Fire Born Dragon (Rule 9 Academy Book 1)

by Elizabeth Rain

  Her eyes slid sideways, but not before we all caught the discomfort there.

  “Maybe the walls aren’t there just to keep the humans out. Maybe they exist because the Magicals aren’t ready to let them in.” Lucas finished for her.

  “Dark Faction talk is what that is—” She broke off abruptly and was silent.

  I looked at our Mayor and wondered.

  NICK AND I WALKED AHEAD along the bridge, slick in spots with spilled blood from the battle I hadn’t been a part of. I tried to ignore it where possible. I had grown tired of death and the dying. I refused to identify a couple of the dark forms at the bottom of the ravine that were not Demon wolves. Not everyone was celebrating a victory today.

  Shock and exhaustion warred for dominance on the faces of several of the less battle seasoned guards. No one would forget tonight.

  “Where do you think the Demon wolves went? I don’t get it.” Nick asked.

  I shrugged, wondering the same. “Not sure. I don’t look forward to finding out.”

  He nodded. “It was almost like once their puppet master was gone, so was their desire to fight.”

  “Maybe that’s it. Do you wonder just how much control he was exerting over them?... I don’t know. I’m just guessing, same as the rest of us.”

  Nick grimaced. “Yeah.” His eyes darkened and slid away from mine. He cleared his throat and I realized he was a little nervous.

  “What? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, it’s just... when we get back and all of this is cleared up. We got holiday coming up in a week. Would you be interested in catching a movie or something over break?”

  Butterflies suddenly fluttered in silly abandon in my tummy. “You mean all of us go to a movie together? I’ll ask them, I think that would be fun.” I deliberately misunderstood. He stared at me in consternation.

  “Sure yeah, that’s what I meant.” He said, resigned.

  I hid a smile, and the butterflies landed. I wasn’t sure I was ready to go on a date with Mr. Tall, dark and brooding. Not alone.

  We moved off the cliff path and up the hill towards the entrance in Shephard’s Mountain and Drae Hallow, Nick seemed to brighten and his stride lengthened ahead of us.

  I moved faster to catch up.

  “Hey, Nicholas! What’s the big yank?” Thomas complained behind him.

  He glanced back but didn’t slow down. “I just realized something.” He yelled over his shoulder.

  Frowns flashed his way. “What?” They all said in unison.

  Nick smirked. “I’m starving.”

  THANKSGIVING BECAME Friendsgiving in Breathless, Montana. Kimmy was the star of the show and put on a feast that didn’t stop at the turkey, though we had that too. Venison and roast beef were there with all the fixings. I wasn’t surprised to see poached salmon take center stage in front of Sirris. Jerry’s eyes widened in horror when he saw it.

  The table was as full as I’d ever seen it. Mom had agreed to come when we got the invite and so along with the entire Tuttle clan, the Waverly’s, mom and I, it was a full house. Mom sat in Todd’s still empty chair and the missing teen threatened to cast a pall over the festivities, but Sirris and Kimmy worked together to keep it a celebration of the family we had around us.

  There were so many of us, that rather than attempt to pass so many heavy platters, we instead sat everything along the center of the table and stood with our plates and circled the table to the left, dishing up as we went. I thought it resembled a buffet of the round table. I killed me sometimes.

  We sat and formed a circle of hands for the Major as he said grace. He didn’t forget to mention his missing son and we all thought of those who hadn’t made it. There’d been more than a few whose life had been forfeit and none of us would forget that.

  As we settled into eat, I realized that the conversation around the table had a certain hesitancy. I looked at my mother on my right. Carly Cross was having a good time, smiling, and talking with Kimmy and discussing recipes and gardening. But not magic. No one was discussing anything to do with the Other, or Drae Hallow. Or Rule 9 and the fact I’d been less than a mile away at school for the last semester, not several hundred miles away in North Dakota as she assumed. Special abilities, classes on Sorcery and elemental magic, and heaven forbid, portals into alternate dimensions were not mentioned.

  I was good with that. I needed—craved normalcy for a change. Something that didn’t involve life, death, or worse. I wanted to be with my friends and family and eat too much. To just be a normal boring teen sounded like this side of heaven.

  I noticed that mom was spending a fair amount of time talking to Jerry. He could be hilarious when he wasn’t hiding in his lab for hours on end.

  “Hey, could you pass that dish in front of you Kimmy?” She smiled and Kimmy reached for it. Jerry beat her to it. “Oh, Mrs. Cross, let me. Head cheese, my favorite. It’s wonderful, don’t you think?”

  I watched my mother’s complexion shade towards green as her eyes widened in horror. She took the dish and stared at it like it was a snake.

  I tried to hide a giggle and failed. Sirris rolled her eyes and swatted her father, who jumped, his grin wide as he threw up his hands.

  “What?” he asked, all innocent like.

  My mom’s eyes narrowed. “Let me guess. Stuffing, just stuffing?”

