Dragon's Fate

Book 4: Heir of Dragons

by Sean Fletcher

Genres: Young adult; YA Fantasy; YA Contemporary; YA Dark Fantasy; YA Wizards & Witches; young adult fantasy; ya fantasy; dragon shifter; dragons and mythical creatures

Synopsis

The Hunt has returned. The time of dragon-kin is over.

After failing to stop St. George and the Hunt, Kaylee and her few remaining friends are forced to flee, desperate to find somewhere—anywhere—safe.

Slayer attacks come without warning. Innocent people are dying. The only hope to defeat the Hunt and put an end to the destruction lies in an incredibly ancient, incredibly dangerous, magic. A magic Kaylee possesses.

A magic she can’t control.

But time is running out. Either Kaylee learns to harness this new, powerful magic, or it will be the end for her and everyone she loves.

Friends and enemies collide and incredible secrets are revealed in this stunning conclusion to the bestselling Heir of Dragons series!

Dragon’s Fate is the final book in the complete YA fantasy Heir of Dragons series. If you like snarky, fast-paced fantasies full of dragon shifters, twisting mysteries, and a slow-burn romance, this series is for you!

Release date: July 29, 2018

Publisher: Epic Worlds Publishing

Print pages: 300

Sample

The Warning

 

A Message to all members of the United States Convocation. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. This text is sent by Magi-Erase and will disintegrate upon completion of reading.

Friends,

These are dire times.

I regret to inform you that Philleus Johns, Head of Committee for the United States Convocation, is dead. As one of the Head members of the Council of Convocation I, Alastair Dumas, have been temporarily elected in his place. To those in hiding and those who are wondering what is going on, there is no easy way to say it:

The Hunt has returned.

It is in moments like these that we, all members of the magical community and Convocation, not just dragon-kin, Merlins, and Protectors, must band together. We must set aside our differences and petty in-fighting and unite as one to face this grave threat affecting us all. The Hunt is here. Its influence and power are spreading.

Do not return to the NYC Convocation. The Slayers’ presence is strong in the city and it is never certain when the Hunt may come back here. Do not collect in large numbers, as this is known to draw the Hunt to you.

Despite the circumstances, our Merlins are working tirelessly to make sure normal humans remain unaware of our presence. You must do your part in this too.

Do not reveal yourself to humans. Do not use excessive magic.

Do not face the Hunt.

Keep silent. Keep hidden. I assure you we are working to resolve this, and we will resolve this. We’ve defeated the Hunt once before, and we will find a way to do it again.

I repeat, do not face the Hunt. This would only be suicide.

Luck and magic be with you all, and until we meet again,

 

Alastair Dumas, President of Scarsdale, New York Chap Head of Committee, United States Convocation

 

 

 

Chapter 1

The stupid cat was going to get her killed.

It was one of those pure breeds. A Maine Coon or tortoiseshell or Russian Blue. Something like that. What kind it was didn’t matter to Kaylee. What mattered was that it was staring right at her hiding spot, growling, while Slayers prowled through the house.

“I said you can’t come in!” a man shouted. That was the father, Jared. He was the one who’d decided to let Kaylee and the others park Randy’s van in the barn behind the house to spend the night. It was a kindness few people associated with the Convocation had shown them since the Hunt had risen a month ago. Few families dared risk their lives like that; not with the Hunt, and not with the Slayers now bold enough to terrorize in broad daylight.

Kaylee hoped that same kindness wasn’t about to get Jared’s family murdered.

There was a sharp cry of pain. The sound of the front door slamming all the way open and heavy bootsteps pounding inside. Multiple bootsteps. Kaylee counted three sets.

She shifted one of her ears to a dragon’s to hear better but there was no need to. A second later, the morning sunlight pouring through the kitchen window was blocked by an immense shadow. A man’s shadow. Kaylee watched it turn to survey his surroundings, trying to keep her breathing light and steady. The cat continued staring right at her.

Look away…look away you stupid feline before I—

“Anybody else?” A Slayer called from the kitchen.

The shadow continued turning. It paused when it saw the cat. The man took a step closer to the closet, so close Kaylee could smell his sweat and the reek of cigarettes wafting off him. She tensed, prepared to attack.

“Scram,” the man growled, shoving the cat away. It hissed at them both and scampered under the couch.

 “Clear in here!” the man said.

There was a sob, another short cry of pain, then Jared and his wife were tossed onto the couch. Jared’s lip was busted, his cheek already forming a blotchy bruise around the edges. Red-faced, his wife clutched his arm.

“Y-you can’t d-do this! We don’t have a-anything you w-want!”

“Y-yes y-you do!” The nearest Slayer, a beefy woman with short, bleached hair, mocked.

