“Do you see those figures in the, well, this magical thing?” Lilly asked.
Aisha shook her head in unison with the lot.
“Those are demons. I. Hold on,” Lilly said as she stepped over to Aisha. “May I?” She motioned to Aisha’s arms, and all Aisha could do was shrug.
Lilly placed both hands on Aisha’s forearms and closed her eyes. Aisha’s body heated, slowly at first until it reached an uncomfortable level. Sweat beaded on her brow and a scream caught somewhere between her mouth and throat as just as quickly as the heat grew to a blaze, it backed away.
“Sorry,” Lilly mouthed.
How much more was she supposed to take as her legs wobbled. Aisha appreciated the firm hands holding her up. Not the right hands was all her brain could think, but at least she was upright.
“Do you feel the magic?” Lilly’s voice broke through the haze.
Aisha felt nothing, literally nothing. The cold empty creeping further into her body as she started to shiver.
“I feel it. Do you?” said someone.
“Yes. Demonic traces. Deo would know exactly what this was. Who else knows about this shit?” boomed another.
Lilly’s soft voice spoke again. “It’s a sleep demon. My father used them on me sometimes. I remember now. He stopped using demons when he figured out I could do things I wasn’t supposed to be able to.”
Everyone turned to Lilly and stared like they had never heard anything so crazy before.
“Okay. So, we have a demon tamer and dragons. Maddie, what do you do?” Aisha asked.
She flicked her hair over her shoulder. “I, my dear, am a witch, but I think you might know that. You’re one too, aren’t you?”
Aisha faltered. “I. Well, yes. But I’m not powerful.”
Maddie took a few more steps forward. “This kind of magic,” said Maddie, pointing to the memory spell. “Is not from a weak witch. I bet you just didn’t know. Fate plays tricks on us. Sometimes we can’t see who we really are until we’ve found the one that brings the true us out.”
The ache hit Aisha hard, the cold finding the core of her soul and pushing out the remaining fire in her soul. Buckling over, she let out a strangled cry.
Words flew around her, but she couldn’t focus on who they came from.
“What’s happening to her?”
A male voice said, “She’s ice cold.”
Another voice said, “Deo’s in danger, that we can be sure of.”
“Aisha, I need you to focus on the source of the pain. We will need you to help direct the others. He isn’t answering anyone.”
She nodded as someone grabbed her, helping her out the door. She barely focused on anything other than someone was picking her up.
“Hold on, okay?”
A familiar texture of rough scales met her hands as she sat atop not her blue dragon, but a more purple tinted almost black dragon. Aisha didn’t have time to think as she nodded and focused on the pain. What did it mean?
The dragon jerked beneath her and she squeezed her legs tight around him, leaning close to his body. This felt wrong, but there was no other way. She understood that, but it felt wrong.
“Aisha, which way?” yelled Maddie as an orangish dragon came up next to them.
If she wasn’t in so much pain, this would be the most beautiful and unbelievable sight.
They circled the sky as Aisha did as asked and felt with her soul. After two full rotations, she finally could feel the difference and pointed into the direction where she could feel what she thought might have been his heartbeat in her soul.
16
Deo tried to reach out to his brothers. There was nothing. Strange.
What could keep him from them? The human female wasn’t looking healthy either. The blackish streaks seemed to grow.
What had they done to her? What had they done to him? There was a sound at the door, and he shifted into his dragon before they came closer.
He backed into the corner, trying to shield the female. Her life mattered regardless of what these assholes thought. He faced the door, ready for a fight.
“I grow tired of waiting, dragon. I also assumed this would be a problem. Nothing you creatures do is easy.”
Deo’s dragon's head moved side to side, watching the doctor move. He sucked in some air and readied to use his fire.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you dragon. At best you can get me. Although I do appear to not be affected by your fire, or my daughter’s, for that matter. Curious, isn’t it? And perhaps you miss the female. But at worst you torch her, or me and never find out how to get out of here alive. And I assure you. You will not. Your time is running out, dragon. I will be departing. Should you fulfill my wish, I will fulfill my promise of release? Do not take her though. The demons here, they will attack.”
Deo growled and his dragon crouched low. They wanted to rip this male limb from limb.
“Yes. Well, goodbye, dragon. I await a report from my colleague. I have other work to deal with. If I were you, I would push aside these silly notions of true mates and save yourself. After all, I am not asking for you to claim her. Just simply do whatever it is you do to make offspring. You know, children. Like the ones you took from me.”
Smoke poured from his dragon's nostrils as he held in the anger.
The skeletal figure of the doctor walked out, leaving Deo to check the choices he had.
His dragon circled the room. Sniffing each corner, looking for a weakness. The nasty scent of decay, what he was realizing may very well be demon scent, had his dragon pawing at his nose. Why they didn’t enter the room he wasn’t sure, but he was certain it wouldn’t last.
Deo walked over to the next wall and stood on hind legs. He sniffed at the ceiling. He tried to reach out