  “Yes, my recipe. It might have a secret ingredient or two, but none of it came out of a cow, I can assure you.” To prove her point Kimmy dished up another spoonful herself.

  My mother slanted Jerry a dirty look. He didn’t look one bit sorry as he munched on a roll.

  I turned to the Major. “Thank you Major Tuttle. This has been wonderful.”

  Sirris, pulling apart her third helping of salmon, nodded.

  Where did she put it all?

  “Agreed. We needed this, all of us. It’s Thanksgiving, but it’s also a gathering of what’s important, and that makes it extra special.” Sirris finished.

  The Major nodded, but he didn’t smile. It was a gathering of family and close friends, but he was missing a part of his.

  “He’s smart, Major. He learned from the best, you know? Don’t you think if he were gone we’d have found some sign? No news might be good news.” I said the words, wondering if I was overstepping my boundaries. Everyone had carefully avoided any mention of Todd and his buddies.

  The Major and several members of the Tuttle family stopped talking and turned to stare at me.

  “Maybe.” He admitted, his eyes grateful. But he didn’t sound too sure.

  “What happened?” mom asked, picking up on the mood. Inwardly, I cringed. It was an innocent enough question. The truth was anything but.

  The Major gave her a baleful stare that never reached his eyes. “Hunting. He went hunting and disappeared and we haven’t found him yet. Anything could have happened to him.” He took a drink and kept eating.

  “Have you tried using dogs to track him? Law enforcement uses them all the time to find fugitives and missing kids, right?” Mom offered.

  I watched as every Tuttle eye at the table rounded. But her response lightened the conversation somehow, in a way I couldn’t have foreseen.

  The Major’s eyes lightened with a trace of the humor I remembered. “I think that’s a splendid idea. I may try that.”

  Several covered coughs down the length of the table earned a glare from him. I couldn’t blame them, covering my mouth to conceal my own humor.

  I looked at my mother, expecting to see confusion. Instead, her eyes were dancing with mirth as she reached for her wine.

  What an odd reaction.

  I THOUGHT BACK TO WHEN I’d first come home two days before. I’d had to field several questions from my mom about North Dakota. By the time she finished asking and I was done lying, guilt had sunk deep. Necessary fibs or no; lies were lies.

  I watched my mom, her perfect blond hair a silk waterfall down her back and slim fingers grasping the wine glass with dainty precision. E
very inch the lady, and without a clue to the fact she was sitting at the table with a clan of werewolves, a mermaid, and her own daughter... the Magical?

  I settled for that. What was I really? None of us knew the answer, not really. But as I looked up and down the length of the table, I realized that wasn’t what was most important. What I valued most was that I belonged. I’d been waiting a long time to be able to say that.

  I reached out and brushed my hand over my mother’s, where it lay on the table. She glanced in my direction, startled. I watched the smile start in her eyes and spread to lift her lips. I knew I was doing the same.

  “I love you mom. It’s good to be back.”

  She stared down at our joined fingers and gave a squeeze.

  “It’s good to have you back. I hope you’re learning what you need to there. Pay attention. Sometimes school is where we find out who we are,” she said. She looked up and met my eyes, mirth dancing in them again.

  I blinked; sure I’d imagined it. What was it that mom kept finding so funny?

  She turned to Kimmy on the other side, wiping her mouth and sitting her napkin down. “Could you tell me where the restroom is?”

  I watched as she disappeared down the hall. The entire table waited until she was out of earshot before a quiet pandemonium of questions erupted.

  “How do things stand with the Macu? Did they get them all? How much of a threat are they to our cattle?”

  “Does anyone know where the Demon wolves are holing up? I haven’t heard them mentioned in days...”

  “Is the shield back up and at 100%?”

  The questions went on and on. I listened to Thomas, Sirris and Jerry as they answered most of them. Not that anyone was satisfied with the answers.

  I’d have liked to know all the answers to those questions too.

  The problem was that was going to take time. We knew the shield was recovering. But no one knew where the remaining Demon wolves had gone, or if all the Macu were accounted for. Marcus Tannon and the guard were working around the clock to find the answers.

  “At least the livestock seem to be safe now.” The Major observed. “We have lost nothing in the last couple days.”

  “Has something been after the animals? Carly asked from the doorway to the hall. A table full of shocked eyes turned to stare at her. She’d come back and nobody had noticed.

  The Major stared at her in speculation. “Wolves, I hear there are wolves in the mountains. They’ve been getting a little bold of late.”

  My mother’s eyes met his, and again with the humor. “Is that so? Because there have been wolves in these hills for over a hundred years. They’ve always minded their manners before, up on the ridge in the high country. Odd, don’t you think, that they’ve suddenly come down to mingle with the human population?” she gave him a smile and sat back down.

  The Major continued to stare at my mother even after she asked Kimmy to dish her up a piece of her homemade caramel apple walnut cake.

  I couldn’t help but feel I’d missed something important.

  AFTER DINNER MOM VOLUNTEERED to help Kimmy and Sirris clean up the kitchen. The rest of us grabbed jackets and headed outside towards the barn.

