Summer and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 2)

by Sloane Meyers

  When they got back to camp, they found that Zeke had already arrived. Vance introduced him to Lily, and Lily did not miss the way Zeke’s eyebrows raised when Vance called Lily “his girl.” But Zeke did not question Vance further. He gave Lily a warm smile and told her that he was glad she was here, and that was about it. Zeke said he needed to go take care of some things related to the mission he had just completed, but that he was looking forward to spending time with everyone at the barbecue tonight.

  “He doesn’t talk much, does he?” Lily asked as Vance walked her to her cabin.

  Vance chuckled. “Nope. If ever anyone was the strong, silent type, it’s Zeke. He’s a really good guy, though. He’s almost as good at missions as me.”

  Lily laughed. “Almost, eh? Sounds like someone’s pretty proud of himself.”

  Vance shrugged and smiled. “I wouldn’t want my girl thinking that anyone else was more impressive than me, you know.”

  Vance puffed out his chest in an over-exaggerated manner and put a comically proud expression on his face. Lily laughed and rolled her eyes at him.

  “You look so handsome with your face scrunched up like that,” she said, the sarcasm dripping in her voice. “You should make that face all the time.”

  “Very funny,” Vance said. “Speaking of missions, though, I do want to ask Zeke some questions about how his last job went. I’m going to run over and talk to him while you get ready, if that’s okay?”

  Lily nodded, and Vance gave her a quick kiss on the lips before heading off toward Zeke’s cabin. As soon as Lily shut her own cabin door behind her, she couldn’t help doing a little happy dance. She could not believe how quickly things between her and Vance had changed. Only a few days ago she’d thought she hated him. Although, if she was honest with herself now, she wasn’t sure that she had ever really hated him. She felt more that she had been trying to convince herself that she hated him because she wasn’t ready to face how strong her feelings for him were. Falling in love complicated things.

  But it was a good kind of complicated. Lily danced across the cabin to the bedroom, where she stripped off her sweaty hiking clothes and then went to hop in the shower. The summer had barely started, and she was already having the time of her life. She noticed as she looked down at her skin that it had become quite tanned already. All the time she’d spent up on the cliff looking at the peregrines had turned her arms a deep golden color.

  As Lily scrubbed soap on her body, she thought about how Vance had told her that peregrines were wandering falcons. Lily had never considered herself much of a wanderer, but being in the redwoods was making her wonder whether she should have spent more time wandering. There were so many places in the world that she wanted to see, but it was hard to get away from her job at the Advocacy Bureau. Not only that, but the High Council of Falcon Cross didn’t like it when the wizards traveled too much. Anytime a wizard traveled among full humans, the High Council worried that the wizard was going to accidentally reveal to non-wizards that magic existed. Lily understood that caution was needed, but sometimes she felt that High Council worried a bit too much. Lily, like most wizards, had had it drilled into her since the moment she first wore a magic ring that one must be extremely careful not to do magic near non-wizards. It was second nature to check around for non-wizards before doing magic anywhere outside of Falcon Cross. Lily sighed. At least it was permissible to do magic in front of shifters now. That made life beyond the borders of Falcon Cross a little bit easier.

  Lily quickly shampooed and rinsed her hair, then stepped out of the shower to towel off. Bree would be back anytime now, and Lily was in a hurry to speak with her. She wanted the chance to tell her about Vance in private, before the barbecue was in full swing tonight. Lily pulled her hair up into a tight, damp bun after towel-drying it, and then pulled on a pair of jeans and a simple gray t-shirt. She didn’t bother to put on any makeup. She had brought some with her from Falcon Cross, but it seemed out of place here in the middle of the forest. Besides that, Lily’s skin had taken on such a healthy, sun-kissed glow that she didn’t want to spoil it with makeup.

  Just as Lily was taking one last look in the mirror, she heard a knock at her front door.

  “Lily?” a voice called.

  It was Bree. Lily rushed to the front door and flung it open, throwing her arms around her friend.

  “You’re finally back!” she said.

