by L J Andrews
“Touch him!” she shrieked in exasperation. “And command him. He’s not stronger than you.”
Without question, possibly because he wanted to get away from Sapphire, Teagan rushed toward the corner where the zomok was bleeding, his palms covering the half face once more. He didn’t speak, but whatever he was saying within seemed to work. Slowly the form of the zomok took shape. He’d reverted to his human form, though I yearned to see the creature in its slithering, weak shape. Sapphire would crush him. The moment the zomok was revealed entirely, Sapphire unhinged his powerful jaws and a stream of blue flames spilled out. The girl was clutching to Sapphire’s tail, and I could feel the radiating power between them.
Sapphire burned a circle into the wooden floor, and the zomok hissed angrily from beneath his hood. “That’s enough,” said the girl, her scaly protection slowly fading into wyvernian marks made of royal blue and shimmering silver along her skin. I marveled at her ferocity during the fight, especially when her stature seemed to get thinner and thinner.
Teagan met my eye from across the room. His marks were back as well, but I pointed to his arms. His eyes followed my finger. The marks had burned their way up toward his biceps, carving painful red lines in his skin. He looked pale, but didn’t collapse as he had the first time the writings etched into his skin. It wasn’t long after the scorched circle imprisoned the zomok that Sapphire’s tail began shortening, his rippling muscles shaped into arms and legs. A blue cloak covered his body as his skin shifted and the fabric draped around his feet. It was strange to watch the shift of wyvern to human, but when he was back to his human shape, there was still the crystal gleam in his eyes and a new vibrancy in his skin.
Teagan wasted no time in crossing the room and pressed his body against mine, though subtly pushing me away from the threat. “Did he hurt you?” he whispered.
“No,” I replied, my hand gripping in his. “I’m fine.
“You’re trapped, serpent,” Sapphire snarled at the zomok. “How did you get here?”
The creature snarled—well, it was more of a gurgled laugh—but I hated the very sound of it. “You fools. You think you can hide away forever. You cannot even take form without the help of a girl.”
“Oh, let me slit his throat,” the girl growled, but Sapphire held up his hand. Teagan’s head was cocked staring straight at the girl, who only winked at him.
“You’re a mage,” I whispered with awe.
She smirked and held a finger to her lips. “Later. Let’s watch the show.”
Teagan’s arm was wrapped around my waist, and I couldn’t remember when I’d ever felt safer. Sapphire stepped forward, his shoulders heaving with adrenaline from shifting for the first time in decades. He crossed over the scorched circle and tore back the hood. I gasped, Teagan snarled, and the second mage giggled.
“Graham!” Teagan hissed.
“He’s not Graham, Teagan,” Sapphire growled. “There never was a Graham, was there, snake?”
“I wondered,” Graham said, his voice was different though—more drawn out, more sinister. “How I would ever escape the notice of the hidden royals—I always imagined you were incapable of being deceived, but never once did you suspect me. Pitiful. I will admit you hid your energies well; it wasn’t until he showed up and your queen found her connection that I even had an opportunity to sense you. Imagine my shock when I discovered the great Sapphire was none other than a royal in disguise.
“His face, it wasn’t Graham when I saw him first,” Teagan insisted.
“You saw his true form,” Sapphire said without taking his eyes from Graham’s black, soulless holes.
“You’re hideous, Graham,” Teagan snapped.
“I am a powerful zomok!” Graham screeched. “You are nothing.”
My chest tightened, and I suddenly had the desire to tear the zomok’s skull from his neck. “Powerful,” I scoffed. “You’re the slaves of the lindworms. Hired to do their bidding with no thought of your own.” I moved toward him, though Teagan tugged my hand back. “I’ll be fine. He can’t harm us now. I want to see his eyes before he dies.”
“Step back from me,” Graham hissed.
“No,” I said through a dark chuckle. “I don’t think I will.” My hand scorched against Graham’s face, my stronger power burning through his human skin and muscles. Without being able to stop, the zomok’s curled, slithering body plopped into a coil in the circle. Zomoks had narrow heads, like a snake had been run over by a tire. Graham’s eyes were slits of orange, and sharp needle-like teeth bared over his flat lips. His skin was a putrid sort of puce, and he looked sickly in his spineless body.
