Mortal Raised

by Kit Bladegrave

  He shrugged as he glanced over the papers in front of him. “Not a lot of us at an uppity school like this, I like to help get the newbies adjusted to this world. It can be a lot to take in.”

  “Pause,” I said, holding up my hand.

  He smirked.

  “With crazy eyes like yours, how did you not know there was something up?”

  “My parents told me it was genetic,” he said. “Both of them had the same look, so I believed that it was normal. I got picked on in school about it, of course, but then all of a sudden, my parents moved us from Washington to Virginia. As Hollow Well Dragons, they had a little leeway with the school board and got me enrolled here instead of one of the less prestigious schools. Oh, the mockery,” he said dramatically and placed a hand on his chest as I stifled a laugh. “The first half of my teenage years, I was mocked for my eyes, and the second half I was mocked because I fell for Elsa’s broomstick question.”

  “Seems like most of your students don’t know you were mortal-raised,” I said.

  “I keep it to myself. Truthfully, it’s not considered very flattering,” he said. “But, unlike you, I don’t have a piece of jewelry I can whip out to improve my social standing.”

  I blushed. “I didn’t know.”

  “I know, but soon you’ll know much more than you probably ever wanted.” His smile turned sad as he shifted his gaze towards the portraits we couldn’t see from here. “I knew your mom,” he said with a smile. “One of the first people at this school to treat me like a normal… a normal dragon, I suppose. In fact, she told me she liked the idea of being raised mortal. She got a lot of unwanted attention as a Descendant. That’s probably why she chose to raise you that way.”

  I looked down. I was getting tired of everyone speaking so highly of my mom and at the same time, seeming to know what she went through when I was still in the dark about almost everything. “Good to know. So… what is this class about, exactly?” I asked to get the topic away from Mom.

  “Think of it as study hall,” he said. “You’re being introduced to an entirely new world, Everest. I’m here to be your secret weapon to understanding it all. Not just the book stuff, but the social stuff too. The politics. The way this world works.”

  “Okay, so, basically, you’re here to teach me social skills that are appropriate for a world of witches and dragons.”

  He laughed. “Basically.”

  “Great,” I said, rubbing my hands together and muttering, “why didn’t I get to take this first before I shoved my foot in my mouth about five times?”

  Chapter Four

  Slade

  Two weeks later.

  “Preston called this morning,” Tank announced as I descended the stairs of our warehouse hideaway. “No news yet from the scouts.”

  “And there won’t be,” I grunted. “He needs to send someone back inside.”

  Tank barked a laugh. “And who the hell is going to volunteer for that?”

  I stared at him blankly, waiting for him to figure it out, but it was Davis who shook his head, sitting in front of his laptop as always, along with several other monitors.

  He’d tapped into the city’s security cameras and had been watching the feeds for two weeks. “Preston is not about to send you back there. He still thinks you’re ah, a little on the unstable side.”

  Tank smirked as I rolled my eyes and sank into one of the raggedy overstuffed chairs we’d dragged into the open space. “For the last damn time, I didn’t start that fight.”

  “No, but you nearly got yourself killed.”

  I rolled my shoulders, hating how they still tended to ache first thing in the morning from my wounds. “But since then, they’ve gone quiet. It’s strange, and I do not like strange. Preston shouldn’t either.”

  After the fight in the alley, I expected to be seeing dragons all over the city, especially close to the campus grounds, but everything had gone quiet. Too quiet. There wasn’t even the stench of them on the air.

  Davis saw nothing on the cameras and Tank and I had nothing to report on any of our trips back from the streets.

  We even risked getting closer to the campus, just in case they set up shop there, but nothing. No sign of them anywhere.

  Even Morg seemed on edge about it, though. He was more paranoid than usual and paced frantically around his little hole of a home almost day and night. Every time I stopped in to check on him, there he was, pacing. Back and forth and back and forth. He’d lost weight, too. Not eating, hadn’t showered.

  Something was coming. And we had no idea what.

  The last thing I wanted us to be was blind.

  I sulked in my chair, listening to Tank and Davis talk about something or other, nothing I cared about. For two weeks, I’d done nothing useful, and it was making me anxious.

  I drew one of my daggers from my boot and casually flipped it in my hand, glaring at the far wall.

  “Don’t stab yourself,” Tank teased, and I realized they were staring at me.

  “What?”

  “Go on patrol or something,” Tank grumbled. “Just get your brooding ass out of this warehouse for a few hours.”

  I stood and sheathed the dagger back at my boot. “Fine.”

  I stormed out of the warehouse, ignoring their mutterings behind me until the door slid shut again and I figured I would head towards the campus and see what Everest was doing this weekend.

  Not that I cared as long as she stayed on campus and out of trouble. So far, she hadn’t left the grounds, making my job quite easy. I couldn’t watch her twenty-four seven, but we had our ways of tracking potential targets. Davis was probably our best asset for that, not that I would ever admit it to his face.

  Halfway to the campus, I paused, ducking into the shop to my right to get off the sidewalk.

  A bell dinged overhead, and a quiet chatter of voices sounded behind me.

