by Sarah Noffke
Her father, according to his wise words in the book she had read before giving it to Liv and Clark, had said:
“There is no such thing as a coincidence. Nothing happens at random. All things that are uncanny enough to appear as flukes are simply events begging for your attention. Devote your awareness to them.”
Wilder shook his head again. “I don’t know where she is.”
Sophia was confused. That was impossible. She always knew where Lunis was. The only exception had been when Gordon Burgress, the lone rider, had used magitech to sever the connection between them.
Sophia wondered if Wilder and Simi had been hit with something similar. Her heart hurt for them instantly. She had never known a pain like the one of losing her connection to her dragon. It had been like losing a part of her soul. She wouldn’t wish that on anyone in this world.
Sophia was about to ask more questions when Wilder stopped abruptly, holding the light orb out in front of him.
He pointed at a large boulder in the middle of the cave-room where they stood. The ceiling was high, and the sound of water dripping echoed, making it seem like they were in a gentle rainstorm.
At first, Sophia thought he was pointing to a normal boulder. As her eyes adjusted and she was able to take in the details, she noticed protruding from the stone was the hilt of a sword, only a few inches of its blade peeking out.
Sophia sucked in a sudden breath. “No, it can’t be.”
The sober look in Wilder’s eyes confirmed what she thought was impossible. “I assure you, it absolutely is.”
Chapter Seventy-Three
“That is impossible,” Sophia stammered, shaking her head as she studied the large rock with the sword stuck into the top of it.
Wilder huffed, breaking his serious expression to laugh at her. “Are you serious now? You have a dragon and live at a Castle with a bunch of hundred-year-old magicians. Not to mention, I’m certain I just saw two giants, a fae, and three halflings in said Castle. I will definitely be needing a lot more information on that later.”
“It’s not that interesting of a story,” Sophia lied. “And how did you know the triplets were halflings?”
Wilder tilted his head at her. “Wasn’t it obvious?”
She shook her head at him. “You were literally there for about half a second, and most of your attention was on trying to get my help. So no, I don’t get how that would have been obvious to you.”
He pretended to sigh. “Gosh, you just don’t pay attention.”
“Ha-ha,” she said. “Now, do you want to explain to me why I’m standing in front of Excalibur?”
“Because I brought you here,” he answered quite seriously.
“Oh, for love of the angels, I’m going to put you in a headlock,” she threatened.
His eyes dazzled as he flashed a challenging smile. “I would like to see you try.”
“Oh, you will see, and I promise I will mess up your hair when I do,” she quipped. “Later we will spar, but for now, tell me why you brought me here.”
His smile dropped. “Subner asked me to retrieve this sword.”
Sophia brow tensed. “But you are not King Arthur. There is no way you can pull that sword.”
Wilder shook his head. “I don’t think the lore we’ve known is the right one. It’s close, and I screwed up, trying to take the sword.”
“What do you mean?”
He pointed to a plaque on the ground in front of the boulder. Sophia hadn’t noticed it until he shone the light of the orb on it. “Check this out.”
She squatted and read the sign:
“Those unworthy who try to take my sword will have something they value taken from them.”
Sophia shot back to a standing position. “You lost Simi.”
He nodded, a morose expression in his blue eyes. “Yeah, as soon as I tried to take it, I heard her in my head. Soph, it was awful. Something stole her away, and I don’t know where she is.”
“The other dragons, though,” Sophia questioned. “Were they there when she disappeared? Lunis didn’t mention anything.”
“No,” Wilder answered. “She flew me to Falconer Cave and was waiting outside as Lunis is doing for you now.”
She nodded. That made sense.
“So, Excalibur or King Arthur or whoever didn’t think you were worthy,” Sophia said, mostly to herself. “But you work for the Protector of Weapons. Subner sent you here to get the sword. How can you not be worthy? I mean, I get you are not a king, but also, who can pull this sword if it isn’t you?”
A crooked smile formed on his mouth. “I think it’s you.”
Chapter Seventy-Four
“Oh dear, you have lost your mind,” Sophia said, shaking her head at Wilder.
He laughed, his voice echoing. “That is true but totally unrelated to what we are talking about right now.”
“Why would I be able to pull Excalibur from the infamous stone?” Sophia questioned. “I’m definitely no king. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a girl, and we can’t be kings. Up until a little while ago, we couldn’t even be dragonriders.”
“For your information, I have noticed you are a girl,” he commented, a sideways smile still on his face.
“Have you considered going back and seeing Subner?” Sophia asked. “He sent you to get this. He would have known something like this was going to happen. Maybe he knows how to fix it.”
Wilder growled slightly as she exhaled. “He probably did know this was going to happen. The guy works in weird ways and isn’t always forthcoming.”
“What?” Sophia pretended to be shocked. “Father Time’s assistant isn’t forthcoming? I’m so surprised.”
A dimple surfaced when Wilder gave her an amused grin. “Yeah, I know, right? But also, he told me not to return to him without the sword. He said he would offer no other help besides what he already had, and I should troubleshoot things on my own.”
