by Jody Wallace
This time when Victoria wriggled and struggled, the vines lost their magical cohesion and untangled from her body. She shook them off, pushed her hair out of her face, and lifted her chin.
“You’re making a mistake. You don’t realize how many lives you saved, Nadia. How many people you helped.”
“I realize how many territories you conquered. How much power you gained. How many cities you ransacked. How many dragons you hold captive and continue to enslave.” She stretched her front legs, her back legs. Could this truly be happening? Was she free?
And where would she go, what would she do, with her very own wizard? What would she do with the rest of her life?
What she had always wanted. She would be whatever struck her fancy…and soon, she hoped, so would others like her.
“For their own good,” Victoria insisted. “It is always for their own good.”
“Well, you can do this hypothetical good without me. Go back to Valiant Province, if you can wrest it back from Shula. When we left, it seemed she’d defeated you.”
“I can rout her treacherous ass with one hand…” Victoria’s frown brightened, and she let out a raucous laugh. “I’d best be able to rout her with one hand, hadn’t I? Either way, I’m sure Fliss has already trounced her.” She rubbed her fist against the small of her back, a gesture Nadia had seen her make more and more often of late.
And would hopefully never see her make again.
“Perhaps we can come to an agreement,” Victoria said. “I do…contract with free dragons on occasion. Even if you’re not to be my dragon, perhaps if the two of you see something in the future I need to manage, you’ll let me know, eh? I will pay well. Just send me word if you see downtrodden women and children? Starving peasants? Forest fires in my province that threaten whole villages? That sort of thing?”
“We aren’t going to use my magic. It corrupts,” Nadia told her. Barnabas, at her side, made a little noise that could have been agreement and could have been something else. She wasn’t about to tell Victoria she intended to join the Dragon Liberation Front and do everything in her prophetic power to end the subjugation of her kind.
Satisfied Victoria wouldn’t—couldn’t—pursue them, she snatched a surprised Barnabas in her talons and vaulted into the air, her strong, healed wings arrowing through the sky like dragons were meant to do.
# # #
Incognito, Barnabas and Nadia checked in with the DLF to report Nadia’s status. According to the sympathizers in place, Victoria had handily beaten back Shula’s red warriors. After certain agreements were made, they flew back to Valiant City on a free brown dragon who allowed Barnabas to absorb enough magic for a concealment talisman that should get them safely back to Earth. While Valiant Province would continue to be ruled by Victoria, it remained to be seen how she would fare without Nadia in her stable.
Once in the city walls, they wasted no time returning to the Earth portal, where they had a very unexpected encounter. A man Barnabas did not recognize was inside the portal room, chipping away at the phosphorescent mold on the surrounding stones.
“Aiden!” Nadia exclaimed, dropped her pack, and flung herself at the large blond human.
Not human. Dragon. The moment he noticed Nadia, his face, neck, and hands lit up with bright tracery.
They embraced with a flash of happy silver. That was before Aiden held Nadia at arm’s length and said, “What in the hells are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Magic where it’s safe.”
Nadia arched an eyebrow at her brother, who failed to yield. Clearly he didn’t recognize the signal Barnabas already knew all too well. But then, brother and sister had not been allowed to be together for nearly twenty years.
“I thought I’d have a go at knocking Victoria down a peg or two, brother. And you?” She stuck her hands on her hips. “Why is this portal still open? You caused me a great deal of trouble, dragging your heels.”
Aiden seemed taken aback, rising to his full, impressive height. “I’m working on it. I’m not a wizard, you know.” His deep voice had lost nearly all its Tarakonan accent with the time he’d spent on Earth.
Barnabas cleared his throat and inclined his head. “I should introduce myself, Master Silver. My name is Barnabas Courtier and—”
“And he’s my wizard.” Nadia whirled toward him, her skirts flaring, and grabbed him by the arm. She dragged him to her brother. Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “Barnabas, can you do something about this portal?”
“I regret that I am not a crystal wizard,” he confessed. “But it is something I would be willing to learn, should the DLF manage to free a willing crystal dragon.” Barnabas had never actually heard of a permanent portal being sealed, but there were non-magical means to control them.
“You’re DLF?” Aiden’s eyes went from narrow—to narrower. “What are you doing with my sister?”
“Pretty much everything I ask him to,” Nadia said with a smirk.
“Well.” Barnabas cleared his throat again, remembering what she’d suggested they try in their bedroll last night. “Not everything.”
“I am actually glad you’re here,” Nadia told her brother, shouldering her pack once again. “I’ve enlisted with the Dragon Liberation Front. I’m going to free all the dragons, Aiden. I’ve just got to fetch some terribly clever science books I think might help us.”
Aiden glanced between them, and his face practically turned to stone. “We’ll discuss this later. When we’re alone.”
“Pish posh.” Nadia bounced, adjusting her pack, and stomped toward the portal. “Come along, both of you.”
