Dragons and Destiny (Animage Academy Book 1)

by Michelle Wilson

  When I neared the weak spot in the fence, three black shadows appeared ahead of me. My heart skipped a beat. Someone conjured a flame, and it illuminated the faces of Hudson, Willa, and Gracie.

  “What are you guys doing out here?” I hissed.

  “We know you Sophie,” Willa said. “There was no way you were going to do nothing about this.”

  “Under no circumstances are you all going with me. If you’re caught, you’ll be expelled.”

  “Let them try,” Willa said. “I’m great at hiding people. There’s no way they would be able to find us. Impulsively I reached forward and hugged her.

  “Willa, I’m really, really sorry.”

  “I know. Listen, Hudson told us what happened. He reminded me on the way over. I know it wasn’t your fault. That was really low of your dad.”

  “It is still my fault, I’m going to make this right, I promise.” Never one to miss a hug, Gracie came up behind us and hugged us both.

  “Oh, I’m so happy we’re all talking again.” Gracie looked strange.

  “Gracie, where are your wings?” Willa snapped her fingers, and they appeared.

  “Like I said, I’m great at hiding things.” She snapped her fingers again and Gracie’s wings vanished. “Now let’s get a move on.”

  I went through the fence first and the rest of my friends followed me. Hudson had one more surprise waiting for me on the other side.

  “Simon!” I ran to my brother and hugged him tight. It was all I could do to not burst out crying on his shoulder. He held me at arm’s length, his eyes looking me up and down. “You do look bad.”

  “Gee thanks, brother.”

  “I hope you have a plan. If Animage Academy is in danger, then all the other schools will be too. The Academy has the strongest defense.”

  I pulled out the sketch I had been working on. It was half of a logo. “If we can find some evidence, then we can prove the wards were down. The women who saw us had cameras. If we can get them to talk to Professor Vickers, we will have our evidence. This is all I can remember about the women’s uniforms.

  “I know it’s not a lot to go on, but I was going to walk around and compare it with other restaurants in the area until I found them. It’s not exactly a foolproof plan.”

  Hudson leaned in to look over my shoulder. He pulled a pencil out of his pocket and started drawing.

  “If you finish this line here, and that one continues like that… it could be something like this?” He stepped back, and we all looked at his work. He’d drawn a fish inside an oval.

  “Yeah, I think that looks right,” I told him. Simon picked up the sketch.

  “Give me a moment, I think I can do something with this.” He closed his eyes and chanted a spell. When he opened them he was grinning. “Follow me.”

  Just two streets over we found what we were looking for. A little restaurant with a fish logo.

  “Umm, let me go by myself. I don’t want to spook the girls,” I said.

  “I’m coming with you, at least,” Simon said. I nodded. “But guys, you just wait out here, okay?”

  We let ourselves inside. The light was dim. Without the aid of my enhanced senses, everything looked fuzzy beneath the hazy lights. A bell above our heads tinkled as the door closed behind us.

  “It doesn’t look like anyone’s here.” Simon’s voice was low as we passed the tables and approached the bar. I was afraid he was right. Maybe we had the wrong place. My heart sank. If this wasn’t right, we would never be able to find evidence. Just as we turned to leave, a movement in the back caused us to stop.

  “I’m sorry we’re—” The sound of a plate shattering echoed through the empty building. Two women peeked around the corner, eyes locked on me.

  “Umm, can we talk?” I asked. One of the females nodded.

  “Yeah, okay.” We all sat down in a booth. Once we were there, I didn’t know what to say.

  “You’re the one who changed into the dragon,” the redhead said. “I wasn’t sure because you had that mask on, but it’s you, isn’t it? You saved us from those other beasts.”

  “I guess I don’t need to ask you if you remember then?”

  “How could we forget? Well, if it wasn’t for you, we would have. You look just like her, are you a dragon, too?” she asked Simon.

  “No, just her twin,” he said, flashing a smile in their direction. I half expected the women to swoon right there in their seats.

