by D J DuMont
But if it wasn’t an inside job, then how had anyone managed to get the information? Getting past Dragon Heart security would be almost as difficult as convincing a Dragon Heart Agent to commit treason. Nothing made sense here.
No wonder Anjali had been so on edge lately. All of the Dragon Heart Leadership was stumped by the assassination, and apparently the new President was losing patience. Willow wondered if the news that someone from the C.I.A. had been involved was true, or if the Dragon Heart Agency was just throwing out possibilities to make the President feel like they were actually working on the problem. The whole situation was so confusing.
“Are you okay?” Marcus asked, reaching over to give Willow a gentle punch in the arm. “I know your dad worked for the C.I.A. Are you worried it might have been someone you know?”
“Uh…” Willow wasn’t sure how to answer that question. She was worried about so many people, and so many things, all of which she was sworn to keep a secret. Luckily, before Marcus could press her for details, Alexis burst into the cafeteria.
“Alexis!” Willow said in surprise, waving at her friend. Willow felt a rush of happiness. Things had been so busy that it had been a while since she’d hung out with Alexis. Willow resolved to spend as much time as possible with both Marcus and Alexis over the next few weeks. Christmas break was fast approaching, and then the school year would be half-over. Willow didn’t want to let all of tenth grade go by without spending time with her non-magical friends.
Besides, why bother spending any more time with her Dragon Heart friends than she had to? None of them seemed to believe in her, not even Sylvie. All they saw when they looked at her was a failure who didn’t deserve the Golden Dragon Heart award. Willow guessed she couldn’t blame them. She hadn’t exactly acted like a Captain. But what did people expect? The whole C.I.A. was in chaos, and the Dragon Heart Agency itself might not exist in a year. Willow was just one student. She certainly couldn’t be expected to fix all of this, and how could she be expected to act like a leader when the top Dragon Heart Agents themselves weren’t stepping up to the plate and stopping Stein and the Dark Sparks from wreaking havoc on the country?
Willow knew the Dark Sparks were behind this, and she knew they were behind the attacks on the magic shields. But if no one wanted to believe her, then she wasn’t going to fight them on that. She would spend her time with people who did care about her and did believe she was worth their friendship. With a broad smile, Willow got up to give Alexis a hug.
“You know the cafeteria is closed, right?” Willow asked.
Alexis laughed. “Yes, I know. I can’t find my World Literature book, and I thought maybe I left it in here after dinner.”
“Ugh, have you read that literature assignment?” Marcus asked. “It makes no sense to me.”
Marcus and Alexis started discussing the assignment, both ranting about how it was a waste of time to have to read it. Willow settled into her chair and smiled wider. This was what it felt like to be a normal teenager. All you had to worry about were homework assignments, not presidential assassinations and villains who wanted to steal magical abilities to take over the world. The news report droned on in the background, but Marcus and Alexis didn’t seem to notice it anymore. They were too worried about their own small world to be concerned about what was going on in the world at large.
Yeah, I could get used to this. Maybe I’ll just do the bare minimum at the Dragon Heart Academy and spend all of my spare time with these guys, being normal.
Feeling happier than she had in quite some time, Willow jumped right into the conversation about the horrible literature assignment. If the Dragon Hearts didn’t want her, then she didn’t want them.
Their loss.
Chapter Sixteen
The winter holiday break came and went. Like last year, Willow spent the holidays with Alexis and her family on the West Coast. Willow’s mother, who didn’t particularly enjoy spending time with Willow, was happy to let Willow go away to California again for the holidays. The time was relaxing, and Willow often didn’t even bother to wear her magic ring when she was running around San Francisco with Alexis. Last year, she’d been so worried about giving away the fact that she was a wizard. This year, she herself almost forgot at times that she was a wizard. She was fully embracing her quest to be “normal.”
