by D J DuMont
Anjali pointed a finger in the direction of the dragons, indicating that the students should get on their dragons. Willow felt a pang of sadness when she realized that she wouldn’t have one more morning on the island. She had come to love this place over the last few months, and she would have appreciated a chance to properly say goodbye to the water and sandy beaches. But arguing with Anjali right now would be pointless. The professor certainly wasn’t in the mood to do Willow any favors. Besides, this hadn’t even been Anjali’s decision. It had come directly from Dragon Heart Headquarters, and Willow had no doubts that Dragon Heart leadership had zero interest in her opinion on any of this.
And so, Willow ran through the wind and rain and climbed onto Cayenne’s back. Cayenne whined softly as Willow grabbed onto her thick scales, and Willow smiled and patted her dragon’s back. Although this night wasn’t ending the way she’d hoped, there were definitely worse ways it could have ended than with a flight back to Dragon Heart Academy on her loyal dragon’s back.
Willow felt strangely at peace as Cayenne flapped her giant wings and rose into the stormy sky alongside the other nine dragons. Being with her dragon always made her feel better, and tonight, even though she hadn’t rescued her father, at least Willow had managed to avoid being kicked out of the Dragon Heart program altogether.
But as the dragons rose higher, and they passed the magic shield, which was full of cracks and holes, the brief sensation of peace that Willow had felt disappeared.
How had Stein managed to get through such a strong magical shield? And would the students really be any safer back at the Dragon Heart Academy?
Willow knew it didn’t matter what the answers to those questions were. She had no choice but to follow orders and go back to the Academy, and so she gritted her teeth against the cold, rainy wind, and urged Cayenne onward, higher and higher into the darkness.
Tonight’s ride would be long and hard, but Willow had an ominous feeling that it was nothing compared to the other hardships that lay ahead.
Something was brewing in the world of dragons and magic, and it wasn’t something good.
Chapter Five
The bad weather followed the dragons and their riders for nearly the whole journey from the Caribbean back to Birch Point, Maine. It wasn’t until the group had been in Maine’s airspace for a full hour that the storm finally calmed. By the time they landed in the large meadow by the dragon stables at the Dragon Heart Academy of Magic, the sky was clear and glittering brilliantly with stars.
But Willow had a hard time appreciating the beauty. It had been a full twenty-four hours of hard, cold riding, and she felt the exhaustion in her bones. Not to mention, her mind felt as weary as her body. She’d had plenty of time to think, and most of that thinking had been beating herself up for how badly she’d botched her attempt to rescue her father. She couldn’t understand why she still had such a hard time performing magic spells. Despite the fact that she had been considered the most promising student when she first arrived at the Academy two years ago, she still struggled to keep up with the other students’ magical abilities. She worried every day that her position as student captain was going to be taken away from her. Some days, Willow actually almost wished Anjali actually would strip her of the captain position, just so she could stop worrying about losing it.
At the moment, Anjali was consulting in hushed tones with Sam and the other senior Agents. Willow knew better than to try to leave before Anjali dismissed them. She was sure there would be instructions forbidding them from leaving campus, and possibly other restrictions on their activity. So as much as Willow would have liked to get away from everyone as quickly as possible, she waited.
She looked around at the large, familiar meadow, marveling at how much it felt more like home to her than her real home back in Washington D.C. Her mother, who had no idea that dragons or magic existed, lived and worked in D.C., and rarely bothered to contact Willow. After Willow’s father had gone missing, her mother couldn’t stand to look at Willow, saying she reminded her too much of Willow’s father. Willow hadn’t been back to D.C. in a year now, so it made sense that the Dragon Heart Academy felt more like home.
The Academy was connected to a regular boarding school called Birch Point Academy. The “normal” Birch Point students had no idea that a magical Academy with dragons and wizards stood just beyond their campus. The Dragon Heart Agency had hidden the magical Academy deep in the woods, and it was only accessible by tunnels that required a magical password to open. The Dragon Heart students were strictly prohibited from performing magic on the Birch Point campus unless there was a life or death emergency, and for decades the two schools had coexisted without any issues.
Right now, Willow desperately wanted to get over to the Birch Point side, where her dorm room for the year was located. She didn’t want to be near Anjali or the senior Agents or even the dragons right now. She didn’t even want to be near her fellow Dragon Heart students. She just wanted to feel like a normal teenager who was living a normal life that didn’t involve working for the CIA and searching for a father who had gone missing because an evil villain was trying to steal his magical abilities.
“Students! Come over here!” Anjali’s voice cut sharply into Willow’s thoughts.
After giving Cayenne one last pat on the nose, Willow dutifully went over to where Anjali stood. Anjali looked tired, and Willow could only imagine the stress that this whole situation was causing their professor. A pang of guilt hit Willow hard when she realized that her defiance of direct orders to go to the bunker had probably caused a great deal of that stress. But Willow pushed the guilt away. She’d done what she did for her father. He mattered more than anything to her, and if trying to rescue him caused Anjali stress, then so be it.
Anjali was standing with a senior Dragon Heart Agent, and when the students approached, he started handing them tablets.
