Magic Blaze: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Shifting Magic Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Magic Blaze

  Shifting Magic Series - Book 3

  Catherine Vale

  Contents

  Shifting Magic Series

  Magic Blaze

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Thanks For Reading!

  About the Author

  Other Books by Catherine Vale

  Copyright

  Shifting Magic Series

  Copyright © 2017, Moonlight Press

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  Website: http://www.CatherineVale.com

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  If you want to be notified of Catherine Vale’s next release, gain access to free books, contests, book signings, giveaways and more, subscribe to her newsletter at: www.ShifterFans.com

  Inquiries may be sent directly to: [email protected]

  Magic Blaze

  Shifting Magic Series: Book #3

  Kaye is no stranger to danger, nor is she afraid to roll up her sleeves and let her magic fly. Battling warlocks, goblins and vampires is nothing new, but when she returns to her beautiful magic world of Alfheim, all hell breaks loose. Literally.

  Add to that, the fact that she’s in love with Darius, a dragon shifter, who is solely responsible for leading his clan of fierce dragon warriors, so her life is anything but simple.

  And things are about to get a lot more complicated.

  When the powerful duo come face to face with a legion of darkness that threatens to destroy both worlds, it'll take all their magic and skill to survive, especially when they learn there's more to the strange attacks than meets the eye. Such as the kidnapping of a certain fae by ruthless hybrid hunters who will stop at nothing to steal her powers.

  What once made Kaye special, has now made her a target, and she's about to walk right into their trap.

  Chapter 1

  From the helm of my dragon’s back, I truly felt like I could conquer the world. With the wind whipping through my hair, cool and crisp, filling my lungs with every breath, I was invincible. High above the rest of the world, I was untouchable, nestled between his dangerous spine spikes, holding tightly to him as his magnificent sunset scales caught the late afternoon light. Had we been returning to the Sanctius village for a happier reason, I might have really let myself go. Thrown my arms back. Screamed. Did a full Jack-on-the-bow-of-the-Titanic kind of thing.

  But given that we were traveling back to Darius’s childhood village because his father, Khalon Thomas, alpha of the Sanctius dragon shifter clan, had died yesterday, I didn’t feel much like cheering and whooping. While he had kept his features cool and his posture sharply erect, my dragon’s heart hurt. I could feel the sorrow dripping from it with each passing minute. But there would be no huge emotional outbursts—not after the one he had succumbed to just below the mountain peak, as my new family flew overhead with his younger brother, Quinn. While a chorus of dragon cries, cheerful and exhilarating, filled the skies, we had sat together while he cried, while he poured his grief, his devastation, into me, and I took every drop until the numbness hit. From there, Darius had resumed his responsibilities as big brother and next-in-line for the alpha throne, his storm-gray gaze steely and his mouth set in a hard, determined-not-to-quiver line.

  While he would have preferred that I stay back to continue exploring the beginnings of new relationships with my family, we agreed to travel back to the Sanctius clan together.

  Together, or not at all.

  My father, Brisbane clan alpha, James Holloway, understood. My new siblings, Leda and Hudson, had appeared stricken at the passing of another alpha, instantly offering their sympathies and insisting I stay with Darius during this time. The gesture had surprised me; Leda had been so desperately keen to speed our friendship from zero to one hundred from the moment she met me. Yet she understood, without me having to say more than a few words, that Darius needed me.

  Just as Quinn seemed to need Catriona. The news of his father’s death had hit the middle Thomas son particularly hard. As the rest of us had returned to the Brisbane castle to make travel preparations, Quinn and my best friend lingered at the mountain’s peak. I’d cast a look over my shoulder before leaving, finding Quinn with his head in Catriona’s lap, sobbing. The sight had made my heart heavy, and I’d found myself fighting the desire to comfort him too. After all, he was my dragon’s brother—blood, kin, friend. I just wanted to make the pain disappear, for all of them.

  I had the training to do it, after all, despite not having seen any of my therapy clients in months. I’d known, however, that Quinn needed Catriona more than he needed my university degrees and background in grief counseling. Just as I’d known that Darius needed my unwavering, constant support during this transition period. Whether we spoke or not, I knew what he needed most of all was simple: he needed his hand in mine, knowing that I wouldn’t let go.

  So, even though there was no greater high than flying over the world straddling a dragon, I kept my shit together for everyone’s sake. By no means was I an insensitive ass, but I’d dare anyone to switch places with me and not scream at the top of their lungs like they were on the most exhilarating, emotional, heart-pounding rollercoaster ride of their lives.

  I glanced back and spied Quinn in dragon form nearby. Catriona had been too frightened to even consider clambering onto Quinn’s back, despite the temporary saddle the Brisbane clan offered to make. Apparently, her brief scalding from touching Darius’s scales had left a lasting impact, so my bestie opted to take the portals back to the Sanctius village. While Quinn had wanted to go with her, to traverse the magical portals together, she had convinced him to fly ahead and see to his family. In that moment, if for some ridiculous reason she hadn’t had Darius’s respect before, she had certainly earned it there.

