by J. L. Wilder
© Copyright 2021 by J.L. Wilder- All rights reserved.
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.
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Midlife Magic Dragon
Mid Life Shifters
By: J.L. Wilder
Table of Contents
Midlife Magic Dragon
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
EPILOGUE I
EPILOGUE II
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About The Author
Midlife Magic Dragon
CHAPTER 1
MADDIE
Get out in nature, she said. Go get some fresh air, she said. Working sixty-hour weeks isn’t good for you, she said.
Her legs aching, her glutes on fire, sweat soaking through her LL Bean flannel, Maddie Cooper couldn’t think of a place she’d rather be than in her office, the energy that only a busy workday could bring swirling all around her.
Maddie was damn good at her job, too—the head of new contracts at Ice Blade Publishing, one of the biggest publishing houses in Seattle. Sure, they tended to focus on subject matter she wasn’t too crazy about—fantasy themes like evil witches and fearsome dragons and magical knights—but that didn’t matter a damn bit to her. The money was good, and she was making a name for herself as one of the keenest purveyors of new talent.
But there in the forests of southern Washington, thick-trunked Douglas Fir pines towering all around her, she was totally out of her element.
“Yo, Cooper!” from up ahead came the voice of Sean, the insanely energetic tour guide. “You still back there?”
Maddie took a few more trudging steps up the slope, unable to think of anything other than the pain in her legs and how dirty she was getting the brand-new hiking clothes she’d bought for the nature tour.
“What, you miss me?” she called out, her voice carrying over the dozen or so other people in the group.
A figure trotted up from ahead, and within moments, Maddie recognized the trim, athletic figure of Sean, his brownish-blond hair bouncing around his toned shoulders. His smile was broad, his teeth surprisingly white for a guy who seemed to spend more time with trees than people.
He’s cute, she thought. Sure, he’s probably a good twelve years younger than me, but nothing wrong with a little May-December thing.
She scolded herself for the thoughts as soon as they’d formed in her mind. They were worrying—a year without so much as a make-out session had resulted in her inner monologue becoming more and more sex-obsessed.
Sean took the position in front of her, hiking backward with total ease, his thumbs hooked into the straps of his massive backpack.
“How you doing?” he asked, energy in his voice that sure didn’t make him sound like he’d been on the same hike as the rest of them.
“Oh, you know, my calves feel like I dunked them in hot lava and my lungs are about to burst. But other than that, pretty damn good. How about you?”
Maddie was not in the best of moods. And the more time she spent in nature, the more she’d begun to realize how attached to her urban creature comforts she’d become over the years.
He smiled again, waving his arm toward the nature around them. “Fresh air, nature, soft dirt under my feet—I’m in heaven.”
Maddie glanced down at his bare feet—no hiking boots for Mr. Nature. She found herself wondering how long of a pedicure it’d take to sand through the callouses on his feet.
“Well, as long as you’re happy. Me, I’m wishing I was in a jacuzzi bath with a laptop on the other side of the room playing Office reruns.” She followed this up with a wry smile.
He cocked his head to the side in concern.
“You’re lagging a bit behind the gang, Mads—you having some trouble?”
“Oh, just wondering why I’m spending my weekend getting chomped by the most bloodsucking bugs Washington has to offer and not getting my brunch plans sorted out.”
He raised his palms in an “I come in peace” gesture. “Message received.”
Maddie sighed, realizing she was being a bit out of pocket.
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s just that when I came out here, I knew it was going to be rural, but I didn’t know it was going to be zero bars rural.” As if to prove her point, she took her iPhone—the latest model—out of her back pocket. “Look at this—it’s pretty much negative bars.”
Sean kept right on smiling. “That’s the best part about all this—no tech, no connection to anything but nature. And each other.”
He followed this up with a wink, and for a moment, Maddie wondered if he was hitting on her.
But she dismissed it, figuring she had bigger things to worry about. Like the fact that her email hadn’t refreshed since they’d left the lodge.
“Yeah, nature’s great and all that. But I’ve got a major contract on the verge of signing—the biggest of my career, actually. You heard of Effie Swift? She’s the biggest name in fantasy and the talent every company in the business is trying to land. And as appealing as the whole middle-of-the-woods thing might sound in principle, I don’t have that luxury right now.”
Sean only shrugged as if there weren’t a thing in the world to worry about.
“If it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen. Best thing to do is let go and put it all in the universe’s hands.” With that, he raised his fist to the sky and opened it up as if it were full of dust and he was letting the wind carry it away.
A litany of things Maddie wanted to say came to mind. But she dismissed them. After all, she considered, if she were to bite Sean’s head off like she wanted to in that moment, there’d be no one to lead the group back to the lodge.
