniacal glee, the sound like large teeth chomping glass, she screeched, "I watched the light go out of their eyes. I bathed in their blood. I absorbed the magic from the marrow of their bones as slowly and painfully as I could. And all the while, my dear parents, the sanctimonious back-stabbers that they were couldn't do one fucking thing to stop me."
Throwing a ball of fire at Ranger's midsection that he easily deflected, Ellie's aunt chortled viciously, "How do I plead? You fucking piece of shit Dragon, you think you have the right to even speak to me, much less judge me? Think you have the right to share the same air with me? The same world? Who the fuck do you think you are?"
Feeling a shift in the very soul of her Mate, Ellie started to ask what was happening, but then when Carradoc's voice boomed out of the Warrior Dragon's mouth, she understood all too clearly.
"I, Gwendolyn MacLeish, am King Carrodoc of the Clan of the Blue Flame Dragons, I am the high Justice of the Dragon Tribunal, Second to only King Alaric himself. I have earned the ultimate authority to judge all those guilty by the Universe and the Goddess of All. I serve only the right and true Law of the All, and in this case, I will also be your executioner."
“You will do no such thing!” Screaming at the top of her lungs as she launched one fiery ball of black, evil Sorcery after another in every direction, Gwen attempted to back out of the cave.
Running into Zach's snout, she was quickly shoved into the center of the cave by the Timberwolf as he snapped and snarled, his lips drawn back in what Ellie would always swear was a grin. Spinning on her toes, she lunged towards Jianna, lobbing sizzling spears of fire at the Valkyrie, trying to make the Warrior move out of the way.
Shrieking in frustration, her high-pitched wails echoed from every surface, as Gwen threw herself to the ground. Barrel-rolling one way and another, she tried to avoid being hit by the ricocheting blasts of her own Conjuring as it rebounded off the Valkyrie's blade. Crashing headlong into the far rock wall, the Mad Witch jumped to her feet, running full speed at the Warrior Dragon.
Before Ellie could open her mouth and ask Ranger to end the misery she could no longer stand, her Dragon, her Mate, her very own Hero opened his mouth and breathed a single, concentrated flame of pure Dragon Fire right at Gwen. Gone in a matter of seconds, a pile of ash the only thing left of the woman Ellie had once held in such high regard, the Heart of MacLeish couldn't shed even one tear.
Mouth still open, her Dragon Warrior breathed a blast of hot air toward what had been Gwen MacLeish. In a gray cloud of soot, the Leader of the Chimera was no more.
Laying her head on the back of her very own Warrior Dragon's neck, Ellie whispered, "Can we please go home? I just can’t be here anymore.”
To which Ranger replied, "Absolutely, and know this, mo chroí, you will never be anywhere but by my side."
“Thank the Goddess.”
