Magic and Shadows: A Collection of YA Fantasy and Paranormal Romances

by T. M. Franklin

Draco turned in the air, locking his eyes on the net.

  “And that was two on two. Imagine what Ophi and I could do to you!” I forced a smile, trying to play the part of the confident warrior. I might not have actually felt confident, but I had to face the fact that I was part of the army, whether I wanted to be or not. “It’s your turn now, Draco. Why don’t you come find out what we have planned for you?”

  Draco screeched. Some of the guys came out from behind the boulders to take a look. They smiled at me when they saw the captured constellations. I tried to wave them back behind the rocks, but they gave me thumbs-ups and waves in return. Finally, I yelled, “Get down!”

  Draco swooped and grabbed two of them in his claws. Another guy ran off, but Draco flew after him, catching him in a matter of seconds.

  Bobson and Avery raised their bows and arrows.

  “No!” I shouted. “You could hit the guys!”

  All we could do was watch as Draco carried three of the guys away. The remaining recruits crawled out from behind the boulders. No need to do a head count. Only five remained. My plan had gotten us two constellations. But it had cost us fifteen guys.

  13

  I fell to my knees and pounded the dirt with my fists. Avery ran to me and pulled me to my feet, burying my face in his chest, which wasn’t easy to do considering he was wearing armor.

  “Nice work, everyone.” Bobson’s voice was muffled, and I could tell he was chewing on his pen again. “Two down and one to go. We’d better get back to the castle and let Melanie know what’s happened.”

  I pulled away from Avery and grabbed the pen from Bobson’s mouth as he walked by. “Open the portal. Now!” I raced through the rocks to the spot where the portal opened and dumped the ink from the pen onto the dirt. “Say whatever magic words you need to open this. We’re sending these five back home right now. I’m not losing another person to your constellations.”

  Avery stared at me with pity in his eyes. My hair was blowing in front of my face, and I probably looked like a mad woman, but I didn’t care.

  Bobson grabbed the empty pen from my hands and scowled. “That’s enough. You’ve wasted good ink.” He turned to Avery. “Get her under control before I have to. We’re going back to Melanie, and I don’t want to hear another word from anyone.” He looked around at what was left of the army, making sure none of them got any ideas of joining me in my outburst.

  The guys lowered their heads and followed Bobson without complaint. As usual, I was the only one objecting to this whole situation. I started to protest, but Avery put his finger to my lips. “It won’t do any good. You’ll only freak out the guys. We’ll figure something out when we get back to the castle.” He took my hand, interlacing his fingers with mine. We’d never held hands like this before. Like a couple walking through the mall. My head felt cloudy, and before I knew it, we were walking up the hill to the castle. I was completely lost in thoughts of Avery and me. Had there always been tiny flecks of green in his eyes? Did the left side of his hair always flip up slightly at the ends? It would’ve looked funny on anyone else, but on Avery it was adorable. No, it was sexy.

  Melanie’s grimacing face as we reached the castle door tore me right away from my happy place and straight back into the hell I was living.

  Her eyes fell on the few remaining guys and then shot to Bobson. “Where are the others?” I was shocked she actually cared enough to notice.

  “Draco picked off the boys a few at a time and flew away with them,” Bobson said. “We can search for them when night falls, if you’d like, but I thought it was too dangerous to do at the time. Even after we’d captured Serpens and Scorpius.” He stepped aside and gestured to the net Ophi was dragging.

  Melanie’s eyes lit up, but she didn’t smile. “Good. At least the boys weren’t lost for nothing.”

  I couldn’t believe Bobson was trying to spin the situation like this. “That’s not how it happened. Some of those guys were taken after Ophi and I captured Serpens and Scorpius. It shouldn’t have happened.” I let go of Avery’s hand and walked up to Melanie. “We’re going after them, right? Find out where Draco took them and bring them back?”

  “We’ll see.” Melanie looked past me at Ophi and the net. “Take them to the other side of the hill and chain them to the trees. Make sure you weigh the net down with rocks. That should hold them until we can find a way to put them back in the heavens.”

  Ophi nodded and dragged the net across the yard.

