The Geis: Awakening Part 29

I looked down at the dagger in my hand. It glowed with supernatural power. Rourke's amulet had slipped out of my s.h.i.+rt, and it glowed a dark blue against my chest.

Believe what you cannot see. Aunt Avril's voice echoed in my head. A light breeze caressed my cheek. I whipped my head to where the rock had crushed her. It loomed like a monument in the center of the stream.

Beyond Cliona, the lizard stood in the stream by the opening of the spring. An image of the reptile from Rourke's memory flashed through my mind. In Rourke's world, the lizard was a dragon. The thought gave me a flash of hope.

"Save us!" I yelled at the lizard, gripping the amulet tightly.

Cliona's laugh was cruel as she approached. The lizard did nothing. "I'm afraid he is bound by a geis even older than you can imagine."

I eyed Aunt Avril's .454 Casull lying in the snow. I thought maybe if I could get to it, I could at least get off one shot.

And then Officer Ba.s.sett was there. He must have followed Aunt Avril up the canyon. He pumped six rounds of his twelve gauge into Cliona. Seeing that it had no effect, he picked up the .454 Casull.

"Get behind me." Officer Ba.s.sett looked from me to where Josh lay unmoving on the ground. Before I could move, Cliona opened her mouth, and a sound wave blasted into us. I fell to the ground, and when I recovered from the shock, Officer Ba.s.sett lay unconscious in the snow in front of me, blood running from his nose and mouth.

Cliona focused her eyes on me.

I scrambled to sit against the mountain wall. Fear gripped my heart, and I knew I had very little time to live. Did I really believe in dragons? A few short months ago, I hadn't believed in banshees. And I'd had no idea of the happiness I had in store by learning to love Josh. Yet now they were realities in my life that I could not dispute. I knew them to be true.

The lizard stared at me, his amber-colored eyes boring into my own. Realization swept over me and I hefted the amulet in my hand, knowing what I had to do. I made my leap of faith.

Heat coursed through my body, pulsing and demanding to be free. Snapping the chain, I held the amulet that differed from the lizard's only in size. The blues and blacks in the gemstone swirled.

I drew my arm back and crushed the amulet against the jagged edge of the nearest rock. The silver held, but the gemstone cracked, splitting down the middle in a flash of blue light.

"Ansul!" I yelled Rourke's name for the lizard.

The word echoed off the mountain walls, and everything seemed to slow down. Even the spring held its breath, and the water stopped flowing out of its mouth. We all watched as the water drained down the waterfall until there was only silence.

"You fool!" Cliona gasped. "He'll destroy us all."

Lizard distorted as if some other being was trying to break free from within him. Spikes tore from his back and wings erupted from his side as his sheer bulk magnified over and over again. A hiss turned into a growl, which deepened into a deafening roar.

Ansul spread his ma.s.sive wings, blocking out the sky. He pulled them in and leaped into the air. As the wings spread out again, the dragon glided down the canyon toward us.

The banshees scattered. Cliona stood defiant. I backed against the mountain, making a decision to face my fate with the others, who were helpless to avoid it.

Ansul's claws raked the banshees unfortunate enough to encounter them, cleaving those not fast enough to move out of his path. Ansul reared back in the air as he struck Cliona broadside. His blow sent her flying down the canyon and out of sight.

Rourke propped himself up, blinking as the dragon flew overhead, lighting more banshees up with the blue fire that erupted from his mouth, consuming the wraiths without igniting the forest.

"Not fireproof." Ansul's voice rumbled from deep inside his chest. He winked one great eye as he soared over us.

"Lizard!" Zoey knelt on all fours, taking in the scene below her. I called up to her, telling her to stay away from the edge.

Leah helped Rourke get to his feet.

"Ansul, my old friend." Rourke tipped his head to the evening sky. "You are finally free."

Ansul circled the sky above us, a glorious creature of the night. He flew up the carved mountain height, landing on the highest peak. The dragon's wings spread out over the canyon, casting a shadow on everyone within. The fading sun lit the sky orange and red behind him. Then he leapt from the peak, hugging the side of the mountain as he swooped past Zoey's ledge. He s.n.a.t.c.hed her with his talons and glided through the canyon like a ma.s.sive eagle. Holding Zoey with one claw, he landed behind me and set her gently on the trail.

Zoey ran for me. I gathered her in my arms. Zoey's teeth were chattering-her lips were blue. I took off my coat and put it around her like a blanket.

"'Kayla, isn't he beautiful?" Zoey stared past me at the dragon in adoration. I stroked her hair, my breath catching in my throat. I had almost lost her, again.

Zoey broke free from me and wrapped her arms around one of Ansul's legs. She looked so small in comparison to the giant lizard-her arms not even reaching halfway around the great span of his leg. "Thank you Lizard," she said. "I knew you would save us!"

