Justice Unhatched (The Exceptional S. Beaufont Book 5)

by Sarah Noffke

  The cyborg knew more than anyone believed possible. She’d managed to poison Quiet. Sophia reasoned it was a blanket attempt to poison all the Dragon Elite. The herbs that had been sold to Ainsley at the village market were gone and so studying them wasn’t an option. The vendor hadn’t returned to the market, which wasn’t a surprise to anyone.

  She’d returned a second time, having taken only one dragon egg the first time. Her next trip, she took a dozen eggs. Trin Currante got what she wanted. There was no reason to return.

  “What am I missing?” Sophia asked herself as she opened the Complete History of Dragonriders. The book was so large that finding something related to the topics she was researching would take time.

  On top of trying to learn more about Trin Currante and the Saverus, Sophia now needed to figure out why she and Hiker’s dots were different on the Dragon Elite Globe. It had to do with the twin factor, but that wasn’t something new. They had been twins since the beginning.

  “So why was the Dragon Elite Globe just now noting us as different? We have always been twins.” Sophia continued to talk to herself, wondering if maybe Quiet would answer. He probably knew the answer to all these questions, but similar to Mama Jamba, he wasn’t talking—and if he were, no one would be able to understand him. Not since he told his name to Sophia and thanked her for saving him, had he spoken in an audible voice. He was back to whispering and acting in his usual mysterious ways.

  Sophia flipped through the enormous volume, overwhelmed by the information. Similar to Bermuda Lauren’s book, Mysterious Creatures, the physical size of it didn’t really tell one how large it actually was. It was glamoured to appear smaller for easy transport. The Complete History of Dragonriders was even larger than Bermuda’s handheld book, which worried Sophia.

  She needed to rest up for her mission the next day with Wilder, something she’d committed to and wanted to run as far from as possible after the strange conversation with Hiker. She’d dodged a bullet there. It made her cringe. She’d been moments away from confessing to something she thought he already knew and revealing something he didn’t know. All the while, sneaky Mama Jamba was sitting by watching and completely entertained.

  Sophia shook her head, and flipped through the book, wishing it had a table of contents or an index. She could look up the twin factor and be done with it since she didn’t know what to look for to find out how Trin Currante learned so much about the Gullington. Maybe it had been a good guess on Trin’s part, poisoning Quiet and taking down the Barrier. Or maybe there was something in the large volume that stated this explicitly. It was hard to know, and with time ticking down to bedtime, she feared she wasn’t going to find any answers that night.

  Hiker’d had the book for centuries, and even he hadn’t read the whole thing. Those who had answers like Mama Jamba and Quiet literally weren’t talking. Sophia was about to give up when her head snapped up with an idea.

  She jumped to her feet. “Trinity!”

  The librarian for the Great Library had read the Complete History of Dragonriders. The skeleton would know the answers to her questions. At least he might be able to point her in the right direction for reference.

  She grabbed the large book and hurried from her room. The torches on the long corridor of the Castle lit as Sophia progressed. She didn’t know how Quiet did it, how he was everywhere and also a person. It was a strange bit of magic, more powerful than anything she’d ever witnessed before.

  When she got to the portal door that led to the Great Library, Sophia paused and made a silent prayer. Before, Trinity had locked the other side, saying the energy between the Castle and the Great Library was connected through the portals. He further explained that if something happened to the Castle or the Gullington, then since it was the major organ connected by the portals, it could affect the Great Library and the House of Fourteen.

  Sophia stiffened her fingers on the handle to the closet door. “He knew,” she said in a whisper. Just after Trinity had put the lock on the portal, Quiet had fallen ill, and the Gullington had begun withering away. The grounds had started to die, and the Castle fell into ruin. Everything connected to the Gullington began to degrade.

  The House of Fourteen had been okay because of the presence of the giants who stabilized chaotic energy. But the Great Library would have been affected if Trinity hadn’t put a lock on it. He’d said it was simply a precaution based on what he learned in the Complete History of Dragonriders. Now, the timing seemed odd.

