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

by Sean Fletcher

  The chalk circle behind Brendan glowed bright white. The items within rose and began spinning in a circle. Lesuvius paced the outside.

  “It’s a start, but not enough. More, Brendan. We need more.”

  Brendan nodded and drove his fingers harder against Kaylee’s forehead.

  This magic was wrong. It tore at Kaylee’s insides, curled at the edges of her senses and writhed like a trapped animal. She wanted to scream but it had clamped down on her throat, clawed its way towards her mind. She tried to push back against it, but the combined efforts of the Slayers drove her back.

  “More, Brendan!” Lesuvius barked. “We need her to surrender her power to us or this is all for nothing!”

  “I’m—trying!” Brendan said. “She won’t stop fighting me!”

  “Then break her will!”

  Searing light was overtaking Kaylee’s vision, but still she could see Brendan was beginning to shake. Kaylee gritted her teeth. If she could just hold out a bit longer, resist his power enough to do something.

  Thunder rumbled overhead. The temperature plummeted. A bitter frost coated a fine layer on the floorboards.

  “There it is!” Lesuvius cried, delighted.

  A storm had appeared inside; A broiling, angry mass of clouds hovering just beneath the upper beams. A few of the Slayers cried out as lightning—a living, wild thing—struck some of the supporting beams and crawled along the wood.

  “Fight it, Kaylee!” Jade said.

  But Kaylee couldn’t. Brendan’s final surge of magic had broken through her. It had taken control of her power and wielded it like a puppet. The storm was free.

  A vortex of wind tore at the inside of the barn, whipping shards of wood and metal into a mini-tornado of destruction. Slayers ducked and ran for cover but Lesuvius remained firmly planted on the platform, arms raised towards the storm’s center. Brendan shouted another line of the spell, his fingers digging in so hard Kaylee was sure they would crack her skull.

  Another pulse of magic shot through her.

  Lightning descended.

  It struck the center of the circle and spread, igniting each spinning item in a red glow. They melted and dripped into the shape of the circle. Lesuvius laughed. His face was pure madness.

  “It is done! The dragon-kin’s power will be ours!”

  Kaylee was lost to it all. At some point her mind had curled into itself, fleeing from the pain and destruction of her senses.

  And yet.

  A spark of awareness remained. The will to fight. To make those who had harmed her pay. To save her friends.

  She felt a shifting in her core, the result of something unexpected occurring. Kaylee’s mind focused on it. Whatever block the Dragon Moon had created between her and her elemental magic was eroding away like sand blown in the wind, feeding off the power Brendan forced through her.

  But it didn’t matter if she could use her magic again. She had lost. The storm above them raged and she had no way to control it. No way she could possibly fight it.

  Then don’t fight it, a voice said. The storm is part of you. Embrace it. Embrace what you are.

  Then, a smaller voice, But I’m scared.

  If you’re scared, then you know you’re heading in the right direction.

  And so, reluctantly, agonizingly, Kaylee let down her defenses and allowed the storm to take over.

  The world ignited in white.

  Kaylee was thrown back as a bolt of lightning struck her from above and passed right through her. The Slayers holding her were blown away. Dots danced in her vision when she opened her eyes and stumbled, refusing to question how she was still alive. The thick stench of ozone filled her nostrils. Her arms buzzed, covered with a thin film of electricity. Despite the Slayers’ spell and the Dragon Moon she felt strong. She felt powerful.

  Brendan was gaping at her. His hair was a charred mess. “That’s impossible! You—you’re not allowed to—”

  Kaylee held up one arm, now shifted to claws. A crackle of electricity spread across it. “Thanks for charging me up.”

  “I’m impressed,” Lesuvius said. “That was no small spell we used against you and yet you resisted all the same.” He sighed. “I wish things were different, Kaylee, I truly do. You could have been a wonderful asset to us.”

  Kaylee took a stance, prepping for a fight. Lesuvius laughed.

  “Be reasonable, child! You’ve summoned a storm and completed our spell. In mere minutes the dragon-kin’s magic will drain out of your kind forever, and you are still weak. How can you hope to defeat me when you can’t even control this storm?”