  Bree laughed. “Yeah, finally. As I’m sure you’ve realized, that mission turned out to be a lot more complicated than we thought it would be. It sounds like you’ve been keeping yourself busy, though.”

  Bree raised an eyebrow at Lily, and from the look on her friend’s face, Lily could tell that Bree had heard something about Vance and Lily being together. Lily was a year older than Bree, but in that moment she felt somewhat like a younger sister being reprimanded by her older sister. Lily looked at her feet for a moment, suddenly unsure of how to explain things. She’d been excited to tell Bree about Vance, but the doubtful look on Bree’s face right now was making her feel strangely uncomfortable.

  “You heard about Vance?” Lily asked, hoping Bree would give her some hint about what had happened.

  “Yeah. We got in about half an hour ago, and the first thing Owen did was make a sour comment about how Vance gets everything he wants with no consequences or something like that. For a moment, Knox was worried that Vance had been involved in some new mischief—the guy’s pretty good at getting into mischief, you know—but then Noah and Myles explained that Owen was just angry that Vance had won you over despite breaking all the rules about discreet flying.”

  Lily sighed. “Yeah. Owen was interested in me, I think. But he’s not my type.”

  “And Vance is?” Bree asked, sitting on the edge of the small couch in the living room, and cocking her head to one side quizzically as she waited for Lily to respond.

  “I know it sounds a little weird, because he and I got started on the wrong foot. But I couldn’t get him out of my head, no matter how angry I tried to be at him. I had the chance to talk to him about things and realized that he is actually a really cool guy. He didn’t mean to scare me that first day. In fact, he was trying to impress me and just went about it rather poorly.”

  Bree furrowed her brow thoughtfully for a few moments. When she spoke, she seemed to be choosing her words carefully. “Look, Lily, I like Vance a lot. Despite his tendency to take a few too many risks, he is one of our best dragons. He’s undeniably good at his job. But you’ve always been almost the direct opposite of a risk-taker. Are you sure you know what you’re doing, getting your heart all tangled up with his?”

  “I’d like to think that I know what I’m doing,” Lily said with a half-smile. “But even if I don’t, I think it’s a little too late to untangle my heart.”

  Bree looked surprised. “You’re that into him already?” she asked. “You’ve never been the type to move quickly with relationships.”

  “I am that into him,” Lily said. “And he’s that into me, too. In fact, we believe we’re lifemates. We…bonded.”

  Now Bree’s jaw actually dropped in shock. “Wow. You are really serious about this. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy for you that you’ve found love. I just never expected it to be with Vance. When I left you seemed to really hate him. And, like I said, you’ve never been the risk-taking type.”

  “I know,” Lily said. “But, honestly, I’ve been feeling a lot lately like I’ve been too careful too many times. I’ve always played perfectly by the rules, and, sure, it’s gotten me far. But I’ve never felt truly fulfilled or truly happy. I’ve always felt like there was something more I was supposed to be doing. That’s part of why I decided to come out here for the summer. I wanted a chance to get away from Falcon Cross and all the busyness of my job there and have time to think about what I really want from life.”

  “Does this mean you might end up moving here to the redwoods?” Bree asked, her voice sounding hopeful.


  Lily faltered. “I’m not sure how everything is going to work,” she said. “I mean you got a job as an ambassador, so that worked out well for you. I’m not so sure that there’s going to be work for me here, though. I’m actually quite worried about the logistics of everything, but I’m trying not to think about it right now. We have the whole summer to figure it out. Assuming that things keep going well, I mean. How secure is the lifemate bond?”

  Bree’s eyes widened as if she couldn’t quite believe what Lily was asking. “Lily, the lifemate bond is unbreakable. That’s why it’s called the lifemate bond—it’s for life. If you and Vance bonded, like you say, you’ll never truly be able to get away from each other.”

  Lily paused to consider everything Bree had just told her. She wanted to be bonded to Vance for life. She had only known him a week and she already could not imagine life without him. But she was scared, too. What if things didn’t work out for them to be together in the end? Sure, she had the whole summer to figure it out, but three months would pass by faster than she thought. What if she and Vance were doomed to always live in different cities, pining away for each other?

