by LJ Andrews
Dragon Mage
The Ward of Wyvern
LJ Andrews
Table of Contents
Part 1—The Ward
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Part 2—The Dragon Queen
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Part 3—The Mage
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Free Story
Bonus Scene
Thank You
Copyright © [2021] by LJ Andrews
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
For rights inquiries contact: [email protected]
Part One
The Ward
Chapter 1
Adrenaline boiled in my veins when the car bolted along the empty highway.
The velvet sky was blanketed in icy stars. Summer stuck to my skin, thick and damp from a recent storm. With the window of the passenger side down, I slithered my shoulders out, then leveraged onto the edge, sitting with my body half out as the blue Camaro bulleted through the canyon.
My pale hair whipped about my face. I closed my eyes. Here, I was free.
Angie squealed in delight from the backseat. Leaning over the passenger seat she reached out her hand, a brown bottle curled in her knobby triple-jointed pixie fingers. She giggled when the beer sloshed over my jeans. Fae creatures didn’t take well to human drinks, and most preferred their potent spiced ale, but Angie didn’t mind. So long as inhibitions were blurred, what did it matter?
“Tee, here,” she said in her silky purr and held the bottle out the window.
No pause, no hesitation, I took it willfully, chugging back until it numbed my tongue.
Kent swerved a bit but found his place in the center of the road again. By the grace of whatever sleeping gods still watched over the Magis District of upper Montana, I had enough instinct to grip the top of the car before I toppled back and splattered in pieces along the road.
The wave of adrenaline only brought a hearty laugh deep in my throat.
Angie cheered as though I’d performed a feat of incredible acrobatics and puckered her lips, inky eyes scanning me from head to toe. The glance suggested so many things. It only brought a wilder desire to push the limits more.
“My dad’s going to kill me!” Kent cheered, hollering out his opened window. “Like, set the entire pack on me.”
“Nah,” I shouted at the wind. “You’re too valuable.”
And he was. Kent was the future wolvyn alpha of the notorious Glacier pack. The strongest and oldest shifter clan in the area. If his dad, Alpha Ridge, killed anyone—it’d be me. The defective. The one with broken, dysfunctional magic.
“Open her up, Kent,” Angie said. She closed her full lips around his earlobe, sucked and licked, until Kent growled deep in his throat and the car picked up the pace.
I closed my eyes, accepting the power behind the air. Nature had always been a part of my life. It was the only place I found any sort of peace. Truth be told, it was the only thing that spoke to the faint buzz of something mystic in my blood. The only way I knew I belonged on the Magis side instead of the human.
We sped along the winding road up into the back forest near the border; I embraced the freedom. The forest spoke to something deep in my soul, like a missing piece of my heart could be found beyond the trees. While I balanced precariously outside the window, time slowed in a way. I studied the trees, the sharp pine needles, every stone pebbled along the forest floor.
Releasing the roof, I gripped the door with my legs, clutching as tightly as possible, spread my arms wide, and let out a long whoop of freedom. Freedom from labels, judgment, from life.
Lost in myself, it took a few heartbeats to note the flash of blue, green, and red in our wake. Magis Police. I cursed, but kept my grin and smacked the roof of the Camaro.
“Pick up the pace, man.” Kent swore loudly, but I pounded the car harder. “No, no, don’t slow down.”
“Have you lost your damn mind, Teagan?” Kent snapped his teeth, a bad habit with his temper flared.
Rolling back into the car, I laughed and took another drink. “Live a little! What’s your old man really going to do to you? No one’ll touch you, not even the MPF.” The magical police force was in the pocket of Alpha Ridge, in the pocket of Dorian, the wealthiest vampire and harem in town, the dark fae in the hills, and in the pocket of the North Star Coven, probably the creepiest coven of mentalist witches in the district. They could take hold of your mind with a single drop of their tricky spells.
“Come on,” I shouted. “Go!”
A little longer. Just a little longer where nothing else matters.
“Go, Kent!” Angie cheered. Her silvery hair fluttered around her face like moonlight. She giggled and slapped Kent’s overly broad shoulders.
Kent answered us with another growl, but kicked up the speed.
I celebrated with another drink. At least Kent had a clear mind so I could live the wild ride without my wits—it made the night all the sweeter.
The lights behind the car flashed, now the sirens blared in the night. With a breathy chuckle, I leaned over the passenger seat, heart pounding, and pulled Angie’s mouth to mine. She tasted like honey and rain and beer. I didn’t care. She wanted more and I gave it to her. Her tongue was long and strangely rough. Pixies were sensual creatures, and the longer I kissed her the deeper the back needle-point teeth dug into my mouth.
She cut my lip, but licked away the blood, grinning viciously. Angie squealed, then planted a kiss on Kent’s cheek.
I laughed, a real laugh, though a prickling in the back of my head reminded me this was strike three.
And a moment later I was out of the game.
