by L J Andrews
I shrugged, still moving toward the window. “I thought Eisha would cover your schooling. Speak with Sapphire, I’ll speak with Eisha.”
He followed me to the window, opening the glide for me, but wrapping his strong arm around my waist at the same time. “I’ll see you soon?”
He was asking me, and I saw the same ache pass his face that was building in my chest. Nodding quickly, I took a step outside. “Very soon. I’ll speak with Eisha.”
I ducked around the side of the house when the door burst open and I heard Mitch. “Come on, man—whoa, you…Teagan, you have more tattoos on your arms. Sapphire’s going to kill you, man.”
“Uh, don’t tell him, okay?” I heard Teagan mutter quickly.
Mitch scoffed. “Whatever. Come on, ever since Graham left you’re basically the only guy who isn’t filled with some kind of rage or complains about everything.”
I crept to the edge of the roof and leapt off. If only Mitch could see Teagan’s back. I ran across the grass, never concerning myself over making sure I was concealed from anyone catching me jumping from Teagan Ward’s window. I should have taken a little more care.
“Jade,” Sapphire’s booming voice pounded inside my ears. Skidding to a stop, I turned slowly, my eyes averting his harrowing gaze. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry, I lost track of time,” I muttered, though I knew I didn’t have to apologize as the jade stone wyvern. It was more out of respect for our friendship.
“You assured me you would take care with this bond and not get lost,” Sapphire paused and lowered his voice. “That you wouldn’t lose sight of your priorities.”
My jaw clenched tight, and the ball of knots I’d had in my stomach all night lodged in the back of my throat. “Konrad, don’t mistake my interest in Teagan for losing sight of my position or my thought of our people.”
Sapphire stepped closer, his bulky arms crossing over his chest. “I am not doubting you, I’m simply concerned for you. And for Teagan. Both the mage and the wyvern have very specific rules—for a reason. It keeps us all safe.”
“Does Mini have your seal in her markings—possibly all over her back?” I asked snidely, knowing the answer when I saw his expression.
“I’ve never inspected them closely,” he muttered. “But to my knowledge only the mage language for the wards of wyvern are on her skin; our seals aren’t part of that language. Did something happen to Teagan?”
“I don’t think it’s anything to fret over,” I insisted. “But at my touch last night, my seal coated his back. So it’s becoming clearer to me that this bond is something different. Perhaps it’s time for old rules to change.”
Sapphire raised a brow, and I could tell his lips were pressed firmly together, though his beard shielded them. I kept my shoulders back, locking my gaze with him for a long while before leaving Sapphire in his stunned silence at my bold profession.
Challenging the rules of wyvern wasn’t wise, and it wasn’t common for the queen to say such things. But there was the itch in the back of my mind that it was entirely possible I would be forced to challenge the elders themselves to keep Teagan. It could mean renouncing my position, my throne, my bloodline. I asked myself countless times if I was prepared to make such a move for a man I’d known for a few weeks.
“Jade, where are you going?” Sapphire called after me once I’d turned back toward the trees. “You say that to me, and just leave.”
“I must return and check with Eisha, Raffi, and Dash. Raffi has been licking his wounds, and you know he doesn’t lose well,” I smirked. Through the trees I saw Teagan walking with Mitch—slower than usual—toward the old white school bus parked outside the reform house. I pointed across the lawn. “Teagan is leaving. If you want him to train, I suggest you and Eisha arrange something to cover his absence at the school.”
Sapphire’s gaze followed my point and he sighed, taking the first steps toward the bus. “We will speak of this later. It’s not something to brush away, Jade.”
“I’m going to stop telling you things if you worry about each word,” I said lightly, though I was slightly serious at the idea. Sometimes it seemed everything I said was analyzed and dissected and only encouraged my people to keep me distanced from Teagan.
Sapphire grunted something over his shoulder as he trudged toward the driveway, but even with my sensitive ears, I couldn’t hear him. He was leaning inside the bus, and I took the opportunity to leave. If Teagan came toward me, I wasn’t positive I would be able to walk away.
Raffi hadn’t taken the loss well, as I predicted. Dash was the opposite and had spent the night researching about the power of the mage.
