Sticks and Stones (Dragon Thief Book 1) E-Book

Mac Flynn

• Herausgeber: Crescent Moon Studios, Inc.
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Life is full of life-changing events. Obviously. Millie, however, never expected the change to come at the tip of a stick.

One late-night walk has her face off against a trio of men intent on having some fun with her. The tables are turned when she stumbles upon a stick in the path, a stick with some interesting abilities. The men are sent packing and Millie stands tall with her prize and pride.

Triumph turns to trouble as she's literally dropped into a new world. She falls into the strong arms of a masked rogue with dragon wings, and he places her in the charge of an old friend, the handsome and wealthy Count Benjamin Castle. He’s as mysterious as his acquaintance, and the heated looks he gives her reveals that his interest in her is more than just mere kindness.

However, Millie’s only thought is to return to her own world, but they’re not the only ones searching for answers to her problem. Someone else wants to learn the secrets of traveling between worlds, and they’re not afraid to play dirty to get to the answer first.

Their adventure leads them from the deepest sewers, to the sleaziest auction houses, and up to the highest heights of high society, and all the while Millie begins to wonder what her heart truly desires. The wonders of fantasy, fun, and magic were alluring, and the pair of men who called themselves her protectors intrigued her even more. As their journey takes them deeper into this new world, she must make a choice: leave it all behind or embrace the budding romance that promises to reveal a deep secret.

Leseprobe

STICKS AND STONES

DRAGON THIEF BOOK 1

MAC FLYNN

CONTENTS

Copyright

Author’s Note

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Sneak Peek: Spells and Bones

A Small Favor

When’s the Next Book?

Series by Mac Flynn

About Mac Flynn

COPYRIGHT

Sticks and Stones (Dragon Thief Book 1). Copyright © 2024 by Mac Flynn.

Published by Crescent Moon Studios, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, disseminated, or transmitted in any form or by any or for any use, including recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the author and/or artist. The only except ions shirt excerpts or the cover image in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel or on the cover are either products of the author’s or artist’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author or artist.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for joining me on a journey through my imagination. If you’re looking for romance and adventure with a guaranteed Happily Ever After, then you’ve come to the right place. My books contain paranormal plotting and fantastical action, and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

* * *

You can keep in touch with me by joining my newsletter or checking out my website for the latest updates.

Check out my website

Sign up for my newsletter

Thank you for giving my book a chance, and Happy Reading!

- Mac Flynn

CHAPTERONE

Life is full of life-changing events. Obviously. I never expected mine to come at the tip of a stick.

“Hey, Millie!”

I paused on the street corner and turned back to the open doorway. Bright blinking flashes of rainbow colors streamed out of the door and onto the sidewalk. A couple of people lingered around the door frame, but one of them broke from the pack and hurried over. She was a woman on the short side with equally short brown hair and the same color eyes. Her rounded face showed an honesty that was disarming, and sometimes alarming.

She grasped my hands and offered me a smile that warned of some trouble brewing. “Do I have a winner for you!”

I rolled my eyes as I stifled a deep groan. “Not another one.”

She shook her head. “This isn’t like the last guy. This one’s nice.”

I winced as my memory recalled past instances where I’d heard her speak those very words. “The last one that you said was nice held up a liquor store so he could get a bottle for his mom.”

My friend shrugged her shoulders. “That was just bad luck. How was I to know he had mommy issues?”

“He had his mom’s number on speed dial and used it when he got a paper cut.”

She rolled her eyes and waved a hand at me. “That was just a single time. Trust ol’ Sheryl to get it right this time.”

I clapped my hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “I trust you, Sheryl. It’s the guys you pick for me that I don’t trust.”

My dear friend sighed and forlornly shook her head. “You have to find someone, Millie. You’re too pretty to stay single.”

I snorted and patted one of her shoulders. “You’re a good friend, Sheryl, but I’m just not looking for a guy right now.”

Sheryl wrinkled her nose. “Well, you should be. You’re not going to just drop in on one, ya know.”