She was also embracing her friendship with Marcus. Even though he spent his Christmas holidays with family in Florida—about as far away from California as he could have gotten without leaving the country—he and Willow texted constantly. Alexis teased Willow that she should just make it official and call Marcus her boyfriend, but Willow only rolled her eyes at the boyfriend comments. Willow wasn’t sure she was ready to be that much of a normal teenager yet. Besides, her friendship with Marcus was going great as it was. Why mess that up by putting labels on it?
Willow came back to school in January tanned and happy, and determined not to think about anything related to the Dragon Heart Academy unless absolutely necessary. The investigation into whether she was responsible for the cracks in the magic shield still hadn’t happened, and Willow was beginning to think that Anjali had forgotten about it. Maybe, with everything else going on, Anjali had come to her senses and realized that there was no way someone as bad at magic as Willow was could have managed to crack a magical shield as secure as the one Anjali had created. Willow considered herself lucky and vowed to avoid Anjali, Sam, and the other Dragon Heart Agents as much as possible.
Sylvie did not take kindly to this avoidance. The second day back from break, she confronted Willow in their dorm room.
“What is up with you?”
Willow frowned and crossed her arms. “What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. You’ve been avoiding me since before Christmas break. You hardly participate in any Dragon Heart activities, and you spend all your free time with Marcus and Alexis. It’s like I don’t even exist anymore. I thought we were best friends.”
“Yeah, well, I prefer to spend my time with people who don’t accuse me of breaking a magic shield I didn’t break.”
“I wasn’t saying you did it on purpose. I just thought maybe you did a spell that you didn’t realize would actually break it.”
Willow scowled. “I’m not an idiot, Sylvie. Those shields are so thick that they’re practically impenetrable by even the toughest, most talented of wizards. They aren’t something you ‘accidentally’ break. I don’t know how or why there was a crack in them, but all of you are wasting your time by pointing fingers at me. Not only that, but you’re letting the real culprit get away with it.”
“Willow, no one knows how to do magic except the Dragon Heart Agents. And no Dragon Heart Agent would purposefully come out here and mess with the shield.”
Willow shrugged. “That’s what you think. Haven’t you listened to the news over the last few weeks? The C.I.A. itself was apparently behind the assassination back in August.”
“Those are just rumors.”
“Open your eyes, Sylvie. Something is wrong in the ranks of the Dragon Heart Agents. Someone is causing trouble, and it’s not me. I’m upset that you would even think that.”
Sylvie looked ashamed for a moment, but only a moment. Then her face hardened into a frown. Sylvie had always been such an optimist that it was strange to Willow to even see a frown on her face, but that frown only deepened as the seconds ticked by. Finally, Sylvie shook her head and gave Willow a look of disgust.
“No, I guess you’re right. You’re not the person causing trouble. You know how I know that? Because you’re not doing anything.”
Willow raised an eyebrow at Sylvie. “And what is that supposed to mean?”
Sylvie snorted. “It means exactly that: you’re not doing anything. You’re supposed to be the captain of our group, but you don’t spend any time with us at all. You barely show up to class, and you don’t seem to pay much attention while you’re there. It’s like you’re going through the motions and ha
te even being in the Dragon Hearts.”
Willow gritted her teeth, trying to control her anger. “Maybe I do, Sylvie. What has being a Dragon Heart even done for me? I lost my father to a Dragon Heart mission, and now the Agency doesn’t even want to continue the search for him. Everyone expects me to be good at magic like he apparently was, but no matter how hard I work I can’t seem to get better. So why try? And you know I never wanted that stupid Golden Dragon Heart Award. Locke can have it for all I care. If he’s so great, let him be captain. What does that even mean, anyway? Captain? Of what? Anjali and Sam are in charge here. There’s no reason for a student captain when we can’t make any of our own decisions, anyway. We’re all just puppets in their little game.”
“That’s not true! We might not have a lot of freedom yet, because we’re only students. But they work hard to give us choices where they can.”
Willow rolled her eyes. “Don’t delude yourself, Sylvie. They keep us under control as much as possible. They freak out if we even go see the dragons outside of class hours.”