“There, that’s better,” I said with a power I didn’t know was there. “Konrad, are you going to do the honors? I cannot take my form, and we certainly can’t have him slithering to the pit he escaped from and bringing more disgusting serpents to our home.”
The zomok snarled and snapped his jaws, speaking in the lindworm tongue. I understood some, but it was too vulgar to repeat. Sapphire stepped back. “No, I think I’ll give the honor to the real hero tonight. Agatha, please rid the world of this beast.”
The girl smiled, and I noticed the space between her teeth for the first time. Wielding her gleaming knife once more, she stepped forward, patting Sapphire’s shoulder. “You know I hate that name now, Kon.” Her attention turned toward the zomok as she whirled her knife a full turn with a dark smirk on her lips. “You may have discovered the royals, but you missed the mage.”
Through a hiss and a growl, Agatha slashed the head clean off the serpent dragon. His rank blood burned my nostrils as remnants of his pyre escaped with his last breath of life.
Sapphire wrapped his arm around the mage’s shoulder. “Well done. Where have you been? I haven’t sensed you at all. I thought you were dead.” he said.
“Dead! Kon, you left me, remember? So, because you turned your back on me you automatically assumed I was dead? Come now, who do you think I am?”
“Turned my back on you? Agatha, we had no idea of knowing who had betrayed us. I had to leave to protect the stone, you knew that. We all were banished from one another when the—” Sapphire paused, his glance drifting toward me and Teagan. I drew my focus toward Teagan, too, and soon rushed to his side when I saw his state of strength. “Perhaps we should reacquaint later.”
Teagan leaned against the wall, his hands rubbing his shoulders and biceps. I rushed to his side and placed a hand on his chest when he seemed ready to tip over. His face was white as the moon, but he stood straighter at my touch.
“It will pass,” Agatha muttered, checking his marks. “You’ll get used to it.”
“Come with me, Teagan,” Sapphire said softly. “I think we have some things to explain.”
I had a thousand questions as well, but clamped my jaw tight. Sapphire nodded toward me, allowing the mage to lead the way as he wrapped an arm around Teagan’s shoulders and helped steady him toward the sofas. I drifted to the stairs where Bart lay dead. Gently, I passed my hands over his body, smiling at his positive soul that had remained nearby. It wasn’t difficult to care for the dead, in fact it was one of my most cherished gifts. I enjoyed saying farewell to those true in heart who fell. Bart’s human body dissolved into nothing but pure goodness as I demanded my powers to free him from this wretched state. I cupped my hands, whispered my prayer of release, and watched the glow of his life fade away, leaving the stairs empty of any gore and blood.
Teagan was seated on the sofa—silent and tense. He looked to me when I entered the room, and I felt an overwhelming need to ease his burden. I wondered if the sensation was the same for him when it came to protecting me. Agatha was perched on top of the piano against the wall, and Sapphire took a place in one of the wing-backed chairs, his eyes softer as he gave pause for me to situate next to Teagan. I clasped his fingers tightly, and I heard him draw in a new breath, his face adding more color now.
“You,” Teagan muttered after a few moments, his gaze dri
fted toward the girl. “You’re Mini. You sent me to those…those dragon stones.”
“You’ve met?” Sapphire said, notably surprised—as was I.
She smiled. “Yes, I did. I saw your marks. I thought I was the only mage left in the area. I also got a sense you have no idea what you are and what you’re capable of. If you found the stones, then our powers wanted you to find them. Not all mages will, so that makes your mystery all the more intriguing.”
“You’re Sapphire’s…mage,” Teagan whispered, daring to glance at Konrad.
“Very observant,” she teased. “But first things first. I think we need to ask you a few questions, Teagan.” Her voice shifted dangerously. “Why do you suppose you have the jade armor? Everyone knows that bloodline died off during the war. I think you have some explaining to do. Or we may just find you a threat, just like that headless snake back there. So, start talking.”
