The wooden door creaked open as I pushed on it, and I nervously began scanning the area for a shovel. They sat in the corner next to a rack holding rakes and other gardening tools. The shovels were old and a bit rusted with splintery wooden handles. I grabbed one and tied it to my pack.
Taya hefted her own before putting it back. "Maybe we should only take one… just in case, so Mr. Moorhead won’t get suspicious. If only one is missing, then he might think he left it somewhere, but if two are missing, then he'll know something's up."
I nodded at her reasoning. "Besides, digging can be difficult, and the ground seems really hard here. We can take turns. That way, one of us can rest while the other digs."
"Yeah, let's go before we get caught in here," she warned.
"Did you say Moorhead?" I asked.
She nodded. "Mr. Moorhead… he's married to your aunt Calla…"
"She's my mom's cousin," I told her.
"Yeah, the couple has a small cabin nearby."
"Oh? I didn't know that. I thought she lived in one of the teacher's apartments at Drake," I said, pulling the door closed to the shed.
Taya shook her head, "No, but she still has shifts in the house when she's assigned to be the teacher on duty there."
I blew out a breath and filed this information away as I spotted Aaraeth circle above us before darting off.
She'd better not eat any more pets.
Once we left the main campus, we found ourselves surrounded by the forest. We were deep in the mountains, with only two ways out—a singular dirt road and a runway, owned and taken care of by the Academy.
Birds and crickets chirped out a pretty harmony to accompany the rustling of the trees as the wind blew through them. There was something about being outside, in nature, that felt so right… satisfying. Like I belonged here, like I was called to be here.
Did that have anything to do with being a Dragonborn or how I was raised? Either way, a welcome contentment settled on me as we walked.
When the guest house came into view, I stopped. It was an aging Victorian house where I'd stayed my first night at the Academy. My eyes didn’t see the house that stood before me, I saw the house it had been that first day covered in snow. I'd been… so naïve.
Had that really happened only a little over six months ago?
So much had changed since then… I had changed since then.
Maybe I was harder, more cynical now, but at least I knew the truth, and I was about to find out so much more when I opened that grave.
Whatever happened from here on out, no matter how much Ashe and I cared for each other, he would always fall in line… unless Arthur really had pushed him too far this time.
Do what they say, they won't keep us separated, he'd said, and he'd meant it.
But how long would they keep us separated? How long would it take before Ashe did come for me? Another week? A month? A year?
My heart was heavy. Would I begin to have nightmares like Ashe? Would I begin to feel like I was going crazy too?
Blowing out a calming breath, I began to untangle my mind and force my messy thoughts into order… the same thing Ashe did. The same trick I felt him use to calm himself.
He did that.
I'd never done that until our bond began. My thoughts used to spiral down and down into dark places, and I'd just let it happen. But this, this control thing was from him.
I wondered what else I'd inadvertently picked up from his mind because I felt different since our bond began. There were things that I hadn't known about before and instinctively understood afterward. Like flying with Aaraeth, or even my skills as a Prime. Had all this come so easily to me because of the bond and Ashe? Had I benefited from the knowledge that he'd worked hard to gain? And if I got stuff from him, did he know things from me? Did I have any skills he could use?
Maybe I was going crazy. After all, Ashe spoke Russian to Ponytail at the Range Camp, and I definitely can’t speak Russian. What were other things I didn't know about him?
I gazed around and laughed aloud.
"You're not going crazy or anything, are you?" Taya asked, giving me a strange expression.
I rolled my eyes at her. "Can't I just laugh at myself every once in a while?"
She said nothing but kept walking.
I blinked, tearing my gaze away from the strange, slightly run-down house, and followed her.
When I nearly ran into Taya, I knew it was time to be sharp and get out of my head. Before us was the black iron fence of the cemetery. Each slightly rusting spindle was topped with a sharp point.
I needed to be alert, pay attention and be aware. We were digging up a grave, I reminded myself. Opening my senses, I reached out around us in all directions and gasped at what I touched. Apprehension shot through me, and I grabbed Taya's arm. She startled, but quieted and fell into a crouch like I had.
"I knew I felt something. What is it?” she whispered in alarm, gazing out through the forest foliage.
"There are other Primes here." Carefully, I very gently feathered out my senses before breathing a sigh of relief. "They're too far away for me to recognize them, but they're familiar."
"Which way?” she asked.
I motioned toward the cemetery. "It feels like a Prime is in the cemetery, and the other people are off to the left… farther away."
She looked around, the birds still chirping and crickets still cricketing. "What do you want to do? Go back?"
I shook my head. "No. I want to see what they're doing here."
"Okay. Let's move closer… see if you can recognize them." She hesitated, "Where's Aaraeth? Call her down for protection."
"Okay," I whispered.
Searching the sky with my eyes and mind, I called my beast, but there was no place for her to land in this dense part of the forest. But I wasn't going to let some stranger thwart my plans. I was going to find that grave with or without Aaraeth and with strangers nearby or not.
When we came to the main entrance of the graveyard, I reached out again with my mind. "Taya? They're gone."