“I don’t know what he called upon in the sanctuary, but the mages hold their powers very sacred,” he said, walking toward the forest at the back of the large house Eisha, the two warriors, and I had called home for several years. “I found a few writings about calling on all the energies for one powerful charge, although the book made it seem as though only the most skilled mages could conjure something like that.”
I secured my hair behind my head as we walked. Raffi was shirtless, standing in the center of the back field. He’d spent the morning preparing an impossible obstacle course. Eisha and I had learned Mini thought it prudent that the two warrior wyverns should take the opportunity to test Teagan’s physical strength and endurance. I called it torture, but no one else seemed to agree with me.
Dash slowly removed his own shirt, the heat of the sun rippling along his rich skin. Dash had several scars along his back that were nearly invisible when he shifted forms. I knew the scars came from his protections of me. The last attack had nearly killed my friend. When I’d tried to apologize, Dash had immediately silenced me and said he wore the scars with pride.
“Jade, you are not participating,” Raffi muttered when I removed my sports jacket, revealing my own athletic clothes.
I glared toward him, securing the tennis shoes on my feet. “If you’re going to train Teagan to fight for me, don’t you think I should learn how to defend myself as well? I’m the only one who hasn’t been able to shift. I think learning to fight in this body is wise.”
Dash glanced at Raffi and shrugged. “She has a point. We can’t leave her like a damsel in distress in the event we all should be slaughtered.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I sighed, the idea sending a sick wave through my insides.
Dash and Raffi snickered. Raffi’s skin was already glistening with sweat. He had the delicate mark of wyvern painted across his chest and shoulders. The design formed a wispy head of a dragon breathing beautiful blue fire. The marks were only visible when he was in human form, and he had gotten them when the school board instituted a “no tattoo policy” to the dress code. Eisha had spent that afternoon lecturing him about blending in. Raffi only got two more along his calves after their talk.
“Alright, fine,” Raffi said. “But I train Teagan.”
“I think you’re a sore loser, Raffi,” I snipped.
He nodded. “Guilty. I admit freely I don’t lose well, because, my queen, I never lose.”
He was smiling, and I could see why so many of the girls at school had pined after Raffi, though he’d never shown any interest. Eisha was seated at the top of the slope, her arms crossed over her chest, but at least she wasn’t angry. In fact, when I’d returned home, no one said anything of my long absence.
There was a brush of air, and in the sky Sapphire’s brilliant, blue form sank from the clouds, Mini and Teagan both atop his back. My lips seemed to have a mind of their own when Teagan looked my way; I couldn’t control the smile even if I’d wanted to. I picked up my pace and strolled toward him, but Raffi and Dash moved in too quickly.
“We’re going to see how far you can go physically. If you think Nag or his followers will faint from exhaustion first, you’re wrong,” Raffi grumbled.
“I didn’t ever think a dragon would lose to someone like me,” Teagan said with a quick wink in my
direction. “Until yesterday.”
I chuckled and even caught a smile on Eisha’s face as Raffi’s cheeks painted in crimson heat. “Well, that will be remedied shortly.”
“I will add,” Mini said. “Pushing your limits physically can help you train your power to hold you up where your body cannot. This will be good practice.”
“Jade insists on participating. I think we should start here. Teagan competes with Raffi. Jade against me,” Dash said, pointing to the place on the field that looked much like an impossible obstacle course. “Let’s have some fun. Jade, if I defeat you, you must make me a crystal dagger.”
“Dash,” I smirked. He knew full well how difficult it could be to call upon the more beautiful of stones in the earth. “You would ask for such a thing? Fine, if I defeat you—I want your royal blade you’re so fond of—the one the noble warrior bestowed upon you.”
“My knife,” he gaped, though his eyes flicked with a new competitiveness. “Prepare to fail, my queen. That is something I shall never part with.”
Teagan was quiet, but smiled at our back and forth.
“Alright, line up then,” Sapphire said. Dash stood close to me while Raffi nudged his shoulder directly against Teagan. The first task was crossing jagged stones by only using ropes. My arms already ached at the thought. I could sit out, but if my human form was aching at the idea of such exercise, it was proof I’d been too stagnant all these years. “Be fair and true—I’m speaking to you, Raffi.”