  He’d have more than just a few questions to answer. Sophia pushed down on the handle and to her frustration, found it locked.

  She searched around, wondering how she could get into the Great Library. Before she had to make an appointment with the librarian, but he’d sent the meeting request. She had no clue how to get a hold of him. The only other way into the Great Library involved going to Zanzibar, finding the Fierce, and following its path. That wasn’t a quick task and involved enlisting her friend King Rudolf who always made everything more complicated.

  No, she didn’t have time for such an excursion. She was curious how Trinity had known to put the lock on the portal between the Castle and the Great Library when he had. Something was needling at her brain, telling her something wasn’t right, but what, she didn’t know. It would have to wait. For right then, she was going to tuck in so she wasn’t exhausted for what she had to do the next day.

  Chapter Nine

  The rain was unrelenting when Sophia exited the Castle the next morning. She could make out a figure in the distance, his chin in the air unconcerned about being splattered by the large droplets of water.

  Wilder Thomson was made for the unforgiving weather of Scotland. He’d never shrunk away from the chilly winds since Sophia had known him. He never threw his hood up when they were out together and the rain started. Instead, he seemed at ease with whatever Mother Nature threw at him, or the Gullington in this case.

  The sun hadn’t risen over the hills in the distance. The two dragonriders had agreed to set off for their mission as early as possible. Sophia could have left much earlier since she’d been up at 3:33 that morning. Like before, she got up as Quiet had encouraged. The morning breeze wasn’t talking to her. As she sat in front of the fire, reading the Complete History of Dragonriders, she expected to get some epiphany, but the hours went by with no revelations. When it was time to meet Wilder, she got ready and exited the Castle to find him standing squarely in the middle of the Expanse, rain rolling off his cheeks.

  In the distance, where the glow of the sun was starting to edge around the hills, it appeared it wasn’t raining outside of the Gullington. Sophia didn’t know why Quiet was insisting on making it rain pretty much full time on the Expanse. She trusted his reasons, though, whatever they were.

  Sophia pulled up her hood and marched across the Expanse, making quick progress in Wilder’s direction. He smiled at her when she approached.

  “You awake?” he asked when she was closer.

  She wanted to return his grin, which made both his dimples surface, but she couldn’t. Sophia had never been good at pretending. She couldn’t pretend to be happy when Clark was sad, or fake confidence when Liv was worried. At the end of the day, the emotions the others saw on Sophia’s face were real, never an act.

  “I have been awake since the wee hours,” she answered, noticing his dark hair was drenched, but he didn’t seem to care.

  “Did you say ‘wee’? I do believe our Scottish vernacular is rubbing off on you,” he said with a wink.

  “How could it not?” she replied, pointing to the Barrier. “Shall we get to drier land?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I was just wondering why the little guy is making it rain so much more here.”

  “Maybe it’s a part of his recovery after the whole ordeal,” she suggested.

  He didn’t answer but rather studied her with a sideways expression as they strode toward the Barrier. “What is it? Something bothering you?”

  And
there it was. There was no hiding things from this one, she realized. Wilder always seemed to see right through her, even from the beginning.

  “Hiker…” she started and let the word trail away.

  “Yes, I have met the grumpy goose,” Wilder answered with a laugh. “He can really be delightful after a bit of whiskey, though.”

  “He suspects us,” she explained, not laughing.

  Wilder’s light expression fell away. He swallowed and pulled his gaze forward.

  “He said it was one thing he wouldn’t tolerate,” Sophia continued.

  “We figured as much.” Wilder’s voice was suddenly cold. His eyes narrowed.

  “He doesn’t know it’s you, but he is not an idiot,” Sophia stated. “I’m the first eligible bachelorette to enter the Castle in centuries and—”

  “Is that what you think this is about?” Wilder interrupted. “You think I like you because you are the only option?”

