BooksBarbecue
Back The Last Dragon
Chapters (50)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. - ONE -
  4. - TWO -
  5. - THREE -
  6. - FOUR -
  7. - FIVE -
  8. - SIX -
  9. - SEVEN -
  10. - EIGHT -
  11. - NINE -
  12. - TEN -
  13. - ELEVEN -
  14. - TWELVE -
  15. - THIRTEEN -
  16. - FOURTEEN -
  17. - FIFTEEN -
  18. - SIXTEEN -
  19. - SEVENTEEN -
  20. - EIGHTEEN -
  21. - NINETEEN -
  22. - TWENTY -
  23. - TWENTY-ONE -
  24. - TWENTY-TWO -
  25. - TWENTY-THREE -
  26. - TWENTY-FOUR -
  27. - TWENTY-FIVE -
  28. - TWENTY-SIX -
  29. - TWENTY-SEVEN -
  30. - TWENTY-EIGHT -
  31. - TWENTY-NINE -
  32. - THIRTY -
  33. - THIRTY-ONE -
  34. - THIRTY-TWO -
  35. - THIRTY-THREE -
  36. - THIRTY-FOUR -
  37. - THIRTY-FIVE -
  38. - THIRTY-SIX -
  39. - THIRTY-SEVEN -
  40. - THIRTY-EIGHT -
  41. - THIRTY-NINE -
  42. - FORTY -
  43. - FORTY-ONE -
  44. - FORTY-TWO -
  45. - FORTY-THREE -
  46. - FORTY-FOUR -
  47. - FORTY-FIVE -
  48. - FORTY-SIX -
  49. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  50. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Fort frowned. Sierra, did you do that? We want her to think she burned them, remember? You don’t have to lay it on so thick.

But Sierra didn’t answer.

“I’m going to try it a different way,” Rachel said, the power already glowing again. Another fireball formed, but this time, instead of releasing it, she kept it floating between her palms and slowly brought it down to the Mind book until they touched. “Maybe it just needs a little more time to get started.”

You can let her think it’s burning now, Sierra, Fort thought, hoping she was listening. Sierra? Are you still here? You’ve got this, right?

“There it goes!” Rachel said, and Fort turned back to watch the cover of the telepathy book slowly light up under the force of her fireball. He breathed a sigh of relief. Sierra had come through, creating the illusion just as they had planned.

Something beeped, and Fort looked down to find a phone at Dr. Opps’s side glowing. He glanced at it and saw some kind of news alert. Curious, he picked it up, and his eyes widened.

JFK AIRPORT IN NEW YORK CITY SITE OF NEW ATTACK. GATHERING STORM MEMBERS REPORTEDLY INVOLVED. THAUMATURGIC DEFENSE AGENTS ON SITE.

“No,” he whispered, then looked up. Sierra? SIERRA? Are you okay? Did they find you? What’s going on? Talk to me!

But there was no reply as smoke began to fill the room. “Let me get the vent going,” Rachel said, moving to turn on the fan above the stove. Fort turned back to her, his eyes wide.

She’d really burned the Mind magic book! This wasn’t an illusion. Sierra was gone, and he was about to lose the Summoning book forever if he didn’t say something, if he didn’t stop Rachel right now.

Strange yellow light seeped out of the pages of the telepathy book as the pages burned, rising with the smoke into the vents above the stove. “Yikes,” Rachel said, almost emotionlessly. “I hope this stuff isn’t going to play with my mind at all.” She turned to the Summoning book and knelt down next to it. “Guess it’s time to burn the second one now?”

Fort thought about calling for Sierra again but stopped himself. She was in real danger, and he couldn’t distract her any further. Definitely not for something so pathetic as covering for his lie. “Rachel,” Fort said, “wait.”

“For what?” Rachel asked, her tone sounding far too innocent to be real. “Is there something you wanted to say to me?”

Fort opened his mouth, ready to apologize, tell her everything… but even now, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. If she finds out, you’ll be pulling her into this, her and Jia and Cyrus too. And if they come, one of them won’t be making it back.