  Melanie walked into the castle without another word about the lost recruits. Any sympathy I thought I had for Melanie after finding out the truth about her and her parents flew right out of me. But arguing with her was useless. I was going to have to start playing Melanie’s game. I was going to have to start lying.

  I followed her. “The guys need rest. They’re exhausted and completely shaken up. We should let them sleep while we figure out what to do next.”

  Melanie looked at the army before turning to Bobson, who shrugged. “Fine. They can sleep for two hours in one of the guestrooms downstairs.”

  Two hours. Like that was enough sleep. And cramming all five into one guestroom was absurd. There must’ve been at least twenty guestrooms in this place. But I kept my mouth shut. The farther away the guys were from Melanie, the better, and I had no intention of letting them sleep anyway.

  “Come on.” I motioned for Avery and the guys to follow me. We walked to a room at the far end of the castle. I had to make sure Bobson and Melanie wouldn’t overhear us. The boys filed in, collapsing on the floor in exhaustion. I locked the door behind the last boy.

  “You can take the bed,” Avery said. “We’ll sleep on the floor.”

  I took his arm and led him to the window. “Listen, nobody’s going to sleep.”

  “What?” Avery shook his head like he hadn’t heard me correctly.

  “I don’t care what Melanie or Bobson say. We can’t leave those boys out there on their own with Draco. It’s my fault they were taken. I owe it to them to find them. To bring them back.”

  “Ella, I know you feel bad, but it’s not your fault. We had no way of knowing Draco would fly off with them.” Avery put his hand on my shoulder. “It easily could’ve been me or Bobson who was taken.”

  “I wish it were Bobson. But still, it was my plan. I’m responsible. I knew the risks, and I went through with it anyway. I used those boys. Just like—” I couldn’t finish my thought. Maybe what I did was as bad as what Melanie was doing, but I wouldn’t have had to do it if she hadn’t kidnapped us in the first place.

  “Stop beating yourself up over this.” Avery sighed. “You’re right, though. Melanie and Bobson don’t seem like they’re going to look for the guys. So, I guess that means it’s up to us.”

  I nodded. “We’ll need Ophi. He’s wickedly strong and a good fighter. He’ll help us. I know he will. But convincing these guys…” I looked around at the remaining boys. They were comparing battle wounds, trying to sound tough, but they weren’t fooling anyone. They were terrified of this place.

  Avery nodded and put his hands on his hips. “I’ll tell them. They’ll take it better from me.”

  “Thanks. I saw a back entrance out this door and down the hall to the left. I’ll go get Ophi and meet you and the guys out back in ten minutes.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll find the others.” He didn’t really believe that, but I appreciated him saying it anyway. I smiled and went to find Ophi.

  Serpens and Scorpius were wrapped up in the net and chained to the trees. I didn’t know how he’d done it, but Ophi had the chains tied up so much they looked like they’d never come undone. And now he was lifting huge boulders onto each side of the netting.

  “That’s incredible,” I said. “You’re amazingly strong.”

  Ophi blushed and set the last boulder down. “Nah. You should see Hercules. He’s strong. He could probably hurl these boulders into space.”

  I couldn’t waste time on small talk. We only had two hour
s to search all of Stellaris for the lost boys and get back to the castle before Melanie and Bobson noticed we were gone. “Avery’s getting the army ready. We’re going to search for the guys Draco took during the fight.”

  Ophi nodded. “No problem.”

  I swallowed hard, not knowing how Ophi would take the idea of sneaking around behind Melanie’s back. He didn’t hate her the way Draco and some of the others did, and I didn’t know how loyal he felt to her.

  “Listen, Ophi, there’s something you should know. And if you don’t want to go along with us after I tell you, I’ll completely understand. But I’m asking that you let us get a head start before you go to Melanie.”

  He cocked his head to the side. “She doesn’t know we’re going to look for the boys?”

  Did he say we?

  “She wasn’t very concerned about them,” I said, doing my best to hide my hatred for Melanie.

  “Ah.” He took a deep breath. “Melanie is trying to protect what her family has always protected. You need to understand that. Her loyalty is to Stellaris and to the heavens.”

