The Last Dragon's Secret

Olivia Johnson's POV

At 1 AM, I locked up the video rental store and headed toward my apartment, feeling pretty down.

I'd only rented out three tapes today, and my boss had been in one of his moods all evening.

I pulled out the few coins left in my pocket and counted them.

Five coins. Maybe I could add an extra egg to tomorrow's breakfast?

While I was mulling this over, a strange noise came from above my head.

Creaking and squeaking, like someone bouncing on an old chair.

I looked up and actually saw a flying broom.

At first I thought I was hallucinating. After all, I'd only slept four hours last night and stood behind the counter for eight hours today. My eyes were so tired everything looked blurry.

But the shadow got closer and closer. More importantly, there was someone sitting on the broom. He wore a dark gray robe with a hood covering most of his face, but I could see the outline of his chin. Very pointed, like a plaster statue.

My stomach dropped and I froze in place.

The broom hovered about six feet above my head.

The person pulled something out from inside his robe and threw it at me.

It was a book. A letter fell out from inside the book, with a dark red wax seal on it.

After throwing it, the person turned around. Within three seconds, he became a point of light and then completely disappeared.

I looked down at the book and letter on the ground, pulse racing.

Wait, what was going on? A flying broom?

I suspected I was dreaming and pinched my arm hard.

"Ouch—"

Not a dream. This was real.

My hands shook as I picked up the items. The envelope paper felt absurdly expensive. I tore open the seal and pulled out the letter inside.

The handwriting was done by hand. When I held it up to the streetlight, the paper gave off a faint violet shimmer.

[Olivia,

You have been accepted to Dawnspire Mystic Academy.

December 21st, winter solstice night, bring this book to Eldenborough, Wyrm Gate, dark door number thirteen.

After midnight, the door will close forever.

—Dean Lydia Martin]

Dawnspire Mystic Academy? Wasn't that the most elite magic academy in the world? I'd heard stories about that place. The acceptance rate was impossibly low. Even royal children had to wait in line for spots.

But I didn't remember applying to any Dawnspire Mystic Academy.

After high school, I couldn't even get into community college because I failed math three times.

And I was just a regular human. Only magical beings qualified to enter Dawnspire Mystic Academy.

Why would this letter be sent to me?

I opened the book. It was heavy, like holding a brick in my hands.

I held the book up and shook it.

A metal object slid out from a hidden layer in the spine and dropped to the ground with a clink.

It was a dark silver key. The key handle had an eagle with spread wings carved on it.

The eagle's eyes were two tiny green gems that glowed faintly in the darkness, like cat eyes.

A brown leather cord was threaded through the key ring, already tied so it could be worn around the neck.

I held the key up to my eyes and looked at it for a long time. Only one thought in my head—I needed to find my grandmother.

My grandmother, Ava Anderson, was my only family in this world.

My mom ran off with a truck driver when I was three. I'd never met my dad.

Ava was the one who got me out of the foster home. She lived in a stone house in the countryside with a yard where she grew radishes and beans.

I'd always thought she was just a regular old lady.

A retired post office worker who liked knitting sweaters and talked too loud. But this regular old lady had repeatedly told me when I was little, "If someone delivers something to you from the sky one day, don't be afraid."

I thought it was a fairy tale, but now I wasn't sure.

Early the next morning, I went to my grandmother's house. She was pulling up carrots in the vegetable garden.

She wore a faded floral apron with mud all over her rubber boots. When she saw me walk into the yard, she smiled. But when she saw the book in my hands, her smile froze.

"Come in."

Her voice was much lower.

I followed her into the kitchen.

She put the carrots in the sink and slowly scrubbed off the mud under the faucet. She scrubbed for a long time, so long I thought she wasn't going to speak. Then she turned off the faucet.

"When did you get it?"

My chest tightened. I quickly said, "Last night. Someone riding a broom dropped it from the sky."

Ava was silent for a long time. She walked to the cupboard and pulled out a rusty tin box from a hidden compartment at the very bottom.

She opened the tin box. Inside was an identical key, except the leather cord was broken.

"Your mom got one too."

I was stunned.

"My mom?"

"Your mom's name was Isabella Moore." Ava put the tin box on the table. "She didn't run off with a truck driver. She went to Dawnspire Mystic Academy. After leaving the academy, she never came back. She was a shifter."

"Shifter?"

"Someone who can turn into an animal." Ava's tone was calm.

"What animal could my mom turn into?"

Ava was silent for a moment. "I don't know. She never shifted in front of me. The people from Dawnspire Mystic Academy wouldn't say either."

The room seemed to tilt.

"What about me? Can I turn into an animal too? What kind?"

This couldn't be happening.

Ava said, "When you were six, people from Dawnspire Mystic Academy came. They said you were an unawakened shifter. They monitored you for many years. The bloodline in your body never activated. Most people awaken during puberty. You didn't. They said you might never awaken, or you might suddenly awaken."

"How did they monitor me?" I pressed.

"When you were born, they left a mark on you." Grandma pointed at the back of my neck.

My hand touched the back of my neck.

There was a dark patch about the size of a fingernail. I'd always thought it was a birthmark.

"That's not a birthmark, it's a monitoring rune." Ava said. "When you turned seventeen, it started changing color. From gray to gold. The academy people said that was a sign of bloodline activation."

"So I have to go to that academy?"

"You don't have to go." Ava looked at me. In her cloudy eyes was a seriousness I'd never seen before. "You can throw away the key, burn the book, and go back to your job. You'll stay a regular person and nothing will happen."

I closed my eyes. A moment later, I sniffed hard.

"Grandma, are you scared?"

"Scared of what?"

"Scared that if I leave, I won't come back."

Ava reached out and touched my hair.

"I'm scared of lots of things, but I'm more scared you'll spend your whole life stuck in that crappy video store, then at forty suddenly remember you had a mom who could do magic and regret it until you die."

I knew she was teasing me. But as I laughed, my eyes got red.

I tied the leather cord around my neck. The key pressed against my collarbone, cool to the touch.

"December 21st, Eldenborough, Wyrm Gate. I'm going."

Ava nodded.

"You're not going to stop me?"

"I tried to stop your mom." Ava's gaze drifted far away. "She didn't listen. After she left, I regretted it every day. What I regretted wasn't that she left, but that the words I used to stop her made her leave with hurt in her heart."

She paused and added, "I won't make the same mistake again."

I hugged her. She was very thin, her bones pressing painfully against my chest.

"I'm leaving."

"Okay."

I walked to the door and looked back.

Ava had already squatted back down in the vegetable garden to continue pulling radishes.

I gripped the key in my hand, my knuckles turning white.

December 21st. Three more days.

I didn't know what was waiting for me at Dawnspire Mystic Academy, and I didn't know what bloodline was hidden inside me.

But what I did know was that I didn't want to be sitting behind the counter at a video rental store at forty and regretting it for the rest of my life.

December 21st.

I didn't let my grandmother see me off. I was afraid I'd cry, so I went to Eldenborough alone with my backpack.

I stood in the middle of that ancient street, counting the door numbers.

Number nine, number eleven...

Number thirteen.

A black wooden door was set between two stone buildings, so narrow only one person could pass through. I was a bit scared and carefully reached out to push it.

It didn't budge.

Wrong place?

I frowned, about to check again. Suddenly the book in my arms got hot. Startled, I quickly pulled it out. The pages flipped rapidly, then burst into golden flames.

The next second, the door suddenly rippled outward. Black smoke poured out from the door crack, carrying a wind that cut straight to the bone.

I jumped in fright, but before I could step back, the black mass wrapped around my wrist.

Then it suddenly sucked me in.