  As if to prove his point the thunderhead seemed to swell above them. Kaylee winced. It was as if an invisible kite string had tethered itself to her from the center of the storm. It strained and pulled, desperate to be fully unleashed and it was all Kaylee could do to hold on.

  “I may not have full control of it, but I don’t need to,” Kaylee said finally. She pointed two fingers at Lesuvius, straight at his heart. “I just have to aim it.”

  Lesuvius’ eyes flickered with fear. “Kill her!”

  Kaylee planted her feet and moved her arms in unison. Ice shot from the clouds and swirled towards the Slayers holding Jade and Maddox. This time the sensation felt different. She wasn’t controlling the storm, she was the storm. She was wild. She was a swirling torrent of power.

  And she was going to make the Slayers pay.

  The icy blast careened into their captors. In a second Maddox had helped free Jade, snagged a knife from a fallen Slayer, and sliced Edwin’s bonds. Edwin tugged his gag off as Maddox and Jade engaged the remaining Slayers.

  “Perform the counterspell, Edwin!” Kaylee said, feeling the effort to steer the storm leeching her energy. “We’ve still got time!”

  Edwin looked towards the platform. The spell still hung suspended in mid-air just below the storm. Most of the Slayers had fled. There wasn’t going to be a better—or another—chance.

  “I—I can’t do it, Kaylee!”

  “What do you mean you can’t do it?! You know the counterspell—just say it!”

  “If I screw it up it could destroy everything!”

  An earth-shattering crack shattered through the sound of the wind. Half the barn seemed to sag near the point of utter collapse.

  “You can’t make it much worse than it already is!”

  Edwin hesitated. Something inside Kaylee snapped. She was exhausted. She was in pain. And she was out of patience.

  “SO HELP ME EDWIN IF YOU DON’T SAY THAT SPELL AND WE SURVIVE THIS I WILL PERSONALLY DIG THE GRAVE I’M BURYING YOU IN!”

  Edwin looked as though she’d slapped him in the face. Then he steeled himself, planting his feet firmly in a spell-casting position.

  “NO!”

  Jade and Maddox stepped in front of Lesuvius as he tried to attack. He seemed slower than usual. His earlier poise was gone, his movements sluggish. “You will not rob me of this!”

  He swiped a sweeping arc with his sword, forcing them back. Kaylee tried to focus a blast of lightning his direction but the storm was falling apart. The edges were crumbling and spinning into chaos, tearing up everything in their wake. It was taking all her focus to keep it in place as it was.

  Lesuvius moved again, but this time Maddox was ready. He ducked, then sprang back with surprising ferocity, hitting Lesuvius with a perfect kick to the side. Lesuvius barely had time to utter a shout of surprise before he was sent stumbling outside through a section of the weakened barn wall.

  “That’s for kidnapping my Merlin!” Maddox yelled before charging after him.

  “Finish the spell, Edwin!” Jade said before following.

  Edwin started chanting. His eyes continued flickering to the crumbling timbers around him. Kaylee tried commanding the wind to swell against the barn’s side walls as they leaned inward. If she could just…hold it a little…longer.

  Edwin’s voice grew in volume. The spell on the platform began to splinter. Red spark
s sprayed across the floor. The air seemed to pulse with raw power, a tangy, copper scent. Edwin took a step forward, raising his hands in what Kaylee hoped was the final verse.

  Then she saw the shadows ripple.

  On instinct, Kaylee moved, thrusting one arm forward. Ice careened from her hand and slammed into the shadow dancer just as it emerged from the darkness near Edwin’s feet. The beast screeched in rage and crashed to the floor, pawing at its face. Kaylee didn’t let up, commanding ice to cover it until it was too frozen to move. Kaylee smiled wearily. That should hold it—

  Fiery pain slid between Kaylee’s ribs.

  “Payback,” Brendan snarled, pulling the knife out and stabbing it into her shoulder as she tried to stumble away. Kaylee was too shocked to cry out. The pain was so sudden it didn’t seem real.

