by Sarah Noffke
“Yeah, I say we go,” Sophia said, finding her voice strangely authoritative. “Evan, you want to go straight through the front door?”
“I like the way you think,” he agreed, saluting at her.
“Mahkah, do your thing on the runway outside of the hangar,” Sophia ordered and received a curt nod.
“I’ll go in the back.” Sophia didn’t even wait to finish her sentence before taking off on Lunis, veering down as cyborg soldiers ran out of the hangar carrying guns and missile launchers, many of them attached to them like extra body parts. Trin Currante had disappeared inside, but Sophia had every intention of catching the ringleader. She was the one who would lead them to the dragon eggs. As far as she was concerned, the rest of the army of cyborgs were ones Trin Currante would terminate if they endangered her mission—whatever it was.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Evan knew exactly how to plan the right attack on these jerk faces. After what they had done to his home, he was going to enjoy it.
He pointed Coral at a cyborg wearing a getup that would have looked better on a clock. The guy was mostly gears and gadgets, and his face was covered in a respiratory mask. He held a pistol in his hands, pointed at the dragon flying in his direction.
“Hahaha,” Evan called to Coral, who never appreciated his humor, but that only encouraged him. “Gotta love a man who thinks his dumb gun will do any good against a fire-breathing dragon.”
The man fired, and what shot out of the tiny pistol wasn’t what Evan expected.
“What the hell, dude,” Evan bellowed, twisting Coral to the right to avoid a collision with a blast ten times the size of the gun the man held. The dragon and Evan spiraled and crashed into a helicopter taking off.
“That wasn’t how the plan was supposed to go,” Evan stated, finding himself discombobulated as he tried to yank Coral back up into the air. She wasn’t injured, and thankfully he wasn’t either. On the list of good news, they’d decommissioned a helicopter.
“Dragon Elite, one,” Evan cheered. “Stupid Cyborg Pirates, zero.”
He realized almost immediately he might have counted the score too soon as three more helicopters took off, spinning around in his direction, all of them appeared to be locked and loaded with artillery.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
It felt natural for Mahkah to take orders from Sophia. He didn’t think she knew it yet, but she was a born leader. That wasn’t something most in the Dragon Elite were destined for. In order to be a dragonrider, two parts of a whole had to work together.
A leader stuck out in this clan because the rider had to be slightly more confident than their dragon. Yes, they relied on them. That was inevitable. However, they had to have a certain knowing that made it so they could lead men or women, who were much more irrational than dragons. They had doubts and emotions and so many things that made it difficult to motivate them when fear set in.
Mahkah had witnessed something so pure and right in Sophia Beaufont when she stepped up and directed them, not glancing at her dragon once for affirmation. She simply knew and that was beautiful.
It was especially impressive to Mahkah because Sophia Beaufont was so young and inexperienced, but proved to him those things mattered very little in this world. He took orders without question from the young dragonrider not just because he trusted her implicitly, or because, unlike Hiker Wallace, he had no desire to lead or give orders.
It was because when she spoke, there was a fire in her eyes that was full of conviction. He didn’t think anyone who witnessed it in the young magician would ignore it. If they did, they’d pay the price.
Mahkah knew without a doubt what Sophia intended for him and Tala to do. He barreled down on the strange assortment of men gathering on the tarmac. He’d seen these men before when they stormed the Gullington. They were covered in strange armor, with weapons attached to their body in weird places. They were half-man, half something else.
What Mahkah felt at that moment wasn’t a vengeful desire to crush his enemy. He felt sorry for them that they were so far from what they’d been. He hoped to make their ends as swift and painless as possible. Unfortunately, they’d have to be ended, if the Dragon Elite were to survive. That was the cost of battle. The cost between good and not as good, the way Mahkah saw it. He hardly ever saw evil in the world.
As his dragon flew past attacks on the ground, weaving through the various shots, they—dragon and rider—used their collective power to open up the Earth. This was Tala’s element, and he knew it better than any. The ground under the cyborgs began to quake. It split and they fell, sliding into a chasm that would swallow many of them, ending their attacks and making their deaths hopefully quick.
Chapter Sixty
This wasn’t how Sophia had planned for this battle to start. They were supposed to have the element of surprise, but regrets were about as useful as a bunch of pennies for a wishing well, so she let it go.
She was going to do what she did best and find out the strategy behind winning this whole thing. First, she needed to blast a bunch of pirate steampunk cyborgs, and by she, Sophia meant Lunis.
Several men cloaked in armor and wires and weapons faced her and Lunis as they neared the back of the warehouse, the dragon opened his mouth and unleashed fire unlike she’d ever seen him use before.
Sophia felt the rush of heat under her as it streamed through the blue dragon’s body and flew out of his mouth, catching the men and making many of them combust at once. They had to be fueled by something flammable she realized, watching as fiery men ran in different directions. She didn’t like what they were doing to them, but it was necessary.
That was part of war and conflict. More importantly, it was why the Dragon Elite did what they did. They presided over matters to make justice and peace happen to avoid further conflict. That was the hope anyway.
