by D J DuMont
Chapter Two
The higher Cayenne flew, the darker it became. The moon that had been shimmering above the water minutes before was suddenly covered by an ominous, dark storm cloud, and the twinkling stars disappeared just as quickly as more storm clouds gathered. The temperature dropped, and Willow had a feeling it wasn’t just because her altitude was increasing.
An unnatural chill filled the air.
“Lux!” Sylvie’s voice called out from somewhere to Willow’s left. Moments later, a bright beam of light shot out from Sylvie’s magic ring, lighting the sky in front of her dragon. Willow had been trying to avoid using magic to light her way, thinking that it was better to let the darkness hide her from Stein until the last possible second. But who was Willow kidding? Stein knew they were coming. She might as well be able to see where she was going.
“Lux!” Willow cried out. Within moments, a bright beam of light shot out from her ring as well. Locke and Cara followed suit, and soon the four of them were riding their dragons close together with four beams of light illuminating the sky ahead of them.
The gathering clouds were growing more volatile with every passing second, and Willow had to fight to keep her grip on Cayenne’s back. Normally, it was no problem for her to stay steady in bad weather by holding tightly to Cayenne’s thick, shimmering scales. But the wind was growing so strong that Willow’s hands kept slipping. It didn’t help that all she was wearing was a swimsuit. Normally, she wore her official Dragon Heart uniform when flying. The fabric on the long pants, long sleeves, and thick gloves was specifically designed to help Dragon Heart Agents sit comfortably and securely on their dragons. The bare skin on Willow’s legs, however, slipped along the slick scales, leaving scratches everywhere.
Willow ignored the pain, and she ignored the fear she felt every time her grip slipped a little too much. She could see the flashes of blue light up ahead that indicated Stein and his minions were attempting to break through the magic shield. Stein had been using her father to steal and store magic in an attempt to break through the Dragon Heart defenses. So far, he hadn’t been able to actually break through any magic shield, but he had come close.
And now, he didn’t even have to break through the magic shield. Willow was coming to him.
There was no way she was going to run and hide in an emergency bunker when her father was just outside her reach. She knew she was facing an immense amount of danger, and she knew Anjali, her mentor and the head professor at the Dragon Heart Academy, was going to be furious with her. But Willow didn’t care. She refused to pass up a chance to save her father.
Thankfully, her fellow students agreed with her decision. Surely, Anjali wouldn’t recommend that all four of them be expelled from the Academy. Would she?
Willow didn’t have time to worry about that now. The wind blew harder, and she gripped tighter to Cayenne’s back, glancing nervously over at Sylvie. Were the others having as hard a time as she was making it through this storm?
And where had this storm come from? Was it possible that Stein had caused it? That seemed unlikely. Summoning storms was an advanced form of Earth Magic, and Stein was running his operation on stolen magic. Surely, he couldn’t raise a tempest like this?
And yet, the force of the winds was undeniable. It had been a clear, quiet night, and now, just minutes later, Willow had the distinct feeling that she was flying into a hurricane.
For just a moment, she faltered. Was she flying into certain death? Her father would not want her to do that. He had always admired bravery, which was no surprise for someone who had spent his entire career on the front lines of dangerous CIA missions. But he had also lectured Willow more than once about the difference between bravery and idiocy, and she had a feeling that the worse the storms got, the more the current situation was tipping toward the idiocy side of the scale.
But then, another loud scream of pain rang out across the night. Stein was using either magic or technology of some sort to amplify the scream, and the noise sent chills of horror through Willow. Stein must have known that he needed to blast off regular reminders of the pain Willow’s father felt in order to keep the Dragon Heart Agents motivated—and oh, was Willow motivated. She couldn’t stand the thought of her father in pain.
“Faster, Cayenne!” she called out. Her dragon roared, sending smoke and a flurry of fiery sparks out into the sky in front of them. But no matter how much Willow pushed Cayenne, their speed did not increase.
