Willow's Secret Mission

by D J DuMont

  “Then we fight,” Willow said. “And above all, we stick together. We might only be students, but it’s time for us to show Stein and the Dark Sparks what the Dragon Hearts are made of.”

  “That’s right!” Locke said, pumping his fist into the air.

  Sylvie was grinning. “Looks like it’s time for another adventure.”

  Cara groaned. “Don’t say that. The last ‘adventure’ we had almost ended with all of us being killed.”

  “But we didn’t get killed,” Willow said, knowing that Cara was thinking back to their practice mission last May. “We made it through together, and we’ll do the same thing this time.”

  “That we will!” Locke said, his face glowing with excitement. No doubt, he was already thinking about all of the recognition and awards he would get when Dragon Heart leadership realized that a group of students had solved the mystery of the assassination.

  Willow was happy to let him have all the glory. All she wanted was to redeem her good name to Anjali and Sam, and to convince the Dragon Heart Agency that it shouldn’t have given up on her father.

  “Watch out, Stein,” Willow whispered under her breath as the entire group turned to head back through the forest. “We’re coming for you. You messed with the wrong Dragon Heart Agent when you captured my father, and your time is just about up.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Willow and the other students had a lot more time to practice than they thought they would. The next several nights turned out to be dark and rainy, making it unlikely that Stein would attempt to work on cracking the magic shield. Locke said that whatever weapon Stein was using had probably been difficult to create, and Stein wouldn’t want to risk ruining it in the rain for no reason. The students watched from the ground anyway, but no signs of the blue light appeared.

  Willow told Locke about the strange gun Stein had used on her during the flight back from the airport at the very beginning of the school year. She half-expected him to make fun of her, but he actually took the conversation very seriously.

  “What, exactly, did it look like?” he asked as they huddled under a large umbrella. Being out here was miserable, but no one wanted to leave and take any chances at missing an attack on the shield.

  Willow squinted her eyes and tried to picture the gun in her mind’s eye. “It was large, almost comically so. I remember it was made of very shiny metal—almost like silver although I doubt it was actually silver. And the barrel of the gun was really round. Whenever Stein shot it, it made some weird hissing sound and then this bright blue light came out. I had no idea then what he was shooting. I just remember being knocked violently backward whenever he shot his weird gun.”

  “That definitely sounds like magic capture. When you store magic up it usually has a blue glow to it. Remember when I was practicing magical projection at the beginning of the year?”

  Willow nodded. How could she forget? The fact that she’d seen Locke casting projection spells, and had seen that same blue light coming from his ring as had come from Stein’s gun, had been the reason she’d thought he would know what magic capture even meant.

  Willow stared up at the dark sky for a moment, then back at Locke. “Will pictures be enough to prove to the Dragon Heart Agency that Stein is using magic? They might try to say that the blue light is a coincidence, or from some other source.”

  Locke leaned back onto his elbows, his sharp jaw line illuminated by a sudden flash of lightning. Willow was once again struck by how handsome he was. She wondered if Locke would ever try to date any of the girls from Birch Point that were always following him around. Relationships between non-wizards and wizards weren’t strictly prohibited. After all, Willow’s own mother was a non-wizard, and her dad was one of the best wizards of modern times. But it couldn’t be easy, always hiding such a big part of yourself from your significant other.

  “There will always be doubters in the Dragon Heart Agency,” Locke said, his voice bringing Willow’s thoughts back to the present. “But there are believers, too. There’s a significant minority of Agents who believe that ancient magic can still be used, and that the Dragon Heart Agency is making a big mistake by not exploring those options. You have to remember, the Dragon Heart Agency hasn’t been around very long. But magic itself is very old. It isn’t surprising that there are doubters of ancient magic, but I think that as the Dragon Heart Agency begins to grow and expand, wizards will start to realize how foolish they’ve been to ignore the past.”