The other two Slayers had joined her, closing Jared and his wife in on either side. Kaylee shifted from her crouch and peered through the sliver of the closet door. Two men, one woman, all malicious-looking. Weapons—maces, crossbows, magicked gauntlets—hung off their waists and were tightly strapped to their backs. Standard Slayer-issue armored vests were draped over black combat uniforms.

“We have nothing of value,” Jared repeated. “Take whatever it is you’re here for and—”

The female Slayer smacked him across the jaw. Jared’s wife screamed. There was a brief struggle and, when it ended, all three Slayers were pointing crossbows at the couple. The woman walked closer, keeping the crossbow trained on Jared’s forehead.

“Do you want to die?” she said softly.

Kaylee shifted her hands to claws. Her elemental storm magic pounded beneath her skin, ready to fight.

The dragon’s magic deep inside her begged to be unleashed.

With great effort, Kaylee ignored them both.

She was alone here, having come inside early to use the bathroom. Edwin, Maddox, and Randy were in the van, probably still asleep. She could take three Slayers, but with innocents around there was bound to be collateral damage. She needed to wait for an opening…

But the Slayers would kill the family if she did nothing.

Jared wiped a fresh trickle of blood from his chin, glaring at his captors. The woman smirked.

“We know you’re with the Convocation. Midwest chapter, right?”

Jared froze, blood running down his fingers. The woman grinned wider. “So you see, we’re not here for your things. We need information.”

“Names, meetin’ places,” one of the men added.

“The location of Kaylee Richards,” the other man finished.

Kaylee’s breath caught. Her? When had she become a hot commodity?

When you almost defeated the Hunt with your crazy dragon fusion powers, idiot, a voice inside her said.

Okay, that made sense. But even though she and the others had been off the radar for the last month, traveling from small town to small town and trying to stay out of trouble, she figured she’d have noticed if the Slayers had suddenly put a giant target on her back.

You don’t need to notice. It’s common sense. Idiot. With powerful dragon’s magic inside her, the dragon fusion, she was the Hunt’s one and only threat, the person who could end St. George and his destruction of all dragon-kin for good.

That meant the Slayers wanted her especially dead.

“I have no idea where Kaylee Richards is,” Jared said, almost looking sorry for the Slayers, like they were poor, stupid fools. “Yes, we’re part of the Convocation, but we’re not dragon-kin.”

“Or Merlins or Protectors,” his wife hurriedly added.

One of the men swiftly brought up an arm, making Jason and his wife cower. The woman smirked.

“Yeah, clearly not Protectors. If you were, you’d be even more pathetic than they normally are.”

“Tough words, coming from a group who finally had the guts to crawl back into the light,” Jared spat. “Finally feeling cocky now that the Hunt’s loose?”

“Wait,” the woman held back her companion when he raised his crossbow. She leered at Jared.

“Now that you ask, we are feeling cocky. The Hunt will do what should have been done a long time ago: eradicate the dragon-kin and anyone who stands with them. In fact…” She crouched, making the couple pull back. She gestured with the crossbow like she was brandishing a pen rather than a weapon that could take their life, “In fact, we could request he make a little stop here, if you’d like to meet him.”

If it was possible, the couple’s faces grew paler.

“We don’t know anything,” Jared’s wife repeated.

The woman held her gaze for a long time, then stood. “Bring down the last guest.”

“No!” Jared’s wife sprang up as one of the men disappeared upstairs. “No, leave her alone!”

A child screamed. Furniture crashed. There was the thump of a body hitting the stairs and the man came tumbling back down in a shower of glass and wood before slamming into a china cabinet near the dining room.

A girl no more than eight came flying over the stair railing. Her hands were shifted to dragon claws and ice magic curled around her body. With another scream, she launched herself at the other man.

Kaylee tried to cry out a warning but before she could the other man easily side-stepped the girl’s attack and caught her by the throat, jerking her to a stop.

“Claire!” her parents screamed, jumping up. The woman leveled a crossbow at them.

“I wouldn’t.”

Claire continued struggling against the Slayers’ grip, biting at his gloved fingers. He sneered. His magicked gauntlet glowed and Claire howled in pain before going limp. Her scales and claws retracted, the ice that had begun to coat the floor melting to puddles.

“There, that’s better,” the woman said.

Claire’s parents watched in horror as their daughter was lowered to the ground and deposited as a crumpled heap at the woman’s feet.

“Check that idiot.” The woman nodded to the Slayer on the stairs while she crouched next to a stunned Claire, still keeping her crossbow aimed at her parents.

“Offspring,” the woman said, her voice pure venom. “An abomination. Tell me, Jared, would you like to see what happens to abominations?”

“You—”

Jared lunged forward but the woman clubbed him to the ground with the butt of her crossbow. Jared tried to raise his head but the heel of her boot came down hard, cracking it against the floor.

