Dragon's Awakening (Heir of Dragons: Book 1)

by Sean Fletcher

  You’re useless now. Can’t save your friend if you don’t have any powers, little dragon-kin.

  Kaylee growled in frustration and threw the curtains shut. She tried summoning lightning. Then claws, ears, feet, even a storm. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. All gone. Her magic was all gone.

  The voices downstairs were fading away now. Kaylee forced herself to calm down.

  Magic or not, she couldn’t stand here feeling sorry for herself. Edwin needed them and any second, Lesuvius could be performing the spell.

  But he needed me for it, didn’t he? That’s what Brendan had said.

  Kaylee allowed herself a small smile. If Lesuvius had been planning on using Kaylee to power his Dragon Moon spell then he had screwed up royally in the planning department. She wouldn’t be using any magic for a little while. Certainly not in time for him to succeed.

  Kaylee hurried downstairs. For a brief moment her world spun as she hit the bottom step, but she calmed her breathing and pushed through the nausea. She emerged in the main entryway just as Alastair was coming out of the study with Mr. and Mrs. Azuma on his heels.

  “—get the rest of the Protectors and Merlins with me. We’ll take the western side and make sure none get out that way. I want all Tamers close by their dragon-kin until the Dragon Moon has passed, no exceptions.”

  Mrs. Azuma noticed her standing there. “Kaylee! You—You should still be in bed!”

  “I’m fine, Mrs. Azuma. Where’s Jade?”

  “Right here.” Jade came out of the study. When she hugged Kaylee it was harder than usual. “I was so, so worried!”

  “We both were,” Maddox said behind her. He didn’t look good. His hair was a disheveled mess, his eyes ringed slightly red as if he had tried to rub any tears away before they fell.

  “Jade told me they got Edwin,” he said simply. “And I wasn’t there to stop them.”

  “We’ve told you already, Maddox, you can’t blame yourself,” Mr. Azuma said.

  “Edwin’s alive,” Kaylee added. “I know it. Are you going to get him?” She asked Alastair. He’d rolled his suit sleeves up like he meant business.

  “We believe we’ve located where the Slayers will be performing their spell. I’ve called both Scarsdale Convocations to assist us. Meanwhile, you will stay here with Jade and Maddox until you recover your powers. It’s too risky for you to be moving locations until then.”

  “We’ve told your parents you spent the night with Jade at our house,” Mrs. Azuma said. “And tonight is the Fall Festival play your brother is in so they shouldn’t worry too much.”

  “Graham, Kim, please oversee the final preparations,” Alastair said. “I’ll be out in a moment.”

  Mr. and Mrs. Azuma nodded and left.

  “What about you?” Kaylee said to Alastair. “You lost your powers too. Shouldn’t you be staying put?”

  “I have other skills that do not rely on my connection to magic. You, however, are to stay here—”

  “But I want to help find Edwin—”

  “Please, sir,” Maddox said. “I should have been with him. Let me hel—”

  “No!” Alastair barked. He glared at all of them. “This is not a debate! You’ve caused enough trouble for a lifetime, all of you. Maddox,” he said in a gentler tone, “nobody expects you to be around Edwin twenty-four/seven. Especially when he is determined to throw himself into danger at every waking opportunity.”

  “He was doing it for you!” Kaylee said.

  Alastair’s eyes narrowed. “What on Earth are you talking about?”

  “Haven’t you seen how much better he’s gotten at magic? The last few months the only thing Edwin’s been obsessed with is stopping the Slayers. He wants to help the Convocation and he wants you to see that. But you haven’t even noticed!”

  “Kaylee, I’ve been immensely busy—”

  “Sir?” A woman in a black combat suit craned her head around the front door. “We’re ready.”

  “On my way,” Alastair said, snapping his suit. He gave them one final warning look. “You will stay here.”

  Then he swept out into the gathering dark.

  “This sucks,” Kaylee said.

  “Biggest understatement ever,” Maddox said, sprawled on the couch across from her, one arm flopped over his eyes. Beside him, Jade tore off pieces of paper from a magazine and flicked them into the fire.

  “You feel okay?” Jade asked her. “I mean, without your magic.”