“What’s this?” Cara asked as she eagerly reached for the tablet the Agent was handing to her. Cara loved anything expensive or state-of-the-art, and these sleek tablets looked like they had been quite pricey. Willow was no expert on these sorts of things, but the tablets looked like a souped-up version of the latest model from a top-tier brand.
“The Dragon Heart Agency has decided that all of your textbooks, homework, and other related work will be loaded on tablets this year,” Anjali explained. “They’ve been resistant to taking magical education fully digital for quite some time, worrying that students would not take enough care of their tablets and that the digital files would be too-easily hacked by outsiders. But the Agency feels it has perfected its security safeguards enough that even if a student were to lose the tablet, it could be remotely locked down and wiped with no worries of any outsiders recovering the information.”
Despite her exhaustion, and the fact that she was in a rather sour mood, Willow could barely keep herself from letting out a whoop of excitement. She had hated carrying around heavy magical textbooks, and one of the first spells she had perfected had been the Levis spell, which was used to make any object as light as a feather. Now, she wouldn’t have to worry about lightening her backpack, or about remembering to bring the correct books to class every day. Everything would be there for her on one convenient little tablet.
Locke didn’t bother trying to hold back his excitement. He fist-pumped the air as he reached for his tablet. “It’s about time the Agency joined the twenty-first century. Piles of textbooks are much easier to steal than tablets, anyway.”
Anjali said nothing, but did give him a look that said he should mind his manners a bit more. Ordinarily, Locke ignored most of Anjali’s warnings, but he quieted down quickly tonight. He understood that he and the other students were already in enough trouble. Poking fun at the Dragon Heart Agency’s leadership probably wasn’t the smartest choice at the moment. As for Anjali, Willow knew the professor agreed that the Dragon Heart Agency could be too slow to adopt modern technologies, especially for the students. But Anjali wasn
’t the type to blast off criticisms of the Agency the way Locke always did. And Anjali definitely wasn’t the type to criticize the Agency with several senior Agents listening in. Unsurprisingly, Anjali didn’t elaborate on whether she had an opinion about the usefulness of the tablets. Instead, she started giving her first instructions of the new school year.
“I expect you all to review your class schedules within the next day,” Anjali said. “Your first homework assignments have been loaded into the calendar section as well. You have quite a bit of reading to do before the first day of class, so I highly suggest that you don’t leave it for the last minute.”
Anjali paused and looked them all in the eye one by one, to make sure that they had heard her and were taking her seriously. Willow did her best to look agreeable. She didn’t want to anger Anjali any more than she already had.
“School starts on Monday, as you know,” Anjali continued. “You’re free to do what you want between now and then, with a few caveats: first you must make sure you finish your reading. Second, you must not go into the dragon stables or fly on your dragons unless Sam is present.”
The students, despite their attempts to be on their best behavior, all groaned at this rule. Willow felt a sharp twinge of annoyance. They were third year students now, and had already spent two whole academic years learning about magic and dragons. What could possibly go wrong if they spent a little time with their dragons? Wasn’t it a good thing for them to spend time outside of class bonding with their dragons? After all, building a good relationship with one’s dragons was one of the most important tasks for a Dragon Heart Agent. How were any of the students supposed to build that relationship if they were limited to only seeing the dragons when Sam was around?
But Anjali stood firm. She glared sharply at the students. “I don’t want to hear any complaints. I know Sam is busy and that he won’t be able to find much time to supervise you with the dragons. But your decision to fly off on your dragons in direct defiance of orders has earned you this rule.”
The students remained silent. Willow didn’t dare look at anyone else. Would everyone be blaming her for the rule, since it had been her idea to fly off at the island? She deserved to be blamed, but she wasn’t in the mood to make apologies. Besides, Anjali was speaking again.
“The last rule I have, and the most important one, is that none of you are to leave campus grounds.”
The students groaned again. They had all expected this, but it was a disappointment nonetheless.
“No complaining,” Anjali said. “This isn’t meant as a punishment, although goodness knows you all deserve to be punished. This rule is meant to keep you safe. We don’t know what Stein is up to, but we do know that he knows where this Academy is located. There’s a good possibility that if you venture beyond the magic shields we have over campus, he’ll be waiting to pounce on you.”
“Assuming the magic shields actually keep him out, anyway,” Sylvie grumbled. “They didn’t seem to do much back at the island.”
Willow looked over at Sylvie in surprise. It wasn’t like Sylvie to grumble. Usually, Sylvie acted with more optimism and positivity than the rest of the students combined. But the events of the last twenty-four hours had affected even her, and she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.
Optimistic or not, she did have a good point. If the magic shields at a top secret island hadn’t been strong enough to stop Stein, what was to stop him from coming through the magic shields at the Academy?
Anjali remained unruffled. “The shields here have been reinforced by the best wizards we have. The island’s shields were strong, but we didn’t have top wizards around to maintain them constantly because we didn’t think that was necessary. We didn’t realize that Stein knew the location of the island, or that he was planning to attack.”
