THE DRAGON TAMER'S SECRET

Maya's POV

I'm going to throw up.

My hands won't stop shaking as I stand in line with the other eighteen-year-olds, waiting for the moment that will decide my entire future. The Awakening Ceremony. The day we discover what kind of Tamer we'll become.

Around me, kids are buzzing with excitement. My best friend Evan nudges my shoulder, flashing that easy smile of his. "Relax, Maya. Whatever ability you get, it'll be perfect."

Easy for him to say. Evan's already six feet tall with muscles from helping his dad at the construction site. Meanwhile, I look like a strong wind could knock me over. I need a good ability. Something—anything—that will help me pay for college and take care of Mom and Jade after Dad left.

"Maya Cross!" the instructor calls.

My stomach drops to my feet.

I force myself forward on wobbly legs. The crystal ball sits on a pedestal at the front of the auditorium, glowing softly. It's supposed to read your soul and reveal what creatures you can bond with. Around me, two hundred students and their families watch. Waiting. Judging.

I place my trembling hand on the crystal's cool surface.

Nothing happens.

Someone giggles behind me. Heat crawls up my neck. Did I break it? Is my ability so weak that—

The crystal explodes with golden light.

I scream and jerk backward, but the light follows me, wrapping around my body like living chains. The entire auditorium gasps. Golden symbols I don't recognize swirl in the air above my head, burning so bright I have to squint.

"Impossible," the instructor whispers, her face going pale. She checks the crystal three times, her hands shaking worse than mine. "This... this can't be right."

"What is it?" My voice comes out tiny. Scared.

She looks at me like I'm a ghost. "Dragon Tamer. SSS-rank."

The auditorium goes dead silent.

Then someone starts laughing.

"Dragons?" A boy I recognize from my history class—Jason Park, who just bonded with a C-rank fire wolf—doubles over. "Dragons have been extinct for three hundred years!"

The laughter spreads like wildfire. Students nudge each other, pointing at me. Parents whisper behind their hands. Even the instructor looks at me with pity now, not awe.

"The rarest ability in the world," someone shouts, "and it's completely useless!"

"Maya won the lottery for nothing!"

"At least my F-rank rat bond can actually catch something!"

My face burns so hot I think my skin might melt off. The golden light is still swirling around me, beautiful and meaningless. SSS-rank. The highest possible grade. For creatures that don't exist anymore.

I catch Evan's eye in the crowd. He's not laughing. His amber eyes are wide, his jaw tight, like he's barely holding something back. For a second, he looks almost... scared?

But that doesn't make sense.

I run.

The auditorium doors slam behind me as I sprint down the hallway, tears blurring my vision. Behind me, I hear the ceremony continuing. "Evan Stone!" the instructor calls, her voice muffled by distance.

I don't stop running until I reach the old equipment shed behind the school. It's my hiding spot—the place I come when things get bad at home, when I need to think. I collapse against the wall, sliding down until I'm sitting on the dusty floor.

Dragon Tamer.

I sob into my hands. Three years of studying. Three years of dreaming about my awakening, imagining what kind of creature I'd bond with. I'd hoped for something simple—maybe a C-rank cat for speed, or a D-rank owl for scouting. Something I could use to get a Guild license and earn money.

Instead, I got the universe's cruelest joke.

The shed door creaks open. "Maya?"

It's Evan. Of course it is. He always finds me.

"Go away," I choke out. "Don't you have your own ceremony to celebrate?"

He sits down next to me anyway, his shoulder warm against mine. "Already done. Got A-rank, bonded with a shadow panther."

A-rank. A shadow panther. Perfect for the Guild's hunting division. He'll make a fortune.

"See?" I laugh bitterly. "You got something amazing. I got a bad joke."

"Your ability isn't useless." His voice is strange. Tight. Almost angry, but not at me. "Maya, listen—"

"It's literally for creatures that don't exist!" I turn to face him, tears streaming down my cheeks. "How is that not useless? I can't even bond with a stupid goldfish! My ability is so specific that it only works on dragons, and dragons are dead, Evan. They're all dead!"

He flinches like I slapped him. "You don't understand—"

"I understand that I'm going to spend the rest of my life as the girl with the worthless SSS-rank!" I'm shouting now, months of stress pouring out. "I can't afford the Academy without a bond partner to earn commissions. Mom's medical bills keep piling up. Jade needs braces. And I just wasted three years of my life studying for NOTHING!"

Evan grabs my shoulders, his grip almost desperate. "Maya, stop. Please. Your ability isn't—"

A massive explosion rocks the building.

We both freeze. Through the shed's grimy window, I see smoke rising from downtown. Then I hear it—a screech that makes my bones vibrate. Not human. Not any creature I've studied.

"What is that?" I whisper.

Evan's face has gone completely white. When he speaks, his voice is barely audible. "That's impossible."

The screech comes again, closer now. Through the window, I see something massive circle overhead. Wings that span wider than a bus. A serpentine body covered in brown feathers and golden fur.

"A griffin," I breathe. "That's an A-rank griffin. What's it doing in the city?"

But Evan isn't looking at the griffin. He's staring at me with an expression I've never seen before—fear, resignation, and something that almost looks like... relief?

"Maya, I need to tell you something." His hands are still on my shoulders, gripping tight enough to hurt. "Something I should have told you a long time ago. But after today, after your awakening, you need to know before—"

My phone explodes with notifications. Text after text from Jade.

The griffin is attacking Main Street!

Mom's stuck at the hospital!

Maya please help!

I'm on my feet instantly, running toward the door. Evan catches my arm. "Don't! You can't fight that thing!"

"My sister is in danger!" I rip free from his grasp. "I don't care if my ability is useless. I have to try!"

I burst out of the shed and sprint toward downtown, toward the smoke and screams and that terrible screeching. Behind me, I hear Evan curse and follow. His shadow panther materializes beside him, all sleek black fur and glowing eyes.

But something's wrong.

As we run, I feel a strange pulling sensation in my chest. Like invisible threads tugging at my soul. The golden light from the crystal—it's back, swirling around my hands. Responding to something.

The griffin spots us and dives. I throw my hands up instinctively, and the golden light explodes outward—

Not at the griffin.

At Evan.

Golden chains erupt from my soul, wrapping around him like living rope. He screams, a sound of pure agony that doesn't sound human at all. The chains tighten, and through them I feel—

Everything.

His thoughts. His emotions. His terror and rage and something ancient and powerful that makes my knees buckle.

And then I see it.

In my mind, like a vision burned directly into my brain: Evan's true form. Not the boy I've known since childhood. Not the shadow panther he supposedly bonded with.

Obsidian scales. Wings that could eclipse the sun. Eyes like molten gold. Massive and deadly and impossibly, horrifyingly beautiful.

Evan Stone isn't human.

He's a dragon.

And I just accidentally bonded him.

The last thing I see before the world goes dark is Evan's face, twisted in anguish, as the golden chains drag him to his knees before me.

My best friend.

My dragon.

My slave.