by Blair Drake
Dylan’s Quest
A Finding Magic Novel Book 5
Blair Drake
Copyright ©2018 by Blair Drake
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
Created with Vellum
Contents
JOIN THE BLAIR DRAKE MAILING LIST
Prologue
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
The Finding Magic Series
Sneak Peek at Natasha’s Quest…
JOIN THE BLAIR DRAKE MAILING LIST
Want to be the first to know about new releases,
get advanced sneak peeks of new novels, and fun giveaways
Subscribe to Blair’s mailing list.
If you’re not a newsletter subscriber, here’s your chance.
This is open to international readers too.
*must be deliverable online
Click here to get the newsletter!
Prologue
The dark fog thickened, rolling into a deeper, encroaching blackness, a thin band on the horizon that never disappeared. Forever, it was merely a cloud separating the magical dimensions from those not magical, but this last year it grew darker, more threatening. None of the elders knew what shifted to make this nightmare a current part of their world.
Everything was about balance.
This darkness said something went sideways. But what?
There was an eeriness to the cloud both compelling and disturbing. Headmistress Hettie Lalane stood on the balcony of the regal private school, Gray Cliffs Academy, and stared into the abyss. A cold, numbing wind blew strong, forcing her to lean into the gusts to keep her balance. The early morning chill nipped at her cheeks and poked at her poorly covered feet. She walked up in only her light slip-on shoes and long sweater. Although Vancouver Island had a light version of winter, and cold gales could batter the ancient building, Hettie always managed to keep her own power high enough to keep warm, at least inside.
No longer. Fear could freeze the best of them, and she certainly, although old with centuries of life experience behind her, was not immune. Maybe that was the chill taking her breath away.
Staring across the ocean, it was easy to see the change in her—their—lives. She hated change, and this was the worst kind. It spoke of the unknown. It spoke of darkness…and evil.
She heard the rumors rumbling through the stone walls as the kids whispered about the variance in the atmosphere from last year to this...and of a young man missing.
There was a truth to that. It hurt to talk about it. It hurt more to lie about it. But Hettie had to. Panic would run amok if the kids found out just what happened.
Finals were coming up. The students were focused on that—and should only be focused on that. Except she was old, not stupid, and neither were the kids.
They asked the right questions many times; she just couldn’t give them the right answers. They’d understand eventually. In the meantime, a nervousness threaded through the academy. Whispers were heard at odd times; sideways glances were directed at her and Headmaster Auster.
Speaking of the headmaster, she was due at his office now. She tugged the collar of her long sweater closer to her throat, and with a final glance at the darkness, she turned to the stairs.
As she headed to the door, a pained whisper drifted across the rooftop.
“Don’t forget me.”
Hettie froze and shuddered. Turning ever-so-slowly, she glanced hopefully around her. But, as always, there was nobody, no vision, no light to match the voice. Calling back as she always did, she said, “I won’t.”
Then she dashed the last few steps inside.
As she sped down the worn stone stairs, the noise coming from the main floor below was deafening, and she realized how late she actually was.
“Hettie, do you have them?” the headmaster asked as his voice cut across the din.
She nodded, even while she searched the crowd below. “I do.”
“Good. We’re ready.” Headmaster Auster ushered the ten students toward his office. “All of you, go to my office, take a seat, and wait for us. We’ll join you in a moment.”
Hettie plastered a smile on her face, but her stomach was in knots. As soon as the last teen was out of earshot, she exclaimed, “We can’t do this. Not now. It’s too dangerous.”
“To not do this is too dangerous,” he admonished her as she stepped off the last stair. “You knew this was coming. I was worried you wouldn’t be strong enough to go through with it.”
Insulted, she snapped her back even straighter and answered him in a stiff tone, “I’m strong enough. My concern is they aren’t. We already made one fatal mistake. We can’t afford another one.”
“And that’s why we need to do this as we’ve always done,” he said, gentling his tone.
“You don’t understand,” she hissed, motioning toward the roof. “I was just up there. That thing is growing. It’s almost pitch black. It’s after those kids.”
“Maybe. That’s why they need to be strong enough to handle it—whatever it is,” he warned. “You can’t mess with this. Our system is centuries old.”
“But something happened. Somehow, it’s gained a foothold in our world. We can’t let that continue.”
“We can’t determine why it’s grown or how to stop it. We must put these kids to the test—as every one of us before them was tested.”
“But they have no idea.” She hated this. To know she could lose one of these precious beings like she lost one last year. The guilt still brought her to tears.