I grinned as I drew my hands back and shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he’ll sweep me off my feet.”

Sheryl draped one of her arms across my shoulders and tried to turn me toward the open door. Loud music blared onto the street and people shouted above one another. “Come on. Just lemme introduce you to Hamlet.”

I jerked to a stop and stared blankly at her. “Hamlet?”

She shrugged. “He said something about being a big fan of Shakespeare.”

My face drooped. “You do know what happened to Hamlet’s girlfriend, don’t you?”

She blinked at me. “He had a girlfriend? I thought he just played around with a skull.”

A choked laugh escaped me before I gathered my wits and slipped out of my friend’s gentle though persistent hold. “I appreciate the effort, but it’s been a long week and I just want to bury myself in my bed for the weekend. See you Monday.”

I turned away, and Sheryl’s voice called to me as I strolled down the sidewalk. “Mark my words, Millie! I’ll see you with a guy before the month is out!”

I didn’t look back as I waved at her. The long, lonely road awaited me, and a chill wind was my only companion as I made my way home. I wrapped my coat closer about myself and shivered as my ‘companion’ blew its cold breath down my neck.

“Should’ve taken the bus…” I mumbled as I stuffed my hands in my pockets. They were empty. Oh, right. No money, no bus. “Next time don’t leave your wallet home.”

I lifted my eyes to the sky. The streetlights blotted out most of the stars, but a few bright planets shone through the eternal soft glow of the city lights. I smiled and stretched my hand up toward one of the brighter ones, a red star that seemed to blink at me.

“Hey, handsome,” I murmured as the star dazzled me with its light. I snorted and dropped my hand back to my side. “Maybe Sheryl’s right. Maybe I do need a boyfriend.”

What I needed right then was to make a decision. The path diverged ahead of me, and in a few steps, I stopped and turned my head to look left and right. Right continued down the illuminated albeit abandoned street. Left led me into the park and down its winding concrete path. Left was a shortcut shrouded in darkness. Right was a long bright trek.

My tired feet told me to take the left path, so I did. Traitorous soles.

I had gone only fifty feet down the dark path when I realized what a stupid mistake that was. The bleary sky couldn’t give me enough light to see by and the eerie stillness made my skin crawl. I turned around and froze.

Three heavy-set men were walking down the path toward me. They were shoulder to shoulder, and their steps were quick and pointed. Pointed directly at me. I stumbled backward and that made one of them break into a sprint. The others followed, and I spun around and raced down the path.

My feet pounded down the trail, but their feet were louder. They were also getting closer. I knew in a few moments they could catch me and… well, I didn’t want to think about it.

What I wouldn’t have done for that handsome guy to catch me instead of them.

My eyes caught sight of something that lay across the path. It was a long, thick staff of wood. My flight instincts were overridden by my fight, especially as their footsteps came ever closer. I scooped up the stick and spun around to face them with both shaking hands clutching the wood. My grip was so tight I felt my fingers mold themselves to the strange designs etched into the staff. No doubt left there by ants after they’d gnawed through the bark.

“D-don’t come any closer!” I internally rolled my eyes. That line was just too cliched.

The men agreed as they burst into laughter. One of them stepped forward and held out his hand to me. “Come on, little girl. Gimme the stick and let’s have some fun.”

I swung the stick, but he easily evaded my weak little wave. His hand twisted around and snatched the stick at the halfway point between my hands. He leaned forward and his twisted grin loomed out of the darkness.

“Naughty, naughty,” he cooed as he tightened his fingers around the wood. “Now I’ll have to show you-”

I would forever remain in blissful ignorance of what he had to show me because at that moment, a soft white glow burst from the stick. Both of us stared dumbly at the wood as little drifting tendrils of brilliance floated between us. Those tendrils coalesced underneath his hand, and I could hear the familiar charge of electricity.