  I didn’t need a lecture or an in-depth look into Melanie’s thought process.

  “But you must be loyal to your people.” Ophi smiled. “I’ll help you. I see no harm in doing so. We may even take down Draco in the process. That would make everyone happy.”

  “Thank you, Ophi.” I felt better having him with us.

  “Ready to go?” Avery asked, walking over to us with the boys following closely behind him.

  “Just out of curiosity, do we ever get to rest around here?” Derek, the one who’d hit on me when he first got here, asked.

  I understood how he felt, but there wasn’t time. Who knew how long we had before they started to fade too? “Hang in there.” My eyes dropped to the silver shining in the guys’ hands. “Are those kitchen knives?”

  Avery shrugged. “Bobson was in the training room, polishing the weapons. It was either take these or go empty-handed.”

  “I still have my bow and arrow and some rope,” Ophi said.

  I shrugged. “Better than nothing. Let’s go.”

  We headed down the hill and into the trees. Staying hidden was our best bet. Luckily, the trees lined the edge of the open fields. It took longer to get back to the boulders, but it was safer. And right now, safer sounded good.

  Ophi led the group with his bow and arrow raised. He stopped us when we reached the boulders. “There’s something lying on the ground over there. I can’t tell what it is.”

  I crept forward. “I’ll go check.”

  “No,” Avery said in a loud whisper. “Let me.”

  “I’m smaller than you. I can move through the boulders without being seen that much from above.”

  Avery grabbed my hand. I thought he was going to try holding me there, but he squeezed my fingers and let go. “Be careful.”

  I nodded. “Ophi?”

  “I’ve got you covered.” He steadied the bow and arrow, pointing it at the sky above the boulders.

  I snuck out onto the peach colored dirt, staying as low as possible. I weaved through the boulders and up to the dark object on the ground. I recognized the shirt. An eighties rock band was pictured on the front. Megadeth. I actually knew the boy it belonged to. Andrew. He worked at the CD store in the mall. He was one of the only recruits I’d recognized from home. I picked it up, and my fingers felt something sticky. I turned the shirt over and saw blood on the back of the collar. I remembered how the scent of my blood had attracted Draco earlier.

  A hand rested on my shoulder. I didn’t need to turn to know it was Avery’s. “It’s Andrew’s shirt.”

  “He must be near here. Let’s keep looking.”

  My eyes dropped to the ground where drops of blood led through the boulders and away from the forest. I’d never gone farther than the boulders, so I had no idea what was there.

  “Avery, there’s a trail of blood.”

  He waved the others over to us, and we followed the little red dots to a group of hills. A valley snaked between them.

  “Which way do we go?” one of the guys asked.

  “If we take the hills, we’ll have a better chance of seeing the entire area,” Ophi said, “but we’ll be higher up and probably closer to Draco’s nest.”

  Derek shook his head. “Forget that then! Let’s take the valley.”

  Avery put his hands on his hips and studied the valley in front of us. “Taking the valley puts us in the open where Draco could spot us.”

  “Wait.” I squinted down the trail through the valley. “There’s something shiny up ahead. It could be a piece of armor.” My heart hammered. “Andrew must have gone through the valley.”

  “I don’t like this,” Ophi said, running his fingers through his hair. “Draco could’ve flown through here with Andrew in his claws. The armor could’ve fallen off. We don’t know for sure that Andrew is in the valley or that he ever was.”

  Ophi was making a lot of sense, but something didn’t quite add up. “If Draco was carrying Andrew, the drops of blood would’ve been more spaced out. Andrew was on foot. I know he was.”

  “Or it’s a trap,” Ophi said.

  “You think Draco purposely flew Andrew at an insanely slow pace to make it look like Andrew was on his own?”

  “I don’t know, but I wouldn’t put anything past Draco.” Ophi bit his lower lip. “It’s your call. What do you want to do?”

  My call? When had I become the leader? Yet everyone was looking at me, waiting for a decision. I checked the trail for more blood. As far as I could see there wasn’t any. Either Andrew’s wound had clotted by the time he’d gotten here or—I didn’t want to think of the “or.” It involved Draco swooping down and snatching Andrew.

