Magic Undying (Dragon's Gift: The Seeker #1)(23)

“No. It was a strong one.”

Like you. I kept my mouth closed for once, though.

We hadn’t made it very far when the earth started to tremble beneath my feet. It was a subtle vibration, but enough to be worrisome.

“You feel that?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Roarke’s sharp gaze traveled the landscape. “We’ve triggered something.”

Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet dipped away, surging like a wave. A tsunami of earth to my left rose up, a gaping maw of dirt and grass. I lunged to the side as it crashed down, but didn’t make it far enough. The earth enveloped me, sucking me down into the dirt.

Instinctively, I shrieked, but my mouth filled with soil. I choked on the foul stuff, trying desperately to claw my way free. But the dirt was so heavy that I couldn’t move my arms. Panic made my mind buzz and my chest feel hollow.

Buried alive.

How deep in the earth was I? With a frantic burst of strength, I tried one more time to claw my way free.

Nothing.

And I couldn’t hear Roarke. Air was running out. Alone. I was alone.

But not helpless.

No way I was going to die again and go back to the Underworld. I called on my magic, envisioning turning blue and transparent. I needed my Phantom form now more than ever. There was no way to know if it could get me out of this, but I had to try.

Chilly magic tingled through my limbs as they grew weightless. I couldn’t see, but I felt it when I’d fully adopted my other form. I directed myself upward through the dirt, passing effortlessly through it. When the crown of my head broke through the last layer of earth above and I felt cool air on my forehead, I forced myself to turn back to human so that Roarke wouldn’t see me pop out of the dirt in the wrong form.

The panic returned immediately, but I shoved it aside and clawed my way free. I was close enough to the surface that the dirt wasn’t too heavy, but I felt like a freaking zombie as I crawled out of the ground and sprawled on my back, gasping.

I glanced around, searching for Roarke, but saw only the quiet expanse of night. The ground even looked normal, as if the wave of earth had devoured us and returned to business as usual.

I scrambled up, calling, “Roarke!”

But he was nowhere to be seen. My heart thundered, and my skin chilled.

To my left, something burst from the earth in a massive explosion, shooting into the sky. Dirt flew everywhere. I stumbled to my knees, pushed by a massive wind. When I could finally look up, my jaw dropped.

A dark figure shot high into the air, propelled by huge wings. It looked human—mostly. In the moonlight, all I could make out was a dark gray form and dark wings that would shame an angel’s.

Roarke?

“Whoa.” I watched as he returned gracefully to the ground, getting a better look at his demon form. He was bigger than he had been—probably over seven feet tall—and his skin and wings were a dark, silvery gray.

He had no horns, but black claws tipped his fingers. His features had changed too, turning almost leonine, and his eyes were a pitch black with no whites. His shirt had disappeared, no doubt blasted away by his wings, but his pants had stayed on. His muscles were all harsh lines and obvious strength, like some kind of crazy Olympic swimmer.

Wow. Even in his demon form, he was hot.

“Uh, hi,” I said.

He grinned, giving me a peek of bright white teeth, then a black mist swirled around him like a mini tornado. A moment later, he’d shifted back to his human form. His shirt had returned, as clothing did when a powerful Were shifted. But I could still see the demon in him, in his strength and dark eyes, even though the whites had returned.

He was one scary dude in his demon form. And pretty dang scary in this form too.

He stalked toward me, concern in his gaze. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” I brushed dirt from my hair and shook out my shirt. “Clawed my way free.”

His brow creased. “How? I had to shift to even move the dirt. No way you were strong enough.”

“Um, don’t underestimate me.” Also, don’t ask too many questions. “Speaking of shifting, are you what humans were thinking of when they came up with the legend of Lucifer?”

Because it fit. Fallen angel looks, massive wings, incredible power. Boss of the Underworld.

“Too young. And I’m not the devil.”

No, he wasn’t. If he’d been evil, I’d have felt it in his magic. Especially when he shifted. But I’d felt nothing except his usual magical signatures. And those were pretty nice, actually. Powerful, but nice.

“Do you know what kind of Were your non-demon parent was?” I asked. Because it had to be something crazy if he had wings. A demon/Were pairing was a weird one.

“No.” He glanced around, clearly not wanting to discuss his parentage.

I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t know who my parents were either, and I wasn’t usually keen to chat about that.

“We should get moving. I don’t know what else is coming at us.”

“Okay.”

We headed up the path, silence cloaking us, but I couldn’t help but glance at him occasionally. Weirdly, I felt a kinship with him. We both had strange, unknown parentage and had scary, death-related alternate forms. Demon-angel dude meets ghosty-Phantom girl.

The stuff dreams were made of.

The sun had fully set by the time we neared the broken walls of the castle. Fortunately, we hadn’t run into any more enchantments.