by Sarah Noffke
She smiled at him as her phone rang in her pocket. Usually it would be silenced, but whoever was calling must have known how to turn that option off.
Sophia pulled her phone from her pocket and shouldn’t have been surprised by who it was. Of course, Liv could bypass her options on her phone.
She excused herself from the table, sliding over to the fireplace for privacy as she took the call. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Well, I put a unicorn’s horn up a gnome’s bu— Oh, wait, that’s not what you were asking about,” Liv said with a laugh. “I was just calling to tell you I need you in like five days.”
“What for?” Sophia asked, thinking her sister needed help with wedding planning.
“That’s when the wedding is, and it can’t be moved,” Liv answered.
“Wait, what?” Sophia exclaimed. “In five days? But we haven’t had your bachelorette party or bridal shower or picked out a dress or—”
“First off, no, no, and hell no,” Liv interrupted. “Bachelorette parties are for girls named Jenna who like to scream at bare-chested men and get lavished with attention for mating, something all mammals naturally do. Bridal showers are for women named April who like eating finger sandwiches and giggling while covering their mouths with their manicured fingers. No. Freaking. Thank you.”
“What about a dress?” Sophia asked. “You have to wear a wedding dress.”
“Thing is,” Liv began, rebellion in her voice, “it’s my wedding, and I get to do what I want. The guests can wear shoes that pinch their feet and corseted dresses. I’m wearing leather pants and knee-high boots…and a smile.”
“Five days, though?” Sophia asked. “I’m leaving on a mission, and I’ve got to track down a cyborg and probably have an epic battle and nearly lose a limb or two.”
“Well, don’t lose any limbs because you have to catch my bouquet or whatever I decide to throw after the ceremony,” Liv ordered. “It will probably be daggers.”
“Daggers?” Sophia squeaked.
“Yeah, well, any desperate girl wanting to get married will dive for a bouquet of soft petals, but only someone who really wants it will dive to catch a falling dagger,” Liv explained.
Sophia giggled. “Your reasoning is flawless.”
“Isn’t it, though?” Liv agreed. “You’ll go on your mission and be back in time for my wedding…in one piece, I’ll remind you. I need my maid of honor at my wedding.”
Sophia smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll be there. I promise.”
“Good,” Liv stated. “It will be at Rory’s. Bring that cute boyfriend of yours. Oh, and also Wilder.”
Again, Sophia giggled. “Who is my other boyfriend?”
“Arnold McFireBreath, of course,” Liv replied.
“Of course.” Sophia chuckled. “I’m sure Lunis will love to attend. Maybe I can get him to wear a bow tie.”
“And pants,” Liv suggested. “No naked dragons at my wedding. We have standards, you know. This is a classy affair.”
“Says the bride who is wearing combat boots and throwing daggers,” Sophia replied.
“The reception is nachos and beer,” Liv added.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“Okay, be there,” Liv said. “I can’t wait to see you.”
“Wait,” Sophia said in a rush. “Why does it have to be in five days? Why the hurry?”
“Well, I could say it’s because I’m pregnant or Stefan needs to marry me for citizenship reasons,” Liv related. “However, the real reason is that we just can’t wait to be married to each other.”
Sophia nodded, appreciating that her sister, the hardest person she knew, had found love. “Don’t worry, Liv. I’ll be there. Nothing will stop me.”
“I know,” Liv said, a smile in her voice. “Familia est sempiternum.”
Sophia ended the call, aware the others weren’t hiding their eavesdropping. Her gaze found Wilder’s. “Can you join me for an event in five days? I want you to escort me.”
He bowed slightly, his eyes sparkling. “It would be my honor, my lady.”
Chapter Forty-Two
“Don’t blame me when this whole mission goes to hell because you didn’t let me take the lead,” Evan said, tightening the straps on Coral, who was looking as regal as ever.
Lunis swiped his tail, nearly knocking Evan in the face. He was only saved by his fast reflexes.