  “Can you tell me everything you remember seeing?”

  “We saw trees and buildings we’d never noticed before. There were tons of buildings all behind this wall of trees. We almost thought we were lost. Finally, we got to the back fence, and that’s where we saw you guys.”

  “I remember one of you had a phone or camera or something? Did you get any videos?”

  “We did. I forgot my phone at my house, tonight though.” My mind was forming out a plan as they talked. It was clear we wouldn’t be able to get the phone tonight, but that wasn’t going to stop me.

  “Tomorrow, would you be willing to meet us somewhere with your phone and tell someone exactly what you told me?” They exchanged a glance. The lady who dropped a plate when she saw me sat forward.

  “Is someone going to wipe our memories?”

  “Not if you don’t want them to.” Simon’s eyes were on me. “I’ll make sure of it. But I have to ask: Will you please promise not to tell anyone what you saw? I can’t really explain it, but just know our safety depends on it.”

  “Sure,” she said with a shrug. “We won’t tell. It was cool there for a minute.”

  As soon as we left the restaurant Simon rounded on me.

  “You can’t keep that promise.” I waved him off.

  “I have to, Simon. Do you think what we are doing works right now? This hiding, this being so scared humans that will find us, we are willing to hurt them?”

  “No. But what’s the alternative?”

  “I don’t know, but it starts with not wiping the memories of two women who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  By the time we all arrived back at school we’d come up with what I’d hoped was a fool-proof plan.

  “I’ll meet you guys back here at midnight tomorrow?” Simon asked at the parting of the ways.

  “Thank you, Simon for helping us.”

  “Anything for my sis.” I gave him a hug, and he split to sneak back to his own school.

  “What are we going to do now?” Hudson asked.

  “Make Professor Vickers believe us.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Our plan needed the cover of night, so I spent the whole next day fretting through my classes. There was one positive moment. When I was going through my daily ritual of not shifting during my first class, something happened. I felt a jolt in my chest and two little flames appeared from my fingers.

  “It’s all right, Sophie. Your animal will come back with time.” Professor Atkins hadn’t seen. I moved out of the way to go stand in my old place with Gracie, Willa, and Hudson. I opened and flexed my fingers, trying to call on the flame again. Nothing happened. I quit trying and focused on the person now changing into a colorful parrot. My magic would come back. It had to.

  At midnight, my brother and my friends were with me again as we made our way back to the restaurant. The women were there, sitting in a booth.

  “I’m back, are you all ready?”

  They both looked up at me like they were waking from a dream.

  “Who are you?” one of them said. The other yawned and blinked her eyes. A vice grip clenched my heart.

  “I—I was here yesterday.” They shared a glance and then looked back at me.

  “Here? Where’s here?” The redhead looked at herself and then at her friend.

  “Who is she? Where am I?” Gracie came up behind me.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know. They don’t remember anything.”

  “This must have just happened,” Simo
n said.

  “Sorry to bother you, ladies. We will be going now.” Hudson’s voice broke through the fog in my mind. He steered me away by the elbow. Once outside we tried to regroup.

  “We can’t just leave them like this.” I was pacing up and down the sidewalk. How could this have happened?

  “We don’t really have a choice. Memory magic can’t be reversed as far as I know.” I gritted my teeth and bit back a reply. Simon’s sensibility was the last thing I wanted to hear right then.

  “All hope is not lost,” Gracie said. She pulled a shiny phone out of her pocket. “Can anyone break into a cell phone?” Looking at the cell phone in her slender hands I could have kissed her. I struck out in the direction of the school.

  “Let’s head back and see what we can do with this. Keep an eye out, someone might be watching us.”

  “Well, at least the little dragon hasn’t lost her smarts.” My stomach flipped as Drew, Kylee, and Penelope stepped out from an alleyway. I bristled.

  “You did this? Why?” I started to step forward, but Hudson put a hand on my shoulder to stop me.

