Dawn of the Dragons

by Sarah J. Stone

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  Book 1: The Missing Queen

  Book 2: The Ripple Effect

  Book 3: The Lost Tiro

  Book 4: The Long Journey

  Book 5: The Final Leg

  Dawn of the Dragons

  Exiled Dragons 10

  Sarah J. Stone

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Copyright © 2017 by Sarah J. Stone

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Website: www.sarahjstone.com

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Dawn of the Dragons

  Witch Academy Box Set

  Special Invitation

  More From The Author

  CHAPTER 1

  “I want to go with Liam!” Dawn demanded loudly.

  “Dawn, you know that you can’t. Only the boys are allowed to go on this trip. No girls! How many times must we have this conversation?” her mother told her.

  Dawn stood looking at her mother. She was a wonderful woman with a good heart, but she had no idea what it was like to be part dragon. Dawn’s father had met his mate in America and brought her back here to the village. Dawn had been patient with her parents, Owen and Amy McCord, as neither of them could fully understand her kind. Her father was a dragon shifter, and her mother was human. Neither of them were like her. She was something new, something different.

  Even Liam could not fully comprehend what it was like to live in her skin. There were many here in the village that feared her for reasons that had no basis. Still, others should fear her. She knew their secrets…all of them. It was said that half dragon, half human shifters possessed a new power – some skill that normal dragon shifters did not possess. There were shifters that could shift into multiple lifeforms, or perhaps just one other, like a tiger. Dawn could only shift into a dragon. It wasn’t what made her special.

  Dawn had been given gifts unknown to other dragons. Even her mentor, a dragon named Kergot, possessed only a fraction of what she had been given. He could read minds and he could communicate with others using his mind, even if they didn’t possess that ability themselves. It had been him that helped her to understand her gift and to hone it. He had told her that it was far greater than his own, and he had helped her reach further and deeper to find more.

  Still, what good did it do to possess all this power and be relegated to a group of girls who could not go out on hunts like the boys? She was sick to death of hearing she couldn’t do things because she was a girl and having to rely on Liam to tell her the details of his trip when they returned.

  “This place is ridiculous! Just because I don’t have a penis, I can’t do things? It’s bullshit!” she screeched at her mother.

  “Dawn McCord, you watch your mouth. I’ll not have you speaking like that in my house!” her mother barked at her angrily.

  “I hate this place!” Dawn yelled.

  A plate fell off the wall, shattering into pieces. Amy McCord jumped and then pursed her lips tightly as she turned back toward Dawn, who glared at her defiantly. She felt guilty when she forgot herself and accidentally caused her mother’s things to break, but she refused to back down. For all of her kindness and understanding to people in the village, she was also more stubborn than the entire population combined.

  “Go to your room!” Amy demanded, pointing toward the stairwell.

  Dawn stomped away, wordlessly climbing the stairs and slamming her door behind her. Picking up her cellphone from the small desk beneath her bedroom window, she tapped furiously at the buttons and then glared out the window while she waited for a reply. She saw a tendril of smoke rise from a small rose bush in her mother’s gardens and shut her eyes, taking her focus and her fury away from it. Her mother would be furious if she burned another plant she had worked so hard to grow. Her phone vibrated in her hand, and she looked down at it, quickly responding to the inbound message.

  “I don’t know where we are. It is an island, but doesn’t appear to be populated by anything but wild animals. It’s been a good kill,” Liam replied to her request for his location.

  She hated it when he was away like this. As much as it displeased her that boys were allowed to do things that girls weren’t, it bothered her more when she couldn’t feel him. As long as he was close to her, she could feel everything about him. She could read his thoughts, understand his feelings, share his emotions. It had been this way since he was just a baby. She hadn’t understood it then, but she was pulled to him in a way she wasn’t to others. It was if they shared something unknown. What that might be, she still didn’t know, but lately things had begun to change between them. He needed to come back home.

  “How much longer?” she typed, hesitating before hitting send.

  She didn’t want to sound needy, but she did need him here. There were plenty of places to hunt on the mountain. Why they had to go so far away to do it, she didn’t understand. She knew it was so that they could use their dragon form more freely in a remote area, but it eluded her why they had to remain hidden. Humans were weak – no match for them. Why should they hide themselves instead of just living among them in the open?

  A lot of things in this village made no sense to Dawn. As soon as she was old enough, she would leave this place. She would be eighteen in a few months. Perhaps she would set out on her own and find a new place where she could live freely without the stares and whispers of the older villagers. Maybe she would show herself to the world and let them learn to deal with someone like her living among them. It couldn’t be any worse than how she was treated in this place. Her powers exceeded everyone else’s in the village, and yet, she was far more limited than anyone when it came to what she was allowed to do.