  Even as Lily had the thought, she knew that would never happen. As much as she would hate to give up her job as an Advocate, she would hate a life without Vance even more. If they could not figure out a way to make their jobs work and be in the same place, then she would give up her job. Simple as that.

  But she didn’t say all this to Bree. Instead, Lily just shrugged and said, “We’ll figure it out.”

  Bree looked at her long and hard, as if she knew something of the internal struggle that Lily was going through. And Lily supposed that she did. After all, Bree must have had similar thoughts when she was figuring out how to make life with Knox work,

  “Enough about me, though,” Lily said, eager to change the conversation. “What about you? How did your mission go, other than being more complicated than you thought?”

  A look of concern passed over Bree’s face. “The mission was okay, I guess. As you know, though, it was indeed quite a bit more complicated than we thought it would be. There are… stirrings in the shifter world. Shifters are on their guard more than usual, and it’s turning what used to be a quick mission into a much more complicated affair. Even Knox was surprised by how wary the shifters we were stalking were acting.”

  “But you did get the artifact you were looking for, right?” Lily asked.

  “Yes, this time,” Bree said. “But Knox is worried about how difficult missions might become in the long term, if this trend continues. And he’s worried about the security of the artifacts in the redwoods. For a long time, no one knew this place existed. But when Samuel tracked the dragon sapphire here and brought an army of wizards, shifters, and humans in, the location was compromised.”

  Lily’s face darkened at the mention of Samuel. Samuel had been one of the High Councilors in Falcon Cross. The High Councilors were powerful wizards who were charged with a duty to govern and protect their wizard clan. But Samuel had betrayed the wizards of Falcon Cross, and had attempted to steal a powerful ancient artifact, the sapphire dragon stone. Samuel had been defeated, stripped of his magic, and exiled. But some of his army had escaped, and there was a looming possibility that they might try to attack again.

  “But the dragons here guard the artifacts carefully, don’t they? It would take a lot to get past them,” Lily said, trying to make her voice sound more confident than she felt.

  “Well, yes, things here are well guarded,” Bree said. “The dragons keep the artifacts in several different vaults throughout the forest so that no one could easily steal them all at once. The vaults are well hidden and secured. I’ve also added some protective spells to them so that anyone trying to break in would have a difficult time doing so.”

  Lily couldn’t help but chuckle at the proud note in Bree’s voice when she talked about the spells that she had cast. “You always were good at those protective spells,” Lily said. You had the highest grade in your protective spells course during advocacy school, didn’t you?”

  Bree nodded. “I did. But those spells are never foolproof, no matter how strong you cast them. And I worry that there are wizards helping those who want to steal the artifacts. They would know the counter-spells, which would weaken the effectiveness of the protective spells.”

  Lily sighed. “The fight against evil never ends, does it? It’d be nice to have some peace and quiet for a while.”

  “It would,” Bree agreed sadly. “But I’m told that our current worries are nothing compared to the horrors of the last full-on shifter war. The trouble is that if we can’t keep the artifacts safe, there might be another war coming. And with all the artifacts that we have in safekeeping here, a new war would make the last one look like child’s play.”

  Lily shivered. While she worked on her advocacy diploma, she’d studied the history of shifters in great detail. She knew plenty more than she wanted to know about the last shifter war—the war that had left Vance and the rest of the Redwood Dragons as orphans. She could not imagine a war worse than that, and yet, there was no hint of joking on Bree’s face.

  War might be coming. And, if it came, life as Lily knew it would probably change forever.

  “But, surely, now that the wizards and shifters are working together, we can stand against any evil threats that come our way, right?”

  Bree looked tired as she spoke. “We have a better chance, now that we’re working together, yes. And we have the dragon emerald and dragon sapphire, both of which are very powerful. But the dragon ruby and the dragon amethyst are still missing. No one seems to know where they are, but if they were to be found by the wrong people, they might even out the playing field in a way we don’t want it evened out.”

