It was my day off from training and the bakery, so I really hadn’t expected to be attacked. But I was never without my jade knife, not since I’d found the large stone along the Fraser River outside Lillooet and hand carved it myself. I hadn’t even known I was an alchemist at the time. I’d just seen the stone and known it should be a knife — a knife imbued with so much of my magic now that no one could disarm me, not without knocking me out. Nor could anyone touch the knife without my permission without being burned by it.
Branson shook his dark head as if clearing it.
I smirked. I’d never managed to rattle him before.
He slowly raised his golden double-edged sword to answer my poised knife. His blade was a slimmer, longer version of the bejeweled broadsword that my father Yazi, the warrior of the guardians, wielded. Its pommel and hilt were utilitarian, though.
Branson had been in training for the mantel of the warrior before he’d been gravely wounded as a fledgling. No, dragons weren’t completely indestructible. Just don’t mention that to any of them. Occasionally, the sword master’s old wound showed up as a limp. Despite that, and the fact that he was at least a hundred years older than my three-hundred-and-fifty-year-old father, I’d never knocked him off his feet.
“I’m not here for a lesson, sword master,” I said, struggling to remain polite — and to hide that fact that I still couldn’t feel my right leg. My wrist also felt severely sprained from being twisted harshly behind my back. “I await the treasure keeper.”
Branson grinned, but it did little to lighten his perpetually stern face. He had that same hint of Asian ancestry to his features as Drake did. I didn’t think he and the fledgling guardian were related, but I was far from an expert on dragon genealogy.
“Life is a lesson,” Branson said.
Ah, damn. Dragons only got all preachy right before they kicked my ass. Granted, I usually deserved an ass kicking — I attracted trouble almost as easily as I attracted or found magic. Except that dragon-inflicted bruises usually took a couple of days to heal, and I had a birthday party to go to tonight.
I narrowed my eyes at my trainer, causing all the overly golden hues of the room to blur together behind him. Dragons adored surrounding themselves with gold and jewels and art, and it was a little much sometimes. The heart of the dragon nexus was all gaudy Greek temple mixed with oriental motifs, though each door was carved in artwork that represented the specific territories of each guardian. The room was also saturated with guardian magic, hence me not tasting Branson’s magic as he approached.
The narrower my eyes got — I was working on my intimidation factor — the wider Branson’s grin grew. Indigo eyes, blond curls now falling out of my hair clip, and sun-kissed skin didn’t much help in that department. I was fairly certain it was my ample assets that made me less than imposing, though, since I was the spitting image of my father and he scared the crap out of everyone even while laughing. Actually, it was the absolute power that rolled off him when he laughed that was terrifying.
I’d narrowed my eyes too far. Now my eyelashes were making my vision fuzzy.
I sighed, opened my eyes, and gave my knife hand a roll. The overly stretched tendons and ligaments crunched, but then snapped back into their proper place.
That was better.
I smiled, extended my left hand forward to balance my right, and stepped sideways to circle Branson.
If he wanted a tussle, I was up for it. Bruises or no bruises.
The sword master lost his grin as he stepped opposite to me. He watched my every move, my every twitch, with deadly intent. I was never going to get the upper hand when he was focused like this.
I thought about flashing him to throw him off — and not just because I kept wondering how his sword-callused hands would feel sliding up my inner thighs. A totally inappropriate thought, yes. But then, I hadn’t had sex in way over a year. I hadn’t been kissed in ten months. Even my constant chocolate high couldn’t keep my serotonin levels up perpetually.
I decided against the flashing because I knew Branson would be utterly aghast — and might even refuse to be in the same room with me ever again. Plus, I wasn’t wearing my prettiest bra at the moment. It had been far too long since I’d had any reason to wear anything other than a serviceable sports bra.
Attempting to not massively broadcast my intention, I abruptly lunged forward, thrusting my knife for Branson’s heart.
Then, completely blindsided, I got shoulder checked by a small mountain.
This knocked me flying off my feet and cracked my head against one of the nine pillars that encircled the heart of the dragon nexus.
Remember the only way to reliably disarm me these days?
Yeah, knock me out.
So that happened.
For Michael
I was blind until I saw you
Acknowledgements
With thanks to:
My story & line editor
Scott Fitzgerald Gray
My proof reader
Leiah Cooper
My beta readers
Heather Lewis, Heidi Tengsdal, and Karen Turkal
For their continual encouragement, feedback, & general advice
Joanne, Linda, and Alison, for character background, fact checking, & advice
Nick Russell, for everything RV related
For her Art
Irene Langholm
Elizabeth Mackey
Meghan Ciana Doidge is an award-winning writer based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She has a penchant for bloody love stories, superheroes, and the supernatural. She also has a thing for chocolate, potatoes, and sock yarn.
Novels
After The Virus
Spirit Binder
Time Walker
Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1)
Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 2)
Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser 3)
I See Me (Oracle 1)
Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic (Dowser 4)
Novellas/Shorts
Love Lies Bleeding
The Graveyard Kiss
For giveaways, news, and glimpses of upcoming stories, please connect with Meghan on her:
NEW RELEASE MAILING LIST
Personal blog, www.madebymeghan.ca
Twitter, @mcdoidge
And/or Facebook, Meghan Ciana Doidge
Please also consider leaving an honest review at your point of sale outlet
Dowser Series — Book Four
EXPECTED FEBRUARY 2015
Oracle Series –– Book Two
EXPECTED SUMMER 2015
Join the author’s NEW RELEASE MAILING LIST to be the first to know.
I SEE ME (ORACLE 1)
Copyright © 2014 Meghan Ciana Doidge
Published by Old Man in the CrossWalk Productions 2014
Vancouver, BC, Canada
www.oldmaninthecrosswalk.com
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be produced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, objects, and incidents herein are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual things, events, locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Library and Archives Canada
Doidge, Meghan Ciana, 1973 —
I See Me/Meghan Ciana Doidge — KINDLE EDITION
Cover art by Irene Langholm
Cover design by Elizabeth Mackey
Stock: Jose AS Reyes/Shutterstock
ISBN 978-1-927850-12-1
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I See Me (Oracle Book 1) Page 24