  Willow nodded, then hugged her knees to her chest. It seemed strange to her to deny evidence of ancient magic when it was right in front of you, but, then again, everything about magic had seemed strange to her not that long ago. Perhaps she shouldn’t judge.

  The rain was starting to fall harder now, and Locke glanced at his watch, which glowed green against the darkness.

  “We should head back,” he said. “It’s almost two a.m., and there’s been no sign of Stein. This rain is only getting heavier, so I don’t think he’s coming out tonight.”

  With a sigh, Willow agreed. She stood, and waved to Sylvie and Cara who were watching from another spot halfway across the meadow. They rushed over, all too happy to be giving up the watch for tonight. Willow would have stayed out here all night if it was just her, but she knew deep down that this would be pointless. Stein wasn’t coming tonight. Luckily, the forecast for the next few days predicted clear skies. Hopefully, Stein would be eager to strike after so many days of rain, and the Dragon Heart students could get some good photographs and videos as evidence.

  And even though it had been disappointing to spend so much time watching for Stein with no payoff, Willow was glad for the time she’d been able to spend with her fellow Dragon Heart students. They were still acting distant toward her in class, but when class was over and the group was watching out for Stein, everyone was friendly to Willow. She was beginning to think that maybe Anjali was the reason they all ignored her during school. Were they trying to impress Anjali by showing her that they didn’t associate with Willow? Willow hated that thought. She used to be Anjali’s favorite. Anjali would always tell her how much potential she had, and encourage her when things didn’t seem to be going right. Now, Anjali avoided her, and encouraged the other students to do the same. All because of one stupid, accidental earthquake spell.

  Willow realized she was frowning, and forced a smile onto her face. She was here, now, with her fellow students, and they were working together toward the common goal of stopping evil. That was the important thing. She turned back to see if Sylvie and Cara had almost caught up with her and Locke, when she realized that Sylvie and Cara had stopped walking, and were both pointing up toward the sky.

  Locke, realizing that Willow had stopped walking, turned back toward her. “What’s wrong?” he asked. A moment later, he too saw Sylvie and Cara, and Willow saw his eyes widen.

  “Do you think they’re seeing something?” Willow asked, straining to get a better view through the darkness. Sylvie and Cara were only visible when lightning struck and lit up the sky. Luckily, that happened often. Tonight’s storm had grown worse over the last hour.

  “We should go check,” Locke said, already starting to run back toward them. Willow followed him, struggling not to constantly stub her toes on the thick roots that ran across the path every few feet. By the time she reached Sylvie and Cara, her feet were throbbing, but it didn’t matter. Sylvie and Cara were both excitedly saying that they had seen the blue light, and that everyone needed to go to the stables to get their dragons.

  Willow’s heart instantly started pounding, and her body warmed with adrenaline. “You’re sure? It was really him?”

  Sylvie nodded. “I’ve never seen such a bright light before. It was flashing, exactly as you described it.”

  Locke was the first one to truly spring into action. As the three girls stared up at the sky, waiting for the light to flash again, he started running toward the dragon stables. “Come on!” he urged. “Let’s ge
t our dragons and get up there. If that’s really Stein, we don’t want to miss it. He might not stay long in a storm like this.”

  Willow followed Locke without question. The dragons were waiting and ready. Willow and the others had visited them every night before they started their watch, explaining what was going on and asking them to be ready. Although many of the leaders at the Dragon Heart Agency didn’t believe that the dragons could truly understand when someone spoke to them, Willow knew better. She’d had several “conversations” with both Cayenne and Clove, and she knew with certainty that they understood her.

  Today, Clove would be watching from the ground. He only flew with Willow’s father, and would not fly with anyone else as long as he believed that Willow’s father was still alive, since dragons were intensely loyal creatures. But the dragons that the students normally flew with were all ready to go. Willow hopped on Cayenne, Sylvie on Saffron, Cara on Nutmeg, and Locke on Yarrow. All four dragons whined and pawed the ground with excitement. It wasn’t often that these dragons got to do anything except dragon flying class, and they were raring to go up in the air for a real mission—even if that “mission” wasn’t exactly authorized.

