by Trevor Darby
Chace Ogden and the Cobalt Dragon
MYTH Squad, Volume 3
Trevor Darby
Published by Trevor Darby, 2020.
Trevor Darby
Copyrighted Material
Copyright © 2020 by Trevor Darby
Book design and layout copyright © 2020 by Trevor Darby
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from Trevor Darby.
www.trevordarby.com
1st Print Edition
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chace Ogden and the Cobalt Dragon (MYTH Squad, #3)
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
About the Author
Also by Trevor Darby
The Myth Squad
Chace Ogden and the Golden Golem
Chace Ogden and the Quest for Raven
Chace Ogden and the Cobalt Dragon
The Chronicles of Nesteryia
Finneas Grey and the Vial of Nech
Finneas Grey and the Wraith King
Nyepsium Wars
An Assassin’s Tool (a Novella)
The Siren’s Note (coming soon)
Kingdom of Oak
The Black Oak Sword
Mermaid Academy
Beyond the Deep
Pirate Queen
Non-Fiction
The Beekeeper’s Guide
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To Samantha,
who chases her dreams with fierceness
Chapter 1
It had been nearly a month. Four whole weeks since we’d defeated Klugg the Troll and had rescued Raven from the Magical Realm...Four whole weeks since I lost a piece of myself.
Raven slipped into the cafeteria line, and I dragged my gaze away from her. I just managed to wipe the misery off my face as Taz walked over to join me at our lunch table. There was a skip in his step, and he was practically beaming as he took his seat.
Taco day could do that to a person. Especially if that person was Taz.
"So delicious. I love Taco Day, bro. And it's doubly good this time because our watch has almost ended. Tomorrow it's sweet release," he said through a mouthful of a slightly soggy shell filled with meat and cheese, "I wonder if this is how prisoners feel when they get out?"
I couldn't help but return his smile despite my mood. The last month had been a long haul. I was starting to wonder if being grounded that long qualified as cruel and unusual punishment.
"I know, right? I've actually been looking forward to the walk to my bus stop every morning. It's the only chance I get to actually feel the sun on my face," I said, laughing.
"My mom doesn't even give me the luxury of walking to the bus stop," he said, shaking his head. "She also thinks going to the grocery store with her is 'too much fun,' so I wasn't even allowed to do that." He continued his griping, but I was focused on Raven again. She was now walking from the lunch line to a table across the room. "She still blowing you off, bro?" Taz said, stopping whatever he'd been saying as he caught my gaze.
"Yep," I said. No use in complaining about it. Raven would talk to me when she was ready.
"She'll come around. I know finding out your pop and her dad were Hunter and Protector was a lot for her to handle. Especially considering the way things had turned out. I still think she's being kind of a jerk to you," he said sympathetically, shoving the remaining half of his first taco into his mouth. "It's not like it was your fault or something," he mumbled through the mouthful. “Or even your great-grandfather’s. I mean, it’s a dangerous job, right?”
I nodded, taking a bite of my own meal and giving silent thanks as Mikey and Aaron sat down at our table. I’d already explained a million times that this situation went beyond someone being in the right and the other in the wrong. Sometimes things just hurt too much to process right away, and it didn’t mean it was someone else’s fault. But he was too good a friend to accept that as an excuse. If someone was making me feel bad, you could guarantee Taz would have an issue with them. Even though it wasn’t very helpful right now, I was lucky to have someone like him in my corner.
After a lengthy discussion with Mikey and Aaron on the benefits of bringing in another Ogre for our online game, Night Watch, I took a final swig off of my carton of chocolate milk. I stood with Taz, who had finished his food within three minutes of getting it. We walked our trays over to the trashcan, pushing through a crowd of kids doing the same. I dumped the trash off my lunch tray and turned to put it on the counter behind the garbage, which was lined with empty trays in messy stacks.
When I turned to walk back toward the table, I felt my heartbeat thumping as Raven dumped her own tray out into the trash.
Everything is so screwed up.
I did my best to look casual as we passed her, resisting the urge to take the long way around. It felt like a dagger to the chest when she walked by us without so much as a glance. Just a month ago we’d been best friends, but now she couldn’t even bear to look at me.
Taz put his hand on my shoulder in silent comfort as we made our way back to Mikey and Aaron.
"So, who are you guys thinking of recruiting for the new Ogre?" Mikey said, turning to bring us back into their conversation.
I tried to focus on our gaming team, but the fact was, I could only focus on one thing. Getting our real-life team back on track. Sure, the rest of the Myth Squad was doing all right. I’d managed to keep low-key in touch with Maps via short, magic-assisted visits to her house a few times a week to keep from going crazy with boredom. Once, I'd even gone there, grabbed her, and zapped us both into Taz's bedroom for a quiet night of board games. But facts were facts, without Raven, I felt like half of a whole. My only hope was that time would help heal her pain.