  “Fine. Just tired. And pissed. I thought Edwin was exaggerating about Alastair but the guy really does think Edwin’s useless.”

  “Not useless,” Maddox said. “He just doesn’t want anyone to get hurt again like—”

  He paused.

  “Edwin told me,” Kaylee said. “He tried a big spell and got some people injured.”

  “Yeah. Could have happened to any Merlin. But Edwin wasn’t quite ready—he’s always been jumping into things he wasn’t ready for, if you haven’t noticed—and that mistake kind of broke him. Alastair sent him to Baba and he hasn’t really risked trying anything since.”

  Jade tore her paper down to the last fleck. Maddox tossed his arm off with a groan and sat up.

  “Why does Edwin have to be so stupid? Seriously, why would he think he needed to go in and get the meteorite instead of just leaving it where it was?”

  “He said he wanted to be sure to stop the spell,” Kaylee said.

  “By himself? Seriously, he’s been acting even crazier than normal lately—”

  Jade coughed. Her eyes flickered Kaylee’s direction for a second. Maddox shut his mouth.

  “Look, the Convocation will find him,” Jade said. “He’ll be just fine and we won’t have to worry at all.”

  “Where were they headed?” Kaylee said.

  “Alastair didn’t say, but I heard some of the Protectors whispering about the Slag Heap.”

  Kaylee looked up sharply. “The Slayers wouldn’t be at the Slap Heap.”

  “That’s where they thought they would be,” Jade said with a shrug.

  “No, no, no.” Kaylee stood and started pacing. The movement jolted her sluggish mind back into action. “They’re wrong. The Slayers would need somewhere way more secluded. The Slag Heap will still have people going back, even after the ravens, and it’s pretty well known to everybody within the Convocation. They’d need somewhere isolated, with no reason for anyone to be there.”

  “Sit down, Kaylee,” Jade said. “Just…breathe or something. Even if he isn’t there we’re not going to be the ones to find him.”

  “Um…” Maddox said.

  Jade gave him a sharp look. “We’re not—”

  “Maybe you’re not, but if Kaylee thinks she knows where they are then I have to try. If anything, Kaylee should stay here until she gets—”

  “Don’t,” Kaylee said, holding up a hand. “Just don’t.”

  Jade looked between them disbelievingly. “Really? Really?”

  “I’m just telling you what I’m doing,” Maddox said. “You don’t have to come along.”

  “I have literally the stupidest friends,” Jade said, sitting back on the couch with a huff. “Where would we even look? And what would Alastair say?”

  “He wouldn’t know,” Maddox said. “All we have to do is find them, sneak in and get Edwin out. Easy.”

  “Sure. Easy. Easy just like the last time we came across a whole group of Slayers.”

  “Hopefully easier than that.”

  “It’s still dumb.”

  “Well you’re dumb.”

  “That’s a terrible comeback.”

  “Well you’re a terrible—”

  Kaylee clapped. She had just thought of a place. And it would be just like Brendan to suggest the Slayers do it there. He was a slimeball like that.

  “I know where they’ve taken him.”

  Chapter Thirty

  The Clydesdale farm’s historical barn looked about the same as Kaylee remembered: A hollow husk of burnt timbers
, most of them somehow still standing. Outlined against the darkening sky it looked like a place just waiting for someone’s death.

  “You’re right. They would pick this, wouldn’t they?” Jade said from the back seat of Maddox’s van. “Apparently Brendan’s still sore about that rejection.”

  “Apparently,” Kaylee said.

  “No dice,” Maddox said as he ended a call. “No one from the Convocation is picking up.”

  “They don’t usually bring their cells on operations,” Jade said. “Magic sometimes messes with the signal so they’re mostly useless. Plus, remember when Angry Birds came out?”

  “Mission success rate dropped thirty percent,” Maddox said, nodding.

  Kaylee leaned forward to peer through the windshield. “I see a van parked out back. This is it.”

  “So what do we do now?” Jade said.

  “I know what I’m going to do,” Maddox said. He opened his door, pulled a small cylinder from his pocket, and pressed a button on the side of it. It expanded until it was over six feet long, tipped with a wicked-looking blade.