“Stay conscious, Jared. I want you to watch very closely. This’ll be a good lesson for you.”

The woman snapped her fingers. A shadow pooled at the floor beside Claire, thicker and darker than the ones around it. Yellow eyes glowed from the darkness within.

Kaylee’s blood ran cold.

“I’ve got a friend for you, Claire,” the woman said. “Do you know what this is?”

Claire’s head lolled, her body barely staying upright.

“It’s a Samarian shadow dancer,” the woman explained. “And it’s very hungry.”

The woman flicked two fingers up and a snout covered in bristly black fur and filled with serrated teeth rose from the lip of shadows. Its slitted eyes fixed on Claire.

“Feed,” the woman commanded.

Kaylee attacked.

Forget not having back up. Forget potential collateral damage. Forget the danger.

It wasn’t like things could get any worse.

Her first bolt of lightning caught the shadow dancer in the chest, sending it screaming back into its pool of darkness. Kaylee called more of her magic to her. The temperature in the room plummeted. Thunder boomed from inside, the air thick and charged with static.

Kaylee scooped up Claire and kicked the woman, her magically enhanced strength sending her flying into the kitchen. She spun, ducking just in time to avoid a mace to the head from one of the men.

“Get out of here!” Kaylee yelled, shoving Claire in Jared’s arms and pushing him toward the door. “Out the—” She ducked again. “—back!”

She raised a claw and caught the man’s arm in it, twisting it to the side.

“Not this time, bud—”

A jolt of magic shot down his gauntlet and launched her across the room into the TV. The back of her head throbbed where she’d smashed it against the wall, probably hard enough to leave a dent. She groaned as she picked herself up. “Idiot. You literally just saw him do that. Should have known that was coming.”

The man leapt at her. Kaylee threw herself aside as his mace cratered the spot she’d just been. Sparks and chunks of plastic flew every direction.

“Die, beast!” the man growled, pulling back his arm for another swing.

“Oh! How original!” Kaylee bobbed beneath his next strike. “Like I haven’t heard that a billion times before. You Slayers should really get it copyrighted.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Kaylee saw the back door slam shut as Jared and his family slipped out.

They were safe.

Now she could really let loose.

Kaylee’s head nearly hit the floor as she bent backwards to dodge the Slayer’s next attack, her muscles protesting being used this strenuously this early in the morning. She snapped herself up again, cutting the space between her and the Slayer in half, grabbing him by the straps of his armor before he could react.

“Hey! Hands off—”

Kaylee’s shoulders flexed. The muscles in her upper back strained and shifted to make room for the pair of magically conjured dragon wings she knew were sprouting there. The Slayer gaped, temporarily stunned. Though Kaylee knew the wings weren’t actual physical wings but simply magical projections, they looked real enough from the right angle.

And they worked real enough.

Still gripping the Slayer, Kaylee pumped her wings twice. The pair launched across the room, Kaylee slamming the man into the dining room table and across it, burying his upper body in a display cabinet full of glassware and dining sets. Plates shattered as they hit the floor. Glass tinkled. The man groaned, head lolling. A large bowl had clipped his skull and broke skin, sending blood trickling down his temples.

Kaylee quickly checked his pulse. Still alive, at least. Which was more than any of them deserved.

She heaved him to the floor. Two down. That left only—

Kaylee didn’t notice the pool of darkness in the corner above her until it was too late. The shadow dancer pounced, forcing her to spin away.

Not fast enough.

Razor sharp teeth sliced right through her sleeve. Kaylee gritted her teeth, feeling the warm blood dribble through her fingers as she gripped her arm. What she wouldn’t give for her normal fighting gear right about now…

She rolled again as the shadow dancer skimmed past, slipping into the next pool of darkness beneath the couch.

“And so it ends here,” the woman said. She stood in the kitchen doorway, triumph in her eyes. “Kaylee Richards, the elusive dragon-kin even St. George has trouble getting rid of. This must be our lucky day.”

Kaylee stood, keeping the woman and the nearest shadows in her line of sight. “I guess luck’s one thing you can call it.”

“I knew it was you as soon as you summoned that thunderstorm. The Hunt will be pleased to find out you’re dead.”

Kaylee took a step back. Movement swirled to her right, but she kept her eyes trained on the woman. “Aw…Lesuvius won’t be pleased? That’s too bad. I was positive dying would bring a smile to his face.”

The woman sneered. “Lesuvius may have led us once, but he’s finished. Our true master has returned, and he wouldn’t dare let a beast lead the Slayers any longer.”

Another step. The back door was just five feet behind her. Any second and she could make a break for it. “Guess it sucked finding out Lesuvius was a dragon-kin, huh? So, wait, if you had a dragon-kin leading you then does that make us the good guys, or the bad guys—”

“Kill!” the woman snarled.