  “I will be home in a few hours. We’re loading up to come back now. I have to go,” Liam replied.

  Dawn looked down at the message and smiled. Things would be okay soon. Liam would be home, and everything would be fine again. He wouldn’t be able to come over at this late hour, and she wouldn’t be allowed to leave the house so late, but once he was back in range, she would be able to feel his heartbeat again. That would make everything better.

  CHAPTER 2

  “She can’t just do what she wants, Owen,” Dawn could hear her mother saying downstairs the following morning.

  “I’m pretty sure she can, Amy. We both know that if she chooses to disobey us, there is little either of us can really do to stop her. All we can do is hope she respects our authority enough to not go too far,�
� Owen replied.

  Her parents didn’t really try to hide their discussions from her by whispering. They had learned a long time ago that there could be no secrets from Dawn. Their thoughts and feelings were as clear to her as if they were projected onto a nearby wall. She knew they were scared, but not of her. They were scared for her. They hurt for her, and they felt guilty that they had created a child that was forced to endure the bile some people could spew just because she was different.

  Dawn knew that she was a difficult child to have, but she also saw that it took away not an ounce of the love they had for her or shared with one another. Her parents would die for her, and she would die for them. The fact of the matter was that, despite her powers, despite the knowledge of what she could do, she had no desire to harm anyone. Dawn felt nothing but love and compassion toward others. When her anger came, when she broke things with her mind, it was always frustration that directed itself toward something other than the living. It wasn’t in her nature to kill.

  She hurried downstairs, the sound of her footsteps stamping out the conversation her parents had been having. Grabbing some fruit from a bowl on the counter, she rushed toward the door, in a hurry to get out before they tried to stop her. She should have known it wouldn’t be that easy, as she found her path blocked by the powerful body of Owen McCord. He looked down at her and smiled broadly.

  “Where ya off to, kiddo?” he asked lightly, not at all reflecting the worry she could feel in his heart.

  “I’m going to see Liam,” she announced.

  “Don’t you think he might be sleeping in, fresh off the hunt from last night?” Owen asked.

  “No. He’s awake and not happy,” she announced.

  “Not happy about what?”

  “The fact that I’m late. He expected me hours ago, but I slept too long and now he’s getting antsy.”

  “You’ve talked to him this morning already?”

  Dawn just looked at her father. Her expression conveyed how ridiculous she thought his question was, and he grimaced as he realized his mistake.

  “Can I go now?”

  “Sure. Come home for lunch. Bring Liam if you can’t tear yourself away,” he said flatly, standing aside as she practically hurled herself out the front door. “Teenagers,” he muttered as the door shut behind her.

  Dawn made her way quickly to see Liam. Her house was nice, but Liam’s made it look like a shack. He lived in one of the oldest homes in the village. It was part of the dragon council building, built hundreds of years ago. It was where the residing dragon leader lived. Liam lived there with his mother, Emily, and his father, Aaron, who currently governed the village. They were good people. Aaron was tough but fair, and Emily was always kind to everyone. Dawn never had any bad feelings around them, and they never treated her like a freak, though some members of the council did.

  “What are you doing here, you little punk?” a voice said as Dawn rounded a corner to slip into the side door of their home.

  Dawn turned and smiled broadly at her Uncle Connor. Both he and her father were members of Aaron’s dragon council, and he loved to tease her when she popped by and he was on duty. She ran over to hug him, beaming up at him.

  “Sneaking in,” she replied.

  “You know I’m not allowed to let people just sneak inside,” he told her playfully.

  “I’m not people. I’m Liam’s future wife,” she replied happily.

  “So you’ve been telling us since you were old enough to speak. The question still remains whether Liam agrees with his statement,” he told her, his tone a mix of humor and uncertainty.

  “He does. He will,” she told him, slipping inside a nearby door and disappearing quickly down the hallway toward the large den where Liam liked to read or play video games when he wasn’t out and about.

  “What is that thing?” she asked, looking at the large screen in front of him.

  “An earthworm with superpowers. Reminds me of you,” he told her without turning around.

  “So now I am an earthworm? What does that make you? A horsefly?”

  “It’s good to see you, too, Dawn. What trouble will you be getting me into today?”

  “I don’t know yet. Ewww, have you showered?” she asked, plopping down beside him and curling up her nose.

  Liam frowned over at her and lifted an arm, sniffing his armpit dramatically before making a horrible face.

  “Appears not,” he told her.

  “You’re disgusting. Go take a shower!”

  “Fine. Don’t kill my earthworm while I’m gone.”