  “To fix what you messed up. We knew you’d find the girls, eventually. You can’t let anything go.” A chill shook me to my core. A month ago, I would have called the three people before me friends. Now seeing their smiles at catching me at night, they looked anything but friendly.

  “Okay, you got what you wanted. The girls’ memories are wiped. Leave us alone.” Drew stepped forward. I could see copper fire crackling at his fingertips. Behind me, Hudson growled so low only I could hear him.

  “We need the phone, too.”

  “No, it proves something is going on at Animage Academy.”

  “Gracie, Willa, this is going to get bad. Get the phone back to the Academy,” Simon whispered to the two girls behind me. I could pick up the words clearly. The anticipation of a fight was bringing my senses back.

  Hudson stepped forward. He seemed to grow larger as he put himself between the rest of us and the other immortals.

  “Leave. Now. You’re not taking the phone.”

  “You guys aren’t going to stop us. A werewolf, a dragon without her powers, a fortune teller, a doe, and a butterfly?” Kylee smirked and their laughter rang out, echoing off the nearby buildings.

  “Go. Now,” I whispered behind me. Willa snapped her fingers, and both she and Gracie vanished.

  “Where did they go?” Penelope hissed. Drew balled his fists.

  “Duck!” I yelled, just in time. Drew threw a bolt of copper fire at us. I didn’t get out of the way in time. The bolt hit me right in the chest. But nothing happened. Drew cursed.

  “I forgot about her necklace.”

  “This would be a really good time to get my powers back,” I muttered. I tried to spark my hands again, but no fire would come to me.

  “Sophie, stay back.” In one motion and a flash of light, Hudson shifted. He launched himself right into Drew’s chest. Simon stepped in front of me and called on his own powers. Blue magic pooled in his hands. He threw it at Penelope who was gathering her own red fire. Red and blue collided in the air. Sparks lit up the night sky and showered the street like fireworks. We’d forgotten about Kylee; she chanted a spell, and a net fell out of the sky. I yelled and rolled out of the way, but Simon was caught in it. He yelled as the ropes touched his skin and burned.

  A yelp drew my attention back to Hudson. Drew had thrown him off and managed to get back with Kylee and Penelope. I ran to the net and tried to pull it off Simon.

  “Ahhh!” the rope burned my hands as I pulled back.

  “Give it up, Sophie. We’ve won.” I had to do something. Gracie and Willa needed time to get back to the school. I had to help Simon. I had to help Hudson. Everything spun through my head as my breath came in short gasps.

  “Why do you want the phone, anyway? The girls don’t have their memories, isn’t that enough? The phone is proof something bad is happening.”

  “Oh, little dragon. There is so much you don’t know. Of course the phone is proof. That’s why we want it.”

  “Not possible.” My mind went blank. It couldn’t be. Even with their less than desirable characteristics, I couldn’t believe Drew, Kylee, or Penelope actually knew about a plot against the school.

  “Does that surprise you, little dragon?” Drew mocked me. “Does it bother you to know that not everyone is as noble as dear old dad? Although, now that I think about, maybe Dad isn’t so noble, either. You could’ve been on our side, you know. But not now. Now we need to wipe all of your memories. Then once that’s done, we can find your friends and take the phone before we work a little memory magic on them too.” I was powerless. Hudson’s and Simon’s distress clouded my mind, but there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t help my brother, or my friends.

  I was still crouched down next to Simon. He struggled against the ropes, but they just grew tighter. Hudson was snarling and snapping at red magic that twisted its way around him. I grasped the necklace underneath my shirt. Tears were filling my eyes as a chasm opened inside of me. I was a failure. No wonder my dragon had deserted me. The rough diamonds around the outside of the necklace cut into my palm. The necklace that absorbed magic.

  More red magic was gathering in Penelope’s hands. If I didn’t do something fast, she was going to wipe our memories. I yanked the magic off my neck and held it out in front of me. The magic it absorbed would still be there. That meant I could use it.

  “Expel!” I commanded the necklace with my mind and with my voice. My gamble paid off when a huge blast of magic shot out from the necklace and hit Penelope square in the chest. She fell backward into the closet building.