She pursed her lips as she searched the forest around us before pushing the gate open. It creaked ominously. "I don't like this. No one should be here… no Primes other than Mr. Snyder should even be on the school grounds at all.
"Well, whoever they are… they're gone. Let's find the grave," I whispered, still a bit on edge.
"You didn't recognize them?” she asked as we began picking our way through the older graves near the entrance of the cemetery. Off to the right were more recent headstones, and the area was better maintained. However, Celine's burial was out toward the left, near a rock outcrop in the Lambert family plot—or so I'd been told by George.
I began picking my way through the tall brush.
"Mr. Moorhead needs to let the goats in here to mow," I told Taya.
"No doubt… wait… hey look at this." She bent to finger a plant. "This is Daisyjay and Soapleaf—sacred Dragonborn plants. You don't want the goats in here—they'll make themselves sick."
I gazed around, "Why would anyone plant all this stuff here?"
"I don't know—maybe superstition… or consolation," she said in a low voice. "Look there… that's Almondberry, another Dragonborn plant." She pulled on one of the clusters of small yellow orbs before holding one out to me. "It's good, like a tart blueberry, try one."
I put it in my mouth and bit down. The fruit had the consistency of a tiny tomato but burst with flavor—almost like that of a lemon mixed with a raspberry.
"Oh, that's good!" I told her, reaching out to pluck one, but she grabbed my hand midair.
"Be careful of the thorns," she said, lifting a leaf to reveal half-inch spikes that protected the fruit.
"Oomph! I didn't even see that," I told her.
"Yeah, and they hurt like a mother… if you get pricked. So, don't get pricked,” she warned with a smile before looking around to get her bearings. "Okay, so from what I can tell, we're on the main graveyard path." She s
craped her foot along the ground to uncover a cobblestone. "So, if you said Celine's grave is in your family plot, then it's farther up that way, behind those trees."
We continued to hike away from the cobbled route and through a forested area. This section of the cemetery was beyond neglected, and either had few headstones, or they'd been overgrown. When we neared a small rock outcrop, Taya stopped.
"It should be somewhere near here. Let's start looking. Her headstone should look pretty new," she told me, but broke off with a gasp. "Oh shit!"
I turned. "What?"
"Look!" She pointed a little way up the hill. Fresh dark dirt marred the pine needle and leaf-strewn forest floor. "Someone's been here."
We hiked up toward the disturbed ground, and I groaned out a sigh.
Beneath a Linden tree was a grave that had obviously and recently been disturbed.
"Who would dig up your mom's grave?” she asked.
"I don't know, but we're about to find out," I snapped, following a recently trod path through the forest leading up and away from the way we’d come.
"Where are you going?” my guard asked.
"They got out this way, so I'm going to follow. This is bullshit. No one digs up my mother's grave and gets away with it."
Taya stared down at the deep brown earth before turning to me. "Sydney! You said several people are there. I can't protect you from several people!"
She chewed her lip and shook her head in thought.
I blew out a frustrated breath. "It'll be okay. I'll shield myself, then follow them and get as close as I can until I see who it is we're dealing with."
My guard tilted her head, then sighed resignedly. "Fine. But as soon as we reach a clearing, call Aaraeth nearby just in case."
I nodded in agreement.
Farther near the ridge where the trees thinned, I realized that we'd somehow left the cemetery grounds without knowing. I could feel the other Dragonborn below in the valley, near the river.
Stopping to catch my breath, I pulled my water bottle from my pack.
"I figured I'd be doing hard work today, but not hiking," I told Taya.
"How long have you been planning to dig up this grave anyway?” she asked.
I shrugged. "Probably since one of George's letters mentioned something was buried in there."
"Aren't you curious that something might still be in it? Maybe we should go back and dig it up ourselves. George escaped. Maybe he's the one who dug it up to plant things for you,” she suggested, scrunching her nose.
I shook my head. "No. George is smarter than that. If he were going to plant something there, then he'd make it look undisturbed. Whoever dug up Celine's grave didn’t care if someone saw the dirt or they thought no one would see it."
She drank her water before screwing the lid back on. "All right… how far away are they now? Are they still moving?"
My eyes roamed over the valley below us. Pale green aspen trees mixed in among the dark pines creating a blanket of trees. The only break in the thick forest was a ribbon of water that ran through the bottom.
"They're down there. Let's get closer," I said, pointing to the river.
24
Ashe
I stood in Durand’s office, arms crossed over my chest as he explained the details of my transfer.
Arthur’s so-called punishment was all bark and no bite… a slap on the wrist, because he knew he couldn’t control me. I could see the fear in his eyes when he looked at Sydney. Vitality and power rolled off her in waves, like the ocean when a storm was brewing. But she allowed them to ship her off on that plane to the Academy… as if she didn’t have a say.
We had a say, but we were playing the long game.
Arthur didn’t have the long game in him, and sooner rather than later, he’d have to abdicate his role as PL, and I would step in.
I could challenge him, fight him until he either gave up or was killed, but that wasn’t the way I wanted to become a leader. Unlike him, I had time, and I was patient.