Ducking suddenly, he jerked around, giving the blue dragon a look of offense.
Oops, Lunis said, no real shame on his face.
“Don’t blame me when Lunis knocks your block off for sassing me,” Sophia told Evan, stepping up on her dragon’s wing and swinging her leg over the side.
“Oh, well, just you wait and see what Coral does for you bad mouthing me,” Evan boasted, patting the purple dragon.
Coral held her chin up high and nobly. I would prefer not to get mixed up in the affairs of riders.
Sophia couldn’t help but laugh. “Lun, how about you? Do you abide by these rules?”
He shook his large head. Heck nah. I prefer to meddle like hell in the affairs of riders. Just say the word and I swipe his legs out from under him. Lunis held up his front foot and brandished it at Evan, mock menace written on his face.
Although Evan worked to try and hide it, the fear was evident on his face as he scrambled to get onto the back of his dragon.
“Thanks, Lun,” Sophia commented. “Let him keep his legs at least until we return from the mission with the dog.”
“We really have to go fetch a dog?” Evan asked. “That seems like a really ineffective way to find the whereabouts of this Trin Currante.”
“What other brilliant ideas do you have, Einstein?” Sophia asked.
“We know she wants dragon eggs since she stole a bunch,” Evan began. “We bait her with them, and when she takes it, BAM, we blow her up! End of story. Then we ride off into the sunset.” He dusted off his hands like he’d just finished a job.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to blow her up,” Sophia argued. “I’ve been told she’s key to stopping the disappearance of the magicians worldwide.”
“By who?” Evan inquired as the dragons started across the Expanse.
“Secret people who you can never know about,” she answered elusively.
“I won’t rest until I find out,” he fired back. “You’re just going to follow this secret person’s advice blindly? How do you know it’s a risk worth taking?”
“Says the guy whose idea is to use our priceless dragon eggs as bait. Like that’s not a huge risk.” Sophia shook her head. “I operate on faith. I follow one lead to the next, usually only seeing one step at a time.”
Evan yawned. “Sounds boring. Blowing shit up is much more fun.”
“And we wonder why men don’t live as long,” Sophia sang as the two riders launched into the air in complete unison.
They flew through the Barrier and over the green hills for a half a mile before Sophia opened a portal to Medford Research.
The last time Sophia had been to the headquarters of Trin Currante’s LiDAR aviation company, it had been about to explode. The Dragon Elite had gotten away just in time, not really looking back as flames erupted at their backs before they portaled home.
Presently, it looked like the aftermath of a warzone with at least a hundred yards of scorched earth where the site of the warehouse hangar had been located. The tarmac also showed signs of battle from when Evan and Mahkah attacked the cyborgs in aircraft.
When Mortimer had given Sophia the information on where to find the dog, at the conclusion to the conversation, he stressed the facility was thought to be booby-trapped. Trin Currante didn’t seem to leave anything to chance. Even after blowing up her own facility, she had rigged it so anyone who went back looking for any clues that remained would be punished for it.
The problem was that Mortimer couldn’t explain how the property had been booby-trapped. All he could tell her was the dog moved with a precision t
hat made him think there were traps that had been set. The brownies didn’t set them off, thankfully, and the dog was smart enough to know how to find them. Sophia and Evan, and especially the dragons wouldn’t have that luxury.
Sophia had considered outfitting Lunis with the LiDAR technology again, but it had been damaged in the last battle and wasn’t working reliably, according to the scientist Alicia. Also, the equipment weighed Lunis down severely, and she didn’t want to chance it in case the cyborgs were still hanging around, ready to attack.
Evan and Sophia both took their dragons in different directions, making loops overhead as they surveyed the area. There weren’t any signs of traps on the ground, but it was hard to tell with the huge mounds of rubble and debris from the explosion. Parts of a crashed helicopter littered one area of the runway. Unrecognizable equipment was strewn around the old hangar.
