by Sarah Noffke
Magitech Rises
Exceptional S. Beaufont™ Book 3
Sarah Noffke
Michael Anderle
This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2020 Sarah Noffke & Michael Anderle
Cover by Mihaela Voicu http://www.mihaelavoicu.com/
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US Edition, January 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-714-3
Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-715-0
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Sarah’s Author Notes
Michael’s Author Notes
Acknowledgments
Books By Sarah Noffke
Check out Sarah Noffke’s YA Sci-fi Fantasy Series
Books By Michael Anderle
Connect with The Authors
The Magitech Rises Team
Thanks to the JIT Readers
Angel LaVey
Billie Leigh Kellar
Dave Hicks
Deb Mader
Debi Sateren
Diane L. Smith
Dorothy Lloyd
Jackey Hankard-Brodie
Jeff Eaton
Jeff Goode
Kathleen Fettig
Larry Omans
Lori Hendricks
Micky Cocker
Misty Roa
Nicole Emens
Paul Westman
Peter Manis
Veronica Stephan-Miller
If we’ve missed anyone, please let us know!
Editor
The Skyhunter Editing Team
Once again and a thousand times more, for Lydia.
— Sarah
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
to Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
to Live the Life We Are
Called.
— Michael
Chapter One
The gravel slipped under Sophia’s fingers, sending her sliding another inch. She gasped and bit her tongue, tasting blood.
She kicked and tried to secure her footing on the side of the crumbling cliff where she dangled. The dirt fell away, granting her no reprieve from her precarious situation.
Don’t look down, Lunis calmly warned in her mind.
Sweat dripped into her mouth as she shook her head.
Why did you have to say that? Now I have to look down, she answered, hardly able to hear her own voice in her head over her heavy breathing and racing heartbeat.
The fall to the bottom of the ravine was several hundred yards. Sophia wouldn’t survive it.
And I can’t rescue you, Lunis reminded her for what felt like the dozenth time.
I know. Sophia grunted. She tried to claw farther up the rocky wall. Her fingers were numb from the cold, making it harder. She’d started the climb halfway down the cliff wall. Just another few inches and she’d be safe at the top.
Looking down, she shuddered. That, or she’d die a painful death.
You’re almost there, Lunis urged. Don’t give up.
I’m not giving up, she complained. I’m breathing.
You can breathe when you get to the top.
Sophia’s hand shook as she reached for a hold a few inches up. A wind sent by the devil nearly blew her off the wall.
She cinched in tighter and pressed her face to the rock, her teeth chattering from the cold and adrenaline.
“Angels above!” she yelled. The winds had been unrelenting since she started, but now they seemed to have a special vendetta against her.
The wind is a dragonrider’s friend, Lunis explained.
“With friends like that…” Sophia muttered.
It’s meant to make you stronger, Lunis stated.
“Is that what friends do?” Sophia asked, surprised she had the energy to laugh as the wind howled past her ears.
Yes, he answered simply.
“No wonder I never made friends growing up,” Sophia joked, daring to take one of her hands off the wall, her fingers climbing a few more inches as she pulled herself up.
You’re turning away from the wind, Lunis observed.
“Yes, that’s my attempt not to get blown off the side of this cliff,” Sophia told him.
If you embrace the wind, you’ll find more often than not it propels you in the right direction, instead of the wrong one, Lunis told her, a sage-like quality heavy in his voice.
Sophia allowed his words to wash over her. She wanted to make a joke, but deep down, she knew there was great wisdom in what he was saying. She felt it at her core, and as if unlocked by his words, Sophia felt a rush of wind glide underneath her to push her up a few inches. Given that momentum, Sophia’s hands began to move, her feet following.
Her fingers came over the edge of the cliff and found the top. She scrambled for a hold, but the surface was smooth grass and dirt.
You’re almost there, Lunis urged.
Sophia could feel the heat of her dragon close to her hand. He wasn’t helping her, though. Not now that she’d come this far. It was strange to have him so close and be all on her own, but that was the lesson of the exercise. Something she hadn’t expected to get out of it was the realization that she had to make peace with the wind, but that would take time.
Sophia pushed with her legs, remembering a woman’s strength as a climber was in her thighs—not the upper body like a man. It might have been a bit late in the trek to remember, but the timing might have just saved Sophia.
She hiked up her leg, slid her knee over the edge as she kicked off, and scrambled firmly over the side. Rolling away from the edge, Sophia lay flat on the earth, grateful to be horizontal after the long climb.