  “Uh, where did you get that?” Kaylee asked.

  “Wait.” Jade put a hand on Maddox’s arm before he stepped out. “You’re being stupid if you think you’re going to charge in and save him. We need stealth. And this.”

  She pulled her own sword from her pocket and expanded it to three feet of glittering steel sharpness.

  “Where did you get that?” Kaylee said.

  “Protector’s armory,” Jade said. “You should check it out. They have all kinds of neat stuff. Here.”

  She handed Kaylee a short knife with a blue-tinted blade. “Since I know that even if we tell you to stay here you’ll undoubtedly follow us in, the least you can do is be armed. Maddox, go to the trunk. I brought combat suits.”

  Maddox looked impressed. “You mean you stole combat suits. You know we don’t get those except for official missions.”

  “Pssht! Technicalities,” Jade said.

  A few minutes later, and after some berating from Jade (“Turn around, Maddox, I told you I’m changing!”) Maddox and Jade had fitted into the black suits Kaylee had seen the older Protector’s wearing.

  “And for you,” Maddox said, slipping a thin piece of body armor over Kaylee’s head. “Perfect fit.”

  Kaylee examined the fabric, then their combat suits.

  “I thought we were sneaking in, not fighting.”

  “No, we’re hoping we can sneak in without fighting. Big difference,” Maddox said. He gave one of the suit straps a final tug. “We’re good to go.”

  Jade was crouched in the ditch on the other side of the road.

  “What do we got?” Maddox said when they joined her.

  She scanned the side of the barn again. “No civilians. Obviously. Two Slayers out front. One on our side. I don’t see Edwin or Brendan anywhere. Most of the barn’s outer walls are burned but still mostly intact. Can’t see inside.”

  “Magical signatures?”

  “Negative. Sensing nothing.”

  “You can sense magic?” Kaylee said.

  Maddox pinched his fingers together.

  “A little. We’ve built up an acuity to it after working with the Convocation for so long.”

  “I wish you had the Eyes of Dragon, Kaylee,” Jade said. “One look and you could pick out anyone I’m missing.”

  “I promise it’ll be the next thing I learn,” Kaylee said. “If we make it through tonight.”

  Jade gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

  “I’ll make sure you’re fine. Otherwise I’d be a terrible Tamer.”

  “You are a terrible Tamer. And I’m a terrible dragon-kin.”

  Jade gave her a toothy grin. “True that. Follow me.”

  She took off into the grass with Kaylee close behind and Maddox bringing up the rear. They took a wide path around the parking lot, past the place where it felt like only yesterday Kaylee had been sitting with Brendan before she’d accidentally blasted him with lightning.

  Tonight she was hoping she could blast him on purpose.

  They reached the back of the barn and paused. Kaylee brushed aside some grass in her face in order to get a better look. A long figure stood rigid at the back door.

  “One guard,” She whispered.

  “Mine,” Maddox said.

  He stole forward on silent feet. The guard didn’t even have a chance to move before Maddox was on him. There was the sound of a fist coming down—then Maddox let out a confused grunt.

  “What’s the problem?” Jade hissed.

  Maddox hefted the ‘guard’. Its head had detached and was hanging limply to the side.

  “This guy’s fake—”

  A blast of magic shot from the grass and nailed him in the chest, sending him careening into the barn wall.

  Kaylee whirled a second too late and caught a gloved fist across the jaw. Her vision tilted off kilter. A copper taste coated the inside of her mouth when she hit the ground, but already she was moving, scrabbling for her knife and swiping at the nearest moving shape. There was a growl and something hard knocked it from her hand. Hot breath washed over her face. Strong paws pinned her to the ground. Kaylee looked up into piercing yellow eyes and jagged teeth of the shadow dancer.

  She could hear Jade fighting somewhere nearby, but a second later she too collapsed beside Kaylee, arms pinned behind her back.

  Someone snapped and the shadow dancer vanished in a whiff of darkness.

  “Too easy,” said a man. “Pick ‘em up.”

  “He was right,” said a woman. “They came alone.”

  “Stupid kids,” chuckled another.

