by D J DuMont
Cayenne was already letting out a long stream of fire. Three of the other dragons in the group were breathing out fire as well. Two dragons were sending off streams of acid, and one dragon was shooting ice at the attackers. Willow felt Cayenne lurch beneath her as one of the enemy attacks hit the dragon hard. Willow shrieked and grabbed on tightly to her dragon’s back, terrified for a moment that she was going to lose her balance and go tumbling several thousand feet toward the forest floor below.
Luckily, she regained her balance. From then on, she held on with all her might and tried to lie as low as she could. The dragons and senior Agents seemed to be doing a decent job of handling the threat without Willow’s help, and Willow felt useless and inadequate as she clung to Cayenne’s back.
Just when it seemed that the Dragon Heart Agents had completely gained the upper hand, Willow heard the dragons starting to roar in distress. Alarmed by the noise, she looked over at the horizon and felt a wave of nausea wash over her.
Another group of attackers was coming, this one larger than the first. As they drew closer, Willow could see that they were surrounding a man who appeared to be some sort of leader. He was zooming through the air using a jetpack just as the rest were, but he had much heavier armor on. And he held a large black weapon that looked like some sort of futuristic gun. When he raised his face and sneered in their direction, Willow saw a series of dark, angry scars crisscrossing his cheeks. His eyes were a deep black color, and were so bloodshot that there was almost no white visible. Willow shuddered. Even though she had never seen the man before, she knew he was Stein Viker, the leader of the Dark Sparks.
This was the man responsible for all of the anguish she had suffered over the last few years, wondering where her father was or if he was even alive. This was the man responsible for an attack on the White House last year. And Willow knew without a doubt that this was the man responsible for the President’s assassination today.
Her blood ran cold as she watched him raise the gun and point it toward one of the dragons. When he fired, some sort of swirling blue light came rushing out of the gun. When the blue light hit the dragon he’d aimed at, that dragon howled in pain. The two Dragon Heart Agents on the dragon’s back nearly lost their balance, and the dragon went diving down toward the earth, barely able to hold steady. Stein raised the strange gun again, and fired at another dragon. That dragon also had no choice but to fly toward earth for an emergency crash landing.
Apparently, whatever this gun was shooting out was able to penetrate even through dragon hide. The lead Dragon Heart Agent seemed to realize this at that moment as well, and he started shouting out something about trying an alternative shield spell, and making sure that the shield covered the dragons. Willow had never heard of the spell he was talking about, but she tried to cast it anyway.
She yelled out the word “integumentum” as the Agent had instructed, but nothing happened. Panicking, she tried again. Still nothing. Her heart pounded in her chest as she tried to pull Cayenne back behind the remaining Dragon Heart Agents. Willow wouldn’t be able to bear it if anything happened to Cayenne. That dragon was one of her best friends.
The Dragon Heart Agents formed a line of defense in front of her, and fought bravely. Most of the Dark Sparks fighters were taken down easily, but Stein was another story. His armor seemed to protect him from every magical attack the Dragon Hearts threw at him. The dragons were dodging the attacks from Stein’s gun, but Willow could tell they were getting tired. They couldn’t outrun that strange blue light forever.
Willow tried not to think about what would happen if the Dragon Heart Agents couldn’t keep her safe. Would she be taken prisoner along with her dad? That thought spurred her into action.
Her dad needed her. If she was captured, she wouldn’t be able to fight for him. And if this summer had taught her anything, it was that no one was as committed to finding her dad as she was. He had been the best Dragon Heart Agent of modern times, but that didn’t stop Dragon Heart leadership from constantly suggesting that the search for him be called off. Willow knew that the Agency had a lot on its plate right now, but she didn’t care. In her opinion, finding her dad was the most important thing. Whatever evil power was out there, trying to take over the country, finding her dad would help the Dragon Heart Agency overcome that evil.
Willow took a deep breath, gathered all her strength, and raised her magic ring. In a loud voice, she shouted out the most advanced attack spell she knew. Anjali, her teacher and mentor at the Dragon Heart Academy of Magic, had mentioned once during a lecture that the Invado spell was one of the most effective attack spells for fighting off enemies. Anjali had also mentioned that it was one of the most difficult spells to accomplish, but Willow wasn’t going to let that small detail stop her. Not now, when so much of her future, and the future of her father, depended on her getting away from Stein.
“Invado!” she yelled. Nothing happened. She closed her eyes, did her best to concentrate only on channeling her magical energy into her ring, and then tried again.
“Invado!”
This time, it worked. The force of the spell shooting out from her ring knocked Willow backwards. She hit her head, hard, on Cayenne’s back.
Groaning in pain, Willow sat up again as quickly as she could manage, already raising her ring to try again. But the words for the spell froze in her throat as she looked around in shock. She wasn’t sure what, exactly, the spell did. But she was sure of one thing: the spell had worked. Several of the enemy attackers had gone spiraling toward the ground. The rest seemed to be retreating, flying away in terror. Stein was yelling at them to come back, his scarred face twisting into the angriest expression Willow had ever seen. But no one was listening, and Stein had no choice but to turn and follow his cowardly group. With an angry yell, Stein whipped around and started flying off. The Dragon Heart Agents tried to launch parting attacks at him, but his armor seemed to still protect him well. He growled angrily, but sped away unharmed.
