Samuel’s words from the High Council played across her mind once again at the thought of her Advocate diploma. He’d sneered at her, telling her the ink had barely dried on her diploma.
He was right about that, at least. Bree had only graduated two months ago, after ten years of grueling higher education. A career as an Advocate was not for the faint of heart. The training was intense, but if you completed it, you were one of the most respected members of the wizarding community. The only ones who commanded more respect were members of the High Council, most of whom had started out their careers as Advocates.
Advocates often worked long hours, doing their best to identify and eliminate any threats to the ability of the wizards to freely use magic. Most of the time, the job was rather straightforward. The largest chunk of time was dedicated to covering up situations where magic had accidentally been used in the view of a non-wizard. This often required creative explanations, but the Advocates were well-trained on how to smooth over even the most bizarre of occurrences. Bree loved being assigned to an Alternative Explanations case. She’d done two already in her time as an Advocate, and they were always entertaining.
Less fun was being assigned to research and report on an identified threat to the wizarding community. When any information came in to the Advocacy Bureau on a potential threat, that threat had to be fully investigated. These came in by the hundreds each year, and usually involved a simple investigation. Most of the time, threats consisted of benign comments by non-wizard humans who didn’t actually know magic existed. These humans were always blaming things on weird superstitions without realizing that there was actually some basis to their superstitions. Nevertheless, any time these careless comments were made, an Advocate had to assess the situation and report back on whether there was any credible reason to believe the human actually knew magic existed and might actually intend to stop the wizards from using it.
Rarely, a threat would come from a source other than a human. Shifters occasionally caught wind that magic was much more present in the world than they had thought, and the Advocates had to make sure the shifters were not likely to discover the existence of Falcon Cross or of the wizards. And then, even rarer, were situations when a magical object was obtained by a non-wizard. This was the type of situation that Bree had faced when she was assigned to the dragon stone project.
The project had originally been a minor, unimportant one. That’s why, of course, it had been assigned to Bree, the most junior Advocate available. The case had seemed straightforward enough. A powerful dragon stone with magical, supernatural powers had been discovered. The stone had been recovered by a group of shifters, and was now in the safekeeping of the shifter protectors, a group of good shifters who kept bad shifters in check. Bree’s task had been to make sure that the stone was indeed safe with the good shifters, and that none of the shifters seemed to have any idea that the world of magic extended beyond this magical stone. The case was pretty cut and dried, and Bree had been quite grumpy when it was assigned to her, although she had done her best not to show it. She knew she was a junior Advocate, and she had to pay her dues doing grunt work before she was given the chance to work on the truly spectacular cases.
It hadn’t taken long for her grumpiness to disappear once she started working on the case. The dragon stone was indeed safe. The shifters who held it were known as shifter protectors, and were some of the most powerful members of the shifter world, renowned for fighting evil. Slightly more troublesome was the fact that there appeared to be several other ancient artifacts with magical qualities that the shifters were aware of. These were much less powerful than the stone, but, since they were magical in nature, Bree was obliged to ensure through her research that each individual artifact was well-protected and had not given the shifters reason to suspect that wizards still existed. Things had been going along well until Bree discovered by accident that there was more than one dragon stone—and that, as far as she could tell, the shifters did not know that the additional dragon stones existed.
In fact, as far as Bree could tell, there were four dragon stones in all, but two of them seemed completely lost. Who knew where time had taken those two stones, or whether they even existed anymore. The third stone, an emerald, was, of course, in the possession of the good shifters. And the fourth stone, the dragon sapphire, had recently been recovered by a gem collector in a New York City auction. The gem collector had been delayed several times trying to fly back to his home in Silicon Valley, California, and Bree soon discovered why. A group of men who had once been part of an international drug ring were trying to find the stone. Bree snooped around and discovered that these men had discovered that the stone contained some sort of magical properties, and they were trying to acquire it with the intention of using the magic to become powerful themselves.