"It was my pleasure, little one." Ansul dipped his head toward Zoey's. His voice was deep and had a celestial, musical quality unlike anything I had ever heard.

"Rourke, Ansul," I said, moving swiftly over to Josh's motionless form. "Can you help him?"

Something impossibly cold and sharp wrapped itself around my neck. I froze. Cliona stood behind me, her claws digging into my flesh.

"If I can't stop you, I will take what is precious from you!" she cursed at Rourke. "You, too, will feel what it is like to have everything you love ripped from your hands."

"Cliona, let the girl go," Rourke pleaded. "Take me instead."

Rourke's words swam in my mind. He had taken the place of someone once before, and lived out centuries of banishment as a result. I watched helplessly as history repeated itself.

"No geis will save your family this time," Cliona spat.

"Cliona," Ansul's voice boomed. "You will not survive this. Let her go and I'll spare your existence."

"You cannot kill me, Ansul, and you know it!" Cliona's voice was high-pitched and desperate. She laughed, and her claws began digging into my throat. A sickening, syrupy smell filled my nostrils as the banshee whispered despair into my ear.

My blood turned to ice, and I could no longer feel my body. I felt so tired. The world would be better without me, I thought. I spiraled downward as layer upon layer of hopelessness folded in on me. I could feel my life's cord being drawn thin. Soon it would snap, and I would be lost forever. Part of me welcomed a release from the torment.

Josh's motionless body lay at my feet. He would miss me-somehow, through the thickness I was mired in, I knew that. He would be devastated at my loss.

I clung to that spark of light and felt the goodwill of my friends flowing over me like a spring thaw. My strength returned. As the feeling returned to my hands, I realized I still held the dagger Aunt Avril had given me. I pooled the emotions inside of me and thrust them behind me, at the banshee. She faltered, and then moved to grip me tighter. I saw my chance. With a quick, fluid motion, I rammed the dagger into Cliona's body behind me, a blind move borne of desperation.

Cliona screamed and released her grip. I fell forward and caught a glimpse of Cliona with a dagger protruding from her hip. Then Ansul's flames engulfed her.

The blue fire pinned her body to the mountainside. I backed away. Once or twice I thought I saw a ghostly form try to escape, but Ansul's fire reacted to contain it. The fire intensified, burning a brilliant yellow. I turned away from the light and heat that seared my face. When Ansul let his fire die, there was nothing left of Cliona except ash and the pain she had caused.

I buried my head in Zoey's hair and breathed in the smell of her, all suns.h.i.+ne and lilacs. She wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again, Squit."

With Zoey hanging onto me like a monkey, I sat next to Josh in the snow. His eyes were open, but his face was pale. Josh's eyes found mine. "Hi," he murmured. I shushed him, alarmed at the heat radiating from his cheek as I put my hand to his face.

Rourke knelt next to him, and Leah looked at me with concern.

"Can you do anything for him?" I asked, hopeful. Josh looked terrible. I was afraid that he wouldn't make it down the canyon to the hospital.

With sure hands, Rourke stirred the air around Josh, forming a ball of air above his chest. My eyes widened as a blue mist escaped the cavity Rourke made with his hands. It settled over Josh's chest, filling him with life-giving breath. Rourke straightened, alarm evident in his eyes.

"Cliona was not trying to kill you," Rourke told Josh. "She was trying to make you one of her own."

Josh closed his eyes and clenched his fists. I slid Zoey off of my lap and onto the snow next to me, covering one of his hands with mine. The shock of everything we had been through hit me all at once. Cliona had tried to take Josh from me-not through death, but in the way she knew would hurt me most-by turning him against me. The thought made me lightheaded. I clung to Josh's hand.

"Will he be all right?" I asked Rourke.

Rourke looked first at Josh, and then at me, before nodding. "He will live. But that kind of magic leaves its mark."

Using his elbows, Josh pulled himself up to a sitting position. Already the color was returning to his face, and the sickly purple veins receded.

"What is that?" Leah asked. She ran a finger along the part in Josh's hair. I leaned forward. Along Josh's hairline, a thin streak of grayish-white hair stood out against his brown coloring-a physical reminder of the pain he had endured. For me.

Ansul perched above the spring, waiting for Rourke. The brilliant sunset had faded to a dusky glow. The time for traveling between worlds was almost past. And now the way was clear.

Rourke limped heavily across the rocky streambed to the spring opening, stopping only to put a hand on the arm of Officer Ba.s.sett. His healing touch stirred the policeman from his slumber. Rourke motioned for Leah to step into the water. She waded into the stream without hesitation.

Rourke stood next to Leah in the water. He put a hand to his mouth, and lowered it toward me until both of his hands were cupped together. "Thank you," he said as he signed, placing his cupped hands over his heart. I smiled through tears that threatened to fall.

