by D J DuMont
“Willow,” Sylvie tried again, crossing the room and reaching out to lightly touch Willow’s arm.
Willow pulled away, unable to control her temper anymore. “Don’t touch me!” she snapped.
“Willow!” Cara exclaimed. “I know you’re upset that we didn’t get your father, but that’s no way to treat Sylvie. That’s no way to treat any of us. We all flew into battle with you, in case you hadn’t noticed. The least you could do is treat us with some respect.”
Willow felt a twinge of guilt, but only for a moment. “You don’t understand! Everyone puts so much pressure on me to be this amazing wizard with all these special talents, but I keep screwing everything up. I couldn’t get my mental magic to work properly up there, and you’ve all seen how much I struggle with regular magic. How am I supposed to save my dad or live up to his legacy when I can’t manage to consistently use any spells?”
Willow felt hot tears burning at the back of her eyes, and she blinked several times in an attempt to blink them away. Sylvie and Cara looked at her with sympathy, but Locke let out a long, exasperated sigh.
“Oh, quit your whining!” he said, giving an angry kick to a rickety metal folding chair near where he stood.
Everyone in the room stopped and looked at him with wide eyes. He wasn’t exactly known for being Mr. Nice Guy, but yelling at Willow when she’d just lost the opportunity to save her father seemed extreme, even for him. He wasn’t about to apologize, though. Instead, he continued on with his tirade.
“You heard me,” he said, glaring at Willow. “I’m so sick of your attitude. You want everyone to treat you extra special just because your dad’s missing. I’m sorry he’s missing, but you can’t use that as an excuse to act like a whiny baby every time something doesn’t go your way.”
Willow could only stare at Locke, speechless. How could he be so insensitive? But he wasn’t done yet.
“We all followed you into battle, risking our own lives and our places at the Dragon Heart Academy. We could be expelled for what we did tonight, and we all knew it, but we followed you anyway. Did you ever stop to think about that? We risked everything for you, because you’re supposed to be our leader. But instead of thanking us and standing tall, knowing that we did the best we could, you come back here and immediately start whining. Pull yourself together.”
Willow glared at Locke, feeling angrier than she had a right to be. Part of the reason she was angry was that he was right. She was acting a bit like a whiny baby. But if there was ever a reason to have a pity party, this was it, wasn’t it? Who could blame her for feeling sorry for herself when she’d missed another chance to rescue her father?
Willow opened her mouth to make a sharp retort to Locke, but before she could say anything, the door to the emergency bunker flew open. All four students whirled around, their hands raised in the air to point their magic rings in the direction of the door. This bunker should be the most secure place on the island, but if the last hour had shown them anything, it was that Stein should not be underestimated. His ability to steal and wield magic had grown, and the fact that he’d managed to break through the magic shield around the island caused her a great deal of concern.
But thankfully, it wasn’t Stein or his Dark Sparks walking through the door—although perhaps it was someone just as frightening. Anjali had entered the room, soaking wet and looking like she was ready to rip someone’s head off. Her uniform was torn in a few places, and she had several bloody scratches on her face. Willow was relieved to see that her dear professor appeared to have made it through the battle relatively unharmed, but she was also terrified of facing Anjali’s rage.
“At ease, students,” Anjali spat out. “You don’t have to worry about being attacked, at least not at the moment. Stein and his crew have retreated for the time being.”
Willow and the others lowered their magic rings and held their breath, waiting for the angry tirade that they knew was coming. It didn’t take long.
“Dare I even ask if anyone has a legitimate explanation for why you all completely ignored the emergency sirens?” Anjali fumed. “You had direct orders to head straight to this bunker the moment those sirens go off. We’ve practiced drill after drill all summer long, and I’ve warned you that ignoring the sirens is cause for expulsion.”
Willow swallowed back the panic rising in her stomach. She needed to be the one to speak up. She was the student captain, after all, and trying to rescue her father had been her idea. She took a deep breath, and forced herself to look Anjali in the eye. “I heard my father screaming for help, and I thought if I moved quickly I might have the chance to save him. There was no time to ask for permission.”
Anjali’s eyes blazed. “Is that all you have to say for yourself? It’s not up to you to decide whether a rescue mission is warranted. Unless you can make a better case for yourself than that, I’m going to have to recommend expulsion. You’ve gone too far this time, Willow. You put not only your life and the life of your fellow students in danger, but you forced several senior Agents to fly up there to protect you. Our lives were all on the line as well.”
Anjali impatiently tapped her foot, and Willow struggled to find something else to say in her defense.
“I…I…” Willow began, not sure where she was going with her statement, but feeling like she needed to say something.
A sharp knock on the door saved her from the awkwardness of her stammering. A moment after the knock, one of the most senior Dragon Heart Agents opened the door and stepped into the bunker.
“Anjali?” he asked, looking from her to the students and then back again. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s rather important. President Newson is on the line, and he’d like a word with you immediately.”