“Well you should have realized it,” Locke spat out, crossing his arms over his chest.
Willow winced, waiting for Anjali’s anger to flare over this comment. But instead of being angry, she looked resigned. “You’re right. We should have realized it. We knew we were dealing with a serious enemy, but we underestimated how determined he was to find you students. That was our mistake, and it was a mistake we won’t make again. For some reason, out of all the Dragon Heart Agents, Stein has focused in on you four.”
“Probably because of Willow,” Cara suggested.
Willow stiffened. She didn’t want to be blamed for the fact that Stein was trying to kill them all. “Why would he care about me?”
Cara shrugged. “He must know that it’s your dad he’s captured. He probably figures that if he captures you, he can force your dad into talking. Nothing is more motivating to someone than seeing their own child tortured.”
Sylvie gasped. “Cara!”
Cara shrugged again. “What? I’m just telling it like it is.”
Willow felt her blood turning to ice in her veins. She had never allowed herself to think about the situation in terms quite as clear as what Cara had just said, but Cara was right. Stein must be after her because he’d captured her father.
All of this trouble is my fault. If I wasn’t here, the other students wouldn’t be dealing with attacks and rules about staying on campus and staying away from the dragons.
But Willow didn’t have more than a few seconds to feel guilty before Anjali was speaking again.
“The reason isn’t important, at least not for you students. What’s important for you four is to focus on your studies and on learning everything you possibly can. A solid magical education is going to be more important than ever in the coming years, and I intend to make sure every single one of you leaves this Academy well-equipped to deal with whatever new challenges lie ahead.”
“How are we going to be equipped to face the real world when we’re kept here in a bubble?” Locke complained. “We already spent all of last year confined to campus. You can’t expect us to spend another whole year on lockdown!”
“I can, and I do,” Anjali said in a firm voice, her eyes flashing. “And there will be no warnings or grace periods if you disobey this order. Any of you who sets foot outside of campus will be immediately expelled. Agency Headquarters is not taking this threat lightly, and neither should you.”
The students nodded quietly, although Willow was sure all of them were screaming on the inside. Last year, when they had also been on lockdown, being confined to campus had felt like torture. Yes, the Dragon Heart campus and Birch Point campuses were both quite large, so being able to go anywhere on either campus meant they’d still had plenty of room to roam. But after a while, seeing the same trails, trees, and buildings over and over felt suffocating. Not to mention the fact that it had been quite awkward trying to explain to the non-magical Birch Point students why they weren’t allowed to leave campus. Since they couldn’t discuss magic or dragons with non-wizards, they couldn’t explain that it was because of an enemy who wanted to kill or kidnap them for their magical abilities.
Willow sighed. There would be many more awkward conversations this school year, it seemed. Her roommate on the Birch Point Campus, Alexis, had become one of her best friends and was pretty laidback about the fact that Willow had so many strange secrets. But Willow could still feel the tension when she had to keep things from Alexis. It wasn’t a fun situation to be in, but she had no choice.
Thankfully, that seemed to be the end of the list of rules, at least for the moment.
“I’m going to get some rest,” Anjali said. “I suggest you all do the same. Your classes this year are going to be quite a bit harder than they were the first two years. This is where the real fun starts, and the Agency is going to expect you to be on the top of your game. We can’t afford to slack off when there are such strong enemies out there trying to destroy us and our dragons.”
Anjali gave them a pointed look, then turned on her heel and marched off in the direction of the main Dragon Heart Academy building. Sam, the master dragon trainer, was several dozen yards away, tending to the dr
agons. When Willow glanced over at him, he gave her a look that said she better not even think about asking to see the dragons right now. Willow would have loved to spend a few minutes with Cayenne, but she decided that she’d have to wait. She didn’t want to have to deal with Sam. He tended to have a worse temper than Anjali, and Willow knew it would be a long time before he forgave the students for their defiance on the island.
The senior Agents who had been hanging around started scattering. None of them seemed interested in speaking with the students, and that was fine with Willow. It felt strange to have them here, when ordinarily the only Dragon Heart Agents on campus had been Anjali and Sam. But Willow was going to have to get used to having extra Agents hanging around. It sounded like these Agents were here to stay, and even more were coming from Dragon Heart Headquarters. It was going to be quite crowded around campus.
Willow looked down at the tablet she held in her hand and sighed. She hadn’t bothered to ask yet what subjects they would be studying this year. She knew already that she’d be taking Intermediate Earth Magic, which would continue teaching her how to cast spells to cause or control natural phenomena like earthquakes, volcanoes, and thunderstorms. Of course, there would also be advanced classes in alchemy, divination, and medical magic. But what new classes would she have?
She chanced a glance over at Locke, who was scrolling through the screen on his tablet. Knowing him, he’d probably been studying ahead on their classes all summer long. He was determined to be the star Agent of the Dragon Heart Academy, which meant he frequently worked ahead. Willow didn’t know how he managed it. She struggled just to keep up with the work they did have.
Locke looked up at that moment and caught Willow staring at him. He smirked, almost as if he knew what she was thinking.