  I turned around and saw a confused woman behind the counter of the coffee shop I’d chosen to slip into.

  “Can I help you?” she asked.

  “Yeah, sorry,” I said, and threw a smile on my face that seemed to calm her down. “Just a coffee, please.”

  She returned the smile and rang up my order.

  I paid and accepted the cup with another nod of thanks before I found a small table near the front windows. Keeping one eye on the street, I found my cell in my pocket and texted Tank and Davis.

  I hadn’t seen them, but just like the other day, I could smell them, like a rancid odor that seeped up from the sewers. They were out there, and I needed eyes on them if possible.

  Tank texted back a few seconds later and said they were pulling up the street views.

  I sipped my coffee and grimaced. I really hated coffee, but kept drinking it just in case I wasn’t the only one doing the watching.

  My cell dinged, and I held it up to read the message:

  Two south of your position. Entered an herb shop. Keep out of sight until I get there.

  I smirked, drained the rest of the coffee, and burned my mouth.

  Tank should know better.

  Tossing the empty cup, I left the shop and stepped into the others walking down the sidewalk.

  The sign of the herb shop was visible from here, and I quickened my pace to see what our friends were up to this time.

  From the sidewalk, the shop looked pretty normal. Herbs and bottles of homemade remedies were displayed in the front windows. There were several books stacked near the bottom, ways to brew your own healing aids, and what stones were good to promote positive vibes.

  For a few seconds, I debated on even going in, thinking Davis had been wrong, but then I saw it, and my blood ran fiery hot with rage.

  There, etched into the glass in the bottom right corner was a sigil I knew better than anything else in this damn world.

  Absently, I rubbed my side through my coat as I glared at the symbol before I was walking into the shop.

  There was no plan, but I didn’t care.


  They’d been here all along, right out in the open. Now the question was how long had they been a part of this city, right under everyone’s noses, and they didn’t even know it?

  Jenny and Preston never mentioned anything about them even having an old residence here. I wandered aimlessly through the small, dusty shop. The lighting was dim and reeked of incense, but there was no one behind the main counter. No one in there at all.

  I sniffed harder, and beneath the incense, I caught the sharp scent of their presence.

  If I had any doubts about Davis’ intel, it disappeared as I quietly moved deeper through the rickety wooden shelves of crystals and candles.

  A curtain hung over a doorway, and grabbing a dagger from my boot, I held it in my hand as I carefully peeled the dingy fabric back to reveal a set of stairs going down.

  I held my breath and tilted my head, listening.

  At first, there was just subtle growling, but then there was cackling, and I flinched as memories rushed through my head, taking me back to much darker days.

  The spot on my side flared in pain, and I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to bleed to stop myself from cursing.

  “Soon, we will have the numbers we need,” a deep baritone grunted, and the others fell silent. “It will not be long now.”

  “The others, they are starting to… talk,” a second voice said, female.

  “Then do what you must to silence them. They should know by now what happens when they do not follow through with their orders,” the first voice boomed fiercely. Something thudded against a hard surface, possibly a fist, as he ranted on, “Soon enough, there will be no hope for them anymore. We will find the others and crush them beneath our heels. Soon, we will no longer need their support.”

  I leaned closer, wanting to hear more. I needed to see their faces, but without knowing the layout of the basement, stepping down there would be a suicide mission. Despite what the others feared, I wasn’t about to throw my life away. Not yet at least.

  “He is nearly ready,” the voice went on. “It has taken these past few hundred years to bring us back from the point of death, and now… now they will regret the day they ever thought they could exterminate us.”

  Glasses clinked together, and the boisterous laughter started up again.

  They were talking, but it was too quiet for me to hear, so I backed away slowly, letting the curtain fall over the doorway.

  I just sheathed my dagger and was turning to go when the air suddenly grew heavy around me.

  I struggled to get air into my lungs and then the deafening silence was shattered by a furious roar from beneath me.

  As if pushing through water, I cursed, realizing who else must be down there.

  They’d noticed me after all.

  I kept moving, gritting my teeth as their steps pounded behind me and finally the door was in reach. The air grew heavier still, and shoved me to my knees, just shy of the doorknob.

  “Damn it,” I snarled, unable to even reach for my daggers.

  I wasn’t ready to get dragged back into that world, not now, but then the front door was yanked open, and two rough hands dragged me out onto the sidewalk. I was thrown bodily into the backseat of a car before it sped away.

  “Why the hell didn’t you wait, you fool?” Tank yelled as I tried to sit up in the backseat.

  Davis was driving, swerving in and out of traffic, until we were a few blocks away and he finally slowed down, glancing at me with a dark look in the rearview mirror.

  “What?” I snapped when he didn’t stop. “Watch the damn road!”

  “Don’t you worry about the road! What was that in there?” Davis growled. “I felt it as soon as we pulled up. You just couldn’t find something normal, could you. First the half-shifting and now… now we find out they’re working with priests!”

  I didn’t like it either, and shook out my shoulders, trying to get rid of the heavy sensation that had consumed my body just minutes ago.

