Page 4 of Silent Jay

I sighed and focused on my hands. Unless I was dream-walking or possessed someone else’s body, an unknown person or entity pulled me from my car, healed me, and stuck me here with no voice. Right as I got the call to fix a Ley Line.

This couldn’t be good. I needed to answer that call. It was one of the unspoken rules of magic: if the Ley Line needed help, the person it called did whatever it needed. Otherwise, power would clog and mess up the very foundation of Earth.

A ball of inappropriate enthusiasm swirled in my gut.

Someone was keeping me from my job. A rival. Something tangible that could give me purpose again.

See, you just needed an adventure!

Shut up.

A thousand years was a long time to be alive, an endless eternity of deciding what to eat for dinner while watching civilization make the same mistakes.

“You should already know this, but food and basic medical supplies are on the left side of your body.” The woman refused to look at me.

I wiggled my fingers, calling on magic to confirm her words without moving. Nothing happened, and the excitement in my gut chilled.

“There’s a map in your back pocket,” she continued. “Though no one uses them anymore. The pockets on your right are filled with basics. The rope is small but reinforced with dragon tendons. It will hold your weight.”

Her words bounced off me as I searched for my magic, reaching for power which usually slid into me as easily as breathing. Nothing. A void of emptiness opened in my gut. I sucked in a lung full of air and tried again. Zilch. My hands trembled, and I balled them to hide my fear.

Opening my third eye should have been as simple as wiggling a finger. But my attempt resulted in nothing… no familiar sensation of warmth and no power overlaying my vision.

A piece of me was just gone. I was a shell.

My breaths turned into short, panicked gasps.

Cool metal cupped my cheek, fighting the panic filling my veins. The woman’s swirling gray eyes, filled with concern, took over my vision as she forced me to look at her. I jerked away, and the woman pulled back her silver cybernetic hand. I eyed the metal suspiciously, searching for a weapon or something to harm me before realizing it was just her hand.

The care on the woman’s face melted into a hard line. She put her hand behind her back. “This is what you are here for. Stop creating drama and move.”

I gritted my teeth and controlled my breathing before I could panic again. My manners and ability to comprehend the world vanished into the void of my missing magic.

Fuck. Where am I? Who am I without my magic?

“You’ll miss the start if you don’t go right now.” The woman gritted her teeth. “Human.” She wrapped her metal hand around my bicep and hauled me off the cot like I weighed nothing.

My feet hit the ground, and I squeaked in surprise, eyeing the woman who may or may not have been part of my abduction before remembering she was a shifter. Not any shifter, a dragon shifter. The strongest shifters in existence until they vanished from the world.

I glanced at her arm again, even more confused. The supernatural world didn’t rely on technology. They used it, but magic fixed anything. Missing limbs included.

She leaned into me, forcing my gaze away from her hand. Her eyes dropped to my lips before she snarled. “You. Need. To. Move.”

I didn’t budge. She knew what the fuck was going on. I jabbed my chest with my thumb and threw my hands up.

She leaned back and threw her arms up in the air. “I am not your dragon!” She gripped her cybernetic hand with her human one, almost trying to hide it, and let out a series of frustrated growls. “Everything you need to know was in your welcome packet, which you signed. Your phone and baggage will be sent to your mate’s room, assuming you find one.”

I blinked. I had no idea what she was talking about. Not a clue. And I would remember. My mind was like a god-damn steel trap, unfortunately.

Every dull minute of my twenty-first-century existence tried to depress me at once, and I scrunched my nose. My heart rate slowed. Something tugged at my memory. The frustrated woman blurred as if I looked at her through a piece of curved glass. I’d forgotten something. Something important…

The woman cleared her throat, and my heartbeat returned to normal—the moment vanishing as I tried to piece together what information I could about my current situation.

This person didn’t view me as an abductee. In her eyes, I’d signed up for this, possibly through something called Scalehive… even packing bags for an extended stay.

Wait, my mate’s room?

I tried to ask her another question, but all that came out was the little fucking squeak. Conflict filled the woman’s gaze again, but she shook it off. She wrapped her hand around my arm andpulled me through the tent flaps before pushing me into the outside world.

---