  Jerry was talking to the Major. “Thanks for letting us stay until the insurance kicks in and they get the house rebuilt. I could have found a rental in town to save you the trouble. What if you need it?

  Major Tuttle waved his hands. “Ridiculous. We have the room. You have your privacy and can continue your work here. No arguments.”

  The Major could be as stubborn as his sons. Jerry nodded. He’d made the effort, but the fact was, I knew he liked his accommodations, temporary though they were.

  Together with the rest of the Tuttles, we spent the next couple hours rearranging and remaking the apartment into a fit set of living quarters for Jerry and Sirris when she was away from school during holidays.

  With so many hands, we’d all but finished within a couple hours.

  Back in the living room of the main house, Jerry addressed everyone. “This means the world to me—to us. Thank you.” Jerry admitted, speaking to all of us.

  The Major nodded. “Looks good I have to admit. Needed cleaning anyhow. Kids been trashing it at the end of every month for years.” He stopped and looked to where my mother was helping to dish up fresh desserts in the kitchen. She never looked up to question his odd choice of words.

  We headed for the door not long after, enjoying a variety of sweets, stuffed to the gills. Thomas pulled the Kubota up to the front door. It seated six and while it wasn’t much good for anything further up the mountain where the trail being to narrow; it was fine for short trips down into town. I knew the Tuttles grew and produced most of what they needed on the farm. But what they needed from town was loaded on the cart and brought up the mountain.

  Sirris made her goodbyes and climbed in with us. We had to shout over the sound of the engine and the bumpy terrain as we moved down the track.

  “You’re still welcome to come with tomorrow? We’d wait for you.” Sirris shouted.

  Thomas looked at her like she was nuts. “No way. That many people pushing and shoving and bickering in one place. Scary. Count me out. I’ll be home watching football and kicking my brothers’ a...arses,” he amended, glancing at Carly, who gave him the ‘mom’ stare.

  Sirris laughed. “We’re only going out for breakfast and hitting a couple shops we can’t do on-line. I don’t plan to spend my holiday keeping Sadie out of jail because someone shoved her aside looking for the latest Luke Bryant Cd.” Sirris teased, glancing my way.

  I gave her a shoulder shove. “You’d be right there with me. You know you think he’s hot.”

  Sirris sniffed. “Too old. Too married.” But she was grinning.

  “You’re coming with us, right mom?” I asked, catching my mother’s eye.

  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she replied.

  I sat back as we rounded the last curve before our back yard.

  Life was good.

  THE NEXT MORNING WE had to wait a full forty-five minutes before we were seated. But I loved Bob Evans, so it was worth the wait.

  Besides, the look on the waitress’s face when Sirris ordered Tilapia from the menu at 8:00 in the morning was worth it.

  I found myself relaxing for the first time in longer than I could remember. We talked about mom’s new job. They’d already promoted her and she liked the people she was working with. I felt bad for steering the conversation away from any mention of school. Not wanting to be on the business end of more uncomfortable lies.

  I was having a good time. But I missed dad. It had been five months since I’d seen him. We Skyped regularly, but it wasn’t the same. I couldn’t very well share my feelings with my mother either, since she’d wonder how I could miss someone I’d just spent the last four months with.

  AFTER BREAKFAST WE spent the next couple hours trying to hit the two stores that weren’t on-line. The hour long wait in check-out reminded me of why I did most of my shopping from home.

  After, mom dropped Sirris and me back at our place and took off again. She needed to do some shopping of her own without us.

  Sirris plopped down on my bed, head against my frosted pink pillow with the lacy ruffles. It was the only thing in my room that showed a girl lived there.

  “Pretty,” she said, playing with the lace and giving me a cheeky smile.

  “Hey, so what? It’s pink and I’m a girl. Is that a problem?” I growled. But I was smiling, and when she suddenly hefted it in her hands and looked at me, I knew what was coming.

  “Don’t even think... oof!” the pillow hit me square in the stomach. She had a great arm for a mermaid.

  But I had been developing some muscle of my own. My throw hit her dead center in the middle of her forehead and she landed in a giggling tangle in the center of my bed.

  The fight was on...

  When my computer pinged with a message, we both froze. We were teenagers. A
nd well, like duh. It was a message. Still holding my weapon, I wandered over and put my password in one handed. Sirris stood at my shoulder.

  I gasped when I read the first part of the message. I turned to Sirris. “A bomb. There’s been an explosion at the school!” My eyes flashed to hers in a panic. Sirris finished the message.

  “Will Bennett’s old classroom. They need us back in Drae Hallow immediately.”

  Faces grim, we grabbed our packs and ran for the door.

  THANK YOU for Reading Fire Born Dragon, the first book in this exciting new series. I hope you enjoyed getting to know Sadie Cross and her friends. The adventure continues in Book II, coming out in June 2020.

  I would Love it if you sent me a cup of Magic back and left a Review at the Bottom of the Sales Page.