  Kaylee felt herself being dragged to her feet and half carried into the barn. For not the first time since she’d woken up she wished she had her magic—any of her magic at all—to toast these suckers.

  “Sorry guys,” Maddox said, stumbling next to them. His face sported a nice purple bruise. The man holding him hit him again.

  “Keep your mouth shut.”

  They passed through a narrow entryway and into the large interior of the barn. Shafts of night peered through what cross beams remained in one piece. On the far side of the hole-speckled wood floor, a platform had been raised. Candles and various items Kaylee couldn’t make out in the dim light had been placed on a chalk drawing on the floor. Kaylee spotted the lump of the meteorite, and beside it, her scale.

  And to her left, gagged and tied against a support beam, was—

  “Edwin!” Kaylee said. She tried to make her way to him but was dragged back. “Are you all right?”

  He nodded, glaring at the men who held her. As they drew closer Kaylee could see he hadn’t quite been telling the truth. Dried blood caked a line from a cut in his forehead. A couple fingers on his hand were purple and swollen. His clothes were scuffed like he’d been dragged there. Another surge of anger thrummed through Kaylee.

  “Ah, yes, the heroes have arrived,” Lesuvius said, stepping down from the platform, his arms spread wide in an almost welcoming gesture. “So glad you can join us. Now we can begin.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Hold her,” Lesuvius said.

  Strong arms tightened on Kaylee’s sides even as she struggled. Maddox and Jade were forced to their knees beside Edwin, swords pressed to their throats.

  “Now here’s how this is going to work, Kaylee,” Lesuvius said. “You’re going to cooperate, give up your magic, and help us finish our spell, or we’ll start killing your friends, starting with boy blunder over there.”

  Edwin mumbled something that might have been a nasty insult.

  “News flash,” Kaylee spat. “Dragon Moon. My magic doesn’t work.” She smirked. “Maybe you should have done your homework before you put all this together.”

  Lesuvius smirked right back at her, but there was no warmth in it. “Such a charming girl. I’d hate to lose such a rare and potentially powerful dragon-kin, but when your usefulness is at an end I do bel
ieve I’ll enjoy killing you.”

  He clasped his hands behind his back. “Fortunately, Kaylee, we did do our homework. I’m sure dear old Alastair was insistent that you not go anywhere until the Dragon Moon had passed. Did you stop to consider why?”

  “Because I don’t have any powers. Duh.”

  “No. It’s precisely because you still do have your powers. The only difference is you can’t access them anymore.”

  He snapped his fingers. “But we can.”

  Brendan stepped forward from the group of Slayers and beckoned them closer to the platform. Kaylee tried to pull her arms free, tried to kick and punch her way out, but the Slayers were ready, holding her tight. In the mass of darkness in the corner, the shadow dancer growled.

  “Should have studied more, Kaylee,” Brendan said when they forced her to stand in front of him. “The Dragon Moon simply severs a dragon-kin’s access to magic, but not its ability to wield its elemental power. But just because you can’t use it doesn’t mean others can’t. You’re a giant conduit now. All we have to do is pump you full of magic and channel it through you.”

  Two more Slayers stepped beside him, spell books in hand.

  “Brendan, you idiot!” Jade cried. “She’ll die if you force that much magic in her!”

  “She’ll live long enough to get what we want,” Brendan said. “What happens after isn’t my problem.”

  He reached two fingers forward. Kaylee tried to bite them off and Brendan delivered a stinging slap across her face.

  “Learn your place, beast. You’re a freak, a creature that should have died out a long time ago.”

  Kaylee spit out blood. “I’m a dragon-kin, you colossal jerkwad. And I promise I’m going to make you pay for hurting my friends.”

  Brendan smirked and jabbed two fingers against her forehead. “A little too late for that, I think.”

  He began chanting. Kaylee expected an explosion of light and sound. Maybe for her bones to turn to jelly or her hair to catch fire, but at first she felt nothing.

  Then it was as if her body was coming awake after being stuck for hours in an uncomfortable position. Pins and needles sparked through her flesh. A torrent of power flowed into her core, unhindered, building in magnitude. Kaylee tried to block it out, tried to resist, but no matter what she did the magic continued.