  Sophia shrugged. “It goes to reason.”

  He shook his head. “You are ridiculous. I don’t need to be with someone just because. I don’t need you. I want you.” The frustration was immediately palpable between them, but there was no avoiding it, and Sophia had known that. Wilder let out a breath and continued. “I’m not alone. I have Simi. You should know a dragonrider doesn’t need companionship the way others do. Our dragons provide us with so much. But I chose you because, well, I want to be with you. There could be a hundred girls here at the Gullington, and I’d choose you. Over and over. I don’t know how to convince you of that.”

  Sophia sucked in a breath, her chest suddenly feeling extra tight like she’d caught a novel virus that was about to take hold and destroy her life. She shook off the dramatic notion and met Wilder’s gaze. “I wasn’t wrong to have such a thought based on what I knew.”

  Wilder smiled at her, one that was so full of warmth and understanding it made her chest ache even more. “No, and I hadn’t said what I just did until presently. But now I have, and now you know. I hope you have no further doubts.”

  “It isn’t that easy, Wild,” she argued. “Hiker, if he finds out then he’ll be angry. It’s not like we have the luxury of time or anything else to explore this. There’s so much demanding our attention.”

  “Don’t do this,” Wilder warned, all lightness leaving his face at once as the realization of what was happening set in.

  She swallowed. “I have to. We don’t make any sense together. How long can we really keep this up?”

  “As long as we choose,” he declared, his voice suddenly louder as the rain began to dissipate. They were almost to the Barrier at the edge of the Gullington.

  “Inevitably, there’s an expiration date on us,” she explained. “Hiker won’t accept us. He said as much. It’s one of the few things he’ll put his foot down for. You’ve got Subner and adjudication missions. I need to find the dragon eggs. That leaves little time for anything else. This was a pipe dream all along. You know that.”

  Wilder halted just beside the Barrier, the rain continuing to splatter down his face and drenching him. Sophia paused, looking up at him. On the other side of the Barrier, she could spy clear skies as the sun rose over the hills, making it appear like a fresh day full of possibilities was dawning. Outside the Gullington, things didn’t appear dreary and beyond their control.

  “We could make it work,” Wilder argued.

  “For a little while,” she agreed. “But at the end of the day, we are just postponing the inevitable. Break our hearts now or later. Regardless, this always ends the same way.”

  “Please, Soph,” he pleaded. “I want you in my future.”

  She struggled to swallow. “And I’ll be there. As your friend.”

  Before she could change her mind, Sophia stepped through the Barrier into the crisp morning air, devoid of rain and the problems she wished she could leave behind in the Gullington. Just as Wilder stepped through after her, she knew her problems would always follow her. It might not be raining on them anymore, but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel a storm cloud overhead.

  Chapter Ten

  Wilder and Sophia didn’t exchange any more words after they crossed the Barrier and stepped through the portal to Roya Lane. Things were going to be awkward now, especially since they were required to go on this next mission together.

  There was no avoiding it. Sophia could have tried to pretend everything was okay, but as she’d already seen, Wilder would always see through things with her.

  No, she’d decided to end things right away before it got any more difficult. Things had just gotten away from them, but she was redefining their relationship, and they would both be better off for it. They could do this, she reasoned. They could be friends. That was what they were before.

  Roya Lane was as crowded as ever, and their drenched appearances earned them more than a few curious glances, or maybe it was because most recognized them as the Dragon Elite. It had been many centuries since a dragonrider freely stomped around Roya Lane, and they were still considered quite the novelty. Sophia looked forward to when they marked hope and gave others encouragement. They still had some work to do, taking on their roles as adjudicators. It wasn’t an overnight change in perception.

  They had to resolve one worldly affair after another in order for nations and people to stake their fate in them once more. That’s why Mahkah and Evan were off on adjudicator missions presently. Each one helped to earn the favor of mortals and bolster the reputation of the Dragon Elite. That was the hope, but Sophia reminded herself Evan was one of the dragonriders on these missions, so there might be some cleanup needed.

