Bree had not done much magic since leaving Falcon Cross. Aside from the spells in the forest to hide from Knox, and then the few spells to prove to the Redwood Dragons that she was a wizard, there had not been much need for magic. Bree felt nervous now, as she thought about using such strong magic spells so far away from the wizard town where she had grown up. She was painfully aware, for perhaps the first time in her life, of just how different she was from normal humans. Sure, she had studied interactions with non-wizards in detail during her time in Advocacy school. But that had all been history and theory. She’d never been in a position where she needed to use magic in front of non-wizards. Casting spells in front of the dragon shifters hadn’t been so bad. After all, they were “different,” too. They understood what it was like to have special powers. But full humans, well, that was another story. If they saw what Bree was doing, they were likely to throw a fit about it. The last thing Bree wanted to do right now was draw attention to herself like that.
Bree wondered as she drove whether the wizards searching for her had any clue where she was. They obviously had not discovered the Redwood Dragons hideout, and Bree was thankful for that. But the closer she got to the dragon sapphire, the more she started to worry that she was going to be found out. After all, it was no secret that she was worried about the dragon stone falling into the wrong hands. It would not take a genius to guess that she was in pursuit of the stone. Not only that, but Bree had written a detailed report on the location of the dragon sapphire while she was still working as an Advocate. She had included the fact that it was likely to end up in Mountain View, and she had even reported the addresses for the multiple homes the wealthy gem collector owned throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The more Bree thought about it, the more she realized that strolling around in plain view in the middle of Mountain View had probably been an enormously foolish idea. She was lucky there had not been wizard spies already there and waiting for her.
Perhaps she had just been lucky, but in any case, Bree told herself that if this mission today failed, she was not going to casually stroll around in Silicon Valley anymore. She had to be more careful.
“Noah said the armored vehicle is less than fifteen minutes away from us right now,” Knox said, breaking into Bree’s thoughts. “He thinks this is probably a good time to start finding a spot to destroy the road and cause a backup. If we wait too long, we won’t leave ourselves any wiggle room if something goes wrong. Besides, we’re somewhat in the middle of nowhere right now. It’s probably better to wreck the road out here than near a larger city.”
Bree nodded, and put on her turn signal to take the next exit. “I’ll just flip around to the other side of the highway then, and get going on the spell.”
She felt as though her heart was in her throat. She hadn’t felt this nervous since she took her final exams for her Advocacy diploma, but even that seemed now like it had been a much smaller deal than this. Bree couldn’t afford to screw this up. She had to block the road and stop the armored car at just the right time so they would be caught in a hopeless backup, and she had to do it in a way that no one would see her and know it was her.
Luckily, it was deserted enough on this stretch of highway that no one was likely to see her performing spells, or think anything suspicious of their car parked on the shoulder of the road. Bree drove around so that she was now on the northbound side of the highway and she pulled to a stop on the side of the road just before an exit.
“I’m going to do all the damage right behind us,” she said. “Then we can immediately exit and drive on the southbound highway until we can turn around and get on the northbound highway again. We should have no trouble doing that before they close down the entrance ramps. I want to be near the front of the traffic, but not at the very front. I’m hoping to avoid being questioned by the police about whether I saw anything happen.”
Knox nodded, glancing down at his phone. “Sounds good to me,” he said. “Noah just texted that the armored car is about ten minutes from us now. Let’s get this road torn up, and hope that this works.”
Bree gave Knox what she hoped was a confident nod, and then she stepped out of the car. Every few seconds, a car whizzed by her. Even out here, on this deserted stretch of land, there weren’t very many extended breaks in the traffic. Bree waited until one of the longer breaks and then pointed her magic ring at the road.
“Magicae inferno,” she yelled. A white hot flame burst from her ring, much larger than the smaller fire from the ignis spell. The inferno spell brought about an instant wall of flames that was enough to melt the pavement and send flames shooting several feet into the air. The impressive flames were an important part of Bree’s plan. She planned to send a huge fissure across the road next, but she wanted to also cause some sort of destruction that was easily visible, so that cars would not just drive into a fissure at eighty miles an hour.
As Bree had hoped, the cars approaching the wall of flames saw it from a good distance away, and slowed to a halt some distance away from the fire.
“Alright, time to make this little blockage truly effective,” Bree said. She pointed her magic ring at the road directly behind the fire.
“Magicae destruam!” Bree said. This was a demolishing spell—one which Bree had struggled with all during advocacy school. Today, though, she managed to execute it perfectly. A laser-like beam of light shot forth from her magic ring and suddenly the road behind the fire began to split in two. A huge fissure appeared, making it look like a giant earthquake had torn the road apart. For a moment, Bree stared at the destruction in awe, hardly able to believe that she had pulled off the spell so well. But Knox’s voice quickly spurred her back to action.
“Come on, my little wizard,” he called from the car, his voice urgent. “We need to get moving.”