  Still, the odd mournful cry that Quinn released here and there on our journey out of Brisbane dragon territory was heart wrenching, and a part of me wondered if Catriona felt it too. Biting the insides of my cheeks, I faced forward and trailed my hand along Darius’s thick neck; if we were separated, his heartache would weigh on me, just as I was sure Quinn’s weighed on Catriona. With her fae speed and the effectiveness of the magical portals taking her across state lines, we all suspected she would arrive shortly after we did.

  With no warning, Darius shot up into the cloud cover. I braced myself for impact, little bumps erupting across my skin as cold droplets washed over me. Before we left, I had finally mastered a sort of bubble spell that kept the flies and wind out of my eyes this time around, but I hadn’t extended it to cover the rest of my body. I hugged him tightly, leeching the warmth out of his scales as we flew through endles
s gray, light above and darkness below.

  We broke free from the cold about five minutes later, and I gasped, drawing in the refreshing air as the wind dried me. Whatever it missed, my quick cast of a water wicking charm got rid of the rest. The Sanctius clan’s mountain range loomed ahead, growing larger with each tremendous flap of Darius’s wings. The village seemed to come to life as we approached, despite the fact it was shrouded in cloud cover and grief alike. Light poured out of the windows of the various halls scattered along the path up the mountains, and with my enhanced sight, I spied Cynthia and Hayden waiting for us outside the alpha’s hall at the very top. Alone. They must have requested it to be that way; the last time we were there, people were falling all over themselves to be near Darius. It was very apparent that the clan adored their ruling family. The pain of losing Khalon… It would resonate through every home, down to the youngest child.

  Darius slowed his approach, wings out taut and dragging in the wind—like any modern aircraft braking system. I admired it for a moment, then winced at his earthshattering bellow. It all but shook the village, the vibrations unseen in the solid mountain foundations, yet felt in the soul of every shifter present.

  I tightened my thighs and braced for landing as Darius circled what was once his father’s hall twice before touching down. While the Brisbane clan had used magic to enhance the natural beauty of their mountain summer home, courtesy, in large part I had learned, of my fae mother, the Sanctius village was mountain-born in every sense of the word. More than I remembered, at that. All the gray. The scraggly foliage. Harsh. Unforgiving. Yet as soon as I set foot on the slate rock, it was like coming home after a too long absence. I couldn’t describe it. Even with the somber atmosphere, I knew in that moment that this was where I needed to be. Where I was destined to be. Not New York City. Not Alfheim. Here—with my dragon in his hour of need.

  “Darius!” His mother’s cry echoed across the mountain peak, a sob catching in her throat as she rushed forward. A soft whoosh tickled my ears when Darius shifted back, but I was too busy ridding myself of the bubble spell and digging his clothes out of my pack to watch this time. After handing over his pants, I grabbed a second pair for Quinn as he landed a few short feet away. Gaze lifted and cheeks red, I handed them over to the nude shifter before me.

  “Thanks,” he muttered, stuffing his slim yet taut legs into the black dress pants. “Any word from Catriona?”

  “She’ll be here,” I assured him. “Give her time.”

  He shot me a quick look, almost as if he didn’t believe me, then made his way over to his mother. I found the woman, the widow, wrapped in Darius’s strong arms, her willowy, lean frame seeming frailer, more fragile than when we last met. It was concerning, given that it had only been a few weeks ago. She must have started mourning the loss of her husband before it even happened. I smoothed my hands down my sides without realizing it. My recovery from the djinn’s poison had slimmed me down a little too, and I was eager for my curves back.

  Mother and son eased apart, and my chest tightened at the sight of tears running down Cynthia’s face, her cheeks on the verge of gaunt. Her husband’s death had hit her hard—and rightly so. Arms wrapped around myself in a solo hug, I watched as Darius brushed his mother’s stark white hair from her face—hair that tumbled down her back, thick and relatively straight. They said nothing to each other—at least, not out loud. I could only imagine what was said with nothing more than a look. After cupping Darius’s scruffy cheeks one last time, her eyes twinkling, Cynthia moved on to Quinn.

  While Quinn all but collapsed in his mother’s arms, his shoulders shuddering and his sobs muffled against her, Darius had been the one to hold her up. In an instant, he had gone from son to protector, to support system, to an alpha without the title. I couldn’t imagine how that would feel, to suddenly be the one a parent relied on for comfort when it had always been the other way around. Swallowing hard, I carefully picked my way across the stone path, giving him a moment to greet a somber Hayden with another strong, silent embrace.