Cayenne was having trouble flying in the ever-stronger winds, and a quick glance around told Willow that the other dragons were facing the same problem. She had to do something to counter this storm, and she had to do it quickly. Otherwise, they were never going to make it through the magic shield to save her father.
“Serenitatem!” Willow cried out, doing her best to concentrate on one of the few Earth Magic spells she knew for calming the weather. The winds died down, but only a little. Thankfully, Sylvie, Cara and Locke all realized what she was doing, and joined in with their own weather-calming spells. Between the four of them, they managed to quell the storm enough so that they at least weren’t in imminent danger of falling from their dragons.
But the danger was just beginning.
As Willow neared the spot where the magic shield arched protectively over the island in the shape of a dome, she could see cracks. The shield was a bit like glass, transparent unless it was damaged, in which case the cracks could be so bad that it made seeing through the shield difficult. Now, Willow could see several spots where the cracks in the shield were quite bad. Stein must have strengthened and refined his ability to do magic, because this shield spell had been cast by the best of the best in the Dragon Heart Agency, and yet Stein was breaking through it.
“Willow!” Cara’s voice called through the night. “Watch out!”
Before Willow could turn to heed Cara’s warning, she was temporarily blinded by the brightest blue flash she had seen yet. A sickening, shattering sound rang out as a giant portion of the magic shield cracked open, and a few moments later Willow found herself suddenly surrounded by dozens of men in black uniforms, riding on jet packs.
“The Dark Sparks!” Sylvie yelped.
Everything became chaos. Because Stein’s followers, the Dark Sparks, weren’t actual wizards, they couldn’t fly on broomsticks, and they certainly didn’t have dragons to ride. That didn’t stop them from flying, though. They used jet packs to zoom around in the air, and they were surprisingly good at maneuvering those jet packs around.
Too good at it.
Willow immediately put up a magic shield around herself, and started launching attacks at the Dark Sparks zooming around her. Beside her, Sylvie, Cara and Locke did the same. Their dragons all huddled together in a defensive circle, and breathed out fire or acid to help hold back the enemy.
But holding back the enemy was proving to be much, much harder than Willow had anticipated. She’d fought the Dark Sparks before. In fact, she’d fought Stein himself. But it had never been this hard. The attacks against her had never been this strong. Willow tried the strongest spells she knew, and even those didn’t completely stop the advance against them.
Desperately, she tried not to panic. Something was wrong here. It shouldn’t be this hard for four strong, young wizards to hold back a group of enemies that weren’t even wizards themselves. But no matter how valiantly Willow and her friends fought, they didn’t seem to be making progress. If anything, Willow felt like they were losing ground.
Despite her best efforts not to, she panicked. She had to do something drastic. She was the one who had dragged her fellow students up here, and if they were harmed or captured, she would never forgive herself.
Willow closed her eyes and tried hard to concentrate. Her mental magic abilities were still difficult for her to control, and she’d been advised not to use them yet except when working with her tutor. She had a tendency to cast spells that were far stronger than she intended when working with mental magic, and t
he Dragon Heart Agency didn’t want her to accidentally hurt other Agents or cause property damage. But right now, Willow needed a spell that was far stronger than she intended. She needed to get rid of this swarm of Dark Sparks.
Invado. Invado. Invado.
She concentrated all her mental magic efforts on trying to cast an Invado spell, one of the strongest attack spells in existence. Surely, that would do the trick.
But no matter how hard Willow concentrated, she couldn’t get the spell to work. The panic rose in her chest, making it even harder for her to concentrate. She told herself that calming down was the only way to save her father and her fellow students, but the possibility that she might fail overwhelmed her. She began to choke up, unable to hold back the panic.
“Willow, you’ve got this! You can do it!”