Bree had been shocked when she realized what was going on. A full, non-wizard human getting a hold of a magical object with intent to use it for evil was considered a wizarding emergency. Non-wizards were notoriously bad at handling magical objects, and combating the effects of their missteps would require the heavy use of magic, which in turn was likely to cause the wizards to be discovered by shifters or non-wizard humans, or both.
Bree shuddered. If the wizards were discovered, their comfortable way of life would be shattered. Now, they lived in their own community, in a small, out of the way town where no one ever bothered them. They could continue their age-old wizarding practices without fear of persecution or ridicule. But if non-wizards discovered them—or even if the wrong shifters discovered them—their times of peace would be over. The history books were full of warnings about what happened when non-wizards discovered wizards. Witch trials and witch hunts had littered the pages of Bree’s history books during Advocacy school. She had hardly been able to believe the awful things that people and shifters had done for fear of magic. Contrary to what the members of the High Council thought, she did take those lessons from history very seriously.
But the High Council wasn’t taking her seriously. Bree had tried her best to make them see that the dragon sapphire did exist, and that if it wasn’t found soon, disaster awaited Falcon Cross. She knew well the aversion the wizarding community had to partnering with shifters, so she had made the case for contacting the shifters as iron-clad as she could. Wizards were great at magic, but they weren’t great at fighting without the use of magic. And getting this stone was sure to involve some serious battles. Who could the wizards turn to, other than the good shifters? It was time for the wizards to forget the wars of centuries ago and work together. There was too much at risk for both shifters and wizards if the dragon sapphire fell into the wrong hands.
The High Council disagreed, of course. Bree felt hopeless now as she lay on her bed looking up at the ceiling and wondering how she was going to continue doing low-level Advocate work when she knew that unprecedented disaster was brewing beyond the borders of Falcon Cross.
Hours passed as Bree lay there, mulling over everything in her mind. She tried to think of some way to appeal to the High Council. She tried to think of some different thing she could say, some new point she could make, that would convince them. But she had already thought of everything. She’d laid all her cards out on the table, certain that the right choice would be made. But things had gone dreadfully wrong. All Bree could do was lie on her bed, wondering how long it would take for her entire world to go to shit.
Night had fallen now, and Bree sat up slowly in the dark room. She didn’t want to see Lily right now, but the hunger pangs in her stomach had become unbearable. She would grab something to eat from the kitchen as quickly as she could, avoiding speaking to Lily as much as possible. Then she would retreat back into her room. Tomorrow morning at work she would have to face ridicule from all of her coworkers. But, for tonight, she could just spend the rest of the evening pretending that today had never happened.
Bree cracked open the door to her bedroom, and light instantly flooded in from the livin
g room. All of the lights in the common areas were on, but the apartment was quiet. Lily’s bedroom door was open, and her room was dark. Bree noticed a sheet of paper on the otherwise empty dining room table, and she went over to look at it. Lily’s handwriting sprawled across the page in a short note to Bree.
Hey, Bree. I’m going out to dinner with some coworkers. I figured you’d want some alone time tonight, anyway. If I’m wrong and you want to hang out, of course feel free to call me.
Bree smiled somewhat sadly at the note. Lily was a good friend, and Bree had been unnecessarily rude to her earlier today. Bree sighed. She would apologize later. For now, she was just glad to have the apartment to herself. Lily was right. She did need some alone time.
Wearily, Bree made her way to the refrigerator. She pulled out some deli meat and cheese, then found some bread and began to make herself a sandwich. That was all she had energy to make right now. She felt so hopeless. She might be younger than all of the old wizards on the High Council, but she wasn’t dumb. She’d spent the majority of her thirty years on earth studying and learning, and she was damn good at her job. She knew that she wasn’t wrong about what she had discovered, or about the need to work with the shifters. But if she couldn’t convince the High Council to listen to her, what did it matter how hard she had worked to uncover the truth behind the dragon stones? It’s not like she could just up and defy the High Council.