  Only when the youngest of the Thomas boys had moved over to Quinn and Cynthia did I run a hand over Darius’s back. For just a moment, he seemed to relax under my touch. His shoulders rolled forward slightly, his jaw unclenched. I rubbed up and down over his heated skin, still coated in a fine layer of perspiration from the flight. The hint of nail across his shoulders seemed to rouse him, and with a hard blink, he stepped out of my reach. I could have taken it as a rejection, naturally, but the very idea of that faded when he pressed a quick kiss to my cheek and met my eyes with his steely gaze.

  “I’m here,” I whispered, “for whatever. Together, or not at all.”

  He nodded, his eyes saying our expression back to me before he turned and marched toward the alpha’s hall with its dark windows and low-hanging banners.

  “Kaye, sweet thing,” Cynthia called while my eyes were momentarily fixed to Darius’s retreating figure. Clearing my throat, I faced the approaching shifter with a sad smile, allowing myself to be enveloped in a gentle hug.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss,” I offered. No one wanted to hear it, but we all had to say it at some point. Her breath hitched briefly before she murmured her thanks in a voice barely breaking whisper volume. I patted her back, noting the thick brocade fabric of her black gown did nothing to hide her protruding bones. I needed to speak to Darius about this immediately. Grief could consume people if they weren’t careful.

  “Thank you for coming,” Cynthia said after kissing me once on each cheek. “He will need your support now more than ever, I suspect. Past or future.”

  “I’m here to give it,” I told her, wrapping an arm around her waist as we started our own slow march toward the alpha’s hall. “For all of you, of course.”

  Hayden and I exchanged a quick greeting over his mother’s shoulder, nothing more than a few eyebrow lifts and half smiles. The youngest Thomas son had always been so vibrant, so raring to go no matter the situation. To see him with the wind drudged out of his sails—devastating.

  “We’ll have the funeral tomorrow,” Cynthia said, her voice distant. “I would have liked to hold off, keep Khalon for longer, but… the alpha ceremony, we need to…”

  “I’m sure Khalon would understand,” I offered, feeling as though I was propping her upright by the waist. “He knew his clan needs a leader.”

  “I don’t know how I’m going to…” She blinked rapidly, as though only just realizing what she was admitting to me. A soft clearing of her throat followed, and then, “Do it. I don’t know how I’m going to…”

  “One step at a time,” I said gently. Ahead, Darius stood with his head bowed, a hand resting on the door to what had once been his father’s hall. I lifted my chin, determined to keep my cool, to be the backbone and strength that this family needed. “That’s all anyone can ever do. Take it one step at a time, piece by piece, until it doesn’t seem so frightening anymore…”

  “I can do that,” Cynthia murmured, and I caught her eye, smiling.

  “I know you can. You won’t be doing it alone, either.”

  None of them would. Not if I had anything to say about it.

  The last funeral I had attended was a non-magical, non-supernatural, non-anything affair in New York. One of our practice’s patients had taken his own life, despite our best efforts to keep him on track with his depression treatment. While my partner kept the office running that day, I had gone as a representative for both of us. Swathed in my usual black and a hat with bird cage netting disguising my face from the few members of his family that showed, I was the one to pay tribute. The whole thing had been a quiet, somber ordeal. Nine people, myself included, showed for the service, and fewer stayed to watch the coffin lowered into the earth. I’d left feeling drained, both in body and spirit.

  The funeral for Khalon Thomas was a different sort of thing entirely. Not only was the entire clan in attendance—having filled his old hall with flowers and trinkets, tokens of aff
ection piled high wherever I looked—but the sheer volume of supernatural beings present, boggled my mind. Half of Alfheim must have been in attendance too, despite Khalon’s hesitancy to work with supernaturals during the course of his life.

  Apparently, his reputation warranted their attendance. Our bear shifter friends Colton and Liam arrived on behalf of their clan, their usual joker personas kept in check. Zayne sent Galen in his place, along with his apologies for being unable to tear himself away from Alfheim. I passed his words along to Darius and his family, but I figured my presence was enough representation for my family.

  Not so, however. Early that morning, before the funeral proceedings began, before the sun crept even halfway above the horizon, my father and his children arrived with a band of Brisbane dragons in tow. They brought gifts for Cynthia and her sons: food, weapons, gold, silks. Hayden later explained to me the more opulent the funeral offerings, the more respected the alpha. While the Sanctius clan had gifted the Thomas family with mountains of treasures, nothing shone as brightly as what James Holloway offered before the proceedings began. I’d yet to see Cynthia cry today, but when she saw my father’s gifts, she finally broke down, far from the eyes of her clan, and needed a lot of consoling from Darius before the floodgates closed.

  Given what the day entailed, it certainly didn’t surprise me that I’d barely seen Darius. We spent the night before in his old bedroom, but he was unable to sleep. Every couple of hours or so, I woke to see him staring out the window, hands clasped behind his back and jaw clenched. Since then, he’d been so busy with the funeral, with organizing and thanking all the attendees personally, that I counted myself lucky if I caught a full glimpse of him before the crowd swallowed him again.