Kent rounded the corner only to be met with three cruisers blocking the road. The spinning lights atop the cars blinded me for a moment. But they’d brought pyre, too. Nasty stuff, conjured up by the covens in town to mimic the dead magic from dragons. A fiery line blocked the road and it wouldn’t go out with the antidote potion.
We were sunk.
Kent slammed on the breaks, hard enough that Angie fell off the back bench and I slammed my forehead against the dash. Behind the Camaro the two cruisers and more pyre blocked our retreat. Kent’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel, his knuckles white.
Well . . . hell.
I groaned, flopped against the seat, and rubbed the spreading ache in my head. My blood hummed in power. I hated it. It wouldn’t do anything to help me and was simply another reminder I had no clout here. I was at the bottom of the Magis District pool.
The beer bottle had spilled along my clothes and reeked. It didn’t matter; in a matter of thirty seconds I was ripped from the seat, each arm pressed behind my back, my face shoved against the cold, unforgiving asphalt.
***
>
I knew Kent would get off. Alpha Ridge had him out and surrounded by formidable Wolvyn in thirty minutes.
Angie, last I’d heard, got her first strike and was given community service at the spell repository with Bertie, a plump cheery witch who loved to collect all the magical writings she could find. Pretty cushy.
As for me—well, I was a frequent flyer, so once again I was dressed in a shirt and tie tucked behind the small defendant table waiting for the sentence to drop.
“You’re going to keep your mouth shut and take whatever deal the judge gives you. No smart remarks. You’re looking at real time this go around. We’re lucky we even have a deal on the table,” Mr. Atwood snapped.
An imp. That was my defense team. And why was he complaining? All my mishaps were, no doubt, financing his California beach house.
Well, Aunt Liz was financing them.
A knot hardened in my chest, but I glanced over my shoulder.
Liz stared straight ahead, her hair peppered with grays and pulled up in a stern bun. I’d never seen Liz fancy herself up, but today she wore an old black dress that looked nice around her thin frame. Black, like she was mourning her the lost cause of her defective nephew.
I wanted to ask what lengths she’d taken to arrange for care of the other kids. Being a low power witch, and being saddled with a powerless nephew, Liz started the reject house (actually called The Sunset House, but reject fit well enough). All defectives could find a place with Liz. In the Magis Districts, power was pride. Kids like me born without an inherent ability, why would parents keep them?
My own aunt was saddled with me the last eighteen years because my parents couldn’t be bothered to care. I heard they died doing some dark spell stuff.
Couldn’t say I cared.
It wasn’t a big deal—really—I didn’t have memories of my parents, so how could I miss them?
I swallowed the knot in my throat. I was lucky. Aunt Liz was kind, and I wasn’t easy to deal with. Only for Aunt Liz’s sake did I finally relent to shutting my mouth and listening to my imp attorney.
The judge cleared his throat and called for me to rise. The portly man lifted one of his thick brows over his goat eyes. Fae had the strangest eyes.
“Teagan Ward, you understand the charges laid against you?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” I muttered.
Judge Swain rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Young man, this is your third offence in less than sixteen months. And that’s just in the Magis district. Let’s not mention the trouble you’ve caused in human borders.”
“All due respect judge, some kids took one of—” I grunted when Atwood stomped on my toe. “What?”
“Shut. Up.”
“They took one of the defectives across the border, what was I—”
Atwood’s eyes burned like hot, black coals. “Mr. Ward. Hush.”
I tightened my jaw. Judge Swain cleared his throat and went on. “That’s a lot, Mr. Ward. I’ve half a mind, due to the acceleration of your behavior, to put you in the rune cells. You understand? Solitary confinement. Dark. No ability to use any kind of magic.”
Defective, remember. I didn’t open my mouth.
“I’d keep you there until your twenty-first year, too,” Swain insisted.
I swallowed hard, daring to glance at Liz. She closed her eyes. Her chin quivered. My skin heated.
“However,” Swain said. “I’m prepared to offer one, final chance, Mr. Ward. You have a chance to attend summer courses at a magis school upstate. In conjunction with the school, you will be enrolled in a reform program for . . . unique powers.”
Broken. That’s what he really meant.
“They’ve had impressive outcomes for someone like you,” Swain said. “Helped find decent employment in both Magis and human districts. Son, I’ve cut you a break here.”
He wanted to send me away? Start over with new people who probably hated defectives as much as they did here? I’d barely earned an in with Kent. Not many creatures in the Magis District took to those of us with nothing to offer.
Not that Kent was here speaking for me, but still.
Swain clicked his tongue and spoke only when I met his gaze. “Wyvern Willows reform program is the offer. I only give you the option because I’m fully aware of your circumstances, and you have an aunt who seems willing to walk through fire for you. I hope you will not slap away her, nor my generosity.”
I paused and glanced at the desk. The idea was ludicrous. What sort of place was named Wyvern Willows? Dragon guilds died out during the Dragon Mage war two hundred years ago.
Now I was going to some place that couldn’t let go of the old. Great.