  “You’ve plagued me from day one,” Brendan said, limping towards her, wiping the bloody knife on his pants. He bled from multiple cuts. One leg was twisted at a sickening angle. “Day. Freaking. One.”

  Kaylee tried to drag herself away as he approached. The floorboards were slick with blood. The storm screamed as it began to break apart.

  “And now,” Brendan said, oblivious to the destruction, “now you’re going to destroy this too? No. No, no, no. Not today.”

  He raised his knife. His expression was hellish in the light. Kaylee weakly put her hands up to stop him. Her eyes brushed over Edwin behind him.

  Well, at least he might get away.

  Edwin raised his arm. With one last cry, he slammed it to the ground with finality.

  The world stopped.

  Then the spell exploded.

  Searing heat blasted Kaylee back. In her tumbling vison, she saw Edwin careen out one of the barn’s side doors.

  Kaylee tumbled to a halt and pulled herself up. Her body was past the point of pain, as if her nerves had all short-circuited. A large patch of black existed where the platform had been. The storm above crackled wildly, swollen with power.

  “You…” Brendan had clawed his way to standing and was staring at the now-vanished spell. “You stopped it. You destroyed it. You…”

  He turned to her. “You are so dead.”

  And in that moment Kaylee knew she couldn’t fight it any longer.

  She released her hold on the storm.

  Half the barn collapsed.

  Brendan only had time to look up before the beams above him snapped like bone. The walls tumbled inward. The last thing Kaylee saw of him was a resigned look on his face as tons of wood crashed down on top of him.

  Silence settled as thickly as the dusty haze clogging the air.

  Kaylee fell back. Every beat of her heart sent ripples of pain through her body. It might have been her vision, but the wood above her, what remained of the barn, was tilting crazily, creaking as it slowly fell towards her. And she didn’t care. She was bleeding out, even as she could feel her magic flowing back into her once again. She’d done it, and if it ended here…well, that’d suck. But it’d be worth it. At least her friends had gotten out safely.

  The barn let out another agonized groan. The timbers above shifted.

  The rest of the barn came barreling down.

  Kaylee closed her eyes, waiting for the impact, and then darkness.

  “Not quite yet, I think,” said a voice.

  Gnarled hands gripped her tight. She was weightless, moving fast in the arms of another. Through the slits in her vision, Kaylee saw them zipping down the narrow tunnel of escape still remaining as the beams collapsed around them.

  They burst outside into the night a second before a tremendous roar sounded as what remained of the barn gave in.

  Grass tickled Kaylee’s skin. Whoever had saved her carried her to the parking lot and laid her down in the soft dirt.

  “An impressive show,” a familiar voice said. “Seems you finally learned, after all. Don’t screw it all up by dying. I’ll see you soon.”

  Kaylee managed to sit up in time to see the hazy outline of a squat figure vanish into thin air.

  Pounding feet thudded against the inside of her head. Edwin skidded to a halt beside her, holding her shoulders steady as she swayed with the effort of staying upright. He didn’t say anything, just pulled her close while Jade and Maddox soon joined them. Jade was crying. Maddox looked around in confusion. Kaylee was about to ask him if he’d seen who had just been there, but he seemed more concerned with something else.

  “Lesuvius got away,” he said. “Some of the Slayers are still here but they’re in no state to fight.”

  “It’s okay,” Jade said. “We stopped the spell. We stopped them. I think.”

  “Yeah, we did,” Kaylee said, managing to smile.

  They all turned as gravel crunched nearby. Cars were pulling into the lot. Alastair emerged from the nearest one, running towards them. The world was filling with noise again, but for a brief moment the four of them were saved from it, left staring back at the remains of the barn, seeing nothing but total destruction, mad dreams, and the possibility of what almost had been.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  It wasn’t possible for things to go back to normal, but they did. At least as normal as they ever could be again.

  By the time Kaylee, Edwin, Jade, and Maddox had been bundled safely away with a group of Protectors, the adrenaline had drained out of Kaylee’s limbs, leaving her as active as a hungover sloth. Moving was agony, and she could only mumble answers to questions while a Convocation doctor checked her over.

