Page 21 of Storm In The Sky

Parker almost crossed into the portal, but Bennett caught his arm and pulled him back. The portal flickered, then vanished, leaving behind a smoking rock.

Winter poked at it with his shoe. It was just a rock, but he thought that was where the portal had come from. He hadn’t realized that mages could make spells that could be portable and used by humans.

“Do you think it’s safe to touch?” he asked no one in particular.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Keylon said from behind Winter, making him jump.

Winter twirled around. “What are you doing here?”

Keylon didn’t look impressed. “What do you think I’m doing here? You idiots ran after Simon as if there was no danger. I wasn’t going to let any of you get hurt.”

“We were protecting you.”

Keylon didn’t look convinced. “The only one who stayed behind was Meyer.”

Winter looked around, but he couldn’t see Meyer anywhere. “Where is he?”

“Back at the cottage with the others. Tyne and I decided to follow you.” Keylon grimaced. “It was better for everyone not to leave Meyer and Tyne together.”

Winter nodded at the rock. “What happened here?”

Keylon looked around. “That’s what I’d like to know.”

* * * *

Keylon had no idea what he would walk in on when he’d followed the dragons, but he wouldn’t have allowed any of them—let alone Winter—to get hurt. He’d taken ten years off Keylon’s life when he’d gone after Simon, and he hadn’t seemed to hear Keylon when he’d yelled at him to stop.

So Keylon had followed.

Tyne hadn’t hesitated to come with him. That was a relief, considering the way he’d been glaring at Meyer, who’d been ignoring him. They were going to have to fix whatever was happening between them eventually, but for now, it was better to ignore them.

Winter had asked what had happened. Keylon could take a good guess. He didn’t want to say anything in front of the woman Marlow was gently talking to, though, so he tilted his head in the direction from which they’d arrived. “Come on.”

“Is it safe to leave that rock there?”

Keylon hesitated. It would be safe to abandon. It was just a rock now that the spell that had been placed inside of it had been used. They might be able to find something on the rock, though. If anything, Jarvis would want to examine it to check whether or not Carlyle had been the one to cast the spell on it.

Keylon doubted it could have been anyone else. They knew Simon worked for Carlyle, and while Jarvis hadn’t recognized the cottage, he’d admitted that Carlyle had several hiding places scattered around the country.

He took out a tissue from his pocket and carefully picked up the rock. It was warm, but not hot. He could still feel the portal magic, but that was all he could feel.

“Let’s show this to Jarvis,” he said.

Winter nodded. He didn’t follow Keylon right away, though. First, he looked around as if checking that the other dragons would be safe and that Simon truly was gone. ConsideringKeylon had seen him walk through the portal, he was sure the man wouldn’t return.

He and Winter picked their way between the trees and around bushes. Things were tense between them, and Keylon didn’t know how to fix it or even if he could. He was afraid of what would happen if he trusted Winter. He’d tried that once, and Winter had broken his heart.

“So you guys can place spells on objects,” Winter said.

“We can. It’s often used with children. They don’t have the knowledge or power to cast spells on their own, so an adult will do it for them and place the spell into an object. More often than not, it’s a portal spell like this one was. It makes it easier for children and people who can’t open portals to travel.”

“How often can one of these spells be used?”

“It depends on what kind of spell is placed on the object. This one was a one-time thing. I can feel the spell is spent.”

They reached the cottage, and Keylon looked around. He could hear voices from inside, but he wasn’t looking forward to joining the others. There had to be spiders as big as his fist inside that cottage.

“Jarvis?” he called out.

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