  Lily’s heart went out to Bree. Her friend had been through so much already, and yet her worries were far from over. For the first time, Lily noticed the dark circles under Bree’s eyes. She was tired, and faint worry lines were etched into her forehead. Lily went up to her and put her arm around her.

  “Try not to worry so much,” Lily said. “Knox and the other dragons are doing all they can, and we have a lot of very powerful wizards back in Falcon Cross that would do anything to fight for the cause of good.”

  “I know,” Bree said, forcing a smile onto her face. “It’s just hard, when I’ve finally found so much happiness, to be worried about losing it all.”

  Lily nodded, her mind immediately going to Vance. “I can understand that,” she said. “But we can’t let fear of the unknown ruin the happiness we have today. You’ve been working so hard. Try to relax and enjoy the barbecue tonight. There will be plenty of time to worry about everything else tomorrow.

  Bree smiled again, a little more convincingly this time. “You’re right. I should go shower and get ready. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Zeke can be really funny, when he wants to be. He doesn’t talk much, but that makes it all the better when he suddenly jumps into a conversation with a witty comment.”

  “I can hardly wait,” Lily said, “Things are a lot more fun now that Vance and I aren’t fighting. The last few days have been some of the most amazing times of my life.”

  “Good,” Bree said, her smile genuine now. “I hope that the positive trend continues for the whole summer. I’ll see you at dinner, and you can tell me all about the adventures you and Vance have been having.”

  Lily nodded, giving Bree a small wave as her friend left the cabin. Lily closed the door behind her and leaned against it, feeling strangely uneasy. Things had felt a little too perfect lately, and Lily had a bad feeling that a storm was coming. This summer was not going to be as carefree as she’d hoped it would be.

  But, come what may, at least she had Vance.

  Chapter Eleven

  Vance laughed along with the rest of the crew as Zeke described the way he had tricked a lion shifter into handing over an ancient sword without a fight. Zeke was a master at manipulation, and Vance often thought a
bout how he was glad Zeke was on their side. The man didn’t say much, and he often held back during barbecues or other social gatherings, but, when he did talk, Vance always came away amazed. Zeke was not only witty, he was smart. He wasn’t as good of a flyer or fighter as some of the other dragons, but he made up for it with his intelligence.

  Vance smiled as he looked around at the crew. All of the dragons had their own special abilities, and together the crew made a formidable force. Even though they drove him crazy sometimes—and he was sure he did the same to them—they were his brothers. Lily had been right when she told him that he needed to be thankful for what he did have, because when he really stopped to think about it, he realized that he had so much.

  Vance glanced sideways at Lily, who was grinning as Noah now gave Knox a hard time about how long he’d been gone on what should have been a simple mission.

  “Admit it, you just wanted some extra days for a romantic getaway. You’re going soft on us. Bree, what have you done to him?”

  Knox and Bree laughed along with the rest of the crew. But as the laughter died down, Knox’s face turned serious.

  “As much as Noah would like to think I’m going soft, we have a bigger problem than that,” Knox said. “I hate to put a damper on the fun we’re all having right now, but I think while we’re all here, we should talk about the trouble that’s been brewing, and what we can do about it.”

  Vance frowned as Noah spoke. Lily had already told him that Bree had mentioned that there were concerns about the safety of the artifacts that were under the Redwood Dragons’ watch. Knox said pretty much the same thing, his face grave as he told the crew that guarding the vaults of ancient artifacts would be top priority until further notice. Vance was not happy with this news. Not only was it disappointing to know that the crew was facing threats from outside, but it also irritated Vance to know that protection of the vaults would have to be stepped up. Vance would much rather be off on a mission, enjoying the thrill of the hunt, then making the rounds to check that all the vaults were well-secured. Vance found guard duty intensely boring. He hoped that he wouldn’t be one of the first dragons assigned to make the rounds to the vaults, but as soon as Knox started speaking, those hopes were dashed.