Bree ran back to the car, jumping into the driver’s seat and speeding quickly away from the fire and ruined roadway. Their rental car roared down the exit ramp, and Bree quickly turned around under the nearby overpass. She sped down the access road next to the southbound highway until she came to another overpass, where she turned around again and took the next entrance ramp to get back onto the northbound highway. Already, cars were backing up. Toward the front of the line, she could see drivers starting to get out of their vehicles and talk to each other, many of them scratching their heads as they pointed toward the flames, which were beginning to die down somewhat. The road had melted away, and not much fuel was left for the fire. But the gaping split in the highway just beyond the dwindling fire was more impressive than the flames, anyway. Bree saw the drivers near the front of the line starting to point at the hole, shaking their heads and gesturing wildly. Bree had to hold back a giggle. She wished she could hear what they were saying.
A few minutes later, the sound of police sirens filled the air, and three police cars came roaring up the shoulder of the highway toward the destruction. Bree watched as the policemen surveyed the damage, then started talking to the drivers near the front of the line. Above them, the whirring of a news helicopter could be heard. This mystery fissure in the road had quickly caught the interest of the local television networks.
Knox, who had been on the phone with Noah, suddenly turned to Bree.
“Alright, Noah’s source says the armored car is caught up in the backup less than a quarter mile behind us,” Knox said. “Are you ready to go switch the stones?”
Bree nodded, although she didn’t feel ready. She felt slightly sick to her stomach, thinking of everything that could go wrong. But she couldn’t think about all the awful possibilities now. She just had to do her best, and trust that things would work out. Knox pulled the fake dragon sapphire out of the small cardboard box, and handed it to Bree.
“Good luck,” he said, leaning over to kiss her.
“Thanks,” she whispered, taking a moment to relish how wonderful his lips felt on hers. Oh, how she hoped that tonight they would have the real dragon sapphire safely in their possession, so they
could take time to relax in each other’s arms. But hope by itself wasn’t enough. Bree needed to take action.
“You’ll need to take the driver’s seat,” she told Knox as she put the fake sapphire securely into the front pocket of her light hoodie. “I’ll walk back and, if all goes according to plan, I’ll get the real sapphire without anyone seeing me. When I get back, I’ll perform a repairing spell on the road. No doubt, this will hopelessly confuse the policemen, but it should get traffic moving again before too long. We can escape with the rest of the crowd, and, if we’re lucky, no one will realize that the real sapphire is missing for quite some time.”
“Sounds good,” Knox said. “If you run into trouble or need help, shoot some flames up into the air from your ring.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Bree said. “But if I’m in dire straits I’ll send you a signal.”
Knox nodded, his eyes looking worried. “Be careful,” he whispered.
Bree gave him a brave smile, then took a deep breath and said “Magicae invisibilia.”
Instantly, she disappeared from view. She saw Knox shake his head in amazement, then reach out to feel the spot in the driver’s seat where she had just been. Of course, his hand ran into her body even though he couldn’t see it. The spell made her invisible, not immaterial.
“So weird,” he said, shaking his head.
“I know,” Bree said. “But no time to play around now. I have to go.”
Quickly, she opened the car door and left the vehicle, hoping that no one was watching closely enough to realize that the door appeared to have just opened by itself. She doubted that anyone was paying that much attention to her car. Everyone was gaping toward the front of the backup, where police lights were flashing and helicopters were hovering. Bree started running, unseen, through the stationary line of cars. She wasn’t in the greatest of shape, so she was glad when she saw an armored vehicle not too far in the distance. She made for it as fast as she could manage, stopping right in front of it and peering through the front windshield to see, to her relief, that the man in the passenger seat looked exactly like the pictures of the gem collector she had seen when doing her research as an Advocate.
The gem collector was on his cell phone, rubbing his forehead in annoyance and shaking his head as he looked at the long line of cars. The armored guard was on his phone, too, and didn’t look much happier than the gem collector. Bree hoped that both of them would be too distracted to realize when the back gate of the vehicle opened. Her heart was beating so fast she felt like it was going to leap out of her chest, but she forced herself to remain calm. She clutched the fake sapphire in her pocket, making sure it was still there and secure. Then she crept around to the back of the vehicle and pointed her wand at the back gate.
“Magicae resero,” she whispered. This was the unlocking spell. She heard a click as the door unlocked, and she held her breath as she waited to see whether the guard or the gem collector would turn around. Neither one of them did, and Bree breathed a sigh of relief. But she realized that there was no way the noise from opening the back gate would go unnoticed. It would be too loud, and she needed a distraction. She stepped back from the vehicle and looked around, trying to think of what to do. In the lane next to the armored vehicle, a man was bopping his head to the beat of his radio. The hip-hop music was rather loud, and Bree could make out almost all the words even though all of the man’s windows were closed. Bree smiled. Maybe this was her answer. She pointed her magic ring carefully at the man’s radio, and spoke.
“Magicae amplificare,” she said. The amplifying spell instantly shot the volume of the man’s radio to its highest possible level. The man covered his ears, startled, and then tried to turn down the volume on the radio. The volume did not change, and he jumped out of his vehicle, cursing and covering his ears.