Sophia kept her eyes searching for signs of traps, but most importantly, the dog.
“See any tracks?” she asked Lunis.
He laughed. I’m a dragon, not a tracker in the Amazon rainforest.
“Well, with that kind of mentality, you’ll stay a boring old dragon forever,” she remarked. “We have the advantage of the air. We should be able to spot this guy.”
We just have to be patient, Lunis suggested. It’s a virtue of the dragon, you know.
“Is that why you said it was literally killing you having to wait for the next season of The Witcher,” Sophia joked.
You obviously haven’t seen the show, Lunis answered. There’s patience and then there’s just being tortured. Come on, Netflix.
“Can we also work on your use of the word ‘literally’?”
What’s wrong with it? he asked, a real curiosity in his voice as they continued to circle overhead.
“You use it about like Chris Traeger from the Parks and Recreation show,” she explained.
And how’s that?
“Wrong,” she answered. “If you say something is literal, that means it’s going to happen. It isn’t going to kill you to have to wait.”
You don’t know that, he refuted.
Sophia shook her head at her dragon but still laughed at his ridiculousness. She shot Evan a curious glare as they passed each other.
He held up his hand and shrugged, nonverbally communicating he hadn’t found any clues yet.
Sophia was about to decide they needed to land in the distance and come up with a new plan. Evan would, no doubt, rub it in her face that she wasn’t smart enough to lead the mission. Then she’d have to restrain from popping him in the nose. It probably wouldn’t work and she’d bruise her knuckles on his face.
She was about to suck it up and admit defeat when a crow soared and landed on a scorched bit of earth. Sophia didn’t know why it caught her attention until a second later and the bird exploded, sending dirt and shrapnel into the air.
Sophia tensed and held her breath. She tightened her grip on the reins.
“Land mines,” Sophia guessed.
Should have known, Lunis agreed.
“Yeah, it’s right up Trin Currante’s alley. They must be extremely sensitive if triggered by a crow.”
Magi-tech, Lunis suggested. I’m guessing she’s not concerned with wasting them on wildlife, maybe.
“How do we find them?” she asked as Evan sidled up next to her.
“Hey, did you see that explosion?” he asked her.
She gave him an annoyed expression. It would have been impossible for anyone to miss it. “No, what are you talking about?” Sophia asked.
He shot her a scowl. “So that’s how it’s trapped down there. You want to head down first, and I’ll keep surveillance from up top?”
“Ha-ha,” she remarked with no humor. “I’m giving the orders, remember?”
“Oh, so I suppose you want me to go prancing around a minefield then, huh?”
She shook her head. “If you think prancing around a minefield is a good idea, I might be doing the world a favor by letting you go down there. You know, observing the natural order of things with Darwinism.”
Their dragons gently beat their wings, keeping them in the air.
“I think you’re implying I’m dumb,” he said, narrowing his eyes at her.
“Yeah, need I say anymore?” Sophia watched as the smoke from the small explosion cleared, studying the area where the bird landed. It was just feathers now, unfortunately. Apparently, a crow was large enough to set off the mines.
She consoled herself with the fact the explosion wasn’t big. It was enough to kill a bird, but maybe it would just maim Evan a bit. Laughing to herself, Sophia activated her enhanced vision, turning up the contrast and crispness, like the settings on a camera. During training, she’d learned how to dial down her senses to conserve energy and also in an effort to not overwhelm her attention constantly.
It took a moment, but little by little, she began to notice little nodules that weren’t charred like everything else around the exploded warehouse. They were like unscathed equipment, as though someone had placed them after the fact when setting traps for future trespassers.
Of course, Trin wouldn’t have returned to bury UXOs in the ground. She wouldn’t have had the time or inclination for such efforts. Placing a bunch of mines on the surface of the ground would take little time and energy.
Extending her hand, Sophia summoned a basketball. It appeared in her fingers, bright and orange and looking completely out of place as she hovered in the air on her dragon.