Hey, it had worked on Mom, after all. She was hardly even mad at me anymore. But, as I called up an image of Raven’s icy expression, I winced.
Maybe the old saying was wrong.
Maybe there were wounds that even time couldn’t heal...
Five hours later, I was still mulling that over while idly practicing my magic. Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and I quickly released the magical tether I’d affixed to my math textbook to make it spin around the room. It dropped to my desk with a light thump in the same spot my monitor would be when I was ungrounded tomorrow morning.
At least I had something to look forward to.
“How was school, sweetie?” Mom said as she stepped into my room with a gentle smile.
I forced a grin in response and shrugged. “
It was fine,” I said, looking up from the textbook I’d been pretending read. “How did work go?” I said.
Her eyes narrowed, and her forehead creased into a frown, "Good. Why do you seem so down? I thought you’d be excited for your grounding to be over. One more sleep!”
"I am, I can't wait. I just want to get my homework out of the way, so I'll have all weekend to do whatever," I said, mustering as much enthusiasm as I could.
She cocked her head at me, clearly smelling my little fib, but she shrugged and said, “Whatever. Dinner’ll be ready soon. It’ll be a Binner night to celebrate, pancakes and eggs.” She grinned at me.
I smiled back, and this time it was more genuine. Mom, Max, Pop, and I had a tradition of eating breakfast for dinner on Friday's when we were younger. Mom still brought that tradition back on special occasions. It was silly, but her thoughtfulness and the promise of gooey, chocolate chip pancakes drenched in butter and maple syrup did lighten my mood a little.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said.
“I’ll call for you in a bit but come right down when I do. I can’t guarantee that Pop won’t eat your pancakes too if you take too long,” she said with a wink before shutting my door and heading back to the kitchen.
I raised my hand, flicked my wrist, and the textbook disappeared. I pumped my fist in victory, turning around and seeing the book on the bed behind me. I'd been practicing all month, trying to recreate the feat I'd managed with Raven when we'd been in the Magical Realm fighting the Troll. Before then, I'd only been able to transport people if we were touching or holding hands. Somehow, in my panic to keep her from getting squashed by Klugg's massive fist, I'd managed to transport her from standing on top of Klugg to the forest floor yards away. Without laying a finger on her. I had no clue how I'd done it and hadn't been able to repeat it until now.
Maybe it was one of those tricks I had to not think so hard about. Perhaps it was all about the feel. Both times it worked, it had been almost second nature and without thought. But if I was going to use it, I had to make sure I could access it at will. Otherwise, counting on it and failing could prove to be deadly.
There were so many uses for a power like that. Would it eventually be possible for me to teleport things right to me from far away? There was a thrill in knowing that I'd only scratched the surface of what I was able to do with my powers. I put my hand out and pushed all thought from my mind, flicking my wrist again. As the book appeared back in front of me as if from thin air, my only wish was that Raven was here to celebrate with me.
A rapid patter of steps came down the hall, and my brother Max burst into the room a second later.
“Dinner’s ready, butthead.” He scampered back down the hall, clearly as eager as I was to eat. I followed after him into the living room. Another benefit of binner? No kitchen table! We got to eat in the living room while watching TV. I was still technically grounded for the rest of the evening, though, so I knew I’d have no say on what we watched.
"Looks great," I said, looking at the excellent breakfast laid out on the coffee table. Mon handed me a plate stacked high with chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, and eggs. The smell had me practically drooling.
"Thanks a lot, Sandy. Smells delicious," Pop said, shoving a hefty forkful of pancake into his mouth. I followed suit and was reminded once again how amazing Mom's pancake-making skills still were. Crispy on the edges, fluffy in the middle, just like a pancake should be.
Mom walked into the kitchen with an empty glass and called back over her shoulder. “Anyone want anything while I’m up?”
“I need some milk to dunk these pancakes in,” Max called in response, taking a bite of his eggs but ignoring his pancakes for now.
I rolled my eyes, laughing, “Haven’t you grown out of that yet?”
“You dip cookies in milk. Why is this so different?" Max shot back as mom walked in and handed him a glass of milk.
"They just get all soggy, and you end up spooning a bunch of pancake mush from the bottom of your glass when you're done eating," I said. "It's gross."
"Exactly! That's what makes it so good. There's a million-dollar business for you. Just sell it pre-soaked like that, you could call it pancake milk," Max said, dropping an entire folded pancake into the milk and letting it soak up the milk like a sponge while he focused back on his eggs. "You can take that to Shark Tank and make a fortune off that idea if you want. You're welcome," he said with a half-bow.