Sylvie had not completely lost her optimism, it seemed, because she was quick to put a positive spin on things. “It’s a special situation, Willow. They have to be stricter than usual because of the assassination. I’m sure once that’s all sorted out, things will get back to normal.”
“Normal? Ha. I’ll tell you what’s normal: not having to hide half your life from everyone, including your own mother. Not having to worry that you’ll never see your dad again because he’s been captured by some crazy psycho who wants to steal his magical powers. And not having to lose your best friend because she thinks you broke through a magic shield. That’s normal. And the Dragon Heart Academy of Magic will never be normal.”
With that, Willow grabbed her backpack and started to storm out of the room.
“Willow, wait!”
But Willow didn’t bother turning around. She took off running for the rec center, thankful that today was a Sunday and she could sit there all day if she wanted. It would be nice to be around some friends who really were “normal.” Maybe she would text Alexis and Marcus and ask if they wanted to come study with her. Willow wouldn’t mind getting a head start on this semester’s work, and she could order pizza later. Willow knew that Sylvie was irritated with Alexis, too. Alexis had tried not to take sides in the ever-growing rift between Willow and Sylvie, but because Willow was spending more time than ever on the Birch Point side of campus, it was only natural that Alexis was hanging out with Willow more than with Sylvie.
As Willow had hoped, Alexis and Marcus were happy to hang out with her. They spent their day studying, talking, and laughing—but mostly laughing. Willow did her best not to think about her dad, the Dragon Heart Agency, or Sylvie. She had succeeded pretty well in feeling normal, until she saw Sylvie walk into the rec center accompanied by Locke and Cara.
Sylvie was laughing at something Cara had said, but the laughter died in her throat when her eyes met Willow’s. For a long moment, both of them looked at each other, the hurt plainly visible on both of their faces.
How could you hang out with Alexis without inviting me? Sylvie’s eyes seemed to say. But Willow wanted to know how Sylvie could be so casually hanging out with Locke and Cara. Locke and Cara had treated Willow like dirt from the moment all of them had started at the Dragon Heart Academy last year. Sylvie herself had been at the brunt of many of Locke’s and Cara’s rude comments about how students from families full of Dragon Heart Agents were better than those whose family had no Agents or only a few. But Willow had taken the most heat from Locke and Cara—especially from Locke. Locke constantly berated Willow for being the least-talented Agent. He found any reason to make fun of her, most likely because he was jealous. No matter how long of a line of Dragon Heart Agents he came from, he still did not have the distinction of being the child of the best Dragon Heart Agent of modern times. That honor belonged to Willow, and he was insanely jealous of her for it.
Marcus was oblivious to the sudden tension in the room, but Alexis noticed it right away and fell silent. Then, perhaps thinking that the best way to fix the situation was to act super-friendly to Sylvie, Alexis waved at her.
“Hey, Sylvie! Want to come join us? We’re going to order pizza in a few minutes.”
Sylvie hesitated, and Willow couldn’t resist making a snide comment. “Looks like you don’t want to leave your new besties, huh?”
Locke heard and rolled his eyes. He couldn’t say much here, in front of all the Birch Point students. But his eyes said enough. Willow knew he was thinking that Sylvie had made a smart choice in hanging out with Cara and him instead of with a loser like Willow. Willow felt a familiar, burning anger bubbling up within her. She hated that smirk that Locke always had on his face, and she hated Sylvie for hanging out with someone as condescending as him. She realized that she had no right to be angry, when she herself had all but abandoned Sylvie. But still, she felt angry.
Sylvie glanced around the room while nervously chewing her lower lip. Willow knew her well enough to know that she was probably worried about making a scene in front of everyone here. Sylvie was overly conscious of drawing attention to herself while on the Birch Point campus, for fear that someone would get suspicious and learn something about the Dragon Heart Academy. But Willow didn’t care about making a scene right now. The anger within her was rising, and bubbling over. Ever since her father had gone missing, she’d been growing angrier and angrier, for a variety of reasons. Now, she felt like that anger was about to explode—and if it did, Sylvie was going to get caught in the crossfire.
