Dragonrider Academy: Episode 1

want to go home.”
It was getting harder to tell myself that all of this was a massive hallucination and that I was still asleep on the beach. The sun blared down and the sounds of distant dragons rumbled through the air. Killian’s warm arm around my shoulder felt very real, as did the magical cord that still linked us together and strapped around my wrist, cutting off the blood flow every time I tried to pull against him.
And yet, even though every fiber of my being told me that I should be terrified, another part of me was listening. Contemplating.
Accepting.
If this was real, then it explained so much about me. Why I couldn’t make friends. Possibly what had really happened to my father.
Why I was such a freak.
“Who was the woman under the water?” I asked softly, granting the male at my side this brief moment of compliance as I worked to match his longer gait. It was only so that he would feel comfortable enough to exchange information, and then I’d work on my next objective—to get out of here.
“You don’t know your own relatives?” he teased. His hand casually toyed with a curl of my hair, but the motion felt friendly, natural. He’d said that we were partners and even though I’d just met him, even though he’d restrained me against my will, there was definitely this strange sense of belonging I had with him that I’d never experienced with anyone else. A part of me wanted to trust him, wanted to lean on him for support and let him explain this strange new world to me.
Luckily, that insane part of my brain was small enough to tie up into a neat little package to be shoved aside.
“You’re a descendant of a race of women who have goddess blood. Not much, mind you,” he said, tapping me on the nose again. “But enough to travel realms. Enough to be recruited to Dragonrider Academy by yours truly,” he grinned as if he’d just done me a great service. “You’ll like it here. I promise.”
Was he for real right now? Even if I could wrap my mind around everything he was telling me, he was suggesting that I leave my human life behind and pursue… what, exactly? “Why am I here?” I asked, determined to find the true answer to my question. “What is… here? What is a dragonrider?” I flinched away, forcing him to stop. “And why would anyone want me?” Goddess blood or not, I wasn’t a prize. I was the girl in the library who escaped to places like this in my imaginative mind, but I’d always been able to leave.
He leveled his gaze on me with those whitewashed eyes that threatened to drown me all over again. “I know it’s a lot to take in, Viv, but you’re just going to have to have a little faith here. You’re needed. Dragonriders protect the realms from evil.” He leaned in closer. “Like the evil that took your father. Do you really think he just randomly drowned? No. The Lady of the Lake isn’t the only thing in those waters. There are creatures that want you dead, Viv, and the best way to defend yourself, to defend the people you love, to keep everything the way it is supposed to be, is to become a defender of life. Dragonriders do that, Viv. We protect people. We keep people safe.” He glanced back the way we’d come, his gaze turning wistful as the wyvern around his neck ruffled small wings and settled closer into the groove of Killian’s collarbone. “And we avenge those we’ve lost.”
Huh, maybe there was more to this guy than I’d realized.
“That’s nice and all, but I need to get home, Killian,” I said, using his name for emphasis. He wanted to pretend that we already knew each other, that we were going to be fast friends and I’d just go with this craziness like I wasn’t about to have a psychotic break. “My mom is going to think I drowned. I need to get back and—”
“She knows exactly where you are,” he clarified. He tugged out a piece of paper from his uniform shirt’s pocket. I hadn’t noticed before, but he wore one of those school uniforms like he belonged in some Ivy League school, except he kept the upper two buttons undone to complement his rebellious look. He handed me the slip of paper and waited for me to unfold it.
I blinked a few times at my mother’s handwriting.
My dearest daughter,
If you’re reading this, then you’ve been recruited to Dragonrider Academy and I’ve officially failed to protect you like your father and I wanted. I know it seems crazy, but this is a part of your heritage that we tried to shield you from. I’m writing this letter as I am pregnant with you, while the Dean herself waits for me to finish. She’s going to make sure this letter gets to you if you’re recruited—which is a day I hope never comes.
Your father didn’t want children, because he knew this would be a possibility. I’m not entirely human, Vivienne, and neither are you. We come from an ancient line of women that go by many names. Human history and fiction books refer to them as Druids, Seers, Enchantresses, Witches, and many other names that attempt to describe what mortals can’t understand. You and I have the blood of the goddess in our veins. With that comes the potential to move between realms, among other things. It makes you uniquely qualified to be recruited by those who protect the realms, an unseen force that keeps so many lives safe.
I’m grateful. Your father was a dragonrider and rescued me at the cost of his dragon’s life. I escaped Avalon as a child and we will never go near the water again, no matter what happens, no matter if I am called back, I will ignore it. I’ll be honest with you because I have to