Rourke nodded to Ansul.

Water churned and bubbled around Rourke and Leah's ankles, as if it were boiling. I couldn't believe my eyes when the spring water crept up their legs, covering their bodies until they were surrounded with a bubble of liquid. The water suspended Rourke and Leah for a split second, and then it crashed back into the stream, flowing with the rest of the water down the mountain.

When I blinked, Rourke and Leah were gone.

Zoey put her arms around my waist. I draped an arm on her shoulders, and together we walked to where Aunt Avril had fallen in the stream. I searched the snow on the bank of the stream, holding on to a slim hope that she might have escaped the weight of the enormous stone. We gathered pieces of her necklace that had burst from the pressure of the banshee's wail, and I put them in my satchel.

Josh came from behind us. His ashen face looked pale in the waning light. Without hesitating, he stepped into the stream and walked around the boulder. I chewed on my fingernail, waiting for him to circle from the other side.

Josh shook his head. Aunt Avril was gone. I fell to my knees with Zoey, not caring if the cold snow seeped through my jeans. Aunt Avril had only been a big part of my life during the last few months, and yet I felt bound to her in a way that I'd never felt with anyone else. Tears streaked down my face, and I didn't bother to wipe them away. I squeezed Zoey tighter to me. Even with Aunt Avril gone, the magic remained in us.

Josh knelt next to me, heaving for breath. I turned my head into his shoulder and sobbed. Zoey sat between us on my lap.

Now that it was over, a mixture of relief and disappointment swirled through me. Rourke did it. He finally returned to his home in the land of youth, and with Leah, too. Now that Rourke was gone, I would be on my own to learn more about this newfound power that I could wield with my emotions. And the dance school didn't even exist anymore-not without either Rourke or Leah.

"I'm so sorry." Josh searched my face.

"Are you all right?" I asked, tracing the streak of white in Josh's hair.

He looked drained, but he gave me a weak smile. "I'm feeling better already."

This wasn't the first time he had attacked a banshee for me.

I remembered something. "You signed to me."

Josh raised his eyebrows, as if supplicating forgiveness.

"How did you know it?"

"I picked it up here and there," he whispered.

"Here and there?" I couldn't believe him. All of the times when Rourke and I had had conversations that I didn't want anyone else to understand . . . "That's so not fair."

"About as fair as you not telling me that you can summon a dragon."

"That's different. I didn't know I could do that."

His lips were pinched with pain, but he focused his eyes on mine. "You are amazing, do you know that?"

I looked down at Josh's hand in mine, leaning into his embrace.

Josh looked over my head. "Someone is waiting to talk to you."

I turned to see Ansul, his leathery wings folded under him, still standing guard over the spring ledge. Josh squeezed my hand and let it go. Zoey put her little hand in mine, and we walked to the dragon.

Ansul towered above us, fifty times larger than the lizard we were used to. Blue and green scales reflected what little light was left in the canyon from the setting sun. Ansul's golden eyes were as large as billiard b.a.l.l.s. In their reflection I could see an image of Zoey and me, small and vulnerable in the snow.

Zoey reached her hand out and stroked Ansul's leathery underbelly.

"h.e.l.lo, little one." Ansul's voice boomed through the canyon. I tried not to flinch at the sound. Zoey answered him with a tiny voice.

"I told you he was a dragon," Zoey said to me, tipping her head back to see all of him.

"You were right." I squeezed her hand. "I'll have to listen to you more often."

"That is good advice," Ansul agreed.

"Without you, we would have been lost," I said. "Thank you."

"My pleasure." The dragon bent his head low.

"Why did you stay and protect us?" I asked. "When I set you free, you were no longer bound to protect our family."

"Service does not always mean slavery. I have served your family for many centuries. Through that service, I learned to love. I will gladly serve you whenever you are in need."

I smiled, grateful for his loyalty, even now. "You saved us-you killed the banshees."

"All but one. I could not harm Cliona as I could the others. Cliona is an Arbitor for the geis," Ansul said.

"But the geis is fulfilled," I protested.

"No. The geis is a complicated curse, one filled with counter-oaths. This geis is only awakening."

"That's what Cliona said. Is that why Aunt Avril's bullets could kill the other banshees, but not Cliona?" I asked.

"Yes. The protection of a geis is both a blessing and a curse," Ansul responded. "I did the only thing that I could manage-I made sure that Cliona could no longer dwell on this earth."

I stood close enough to the dragon that I could see the individual scales of his armor. His enormous blue tail wrapped behind us and down the empty streambed "Rourke needs you now, doesn't he, Lizard?" Zoey asked.

Ansul lowered his head until his eyes were level with hers. "Yes, little one. I must go home."

"Will we see you again?" Zoey asked.

"It is certain."