Bree paused suddenly with her hand on a jar of mayonnaise. Or could she?
As an Advocate, Bree knew well the rules and regulations surrounding the High Council. The penalty for defying an official High Council decision was expulsion from the wizarding community after a forced stripping of magical powers. No one in Bree’s lifetime had ever been stripped of their powers, but Bree and every other wizard had been warned throughout their lives about how awful the process was. It was supposedly very painful, and the magic spell required to strip someone of their wizarding powers left physical and emotional scars. It was irreversible, and the use of the spell was strictly forbidden except in cases where High Council members performed it on someone convicted of defying a High Council order. The spell was too difficult for most ordinary wizards to perform, anyway. Only a wizard at the level of a High Council member was likely to be successful in using it.
Bree stood frozen in the kitchen staring at the magic ring on her hand. It was the most beautiful, precious thing she owned. The platinum band firmly held the large ruby, which was shaped to a sharp point at the top. That point was where she focused her magic, and the ring had served her well through her years of training to be an Advocate. Not only that, but it reminded her of her father, who had been killed before his time by cancer—that awful disease that not even the world’s best wizard could cure with magic. If Bree was stripped of her magic and kicked out of Falcon Cross, she would be forced to give up the ring as well. The thought took her breath away. It would be like giving away a piece of her heart. Like giving away the most beloved memory of her father.
And yet, how could Bree sit silent and do nothing, when she knew in her heart of hearts that she was right? She had worked and reworked her research. She had checked and rechecked her sources, and there was no denying the truth. Disaster was on the horizon for Falcon Cross if the wizards did not act quickly. They needed to join forces with someone as strong as or stronger than themselves, and the shifters were the only ones who fit that need.
What good would it do, to keep her magic and her ring, if the town she loved was destroyed anyway? If she was going to lose everything, she might as well go down with a fight.
Bree slowly made her way back toward her room, her sandwich forgotten and her heart pounding. She couldn’t believe she was about to do this, but she didn’t see what choice she had. Her father had always encouraged her to be brave, and, perhaps this was what it meant to be brave right now.
Methodically, Bree began to pack a large backpack. She took two complete extra sets of clothes, then stuffed in her file folder of notes that she had presented to the High Council earlier today. She dared not take any electronic data with her. A phone or laptop might be traceable, and Bree definitely did not want to be traced. She packed a few pairs of very warm, woolen socks, some gloves, and a warm hat. She also rolled a hoodie up tightly so it would take up as little space as possible, and then shoved it in next to the other clothes. The rest of the bag she filled with food. She emptied the cupboards in her apartment of dry cereal, granola bars, and some dried fruit snacks. She also made a few more sandwiches. They wouldn’t keep long, but at least she could eat them tomorrow before she had to dig into her stash of nonperishable food.
She emptied her wallet of all her credit cards so she wouldn’t be tempted to use them and leave a trace of where she was. She kept only her debit card, which she would use to withdraw all of her money from the ATM before leaving town. She had just paid her portion of the rent and bills, which had left her with five hundred dollars total between her checking account and her measly savings account. It might not last her very long out on the road, but it was better than nothing. Five hundred dollars was a lot more than zero.
Bree forced herself to calm down and eat a sandwich now. It wouldn’t do to leave on an empty stomach. Who knew how long it would be before she could find some shifters? She had no clear plan, other than to head toward San Francisco. It was the nearest big city, and she knew that there was a big base of unicorn shifters there who worked as shifter protectors. She hoped she could find them, and convince them to help even though they had no idea right now that wizards even existed. So many worries about how this was a feasible plan began plaguing her mind, but Bree forced them away. One step at a time, she told herself. If she was going to do this, she was going to have to do a lot of it by faith.
Bree dressed warmly in dark blue jeans, a long-sleeved black t-shirt, a black sweatshirt, and a black baseball cap. She wore her hiking boots, the pair she’d bought last year with the intention of getting out and getting more exercise. The boots were barely used, but Bree had a feeling that was going to change drastically over the next few weeks.
