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12
SHANE
Ariellaand I got an overnight flight to Maine and rented a jeep at the airport. The only thing we knew was that we were looking for a dragon in northeastern Maine. But damn, a giant dragon couldn’t be hard to spot, could it?
We drove north, always on the lookout for things flying in the gray sky, among the clouds, or disturbance on the landscape—an angry dragon being chased could burn down the place as easily as it had burned my pack lands.
As the hours passed, we saw nothing. A handful of times, we stopped at gas stations or rest areas along the highway and asked if anyone had seen something unusual. But without us explaining exactly what we were looking for, it was hard to get direct answers.
Another gas station approached ahead, but we had stopped at a previous one not thirty minutes ago.
“Look.” Ariella pointed at the gas station.
Half of the roof had collapsed, smoke rose from one of the pumps, a car was overturned, and the doors to the convenience store were gone. A handful of people gathered away from the gas station, beside a police car and a firetruck.
Could this have been the dragon?
I exited the road and drove to the gas station. I stopped my Jeep beside the humans.
Ariella and I hopped out of the car and approached the humans. “What happened?” I asked them. There were three people who had the gas station’s vest over their clothes, an old man whose truck seemed intact, and a younger couple who whined about their totaled car.
The policemen and the firefighters were close to the structure, probably searching for anyone who could have been hurt, or trying to assess the damage.
The old man glanced at me. “Gang fight, I think.”
I frowned. Gang fight? That wasn’t what we were looking for. “Are you sure? A gang fight did this?”
A woman who worked here nodded. “A group arrived. One filled up the tank, the others came inside the store to buy food. I served them burgers. Then another group arrived. They talked to the guy at the pumps, and a fight broke out.”
“But they had insane weapons,” a male with the gas station’s vest said. “I don’t know how they did it, but their weapons shot out bright and dark lights. It must be some kind of prototype or special effect.” He shook his head. “Or I’m in shock and imagined things.”
“No, I saw it too,” the woman said.
Ariella and I exchanged a glance. Two groups with magic fighting. Here, close to the dragons? Who could—? I inhaled deeply as I remembered something.
Walking away from the small crowd, I grabbed my phone from my back pocket and called a saved number.
“Shane?” Evelyn answered after two rings. “Something wrong?”
“I should ask you that. Did you just destroy a gas station in Maine?”
She was silent for three seconds. “How do you know that?”
Bingo. “Because I’m right in front of it.”
“Wait. You’re in Maine?”
I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. “I am, and I think we should meet.”
“Hm, sure. We’ll stop at the next town and I’ll text you the address.”
“That works.”
I pocketed my phone and turned to Ariella. “We should go.”
We hopped back into the Jeep and Ariella asked, “So, are you going to tell me what you found out?”
“Friends of mine are tracking the dragon,” I said. “They want to help him get to safety. So the two gangs are Paimon’s demons and my friends. We’re meeting them, and hopefully, they will let us help them. We’ll be stronger together.”