The shadow dancer pounced just as the woman threw a knife at Kaylee’s head. Kaylee whipped her hand up, summoning a wall of wind and ice that knocked the blade out of the air. She was spinning toward the shadow dancer before she’d finished, but she could already tell she wouldn’t make it in time. The shadow dancer’s teeth were heading right for her throat. She was too slow, too late, too—

There was a scream and a whimper. Kaylee blinked to find the shadow dancer’s toothed mouth mere inches from her face. An orange collar of magic had been looped around its neck and tightened, stopping it short.

“Maddox!” Edwin yelled.

Maddox burst in behind him. In an instant, he’d evaluated the situation like the Protector he was before plunging his spear into the shadow dancer’s side. It screamed, writhing in agony as Edwin used his magic to hurl it across the room and into the demolished TV. The shadow dancer gave one final, pained screech before trailing a slick of blood as it melted back into the shadow.

“No!” The woman’s eyes flickered between the three of them, clearly knowing she was outmatched. She backed up toward the front door. “The Hunt will find you, Kaylee Richards! Every Slayer within a hundred miles will be on you in hours!”

Then she was out the door. Kaylee started to run after her when she heard the dull thud of a fist hitting face, then a body hitting grass.

Randy appeared in the doorway, dragging the unconscious woman behind him. He stepped inside and dropped her unceremoniously at the foot of the stairs before surveying the damaged living room and Kaylee’s bleeding arm.

“Mornin’,” Kaylee said.

“It’s too early to be doing this,” Randy grouched. “Where’s the coffee?”

 

 

Chapter 2

Kaylee took another bite of eggs, practically feeling the bags under her eyes recede back into her skin. She hadn’t had a meal this good in…she couldn’t remember how long. Gas station burritos and a cramped van with zero space to cook in did not make for a healthy diet. It was almost getting to the point where she had dreams about hunting vegetables.

Randy had refused Jared’s food, instead opting for black coffee. He stood at attention near the kitchen window, careful eyes flickering left to right down the road in case any more Slayers decided to show up to look for their friends.

“Unlikely,” he’d grunted when Kaylee had asked him if they would. “They might be getting bolder, but they’re still not the smartest bunch. These were just some thugs looking to cause trouble, not a Slayer-sanctioned mission they’ll be checking in on.”

That made Kaylee feel a little better, at least. She still thought they needed to get moving soon. They’d already caused Jared’s family enough pain.

Jared himself sat across from her at the kitchen table, his hands clenched together, knuckles white. Maddox continued shoveling eggs into his mouth, his muscular build needing more nourishment than any of them. He paused a couple times to brush his black hair out of his eyes and give Kaylee a curious glance, then a smile.

“Can’t even go to the bathroom without Slayers on you, can you?”

“What can I say, I’m a popular girl.”

Randy grunted. “Too popular. You said this time they were looking for you specifically?”

Jared picked his head up. His eyes were bloodshot. The swelling in his face had calmed down since Edwin had brought him an ice pack to press to it, but it was still an ugly sight: discolored and split skin, teeth stained with semi-dried blood from where he’d bit his tongue. “They wanted to know where Kaylee Richards was. I had…I had no idea that’s who you were.”

“We wanted to keep it that way,” Randy said. “We’re kind of on the run, if you didn’t notice.”

“But we appreciate you letting us stay here,” Maddox added. He grimaced after a quick glance around the destroyed house. “And…we’re really sorry about the damage.”

“We’re leaving soon anyway,” Randy said. “To stay will just put you in more danger.”

Kaylee took her and Maddox’s plates to the sink. “Just as soon as Edwin’s—”

As if summoned, there were footsteps on the stairs and Edwin joined them. He tucked the tiny spell book he always kept close by into his back pocket and snatched a couple pieces of toast from the plate on the table. A few seconds later, both pieces were devoured.

“Hungry much?” Kaylee said, eyes wide.

“Starving,” Edwin said. “Healing magic isn’t my forte. Always takes a lot out of me.”

Jared had stood the moment Edwin had entered. “Is Claire…is she all right? Will she make it?”

Edwin swallowed his last bite and took a swig of water. “She’s going to be just fine. Slayers used a stunning spell. A little stronger than usual but after some rest she’ll be back to tearing up Slayers’ faces in no time.”

“She’s quite the fighter,” Kaylee said, impressed.

Jared’s grin was strained. “She’d just started her training at the local Convocation before they…you know.”

“Disbanded,” Randy said. “Convocations all over the country are breaking apart. They think it’ll make it harder for the Hunt and Slayers to find them.”

“Will it?” Jared said.

Randy shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Certainly isn’t helping us any. Leaves us with fewer allies and less options. Also gonna make it a lot harder to get these guys locked up where they can’t hurt anybody.”