Bree knew she only had a few seconds of confusion to take advantage of the moment. She slid the back gate of the armored vehicle open, then jumped in and slid it shut behind her. Finding the stone was easy enough. The back of the vehicle was filled with several soft bags of what she guessed was currency, and then one small black box anchored securely to the side of the vehicle.
“Magicae resero,” she whispered, pointing her ring at the box. It clicked open, and she pulled the lid up to reveal a giant sapphire.
“Bingo,” she said to herself. She quickly switched out the real stone with her fake one, closed the lid, and whispered, “Magicae sero.” The spell relocked the box, and Bree turned to leave the vehicle, but she was too late. The guard and gem collector had turned around now to look through the thick glass between the driver’s cabin and the back of the vehicle.
“Reckon I should check on the cargo,” the guard said. “That guy is probably just an idiot who messed up his radio, but you know how these things go. The moment you assume something is not a distraction being used to get access to your cargo is the moment you get robbed.”
The gem collector had turned around to look too, and was nodding. Bree had never been so thankful for the invisibility spell, but she knew she had no way to get out of the vehicle before the guard came around. Not with the gem collector in the front seat, watching.
“Magicae sero,” she whispered quickly, pointing her ring at the back gate of the vehicle to relock it before the guard got there. Then she scooted as close as she could to the back of the vehicle, waiting for him to open the gate himself. As soon as the gate was opened, Bree jumped past the guard, who frowned as he felt a strange rush of wind, but shrugged it off when he looked around and didn’t see anything.
Bree stood outside the vehicle for a moment, waiting and watching as the guard checked. Apparently satisfied, the guard turned and left the vehicle, relocking it behind him. Bree shivered at the sight of the large gun the man was armed with, but she told herself to remain calm. He didn’t know she was there, and as far as he was concerned, everything was still there in the vehicle. Bree fingered the sapphire in her pocket, which was now the real dragon sapphire. She could hardly believe she had pulled it off.
She realized suddenly that she needed to get going. She was standing there, invisible and staring at the armored vehicle like an idiot. She started to run back toward the front of the line of cars, when she realized that the poor man with the amplified radio was still standing outside of his vehicle, cursing and kicking his tires. Bree raised her ring and pointed it toward the man’s radio again.
“Amplificare terminantur,” she said. The radio instantly returned to a normal level, leaving the man who owned the car standing there scratching his head in confusion.
Bree ran back to the front of the line of cars, where several more police cars and helicopters had now arrived. The police were trying to figure out a way to direct cars across the steep grass to the access road, since the fissure in the road didn’t look like anything that was going to be fixed any time soon. The fire had burned itself down completely by now, leaving melted pavement in front of the giant crack in the road. Bree saw Knox sitting in the driver’s seat of their rental car, looking anxiously around and tapping his fingers nervously on the steering wheel. Bree couldn’t keep a small smile off her face when she saw the look of concern on his face. She knew that a great part of that concern was because he cared about her, and that knowledge warmed her heart.
She didn’t have time right now to sit around watching Knox be concerned for her, though. They needed to get out of here as quickly as possible, and get the dragon sapphire somewhere safe. Bree crept up to the break in the road, still invisible. She raised her magic ring and pointed it toward the heavily damaged roadway.
“Magicae sarcio,” she said, a powerful repairing spell. Instantly, the large fissure in the road started closing up. Then the melted areas morphed back into normal pavement. The astonished police officers and onlookers were shouting and pointing. Many of them were backing away from the spot that had just been damaged, as if afraid that it would suddenly come back more damaged than ever. Bree started
creeping back toward the rental car, then jumped in quickly next to Knox, who nearly jumped out of his skin when the passenger door of the car opened seemingly by itself.
“Jesus, that invisibility trick is enough to make someone think they’re losing their mind,” he said, shaking his head as he reached out to poke Bree even though he couldn’t see her.
“Invisibilia terminantur,” Bree said. Within moments, the spell lifted and Knox could see her again.
“Did you get it?” he asked.
Bree nodded, and slowly pulled the sapphire out of her pocket. Knox whistled.
“It looks exactly like the fake one,” he said.
“I know,” Bree said. “It’s crazy. Hopefully this really is the real one.”
“I don’t see why it wouldn’t be,” Knox said. “But we’ll need to get out of here before we can really examine it. You should probably put it away, in fact. It’s not safe to be waving it around with so many other people around.”
Bree nodded and put the stone back in her hoodie pocket. She felt strange, knowing that she had such a valuable jewel just sitting there in her pocket like that. She looked back toward the front of the line of cars, and saw that the police were talking to each other, looking confused. They probably were not sure whether it was safe to let people drive over a spot that had been a giant hole only moments before. For several minutes, they consulted. Finally, it looked like they were going to let one lane of cars at a time go on the shoulder of the road. The cars in front of Knox and Bree started inching forward, and Knox started the engine on the rental car again, preparing to follow the line of cars.
Defiance and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 1) Page 12