Many of the men on the ground darted away from the attack, but Sophia was proud to watch as her dragon swiveled his head around, sending fire at them. They either were hit or scattered toward the hills. As long as they kept as many away from the airplane hangar as possible, that was good news.
As Lunis neared the tarmac, Sophia dropped from her dragon when he was still twelve feet off the ground. He knew what she’d to do, and she knew he’d serve as cover for her. Without saying a word, without a telepathic message, they knew what each other was doing.
That was the beauty of soul mates.
Chapter Sixty-One
Evan wished he was Wilder. Not because he had great hair or dimples, although he would never say that to the dragonrider. It was because his dragon controlled the element of wind, which could have demolished the helicopters speeding toward him and Coral.
If the last one-hundred years had taught Evan anything, it was how to adapt. When the three aircraft raced in his direction, his dragon made a water main burst followed by a tank beside the airplane hangar to also explode.
This threw all three pilots off and gave Evan the advantage. Stealthily, he slipped up high in the air above the helicopters. Their guns were all pointed straight ahead. When the pilots brought their chins up, they realized what the moment of distraction had cost them.
Coral sent fire raining down on the helicopter to the right as Evan sent magical attacks to the other two. Like a baseball pitcher throwing for a batter, he threw one after another, assaulting the crafts and beating them closer to the ground with each assault. It was exhausting work neither dragon nor rider could keep up for long, but from the corner of Evan’s vision, he saw Sophia slip into the back of the airplane hangar. If they bought her time to find the dragon eggs, it was worth it.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Mahkah had nearly emptied the tarmac of all the enemies at the front of the airplane hangar. From a quick glance, he noticed Evan had a pretty good handle on the aircraft where were trying to make the most of him but thankfully failing.
They appeared to be making quick work of Trin Currante’s crew, which was surprising s
ince they hadn’t gotten the element of surprise they had been hoping for.
Several centuries of experience had taught Mahkah Tomahawk one thing—when you think you have the advantage, you’re dead wrong.
Just as there were no more enemies for him and Tala to bury into the earth, he saw Trin Currante inside the airplane hangar closing the door, just as Sophia slipped in through the back.
That wouldn’t have been enough to make him worry, except he noticed lasers streaking through the space. Lasers he had heard the janitor talk about when he’d questioned him during the reconnaissance mission. He’d said, “We have a security system here you don’t want to mess with. When put into action, it will fry you in place. No magic can defy it. That’s why it makes Medford Research great, well, besides we save nations from destruction.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
Sophia wasn’t sure why, but she giggled when she found the door at the back of the airplane hangar unlocked. She felt like she was winning.
She entered the airplane hangar and froze, hearing the door shut behind her.
“It’s locked now,” Trin Currante said, standing in front of her, feet shoulder-width apart and a strange crooked smile on her face.
A dozen feet divided them. And lasers. Many, many lasers.
Trin stood next to a plane whose engines were roaring like it was going to take off, but that seemed unlikely since the airplane hangar’s door was shut, closing the large bird inside the building.
If Sophia moved too much, she was sure she’d hit one of the lasers. Even from this distance, she guessed they wouldn’t simply trip an alarm. They were way past tripping alarms at this point. The villains knew they were there. These lasers were hot, and Sophia guessed they would burn her flesh off.
She stayed frozen, darting her eyes around to check out her options.
“What’s locked?” she dared to ask, knowing in this kind of position, the best thing to do was to get the enemy to talk to buy time. She needed that.
Trin Currante laughed, her mechanical eyes lighting up. She was such a strange thing to look at up close. Her hair was hers and yet not. It meshed with wires that moved as if controlled by an electrical current, and her face moved like a human’s with facial expressions, but there was a strange mechanical aspect to it. Trin Currante brilliantly pulled off acting human while also seeming robotic.
“The door you just came from,” Trin Currante said, stepping up on the stairs that disembarked from the airplane next to her, unfolded by an unseen pilot on the other side of the plane.
Sophia didn’t understand. Why were the plane’s motors going? Were they going to open the doors to the airplane hangar? She hoped the guys were there with their dragons ready to shoot fire at them. Then she realized she’d be at the epicenter of that attack.
Maybe not.
“So,” Sophia fired. “I don’t need to go anywhere.”
She knew Lunis could hear her and he was panicking, as he should be. Sophia couldn’t go through the door at her back. If she even flexed her hand, she ran the risk of hitting a fire-hot laser. She was stuck and facing a madwoman.
Please Lunis. Find an option, Sophia urged, realizing she had to do her part and stall.
“So, Trin Currante,” she began. “Why don’t you tell me about your childhood?”
Chapter Sixty-Four
There was only one thing clear for Lunis: He had to get Sophia back.
He’d destroy this place, Medford Research, even if they did altruistic work. He’d demolish everything around. He’d ruin their chances of finding the dragon eggs.
All that mattered—all that ever mattered was Sophia.
She had to know that.
Whether their lives were connected or not, Lunis was in love with his rider. As it should be, but it actually wasn’t.
