Page 33 of Dragon's Midlife Secret Baby
“We need to make sure we land enough inland that we don’t just have our backs to the cliffs,” Jacereasoned.
A spinning ball of silvery fire whizzed past them.
“Looks like it’s time for us to figure out exactly where that right spot is.” With a grunt of determination, Beck angled himself down. He headed directly for the grassy area along the edge of the island, waiting to see where the attack had come from.
A figure in a dark robe emerged from the trees, sending another blazing sphere up into the air.
“We have to get him before he warns the others.” Maeve moved a little on Beck’s back as she hurled a fireball of her own.
“Too late!” Lucille announced as a new attack was launched over on the left.
“There’s a stone wall over there,” Beck recalled. “There could be any number of them hiding behind it.”
“We’ll swing around and get them from the other side of it,” Ewan volunteered, veering off to the left.
“Divide and conquer it is!” Lilith announced. She zoomed to the right, and at least one of the women on her back screamed a little as she banked back in toward the island. “Sorry,” Lilith said.
Fire burned in his chest, but Beck saved it for the moment. It wouldn’t reach far enough to do any good at this distance. Lucille wriggled as she spotted a young man emerging from the trees. A nebulousblob gyrated through the air. Reaching its target, it flopped down over the top of the man like gelatin. He fell onto his side, his arms and legs moving slowly as he fought to get out of the goo that now encased him.
Tucking his wings, Beck came in for a landing. He tried to make it a gentle one, but he knew they didn’t have much time. They had to act quickly, taking out as many of their enemies as they could before they were spotted and word got back to Sol.
“We should head toward the houses,” he suggested. “There are at least two up there.”
“Lucille and I will take the one on the east,” Maeve offered. “You and Chelsea take the one to the west.”
Though he wanted to keep his scales, claws, and fire, Beck knew he wouldn’t slip through the trees and shadows with nearly as much stealth if he remained in his reptilian form. No longer burdened with passengers, he shifted back to two legs instead of four and made his way through the trees.
The moonlight made bright patches of silver on the ground where it leaked down through the leaves. “There’s a main door on the front, but that’s what they’ll expect. We’ll use the servants’entrance around the side. Anyone we run into there is just going to be a grunt.”
“How many people does he have working for him?” It was the first time Chelsea had spoken to him since their argument in her room.
“At least a dozen, possibly more.” He caught a flash of light in the corner of his eye as Maeve and Lucille went after another lookout. Beck had to trust that they were taking care of themselves. “I’m surprised I remember as much as I do, considering. The people often changed, but the layout is the same.”
She hurried along behind him. Her fingertips glowed with a silvery light as she kept her magic at the ready. “Are you all right?” she asked quietly. “I know it can’t be easy to be here.”
It wasn’t. It felt like pure hell to go willingly back to this prison. Beck had now seen with clear eyes just how far out into the water this island was. He now understood the sheer distance his human form had been forced to swim to get away from these people, showing him just how desperate he’d been for his freedom. Though the various spells and experiments that Sol and his acolytes had carried out on Beck had often rendered him unconscious and made it difficult for him to know exactly whathappened, his body knew that this was a place of torture.
“I will be as soon as we get Corbin out of here,” he said. They came closer to the old house, which towered like a dark shadow against the moonlight. He ushered her around to the back entrance. The mages, believing themselves to be alone on the island, had left the door unlocked. Beck knew better than to see this as a win, but he opened the door and crept through the old kitchen. A massive, colonial-era fireplace stood on their right. Few updates had been made over the years, leaving the place looking more like a medieval tavern than a modern kitchen. The good news was that none of Sol’s followers were in there at the moment. Beck slipped quietly through a different door that opened into a long hallway. The glow of light coming through a doorway up ahead told them where to go.
“What are you doing?”
Beck jumped slightly, but no one had come up behind them. This voice was a familiar one, though, and it froze his blood.
“What do you care?” This voice was also familiar but in a different way. This was Sol. This was the man who’d taken control of his mind and body, who’d kept him trapped both on thisisland and in his human form. He’d taken away everything Beck had in his life, and now he was threatening to all over again. Beck’s blood boiled.
“I paid you to do a job,” the first voice snapped. “You failed.”
They moved closer and settled just outside the open doorway. Beck angled his head trying to get a vantage point of the room. It was a library of sorts, with another massive fireplace. Sol stood with his back to the door. As soon as the other man’s face came into view, Beck’s fears were confirmed.
It was Griffin.
“I didn’t fail,” Sol retorted as he chucked a log onto the fire. “I did exactly as you asked. I took your rival out of the picture so you could take his place.”
It was hard to control his breathing as his anger grew. That bastard! How could he have done this?
“He came back,” Griffin argued. “Even worse, he knows exactly who he is and is now poised to take over the clan, just as the plan always was before.”
“If you really wanted him gone, you should’ve just had me kill him.” Sol turned away from the fireplace, but his pendant glowed even without direct light. If he only looked a little more to his right, he would’ve seen Beck and Chelsea in the shadows of the hall.