He nodded to the center of the living room where the three still-unconscious Slayers sat tied back to back. Their weapons had been tossed in the garage. Edwin, before he’d gone up to take care of Claire, had done a final sweep of the living room and declared the shadow dancer gone.

“I stuck him pretty good,” Maddox had said around a mouthful of eggs. “Figured it wouldn’t want to stay around.”

But now that meant Kaylee and the others couldn’t stay around either. It had already been risky taking refuge with a vulnerable family; every second they lingered put Jared and his wife and child in more danger. It wasn’t as if Kaylee and the others hadn’t run into trouble since striking out from NYC and driving aimlessly around. With the Hunt about, Slayers were crawling out of whatever holes they’d been curled up in these last few years. More than once, Kaylee and the others had been forced to intervene to put a stop to some kind of Slayer violence or another.

That wasn’t the big issue. The issue was that their group had never been the primary cause of a Slayer attacking innocents before. She’d never been the primary cause of it before. Not that she knew of, anyway.

But now St. George was after her specifically. And that meant their days of running around, trying to figure out a way to take down the Hunt were ticking down to zero. That meant they couldn’t rely on anyone else or risk putting more lives in danger.

Kaylee looked up from the glass of orange juice she’d been staring at to find Maddox eying her. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said, low enough that Randy and Jared couldn’t hear it over their discussion.

“You do?”

Maddox smirked. “Jade wasn’t the only who could read you—”

He stopped, as if his throat had suddenly seized. He gulped down the rest of his water before trying to speak again. “We made a mistake. We shouldn’t have stopped here, but that’s not your fault. You saved them.”

“We’re running out of time, Maddox. We don’t even know where we’re going.”

“Alastair will figure something out. And you’ve been working with Randy on the dragon fusion. Once you have that mastered…” He punched his fist into his open hand. “Kersplat goes the Hunt.”

Except that she’d been working on controlling the ancient magic and hadn’t made any progress at all. No, that wasn’t completely true. Now she didn’t completely lose control of her body and mind when she called on the ancient dragon’s power.

That was…good, right?

“Earth to Kaylee.” Randy rapped on the table. He nudged his head to the back door when she looked up at him. “We need to go. Daylight’s burning.”

He gave Jared a firm handshake. “Get your family out of here. Go somewhere safe. The Hunt’s been spotted moving through the Midwest but it tends to stay around the east coast while it’s growing in power.”

“Where can we go?” Jared said, his shoulders sagging. “If what you said about the Convocations disbanding is true…”

Randy thought for a moment, then grabbed a pen and pad of paper off the island. He scribbled down a few lines. “I can’t guarantee anything, not anymore, but here’s the address for a Convocation safe house. It might be full right now since a lot of people are evacuating, but it’s worth checking out. They can at least give you the address to another if they don’t have room.”

Jared nodded mutely, gripping the tiny piece of paper as if his life depended on it. Which, Kaylee thought, eying the Slayers in the other room, it very well might.

“We leave in ten,” Randy said, stepping out of the kitchen. A second later, the back door slammed shut.

“See you guys out there,” Maddox said. He guzzled another glass of orange juice and stuffed a couple pieces of toast into his pocket. “The breakfast was awesome,” he added to an openmouthed Jared.

“Uh, thanks. Glad you liked it.”

Edwin was staring at the table, tapping his fingers to some unknown rhythm running through his head. Kaylee knew that look; the contemplative, far off gaze that meant he was thinking about something important. Many somethings, probably, mind-mapping the possibilities of their next move in his head. Any second, Kaylee expected him to start his usual under-the-breath muttering that meant he’d gone into full Brainiac mode.

She missed it when he did that.

That hadn’t always been the case. Just a few months ago, she’d been beyond upset when Edwin had supposedly ignored her after a dragon’s-bane-turned-dragon had attacked them. Turned out he hadn’t forgotten her at all but had just been protecting her in his own way. Kaylee understood that now, and she wished he would go back to doing more things the way he used to. It was the smallest quirks she missed the most, the tiniest reminders of the way things used to be before their whole world went crazy. Before the Hunt. Before they were forced on the run.

Before losing Jade.

Kaylee’s chest twinged at the sharp stab of pain in her heart. She bit down the memories of Jade threatening to rise to the surface until they were forced back to the part of her mind that couldn’t hurt her. That was what had gotten her through the last month without completely breaking down. That was what was going to get her back to the Hunt and end him once and for all.

“Thank you again for the hospitality,” Kaylee said, pushing her chair back and standing. “My uncle knows a lot of good people. I’m sure you’ll be safe wherever he’s sending you.”

Edwin nodded and stood too, trailing her out of the kitchen.

