Of Wings and Shadows: Of Cinder and Bone, #6

By Kyoko M

In a modern-day world teeming with marauding dragons, there is only one solution: The Wild Hunt.

The United States government has decided to hold a tournament called The Wild Hunt to determine who will be responsible for the capture of wild dragons by the Knight Division. The four challengers Noah Wilson, Charlie Howard, Su Jin Han, and Beowulf have to catch five deadly dragons alive if they want to win the tournament and become the new Knight Division dragon hunters. Their journey will take them through the mountains of South Carolina, the seas of Key West, the caverns of Ruby Falls, the Redwood forest, and finally, the murky bayous of Louisiana. Will they succeed against their competition, or will the dragons of the Wild Hunt be too wild to tame?

Of Wings and Shadows is the sixth book in the Of Cinder and Bone series. It takes place in medias res of Book Five, Of Claws and Inferno. It follows Of Cinder and Bone, Of Blood and Ashes, Of Dawn and Embers, and Of Fury and Fangs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kyoko M
• Release date: Jul 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215591741

Kyoko M

Kyoko M is a USA Today bestselling author and a fangirl. She is the author of The Black Parade urban fantasy series and the Of Cinder and Bone science-fiction series. The Black Parade has been reviewed by Publishers Weekly and New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews. Kyoko M has appeared as a guest and panelist at such conventions as Geek Girl Con, DragonCon, Blacktasticon, Momocon, and Multiverse Con. She is also a contributor to Marvel Comics' Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda (2021) anthology. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Lit degree from the University of Georgia, which gave her every valid excuse to devour book after book with a concentration in Greek mythology and Christian mythology. When not working feverishly on a manuscript (or two), she can be found buried under her Dashboard on Tumblr, or chatting with fellow nerds on Twitter. Like any author, she wants nothing more than to contribute something great to the best profession in the world, no matter how small.

Book preview

The water was infested

With all kinds of reptiles.

There were writhing sea-dragons

And monsters slouching on slopes by the cliff,

Serpents and wild things such as those that often

Surface at dawn to roam the sail-road

And doom the voyage.

-Beowulf, Lines 1425-1430, translation by Seamus Heaney

CHAPTER ONE

WELCOME TO THE WILD HUNT

H unting dragons brings out the best and worst in people.

Agent Yusuke Okamura tucked his hands into the pockets of his black suit as he turned to face the four dragon hunters in front of him. He was a tall man with a sturdy build, his dark brown hair parted in the center and hung just above the white collar of his dress shirt. He had a Heckler and Koch .9mm handgun holstered at his hip, though he’d yet to ever fire his gun while working as a security officer, and he hoped to keep it that way.

The four dragon hunters seated at the conference table before him had come from all walks of life. Each one had proven their valor by competing in the regional Wild Hunt tournaments and coming out on top with the highest marks for the safe and humane capture of wild dragons in the United States. To Agent Yusuke’s immediate right was a musclebound behemoth named Noah Wilson. He was in his early forties and had brown hair and blue eyes, his beard peppered with grey along the edges. He’d just finished eating one of the donuts provided by the stadium staff, so he had a toothpick tucked into the side of his mouth. Like his teammates, he wore an all-black armored suit that had the high-level protection of Kevlar with better maneuverability and a small silver symbol on the breast proclaiming him as a competitor in the Wild Hunt. He hailed from Austin, Texas, where he owned a ranch that he ran with his son, Mateo.

To Noah’s right sat a lean, good-looking black man in his mid-twenties named Charlie Howard. He’d been sipping coffee and flipped to a new page of his small notepad, prepared to take notes like any good marine biologist faced with a new challenge. He’d been the first person since the mass extinction of dragons to capture a dart-backed wyrm alive; a feat that earned him the respect of not only his teammates, but the scientific community at large.

Across from Charlie sat a pretty Korean woman in her thirties named Su Jin Han. Her shoulder-length jet-black hair was pulled back into a ponytail except for a few strands on either side of her face that had been dyed cobalt blue in honor of one of her favorite fictional characters: Mako from the film Pacific Rim. Of the four, she had the most surprising profession—an aeronautical engineer from New York. Her love of flight and everything associated with it had led her to become one of the most successful dragon hunters in the country.