Chapter 17
Konrad studied Teagan with a level of caution that I didn’t appreciate. I could easily sense his hesitation to trust the man who’d tried to stand between me and the serpent, but it was Mini, or Agatha, or whoever she was, who caused my neck to prickle with heat. She leapt from the piano and stepped close to Teagan, her eyes focused and narrowed. Teagan looked weak, his damp hair pressed to his forehead, his arms looking terribly painful beneath his T-shirt. I rose to my feet, my jaw clenched tight. The mage met my gaze and scoffed.
“We need to ask some difficult questions, princess,” she muttered—a little disrespectfully—but Sapphire didn’t seem surprised at her tone.
“You want to accuse him of something, mage?” I snapped.
“Just call me Mini,” she responded.
“See now, you gave me more trouble for that name than Agatha,” Sapphire muttered, his lips tugging at the corners.
“Let’s just say it grew on me after the divide,” she sneered, though her eyes never left mine. “I am not accusing, but I want to know where he’s been hiding and how he’s connected to the jade armor.”
“He won’t know—” I began, but stopped when Teagan gently tugged against my hand.
“It’s okay, Jade,” he said softly, his voice filled with a new exhaustion. “We know I have nothing to hide.”
Relenting, I returned to his side but kept my hand protectively on his knee as though I’d be ready to pounce at the slightest threat.
“Where have you been?” Mini snapped.
“I’m from Hamilton,” Teagan said simply.
Mini scoffed. “I mean who has been schooling you? Training—you know, who’s your grandmaster?”
Teagan chuckled darkly, his skin pallid but his eyes bright. “I’ve been living with my Aunt Liz and a house full of kids in the foster system. I was arrested for drinking and driving, so if that’s what you call schooling, or my grandmaster, I’m not impressed.”
“It’s just not possible,” Mini snapped, pacing in front of the sofa.
“Jade showed me that mage book—I know you all think I’m this hidden mage, or traitor that’s here to hurt Jade, but I don’t know how else to prove it to you that I have no idea what’s happening. I never knew anything like this existed.” Teagan took a deep breath when Mini softened her expression and listened. “I wouldn’t harm Jade—or anyone. You want to ask me questions, but you won’t get any answers. I’m the one who has questions. I’m the one who feels like my body is on fire right now. I’m the one who feels like I’m losing my mind, and no one apart from Jade has tried to explain anything. You want to know who I am—well, so do I!”
Mini sighed, rolling her knife back and forth between her hands. I caught a shout from the upstairs and growled. It wasn’t possible that the other reform students hadn’t heard what had just happened. Sapphire nodded toward me, and without effort I placed a shield over their eyes and ears. Holding Teagan’s hand only strengthened my ability to bend the mind. If a reform student walked into this room, all they would see was Sapphire, no zomok corpse, no broken glass, just a pleasant morning and their principal.
Mini settled on the coffee table directly in front of Teagan. Her blue marks on her skin still pulsed with energy. I found myself studying their intricate designs. The mage armor was fascinating and unique, but it didn’t speak the same language as Teagan’s marks. Mini’s spoke of cunning, and swiftness, Teagan’s was of strength and valor. The armor stretched along her arms and finished just below her jawline. She had no new armor adding to her skin, only Teagan’s was spreading. The unknowns were mounting not just with Teagan, but also with me.
“He did find the mage sanctuary I made, Kon,” Mini said, though she never looked at Konrad. Her eyes stayed locked with Teagan.
“Mage sanctuary?” I asked.
“Those stones,” Teagan whispered, his eyes on Mini also. “That’s what it was, right?”
Mini nodded. “When I saw you on the road—which is protected by powerful warding, by the way—I knew you were lost in more than one way. The jade color was a mystery and quite a surprise to me, especially since I didn’t suspect any sinister energy. So, my best bet was to send you toward the sanctuary. If you had broken the bond of protection against an elemental the sanctuary would never have shown itself to you—in fact, you probably would have been killed. Don’t mess with the bonds, our power doesn’t appreciate it.”
“So, what does it mean that the sanctuary accepted him?” Sapphire asked.
Mini smiled with a new excitement when Teagan met her eye. “It means he’s one of us. He’s honorable. He’s a ward of the wyverns. How many stones did you see, Teagan?”
“Tons,” he muttered. “I was surrounded by them.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Mini said quickly. “It’s very important I know the truth.”