“Wait!” Jared clutched the doorframe. “You really are Kaylee Richards, aren’t you?”

Kaylee hesitated. “I…am.”

Jared was giving her a look Kaylee had been seeing far more than she wanted to since the Hunt had returned: Desperation. Hope. Expectation. All directed at her.

“I heard what you did in New York. Heck, I think everybody in the Convocation heard what you almost did to the Hunt in New York. You almost defeated him by yourself!”

“There’s a lot more to it than that—”

“They say you have an ancient power, one not seen in generations,” Jared went on. His hand had closed around Randy’s note, his fist shaking. “They say it’s the strength of a true dragon, strong enough to beat the Hunt once and for all.”

“I—”

“You can defeat him! Why don’t you just go knock St. George back to Hell where he belongs?”

“It’s not that easy.”

Jared’s eyes narrowed. The lines in his face tightened to sharp anger. “Why not?”

Edwin took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Thanks again for all your help. We’re going now.”

“Why not?” Jared yelled as they hurried through the living room, sidestepping the Slayers, and out the back door. Kaylee tried to block out Jared’s incessant shouting as it followed her across the backyard and to the van, focusing on her hand in Edwin’s, his closeness, and nothing else.

“This is on you!” Jared said. “You can stop this! You can stop all of this!”

Kaylee was grateful when the van door shut.

                                                ***

She had no idea where they were going.

After pulling out from behind Jared’s barn, Randy had pointed the van east down the highway and put his foot on the pedal. They’d stopped only once for food and gas. Kaylee, Edwin, and Maddox knew better than to question where they were headed. Chances were Randy knew but wouldn’t share.

Chances were also good he had no idea.

Since the Hunt had risen, they’d had fewer allies than ever before. For most of the month since New York they’d simply been driving, helping people when they could, keeping in sporadic touch with Alastair and others from back home when they thought it safe enough to reach out. Randy swore to Kaylee he’d told her parents she was alive. That had been enough of a reassurance for her. She hadn’t wanted to talk to them yet, hadn’t wanted to hear their voice or tell them herself when she’d be coming home; not until she was absolutely sure she would be.

Sometime in the late afternoon, Randy had pulled off the side of the road and given Kaylee the wheel.

“Just keep driving down this road,” he’d said, rubbing his bleary eyes. “In about three hours you’ll hit a town called Smock. Probably stop there for the night.”

“And where’re we going after that?”

Randy had shrugged, and Kaylee took that as his best answer.

Now she stared ahead at a horizon full of settling twilight, the lingering sun painting the sparse clouds in red and orange. A glance in the rearview mirror showed Randy curled up on one of the makeshift beds they’d stuffed in the back. She would have known he was asleep without looking. His snores were practically rattling the windows.

Edwin too had reclined his chair, removed his glasses, and draped one arm over his eyes. His brown hair was a work of art in messiness. His mouth hung slightly slack. Thankfully, he was not a snorer, which was good since if he was Kaylee might have stopped and rolled both him and Randy into a ditch.

“Easy.” Kaylee felt Maddox grip the wheel and push them slightly back to her lane. She hadn’t even heard the rumble strips.

“Sorry. Little distracted.”

“No problem.” Maddox swiveled in the passenger seat to look at Edwin. He grinned. “I’d be distracted too with a smoking hunk of a boyfriend like that. Just look at him drool! He’s like a sleeping Prince Charming!”

Kaylee slugged him in the arm and he turned back, chuckling. They were passing rows of corn and flat land, their primary scenery for the last fifty miles. Kaylee thought she’d get bored of it, but the long, straight stretches of landscape with its gently swaying grass was somewhat soothing. Maybe it was because the main scenery before this had been the underground caverns of NYC. There had been beauty there too, but also parts so horrible it would have made any other landscape bearable.

Maddox suddenly leaned forward, squinting at a corner of the horizon, at a point where the orange and red was swallowed by dark snarls of clouds.

“Another thunderstorm.” He glanced at her. “Not you this time?”

Kaylee snorted. “Believe it or not, no. The Midwest is lousy with storms. This is where I should have been born. A storm dragon-kin would be considered downright normal here.”

“You handled your storm well back at Jared’s house. I think you managed to contain it to the house.”

She had, hadn’t she? At one time that might have been a massive accomplishment. But parts of her elemental magic had become almost second nature to her. Now it wasn’t so much a matter of what she could do, but if she’d get out of whatever situation she was in alive.

“Nah, that storm was small,” Kaylee said. “If I couldn’t control that we’d be in major trouble.”

Maddox settled back against the door, his bulky upper body tilted toward her. “I think the lady should just take the compliment.”

“Fine. Thank you, kind sir.”

Maddox nodded. “You’ve gotten fantastic at controlling all your powers. I know Edwin thinks so, too.”