  “Alright, everyone. Remember the plan?” Locke called out. He was taking over leading this mission, which normally would have made Willow want to roll her eyes. But right now she herself was too excited to care. She just wanted to get up to the shield and get photographic evidence that those cracks were not her fault.

  “Invisibility shields up, everyone!” Willow called out. Immediately, all four of them started calling out shield spells. When she was sure her shield was properly up, Willow checked the straps of her backpack to make sure it was also secure. In the side pocket of the bag, she carried a camera, just as all her fellow students did. They were all prepared to take pictures and videos of Stein and his Dark Sparks.

  Willow glanced up at the sky one more time before giving the signal for takeoff. She saw another flash of blue light, and found herself filled with a deep anger. How dare Stein fly around up there and try to attack her school? He was going to pay!

  Willow could no longer see her friends, since they were all under invisibility shields. But she could have sworn that she could feel their excitement. Everyone was ready to go show the Dark Sparks who was boss. After one last, deep breath, Willow gave Cayenne a gentle kick on the side to indicate it was time to take off.

  “Let’s go, everyone!” she yelled as Cayenne began to flap her wings and rise into the air. All around, Willow could hear whooshes of air as the other dragons took off. Here they all went, up to show Stein that he couldn’t get away with attacking the Dragon Hearts so easily.

  Willow had never felt so alive.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The cold rain lashed against Willow’s face, and she wished that she dared to use a water-repelling spell right now. But she needed to save her magical energy. The invisibility shield was already taking up a little bit of that energy, but if she had to suddenly defend herself or attack an enemy, she wanted to have her full magical abilities ready to go. Wasting magical energy on a water-repelling spell because she didn’t like her face getting wet wasn’t the best use of her resources.

  She couldn’t see her fellow students due to their invisibility shields, but she knew roughly where they were. A well-crafted plan had been made for which direction everyone would fly in when it was finally time to go up and chase down the blue lights. Locke had been the one to formulate that plan, and Willow had to give him some credit. He’d worked hard to make sure everyone understood where they were supposed to be, and how to fly in toward the blue light slowly so they would be able to maintain their invisibility spells and not run into each other.

  The blue light kept flashing intermittently, and Willow kept her eyes trained on it as she rose higher into the sky. She felt adrenaline coursing through her veins as the world below her grew smaller. Cayenne’s wings sliced silently through the air, and Cayenne herself was eerily quiet. The dragon knew enough to stay silent when under an invisibility spell, for which Willow was grateful. But it still felt strange to her not to hear a single peep. Usually, Cayenne was constantly grunting, roaring, or huffing along.

  As they drew closer to the shield, Willow gently patted Cayenne’s side to tell her to slow down. Cayenne did as she was asked, stopping to hover outside of the shield. Willow took a deep breath, trying to gather her courage. Once she exited the magic shield, she wouldn’t be able to get back in without contacting Anjali and asking her to make an opening. The idea of being outside the safety of this shield, with Stein and his Dark Sparks out there, made Willow’s stomach do nervous flip-flops. Not to mention, once she went past this shield, she would have officially left campus. The standing order not to go off campus grounds had not been lifted, and Willow was in enough hot water as it was. Defying the order not to go off campus was going to get her in even more trouble, but it didn’t matter.

  Willow was not going to let this chance get away from her. Stein was out there, and he needed to be stopped. There was nothing to do but continue forward. Willow knew in her heart that this was the right thing to do, even though she was terrified of everything that could go wrong, and of what the fallout with Anjali might be.

  But she couldn’t think about that now. All she could think about was the safety of the Dragon Heart campus, and of her father.