“Well,” Sophia said, drawing out the word. “I still don’t know why you think I will have any better luck. And I don’t want to lose my dragon, so I think I will just be off. Good luck.”
She didn’t move from her spot, but she did cross her arms in front of her chest and give him a challenging expression.
“I don’t want anything to happen to Lunis either, and I don’t think it will,” he explained. “I might be reading into things, but based on what we know about the old lore and what the sign says, I think only royalty can pull the sword.”
“Cool, well, go and find a king. There have got to be a few of those around here somewhere,” Sophia told him. “I will even help you look. Want me to post on Next Door? I have the app for this part of Scotland.”
Wilder shook his head. “Why do that when I have royalty right in front of me?”
Sophia lowered her chin. “No, you can’t be serious. I’m a Royal for the House of Fourteen. That is not a king or queen or whatever. It’s some status created by the founders.”
“But the blood that runs in your veins makes you magical royalty,” Wilder argued. “The sword and stone won’t know the difference. It just wants someone worthy to pull it. I came from nothing. My family were peasant farmers. But you, Soph, you have got the right blood. I believe you can pull the sword.”
“And then what?” she challenged.
“And then I can find Simi,” Wilder explained.
“How do you know?” Sophia demanded.
Wilder toggled his head back and forth, thinking. “Well, I don’t. But I think the first step has to be to get the sword. We know it has incredible power. If something was stolen using the sword, then having it should get it back, or one could reason. Anyway, Soph, you are my only hope.”
She leveled her gaze at him. “You are not giving me the ‘you are my only hope’ line, are you?”
He batted his long eyelashes at her. “I might be.”
“What if something happens to Lunis because you are wrong?” she challenged.
“Then, I will do everyth
ing within my power to get him back.” He held out his hand, a promise in the movement. “We will work together, and we won’t stop until we get our dragons back, but we will be together, and I will be indebted to you. No matter what, I will be indebted to you. Please, Soph. You are my best chance. I’m staking my dragon on this. I believe, heart and soul, you can pull Excalibur from the stone. Will you please try?”
Wilder knew what he was asking of her. More than that, Sophia knew what was at stake. She knew he depended on her of all people. She had lost her dragon and knew the pain he was going through. If there was any way she could help him, she had to do it. She’d do it for any of the Dragon Elite and especially for Wilder.
That wasn’t the strangest realization for her, though. Sophia wanted to be what fixed everything for him, and be the one who pulled Excalibur from the stone, not because it would make her a legend, although it would.
More importantly, because she wanted to be a part of this story.
She wanted to be a part of Wilder’s happy ending.
After a long moment of deliberation, Sophia nodded and extended her hand just as a cool wind wafted through her hair, although it should have been absent in the cave.
“Fine,” she said in a low voice. “I will do it. But if I regret this, you will pay.”
He smiled wide at her. “If you do, I will spend my life trying to pay you back, I promise.”
Chapter Seventy-Five
Sophia’s hands were shaking when she extended them toward the hilt of the most famous sword in the world.
Life was about risk. This was a major one. She was gambling on Wilder’s hunch.
She nearly closed her eyes as she drew her fingers closer to the sword, each second feeling like a long minute.
Wait, Lunis said in her head, making her tense.
Sophia sucked in a breath as she stiffened.
I shouldn’t do it, should I? she asked her dragon.
Do what? he asked with a snicker in his voice.
Sophia rolled her eyes.
Wilder gave her a curious expression.
“My dragon is a playful jerk,” she explained. “Do you want him? I will just give you my dragon, and we can forget this whole Excalibur business.”
He smiled at this. “Although a thoughtful offer and Lunis is a fine dragon who would do me well, I really must insist on getting my Simi. She is the only dragon for me.”
Sophia nodded. “Okay, I’m going to do it.”
Hey, Soph, Lunis said mischievously.
Her eyelashes fluttered with annoyance.
It’s sort of a bad time, Lun.
That is the thing, he said, his voice trailing away.
What is the thing? she asked.
Well, about the timing, he answered.
What about it?
Did you file our taxes? he questioned.
A laugh spilled out of her mouth, again making Wilder give her a curious expression.
“We don’t file taxes,” she said out loud. “Because I don’t have a social security number, and you are a dragon.”
Wilder shook his head, hearing only half of the conversation. “You two have the strangest dialogues.”
She nodded. “You have no idea.”
Okay, good, Lunis said. So we are not in jeopardy of getting penalties?
For what? she questioned. For being world adjudicators who pretty much work for free solving the world’s problems?
Yeah, I don’t really know how it all works, he explained. I’m a dragon. We don’t deal much in tax law.
Much? Sophia chuckled.
At all, really. A few of my ancestors have eaten accountants. They are very chewy, apparently.
Maybe it’s because they are so stingy, Sophia reasoned.
I figured they would be crunchy. The dragon snickered.
Oh, please don’t, Sophia begged.
From all the numbers they crunch, Lunis rejoined, full-on laughing now.
Ba-dum-THS, Sophia said, trying not to laugh. She felt immeasurably better than moments prior, though, and knew that had been Lunis’ agenda all along, trying to be a pain in her rear end. That was their dynamic, and she absolutely loved it.