A few of the Dragon Heart Agents tried to chase him, but the lead Dragon Heart Agent yelled after them to stop.
“No, let them go. Our top priority right now is to protect Willow. We need to get her to Birch Point before anyone else attacks us.”
“Not that she needs our help,” said another one of the Agents, turning his dragon around to face Willow. His face had an expression of awe. “I’ve never seen anyone still in training launch an Invado spell. Heck, a lot of Agents with a decade of experience still can’t do that.”
Willow blushed and shrugged. She looked away, trying to act like what she had done was no big deal. In truth, she had no idea how she had pulled it off. She still wasn’t even sure exactly what the Invado spell did. The force of it knocking her backwards had prevented her from seeing what sort of power was actually coming out of her magic ring.
But as soon as Willow looked away, she wished she hadn’t. Her gaze landed exactly on the spot where Stein Viker was retreating, and he turned around just as she looked. His eyes met hers, and he held her gaze for a moment. His lips curled up in an angry sneer, and he pointed a finger back directly at her.
Willow felt a fresh chill run through her body. She knew what that look and pointed finger meant. It meant Stein had seen her. He knew she was responsible for the failure of his attack today, and he would not forget.
Willow shuddered again, and looked away.
Chapter Three
The rest of the flight to Birch Point Academy was uneventful. Willow kept looking over her shoulder, expecting to see Stein racing back toward them in anger. But no one followed the group of Agents as they made their way over the Maine Wilderness. The two dragons that had gone down in the woods followed behind at a slower pace. Their wounds were not fatal, but they would need medical attention. Luckily for them, one of the best dragon caretakers in the world lived at Birch Point Academy. Sam Fullmer managed the dragon stables, and Willow knew he would get the two wounded dragons back to normal in no time.
&nbs
p; When Willow finally caught sight of Birch Point Academy and its attached Dragon Heart Academy of Magic, tears filled her eyes. Embarrassed, she tried to blink them away, but it was useless. The sight of the place where she had spent the last school year, had learned that magic and dragons exist, and had discovered that her father was still alive, filled her with overwhelming joy. When Cayenne landed on the soft grass outside the dragon stables, Willow couldn’t keep herself from running up to Sam and giving him a big hug.
Sam, who had a quiet, gruff personality, coughed uncomfortably at Willow’s sudden display of affection. But Willow didn’t care one bit that she’d embarrassed him. She was so happy to be home.
And for her, Dragon Heart Academy was home.
Her mother didn’t have much time for her these days. Since Willow’s father disappeared, Willow’s mother hadn’t wanted her around. Willow had the feeling that she reminded her mother too much of her father. Whatever the reason, it had been torture for Willow to spend all summer living at her mother’s place, never knowing when she was going to say or do something that would upset her mother.
Here, at the Dragon Heart Academy of Magic, Willow was still certain to upset people now and then. But at least she would know why she’d upset them.
“You’re to report directly to Anjali’s office,” Sam said, once he’d managed to regain his composure.
Willow stuck out her lower lip in a pout. “But I wanted to brush Cayenne down and get her some food.”
“I’ll take care of Cayenne,” Sam said in a firm tone. “Trust me on this one. You don’t want to make Anjali wait any longer than necessary. I’ve never seen her quite so upset. The President’s assassination hit her hard.”
Willow frowned, and reluctantly turned to give Cayenne a goodbye pat on the neck.
“I’ll see you soon, girl,” she said, then turned to begin the walk toward the main Dragon Heart Academy building. The main building was located a good distance away from the stables, and Willow would need to take a winding path through thick forest to get there. Almost immediately, one of the Dragon Heart Agents stepped forward to walk with her.
“I’ll keep an eye on you until you’re in the safety of the main building,” the Agent said.
Willow’s frown deepened. “I don’t need a babysitter. I can make it over to the main building by myself just fine, thanks.”
The Agent shrugged. “We have orders not to let you out of our sight until you’re safely in Anjali’s custody.”
Willow could not believe how ridiculous the Dragon Heart Agents were acting. She could understand that they had wanted to keep an eye on her for the long trip from the airport to the academy, and that had admittedly turned out to be a good move. Willow was glad they had been there with her, even if her own Invado spell had been what ultimately saved the day. But the Dragon Heart Academy itself was one of the safest places on earth. Master Dragon Heart Agents had cast protective spells over every corner of this place.
But Willow didn’t have the energy to argue with the Agents right now, so she shrugged and turned to walk toward the main building. If they wanted to waste their time following her, then so be it.
Willow began walking briskly down the long path through thick forest that would take her to where Anjali was waiting. The forest didn’t let much light in through the trees’ thick branches, making it rather dark even in the middle of the day. Willow didn’t mind, though. In fact, she was glad for the chance to have some relative peace and quiet. The Agent following her didn’t try to speak with her, so Willow was happily left alone with her thoughts.
