“Why didn’t you tell me what you were planning?”
“Because you would have wanted to help me, and I needed you to lead your people in case I failed, or the shield didn’t hold.”
“You don’t know that.”
I could have just given him a look and told him that I did, but that wasn’t fair. Instead, I squeezed his hand and looked him right in the eye. “If I told you that I was going to go up on the roof and fix your shields myself and then declare war, would you have stayed with your troops or gone with me?”
“…I see your point.” I didn’t think it was possible, but his expression grew even more serious. “But I need you to stop making these decisions for me, Davie. I know that you can see the future, and you can read people like nobody’s business, but I need you to let me decide what I will or will not do in these cases.”
Another gentle squeeze of my hand, but I heard his voice quiver and saw the slightest bit of tears gather in the corner of his eyes. “I did what you asked of me last time, and it nearly broke me. I don’t know if I can do that again.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, sitting up slowly so that I could rest my forehead against his. “I hurt you, and I know that. Please don’t blame yourself for what I did to save you all.”
“How can I not? If I was stronger, or had just planned better, I cou—”
I cut him off as best I could, pressing my lips to his. Just like before, I felt my heart throb and a bubbling, rushing sort of happiness drench my soul. He was all of the good, happy things in life, and I couldn’t understand why he would possibly want to kiss me, but I certainly wasn’t complaining.
When we parted, he had the tiniest of grins on his face. “You know I love you, right, Miss Davie Masters?” he asked, completely serious.
I laughed lightly and rested my forehead against him. “How about you decide if you feel that way after the shock of me coming back from the dead wears off.”
“I don’t need that to know how I feel. Do you?”
“Well…no,” I answered, blushing. “I’m not sure I know exactly what love is, but I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. You make me feel happy and content. Safe.”
“That’s something, considering in my presence you’ve been in endless danger and even died.”
“I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
“What? Dying? You seem to be doing a good job of doing that so far.”
I laughed. “I see what you did there.”
That seemed to break the last of the solemn mood and we just sat there for a good while, holding each other.
For the first time since I was dead, I felt hope. I felt joy. I felt warmth. I knew that tomorrow was going to come with its own host of issues, but those were for tomorrow.
Surprisingly, it was Bronn who broke the comfortable silence first. “So, did you plan on declaring total war on Baelfyre specifically, or were you caught up in the moment?”
“You know, I’m still not quite sure on that.”
“You were pretty frightening, you know that?”
“Good. Maybe they’ll think twice about attacking us.”
“I doubt that. If anything, you’ve made them angrier.”
“Do you disapprove?”
“Not at all. It will most likely make them sloppier. Baelfyre loses his edge when he’s angry, and if we’re taking the war to them, then we’re going to need every advantage we can get.”
I nodded, feeling determination rise up to mix with all of the pleasant feelings within me. We were going to have one hell of a fight on our hands, but I was ready for it.
It was time to make them pay.
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for reading Power of the Seers, the fourth book in the Dragon Oracle series. It’s good to have everyone back together again, isn’t it? At least as good as it can be with a massive war looming. Keep an eye out for the next book in this series, tentatively planned for this fall.
I really do enjoy hearing what readers think so if you could leave a review for me on Amazon, that would be really cool.
At the end of the book, I have included a preview of Mimic and the Space Engineer which is the first book in the Space Shifter Chronicles. It’s a story that takes place in space, but has a lot of similarities to the Dragon Oracle series, especially the shapeshifting main character. After you read the preview, you can download the book on Amazon.
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Bonus Content: Story Preview
Preview: Mimic and the Space Engineer
“Higgens! Clean up on the base deck!”
I jolted forward, nearly shocked out of my skin by the ship’s intercom. A sizzle from below my hands pulled me the other way, and I realized my little gizmo-project had set itself alight with my gap in attention.
“Dammit.” I groaned, grabbing my well-used extinguisher and blasting the creation until it stopped popping and cracking.
“Higgens! Do you read?”
“Yeah! I read! What’s the mess?” I asked.
“Why do you need to know? Just get down there!”
I gave myself a few seconds while I mentally retorted with the sarcastic comeback I wanted to say, before saying what I knew I should say. “I need to know what equipment to bring, unless you want me to haul down about a ton of different bits n’ bobs. Is it a fuel spill? Post-fire recovery? Crew got sick? Injured? Bio-hazard…”
“Alright! Alright! There was a slight rupture in the base of one of the drills and a mess of grit and debris got in.”
“Righto. Space contamination and debris clearing it is.”
“Whatever. Just get down there. We’re supposed to start drilling again in a couple of hours and I’m not missing out on any bonuses because of this.”
“Yes, sir. Of course, sir.”