Willow opened her eyes, surprised by the voice that had shouted out a sudden vote of encouragement. Locke was hovering directly to her left on his dragon, and at that moment, he was looking straight at her with a determined expression on his face. Locke, thanks to the fact that he spent all his time reading about all possible varieties of magic, understood mental magic well. Even though he himself couldn’t do mental magic, he must have realized that that was what Willow was trying to do.
And he must have realized that it was their only hope of getting out of the deadly situation they’d gotten themselves into.
“You can do it,” he repeated. “Just close your eyes and concentrate. Don’t worry about us. We’ll hold them back until you can manage to launch a strong mental magic attack.”
Willow gulped, but nodded and closed her eyes again. She could do this. She had to do this.
Invado. Invado. Invado.
Moments later, shocked cries of pain rang out. Willow opened her eyes to see to her relief that the spell had finally worked. Several of their attackers were spiraling downward, having lost control of their jetpacks or fallen off completely. Locke let out a victory whoop, and Willow could see the relief etched into Sylvie’s and Cara’s faces.
But that relief didn’t last long. Almost as soon as the attackers surrounding them had been pushed back, a new wave of attackers arrived. Willow’s eyes widened as she saw dozens more Dark Sparks jetting through the hole in the magic shield.
“This is nuts!” she yelled.
Sylvie and Cara both looked pale, but Locke didn’t miss a beat.
“Willow, cast the spell again. The rest of us will hold them back!”
And so, Willow did. And again, she managed to push them back. But again, a fresh wave of attackers followed on their heels.
How many of them are there? Willow wondered. She tried to see past the magic shield, but the cracks in the shield were so bad at this point that nothing beyond was visible. She was also worried about the fact that she hadn’t heard her father crying out for quite some time. Did that mean that the Dark Sparks were too busy to torture him at the moment, or did it mean that they’d harmed him so badly that he was unconscious—or worse?
As these troubled thoughts ran through Willow’s head, she found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on casting any mental magic spells. She felt like she was losing this battle and her father all at once.
No! I already lost him once. I will not lose him again. And I will not let Stein hurt my Dragon Heart classmates.
Summoning up every ounce of strength and concentration possible, Willow cast another round of Invado attack spells.
Invado. Invado. Invado.
To her relief, she managed to beat back the attackers again. Surely, there would not be another wave of attackers just as big?
But before she could see what else might be coming through the hole in the magic shield, she was startled to see Anjali and Sam zooming toward her on their own dragons. By the light of their magic rings, Willow could see their faces, and they did not look happy.
Over her first two years of magical education, Willow had given Anjali reason to be angry at her on numerous occasions, so she was no stranger to seeing fury in Anjali’s eyes. But Willow had never seen fury like this. Anjali’s eyes looked like they were literally on fire, and her face had darkened as much as the storm clouds that surrounded them.
“Back, all of you!” Anjali shouted.
Willow knew better than to argue with Anjali when she was using that tone of voice, but she couldn’t stop herself. Not when it was her father’s life on the line. “But my dad! I heard him!”
Anjali flew right in front of Willow’s dragon and glared at Willow with a look so intense that Willow actually shrank back.
“Listen to me, Willow. I don’t care who needs rescuing beyond that magic shield. It’s not your job to help them. Your job is to obey orders, and your orders were to head to the emergency bunker the moment you heard the emergency siren. Unless you want to be the first student I have ever expelled from the Dragon Heart Academy, I suggest you head to that bunker now.”
Willow didn’t argue further, but she didn’t move. She knew Anjali was serious, but she couldn’t believe that her professor was making her leave the battle when her father’s life was at stake. How could Willow live with herself, knowing that she’d left her father behind?
“Now, Willow,” Anjali yelled. “Don’t forget that expulsion will result in a memory wipe. You can’t help your father if you don’t even remember that he’s still alive. Remember that the world at large, including your mother, still presumes he’s dead.