Kaylee felt a faint blush rise to her cheeks. Despite her and Edwin being together for over half a year, she still got tingles in her stomach whenever she heard something like that. She supposed she should have been over the puppy love infatuation stage by now, but their relationship hadn’t exactly been…normal. They’d gone on maybe three dates yet knew more about what made each other tick than probably most people twice their age thanks to saving each other’s butts all the time. Alas, such was her life in the Convocation.

“Well…good. I’m glad he thinks so. My magic is way easier to use now. Everything except for…”

Kaylee stopped before saying the words ‘dragon fusion.’ Not that it mattered if Maddox heard. He knew the name by now. All of them did. It was one of the few things Kaylee had been able to tell them about how she got the dragon’s magic without her throat seizing up and choking her. The dragon, Kur, an actual, enormous, for-real, annoying dragon had gifted the power to her along with a curse stopping her from revealing anything about him or how she got it. Not that anyone would believe her. Dragons were supposedly as dead as the dinosaurs.

“Kaylee, you may not have mastered the dragon fusion,” Maddox said, “but you were able to do a lot with it last time you used it.”

“That was one time. And I haven’t been able to control it since.”

“That’s why Randy’s helping you. You’ll get it. If you could nearly defeat the Hunt on your first try with the power, I’d say that’s doing all right.”

Unbidden, images flashed through Kaylee’s mind: a cavern, pitch black save for pale blue light emanating from an immense, deep pool at the far end. The Bethesda Pool, Kaylee knew. More images flickered by: the Herald lowering himself into the pool and the Hunt rising up in his place. St. George’s ember eyes piercing through her, cutting straight to her heart. The Hunt bearing down on her, St. George lowering his spear and then—

Jade.

Her body jerking as she took his spear in the stomach, her blood spraying the stones beside Kaylee. Her last breath as her eyes flickered closed.

I will always protect you. No matter what. You know that, don’t you?

“Kaylee!”

Maddox jerked on the wheel. The rumble strips protested again and Kaylee quickly regained control. “Sorry! Sorry!”

“Mmmm…don’t kill us,” Randy grumbled before rolling over and starting to snore again. Edwin merely switched arms over his face.

“Sorry,” Kaylee said again, quieter. “I was just…” She rubbed her face with one hand. “Never mind.”

“Thinking about her?”

Kaylee let out a slow breath. “Yeah…I…”

“I get it.”

Kaylee made sure she had a good grip on the wheel and glanced over at him. Maddox had crossed his arms over his chest, his body leaned back, as if he’d collapsed into himself. His look was something Kaylee had seen a few times since they’d left the caverns: Haunted. The rest of the time he acted like the same old Maddox. He laughed and joked. He teased Edwin when he caught him and Kaylee sneaking in kisses during the rare moments they had alone. He discussed the best routes to take with Randy and battle strategy they could use against the Hunt when they met them again. Nothing seemed out of place.

Yet something was missing. His cheer was surface deep, just as quick to vanish as it was to arrive. Every so often he’d be taken over by sudden bouts of silence—like now—and just stare out the window at nothing. Maybe he was thinking, like Kaylee had a million times before, about all the things he could have done differently in the caverns that might have kept Jade alive. At night, whenever they stopped at a place to camp, Kaylee would sometimes hear him crying when she got up to get a drink. His sobs were muffled, like he was trying to shove all his memories down to a place where they couldn’t hurt him anymore.

She never told him about that. She knew he’d never want anyone to hear his weakness.

But what was worse than hearing him cry was wondering why she didn’t.

She felt sad, sure. But it was a tame sadness, a slight grayness inside her. Covering it was the rage. Rage at the Hunt. Rage at the Slayers. Rage at herself that she wasn’t strong enough.

And rage at Jade. For always promising to protect Kaylee no matter what. And for actually doing it, following through until the very end, even though Kaylee wished more than anything that it’d been the other way around, that she had been the one to take Jade’s place.

“We need a plan,” Kaylee finally said to break the silence. Maddox startled a bit, shaken from his reverie.

“What?”

“A plan. All this driving isn’t getting us anywhere. We’re just letting the Hunt waltz around and pick us off one by one. You heard what Randy said back at Jared’s house. Most of the Convocations have disbanded, but they should be doing the opposite!”

Maddox tapped a finger on his bicep. “I think everyone’s still in shock. There was no fail safe in case this happened.”

“The bigger Convocations should have been ready. They should have had a plan.”

“I think they do have a plan.”

Kaylee cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Care to enlighten me?”

“I…” Maddox rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve been discussing it with Randy. Nothing’s certain yet so I don’t want to say too much…”

“Does it have anything to do with why we’re heading east now?”

“Yes. I think.”

Another horrible thought occurred to Kaylee.