Willow couldn’t remember ever seeing Anjali look scared, but at that moment the woman’s face turned ghostly white. Willow herself felt the blood draining from her face. She could not think of a single good reason that the President of the United States would want to speak directly to Anjali. He was probably going to chew her out for not keeping her students under control. The whole point of sending Willow and her fellow students to this top-secret, extremely secure island for the summer had been to keep them safe from Stein. Now, not only had Stein found them, but the students had failed to follow emergency protocol and head to safety.
Anjali would surely be blamed for that, and Willow felt a sharp pang of guilt. She had caused a lot of trouble for everyone, not just herself. Her fellow students were on the verge of being expelled, and Anjali was perhaps on the verge of being fired.
And Willow? She was also on the verge of expulsion, she still couldn’t properly handle magic, and, worst of all, she had failed to actually rescue her father. She wasn’t sure she’d ever had a day this bad.
Anjali somehow managed to quickly regain her composure, and nodded at the senior Agent. “Tell the President I’ll be right there.” Then she turned to Willow and the other students. “If any of you dares to set so much as a foot outside this room while I’m gone, I will not only recommend expulsion, I will also happily perform a memory wipe on you myself. Do I make myself clear?”
Willow and the others nodded, and Anjali left the bunker, slamming its heavy steel door behind her. As soon as she was gone, Willow retreated back into the corner to nurse her wounded pride.
This time, no one tried to stop her.
Chapter Four
Willow had expected to wait a long time for Anjali to return, but only fifteen minutes later the door to the bunker opened and Anjali reappeared. Willow scrambled to her feet and stood respectfully at attention, not sure whether to be relieved or worried that Anjali’s call with the President had wrapped up so quickly.
“All of you, follow me,” Anjali barked. “The President wants to speak with you.”
Willow’s eyes widened. This was the last thing she’d expected, and now she was definitely leaning toward feeling worried rather than relieved. Why would the President want to speak with a handf
ul of Dragon Heart students, other than to completely berate them for a massive breach of protocol?
Willow gulped back the tears that once again tried to fill her eyes. She knew with almost one hundred percent certainty in that moment that she was headed straight toward expulsion. Anjali was right. This time, Willow really had gone too far.
She didn’t dare look at Sylvie, Locke, or Cara as they exited the bunker and began walking down the long, damp tunnel that led back to the main building. No one said a word, and Willow stared straight ahead at Anjali’s stiff back.
But when they reached the main building once again, Anjali spun around to speak with them before they entered the conference room where the President had been videoconferenced in.
“Listen to me,” Anjali said, her voice practically dripping with venom. It was so odd to see her this angry that Willow felt herself physically shrinking back. “You four are incredibly lucky. First of all, you’re lucky to be alive. You have no idea what kind of a hornet’s nest you were flying into when you took your dragons up to face down Stein. Second of all, you’re lucky I haven’t ripped your heads off myself, because I don’t think I’ve ever been this angry in my entire life. But third of all, and perhaps most importantly, you’re lucky because the President is actually happy about the fact that you flew off to fight instead of obeying orders to head to the bunker.”
There were a few moments of stunned silence as the students all stared at Anjali, their jaws hanging open.
“The President is…happy with us?” Sylvie finally managed to ask.
Anjali nodded, and even though she still looked and sounded furious, Willow detected the tiniest hint of pride in the professor’s eyes. “He’s calling you the ‘Fearless Four.’ He’s saying you showed initiative or some crap like that. I don’t care about his reasons as much as I care about the fact that by some miracle, I’m not going to lose my job over this fiasco. But if any of you says a single word that embarrasses me when you’re speaking with him, I promise you that I’ll make your classes this year so hard that you’ll wish you’d never heard of the Dragon Heart Academy of Magic. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes ma’am,” the four students murmured in unison.
Willow fingered her magic ring with her thumb as she entered the conference room, just for the reassurance that it was still there. A strange mixture of disbelief, nervousness, and relief filled her. She knew that Anjali wasn’t going to let the students off the hook for their behavior just because the President was happy with them, but she also knew that she wasn’t going to be expelled. She wasn’t going to lose her magic ring, or her opportunity to work with Cayenne. For the moment, that was the most she could have hoped for.
“Ah, it’s the Fearless Four!” The President’s voice rang jollily over the speakers in the room. Willow looked up at the video screen to see President Newson, wearing his signature dark black suit and American flag tie. If he was at all disturbed by the massive attack that Stein Viker had just made on the CIA’s top-secret private island, he didn’t show that worry in his face.
“Mr. President,” the students all said, standing respectfully at attention. Locke actually saluted, but Willow kept her hands by her side. She wasn’t sure that saluting was the proper protocol when one wasn’t actually in the military.
In fact, she had no idea what the proper protocol in this situation might be. Standing here in front of the President himself—albeit a live streaming version of the President—felt quite surreal.
“Please, relax, all of you,” President Newson said. “Sit down for a moment and let me speak to you.”
Willow sat in one of the giant leather chairs that surrounded the conference room’s large oak table, but she did not relax. She was still waiting for the President to change his mind and yell at them for their indiscretions.
But he didn’t yell. Instead, he leaned forward with a grin on his face that seemed entirely inappropriate for an evening like tonight. A serious attack had occurred that could have claimed many lives, and an opportunity to rescue Willow’s father had been missed. Where was the jolliness in all of that?