“Try to use your powers,” Mini shouted. “Feel it, Teagan, they will be there.”
Teagan sighed and touched his palms to the ground as though he were trying to reach something beneath the grass. Raffi and Dash were focused on nothing other than winning the race. Sapphire stepped to one side, a wide smile over his lips. “Ready…Go!”
I owed Dash a crystal dagger.
After scrambling to pull myself from a waist deep mud pond, I collapsed, my insides feeling as though they might spill all over themselves. My fiery lungs seemed ready to combust, and I thought I even saw steam puffing from my mouth. Wishful thinking. Of course, I felt better knowing that Dash only defeated me by a matter of five paces, and he was breathing just as hard. To my surprise, it was Teagan whose face peered over mine, and he reached his hand out to clasp mine. When my fingers brushed against his, the shocking power surging between us settled my stomach quickly.
Teagan smiled, though his chest was heaving in deep breaths. “You’re incredible.”
I closed my eyes. “Teagan, you beat me.”
He laughed. “Yes, but I cheated. I kept finding ways to use energy, I guess. In the water the idea came to use it to power me and I felt stronger. The mud, same thing. And Raffi slaughtered me, so don’t feel too bad.”
“Don’t forget it either,” Raffi said, wiping mud from his eyes. For the first time I watched the warrior truly grin toward Teagan. Raffi was brisk and rough, but the way he eyed Teagan with respect, I believed Teagan had just been initiated to the warrior brotherhood—even if he didn’t know it yet.
“Using energy isn’t cheating,” I said through a smile. “That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. What I should have been doing all these years is keeping this body strong. I think I’ve found too much enjoyment with movies and popcorn.”
Teagan laughed again and helped me to my feet. His shirt was drenched in sweat, so like Raffi and Dash he stripped it from his top, exposing the enormous, beautiful seal across his back. Mini drew in a breath, and Raffi’s eyes homed in on Teagan’s skin.
“It really happened then,” Mini muttered, drawing her fingers over his seal. “Konrad said Jade mentioned a seal, but I was positive he’d misunderstood.”
Teagan glanced at me, and there was a smirk in the gleam of his eyes that sent a thrill through my chest. He wasn’t the slightest bit unhinged at the idea of my seal, nor it would seem, how it had gotten there. “I think it’s my favorite mark yet,” he said to Mini.
Dash rolled his eyes, shuffling past me when I linked my arm around Teagan’s elbow. “Please, you both are beginning to make me ill.”
“This isn’t a wyvern ward mark, Teagan,” Mini insisted, her fingers tracing the edges of his seal.
“I still like it best,” Teagan muttered, taking a long drink of bottled water.
“Yes, well when the wyvern elders or the priesthood come poking around at your back, maybe you won’t think it’s so wonderful.”
Teagan draped his arm around my shoulders, I sensed it was more to irritate the others, but I would take the closeness. “I don’t know Mini, I think you might be a little jealous you don’t have a seal.”
Mini huffed and backed away, her arms folding over her chest. “I wouldn’t want Sapphire’s seal on my beautiful skin. I’m not a mage who needs to get handsy with my wyvern for power.”
Teagan grinned and kissed the side of my head just as Dash walked by. Raffi and I chuckled when Dash stepped away muttering about teenagers, or something like that. Raffi and Sapphire inspected the seal along with Mini, who continually shook her head. Teagan stood by like a piece of art in an art museum, but the pride he spoke of never left his expression. Eisha stood by Dash, though she didn’t come look at the new mark. When I’d told her about it earlier, she only seemed concerned. I wondered what was at the heart of her worries—something hinted to me it wasn’t only Teagan and the rise of the mage.
Chapter 22
Everyone seemed interested in my seal painted on Teagan’s back. Eisha kept her distance, but now Raffi and Dash were adding different theories as to why it was there and who Teagan was.
“Maybe you’re a seer mage, and you’ll help guide the outcome of Jade’s future. I mean, she hasn’t completed her seal yet, it could make sense,” Raffi offered.