That’s when it really sunk in that the President had been killed. Willow shivered despite the warmth of the day, and quickened her step, suddenly eager to hear what Anjali had to say. She just hoped Anjali would actually tell her and her fellow trainees the truth about what had happened. As a Master Dragon Heart Agent, and as head of one of the magic schools, Anjali seemed to always have inside information on what was going on in the world of magic—but she wasn’t always willing to share that information. Sometimes, Willow and the other students had to really pry it out of her.
When Willow reached the front door of the main building for the Dragon Heart Academy of Magic, the Agent who had been following her saluted and turned to leave. Willow breathed a sigh of relief. It felt good to be truly on her own for a few moments, and she’d been worried that the Agent wouldn’t leave her until she was actually in Anjali’s presence. Apparently, the safety of the main building was good enough.
And no wonder. The entire campus of the Dragon Heart Academy of Magic was like a fortress, but the main building was even more secure than the rest of the grounds. It had practically every protective spell possible cast over it, and the walls themselves had been built with stones that were specially designed to conduct magic easily. This meant that the protective spells had an even greater effect than normal.
Willow ran her hands along one of those walls as she walked toward the main conference room. The stones were cool and smooth, and Willow could feel them vibrating with magical energy. It was good to be home.
When she stepped into the main conference room, the view suddenly changed again. This room was modern, with long, desk-like tables and a big projector screen at the front. The room was also currently occupied by the other three Dragon Heart trainees in Willow’s class.
“Willow!” shrieked a girl with wavy brown hair and deep olive skin.
Willow’s face broke out into a wide smile. “Sylvie!”
She ran to embrace her friend Sylvie Asher, whom she hadn’t seen since school let out for the summer. For one brief moment, everything was right with the world. But only for a moment. Even being reunited with a good friend could not change the heaviness that hung in the air. Hard times were coming—Willow had no doubts about that.
Chapter Four
Sylvie must have spent a good portion of the summer in the sun, because her skin looked even more tanned than usual. Her dark brown eyes sparkled as she pulled back to look at Willow.
“It’s so good to see you. I want to hear all about your summer. How was it working for the C.I.A.?”
Willow shrugged. “Not as exciting as you might think.”
Willow had spent the entire summer as an intern for the C.I.A. She had, of course, been working in the Dragon Heart division of the Agency, and it had been an eye-opening experience for her. She’d learned more than she thought possible about what the Dragon Heart Agents were doing all over the world. The Agents were sent to protect important government officials and to thwart attacks against the United States, and hearing about their adventures had been like hearing about the latest spy novel. But Willow herself had not been a part of any of those adventures.
Her job over the summer had been to sit behind a computer and comb through endless pages of notes on instances of unexpected magical activity. The Dragon Heart Agency constantly monitored news reports and other sources of information for any strange occurrences that sounded like they might be related to magic. These strange occurrences were almost always the result of some fluke coincidences, not of magical activity. But they had to be checked out, just in case. One of the Dragon Heart Agency’s greatest fears was an enemy organization gaining magical power.
With the discovery of the Dark Sparks last June, the threat of enemy magic was growing stronger than ever. Willow and her friends had discovered the existence of the Dark Sparks during the test mission they had been sent on in order to complete their first year of magical training. The Dark Sparks, led by Stein, didn’t have magical power—yet. But they knew magic existed, and were trying everything in their power to get it. In fact, Willow had learned that her father had been kidnapped by them, because Stein was trying to use him as a guinea pig to figure out how magic worked. So far, though, Stein hadn’t cracked the secrets of magic.
Willow grimaced as she thought of all the suffering her father was going through at the hands of Stein and his men. She’d spent her whole summer trying
to follow every thread of magical activity in the hopes that it would lead her to her father. But so far, Stein was doing a good job of hiding him. Despite countless hours of paging through notes, Willow was no closer now to finding out where her father was being held captive.
“What’s wrong?” Sylvie asked, breaking into Willow’s thoughts.
Willow dragged her thoughts back to the present moment and forced a smile onto her face. “Nothing. Just thinking about how hard I worked this summer, and how I found nothing.”
“Nothing?” Sylvie asked, her eyes widening. “I was hoping when I didn’t hear from you much that it meant you were too busy tracking down your dad to send little old me any emails.”
Willow grimaced again. “Yeah, sorry. I guess I wasn’t very communicative this summer. I was busy, but it was all for nothing. We still don’t have any new information on where my dad is, and the Dark Sparks are getting stronger every day.”
A loud snort of laughter came from across the room. “Of course you don’t have any new information. Did anyone really think any progress would be made with you in charge of the search?”
Willow turned to glare at the source of the laughter. “Hello, Locke. Nice to see you, too.”
Locke Nash laughed in response, leaning back as far in his chair as he possibly could without tipping over backwards. “Hello, Willow. Have a nice summer? I sure did. Unlike you, I actually accomplished something. I worked with my father to get a head start on medical magic. Don’t be surprised when I’m the best in the class at healing spells.”
“Medical magic?” Willow asked.
Locke rolled his eyes. “Yes, medical magic. It’s one of our courses this semester. We’re going to be studying the different healing and emergency first aid spells. Seriously, have you even looked at your syllabus?”