Page 16 of Storm In The Sky

“I forgave you the minute after you kissed me. I know you’re confused and afraid. You’ll never lose me or my family, though. You should’ve known better than to think you might.”

Winter should have, and thankfully, that problem was dealt with now.

That only left Keylon.

* * * *

“I’m really sorry, but nothing I’m doing is working,” Ansley said.

Parker leaned close to him, clearly trying to comfort him.

Keylon wanted to do the same, but it wasn’t his place, and Parker had things in hand.

Keylon hadn’t expected this new meeting to help, so he wasn’t surprised. They were stumbling in the dark with no idea where they were going or what they were supposed to do. Their main goal was to recover Sol and destroy Carlyle, but none of the mages knew where to start.

Being surrounded by them made Keylon want to run. He felt they were watching him, waiting to ask questions about Winter and the bond Keylon would break. Surrounded by books as theywere in the library, this meeting should have been pleasant, but the things they were talking about weren’t.

Carlyle had never been pleasant.

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Jarvis said. “We always knew it was a long shot. I don’t think anyone here actually expected you to locate either of them. Carlyle knows what he’s doing, and he knows we’re looking for our last dragon. He doesn’t want us to find him.”

Keylon didn’t want to think about what Carlyle was doing to Sol. He couldn’t take it.

“If we can’t locate them, what’s left?” Tyne asked. “Where does it leave us?”

“How about the two guys who work for Carlyle?” Penley offered.

Everyone turned to him, and his cheeks reddened, but he didn’t back down. Finding Bennett again had done wonders for him. Gone was the shy and quiet man Keylon had known for so long. Penley was coming out of his shell, and he was more secure in his magic and in himself. It was a delight to watch.

“You know, the guys who freed him from the gemstone,” Penley continued.

“What do we know about them?” Jarvis asked as he looked around.

“That they attacked Ansley,” Parker said with a growl.

Keylon made a mental note not to allow Parker anywhere near the two. They’d need answers if they ever managed to get their hands on them, and it was hard to speak when one didn’t have a tongue anymore.

“Not much,” Keylon said. He’d looked into the two, but nothing he’d found would help. “Their names are Simon and Graham. From what little I was able to gather, the gemstone in which we trapped Carlyle was passed down from generation to generation in their family. I don’t know how they managedto break the spell we cast on the gemstone, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they had some of Carlyle’s old stuff, maybe books or something. From what I could see, they’re not mages, just human.”

“Why’s Carlyle working with them?” Penley asked with a frown.

“Why not? When he was let out of the gemstone, he probably realized he didn’t know anything about the modern world. He had these two humans right there, and he needed help. I suspect he still does.” Keylon leaned over the table. “What if he didn’t cast a spell on himself but rather on a place? It would make sense. He doesn’t want us to find him or Sol. He could cast two separate spells that would block Ansley’s seeking spell, or he could cast one big one on the place where he’s hiding.”

“But he wouldn’t be able to leave it if that’s what he did,” Tyne pointed out.

“Which means he’d have to send out someone else, like maybe the two brothers. He probably would anyway, since he has no idea how to deal with the world. What if we could findthem?”

Everyone turned to Ansley, who looked excited.

Keylon would rather see him like that than like he was about to cry, the way he’d been a few minutes earlier.

“I can probably find them as long as they’re not in the same place as Carlyle,” Ansley said. “The problem is that we barely know anything about them. It took me years to perfect the spell to find the dragons, and even then, it’s much easier to use when I can use the bond between the dragons and their shields. I’m not sure how I can locate these two.”

“We can find more information,” Jarvis declared. “Even if Ansley doesn’t manage to locate the two, we still need to know who we’re dealing with. Keylon, would you mind taking the lead on this?”

Keylon nodded. He needed a distraction, and he might as well do it. Maybe he’d find something that would lead them to Carlyle and Sol. Maybe thanks to him, they’d be able to free the last dragon. Keylon might have lost his, but he didn’t want Dallin to lose Sol. If there was anything he could do to recover the dragon, he’d do it.

The meeting didn’t last much longer after that. There was new excitement in the air, and while Keylon told himself not to hope, it was hard not to. They finally had a direction. Trying to locate Carlyle and Sol hadn’t worked, but hopefully, locating these two guys would. At least now Keylon had something to pour his energy into.

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