Bree slipped her ruby ring onto her finger and hoisted the backpack onto her back. Then she turned off all the lights in her room and closed her bedroom door. With any luck, when Lily came home she would assume that Bree had gone to sleep. Lily always left for work before Bree, so she might also assume that Bree was sleeping in or even taking a sick day when Bree didn’t stir tomorrow morning. With any luck, it might be tomorrow afternoon before anyone started to truly suspect that Bree was gone. Bree’s plan was to drive her car out of town, going for several hundred miles until she was low on gas and had crossed from Oregon deep into California. Then she would abandon her car and continue on foot. Hopefully, the wizards would not catch her trail and would not know where to look for her. Bree shuddered to think what would happen to her if the wizards got to her before she found the shifters and explained the situation. Her only hope now was that she would not be caught until after the shifters were desperately needed. The only defense against defying a High Council order was the ability to prove with one hundred percent certainty that the High Council had been wrong. Bree would not be able to do that until there was some sort of action from the men currently chasing down the dragon sapphire. She had to keep the wizards from finding her before then.
Bree took a deep breath and double-checked that she had her ruby ring and car keys. Then she stepped outside and locked the door behind her. The Oregon night was cool, even in June, and Bree shivered when she thought of what cold, hard nights might be ahead of her. The distant sound of laughter drifted from a nearby restaurant, and Bree allowed herself to look around for a brief moment, saying a private goodbye to the town she had grown up in and loved. She felt badly not saying goodbye to Lily, or even leaving a note, but she had to get out of here as quickly as possible.
Her life, her magic, and the lives of this whole wizarding community depended on it.
Chapter Three
Knox laughed as he tipped his beer back. He was seated around a campfire, enjoying a moment of peace after a long, tense day of training missions. It felt good after such a long day to finally have a chance to let loose and relax with his crew. Even two years later, he was still figuring out how to balance being the “boss” with being one of the guys. Knox and the others had all grown up as equals, so giving them directions was strange. They were always respectful of him, but Knox couldn’t help wondering sometimes if they secretly harbored resentment toward him for being the one chosen to take over the title of clan leader.
Privately, Knox had expressed these concerns to Noah, the dragon shifter on the crew whom he considered his best friend. Noah had assured him that, while it was natural for anyone to feel disappointed when they weren’t chosen for a promotion, no harsh words had been spoken about Knox. The other dragons accepted that a new leader was needed, and they knew there could only be one number one.
Knox resisted the urge to let out a sad sigh. He wished Noah was here right now, sharing laughter, beer, and good food with the crew. But Noah was one of the dragons off on a mission right now. He was working to recover an ancient dragon artifact that had been spotted in Portugal, of all places. The mission had seemed straightforward enough, and Noah had encouraged Knox to go and take the mission. But Knox couldn’t bring himself to leave base camp at the Redwoods yet. Knox felt such a great responsibility to all of the dragons here, and he worried that if he left and anything fell apart while he was gone, it would be his fault. Noah told him he was going to have to leave eventually, and Knox knew it was true. But still, Knox procrastinated, and stayed in the Redwoods to run training missions like the one he’d done with Myles today.
Knox glanced at Myles and smiled. Myles had his hands up in the air, gesturing wildly as he told a story of how he’d once escaped from a battle-worn evil shifter only to be attacked unexpectedly by an old lady with an umbrella. Knox, chuckled, and Owen and Vance laughed heartily at the story. Myles had done a good job on the training mission today, and, even better, Myles never took it personally when Knox critiqued him. Some of the other dragons got defensive any time Knox suggested that they might be able to do something a bit better, but Myles always took it in stride. He’d nod his head and say “Got it, Boss,” and then he’d make an effort to actually do better next time. If all of the dragons listened as well as Myles, Knox’s job would have been a whole lot easier. Of course, no one had ever said this job would be easy.
Defiance and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 1) Page 2