I wrinkled my nose at him in disgust. "That's a terrible idea, and no one but you would buy it because it's gross."
"Look, at least I'm not the one that uses French fries as a spoon for his ketchup," he said with a laugh.
“Wait a second, there. What’s gross about that? Ketchup is delicious,” I said through a bite of pancake. It was nice being with the family on the eve of my ungrounding. After so many days of misery, the fun food and the lighthearted conversation was almost enough to take my mind off the situation with Raven.
“Mom, which one’s grosser?” Max said, turning to her as he stirred his muddy brown concoction up with his spoon.
“They’re both horrifying,” she said, not looking away from the television, “now shush, I want to hear this.” She pointed to the news anchor who, judging by the serious expression on her face, was delivering some clearly disturbing information.
"Just a few hours ago, all the cameras at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, mysteriously stopped working. According to reports, the footage on every camera went black for a full five minutes, confounding security professionals, before returning to normal. It was during this time that the famed Hope Diamond disappeared. The MPDC has not commented on this story except to say they're in the process of looking for suspects."
Pop let out a low whistle. Mom shook her head and made a snicking sound with her tongue.
“So much crazy stuff going on in the world lately,” she said. “Did you see this past week all those weird weather patterns with the super-small but mighty storms popping up all over the world? And there was that sinkhole in New York just yesterday. The world’s really going a bit nutty lately.”
I nodded in uninterested agreement. Strange weather stuff like that happened all the time. I’d seen pictures of hail the size of baseballs just a few months back, and there were always tornados and hurricanes going on somewhere. No reason to be too worried about it all of a sudden, and I didn’t much care about some dumb diamond. Especially when we couldn’t do anything about it. I was much more focused on what Taz and I were going to be doing tomorrow.
It was going to be epic. We’d finally get to play some video games and do some biking. Maybe we’d even go to Zorby’s Shake Shack for one of their famous triple chocolate shakes. It sounded great, but it honestly couldn’t be much better than these pancakes, I thought as I cleaned my fork of the final bite with a happy sigh.
I had just put my fork down when my pocket buzzed. Mom, in her infinite mercy that Taz’s mom seemingly didn’t share, had given my phone back to me after just two weeks of grounding. I clicked the home button once, and a message from Twee Twyla popped up.
Several mysterious and magical artifacts have gone missing, and I've got good intel that it's no coincidence. Assemble the Myth Squad and meet at my house at 9:00 am tomorrow. Make sure to get everyone here...the fate of the world depends on it, boy.
Chapter 2
“Hey,” Maps said, not even turning away from her computer to look at me as I wooshed into existence in her basement. "Thought I'd be done sooner, sorry. I'll just be one more sec," she said as she clicked away on her keyboard.
“No worries, we still have ten minutes or so before nine.” I dropped onto her couch and pulled out my phone.
The typing slowed to a halt before she stood and cracked her knuckles, eyeing me carefully. “So is Raven coming or what?”
“Yeah,” I said, opening Raven’s short reply to my message last night.
I’ll be there.
"So, you two
made up?"
I scrubbed at my chin and shrugged, ignoring the pit in my stomach. “I wouldn’t say that. She ignored my call last night. It seems like she still doesn't want to talk to me, but she did text me, so it's a start." I put a hand out to her, eager to teleport us to Twee Twyla's house and end this conversation.
Apparently, it was easier for me to think about the possible end of the world than the drama between Raven and me right now.
“One sec, gonna let my Mom know I’ll be out,” she said, heading over to the stairs. “Going out, be back later,” she shouted when she got to the top of the stairs.
“Where’re you going?” a female voice called back.
“Out,” she yelled with a sigh.
“Like outside or inside?”
Maps rolled her eyes. “Maybe a little of both, why?”
“You should bring an umbrella or something in case it rains, the weather’s been unpredictable lately.”
“Okay,” she said, grabbing my hand and ignoring her mother’s umbrella directive. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Finally,” Taz said, looking stressed as we popped up in Twee Twyla’s dusty, book-filled living room less than a minute later.
“We’re still,” I unlocked my phone and looked at the time, “three minutes early. And we’re still waiting on Raven anyway.”
"Here," Raven said, standing up from the chair she'd been sitting in on the side of the room. The tension between her and Taz was tangible as he scooted away from her and closer to me. I had grabbed Taz first and deposited him at Twee Twyla's. Then I went to pick up Maps in hopes of conserving energy, in case I needed it for some immediate world-saving. Now I regretted not getting here earlier. It was apparent that Taz and Raven had exchanged words before I’d returned with Maps, and it hadn’t gone well.
I made a mental note to talk to Taz and tell him not to get involved going forward. Raven and I needed to work this out on our own.