That did it. With a resigned grunt, Willow turned her dragon away from Anjali. Without another word, she began flying back toward the beach where she’d been lying peacefully before this whole ordeal had started. As much as Willow hated to leave her father, she could not risk being subjected to expulsion and a memory wipe. She needed to stay in the Dragon Heart Academy so she could learn more magic and help rescue her father.
Besides, if she was honest with herself, she wasn’t doing much good here. She was barely able to hold back the Dark Sparks, and her mental magic was far less powerful than it should have been. She didn’t know what was holding back her abilities, but she was worried that if she stayed by the Dark Sparks much longer she was only going to get herself and her fellow students captured or killed.
Willow bit back tears as she flew back toward the beach. In her peripheral vision, she saw Sylvie, Locke and Cara flying alongside her, but she refused to look directly at them. She felt guilty that she’d dragged them into this, and embarrassed that she hadn’t been able to protect them properly.
As Willow continued her descent, she saw several senior Dragon Heart Agents flying toward them on their dragons. Several of the Agents continued on past them, making their way upward to help Anjali and Sam fight off the enemy. But a handful of the Agents joined Willow and the other students on the flight downward, escorting them to make sure they arrived at the bunker safely—and that they didn’t make any more attempts to disobey orders and rejoin the fight.
“Leave the dragons,” one of the senior Agents yelled as the group landed. “I’ll take care of them. All of you get to the bunker. There are clean, dry Dragon Heart uniforms there for all of you to put on.”
Willow refused to look at anyone as she slipped off Cayenne’s back and onto the wet sand of the beach.
Cold rain had started pouring down a few minutes ago, and had quickly soaked Willow’s hair and swimsuit. She was glad for the rain, though. It hid the tears that she could no longer keep from falling as she ran toward the emergency bunker.
This was not a good start to her third year of magical education.
Chapter Three
Most of the buildings on the CIA’s secret island were quite modern and luxurious, especially when compared to a typical government building. The emergency bunker, however, was neither modern nor luxurious. It amounted to a giant concrete cube buried deep in the earth beneath one of the buildings used to provide housing for visiting Agents. The place was dark, damp, and smelled like fish.
When Willow and the others arrived
at the bunker, one of the senior Agents that had been escorting them stepped inside and pulled a string to turn on a single light bulb.
“You four stay in here,” he growled. “Don’t even think about trying to leave until Anjali clears you to go. She’s instructed us to guard the door and not let anyone in or out.”
Then, without another word, he stormed out of the building and slammed the door behind him.
Willow shivered, sure she was going to catch a cold from being in this chilly, damp room while soaking wet. Wordlessly, she and the others slipped behind privacy curtains to change. Her shivering stopped once she was done changing, but her anger only grew stronger. What right did she have to complain, though? It was her own fault that she was soaking wet. If she hadn’t insisted on trying to save her father, she would have come straight here to the bunker before the storm had started.
Not that she regretted trying to save her dad. She only regretted that she’d failed. In fact, she was furious with herself that she’d failed. Unsure of how to handle the tornado of emotions swirling around inside of her, she stormed toward one corner of the room, refusing to look any of her fellow students in the eye. She crossed her arms and kept her back to them, trying desperately to get her emotions under control.
“Willow,” Sylvie said gently. “Try not to be so upset. Anjali and Sam are up there fighting along with some of the Agency’s best wizards. If there’s any possibility of getting your dad, you know they’ll fight as hard as they can to rescue him.”
Willow didn’t answer. She didn’t trust herself to speak right now, and it didn’t matter how optimistic Sylvie tried to be. The fact remained that Willow had failed. Even if Anjali and Sam rescued her father, Willow had not been strong enough to do so. The shame of that weighed heavily on her heart. Everyone always told her that she had the potential to become one of the most powerful wizards that the Agency had ever seen, but Willow was beginning to doubt the truth of those words. She was supposed to be the student captain at the Dragon Heart Academy, but some captain she was turning out to be. All she had done was lead her class into dangerous situations and botched missions.