Sylvie quickly crossed the room so that she was standing close enough to Willow to speak to her in a low tone. Without looking at Alexis or Marcus, Sylvie pointed an accusing finger at Willow.
“Don’t you make remarks like that! I don’t have new besties. But since you’ve abandoned me and taken Alexis with you, I have no choice but to find someone else to spend time with.”
“I haven’t abandoned you—” Alexis started to say. But before she could go on, Sylvie glared at her and Alexis shut up.
“You know why I haven’t wanted to spend time with you,” Willow hissed. “I don’t want anything to do with being accused of… of…that.”
Marcus was starting to look concerned. “Hey, guys, let’s just take a step back and chill out. There’s no reason we can’t all hang out together.”
“Yes, there is,” Sylvie said without looking at Marcus. She kept her eyes firmly on Willow, and Willow glared right back at her. Willow felt a little badly for Marcus. He knew even less than Alexis about the fact that Willow and Sylvie were involved in something strange. All Marcus knew was that Willow wasn’t allowed to leave campus for some reason that she refused to talk about. He’d pressed her for details once and she’d told him she couldn’t talk about it and it would be better for both of them if he didn’t try to figure it out. He hadn’t been happy with that explanation, but he had accepted it.
“You’re right,” Willow spat out in Sylvie’s direction. “There is a reason we can’t hang out. I don’t hang out with traitors.”
“I’m the traitor? You’re the one giving up on…on us. On everything we stand for. If you hate it so much then quit!” Sylvie’s voice was rising now, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Marcus looking back and forth between the two of them.
“Hey, guys, come on,” Marcus tried to say. Willow and Sylvie both ignored him.
“If you don’t want me to be a part of it, anyway, then why are you so mad that I’m never around,” Willow spat out.
Cara spoke out from across the room then. “Hey, Sylvie, I think we should find somewhere else to hang out.”
But Sylvie ignored her. “I thought you were my friend, Willow!” She was yelling at the top of her lungs by this point. “But you can’t even handle it when I try to be honest with you about things, or ask you honest questions about what happened.”
“Hey, settle down. What are you guys even talking a
bout?” Marcus asked, bewilderment in his face.
Willow could no longer contain her rage. She jumped to her feet, put her face right in Sylvie’s face, and pointed a finger at Sylvie’s chest. Willow ignored the shocked looks on the faces of all the students around them, and screamed at Sylvie at the top of her lungs. “You’re the one who accuses me of lying and then expects me to just shake it off!”
Before Sylvie could reply, a sudden, unnatural boom sounded in the room. In the next moment, the lights all went out, and then the earth below Willow’s feet started swaying. The boom repeated itself over and over, as did the swaying. Willow lost her balance and fell to the earth, confused and frightened. All around her, people were shrieking in terror. The only light Willow could see was from her purple magic ring, which was glowing and sending off sparks of fiery light. Willow didn’t understand what was going on, but she had the sudden, strange thought that she was about to die.
This was how she would spend the last few minutes of her life: being tossed about in the darkness after a horrible fight with her best friend. All Willow could think in that moment was that life felt horribly unfair, and not at all magical. If her father was here, he would probably know what to do. But he wasn’t here, and Willow was on her own.
Chapter Seventeen
It was not until someone screamed out “Earthquake!” that Willow had some idea of what was actually happening. The whole building swayed violently, and more students started screaming about an earthquake. Willow held on to the side of the couch she’d been sitting on just a minute ago, and tried to make sense of the situation. An earthquake? In Maine? This area wasn’t exactly known for earthquakes, was it?
And then, in the darkness, Willow felt strong arms scooping her up. At first, she thought it was Marcus. But when the light from her magic ring, which was the only light in the room, hit the face of her would-be rescuer, she saw to her shock that it was Locke.