  Dawn glanced at the screen and then back at him. He knew she didn’t play video games. She took the controller and ran his character toward a nearby cliff, watching as he went falling over the side with an audio enhanced scream and a loud splat.

  “Oops,” she said innocently.

  “Nice work, turd. I’ll be back in a minute,” he groaned.

  Dawn watched as he left and then turned back to the screen. She restarted the game and went through the paces, making each move as Liam would have made it until she got his stupid worm back to where he had left it before she killed it off. She put the game on pause and then laughed when, after a few moments, the worm’s pants fell down to expose his polka-dotted boxer shorts beneath. He shrieked and yanked them up with an embarrassed look. What a stupid game!

  “Liam, you’ve changed,” his father said as he entered the room a few minutes later.

  “Hello, Mr. Donnelly. How are you?”

  “I’m good, Dawn. What have you done with the boy?”

  “I sent him to take a shower. He was stinky.”

  “Ah, glad someone is looking after his personal hygiene. I can’t keep him home enough long enough to make sure he’s bathed properly.”

  Dawn laughed as he told her to keep up the good work and passed on through, heading out the door that led to the formal chambers adjoined to the home by a long corridor. Liam’s father was always busy at work, it seemed. Liam longed to spend more time with him and just never seemed to be able to do that. It made Dawn feel sad, but she knew it saddened his father, too. He was always trying to make time for Liam and forever getting called away on business that prevented him from doing so.

  “Thanks for putting him back,” Liam commented as he returned.

  “No problem. You ready to go now?” she asked.

  “I guess. Have you eaten? I’m starving,” he told her.

  “You are always starving. I ate a piece of fruit on the way.”

  “That’s not a meal. Come on. Let’s go get a pizza.”

  “Fine.”

  The pair headed out to a new place in the center of the village. It was owned by a pair of shifters that had recently moved there from Dublin. They claimed that they just wanted to get out of the city and live a little freer in the mountains where they could fly more often without being observed, but Dawn knew the truth about them. They were running from a man, one who wanted to harm them gravely.

  It was one big advantage her gifts gave her. People couldn’t lie to her like they could most other people. Not many folks in the village knew about her specific powers, so they left themselves open to be read like a book. Less than a dozen knew about everything she could do, and only a handful of those knew how to close themselves off to her. It was hard to do, and even those that knew how weren’t always successful.

  Sitting down in a table at the back, they ordered the same pizza they always did – sausage and mushrooms – and launched into a conversation about how Liam’s trip had gone. She could tell he was shutting something off to her, and it made her upset that he wanted to keep a secret.

  “Stop it,” he told her with a frown.

  “Stop what?” she asked.

  “Pushing. I can feel it when you try to force your way in.”

  “Then stop making me do it. Why are you hiding something from me?”

  “Because you don’t need to know everything, Dawn. Some things I’d like to keep to mys
elf!”

  His mind was a jumble of thoughts that ranged from a red ball he used to play with when he was little to the specific colors of every dragon in the village. It was the tactic he used to keep her out, jumbling random thoughts so that she couldn’t pick up on any particular one. She should have known better than to share with him the fact that there were some people that could do that. He had adapted it to suit his own purposes.

  “You shouldn’t have secrets from me,” she pouted.

  “It’s not a secret, just something I don’t want to share.”

  “Semantics,” she replied, rolling her eyes at him.

  “You and your big words,” he laughed, changing the subject. The pizza arrived and all his thoughts switched to how hungry he was. Dawn gave up and eased back, picking up a slice of pizza and biting into it.

  “What do you want to do today?” she asked between bites.

  “I don’t know. Maybe go up to the quarry and see what we find?”

  “Oh yeah. I forgot about that. They should have dug way down by now.”

  “Might find some good relics,” Liam told her.

  “I guess we will find out,” she told him, giving up completely on figuring out what he was keeping from her.

  “Yep.”

  They finished up their pizza, steering the conversation toward assignments that were due in their classes tomorrow until they were finished. Liam paid for the pizza and they headed up toward the large rock quarry being dug on one side of the mountain. Liam’s father was very upset about it, but it was outside the village lands, so there was been little to be done about it. He had warned the two of them to stay away from it, but they couldn’t resist doing a bit of digging on the weekends when it wasn’t active.

  CHAPTER 3

  They made their way up the mountain to the edge of the large ravine being scraped out of the earth below and edged around it to a pathway leading downward. They were careful to edge their way downward, as not all of the rocks were stable on which they were climbing. It was their own little secret place, an adventure to unfold in their spare time. Maybe they’d find something even more unusual than themselves in here. Perhaps aliens!