The next moment jagged bolts of lightning shot out of the wood and through his hand. The bolts struck him dead center in the chest, throwing him backward several feet before he landed on his back. A soft moan came from him, and he stirred no more.

His companions gawked at their wounded comrade. Hope was kindled within me, and my hands didn’t shake quite so badly as I tightened my grip on the glow stick. “Anybody else want a taste of this?” I had no idea if I could manage a second helping of kick-ass.

One of them spun around to face me with fury in his eyes. “You little bitch! You’d do that?”

He marched forward and also tried to grab my stick, but my confidence had returned. I could also see what I was doing.

I slammed the side of the staff against his face and the electrical current had a shorter distance to travel, so it had even more kick. The man was thrown several yards and crashed into a thicket of bushes far off the path.

I turned to the last man standing. His eyes flickered between my face and my stick, and he made his move. Backwards. The man spun around so fast he tripped over his own feet and fell on all fours. He scrambled across the ground and over the top of my first victim, who let out a whoosh of air.

I stood triumphant over the two groaning men and their retreating comrade. A big grin spread across my face as I slammed the bottom of the staff against the ground.

Electricity shot out in six different directions, barely missing my feet. I yelped and danced around the jagged lines as they traveled for two feet before arcing to the left where they joined each other to create a circle around me. A dark, bottomless hole opened up within the circle.

Which was exactly where I was standing. I let out a scream as I plummeted into the unknown.

CHAPTERTWO

Darkness swept past me, carrying my hair above my head as I fell through a completely black abyss. I clung to the only solid object I could get a hold of, and that was the stick.

Light from below made me look down, and I gaped at a hole in the blackness through which the brilliance emerged.

I dropped out of the darkness and into a starlit sky. There was a whole world around and beneath me. Far, far beneath me. In fact, it was about a mile beneath me.

I let out a long, high-pitched scream as I careened toward a very quick doom. My only comfort, such as it was, was the staff clutched tightly against me. I needed a miracle to get out of that.

And that’s when a miracle erupted in my hands.

The brilliant light that had surrounded it grew brighter, and the wood beneath my hands quivered. The glow raced down the handle, following the path of the strange grooves. I gaped at the staff as long straw bristles popped out of the bottom like exploding fireworks. The handle itself thinned and straightened, though the strange markings over its surface didn’t change.

The transformed staff gave a strange twitch before it shoved itself between my legs so the whole front of my body was pressed tightly against the stick. The moment I was hugged the stick shot forward with me holding on for dear life.

That’s when it struck me. It was a broom.

The metamorphosed stick shot across the sky at a speed that would have put a drag racer to shame. We zigged and zagged, moving ever closer to the ground. It wasn’t fast enough.

I practically smashed my face against the broom handle. “Lemme down!”

The broom obeyed, but too well. It pointed its nose straight down, and that was the way we went toward the strange city below us.

Now that I wasn’t falling to my doom, I could study some of the features of the unfamiliar metropolis. It was a huge city of gray stone and brown wood that covered many miles of a large valley, with roads that rarely ran parallel to one another. Most ran at angles, and some even wound their way between the assortment of buildings. There was everything from tiny cottages to majestic mansions, with churches and public buildings scattered among them, all mingling together in a mishmash of poor city planning.

The largest structure, however, was a castle atop a rocky hill situated in the center of the valley. The fort rose some five hundred feet above the valley floor and featured a half dozen towers of various heights and styles. Parapets connected them, the walls of which were some hundred feet high and made of huge stone blocks. Slitted windows were the norm, but a courtyard stood just behind the main gates, and the great hall featured some ornate stained-glass windows.

A large circular town square sat in the middle of the metropolis at the foot of the hill. The area was surrounded by a low stone wall which featured a few dozen ruined columns, and a wide entrance at each of the cardinal corners. The open space covered some hundred yards and was filled with stalls, small stock pens, and even a large stage at the northern end. Hundreds of people walked between the stalls with bags hanging from their arms filled with their chosen goods, and children played about the stage, enjoying the last few minutes of the setting sun at my back. A few large, tall posts stood around the clearing, and unlit oil lamps hung from rods that stuck out the sides high near the top of the poles.