Without another word, the love of Barnabas’s life traipsed through the swirling portal and across dimensions. Aiden glowered at him, and Barnabas raised an eyebrow, Nadia-style. “You wish to bluster at me a bit, I presume?”
“Bluster? My sister recently escaped literal captivity, and you’ve no right to be taking advantage of her like this,” Aiden said.
Barnabas would have clasped his hands behind his back to out-wait Aiden’s rant, but his backpack was too large. Plus, Nadia was expecting him, and he did so hate to disappoint her. “Your sister is a force of nature. There will be no more taking advantage of that woman, trust me on this.”
“Sure, asshole.” Aiden began roughly jamming his accoutrements into a backpack. “You probably think you can use our silver magic to—”
“Your sister sets those rules, not I. Tis her magic.” Barnabas sighed and adjusted his concealment amulet, tucking it back beneath his greatcoat. “You might want to make it a touch more difficult to find the portal, Master Silver. I believe human incursions into the labyrinth have increased of late.” He and Nadia had encountered definite traces of occupation in the tunnels, deeper in, though he did not know if it was Mistress Harcourt’s bunch or if Victoria’s assault on the portal had attracted notice. Either way, they should be wary. “But nobody knows about you. Not the DLF, not anyone. Nadia and I saw to that.”
“I…thank you for that,” Aiden said gruffly. “I have been alone a very long time, Courtier. And to get my sister back, only to learn she’s going to stay in Tarakona?”
“Difficult,” Barnabas agreed. “But beware. She will not change her mind.”
Not that he’d tried to change it. Nadia Silver would be the spark the DLF needed to catch this archaic, evil system of dragon abuse on fire. With her at his side, he was getting so much more than he ever dreamed, and all of it was waiting for him in the hot, sandy desert of Magic, New Mexico, probably getting damned impatient by now.
“But…” Aiden began.
“I was raised not to keep a lady waiting,” Barnabas said. “Shall we?” He tipped his hat and stepped through the portal.
# # #
To the silent, swirling portal, Aiden Silver growled, “No. No, we shall not.”
He continued taking samples of the glowing moss, scraping and busting the rocks apart in his frustration. His sister. Finally home. Home on Earth, not this fucking violent,
horrific dimension where no dragon would ever be safe. The muffled clanks of his industry covered up the quiet hush of retreating feet in the tunnel that led to the portal room.
FINIS
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Find out what happens to Nadia’s brother Aiden in…
SILVER UNLEASHED
She doesn’t believe in magic. He is magic.
Gillian Hohenwald knows magic isn’t real. Her mother was delusional, as are her sister and aunts who claim to be witches—and who claim she’s one, too. Like her father, Gillian believes there are rational, scientific explanations for all so-called paranormal phenomena. She’s determined to find them, starting in the odd little town of Magic, New Mexico. What she doesn’t expect to find is a sexy dragon shifter from another dimension.
Aiden Silver fled his dimension, Tarakona, before the ruling wizards could indenture him and steal his dragon magic. He’s been hiding in the enchanted Earth town of Magic, New Mexico ever since, plotting a way to rescue his sister, Nadia. When an alluring—and possibly mad—scientist captures him, she accidentally lets a powerful wizard slip through the interdimensional portal linking Earth and Tarakona.
Now they must form an uneasy alliance to stop the wizard from his conquest of Earth while making sure their attraction doesn’t distract from the mission. But can science and magic blend seamlessly, or will the mixture prove more explosive than any dimension can handle?
NOTE
No dragons were harmed in the making of this novella.
“I found something!” Gillian squealed when her sister picked up the phone. Instead of sharing her excitement, Amy sighed. Loudly.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Amy asked, “Where are you this time?”
“I’m hanging out near a town called Magic in New Mexico. Cute, right? Only it’s a cover. They have some kind of cloaking system that makes people think it’s a just a quaint little town, but there’s all kinds of weird stuff going on here. I can see it with the new anti-masking glasses I engineered.”
Another sigh echoed across the connection. “Gil, you can see it because you’re a witch. We’re witches, sweetie, and you just need to come to terms with that.”
Not this again.
Gillian Hohenwald loved her family more than anything in the world, but they were all nuttier than fruitcakes. Well, almost all. Her father had been a rational man, a skeptic, and he’d instilled that into his youngest daughter. Magic didn’t exist. No matter how much her mother, aunts, and sister droned on about the merits of spells, divination, and paranormal woo woo, it was all a load of crap. There was a perfectly reasonable, scientific explanation for what her family and the hordes of people who watched those ghost and monster hunter “reality” shows believed, and Gillian was on a mission to prove it.
She propped the phone against her shoulder so she could check her equipment for the twentieth time, cringing at the sand and grit dusted across the metal and plastic. She hoped it wouldn’t jam the delicate internal electronics. Maybe she should take it back to her van for a few quick adjustments and a cleaning.
But first, she needed to deal with her sister.