“Neither did any of us, remember? And we did just fine.” He walked toward his office, turning to look at her, asking once more, “Do you have the talismans?”
She pulled the special school pins from her coat pocket. As they studied the ten round objects, the talismans glowed.
“We must hurry,” he snapped. “Now. Before it’s too late, and we miss the window.”
She raced up behind him. “We agreed they could request one thing to travel with them, right?”
“No, you asked, but I did not agree.” His stern tone dashed her hopes.
“They need to know something. Our old pins used to talk. These new ones don’t. They have no way to communicate with us or with each other.”
“And that’s the way it’s supposed to be.” He dodged several students who stood talking in the hallway. “We can’t break the rules.”
“They should be able to take something with them. Make it their cho
ice,” she insisted. “We lost one because he couldn’t.”
Auster turned to send her a look. “And most would snag you or I, remember? We can’t make a blanket request like that.”
She frowned. He had a point. “So not us—but something?”
“Only if they don’t know what they are asking for. That would be cheating.”
“How?” she argued. She knew it was futile, but she couldn’t stop herself from trying. They were at the top of the stairs, his hand on the door, ready to push it open.
“I agree they can take something, but there is no grace in the rules. They’ll have to work it out for themselves.” And he shoved the door open.
She let out a gasp. “Oh, no.”
The darkness completely filled his office, swirling in a wild wind around the students, who were huddled together in the center of the room.
“Help us,” Melissa called out, her arms wide to protect the others.
“What is this?” came a question from the center of the group.
Headmaster Auster spun, a look of terror on his face. “We have to get them out of here.” He raced to the side door. “Go to the roof, now!”
Hettie stepped into the black turbulence settling in Auster’s office, opening her arms to help ground herself as the storm raged over her, around her, and finally through her. The air was sucked from her lungs, and her voice was strangled by the need to withstand the forces. But still she cried out, “There’s no time.”
It was too late; the students raced up the stairs to escape the darkness.
Her hopes sank as the door slammed behind her, leaving her to drain the darkness. But instead of it draining, the dark wind uncoiled and zipped back out the window, and she knew—it was racing to the rooftop for the children.
Gathering the last of her energy, she ran to the roof and found the group of students still clutched together. The headmaster tried to talk to them, but his words had no effect. Hettie quickly moved from one student to the other and slipped a talisman into each one’s pocket.
The window wasn’t just closing…
“Ten…nine…” The headmaster started the countdown.
The wind picked up, making the black cloud tighten its circle around the group.
Hettie stepped into place, grasped Auster’s hand, and started the chant from the ageless ones. In front of her, she could see the colors swirl, the lights brighten. Then, as if the wind gained a voice, it howled and screamed in fury, trying to find a crack in the energy shield surrounding the crying students.
“Six…five…”
The headmaster’s voice could barely be heard over the wind, yet it was also intoned at such a level it would soon resonate with the physical bodies of all those on the roof—a process that fascinated Hettie. She’d seen it hundreds of times, but it was so miraculous she never got tired of watching it happen.
She could see three of the students clearly. Melissa, a junior, the loner and independent spirit, was at the front. She was more subdued this year after Luke, her boyfriend, graduated and left last year. He was two years older but lost a year due to a major illness when he was only twelve. Then Annalise, Melissa’s faithful sidekick, her partner in crime, and the youngest member of the group, was a freshman. And Reese stood beside her talking to his buddy—as always. She wasn’t sure he was ready, but he made it just in time.
Hettie’s voice rose as the chant filled her until she was singing, her voice angelic and light, calling to the matching pieces inside each of the students’ pockets. The talismans glowed with fire, filling the air.
The students’ cries calmed as their tones changed to cries of wonder.
“Three…two…”
And then it hit her. Oh, dear God. Her shocked mind caused her voice to falter…Annalise shouldn’t be here. Hettie shuddered and gripped at her control, raising her voice yet again. Annalise showed no sign of the genetic disposition to magic the others had. This process would kill her.
Suddenly, Hettie’s voice rose over the wind, and the chant swirled with the darkness in an eerie way. When the wind changed, turning to the lightness she was striving for, she knew she was winning.
She smiled in joy, knowing it would finally be okay. She was almost there. The kids were almost there. This would work. She could reach out and grab Annalise, hold her back. Hettie took a step forward and held out her hand to Annalise who immediately reached back.
“One…NOW!”
Then lightning spat from the center of the black cloud and blasted Hettie across the roof. From the corner of her eyes, she caught sight of the headmaster as he was picked up and thrown back a dozen feet.