  Blood Moon Priests, an old order we thought dead and buried long ago after the war. Guess that was one secret our conquerors wanted to keep us from, and for good reason.

  “This changes everything,” I whispered, more to myself than them.

  “No, really?” Tank muttered sarcastically.

  We needed to get back to the warehouse and warn the others of what was coming. “The dragons are working for them,” I said quietly as Tank turned to face me with a dark look in his eyes, “they’re still trying to fight back. But… I heard them say soon they wouldn’t need any of our kind anymore.”

  Tank rattled off a very colorful stream of curses as Davis maneuvered us through the city and eventually back to the warehouse. “You get them on the computer, and you tell them everything you heard. Got it?”

  “Fine, then I have to go check on Everest.”

  It was Saturday so there was a chance she wouldn’t be on campus, but I prayed that she wouldn’t leave those grounds.

  If there were priests here, then this entire situation was about to get ten times worse.

  Preston might not want to tell me who Everest really was, but I was pretty sure what I was about to tell him was going to make him change his mind really quick.

  I hope you enjoyed Mortal Raised!

  Look for the next book in this series!

  Dragon Feared

  Turn the page to read an excerpt from Rivals the exciting Dragon Reign Series!

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  Rivals Excerpt

  Kate’s whole world just turned upside down. She’s hearing weird things, and seeing weird things. And Mama Lucy is a witch. No, really. Not like a capital B witch, but a capital W witch. And the guy Kate’s just saved from imminent death is half-demon. And the guy that’s after her is a dragon

  Her life redefines teen drama.

  Craig’s a half=breed, bastard son of a demon king. And he’s a thief. He’s just found the item he’s supposed to appropriate when his cousin stabs him with a poisoned dagger.

  Forrest is out to collect the bounty for capturing the bastard son of a demon king. He doesn’t plan to save the girl, or the half-breed demon. He also doesn’t plan to be the one who needs saving.

  This unlikely trio find themselves chased by enemies, known and unknown as they slip into a different dimension called Burnt World.

  Chapter One

  Kate

  From this high up, I could see the world laid out before me. The fields beyond the town, the barns, and farmhouses. I could see for miles in all directions, soaring higher to reach above the clouds.

  The air was cooler up here, but I liked it, the rush of the chilliness against my skin and the feeling of being utterly alone.

  And free. Free from the darkness of my past and the not knowing what was going to happen in my future.

  The moon was my only companion as I circled around, wanting to stay forever within the clouds and not have to touch down again. In some part of my mind, I knew this was all a dream, but I never wanted to wake up from it. Not that my life was all that bad, but I certainly wasn’t free to fly.

  I was larger than life here, above the world, but all dreams must come to an end. I faltered in mid-air and suddenly crashed down, spiraling out of control.

  Down, down, down—

  I shot upright in bed with my heart pounding in my chest as I gasped for air. I was in bed, safe and sound, not ready to die as I hit the ground from such a high height. With a groan, I flung myself back onto my pillow and glared at the dull ceiling above me.

  I missed the moon and stars already. As I lay there, I rolled my shoulders trying to ease the weird tension built up in them. But it didn’t go away and instead grew worse. I turned over, but when that didn’t help, I rose thinking standing would make it stop.

  It
didn’t, and I stood in front of the old dingy mirror on my dresser, rubbing my neck and wondering if I was coming down with the flu. My body ached in weird places, and my arms were exhausted as if I’d been using them all night.

  “Kate! Are you up yet?” a voice called from out in the hall. Mama Lucy.

  “Yeah, I’m up,” I replied. “Be out in a minute!”

  “Get your sisters up,” she yelled back.

  I grinned and hurried to get dressed. They weren’t my biological sisters. No one in this huge old mansion was related by blood. We were all taken in by the woman we called Mama Lucy. I came here nearly ten years ago when she found me wandering the streets alone. That’s how most kids wound up here. She took us in without a second thought, homeschooled us, fed and clothed us.

  She was our Mama Lucy.

  I was the oldest in the house now. Those who used to be my age, had moved away, ready to be on their own, but many sent letters and visited every now and then. As I’d grown older, I’d wondered how she managed to take care of us all. I never saw any social workers come to the house, or any checks in the mail from the government.

  All the kids made up stories of where her money came from, that she had a treasure hoarded in the basement, or she was really royalty, but ran away and came to live here instead. The stories changed every year. Part of me cared to know, but another part didn’t. She gave me a home, and I was grateful.

  “Mary? Judy? Time to get up,” I said as I opened the door to the room next to mine.

  Two little girls, one blonde and one a redhead, sat up to stare at me with drowsy eyes. They were twelve and thirteen.

  “It’s too early,” Mary grumbled and tucked her head back beneath the covers.

  “No, it’s not. Come on, you don’t want to be late for breakfast, do you? The boys will eat all the bacon again,” I warned.

  Mary and Judy leaped out of bed at the mention of bacon, and I laughed as they darted past me, racing for the bathroom down the hall.

  I loved mornings in this house, listening to the hustle and bustle of the other kids and hearing Mama Lucy’s laughter and talking.