The Dragonstones Trilogy

James looked around his hotel room hopelessly. He had told Sara he would take care of the enchantments, but had no idea how he was going to do it. His magic was still not back. James wasn’t fully sure why he had decided to tell her what he did in the first place. He had felt nervous for some reason, and guessed the feeling had come from Sara, through their connection. He was proved right when he told her he would use magic. The tension he felt had evaporated.

He started pacing, not even aware of what he was doing.

“I told you that your magic would come when you needed it. Try using it now.”

James jumped and sang a protection song before he knew what he was doing. The orange light around him glowed, but only barely. Nothing happened. James turned to see Mr. Day standing there, watching him with an amused expression.

James took a moment to recover, then said, “I’ve tried using magic already today. It barely worked at all.”

“But it did work.”

“Yeah, after tons of pain.” James winced at the memory from earlier, when he had had the idea to create a magical credit card. That way, when their money ran out, they would have some still to use. James had underestimated how much using magic would hurt, though. It was all he had been able to do to keep from screaming.

“My magic is getting harder to use,” James said. “Even trying to use it is a pain.”

“Just try it,” Mr. Day said.

James looked at the ghost doubtfully, but decided it was worth a shot. “Why is my magic doing this?” he asked Mr. Day as he searched through his head for an appropriate song.

Mr. Day shrugged. “I’m not certain. What I do know is that magic itself is changing. After centuries of it staying the same, I do not know what has caused it to change so suddenly. It’s not only affecting you. It’s affecting many others, including me.” James looked closer at the ghost. The white glow that always surrounded him looked dimmer than normal, just as James’s aura had.

“Do you think it’ll affect Sara?” he asked.

“No. She has the Dragon Stones, which is more than enough protection from whatever is out there.”

James had some doubts at what the ghost said, but didn’t say them out loud. Knowing that Mr. Day could read minds, he guessed that the ghost already knew what James was thinking.

James found the song he was looking for, and stopped his mental search. He looked at the ghost. “How is magic changing?” James asked.

Mr. Day looked at him. “From what I’ve heard, magic is turning darker, polluted. I suspect Aevill has something to do with it.”

“So, how am I supposed to keep using magic? I have light magic, not dark,” James said.

“Your magic will still come through, you just have to truly need it,” Mr. Day said.

“You've already said something like that,” James asked, trying to wrap his brain around what the ghost was saying. It seemed like it should be simple, but it wasn’t.

“Think of how much you need to use magic right now.”

James did as he was told. He closed his eyes and thought of why he needed his magic. He and Sara needed to stay safe. They needed to live long enough to find the magic Stone and use it do defeat Aevill. But that wasn’t why he needed it.

James thought of the dream he had every night, the one where Sara always died. He couldn’t let that happen. He needed to keep her safe.

James thought of Sara. She was different tonight than she had when they had first left Mageton to find the Stone. She had seemed happy, as if Aevill had never existed. She had looked so beautiful. . .James shook himself. A ghost could be hearing all of his thoughts right now, for all he knew.

James focused on Sara. He didn’t think about keeping her safe, or stopping her from dying, just her. Her laugh, her eyes, which James was quickly beginning to think of as beautiful, just because they were hers.

James kept thinking of Sara, and almost didn’t realize when he started singing the protection song.

Something felt different. James stopped thinking of Sara and opened his eyes. The room was glowing orange, just like the aura around James. James felt energy leaving him, but it didn’t hurt. Using magic felt like it had always felt for James until recently. A warm sensation enveloped him, encouraging him to use more magic, but James didn’t know how long this would last. He stopped singing.

The orange light disappeared almost immediately, but James knew the magic had worked. He felt different, somehow, safer. Mr. Day watched James collapse onto the bed as all the energy he had used for the spell left him.

“Interesting. So Sara is what makes you need magic,” the ghost said.

His exhaustion forgotten, James sat straight up. He felt his face turn red. “Uh, you were reading my thoughts?” he asked, the answer seeming obvious.

He didn’t wait for an answer. “Is there a way for you to turn off the mind reading thing?” James asked. “I like it when my thoughts are private. There’s a reason I don’t say them out loud.”

The ghost didn’t answer, only stared at James. “Now that you know how to use your magic, I’d better go.” Mr. Day glided out the door, but stuck his head back into the room. James found it more than a little creepy that there was just a head talking to him.

“I can stop hearing your thoughts, but only if I’m thinking of something other than what you are. It happens that I think of my daughter quite often. Sara has grown from the last time I saw her, and I am proud of what she is becoming.”

Mr. Day withdrew his head from the closed door and left James alone with his thoughts. James leaned back on the bed he was on and stared at the ceiling.

He wasn’t sure when he fell asleep, but woke up when he felt a jolt of pain. James shoved the dream out of his head and looked around. The orange protection spell was still up and functional, so no one had attacked him.

James wracked his brain trying to think of where the pain could have come from. It took him only a second to remember his connection with Sara. Not even thinking of what he was doing, James sang a song and appeared in Sara’s room.

He found her sprawled on the floor and quickly helped her up. “You okay?” he asked. “What happened?”

Sara smiled. “Rolled out of bed. Sorry.” James felt a rush of relief that Sara had not been attacked. Realizing that it was still late at night, James left the room, glancing back before he shut the door behind him. Sara was already back in her bed, on the verge of sleep. James turned back toward the hallway, and was surprised when he saw Sara’s dad standing behind him. James screamed before he realized what he was doing.