Atwood shot up next to me when the judge prepared to order the sentence. I sucked in sharp breaths to bury the ball of frustration. With a hidden glance at Aunt Liz, all my wants needed to go to the backburner—just once I couldn’t be selfish and bitter. She dabbed at her blue eyes, still avoiding any glance in my direction. Liz deserved better, and I wasn’t fool enough not to understand I was breaking her heart piece by piece.
Judge Swain cleared his throat. “The MPF court orders that Teagan Ward, Class: Defective, will be handed to the custody of Wyvern Willows Reform Program and will commence classes within the next five days, or will be returned to the custody of the Magis Court. Understand, young man?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Don’t let me see you in here again.”
With a crank of the gavel, two officers flanked me. Both with matching black eyes and a slight bluish tint to their skin. A kind of growl rumbled in the back of my throat as they took my arms, but when gentler hands took mine, I calmed.
Liz gave me a look, one that kept my mouth shut as we escaped the fae courtroom and outside to the old, trusty minivan. There, Aunt Liz remained quiet, not even looking at me until we were well into the traffic of Glacier Magis District.
“You’re ruining your life,” she whispered. “You could be so much more, Tee.”
“I’m sorry.” I gritted my teeth. “I’ll pay you back for all . . . this.”
“I don’t want money, Teagan. I want you to see your potential like I always have. When you came to live with me, I promised I would raise you the best I could. I tried to be mom and dad; I know it hasn’t always been easy—”
“Aunt Liz,” I interrupted. “This isn’t your fault. I’m the one who makes my own choices.”
“Yes,” she sighed. “You do. You have a strength inside Tee, I only wish you could see it.”
I balked. “Strength. No, I have a disease inside.”
“You don’t need the packs, the pixies, you don’t need any guild to be accepted, Teagan,” she said. This wasn’t the first time I’d tried to find a place among the guilds and clans of the district. Doubtless, she’d grown weary of it all. “You have acceptance here.”
She gestured at herself. A grin played at the corner of my lips, but I shook my head and glanced out the window. I was glad she cared, no mistake, but her affection and love wouldn’t give me a job in the district. It wouldn’t give me a place once I left her house. Defectives were good for thieving and begging in the magis district. Or something menial on the human side. But with humans, if you were discovered as a magis, well, then you had to have a special license. A scarlet letter. Humans viewed anyone from the magis district, even defectives, like they’d explode on a whim.
Maybe someone should remind them the pyre mages and dragons were dead.
“I expect you to follow the rules at Wyvern,” Liz went on. “You’re to stay on the grounds. Don’t go looking for trouble. You’ll follow the rules, won’t you?”
I nodded, but didn’t respond more than that. I wanted to follow the rules, but already I was plotting my misery at the reform house.
“Because, honestly Tee, if you don’t, I really won’t be there to bail you out again. My heart just can’t keep doing this. You’re almost nineteen. Time for you to deal with the adult consequences.”
“I know.” I folded my arms over my chest. “I’ll do whatever program they’ve got. Don’t worry about me. The other kids need you more.”
She winced like I’d stung her, but recovered quickly and chuckled. “Oh, sweetie, I wish it were so simple to just turn off. I love you. I really do. Just love yourself enough to do this right. Who knows, maybe this will be a turning point for you. It could open an entire realm of possibilities we never imagined.”
I scoffed and leaned against the window of the van. Something told me Wyvern Willows was going to be the end of life as I knew it. The thought of it settled like a sick bulge in the center of my stomach.
Chapter 2
The air was spicy. In a good way. Breathing it in relaxed the anxiety building in my chest when Aunt Liz rolled into my new prison cell.
The town of Wyvern Willows was small. Old diners, a single grocery store, a tiny hardware shop. Along the immaculate walks there were old iron streetlamps that had a sort-of charm. Even an old-school ice cream parlor where families and kids lined the swiveling seats licking their favorite flavors like a vintage magazine photo.
The human district reminded me of the old black and white Mayberry.
People waved as we drove past, like we were old friends. I wondered if these people would be waving if they knew it was a van driven by a witch and filled with her magically defective wards.
Places like this didn’t exist, and I was determined not to trust anyone who would willingly live in such a town. I wanted to hurl when we passed by the manicured lawns and homes along the hillside. Each yard, no matter the wealth of the home, was beautiful, cropped, and landscaped to perfection. Some homes were older, but still ideal. Some were cabins, some brick—just like anywhere else, but this place bellowed that no one stepped a single toe from the perfect, societal line.
Aunt Liz played like she was thrilled, but I noted the way her fingers tapped the steering wheel nervously when we pulled up to the border gates. None of the smiling, ice-cream eating people here. Two MPF guards stepped out from their little kiosk and knocked on the window.
“License,” the first guard asked Liz, while his partner lurked around the van, gawking at all of us inside. He had points to his ears and wore black studded stones at each tip. Abby, a half-nymph, patted her delicate hand on the window. Fae creatures could sense each other. It wasn’t long before the creeping guard grinned and patted the window in return.