Sydney might not see this as a win, but this was a win. The Council had a front seat to Arthur’s hypocrisy and the lengths he’d go to stay in power.
We would soon have recognition of our bond… well, in time.
But like I said, we had time.
Syd was a wild card though. I felt her mind swirling with anger and rebellion. This was a dangerous mix, and I did my best to calm her. She still didn’t fully understand the politics of our people.
I had to get to her as soon as possible and reassure her that I hadn’t abandoned her. That fear hovered just below her consciousness, raising its ugly head every now and again. I understood it. Every other person in her life had abandoned her—used her, and walked away. It was no wonder she assumed I would do the same.
When my commanding officer finally finished speaking, I nodded and replied, “Yes, sir.”
“You’re excused, lieutenant,” Durand barked before turning back to his desk.
On my way through the main hall, I received some curious but not unkind glances as I nearly ran to my quarters to pack my things.
Just as I turned into the tunnel that led to the barracks, Corbin jogged up beside me, hooking my neck with his arm.
“So, where we going? You look way too intense.” His usual smile was a bit more devious today.
“I’m headed back to California… I’ve been subcontracted to Evgeni’s investment firm out there,” I told him, trying not to meet his eye. My transfer wasn’t unusual. Evgeni subcontracted hundreds of soldiers from BSS. He owned a shell company that in turn owned several tech companies as well as a domestic security company in LA that provided protection for movie studios, celebrities, and politicians.
Corbin laughed and checked for people nearby before leaning in and saying, “No, really? Where are we going?”
I shoved him off of me, “There’s no we. I—am going home.”
“Dragon’s blood, Ashe,” he sighed as he followed me into my empty quarters. “I know you. You’re going to go see her, aren’t you?”
I pulled out my duffel and began packing up my things. He just sat there, his eyes drilling a hole through me.
“Fine! Yes, I need to check on her… it’s on the way,” I spat.
“Matt Long was assigned to escort you. Did you know that?” he told me, making me groan.
“Seriously? I have a babysitter now?” I sighed.
“Saw it on the duty roster. Apparently, he’s assigned to you for the next two weeks,” he leaned against the door frame, watching my reaction.
“Fuck!” I growled, punching the bed.
Corbin widened his eyes. “However, someone might have accidentally… but completely on purpose… swapped Long’s name with… oh who would be the ideal person assigned to you?”
He waited for me to say it.
“You?” I asked incredulously. Both Corbin and Matt were Primes and officers like me, but they did completely different things and worked in completely different units. “While I appreciate the favor, this is never going to work. You think Mia is just going to believe that you’ve been assigned off base as a guard?”
“Hey! Taya was assigned off base, and she’s a medic and an officer too!” he said.
I ran my hands over my hair to smooth it back and sighed. “Okay. So, are you supposed to be working remotely?”
“Uh… I don’t know,” he told me, his knee bouncing as he waited for me to finish packing.
Finally, I zipped up the bag and turned to him. “All right, then we’d better go before someone sees the duty roster and realizes it’s been tampered with.”
Another wide-toothed smile greeted me when I looked back at him.
“What?” I asked.
“My truck is already loaded up, tank full, and ready to go.” He raised his eyebrows, “I also figured we might have to backpack into the Academy, so I took the liberty of bringing your pack as well.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You scare me sometimes, you kn
ow that?”
“I know, I’m that good!” He turned on his heel, “Let’s go get you laid!”
“Corbin!” I snarled.
“Just kidding! Just kidding!” He turned back to look at me. “Then why are you going there?”
“I told you. I have to check on her. I’m worried about what she’ll do,” I told him.
“All right, but getting laid sounds a lot better!”
“Yes, yes it does,” I agreed gloomily, pounding him on the back with my palm.
25
Sydney
Creeping down the hill, I found myself holding my breath as each step crackled with dried pine needles and leaves.
“Look,” I whispered to Taya, pointing across the valley.
There was a camp set up next to the river. Several colorful orange and yellow tents were laid out beneath the tall pines as well as a large army green military tent. Tables sat beneath camo tarps strung from the trees for shade or protection from the rain… or to hide them.
A few voices carried up to where Taya and I hiked.
“Can you recognize anyone yet?” My guard whispered as she slid a few feet before grabbing onto a tree.
I shook my head. “No, they’re shielding now.”
We crept forward, moving at a painfully slow pace to avoid detection.
“It’s Evgeni…” I said, feeling the brush of familiarity.
Taya clapped her hand over my mouth. “Shhhh… Let’s try to see what they’re up to first. If they’re involved in something dangerous or criminal, then we need to get the hell out of here.”
I yanked her fingers from my face and whispered, “Don’t you get it? They’re planning to go to the Dragon realm! What else would they be doing here?” I continued to walk down a game trail toward the tents.
“Stop! Seriously. This is bad news. Messing with the Dragon realm is forbidden, not to mention impossible. Come on, Sydney, think about it. You’re risking everything if you get caught, and for what? Is that what you want? We’ll both be forced to undergo the Stygian Ritual! Because that’s what this shit leads to!” she told me.
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