Maddie kept swiping up on her phone, hoping that she might wander into a patch of reception, enough to allow her to connect and get the emails she’d been waiting on.
“How about this,” said Sean. “We put away the phone for—” As he spoke, he reached forward and placed his hand on her phone.
Maddie yanked it away, her eyes going wide.
“All right, all right—hands off the iPhone. I just signed a contract for this thing. You don’t touch my stuff and I won’t touch your stuff.”
But when she scanned him up and down, she realized he didn’t even have that much stuff to touch.
Must be the “vow of poverty” type, she thought.
“You can touch my stuff all you like, mama.”
He followed this up with another sly smile, and Maddie’s eyes went wide again.
“Let’s...not talk to our elders like that,” she said.
He shrugged. “Age is just a number, you know? How old are you, anyway?”
Maddie let out a laugh. “Didn’t anyone tell you that it’s impolite to ask women their age like that?”
She si
ghed.
“Let me guess,” he said. “Thirty at most.”
Maddie let out a laugh.
“Forty,” she said, finally blurting it out. “Well, almost forty. But I appreciate the gesture.”
“And it’s a very nice forty, indeed,” he said, looking her up and down once again.
“All right, you’ve made your point.”
“Just sayin’,” he said with another wink. “Anyway, you’re falling behind the rest of the group, like I said. And these woods might look safe enough, but there’s all kinds of danger out here, drop-offs that you’ll fall right down if you’re not looking. So, what I’m going to do is pair you with someone else on the hike.”
He pointed up ahead at the next-last person, a youngish blonde girl about fifty feet ahead.
“Wait, you’re giving me a buddy? I’m not that much of a hopeless case, am I?”
“It’s for your safety,” he said. “And we’re not too far away from the lodge, anyway. Just a little way to make sure you get there in one piece.”
Part of Maddie wanted to tell him that she didn’t need his help or anyone else’s. But another part of her wanted to do whatever it’d take to get back to civilization as quickly as possible.
“How far are we talking, exactly?”
“Another hour.”
She winced. Another hour might mean the difference between signing the contract or losing it.
But there was nothing else to do.
“Fine, fine,” she said.
“Perfect. Pick up the pace, Mads. Let’s get you introduced.”
With effortless athleticism, Sean hurried up to the blonde, Maddie following closely behind.
“Mads, this is Shana,” said Sean as they approached.
Shana turned her head and flashed Maddie about the most wild-eyed smile she’d ever seen.
“Oh my God!” said Shana, sticking out her hand. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
Shana was trim and pretty, and if Sean was ten years younger than Maddie, Shana was nearly twice that. She was dressed in a pair of short shorts, an oversized designer flannel tied at the waist. It was clear her outfit had been put together with style in mind, rather than practicality—especially to show off as much skin as possible.
Apprehensively, as if not sure what she was getting into, Maddie shook her hand.
“Maddie.”
“I’m sure you two will be fast friends,” said Sean. “And, uh, think about my offer, Maddie.”
He winked again before heading past the line of hikers, back toward the head of the line.
“Oh my God,” said Shana, her eyes locked ahead at Sean. “Isn’t he just the hottest?”
“Sure, if you’re into that granola, lost-in-the-woods sort of vibe.”
Shana laughed.
“I know him from back home. The guy’s parents are both doctors—guy’s got more money than he knows what to do with.”
Maddie allowed herself a smirk at the idea that Sean was playacting.
“But he’s still so freaking hot. Oh my God, look at this tree.”
Before Maddie had a chance to respond, Shana whipped out her phone and stepped over to the moss-covered trunk of a dead tree. She held the phone out in front of her, stuck out her tongue, and lifted one leg. Then she snapped a shot and put the phone back into her pocket like nothing had happened.
“You getting reception up here?” asked Maddie.
Shana shook her head. “Not a bar. I’m just saving my pictures for Insta later.”
“So, it’s a social media kind of trip, huh?”
“I mean, I like trees and stuff. But I’ve heard so much about this part of the state that I knew I had to get out here. I mean, it is haunted and all that.”
“Wait, what?”
This got Maddie’s attention.
“You don’t know about it? It’s like, the coolest thing about this whole trip. But they don’t tell you about it.”
Maddie, despite making her living off tales of magic, didn’t put much stock in the world of the supernatural. But she was curious.
“Go on.”
“OK, so there are all these stories about these woods, how they have these weird...people living in them.”
“Weird people?”
“Like people who have magical powers. Maybe even ghosts. And way, way back during colonial times or whatever, there were supposed to be witches who lived around here. People would go missing all the time. And it still happens, believe it or not.”
“People go missing?”
