Riding The Wave: Dragon Within, #3

By Kyra Dune

Sometimes life is crazy. I guess that's part of being a teenager. My life has gotten crazier than most. On my sixteenth birthday I found out I'm a dragon. I know what you're thinking, but it's not like the movies with the scales and the wings and the fire breathing. All that is a myth. I'm a real dragon. Someone who has power over the air around her.
Everyone tells me I can do more. I can control all the elements. I'm special. A hybrid.
I don't want to be special. Not if it means letting my parents go on thinking I'm dead. Not if it means spending the rest of my life running from people who want to kill me for real.
All I want is to be normal again. Only I don't think it can ever happen. I have no choice but to stay one step ahead of my enemies. There's just one small problem with that. One of those enemies might be the only person who can keep me alive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shadow Portal Books
• Release date: Feb 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386587811

Kyra Dune

Shadow Portal Books is an ebook publisher offering full publishing services at no outright cost to the author. We also offer paid services to self published authors.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Standing ankle deep in ocean water with the warm sun on my cheek and the cool breeze in my hair should have been relaxing. But under the circumstances of the moment, it was anything but.

Try again. 

I breathed out through my nose. Zack wasn’t being intentionally irritating, or at least I don’t think he was. He didn’t make for a good trainer, especially since I couldn’t seem to think of anything except the way beads of water were rolling down his bare chest. Okay, so maybe it was sweat, but give me a break. Sweat is gross. Beads of water sounds way sexier, don’t you think?

Anyway, I was supposed to be training, not ogling Zack’s perfect six pack abs and daydreaming of how it would feel to have his hands on my skin. And I was not succeeding. It would have been easier to have Hannah train me, but she had flat refused, and Derek was in no shape for it. So I was stuck with Zack.

I looked down at my toes covered in sand because it was way less distracting than looking at him.

Remember not to try too hard, Zack said. Your powers are growing. You’re ready for this.

Right, I agreed, even though I didn’t really feel ready. I tried to concentrate on what happened the night before, which was what prompted Zack to suggest we start my training in the first place.

I was in the kitchen using my power of air manipulation to slide a glass of water back and forth across the bar. I was getting pretty good with the air, if I do say so myself. I didn’t want the power, but I had it and I was determined to learn to control it.

Steve and Trudy were giggling over the stove as they cooked dinner. Well, Trudy was cooking and Steve was ‘helping’. Kyle and Hannah were in the living room yelling at a football game on TV. Curtis was at the table muttering over Brandy’s laptop. All the distraction was good, it kept me from concentrating too hard.

Then Zack came into the room. He stopped, looking at the glass, and said, You’re letting that thing get a little wild, aren’t you?

I admit I wasn’t holding onto the glass as tightly as I might have and it had come close to sliding off the edge a few times, but I didn’t need him to point it out. I was edgy and out of sorts with way too much on my mind and his comment hit me all wrong. The next thing I knew, the water was flying out of the glass and hitting him in the face.

It surprised me when it didn’t irritate him, since irritated seemed to be his default emotion. All he said was maybe it was time I started training again. Which was why we were out on the beach working on my new power.

The water around my feet swirled and I managed to draw it up to my knees before losing my grip. I looked back at Zack, wondering if this would earn me praise or criticism. Turns out, I got both.

You did fine, Zack said. It’s a long way from being able to pull water out of the air, like I do, but it’s a good start.

I resisted the urge to say something snarky. Zack didn’t really mean to be a jerk, it was the way he was. He couldn’t help it. Should I try again?

He nodded. So I tried, again and again and again, with the exact same result each time. It was exasperating, as I’m sure you can imagine. Bad enough to fail, but so much worse to do so in front of him.

I think that’s enough, Zack said.

Why? I asked. I haven’t made any progress.

He shook his head. You’re doing that thing with your lips.

What thing with my lips? I reached up to touch my mouth.

The one where you pinch them at the corners until they turn white. It means you’re getting frustrated and that’s dangerous. I watched you train with Alice, remember?

Alice. A name I so did not want to hear. I looked away from him, out toward the softly rolling waves of the ocean, and waited for an apology. It didn’t come. Zack stared at me for a minute, then walked off. It was a very Zack-like thing to do. I don’t know if he didn’t care he’d upset me, or if he didn’t understand why I should be upset. And I couldn’t decide which would be worse.

I waited until I was sure he was gone before stepping out of the water. Which was when I spotted Derek standing up the beach from me. I trudged toward him and tried to smile so he wouldn’t know anything was wrong.

Hey, I said. Were you watching us train? The idea made me uneasy. I knew Derek didn’t like me being alone with Zack, but I didn’t much care for an audience to my failure.

Only for the last couple of minutes. He stared at me so intently I had to look away. Everything okay? Zack looked a little... tense.

I laughed, pushing my hair back from my face with both hands. When does Zack not look tense? Derek gave me a look and I sighed. I’m tired, okay? I don’t want to talk about it.

Derek frowned. "If he said something, or did something, you didn’t like, you can tell me."

Why? So you can kick his butt?

I’m serious.

I know. I looked toward the house. Zack is not a bad guy. I know you can’t be friends, but I wish you’d at least try to not be enemies.