“Hey, Shorty, this is sort of a bad time for b-ball,” Evan remarked. “I like the idea of a game later. And on the dragons! That would be badass.”
“It would,” she agreed. “But no, I have an idea of how to find the mines.”
Silently, she steered Lunis until they were right over one of the nodules. Holding her breath, she released the basketball, hoping it fell on the supposed mine.
It didn’t.
Instead, the wind took the basketball a bit to the right. The distance it had fallen made it bounce up high before coming back down again, feet from the nodules. Again it bounced high and then came down straight on a land mine, exploding it.
Chapter Forty-Three
“I almost don’t want to admit that was a very savvy move on your part,” Evan stated, looking impressed. “You figured out where the land mines are.”
Sophia nodded, feeling elated. She explained to Evan what they were looking for. She decided the dragons would stay in the air and keep an aerial view while they searched on foot for the dog. The dragons could tell them telepathically where the land mines were, in case they were hard to see from the ground. They could also keep an eye out for the dog.
“Okay, you ready to go find this dog?” Sophia asked Evan as the dragons dropped them off a safe distance from the blown-up hangar. They’d have to hike in, all the while being careful to look out for land mines.
Evan pulled his ax from his belt. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
“What’s that for?” Sophia asked. “Are you going to chop us up some wood?”
Not amused by her joke, he shook his head. “No, I’m going to cut Rover down if he goes for my jugular.”
Sophia scowled at him. “We don’t know he’s aggressive. He’s supposedly really smart and might be a bit like Trin Currante and the other cyborgs. I’m not sure.”
“Or he might be a werewolf who wants to massacre us with his teeth and fangs,” Evan argued.
Sophia shook her head at him as she started forward. “Well, I tend to doubt he’s going to come out of hiding if we’re searching the place while holding weapons.”
“That’s a chance I’m going to take,” Evan replied.
Pulling out a package of dried meat she’d brought, Sophia pointed to the left. “You go that way. I’ll take this end of the property.”
“You brought him meat?” Evan asked.
“Yes, because we need the dog’s help, which is why I’d like it if you’d put the ax away and not appear threaten
ing,” she explained.
Reluctantly, Evan nodded and put the ax away. He extended his hand, following after her. “Can I have some?”
Shaking a few pieces into his palm, Sophia smiled. “I’m glad to see you can be reasonable.”
“I’m the king of reason,” Evan said, popping the beef jerky into his mouth.
Her mouth popped open. “That was for the dog.”
“Yeah, but I was hungry. Thanks for bringing me a snack. Do you by chance have any chocolate?”
Sophia did, but she wasn’t giving it to the dumb jerk. “No. Now go off to the left and watch out for land mines. I don’t want to have to clean your guts off the tarmac.”
He shot her amused expression, backing up. “Why ever would you clean my guts off the runway. Just leave me there. It’s not like this place is real clean.”
“It was a joke, but it’s going to become our reality if you don’t turn around and watch where you’re going.”
He saluted at her. “Copy that, boss.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Delicate with each step, Sophia held her breath as she progressed toward the burned-down warehouse. She was grateful to discover she could see the land mines from the ground since she knew what she was looking for. They weren’t easy to spot, and she worried there could be many of them buried under the rubble and dirt as she progressed. She tried to take a less congested route.
“Here, puppy,” Sophia called, shaking the bag of dried meat. “Come out, come out wherever you are.”
From a few yards away, Evan laughed. He’d made more progress than her, not being as careful with his steps. “That’s how you’re going to attract the dog?”
“Got any better ideas, Ax Boy?” she asked.
“Yeah, dogs are attracted to the alpha. You begging him to come out just means when he does, he’s going to tear out your jugular. And it’s Ax Man to you.”
“I’m going with the strategy that you attract more flies with honey than vinegar,” she replied.
He shook his head, continuing to progress rather fast. “We’re trying to catch a dog, not flies. Gosh, Pink Princess, are you drunk? Do you even know where you are?”