Thanks, Lunis.
Anytime, he said affectionately.
Feeling a lot steadier than before, Sophia pulled in a breath.
Her hands wrapped around the cold metal of the hilt. Excalibur warmed under her fingers at once.
Sophia almost expected something to happen right then. For the sword to explode, and send her flying through the cave maybe, or to feel Lunis jerked from her.
To Sophia’s surprise, nothing happened.
Her eyes darted to Wilder, tension heavy in his gaze.
“Go on then,” he encouraged. “Try to pull the sword. I know you can do it.”
Those seemingly simply six words were exactly what Sophia needed to hear: I know you can do it.
She held her breath and made a silent prayer to the angels above before pulling up on the sword, attempting to yank it from the place it had resided for several centuries.
Nothing happened.
Sophia’s heart suddenly pounded in her chest.
The blade moved a tiny amount. The sound of scratching met her ears as she continued to pull, feeling a strange easing as Excalibur released from the stone.
Wilder’s eyes widened, and a smile lit up his face. He leaned forward as a bright light shone around where King Arthur’s sword met the stone. It shot up, cascading on the cave ceiling, and illuminating the area where they stood.
A humming sound drowned out the scratching of the sword as Sophia continued to try to pull Excalibur from the stone.
She couldn’t believe it!
Wilder was right! It was working. The sword saw her as worthy.
The process wasn’t fast like she would have expected. It wasn’t like yanking Inexorabilis from the body of an enemy she had slain. It was like…well, pulling an ancient sword that had been trapped in stone for centuries.
Sophia gritted her teeth as sweat beaded on her forehead. Her arms shook from the force of trying to maintain constant pressure, the most intense game of tug-of-war she had ever played. She felt if she let up a single ounce, it would yank her through a portal to a land from which she may never return. Sophia bit down on her lip and pulled harder, making the blade hiccup out of the stone several inches. It paused when it was almost out and tugged back at her—its last attempt to not be unsheathed from the rock.
“You can do this,” Wilder encouraged, his eyes trained intently upon the stone and the blade, the bright light intensifying. Music filled the cave, echoing everywhere. It was the most beautiful sound, but overwhelming, growing so loud it started to hurt Sophia’s ears.
She grunted and used all her reserves to pull the sword. It seemed to be throwing in a last-ditch effort, yanking back at her.
The hilt vibrated in her hands and nearly hauled her off her feet.
Wilder noticed and raced behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and securing her back down to the ground. He pulled on Sophia to give her an extra bit of momentum. That did it.
Sophia might have been there for days trying to pull Excalibur from the stone. Yes, she was worthy by its standards to pull the sword, but doing it was incredibly difficult.
Together she and Wilder had the combination it took to succeed. He held her tightly and yanked at the same time as her, and the sword swept clean of the stone, its tip flying up.
The light that radiated from the blade was blinding, and the force it unearthed when meeting the cave was uncontrollable. It threw both dragonriders back several yards.
Sophia landed on Wilder, but he didn’t release her as the humming diminished, and the light dimmed.
Sophia didn’t let go of Excalibur as a portal opened in front of them, swallowing both up whole—transporting them to a brand-new location.
Chapter Seventy-Six
The world went black before exploding into an array of bright co
lors, mostly blues and greens. What stole Sophia’s attention most was the biting cold.
As they fell through the portal, an icy wind blanketed them in the face, making it impossible for Sophia to open her eyes fully. This wasn’t like the portals she was used to. Those were still disorienting, but this was like riding a rollercoaster backward.
Sophia bit her tongue and tasted blood as they continued to fall. She half expected them to hit the ground, which would kill them both. She was sure of it. It would be worse on Wilder since he was underneath her, his arms still wrapped around her waist and pressing her in tightly.
Above them, Excalibur shone brightly. The sword was like a projectile, sending them down at unbelievable speeds. Even on Lunis, Sophia had never traveled so fast.
She willed her eyes to open all the way, taking in the area around them. Sophia immediately wished she hadn’t. Surrounding them were walls of ice. It appeared they were falling through a tunnel made of snow, like when she had to descend the staircase in Antarctica to get to Queen Anastasia Crystal’s ice fortress.
The wind whipped past them, and the temperature plummeted further. They started slowing down.
The intensity of the cold grabbed Sophia at the same moment they paused in midair. She was about to twist around when they slowly slipped down a few inches and were gently laid on the surface of an ice platform.
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Suddenly the weight of Excalibur was intense. Holding it up with her hands extended seemed to be the most strenuous task she had ever done. Her arms trembled, and for a moment, she thought she would drop the sword on her and Wilder, impaling them.
Instead, she forced the weight of the sword to drag her arms to the side, and with it, Excalibur dropped to land on the ice, her hands still wrapped around the hilt. She released it and rolled off Wilder.
As soon as she was off him, he jumped to his feet, surveying where they had landed. It was a cave made of ice. They were surrounded by thick white walls that glowed with strange blues and greens.