She landed beside him, momentarily stunned, before she scrambled in a panic to stand and looked around. “Annalise?” she yelled. “Are you here?”
“She’s not here. None of them are,” the headmaster said in a heavy voice. “None of them are.”
“No, you have to be wrong,” Hettie cried out, spinning around.
The sky cleared, the dark cloud retreating to the horizon where it lived. The rooftop glistened with the sunshine bright overhead. The atmosphere was as clean and fresh as a new dawning day.
But it was a false positive. There was nothing good about any of this. Auster was right. All the kids were gone.
The question was—where did they end up?
And were they coming back?
Chapter 1
The morning hadn’t gone as Dylan planned, in any way. It all started when he tried to hear what the other students were whispering about.
Dylan put the back of the chair up against the door in case his roommate came back. Every once in a while, he looked back to make sure it was still in place. Like the chair was going to move of its own volition. It wasn’t like he was doing anything wrong, but it was his secret. He discovered it a few months ago. He’d attended the school for years, and yet he only recently realized many things, this being one of them.
So much secrecy the last month or so, and he could hear the whispering. Then there were the looks and sudden silence. Something was going on, and he started listening without being seen. He looked outside at the black night. He hadn’t seen the stars, moon, or even the sun for almost as long as he could hear the whispering in the walls. He was sure he wasn’t supposed to hear them, and he knew they weren’t ghosts. He recognized a few of the boys’ voices.
They talked about darkness and evil, and how they hadn’t seen anything like it before. They wondered what they did wrong. Several of them talked about Hettie (they never called her Hettie in front of Headmaster Auster) not giving them straight answers. They were going to find the answers themselves. This made Dylan wonder what they’d have to do to find those answers. Could he help?
There was talk of passing some test, and they should be allowed to know more. What challenge, Dylan thought. He loved a good challenge. His grades showed as much. He had the highest grade in his quantum physics class for his paper on the likelihood of parallel universes. Headmaster Auster called him into his office to discuss his reasoning, and where he came up with it.
He felt like he was in a parallel universe since he was forced to leave his home and come to Gray Cliffs. He’d been there since seventh grade, and now he was a senior.
He begged his parents not to make him go to boarding school. He promised to be good. Even though they assured him it wasn’t his uncontrolled temper and lashing out making them decide on Gray Cliffs, he knew different. His dad was sent to GCA when he was twelve. He was a handful, too. The school changed him, and so they sent him away for the same reason, he knew it.
Then again, his mom was the perfect child, at least according to her, and she was sent to GCA, too. It was where his parents met.
Dylan’s dad said he hated it at first, but it grew on him, and by the time he graduated, he wanted to stay forever. Dylan highly doubted that would happen to him. The place was weird and creepy, and yet he had to admit, intriguing. He liked wandering the halls in the early mornings and wat
ching the sun come up from one of the closed wings in the uber-mansion. He wasn’t supposed to be in that part of the school, but somehow, he found himself there in the middle of the night. Sleepwalking? He had no idea. But he loved the solitude.
At a school as big as Gray Cliffs, there was never any real solitude. Case in point: he pressed the chair up against the door of his dorm room so his roommate wouldn’t walk in on him. Not that it mattered because he didn’t have to explain what was going on.
Once, about two weeks ago, he called his dad to ask why the weather turned so cold and menacing, almost evil. His dad laughed and said, “Evil is a strange choice of words, son. What makes you say that?” Dylan changed the subject because something in his dad’s voice scared him.
An hour later, his mom called to make sure he was okay. He said he wanted to come home, just for a visit. Take a few days away from school. His grades were good, and he could easily catch up. She made some lame excuse, saying they had something going on, but maybe next month would be better. Sometimes, he wondered if they were ever going to let him come home for good. As it was, he’d only been home three or four times a year since he was shipped to this godforsaken island.
Since the whispering started, mostly among the older kids, he became more curious about why. And there he was, flat against the floor, with his ear against the ornate metal heating grate. As he listened, he imagined the tangle of ducts spreading throughout the mansion. Gray Cliffs didn’t even use the entire building, which had more rooms than he cared to count.
He lay there in pajamas he wouldn’t even wear if he didn’t have a tattletale of a roommate. He’d already been turned in for hanging out in his own room in his boxers. Then he heard it. The voices. He knew who they were. Alex, Conan, Dexter, and Brian. They were seniors. He’d heard their conversations several times. He didn’t know exactly where they were coming from because the senior dorms weren’t even on that side of the school.
