The Dragel's Song : Episode 11: Neilson Hewitt, #11

By Chera Carmichael

Neilson Hewitt's big dragel secret is out to his best friends, Kendall and Elyenka. His wings gave him away, but one revealed secret isn't enough to turn his life back to normal.

 

Ben Carlson's investigation at his father's request, draws to a close at the end of a long day. Lurking in the locker rooms and eavesdropping on conversations leaves more questions than answers.

 

As they struggle to sort out new information with new experiences, it's clear that there's more going on beneath the surface than either of them know.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chera Carmichael
• Release date: Sep 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201059569

Chera Carmichael

Chera Carmichael (aka Scioneeris) to her TBDH fans is a Writer by night and a 9-to-5 worker by day. Her dragel stories feature slow-burn Poly romances featuring dragons, soulmates, elemental powers and otherwordly adventures.

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The Dragel’s Song : Episode 11

The Dragel’s Song : Episode 11

The Neilson Hewitt Adventures

Chera Carmichael

Chera Carmichael

Copyright © 2021 by Chera Carmichael

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover Design by Starlight Book Cover Design.

Editing by Excel Designs

Contents

The Tags

1. Conversations Behind Closed Doors - Ben

2. The Problem With Mariana - Bevi

3. Rented Hotel Suite - Cunningham Circle - Mariana

4. Some Things Require A Closer Look - Ben

5. Necessary Decisions - Neil

6. A Persuasive Voice - Neil

Also by Chera Carmichael

Ghost-Hunting off-Realm?

Have You Read The Prequel?

Author’s Note

GLOSSARY

Character List

About the Author

The Tags

To my faithful readers who requested my ‘rambling fic tags’. This is for you. I now tag Episode 10 as:

Soft Space Academy AU. Found family. Slow-burn. Friendship is magic. Neil is a good friend and he worries too much. Elyenka is hiding too many secrets. The Cunninghams make a move.

1 Conversations Behind Closed Doors - Ben

The taste of artificial berries-and-cream stuck to his tongue as Ben chewed on a protein-packed meal-replacement stick. It was chewier than he remembered them being, but something that he could eat in a hurry, when necessary.

Lately, he'd been craving the taste of everything fruit-flavored and highly sugared to the point that he'd begun to carry the things in his bookbag and jacket pockets. It was a growing habit that he couldn't avoid. Now, he hid away in the employee dressing room, hastily devouring the treat that he'd been craving for the past two hours.

It was a relief to know that the shift—and his Greyson persona—was now over and done with for the day. He'd taken Neil's dismissal at the end of shift, as best as he could, trying not to take the obvious irritation too personally.

Despite his slightly curt manner, Neil had indeed done exactly as Halgore had insisted. He'd shown Ben around the warehouse, all of the requested docks and allowed him to tag along for a live unloading demonstration.

Conversation was terse and clipped, but Neil hadn't been outwardly rude at all.

Just hassled and exhausted.

It was incredible to watch the way they worked, despite being so short-handed. Even with a skeleton crew, Neil and his coworkers quickly found a good rhythm, keeping up a steady, efficient turnaround as ships were loaded and unloaded according to their ordered schedules. It was a good display of teamwork, even if it didn't particularly throw any useful information Ben's way.

He'd already ruled out the ground crew as being the reason behind the missing 'organic matter' mentioned in the manifest. No, he was reasonably sure it was something slight-to-almost-invisible, that had likely slipped between the skeleton crew. Whoever it was, they had either created a diversion or orchestrated an easier opening to steal the cargo in the first place.

Neither option was particularly reassuring.

Ben's best guess was what someone had either posed as part of the crew—though with how short-handed they were, he didn't think it likely that such a substitution would go unnoticed—or a diversion had been so subtle that it wasn't recorded.

An equipment malfunction, a busted shipping container or some other perfectly normal occurrence that had simply taken place for the sole purpose of allowing precious cargo to be stolen right under their noses.

He sighed. Guessing was good and all, but he needed hard proof and so far, he'd only learned that their warehouse workers were sharp, efficient and somewhat polite, if wary of his presence among them as an auditor.

Maybe the maintenance logs would have something. He mused to himself. If there were any malfunctions recorded, that could give us an opportunity window to analyze. Even better if there's a power