Page 37 of Dragon's Midlife Secret Baby
“Saturn is in our favor right now,” Chelsea advised her mother, trying to think of anything that might help their spell work. The best-case scenario was to have all the right supplies on hand, but there was no time to wait. Saturn was the planet of structure, order, discipline, and responsibility. She couldn’t think of anything more suiting.
“Good enough. We’ll make it work. Ladies, I believe you know what to do.” Maeve continued to face Sol. Lucille stood on one side of her and Chelsea on the other. They formed acircle with Maeve at the head, facing the target of their spell. “We bind your magic as we bind these threads, keeping you from harming others or yourself.”
Without the customary supplies, they had to make do. Maeve used the long chain of her necklace. Kristy pulled a strand of her own hair, and Jamie pulled the lace from her hooded sweatshirt. Chelsea looked around, not seeing much that would work, but then she noticed that the hem of her shirt had gotten ripped sometime in the battle. She separated a thread and pulled it until she had a length she could work with. Each of them held out their index finger on their left hand, slowly winding their makeshift binding elements around it. They repeated the words that Maeve had spoken. Chelsea could feel the energy rising inside her, and she opened her heart to let it flow. All the emotions that’d flooded her as they’d discovered Corbin was missing and had come to the island for his rescue had worn her out, but the magic was like a balm to her soul. A binding magic, yes, not the sort of spell they’d usually prefer to do unless it was absolutely necessary, but it would ensure a safe future.
She heard a crackling noise and opened her eyes just in time to see Sol launch a ball of flame into the air. He sent it harmlessly flying over the cliff, but itwas enough to make his point. “I don’t think it’s working,” he teased. “You may have wiped out most of my followers, but you don’t understand how powerful I am.”
“All right. I’ve had about enough of this prick.” Ewan pulled in a breath deep enough that his front feet rose off the ground slightly. They slammed back down as he let out a blast of fire.
Several of Sol’s gathered followers started to come forward, but others pulled them back. They knew they were defeated.
The heat was enough to blow back Chelsea’s hair, and she lifted her hand to protect her eyes from the intense light, yet she had to look. She had to see the downfall of the man who’d threatened their family.
Ewan’s flames seemed to have hit a wall just in front of Sol. The mage had put some sort of shield around himself, and it was strong enough even to protect him from dragon flame.
He laughed again when Ewan finally ran out of breath. The grass all around him was singed, and the wooden guardrail at the cliff’s edge was nothing more than a few charred stumps poking out of the ground.
“Thank you for warming my bones,dragon, but I’ll do just fine on my own, thanks. Caius!” Sol called to one of his disciples. “Bring me my staff so I can show these hags some real magic.”
“Why bother?” Maeve called. “You and yourstaffcouldn’t bring the magic all those years ago, so I highly doubt you can now.”
Lucille piped up next to her. “Just like a man. You gotta wave your stick around to try to impress everyone.”
It was amusing to make fun of the bastard, but Chelsea felt fear and anxiety rising in her chest again. The witches and dragons had been able to handily defeat Sol’s henchmen, but they didn’t have the training their leader did. Sol was a different matter, and though he’d allowed this to turn into a bit of a standoff, she worried it wouldn’t last much longer.
“We need to do something,” Chelsea said, speaking quietly into her mother’s ear. “There’s no telling what he might be capable of once he has that staff.”
“I know.” Maeve’s voice was low and short. “I’m trying to think.”
“That’s the problem,” Lucille remarked. “You never could think when you were around Sol.”
“Remind me to be angry at you later for thatcomment,” her older sister returned. She sighed, never taking her eyes off Sol. “But you might be right. I know we’re at a disadvantage out there, but I must be missing something.”
Erin had been toward the back of the circle, but now she stepped closer. “Sol works with a different kind of magic than we do. We’re pulling from the earth and the stars, tapping into the natural world all around us. I don’t quite understand what he’s doing or where his source energy comes from, but do we have any sort of advantage that we could use?”
Amanda held up her hand, her fingers slightly bent as she felt the energy around them. “I’ve been wondering the same thing, but I haven’t come up with anything.”
“Well, we can’t just stand here,” Jamie insisted.
“Um, Chelsea?”
The worry in Beck’s voice had her spinning quickly. Beck was sitting on a small rock with Corbin in his arms. A brilliant blue-white light emanated all around the little boy. His hand was on the rock itself, and that same energy could be seen pulsing up through the bones of his hand and into his arm.
“Whoa.” Fear and awe mixed inside her. Her son had already proven that he had remarkableabilities, but she didn’t know what was happening. “Are the rest of you seeing this?”
“Remarkable,” Lucille commented.
Griffin, still in his dragon form, hovered just over Beck’s shoulder. “It’s the ley lines.”
“What?” Chelsea asked. It made her nervous to see Griffin so close to her son and mate. He may have saved Corbin from falling to his death and brought him back to them, but she’d heard what he said in that house. He’d been responsible for all that had happened to Beck.
“I can see them,” Griffin explained. “I can see the way they trace through the earth, and he’s tapped into one.”
“But he’s only half dragon,” Beck argued. “The rest of us can’t use their energy that directly.”
The bronze dragon bobbed his head slightly to the side, almost like a shrug. “Witch and dragon blood mixed together must be a hell of a thing.”
The light from Corbin was bright enough that Sol had noticed it now and was cursing loudly. “Caius! Get back out here, you little coward! Don’t you see what’s happening? And what about the rest of you fucking idiots? Aren’t you going to do anything? After all I’ve done for you?” he demanded of his minions.