Her dragon swung his head around and looked down at her from only a few inches away. You made it.
Through hyperventilating breaths, Sophia said, “Barely.”
“In battle, there is no victor who barely wins,” Lunis stated. “There is only life and death. You lived, and that’s what counts.”
Sophia turned her head to the side and looked out at the clear blue skies of Scotland and the landscape spread out beyond the crumbling cliff. She couldn’t help but appreciate the green hills right then or the gentle breeze which wrapped around her forehead beaded with sweat.
Returning her attention to the blue dragon, Sophia smiled up at him. “You would have saved me if I fell, right?”
He shook his head. Let’s go with no.
She rolled her eyes as she pushed up to a sitting position, making him retract his head. “It’s just a training exercise.”
What we do in training will determine whether we survive the battles to come, he informed her. If you train always thinking you have a safety net, then you’ll surely fail when the time comes to face real danger.
Wilder strode across the Expanse, closing the distance between them, a proud smile on his face. He extended a hand to Sophia. “You’ve earned a shot of whiskey.”
She wrapped her fingers around his and allowed him to pull her to standing position. Her legs quivered under her, fatigued. “I could use two shots, actually.”
He gave her an impressed grin. “You haven’t even had breakfast yet.”
“So?” she argued.
Shaking his head, Wilder said, “I swear, you might have Scottish blood in you after all.”
“Do you need some porridge before your morning whiskey?” Sophia teased.
He laughed. “A real Scotsman brushes his teeth with Scotch Whiskey, my friend.”
“That’s surprising,” Sophia remarked. “I didn’t know you even brushed your teeth.”
He flashed her a smile. “There’s a lot about us that will surprise you. Speaking of surprises, you beat Evan’s time when he first did the climb.” He indicated the cliff she’d just scaled.
Sophia scoffed at him. “Why are you surprised? Because I’m a woman and Evan has more upper body strength than me?”
Wilder smirked. “Yes, actually, but you’re quickly dispelling all my stereotypes.”
Sophia stretched her neck and felt the tension start to roll out of her muscles. The next phase of her training was to focus on building her strength, agility, and speed. According to Wilder, she couldn’t just rely on Lunis for these things. Individually, Sophia needed to be strong enough to withstand obstacles without her dragon. He’d told her that before pushing her over the side of the cliff where she fell quite the distance before catching herself on a thick root. She’d been forced to climb back up, her heart nearly beating out of her chest from the scare.
“What if I hadn’t caught myself on that root?” she asked Wilder. She had the urge to punch him in the face for the assault.
He winked at her. “I knew you’d catch yourself.”
“What if I hadn’t?” she challenged.
He strode off for the Castle after giving an appreciative nod to Lunis. “Well, then you’d be dead, wouldn’t you?”
Sophia shook her head at her dragon as she hurried after Wilder. “One of these days, I’m going to get you back for that stunt.”
Wilder flashed her a crooked grin. “I have no doubt, Sophia.”
Chapter Two
“You realize weapons of mass destruction are not my specialty,” Alexander Drake said to Thad Reinhart as the pair strode through the top-level-security facility. They halted in a room with viewing windows into the other research areas.
The billionaire stopped, his usual expression of annoyance covering his scarred face. “I simply asked you to look into the matter since you installed the weapons for Ember 2.0.”
“Is that really the name you’re going with?” Drake dared to ask. “I mean, it’s not really a machine and not really—”
“Do you not value your position here?” Thad replied.
Drake straightened, used to the threats. “Of course, and I figured you’d prefer my honest feedback rather than—”
“I don’t care about your opinions,” Thad interrupted. “What I care about is whether the magitech you recently installed could be used on a larger scale system?”
Drake combed his fat fingers over his equally thick chin. “In theory, it makes sense. Something like that could be enough to wipe out an entire country. Is it something you really want to do?”
Thad’s eyes fluttered with annoyance. “None of that should be your concern.”
Drake pursed his lips, his beard twitching. “Thing is, I live on this planet too and would like to see it continue.”
“When did you start caring about this world?” Thad challenged.
Blowing out a breath, Drake ran his hand over his bald head. “I was aware you had ambitious plans, but…” He swept his arm at the many compartmental rooms lining the hallway. “I was under the impression you needed my help with dragon genetics and technology connected to them. And that alone won’t maim the world. What you’re talking
about—”