But Willow wasn’t surprised. President Newson had earned a reputation for never taking anything seriously enough. He had never aspired to be more than just the Vice President, but the former President’s untimely assassination had thrust President Newson into the hot seat. He had proven to be a wildly unpredictable leader, and had even threatened at one point to shut down the Dragon Heart program completely. Luckily, he’d decided to let the Dragon Heart program continue, and, at least for the moment, the program seemed to be his favorite pet project.
Also lucky was the fact that Willow and her Dragon Heart classmates seemed to be his favorite Dragon Heart Agents at the moment, even though they weren’t full-fledged Agents yet. They barely had a chance to sit down before he began singing their praises.
“I’ve heard all about your bravery tonight,” he said, tapping his pen loudly on his desk as he spoke. The tapping noise sounded incredibly distracting coming through the conference room’s large speakers, and Willow fantasized for a moment about performing a magic spell to destroy the speakers. Of course, she would never actually do that, but it did strike her as funny that she could essentially silence the President’s tirade with a flick of her wrist.
She pushed back her disrespectful thoughts, forcing herself to sit up straight and listen to what the President was saying. He was her boss, after all. And right now, he was the reason that she was getting away with her extreme breach of protocol. She should be a little more grateful.
“You all showed great initiative tonight,” President Newson was saying. “Unlike many of our Dragon Heart Agents, who sit around and do nothing all the time, you four flew directly into battle without a moment’s hesitation.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Willow saw Anjali visibly stiffen. The President had it all wrong if he thought any of the Dragon Heart Agents sat around and did nothing. They all worked extremely hard, protecting their country and major government officials, including the President himself. But President Newson didn’t seem to think anyone was doing anything unless they were part of an explosive battle like the one Willow had been part of roughly an hour ago.
“I want you all to continue to show initiative,” the President said, then paused and chuckled. “Of course, don’t go too crazy. You don’t want to give Anjali over there any gray hairs.”
Anjali stiffened further, but still said nothing.
“My point is, we’ve got quite an enemy in this Stein character. We need to take him out, and I’m betting that if anyone can do it, it’s you Fearless Four. So thank you for your service to your country tonight. Keep fighting, and don’t be afraid to buck the system if the system isn’t working properly.”
The President laughed, then gave an over-exaggerated salute before bidding them goodnight and ending the video conference.
Silence fell over the room as Willow and the others stared at the now-blank video screen. Irritation emanated from Anjali’s direction in waves, and everyone was afraid to move or say anything, lest they make that irritation worse. The President’s whims might have saved them from expulsion, but they still had to study under Anjali’s tutelage for the next two years. It was in their best interests not to make her any angrier than she already was.
The silence didn’t last long, though, because after less than a minute of stewing, Anjali spun on her heel and headed toward the conference room’s door.
“Come on, all of you,” she ordered. “Time to move.”
Willow scrambled to her feet and followed Anjali, who moved at a brisk pace straight to the building’s nearest exit. That exit led straight out to the beach, where a fierce storm still raged. The palm trees swayed in the wind, and rain whipped in every direction. Every few seconds, bright flashes of lightning illuminated towering dark clouds.
Willow wasn’t sure why Anjali was leading them outside in the middle of this mess, but she wasn’t about to as
k questions. She kept her head low against the wind, and followed Anjali, who was moving so quickly now that Willow and the others had to practically run to keep up with her.
They followed the exterior wall of the main building until they came around the corner to the wide stretch of beach where Willow and Sylvie had been enjoying their Snapdragon Sap earlier that evening. That peaceful moment felt like a dream now.
But it hadn’t been a dream, and neither was the sight in front of Willow: ten magnificent dragons lay patiently on the sand, seemingly unbothered by the wind and rain that beat against their sturdy forms. The students’ dragons—Cayenne, Saffron, Nutmeg and Yarrow—were in the group, as were Anjali’s and Sam’s dragons—Sage and Pepper. Sam himself was sitting on top of his dragon, and four other senior Dragon Heart Agents were out there sitting on top of their dragons as well.
Willow glanced over at Sylvie and saw her own confusion mirrored in her friend’s eyes. If the dragons were out here in the storm instead of safely in the dragon stables, that could only mean one thing.
“We’re flying out of here immediately,” Anjali said in a loud voice, answering the question before any of them could actually ask it.
“But what about all our things?” Cara asked, her eyes widening. Willow almost laughed at the consternation in Cara’s expression. Cara was no doubt thinking about the fact that the clothes, makeup, and hair products she was addicted to were still back in her room inside the main building.
“Your things will be packed for you and delivered to the Dragon Heart Academy as soon as possible,” Anjali said, her tone firm. “I’m also not pleased about having to make a quick departure in this sort of weather, but the top Agents at Dragon Heart Headquarters have decided that it’s not safe to remain here any longer. We don’t know how Stein managed to find this place, or how he managed to break through the magic shield around the island, but one thing is clear: the security of this island has been compromised. We don’t think it’s safe for you students to remain here. Now, let’s ride.”