I am trying, Abby. I really am. But I don’t trust him. He’s a killer.

I winced. Don’t say that. He got us out of the compound, didn’t he? If it wasn’t for Zack I’d still be locked up and you’d be... I swallowed back a thick feeling in my throat. You’d be dead. So cool it with the killer stuff, okay?

Okay. I’m sorry.

So was I. I didn’t want to argue. Not with him. How are you feeling?

He shrugged. Not so tired. And I haven’t had a nightmare the last two nights. So I guess I’m getting a little better every day.

This is a pretty sweet place to recuperate, don’t you think? I swept my arms out to indicate our private beach.

Yeah. He smiled. I’m glad Brandy let us stay here.

Me too. I threaded my arm through his. Now, let’s get you back inside the house before you go and pass out on me or something.

"Oh, so you’re looking out for me now, huh?"

Isn’t that what little sisters are for?

I thought they were for annoying their brothers, he said as we walked up the back steps to the porch of the beach house. I remember you being a pretty irritating toddler.

He was only teasing, I know, but I couldn’t help feeling a little sad. His words only served to remind me how much time had been stolen from us. He was my brother and I liked him, but I really didn’t know him.

Our parents were killed when I was two and I was thought dead as well. I ended up being adopted by two wonderful people who I was proud to call my mom and dad. I wasn’t the least bit sorry to have been raised by them, but I still felt cheated. I would never know my birth parents, never have any memories of them.

Derek and I hadn’t talked about them much. I didn’t want to push and he didn’t seem inclined to start a conversation. If not for the picture he carried in his wallet, I wouldn’t even know what they looked like.

In the kitchen, Steve, Trudy, and Curtis were playing monopoly at the table. Through the open living room door, I could see the tops of Kyle and Hannah’s heads above the couch as they watched yet another football game. They were really getting to be friends and in a way it was kind of weird. If they had met back at our high school, the star football player and the goth girl, they never would have given each other the time of day, let alone hung out together.

Hi guys. Trudy smiled as we came through the door. How did training go, Abby?

Fine. I so did not want to talk about it. I leaned over the back of an empty chair. Who’s winning?

Your cousin, Steve said. I swear he’s getting psychic tips from the dude with the eyeglass.

Curtis smiled down at the table, embarrassed to have attention turned his way. Or maybe he just didn’t want to make eye contact with me.

Of all my friends, he and Brandy had taken my faked death the hardest. What faked death, you  might ask? To cut a long story short, I pretended to die in a horrible fire because I thought I was protecting the people I loved. Turned out I was wrong and neither Cutis nor Brandy had completely forgiven me for it yet. But they came when I needed them most and that gave me hope.

Derek drifted past us and up the stairs. I watched him go, feeling the familiar sting of guilt. It was my fault he was taking so long to recover. If I had tried to find him sooner, instead of moping around missing my old life, I might have saved him from several months of being locked up in a corn cellar and half starved to death.

How is he doing? Steve asked, keeping his voice low.

Better. I think. I pulled the chair out and sat. I wish he could see a doctor. Only we couldn’t take the chance. Bad enough having trackers chasing us, we couldn’t afford to draw attention from authority types. Any doctor was bound to be able to figure out what was wrong with Derek and it would bring up all kinds of questions we couldn’t answer.

Trudy squeezed my hand. He’s going to be fine. You wait and see. All he needs is plenty of good food and rest.

Speaking of good food, I propped my chin on my hand, whose turn is it to cook dinner?

I vote for anybody not named Steve, Curtis said, then blushed furiously at the boldness of his own joke.

Oh, you’re breaking my heart, dude. Steve pressed his hand to his chest. I thought everybody loved my burnt grilled cheese sandwiches. He looked to Trudy. Baby, surely you have some praise for your man’s culinary skills.

Sorry, hon. Trudy patted his arm. But you can’t cook.

He gasped in mock horror. What a sad, sad world it is when a man’s one and only true love won’t even tell one teeny, tiny, white lie for the sake of his honor.

Trudy giggled. You are so weird.

Ah, but isn’t that what you love best about me? He planted a kiss on her cheek.

Maybe. She snuggled in close to him. If she had been smiling any harder, her jaw would have cracked. It made me feel good to see them that way. Before my little life altering discoveries, Trudy never would have had the nerve to go for Steve. But my supposed death had somehow managed to push them together. And even though I was a little jealous of what they had, I was glad something good had come out of the wreck of my life.

Ugh, gag me with a spoon. Hannah said as she walked into the kitchen. Why don’t you two get a room? She pulled open the refrigerator door. This house sure has plenty to choose from.

Sounds good to me. Steve wiggled his eyebrows at Trudy and switched into a cheesy french accent. What say you, mon cherie? Up for a little midnight rendevous? He nuzzled her neck. My room or yours?

Stop it. Trudy pushed him away, going for stern and failing miserably. You’ll give our friends the wrong idea.

I can’t help it. You bring out the animal in me. He growled, tickling her side and sending her into a laughing fit.

Seriously, Hannah set two cans of Coke on the bar, if you two don’t quit with the cutesy stuff, I might have to hurl.

Okay. All right. I surrender. Steve held