Tala and Mahkah were bonded. Coral and Evan were partners. Wilder and Simi had a deep relationship built on trust and love. And Hiker and Bell were one of the same in many ways.
But Lunis…he unabashedly loved his rider Sophia.
He broke all restraints and bore not just into the minds of the dragons around him, but into their riders, coordinating an effort he hoped would free the girl locked inside the airplane hangar, imprisoned by lasers.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Stall, Sophia thought, looking around for options.
Trin Currante laughed. “Like I’d tell you anything. I have no plans to tell you what I have in store. But I’ll thank you, Sophia Beaufont, for giving me everything I needed to get there.”
“Me,” Sophia asked. “Don’t you mean the Dragon Elite?”
She shook her head of wires. “No, I mean you, my little rider. Without you, I wouldn’t be here, about to take my prize and get what I’ve worked so hard for.”
How could Sophia be responsible for this, she wondered, racking her brain. She was also hitting herself upside the head, wondering how she’d been led in to this, potentially ruining so much for the Dragon Elite.
“I’m sure I haven’t helped,” Sophia said. “I’m sort of a dimwit. Haven’t you heard I’m a new dragonrider? So green, I hardly know how to do anything of any use. Just ask Hiker Wallace!”
Trin Currante laughed. “You made it to the Great Library in record time and found it faster than most.”
“Yeah, but—”
A shock hit the warehouse, making Sophia nearly topple to the side into a set of red lasers.
Was that you? Sophia asked Lunis.
Well, Evan, but yes, he answered.
Nearly sawed off my arm, she protested. But thanks.
Sorry, he replied.
“Well, that seems like my alert to go,” Trin Currante remarked, boarding the stairs for the plane, which was still facing a closed hangar door. She waved, and half of her fingers were metal attachments. “See you later, Sophia. Thanks for helping me unbury that which will save me.”
Chapter Sixty-Six
Lunis had no idea how to save his rider. He could blow up the airplane hangar, but that would also blow Sophia up. He was panicking, but he’d done what he set out to do, and the others were recalculating, directing their efforts to save Sophia.
He watched as Mahkah and Tala changed directions, heading for the back of the airplane hangar.
Soon, Evan was heading for them too, no longer having to battle with aircraft.
The two riders slid off their dragons and ran for the door Sophia had entered. Never before had Lunis felt such love for the dread headed Evan when he pulled out a pocket knife.
“I nicked this off Sophia, and was looking to use it,” he said proudly.
To Lunis’ surprise, the pocket knife was the one Subner had given her, the one with the glass slipper engraved on it.
Lunis normally would have scorched Evan for such a thing, but right then, he was so grateful the little heathen had been a conniving thief. At the end of the day, Evan was good through and through. Lunis knew by how he worked fast to try and undo the lock imprisoning Sophia. No one wanted her to die in that building. Anyone who knew Sophia Beaufont, really knew her, knew she was worth saving.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
“Oh, just so you know,” Trin Currante commented after ducking into the jet like she was checking on something and then retreating back out. “This whole place is set to blow when my plane leaves. So even if you don’t touch the lasers, it’s still…BOOM. You’ll die and your friends trying to save you on the other side of that door probably will too. I had to use enough explosives to ensure none of my secrets got out there.”
She pointed to the door at Sophia’s back, where she’d heard tinkering.
“Thanks,” Sophia said dryly. “Do I get one more question?”
Trin Currante tilted her head to the side, like trying to consider. Finally she shrugged, her movements robotic. “Why not.”
“Why are you doing this?” Sophia asked, cutting past all the bullshit.
The woman who was mostly not human gave her an expression tha
t was purely human. “Because all I want is to be like you. Is that so wrong?”
There was unmistakable sadness in her face and so much more. Something that spoke to Sophia’s spirit, unlike any villain she’d encountered.
Sophia felt so much grief for Trin Currante and so much emotion for the predicament that seemed to have befallen her at the hand of Saverus Corporation. She also felt respect for the Medford Research organization. It was short-lived as Trin Currante cued a smile and grabbed the rails to the stairs of the plane.
“Anyway, I better be off,” Trin Currante stated. “I’m sorry for blowing you up and taking all your secrets and your dragon eggs, but a girl has to do what a girl has to do to become a girl once again. I’m sure you’ll understand in another life.”
As she boarded the plane and the stairs folded up behind her, the roof of the giant airplane hangar pulled back to show the clear Oregon sky. Sophia didn’t think much of it at first, knowing planes needed runways to take off.
Then, as if propelled by defying her thoughts, the plane Trin Currante was on rose up into the air like a helicopter, hovering just above the hangar before it zoomed off and raced away from Sophia and the building armed with bombs.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
“Don’t worry, guys,” Evan said, squinting as he turned the pocket knife in the lock, listening for the tell-tale sign it worked. “I’ve honed my lock picking skills hunting around the Castle. Quiet thinks I can’t pick his locks, but he’s wrong. I’ve found manual entries into places like the showers and the dungeon.”