  When Alastair was satisfied they were not going to drop dead at any moment, the Convocation took them home. They let Kaylee off at her house first and Alastair went inside and spoke to her parents while Jade helped her upstairs.

  “Get some rest,” Jade had said as Kaylee somehow contorted her body to get into bed. “I’m sure we’re going to regret this tomorrow.”

  “I’m already regretting it,” Kaylee groaned.

  The next week was…normal. Eerily normal. Disgustingly normal, if school had anything to say about it. It was honestly freaking Kaylee out, and she would have been less surprised if the Slayers had jumped out of the bushes and tried to kidnap her again, or if her parents had treated her like some distant, diseased child of theirs.

  But no, her parents were…her parents. After a semi-tearful reunion (“Really, Tim, you need to stop crying,” her mother said, wiping tears of her own away) the following morning their relationship remained relatively untouched. For the most part. But Kaylee had caught them giving her sad glances when they thought she wasn’t looking. She felt like a new distance had opened up between them even when they hugged her close. They didn’t act disappointed. Really, they seemed more sad than anything, as if there was some part of their daughter that had never come back after that night.

  The other weird thing was that the Slayers were actually gone. But that might have been due to the number of sunglasses-wearing men who always seemed to pop up wherever Kaylee went. They were there when she returned to school. At the Smoothie Shack. Across the street from her house; always hovering just out of sight. Kaylee wouldn’t have minded so much if she didn’t feel they were there more to keep her in than the Slayers out.

  “And…there.” Jade applied the finishing touch of makeup to Kaylee’s face and leaned back to admire her handiwork. “Perfect. You can’t even tell a psychopathic ex-date tried to kill you.”

  Kaylee tried to smile, but it came out more of a grimace when she twisted the wrong way on the bed and her shoulder sang with pain. The Merlin healers had done wonders to restore the damage caused by Brendan’s knife, as well as quickly replenishing her blood loss, but even after a week she was still painfully aware of every wrong move she made.

  “Kaylee?”

  “Hmm?” Kaylee pulled her attention back from the window. She hadn’t realized she’d been lost in thought.

  “Hey…” Jade carefully put the makeup away. “You’re not still thinking about him—that—are you?”

  “It ha
ppened last week, Jade. I’m not going to forget that easily.”

  Jade put a hand on hers. “Look at me.”

  Kaylee sighed. “Jade…”

  “Look. At. Me. Don’t make me smack some sense into you.”

  Kaylee reluctantly met her eyes.

  “Brendan’s death was not your fault.”

  “But I—”

  “Controlled your storm long enough to save all of us. It’s not your fault what happened after.”

  “But if I had—”

  “Did you try to kill him?”

  Kaylee blinked in surprise. “No! I hated the guy but I didn’t want to see him dead.”

  “Then if you didn’t try to kill him then stop blaming yourself. Moping is really unattractive on you.”

  Kaylee felt the barest glint of a smile quirking the corners of her mouth. “Okay. I’ll try. Thanks.”

  “People get hurt,” Jade said, returning the makeup bag to her purse. “Sometimes I wish…”

  “You wish I’d never gotten involved.”

  “Yeah. Being my best friend’s Tamer is both the most awesome and the most nerve-wracking thing ever.”

  Kaylee put a hand over her heart. “Jade Azuma, I promise, as your dragon-kin, to not make your life any harder than it needs to be.”

  Jade chucked a pillow at her. “Waaaay too late for that.”

  “Maddox is here!” Kaylee’s mom called up the stairs.

  Jade nudged her head to the door.

  “Come on, dragon-kin. Let’s go find out how much trouble we’re in.”

  By now, Kaylee was really starting to dislike their visits to Alastair’s house. They never seemed to go there for anything that didn’t involve mortal peril or them getting punished for doing something debatably stupid.

  But then, Kaylee wondered, as she, Jade, and Maddox came up the walk and Jade rang the bell, what would a normal day at the house look like? For some reason, she couldn’t imagine Alastair out in the backyard, an apron tied around his waist, barbequing for them.