“This plan…it doesn’t happen to revolve around me mastering the dragon fusion, does it?”

“Stay on the road,” Maddox said, leaning over again to straighten the wheel, but Kaylee knew for certain she hadn’t started to drift off again. He just didn’t want to answer the question. That was answer enough.

She tried to keep her nerves under control. Her hands had begun to shake but she gripped the wheel tighter until they stopped. Okay…okay, so even more people than she thought were relying on her. That was fine. That was cool. She could handle it. It wasn’t like she didn’t know this was a possibility. Taking Kur’s magic at the time had seemed like a great idea. An ancient power that could defeat their enemies? Yes please.

But what had simply been an act of desperation taken to save her friends had somehow morphed into so much more. Too much more.

Maddox had apparently understood her sudden bout of silence. “Don’t worry about it, Kaylee. We’ve beaten the Slayers every time before this. We’ll do it agai—”

Movement on the horizon caught her attention and Kaylee leaned forward to stare through the grimy windshield. The road had just broken away from the most recent fields of corn and was now crossing through a wide grassland, nothing but barbed-wire fences and windmills disrupting the landscape for miles in either direction.

The storm that had been so distant before was closer now, leaching over into the golden sunset and turning it dark. The sky beneath it was dim with streaks of pouring rain. She was sure the road ahead was becoming slick and soon her line of sight would be cut in half, but that wasn’t what had her worried. What worried her was the immense cloud of dust riding ahead of the storm, a cloud like something an eighteen-wheeler might kick up. Or ten eighteen wheelers.

Except it wasn’t that at all.

“Crap!”

Kaylee slammed on the brakes and jerked the van over into the nearest shallow ditch, crunching over dead grass and gravel. She held the steering wheel straight, foot crushing the brake, until they came to a stop halfway embedded a cluster of corn stalks and sat there, stunned, while the engine idled and Randy swore, untangling himself from the blankets.

“Who the—how the—”

Edwin touched her shoulder. His eyes were wide like he’d just seen his life flash quickly by. “Uh…You okay? Did you fall asleep—”

“What the heck was that?” Randy demanded, but Kaylee was already unbuckling herself and sliding out of the driver’s seat. She hit the dry ground of the corn field and snuck back to where the edge of the ditch met the road, crouching when she got there. There were no cars for miles in either direction; nothing that would kick up a dust cloud. And nothing human that could kick up one that big.

“The Hunt,” Kaylee breathed as the others joined her.

“Here.” Maddox produced a pair of foldable binoculars and handed them to her. Kaylee put them to her eyes and zeroed in on the front of the dust cloud. She held in a gasp.

It was difficult to make out any of the four individual figures from this distance, but the twinge of pain in her head, the sick feel of wrong magic twisting her stomach, told her she was right.

“What are they doing out here?” Edwin said on her other side. “I thought they were staying closer to the east coast.”

“They have the ability to move around, you know,” Randy said dryly. He’d pressed his body as close to the grass as possible, eyes narrowed on the dust cloud as it cut swiftly across the landscape. “They’re getting stronger, moving farther away from their seat of power. Few more months I bet nowhere in the US will be safe.”

Kaylee zoomed in again. She could see the murky shape of the lead figure raise a spear clutched in his fist: the spear Ragnarok, St. George’s weapon of choice. The storm roared in answer as St. George held it to the sky. Lightning split the air. The clouds overhead swelled to an angry black, covering everything beneath them in soaking rain, obscuring the Hunt from her sight. Never, even in her wildest moments of anger, had the power of her storms ever come close to that. This was a power not seen in an age. This was a power unrivaled.

How on earth was she supposed to beat it?

“How come nobody else can see them?” Edwin asked as Kaylee handed Maddox back his binoculars. “No news reports, no military going after them. I mean, they’re kind of hard to miss.”

“Magic, of course,” Randy said. “Normal humans just think it’s an unusually stormy season. And I don’t think the Hunt wants to be spotted by anyone who’s not part of the Convocation.”

“They’re doing a real swell job with subtlety,” Maddox said as another crash of thunder rolled across the plains.

“Why would they care about subtlety?” Kaylee said. “St. George doesn’t seem like the modest type. I thought he wanted to be known.”

“As sick as St. George’s mission is, he thinks he’s doing humanity a service. The ‘normal’ part of humanity anyway. He’ll go about his genocide quietly, without any normal humans being the wiser, like a good little public servant should.”

That…sounded strangely civil for a man—for a thing—that was anything but. Kaylee turned back to the Hunt, which by now had cut a neat swath right over the highway they would have been on, leaving a slash of rain in its wake. Ten minutes later and they had all but disappeared on the horizon, vanishing with a final clap of thunder. Kaylee let out an immense breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.

“I think that’s enough excitement for one day,” Randy said.