If this were any other job, I would not tolerate that kind of condescension. But this was the opportunity of a lifetime, and I wasn’t about to risk being kicked off at the next station because I ticked off one of the engineers that ran this place. The pay was triple anything I’d ever been paid before and I got to travel to remote parts of the galaxy where I would never have a chance to go otherwise. As an added bonus, the crew didn’t seem to care if I picked up interesting things that came through the junk stream, which I was turning into my own little creations that I could sell at our next stop.
I hummed to myself as I gathered up my things and headed down. The best thing about my new gig was that we were working on a massive, government-contracted mining vessel with a skeleton crew. I could go days without seeing another human being and it did wonders for the anxiety that always pooled in my stomach when I was forced into professional, polite conversations.
It took about ten minutes to get down into the maintenance underbelly that housed the base of the drills, and the subsequent tubes where all their churned-up debris was funneled through to the sorter. Sure enough, one of the tubes had ruptured, spraying a wall with grit, goop, and who knew what else.
One of the sensors on my cart beeped yellow so I glanced at the display.
“Space radiation levels slightly elevated,” I said to myself. “Might as well play it safe.”
Digging through my supplies, I found my anti-rad fi
eld and placed it onto my chest. Once it adhered to my jumpsuit, it was just a press of the button and then I was safe from any of those cancerous sorts of mutations that liked to happen when space messed with one’s insides.
“Let’s get this party started then,” I mused, turning on my music in the earpiece implanted just under my ear. Standard fare for all government and government-contracted employees.
A lot of people didn’t like cleaning, or repairing, but I did. It was like one of my virtual games, but with real world consequences. I set about patching the tube first. I could flush it once it was repaired and clean the rest of the room while that was going on.
It was a fairly long, drawn-out process, and by the time it was all finished, I was covered in dirt and sweat. I took a last look around the metal-covered room, which now had a great sparkle to it if I did say so myself, and gave a nod of satisfaction before trundling back to my room.
“Tube repaired and flushed, and the cleanup is finished. I’m on my way to dump the debris and muck now.”
“Took you long enough. You’d think you wouldn’t mind putting a rush on it considering how much we’re paying you.”
“Apologies, sir. I just like to be thorough and leave it better than when I arrived.”
“Yeah, whatever. Just be quicker on the next one.”
Maybe if you took care of your ship more, there wouldn’t be so many ‘next ones.’
I shook that thought out of my head. I didn’t have time to be negative. It was a waste of both energy and brainpower. I turned my music up and continued to the disposal room, daydreaming of my next little project.
It was easy to slip into a daydream, and I was only half paying attention as I pushed my cart through the ship. Making sure to put on my thick protective gloves, I reached into the waste chamber and started picking out bits to toss in.
A sheet of buckled metal, some jelly-like liquid, it was all very ho-hum until I felt something pinch my arm.
“Ow!” I jerked and looked into my cart, expecting to see a sharp piece of shrapnel or bit of warped equipment. Instead, I saw something hanging onto my wrist.
I screamed, reaching an octave I didn’t know I was capable of. I reared back, whipping my hand about like a complete maniac. There might have been sensible words coming out of my mouth, but I had no idea what they were. I just knew I needed whatever the heck was touching me to let go!
And boy, did it let go. Like a little, shiny, black missile, the thing went sailing into the far wall where it smacked into the aged, metal surface then slid down to the chemical-disposal shelf.
I finally stopped screaming and somehow had the wherewithal to grab a piece of junk that could work as a weapon. I brought it up, totally ready to go toe-to-toe with the strange thing that attacked me.
Except…it wasn’t attacking me. If anything, it was cowering, hurt and shivering on the shelf. Despite everything my brain was warning me, I slowly lowered the pipe in my hand. “I’m sorry, you scared me. You alright there, little guy?”
The thing stopped shaking and turned to look at me. Or at least that was what I assumed it was doing. It didn’t have any eyes that I could discern, and yet I had the distinct impression that it was indeed seeing me.
It was a strange critter, all angles and harsh, onyx spikes. It didn’t seem to have legs so much as it would grow random bits to move itself about, then they would shrink back into itself.
I lowered my arms completely and took a cautious step toward it. “Hey, I’m all about the non-violence, so if you’re not going to eat my brains, I don’t see why I can’t help you out.”
The little thing let out a trill and it was possibly the most adorable sound I had ever heard. I instantly thought of a basket full of puppies. Its color rolled from black to grey to a dark green, and it cautiously scuttled forward to the edge of the shelf.
It was the moment of truth. I reached out, trying to quell the anxiety pooling in my stomach, and held out my hand right in front of the little alien. It stood there for several long, painful seconds before taking a cautious step forward onto my hand. When I continued to cooperate, it gingerly climbed closer and closer, until it was perched on my shoulder.
“Well,” I murmured to myself, my head trying to wrap about everything that had just happened. “I guess I always wanted a pet.”
Read the rest of the story here:
amazon.com/dp/B075FKW915/
Power of the Seers Page 12