Mini shook her head, “No, seers aren’t wards for the wyverns, they guide the mage race.”
“Well, he’s the jade bloodline mage, right? So, Jade’s the only one left. It’s probably just marking his place in the bloodline. What were you doing when it appeared?” Dash asked. My cheeks flushed with a wave of heat, and I glanced away. “Never mind,” he said quickly. “I don’t want to know.”
Raffi chuckled and nudged my elbow. The warrior who was the hardest on Teagan was now the one who seemed most willing to accept that I felt more than a partnership of protection for the new mage in Wyvern Willows.
“You really don’t have anything like this?” Teagan asked Mini quietly, his voice sounding more direct than playful.
Mini shook her head. “Only the armor marks. It’s beyond my understanding. I wish I knew where you came from, Teagan.”
Sapphire met my eye, and I knew he was wondering the same thing. I’d thought of little else this morning. Who was Teagan Ward, really?
“You and me both,” he muttered, tossing his damp shirt off to the side and stepping toward Raffi.
“Teagan,” Mini said, pulling out her knife. “Wait. Give the warriors a rest, I want you to fight me.”
His brow furrowed, and Raffi and Dash took a new interest in the exercise. “Fight you?”
“Yes,” Mini said, removing a leather strap she’d slung over her shoulders that held a second knife and a bag of some sort of powder. “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what your power means at times, but it’s quite possible you’ll face dark mages someday. There is a place where you fit in these tumultuous times, and you must be able to use your power against theirs.”
“You’re not dark though,” he argued, his bare shoulders tensing beneath his jaw slightly.
“No, but I can threaten you with the same power you hold. Are you frightened?”
Teagan scoffed, his arm sliding from my grip. “No. I fought against two dragons. No offense, Mini, but I think I’ll take you over them.”
Mini chuckled, but didn’t say anything. Something told me she had a few secrets. Mini tossed her second knife toward Teagan and gripped the knife that had revealed Graham’s form.
“Any r
ules?” he asked, rolling the knife in his hand. Teagan didn’t grip the weapon as naturally as Mini, but then why would he be skilled at knife fighting?
“No,” she said, drawing her black hair back with a band. Mini gave petite a new definition, but her face was filled with wisdom that didn’t match her size. Between the two, Teagan dominated her physically, but Mini was cunning. I could see it in her eyes. “Use your strength to get the upper hand, but also use mage energy. The first unable to proceed loses. Jade—no intervening.”
I crossed my arms, reluctant to agree just because she’d insisted. I didn’t like the idea of her harming Teagan, and knowing what I did of the small mage, she wouldn’t hold back. Teagan nodded and crouched slightly, but Mini was already moving. Surprisingly, she sheathed her knife, pressing her palms firmly on the ground. I rushed backward when the earth seemed to roll away from her touch. Teagan stumbled against the trunk of a towering maple. Mini held her palms up again, and by an unfamiliar magic, the roots of the tree slithered through the soil like serpents and reached to tether Teagan against the trunk.
With wide eyes he rolled out of reach, the knife in his grip long forgotten on the leafy ground. Teagan rushed toward a pile of stones crumbled after falling from the slopes to our rear. At the touch of his hand, the stones cascaded across the ground, aiming precariously toward Mini. She smiled and nodded her approval, but quickly held up her palms. The stones stopped rumbling. “Well, done, but it’s not enough.”
Mini clenched her fists, and the stones exploded into gray, glittering dust. Teagan released a breathy curse and rose to his feet as Mini swirled her hands in front of her face. The piles of dust from the crushed stone whirled into a cyclone. Before Teagan could react, the grains of sharp rocks shot across the space between the two mages and whipped against his bare skin.
“That wasn’t nice, Mini,” Sapphire chuckled, earning him a scathing glare from Teagan and a prideful gleam from his opponent.
Teagan’s arms were littered in scrapes and dripped in bright blood when he spread his fingers wide at his sides and squared his body against Mini. His mouth was set in tight knots and he said nothing. Mini lowered to her knees, preparing to summon what power she could from the earth, but her face fell. Her eyes glanced toward Teagan, who was still and strong as he kept his focus locked on her.
