Birds called overhead, and I opened my eyes, yawning. We’d been in the grove for three nights, but today we were finally heading back to Mama Lucy’s house.
We all knew I was strong enough to travel, but no one wanted to leave the peace and quiet of this grove. After our first night, we decided not to talk about the shield, or the sorcerers, or anything about our past lives. Instead, we explored the area around the grove, swam in the stream nearby, and for a few days acted like we didn’t have a care in the world.
I shifted, and grinned at finding one hand holding Forrest’s and the other tucked in Craig’s palm. I’d woken up every morning like this. I swore it was because of them I managed to sleep through the night. No nightmares, no crazy memories. Nothing.
I carefully stood up and walked the short way to the stream to wash my face and wake up the rest of the way before we packed up our camp and used the Moon Portal to go home.
Mama Lucy was going to freak out when we caught her up on everything that happened. With my luck, she’d threaten to lock me up, too scared to let me leave her sight again. Tracking down the sorcerers would take a few days at least, according to Craig, and I was looking forward to visiting the greenhouse and maybe digging around in the garden for a few days.
Mama Lucy might even have answers for us. There was a chance she heard of our past lives. I wasn’t sure if she was part of a coven, or family, but I was sure they had a history of their own. And, with any luck, it might date back far enough to give us some help in figuring out what happened around the time the realms were separated.
I shook off the chilly water from my hands and listened to the quiet of the surrounding trees.
As I turned to head back to camp, a creaking sounded sharply through the trees, and I froze. I told myself it was an animal on a stick, and nothing was going to get past the three patrols we saw scattered around the grove over the last few days.
A sudden bellow of pain, followed by more of that horrible bone cracking, and then a shriek told me I was dead wrong.
“Kate! Where are you?” Forrest yelled, and I sprinted through the trees to the grove.
“They’re here!” I slid in the dirt and crashed right into Forrest and Craig, nearly taking us all to the ground. “The plagued dragons. How are they here?”
“I don’t know, but we have to leave, now.” Craig handed me the sword sheath, and I slipped it over my body as he scooped up the knapsack, digging around in it.
Forrest rushed to the horses, swatting them hard on their rumps to make them run off, back toward the palace, I hoped.
“Got it!” Craig held the Moon Portal in his open palm, and we gathered around him.
Another yell of a dying dragon hit us, and Forrest cursed, whirling around as if to leave, but Craig yanked him back.
“I have to help them!”
“There’s no time!”
“They’re dying,” he argued fiercely, but I cupped his face in my hands and held him until his gaze locked onto mine.
“We can’t stay. We don’t know how many are out there. We have to go.”
He bit his bottom lip as another cry tore through the early morning, but he shut his eyes, and nodded his head. “Do it! They’re getting closer.”
We each grabbed hold of Craig, and the portal in his hand glowed with power. The cracking of bones forced to move drew closer, and I glanced over my shoulder in time to see two of them in the trees.
My blood ran cold as their shrieking started, picking up as they surrounded us.
The words on the coin glowed brighter, and finally, I felt my feet leave the ground just as the skeletal beings broke through the trees, charging right for us.
As before, we became lost in a swirling cloud of blue and purple light, twisting and turning our bodies around and around until finally, I felt my feet hit hard ground, but this time, we managed to stay upright.
“Everyone alright?” Craig asked.
I started to answer when I noticed something clinging to the knapsack on his back. I screamed in alarm and drew the sword on instinct as Craig flung the top half of the creature that managed to catch a ride with us across the front lawn of Mama Lucy’s house.
Luckily it was night. Otherwise, we would’ve made quite the spectacle.
The creature shrieked, furious, as it crawled toward us faster than should’ve been possible. It had no weapon except claws extending past its bony fingers. Half its face was somehow still attached.
I charged the thing as it swung that disgusting head toward me. I was going to have nightmares from dealing with this shit. I brought the sword down, pinning the creature to the ground with the blade right through its spine then jumped back as it swiped at my legs.
“How did it get here?” Forrest snapped.
“Must’ve launched itself at us as the portal opened,” Craig replied.
The undead dragon struggled to get to us, and to my horror, it reached around and yanked part of its vertebrae free.
“Seriously? Why! Just why!” I yelled, as Craig and Forrest shoved me behind them toward the house. “We have to kill it!”
“With what?” Forrest demanded, cursing when it was almost free.
Behind us, I heard the front door open and a dog growling.
Mama Lucy yelled, “Get down!”
The three of us hit the ground, and I saw a bottle sail over our heads, a cloth shoved in its neck, and burning. It smashed into the creature, and it howled in rage as the potion ate away at its bones until all that remained was a scorched spot on the front lawn.
Shoving my hair out of my face, I turned around, still on the ground, and stared wide-eyed at Mama Lucy looking like she was ready to go to war.
“Mama Lucy? Did you just attack it with a Molotov cocktail?”
She grinned. “It’s called improvising. Now get inside quick before the neighbors call the cops on us.”
Craig rushed to grab the knapsack and the Moon Portal he dropped. I snatched the sword out of the ground, and we darted into the house, Harry and Mama Lucy bringing up the rear.
She closed and locked the door with far more deadbolts than she had when we left. Her hair was braided back fiercely, and she was wearing some sort of leather tool belt filled with herbs, and implements, and several daggers. Her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, and all I could do was stare.
I didn’t think there was a time I ever saw her not wearing her skirts and shawls. Clearly, a lot had changed since we’d been gone.
“What happened to you three?” Mama Lucy demanded, not even giving us a chance to move deeper into the house.
“That’s a very long story,” Craig replied. “And I have a feeling you have one of your own to tell.”
Her brow arched, and she grinned mischievously. “Oh, you have no idea. Tea?” She turned on her heel and marched to the kitchen as if she hadn’t just killed an undead warrior in the front yard, well half of an undead warrior.
Yep, Mama Lucy had definitely changed.