  Taking one more deep breath, Willow reached out and patted Cayenne’s neck gently with the signal to move forward slowly. Cayenne did as Willow had asked, and a moment later, Willow felt a strange, icy sensation as they passed through the barrier of the magic shield. Not much looked different when they reached the other side. The only difference was that now Willow was looking down at the cracks instead of up. The rain still lashed at her face, and the darkness still felt oppressive—except for when the lightning flashed and blinded her.

  Willow didn’t see the blue light flashing for several minutes, and she started to fear that they were too late. Her heart sank, and she had to take deep breaths to keep from panicking. If she had crossed the magic shield for no reason, she would never be able to soothe Anjali’s wrath. Willow was counting on having some sort of evidence of what Stein was doing to distract Anjali from the fact that she had just breached the magic shield and left campus. Not only that, but Willow had convinced her three fellow Dragon Heart students to come with her. At least, she thought she had. Since everyone was under an invisibility spell, Willow couldn’t actually see whether her fellow students had come along, too. She just had to trust that they had.

  And she had to trust that Stein, or some of his Dark Sparks, were still here and it wasn’t too late to catch them in the act of destroying the magic shield. Willow kept Cayenne hovering in one spot and tried to scan the sky for any sign of movement. It was hard to see anything out here, with the darkness and heavy rain. Even the lightning had stopped flashing so frequently. Willow suddenly felt very alone.

  Keep it together, she told herself. Panicking would not help her one bit, but with each minute that passed it got harder and harder not to panic. Cayenne let out a low whine, as if to ask Willow what to do next. Willow patted her reassuringly, but the fact that Cayenne had made noise while under an invisibility shield bothered her. Was her dragon starting to worry, too? That did not bode well for this mission.

  Just as Willow was about to start truly freaking out, she caught a flash of blue in the distance. When she saw it, she could have wept for joy. They weren’t too late. Stein was still up here—he had just moved further away to try a different spot. Willow gave Cayenne a gentle nudge and her dragon started flying forward. Willow wished she could tell Cayenne to fly at top speed, but that would be too risky. If her invisibility shield broke for even a second, and Stein suspected that he was being watched, he would probably flee the scene before Willow could get to him. Either that, or he would violently attack before any of the Dragon Heart students had a chance to get photographic evidence of what he was doin
g to the shields. Either way, the mission would be doomed. Better to take things slowly.

  Traveling at such a slow speed, it felt like it took forever to reach the spot where the blue light was coming from. But as they got closer, Willow was able to actually make out the person responsible for the blue light. Or, rather, the persons. There were more than one.

  Although the rain had subsided now, the lightning flashes had picked up again. Willow could see that about fifteen men dressed in dark uniforms were hovering above the magic shield. They were using those strange, winged jetpack contraptions that the Dark Sparks seemed so fond of, and several of them appeared to be performing guard duties. The guards had formed a circle facing outward around the rest of the Dark Sparks. They dutifully scanned the horizon for threats, although they looked quite bored while doing it. Willow winced every time one of them gazed in her direction, but her invisibility shield was holding up quite well. The guards appeared to look right through her, not aware that she was there at all.

  Willow strained to see whether Stein himself was with the group. She had a feeling that he was, but in the darkness, and with the guards blocking much of her view, she couldn’t say for sure. Willow hovered a few more moments, uncertain of what to do. The blue light continued to flash, and Willow wanted to start taking pictures. But she didn’t want to tip the guards off to her presence before the other Dragon Heart students were here and ready to take pictures. The plan had been for everyone to fly to where the blue light was and surround it. Once a student was close enough to the blue light to get pictures, he or she would instruct his dragon to hover and then pull out his or her camera to have it ready. Willow would be the first to take a picture. Her invisibility shield would not be able to hide the flash from her camera, so it would be visible to both the other students and Stein. As soon as the other students saw the flash, they would all start taking pictures as quickly as possible. They would only have a few moments before Stein and the Dark Sparks would realize they weren’t alone, and then, it would be time to fly like the wind away from him.