  Taking the hills was the safest plan for us. But if Andrew was in the valley, hurt or dying, it might cost him his life.

  “Let’s take the valley,” I said, trying to sound sure of myself. “We came out here to find the guys, and this is our best lead.”

  Avery and Ophi nodded. The others looked like they were about to faint, but they followed.

  We stuck as close as we could to the surrounding trees. This time Avery insisted on being the one to retrieve the item we’d seen on the ground. He came back holding a metal shoulder guard. “It’s dented and smeared with blood.”

  No one commented. We kept walking, hoping we were getting closer to Andrew and maybe some of the others too. About a hundred yards farther, we found a helmet lying just short of an enormous crater.

  “What made that?” Derek asked.

  “A meteor,” I said. “This must be where one of them landed when the rogue constellations came to Stellaris.”

  “There’s another crater over there in the side of that hill,” Ophi said.

  Avery pointed. “And one up ahead on the trail.”

  Derek looked all around. “But where are the meteors?”

  “Actually, they’re called meteorites once they touch the ground,” Ophi said.

  Derek rolled his eyes. “Who cares what they’re called! Where are they?”

  “I don’t know.” I shook my head. “What would three rogue constellations want with a bunch of meteorites?” Sagittarius had said the constellations were plotting something big, but were the meteorites part of it?

  Derek was standing at the edge of the first crater, looking into it. “Hey, there’s something down there.”

  “Be careful, the ground might not be sturdy after a crash that big,” Ophi said.

  Derek didn’t listen. He leaned farther, and the next thing I heard was his scream as he fell into the crater.

  “Derek!” Avery shouted.

  We all ran to the edge. It was one of those things you didn’t really want to see but couldn’t help watching. Derek tumbled to the bottom, rolling most of the way. My breath caught in my throat as I stared in horror. He landed in a heap. Dirt stirred up in the air, and he coughed. He was alive.

  “Hang on!” Ophi ha
nded Avery his bow and arrow and unwound his rope. He tied one end around the base of a tree and grabbed the other. “I’m going down.”

  I nodded as he started his descent. Avery put his arm around my shoulders. He knew I was blaming myself again. We should’ve taken the hills first to see what was up ahead. But no, I’d followed my own stupid gut and it had gotten another guy in trouble. I couldn’t stand here and wait. I ran to the rope and backed down into the pit like Ophi had.

  “Ella!” Avery yelled, but I ignored him.

  “Derek’s all right,” Ophi shouted from somewhere below me.

  “Ella, come back up! You heard Ophi. He’ll bring Derek back. Just get up here now!”

  I had to see for myself. I had to help Derek.

  “There’s another boy down here too,” Ophi said. “Must be Andrew. He’s pretty beat-up. And unconscious.”

  “He’s going to need help,” I yelled to Avery. “Ophi’s strong, but he won’t be able to balance two guys and climb back out.”

  “I’m right behind you.” Avery threw his weapons on the ground and grabbed the rope.

  We climbed down to Ophi, who was kneeling next to Andrew. I checked on Derek first. He was scraped up and bloody, but he was okay.

  “How do I look?” he asked me.

  “Like hell, but so do the rest of us. You’ll live.” I was trying to keep the tone light so Derek wouldn’t panic. I had a feeling he had a mild concussion after a fall like that, but right now our biggest concern was Andrew. “Let’s get Andrew up and get out of here,” I said.

  I looked up to see the rest of the boys had joined us in the pit. My expression must have conveyed my confusion because one of them said, “What? We weren’t staying up there by ourselves.”

  “Fine. Give Ophi a hand then.”

  Ophi gently lifted Andrew into his arms. The guys helped, making sure Andrew’s head was supported. No way could we search for the others like this. Ophi was going to have to take Andrew back to the castle while we continued to look for the boys.

  We got back to the rope, and I looked at Ophi, wondering how he was going to carry Andrew out of the crater. But before I got a chance to ask, a gust of wind blew across the pit. We shielded our eyes from the dirt that flew up all around us. Most of the guys turned and covered their faces, but I looked up to see what had caused the wind.