Thicker Than Blood (18 page)

“Then I had better start training you,” Ash said. “I will show you how to unlock your dragon side. When you do that, your magic should return stronger than it has ever been.”

“How long will that take?” I looked up at the sky, wondering how long I’d been away from my friends already.

“If you are a quick study, maybe two months? Just unlocking your power won’t be enough if you can’t control it properly. It would be far too dangerous to unleash an immature dragon on the world.”

“Two months?” I jumped to my feet. “Fuck no. I can’t take two months. I don’t have that kind of time. Two days might make the difference between my friends living and dying. It could already be too damn late.”

“Where do you think you are?” Ash rose gracefully to his feet.

“Not in Kansas anymore?” I said, still upset. I looked around, suspecting a trick question. “Or Oregon? It doesn’t feel like winter here.”

“You aren’t anywhere, not really. We’re in a pocket of the Veil. This isn’t Earth, kiddo. Time won’t pass outside at the same pace as in here. Minutes out there will feel like hours or even days here.”

I looked around again. Golden grass stretching toward a deep blue horizon, the breeze sending a shivering and unending wave through it.

“Seriously? What you are saying is that I’m in Narnia, basically,” I said. My heart stopped trying to punch its way through my chest and I unclenched my fists.

Ash threw back his head and laughed.

“More like the magical equivalent of
The Matrix
,” he said, his face split by a huge grin.

“You’re going to teach me to dodge bullets?” I said.

“When I’m done, you won’t have to,” he answered, not quite nailing the quote.

I let it pass, figuring he’d seen it a while ago and probably while half asleep. I’d been shot enough to realize never getting shot again was a pretty sweet plan.

“All right,” I said. I spun in a slow circle, taking in this place. Grass, sun, sky, cabin. Dragon.

I turned back to Ash and nodded. “I’m your grasshopper. Show me your dragony ways.”

Samir
,
you have no idea the pain and destruction coming your way,
I promised silently.
I will crush your face with my scaly might. Just wait, you bastard. Just you fucking wait
.

But my final, much happier thought as I followed my father through the door and into his cabin was that my friends were never going to believe this. I smiled.

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Annie Bellet lives and writes in the Pacific NW. She is the
USA Today
bestselling author of the
Gryphonpike Chronicles
and the
Twenty-Sided Sorceress
series. Follow her at her website at
www.anniebellet.com