“I’m not lying,” he snapped. “I was in a circle of stones.”
Mini didn’t speak for a moment, but she leaned closer, her face inches away. I wanted to shove her away from Teagan, but something stopped me. I believed Mini wanted to help, despite her odd methods and brisk way of speaking.
“Don’t just stare at him,” Sapphire said. “We all want to know what that means.”
“I see three stones, Kon. Whenever I go to the sanctuary, I see three stones. And I’m not push-around mage. Teagan if you saw the full shrine, it can only mean you’re destined for greater power than I can fathom. Who are your parents?”
“I didn’t know them. They died—but they weren’t mages. They were bankers,” he said quickly.
“Sure they were,” Mini scoffed. “Look, my family has bonded with Konrad’s royal line for thousands of years. I know how bonds work, okay? The jade stone bloodline was severed, Teagan. A bond when destroyed is never repaired—it has never happened. So when some rebellious kid shows up sporting the armor of jade, we’re all going to be a little suspicious.”
“Then don’t believe me,” Teagan said with passion. I could hear the bite in his tone, but no one seemed to back away. “I don’t know what else I can tell you.”
“Cool off,” Mini said. “I was simply explaining why people are suspicious, it doesn’t mean I don’t believe you. I trust the sanctuary more than I trust what has always been. Just because powers have remained consistent, does not mean they have not taken a new direction.”
“I have a question,” I interjected. “You mentioned the bond to my bloodline was broken. What do you mean?”
Mini leaned back, her eyes flicking toward Sapphire. Mini didn’t respond, it was Konrad who spoke softly. “Jade—I don’t know what you’ve told Teagan, so he may not understand, but there was a mage who defended your grandfather, your parents, and you. The bond of jade was indefinitely severed when that mage betrayed your family to King Nag.”
I held my breath, my heart throbbing painfully as I remembered some of my father’s warriors hiding me in the walls of our home. The memory was fading, but I would never forget the smells, the screams, the pain of the night King Nag invaded my family’s palace. I couldn’t remember how lon
g I’d stayed in the hollow wall before Eisha found me and hid me away behind the power of the willow. “So it’s true then, what Eisha said. The war began because a mage betrayed us.”
Sapphire and Mini nodded, but it was Mini who spoke now. “King Nag has a sweet tongue. I’m ashamed to admit one of my people was corrupted and cursed his line forever. Severing a bond comes with consequences for wyvern and mage. Wyvern lives were lost, but the mage lives in a despicable existence, only attracting dark powers for the remainder of their wretched life. It can be dangerous to face a dark mage, but with enough strength of the elemental powers, the darkness cannot overpower the light.”
“Who was the mage?” I asked. I wanted to know who had slaughtered my family. Yes, even more than King Nag, I blamed this mage for their deaths.
Mini sighed and fiddled with her fingers in her lap. “It was the High Priest. The most honored, most powerful mage severed your bond with our kind completely. So Teagan, again, the fact you have the jade armor is a mystery to us all. Think about what I’m saying: The High Priest mage broke the bond; no ordinary human boy could repair such a disaster.”
Sapphire leaned forward on his knees, his dark eyes locked with Teagan. I saw Teagan tense and back away. There was a stunned ripple flooding his heart. Seeing Sapphire return to his wyvern form was thrilling and filled me with hope, but I tried to imagine what it would be like to be Teagan. He came to Wyvern Reform without the slightest knowledge this was possible, and now he’d defeated a zomok and seen a royal elemental dragon all in a matter of moments. How could anyone blame him for feeling slightly overwhelmed? It didn’t escape Sapphire’s notice, either.
“You fear me, Teagan?” he asked.
Teagan cleared his throat, his fingers tightening around my hand. “Would you be offended if I said yes?”
Sapphire smiled. “I can’t say I blame you. I assure you, if I was going to bring you harm, I’ve had many opportunities.”
“You tried to hide the truth from me,” Teagan began slowly, holding up his arms. “You knew what these were, but kept it from me. You told my aunt I screwed up—that hurt her! I had to go through this alone. The only one who helped was Jade, and you kept the truth from her too.”