She nodded. “There were these hikers who just, like, vanished into nowhere a year ago. It’s why they only let people come out here in groups. But Sean won’t tell you that—they’re worried it might scare people away.”
“And you believe all that?”
She shrugged. “I mean, maybe. These woods definitely feel strange, don’t they?”
Maddie hadn’t said anything, figuring it was all in her head, but she had noticed an odd energy in the air since they’d started their walk.
”Hate to burst your bubble, but it’s almost definitely a case of ‘weird hobos living in the woods.’”
“I don’t know, maybe,” she went on. “I thought it would be cool to get some pictures here. And if I see a witch or a monster or whatever, then even better. Right?”
She stopped, her eyes flashing at something over Maddie’s shoulder.
“Oh my God, check this out.”
She took Maddie’s hand and pulled her along.
“Hey!” said Maddie. “What’s the big idea?”
Maddie pulled her hand free, but Shana had already led her to wherever it was she wanted to go.
“Look!” She pointed at what appeared to be a rock lodged into the ground at the base of some old tree.
“Seems pretty rock-ish to me.”
“Nope. Look closer.”
Still skeptical, Maddie leaned down toward the rock.
Sure enough, there was writing on it.
Gravestone writing.
The name had long eroded off, but one of the years read “1758.”
“See?” asked Shana. “It’s a freaking grave. That means people were living out here. And if they were living out here, they died out here.”
Before Maddie had a chance to react, Shana whipped out her phone and held it out in front of the two of them.
“Say spooky!”
“Huh?” Shana snapped the picture right in the middle of Maddie’s word.
“Oh, that’s a good one,” said Shana.
She held out the phone so Maddie could see it. Maddie winced at how bad the picture of her was.
“So, like, what’s your story, Maddie?” asked Shana. “No offense, but you don’t look like the hiking type. Or the nature type. Or the likes-to-get-dirty type. Or the—”
“I get it,” said Maddie. “And you’re not wrong.”
Normally, Maddie wasn’t the type to spill her guts. But the whole situation had frustrated her so damn much that she sighed and went into it.
“My friend Katie...she talked me into this. Said I was spending too much time at the office, that I needed a change of pace. So, she went ahead and bought me tickets to this nature hike in the middle of nowhere. She said it’d be good to clear my head, figure out what I wanted out of life after the di—”
She caught herself right at the beginning of the word, almost unable to believe she’d said it.
“Oh my God,” said Shana. “You’re divorced?”
So much for keeping to myself. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound.
“Two years on,” said Maddie. “And I don’t regret it one damn bit.”
After she was done talking, silence filled the air. Maddie glanced over and saw that Shana was looking at her phone, an eager expression on her face.
“Holy shit!” she said. “Reception!”
“What?”
Maddie whipped out her phone like an old-west gunslinger, her eyes going to the upper-right of the scr
een.
No bars.
“Shit,” said Maddie. “Nothing for me.”
“I’m probably on a different carrier than you. I bet if you move around, you’ll get a bar.”
“Yeah. OK, I know we’re supposed to buddy up, but I’ve got millions on the line here.” Her phone in hand, she took off away from Shana and the rest of the group.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“Be right back!” called Maddie over her shoulder, her eyes still locked onto the screen.
Her heart pounded as she ventured further from the group, convinced that she was on the verge of obtaining the prized bar and finally, finally being able to discover whether or not the long-awaited email had arrived.
So much rode on her response to the email. If she replied in time, managed to sign the new client, she’d secure one of the biggest coups of her career.
“Come on, come on...” She pulled the inbox down over and over, an “X” appearing at the top each time. “One single bar! That’s all I ask!”
She marched on, hoping that the next refresh would be the one to do the job. Maddie glanced over her shoulder exactly once during her quest, seeing that the rest of the group had long vanished into the woods behind her. Maddie glanced down at her shoes, noticing she was heading down a slope, the angle increasing with each step she took. She steadied herself, making sure to remain balanced.
Doesn’t matter I’m alone, she thought. I get some reception, and I can pull up a map as soon as I check my email. There has to be a little bit around here...
Then, out of nowhere, she got it. A single extra bar appeared in the reception area, the “X” vanishing and a deluge of emails appearing in her inbox.
“Yes!” Her voice carried through the woods, echoed down the slope in front of her.
But the moment the tip of her foot slammed into something hard, Maddie knew she wouldn’t be celebrating for long.
Pain blasted through her body, starting at the toe and radiating out. She tripped forward, her phone launching out of her hand. Maddie, mid-fall, managed to turn herself around just in time to watch her phone disappear into the grass.
And she noticed something else, too—what she’d tripped over. Though it was only a blur as she tumbled, Maddie could make out the lumpy, gray form of a small tombstone, the shape almost identical to the one Shana had pointed out.