  Using the command, opened the chasm inside me even more. I fell to my knees and wrapped my arms around my body. I was falling. The chasm opening inside me was going to swallow me whole. I yelled out in desperation. The world spun around me. I was being consumed by the emptiness within.

  Just when the edges of my vision began to darken, something rose up inside me to fill the void. My dragon had returned. Her strength exploded within me. The strength of her power lifted me from the ground and set me on my feet. My skin glowed with barely contained fire. I could feel the sweet burning I’d longed for these past months. Drew and Kylee were both watching me, jaws slack. Drew moved an arm but before he would throw any magic, my hands were out in front of me, releasing a fury of flame that had been pent up inside me for ages.

  Both Drew and Kylee managed to get shields up. I was too strong. My flames were burning through. With their last bit of energy, the shields exploded, knocking them both back against the same building as Penelope. All three lay there, knocked unconscious.

  Now that she was back my dragon was ready to take control. It was all I could manage to take in deep, clearing breaths and back her down. I wouldn’t risk shifting again. I focused my sensations. The asphalt beneath my feet. The sting of the bones in my nose. Heat underneath my skin. I let it all go until it was just human Sophie again.

  “Sophie? Sophie!” The words sounded muffled. I opened my eyes and let reality flood my senses once more. Hudson was running toward me. He wrapped me up in a hug and twirled me around. When he set me on my feet, he leaned in and kissed me. It happened so fast it took a moment for my brain to register. Hudson dropped my hands like I’d shocked him and took a step back. My cheeks were burning. My brother was looking back and forth between us. He rolled his eyes and patted me on the shoulder.

  “Come on, let’s go find Gracie and Willa.”

  They were waiting for us at the gate to the school.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” Gracie yelled when she found us. She grabbed all of us into a hug.

  “We were worried about you. We were thinking about coming back. Where are the others?”

  “Knocked out, thanks to Sophie,” Hudson said. He caught my eye and I blushed again. “We left them there.”

  “You guys need to get back inside. Sophie, I’m going to call Dad and have him come
to the school first thing in the morning. Get that phone working before your friends decide to show up again.”

  “Let them try.” Fire rippled under my skin.

  A couple of hours and about a thousand spells later we were all standing around the table in mine and Willa’s room watching the video. Clear as day, it showed the front building of Animage Academy. It wasn’t old and decrepit as it was supposed to appear, instead it was a whole and hail Gilded Age mansion. The video continued around the property of the Academy until it ended with the video of us shifting and the fight that ensued.

  “We did it,” I said.

  “Who knew a cell phone would be so hard to crack?” Willa sat down on the couch, wiping her sweaty face. “What do we do with it now?”

  “We go straight to the headmistress,” I said.

  “What about Drew, Penelope, and Kylee?” Gracie asked. She and Hudson had snuck into our room when we got back. I had expected them to try again, but nothing had happened so far.

  “They’re not going to try anything with the professors around. Plus, my dad should be here soon.”

  I felt odd walking across campus still in the dark clothes I’d worn in the night when everyone else was in their uniform. People were staring and pointing. Their eyes followed me and I heard snippets of their conversations. I didn’t care. This was more important than what my fellow students thought of me.

  When we arrived Headmistress Adiana’s office, Professor Vickers opened the door.

  “We have proof.”

  “Sophie—”

  “Let them in Charles.” It was my father. Professor Vickers stepped back to reveal the headmistress, my father, and Chief Winston.

  I stepped inside, my friends at my back.

  “Sophie, what is this?” Dad asked. I put the phone down on the table in front of them.

  “We have proof the wards to the school were down the night the humans saw us. And Penelope, Kylee, and Drew knew about it. They wiped the memories of the women who saw us.”

  The adults watched the whole video. From the unrestricted view of the Academy all the way to the fight at the end. If it was possible, Headmistress Adiana’s face had gotten paler. As soon as it was over, she headed for the door.