James heard movement inside Sara’s room, and the door opened abruptly. Sara stared at him with wide eyes. “James you okay? I heard you scream,” she said.

“What? Oh, yeah. Just thought I saw something. It’s nothing.” James said, embarrassed he had been heard.

Sara shut the door, unconvinced about what James said. He could feel it. James stared at the ghost accusingly. “You did that on purpose,” he said.

“No,” the ghost said, amused, “But I should have.”

Exhaustion overwhelmed James as he suddenly realized how tired he was. He glanced at the door to Sara’s room. He was glad to see that the enchantment was still up, with the door glowing with a slight orange tinge.

“Did you need to tell me something?” he asked tiredly. He looked at where Mr. Day had been. There was nothing there. James shrugged, and went back to his room. He didn’t have time to wonder where the ghost had gone before he was fast asleep.

The next day, James awoke, but it was like he had never even slept. From all the energy he had used to keep Sara and himself safe, he was completely drained. With great effort, James managed to get himself out of bed.

James looked around his hotel room, which even in the morning light looked orange. With a thought, James stopped the song that had been playing incessantly in his head, and the orange disappeared. As energy stopped leaving him to go into the spell, James felt a little better, but was still exhausted.

James heard Sara knock on the door. “James? You in there?” he heard her ask.

“One minute,” he said.

He walked across the room and opened the door. “Hey,” he said, before he realized he wasn’t talking to Sara.

In front of him stood a girl with shiny red hair and blue eyes. She was shorter than him, but in a petite way. Freckles sprinkled her nose, and James would have thought she was pretty if he hadn’t met Sara.

The girl smiled. “Hi. It’s James, isn’t it?” James nodded, unsure of why the girl was here, or how she knew who he was. The girl continued, “I’m Aubrynn. When the queen found out that you were looking for the Lightstone, she sent for you immediately. Sorry I took so long. You two kept moving, so you were hard to track down.”

James’s brain raced, trying to keep up with all that Aubrynn was telling him. “The queen?”

Aubrynn rolled her eyes. “Yes. Queen Alva! You know, the Light Queen?”

James shook his head. He had never heard of her, or any sort of magic queen. Aubrynn rolled her eyes again. “You’re as bad as the other girl. Queen Alva is the person who makes the rules that magicians have to follow.” She looked at him expectantly.

Seeing his blank look, Aubrynn rolled her eyes again. “So you’ve never heard of her. Fine. Not all magicians follow her, so maybe that’s why you don’t know about her.”

“Oh,” James said, feeling like he needed to say something. “Cool.”

“She wanted to talk to you, and it’s getting late. If you want to be there by sundown, you’d better get going.”

James glanced at the alarm clock near the bed. “It’s eight in the morning.”

Aubrynn rolled her eyes again. James had a feeling that she did it often. She seemed more than a bit annoyed that someone could know so little about magic. “Time’s different where we’re going.” She looked at him doubtfully. “Any other questions?”

“Uh, no.”

“Great. Then we just need to wait for Sara. I already told her to get ready.” Aubrynn lowered her voice. “When we get there, we’ll try to fix your magic.”

James was both surprised and annoyed that everyone seemed to know about his magic, except for him and Sara. “I already know how to use my magic,” James said.

Aubrynn rolled her eyes again. “You know how to use it when you need it, but what about when you don’t?” She didn’t give James a chance to speak. “Don’t worry. We’ll try to get your magic back to the way it was before all this.” Aubrynn waved her arms around, gesturing to the hotel, and their search for the Stone. Aubrynn had called it the Lightstone.

James wasn’t sure how he felt about what Aubrynn was saying, but he smiled anyway. “Thanks,” he said.

Sara’s door opened, and she emerged. From somewhere inside the room, sunlight shone behind her, making her seem like something too beautiful to be from this world.

James felt like he should say something, anything. “Hey Sara,” he said. The words sounded lame as soon as they left his mouth.

Sara smiled. “Hey.”

Aubrynn spoke, drawing their attention to her. “Good. You’re both here. Now we can leave.” Without ceremony, she walked into James’s room, the closest one to her, and drew open the curtains. She looked at the sun and nodded. “This should be enough light.” She turned back to them.

“When the light tunnel appears, walk into it. You’ll go fast, but the tunnel is completely harmless to light magic users.” She turned back to the window, and muttered rapidly under her breath. James watched in amazement as a tube appeared in front of them. The tunnel pointed up, and went into the ceiling of the room. As the light hit it, it looked like a giant diamond tube.

Aubrynn looked back at James and Sara. “It’s ready. Come on.” James didn’t move. The tunnel reminded him of the shadow portal they had traveled through because of Cole. He did not want to repeat that experience, even if it was supposed to be safe. Aubrynn muttered something else under her breath, and James heard her in his head. Just think of when this is all over.

It was the perfect thing to say. James saw him and Sara laughing, not worried about Aevill or the Stone. They, and everyone who had had their lives ruined by Aevill, would finally be able to move on. This could be a reality, James realized, and the first step was going through this tunnel.

James glanced at Aubrynn, who smiled. She knew she had won. James took a deep breath, not even knowing what he was doing, then ran at the tunnel. He ran through the tunnel’s wall like it wasn’t even there. Before he knew what was happening, James shot straight up.