“I’m on the verge of uncovering some next level, sci-fi grade secret technology that will explain this so-called magic nonsense you keep trying to ram down my throat. Come to terms with that, sis.”
Discovering the town of Magic had been a huge leap forward in Gillian’s quest. The town was sitting on a gold mine of hidden technology for stealth, and its residents were just so secretive, evasive, like they had something to hide. Amy clearly believed they were hiding their paranormal powers, but Gillian knew better. This close to Roswell? The town had to be a smokescreen for some kind of covert government repository of advanced military tech. Or maybe a private sector operation with a government contract. Either way, they didn’t like outsiders asking a lot of questions. Genius, really, the way they played the sleepy little small town role. It was the perfect cover.
“I get it,” Amy said gently. “I know what Dad told you, but I saw what Mom could do.”
Gillian’s chest went tight, and she had to blink a few times in spite of the arid climate. It wasn’t fair. Amy remembered so much more about their mother. She’d been older when Mom died. Gillian only got a flash of memory here and there. Then again, when it came to memories of their father, Gillian and Amy were on equal footing. They both knew their father’s views on magic and his wife’s delusions. That Amy followed their mother’s path was a source of contention between them, as was Gillian’s decision to follow their father’s footsteps and prove scientifically, once and for all, that magic was not real. If she could do that, she could save her sister and aunts from living lonely, isolated lives as community eccentrics and frauds.
Or from being attacked. It had happened before, and the memory still haunted her.
Amy’s voice brought her out of her musings. “I know what I can do. You can do it, too. That’s how you get all of those devices you build to do what you want.”
“You can’t just magically grow plants any more than Aunt Begonia can magically calm animals or Aunt Millie can bake perfect cupcakes through enchantment,” Gillian said. “Those are skills. And my designs are a product of skill, intellect, and hard work.”
“Of course you used your smarts to make those gadgets and gizmos,” Amy said. “You just enchanted them, too, like I enchant my orchard, like Aunt B charms horses, and like Aunt M enchants her confections. She even makes gluten free stuff taste delish!”
Whatever. Gillian paused to wipe a few stray locks of hair and more than a little desert sand from her face before adjusting her specialized glasses, the ones she’d designed and fabricated to detect secret technology mistakenly identified as paranormal or magic. Enchanted my ass.
She’d designed the eyewear herself, in secret, of course. The government would probably kill to get their hands on her prototype. Not only did the nanosensors give her excellent night vision and detect movement and heat with advanced, military-grade precision, but she’d spent countless hours in her laboratory tweaking the design until the detectors could also reveal whatever sort of camouflage technology the powers that be were testing in the world around her. The town of Magic had proven to be the perfect location for further testing and refinement.
“Gillian? Hello? Have you heard a word I’ve said?”
Talking to Amy was getting her nowhere, and besides, she had work to do. “Look, I’ve got to go. I’ll call back later, okay? With any luck I’ll be able to tell you what they’re really hiding out here. You’ll see. There’s no such thing as magic.”
Before Amy could protest, Gillian ended the call and shoved her phone into one of the many pockets of her cargo pants. The she ducked behind a patch of juniper trees so she could ke
ep an eye on the strange anomaly shimmering several yards away. She’d noticed it a few days ago while surveying the area around the town. At first glance, she could have easily dismissed the disturbance in the air as heat haze, but it persisted long after the sun set. And her glasses revealed it as something more. Barely visible air currents seemed to undulate and then swirl into some sort of vortex. Was it breech in the city’s cloaking device? A teleportation system? Some small-scale experiment to manipulate the weather?
The only way to find out was to observe.
She’d been at it on and off for several days, spending most evenings watching the anomaly after scouring the town for evidence of advanced technology that could be mistaken for magic. The signs were all there—a glimpse of odd dress or strange apparatus disguised as an extra appendage, people vanishing or appearing out of thin air, hushed conversations and sidelong glances from folks who seemed a bit too toothsome or hairy—but they remained just out of reach. She’d come close a few times, but the citizens of Magic were as clever and perceptive as they were evasive. It was almost as if they knew what she was up to. Honestly, she’d expected a confrontation with men in black suits and high security clearance by now. Instead, she’d only received sidelong glances and looks of confusion whenever she asked questions, and no one tried to stop her from exploring the nooks and crannies of the town.
And no one seemed to be guarding this anomaly, at least no one she could see, even through her specialized lenses.
All of a sudden, the anomaly swelled and the swirling air currents sped. Something was happening. Gillian used the eye-tracking interface to start recording through the built-in camera. Keeping her gaze locked on the anomaly to keep it in focus, she knelt on the rocky ground and felt for another one of her “gadgets,” as her sister called them. This one was a customized trap of her own design, one that could be launched from a distance and incapacitate a large man or animal. Well, it would probably work on a man. She hadn’t been able perform any human testing in an ethical way. But it had worked on everything from cows to coyotes. And assuming the anomaly was, in fact, some kind of experimental technology, it stood to reason that someone might show up to guard it or operate it.