At the head of the table sat the fourth dragon hunter, Josh Herschkowitz, better known to the dragon-hunting world as Beowulf. His blue eyes were not fixed on Agent Yusuke but on his iPhone as he tapped away at it, brushing his blond hair from his brow every so often. The vlogger-turned-hunter had logged the most dragon kills of anyone in the United States, though his thriving career had been put on hold after dragons became a federally protected species. The Wild Hunt was his one and only chance to resume the capture of the creatures legally and he wasn’t about to lose and go back to a semi-normal life.

What I am asking you to do is not easy, Agent Yusuke continued as he paced back and forth along the table in front of the projector screen. I’m asking you to not only put your lives at risk for the greater good, but to go up against the world’s leading dragon hunters and work as a team with perfect strangers. What we’re going to do in this tournament is going to require excellence. I wanted to hold this short meeting before you all catch your flights out to your assigned dragons so we could make sure everyone’s on the same page and to discuss any concerns. Once you hit the road, your full attention has to be on your dragon and capturing it as quickly and efficiently as possible. So, to that end...

Agent Yusuke gestured to the team. ...is there anything on your mind before I start the presentation?

Yeah, Beowulf said. Is this really necessary? We were given a portfolio on all ten dragons after the last regional tournament wrapped up and the four of us were chosen.

This meeting isn’t expressly for that purpose. The other reason we’re meeting is for you to get a good look at your competition and understand their best practices so that you can make the most of your individual captures before we get to the group capture.

Beowulf snorted. I think you’re overstating things a bit here. They’re not that good; they’re just the most-known dragon hunters in the United States. Definitely not the best.

Seriously? Charlie said, lifting an eyebrow. "Dr. Anjali has the most dragon captures in the world, not just the United States, man. You don’t scoff at skills like that."

Beowulf rolled his eyes. Maybe you don’t, but I do. Numbers are just numbers.

Underestimating her—or any of them—is the fastest way for us to lose this thing, Su Jin said, narrowing her brown eyes at him. So let’s just get on with the presentation so we can get going to our captures.

Thank you, Agent Yusuke said. I’ve got your assignments ready. I analyzed your previous captures during the regional tournaments to determine who’s best suited for each dragon. Noah, you’ll take the midnight dragon in Greenville; Charlie, you’ll take the storm dragon in Key West; Su Jin, you’ll take the mercury dragon in Chattanooga; Beowulf, you’ll take the barb dragon in San Francisco. After your captures, you will all convene with me to take down the siren wyvern in New Orleans. Our pilot, Penelope Rosenbaum, is on-call for any of your captures if you’d like to have air support. However, since we’re holding the hunts simultaneously, we’ll need to decide who needs her the most.

Well, it won’t be me, Su Jin said. My dragon’s inside Ruby Falls, which is a cave system.

The midnight dragon is a forest-dweller, Noah said. More than likely, I need to go on foot; it’s stealthier that way and it’ll be less risky.

The storm dragon is an aquatic species, Charlie said. I could definitely use some air support for spotting it if it’s swimming at the time of approach. If it flies into a nearby storm system, though, I’ll have her hang back for safety. I know my way around the ocean, so no worries there.

Gonna agree with Chuck here, Beowulf said. The barb dragon’s last sighting is in the Redwood forest anyway. With trees that tall, I don’t think a helicopter would spot a damn thing.

Charlie or Charles, the marine biologist reminded him. Not Chuck. I told you once and I’m not gonna do it again.

Beowulf rolled his eyes. Good, that’ll save us both some time.

Noted, Yusuke said as he texted Penelope the details; she was also their driver, so she was in the parking lot waiting to take them to the airport in Houston. He then used the clicker for the projector to get the slide started. I thought it best to show you one of the group hunts by the Knight Division. This is their capture of a crystal dragon that was discovered near the Wegner Quartz Crystal Mines in Arkansas last spring. Crystal dragons have the second hardest scales next to the Highlander dragon, hence the name, and they’re among the rarest dragons in history. As you can imagine, it made subduing it quite a challenge.

Wait, wait, wait, Beowulf said. How the hell did something called a crystal dragon end up in a place full of crystals?

"The working theory is that when it’s not the illegal dragon cloning