  “Closed?” Sophia asked, reading the sign in the window of Subner’s shop, Fantastical Armory. “How is it closed? Didn’t he tell us to come here and meet him at this time?”

  Wilder eyed the pocket watch he retrieved from his cloak. “Yeah, and he even stressed not to be late, which is why we got up at the crack of dawn.”

  “Well, I was already up,” Sophia teased, wishing her comment would bring a smile to the other dragonrider’s face. It didn’t.

  He sighed. “You’d think Father Time’s assistant would be punctual.”

  “I wouldn’t actually,” Sophia said. She tested the door handle and found it locked. Peering through the windows, she searched for a sign of the hippie elf. The shop was dark and empty.

  Sophia shook her head. “If I know Subner, he wanted us to get here early and be locked out.”

  “Because?” Wilder asked.

  “I don’t know, but that’s how he and all the other irritatingly powerful entities in our lives work,” Sophia explained, thinking of the pocketknife Subner had given her, knowing she’d drop it for Wilder to find. Or how Mama Jamba was always orchestrating something in her life, and how Quiet was setting her up for something with the early morning wake up calls.

  “So, what should we do?” Wilder asked.

  Sophia’s stomach rumbled, and she remembered she hadn’t had breakfast yet. Wilder must have heard the complaint from her stomach with his enhanced hearing. His eyes darted to her midsection, and to her relief, a sideways smile whisked to his face. “Hungry?”

  “According to my stomach, I’m apparently starving,” she answered, hopeful things could be normal between them once more.

  “Well, we all know how you Los Angeles girls never eat anything unless it’s a cucumber or ice chips infused with mint leaves.”

  Sophia scowled at him. “As if I’d break my diet with something as indulgent as mint leaves.”

  “As if,” he fired back, pretending to flip his hair over one shoulder.

  “Come on, I could use a cookie the size of my face,” she said, striding down the stairs of the Fantastical Armory and setting off for the bakery they had found the last time they were on Roya Lane.

  “A cookie for breakfast?” Wilder questioned. “That sounds mighty indulgent.”

  Sophia, like all magicians, fueled much of her magic with food. The higher the f
at and sugar content, the better it was for replacing reserves. It was one of many perks of being a magician. They were rarely ever fat since they burned calories so quickly. This was in contrast to gnomes who could bank their magic for long periods of time but then also had weight gain as a result.

  “Well, I won’t tell Hiker we didn’t have a protein-rich breakfast if you don’t,” Sophia bartered, remembering all too well the leader of the Dragon Elite always pushing them to eat more meat and eggs instead of carbs at the morning meal.

  “Funny,” he muttered, the light expression dropping from his face. “So, there are certain secrets you are okay with keeping from Hiker.”

  Sophia rolled her eyes, realizing Wilder had to get his jabs in. She didn’t expect this to be the last one.

  “When I was little—”

  “Last week, you mean,” he interrupted.

  Another eye roll. “Like a child little,” Sophia explained. “Anyway, my brother once allowed me to have cookies for breakfast because I was sad.”

  “Because the training wheels on your pink bike got tangled in the ribbon for your balloon?” he asked with real curiosity.

  “Because my sister and brother had been murdered,” she fired back immediately. The events hadn’t happened very long ago and the wound was still fresh, although Sophia suspected it always would be.

  Wilder sighed with defeat. “That isn’t fair. I thought we were joking around.”

  “Did you?” Sophia asked. “Then why aren’t you laughing? People usually laugh when they joke.”

  “Touché, Soph,” he said, shaking his head at her. “You are really going to have a cookie for breakfast? Is it because you are upset about something?” It was a leading question, and she wasn’t taking the bait.

  “The way I figure it, we only have one life to live,” Sophia explained, walking backward through the streets and flashing him a grin.