I could take all this view in because that was exactly where the broom was taking me. The end was pointed toward the businesses closest to the stage, some of which were the pens. There were only two hundred feet left. One hundred. Some of the people caught sight of me and pointed up at the sky.

I grabbed the last top inches of the broom and gave it a hard shake. “Pull up, you over-sized feather duster, or you’ll kill us both!”

The broom got the hint and pulled up at the last second. My heart stopped as my magical vehicle turned at ninety degrees, a foot from the cobblestone ground and zipped through the crowds. We weaved in and out of them for fifty feet before we burst into the open square in front of the stage.

“I want to get off!” I shouted.

At my plea, the broom seemed to lose all hope, and its speed went from deadly to ‘nope’ at the drop of a hat. The change was so quick that my momentum kept me going, meaning I flew over the handle of the broom and landed on the wooden boards that made up the stage. Children scattered as I rolled past them and crashed into the sturdy wooden wall. The broom itself clattered to the ground in front of the stage.

My knees hurt. My head hurt. My funny bone hurt.

I sat up and groaned as all my body seemed to protest at any moment. Even breathing was discouraged.

Short shadows fell over me, and I looked up to find a spattering of kids standing over me. Most of them wore simple pants and short-sleeve shirts of bland cloth. The girls wore dresses with plain flowered patterns or no print at all. Their curious eyes stared in wonder at me.

“Is she a witch?” one of them asked his companions.

An older boy frowned at him. “Of course, she’s a witch, you idiot. How else could she ride a broom?”

A young girl cocked her head to one side as she examined me. “She doesn’t look like a witch. My aunt’s a witch and she has a wart.”

A girl who resembled her in looks nudged her with her elbow. “Not all witches have that, silly! Just Aunty after that accident with that frog spell.”

A commotion behind them made all of us look in the direction of the stalls. The throngs of adults were pushed aside as a troop of half a dozen guards pushed their way through. The guards wore tunics over chain mail, and a stitching of a reared dragon stood out on the front.

One look at the halberd-armed men made the children scatter. My heart restarted and pounded hard in my chest as I watched the men march across the open square and over to the stage. At a direction from the leader, a man with a long plume on his cloth hat, half of them remained at the stairs leading up, and he and two of his men continued up to me.

They stopped just a few feet away and the leader frowned down at me. “We witnessed your drop from the sky. Where did you come from?”

My jaw flopped a couple of times before I shook my head. “I-I came out of a hole.”

The man frowned. “What does that-”

“Sir!” One of the men had picked up the broom and held it up to his commander. “I think you need to take a look at this!”

The leader’s frown deepened, but he held his hand out. “Bring it here.”

The soldier scurried up the steps and soon set the broom in the leader’s hand. The man studied the broom, and as he did so his eyes widened. He whipped his gaze up to me and held out the staff clutched tightly in his hand. “Where did you get this?”

I blinked at him. “I-I found it lying on a path.”

His lip curled back in a sneer. “Don’t toy with me. How did this come into your possession? Did you steal it?”

My jaw hit the ground before I furiously shook my head. “I didn’t steal it! It was just lying on a path in the park!”

The man scoffed. “No one would be foolish enough to throw this away. You must have been the one to steal it.” He turned his head to one side and jerked his head toward me. “Take her to the castle. We’ll continue this interrogation there.”

My heart nearly exploded as two of the men marched forward. They reached out their gauntlet-covered hands and grabbed my arms. The pair yanked me to my feet as I thrashed in their hold. “Please just let me go! I didn’t do anything! I don’t even know where I am!”

My pleas went unheard as I was dragged across the stage and over to the steps. The men were just hefting me down the steps when a knife flew out from nowhere and embedded itself into the top of the last step. My captors froze and whipped their heads up in the direction where the weapon had flown, as did I.

A tall man stood perched the nearest lamp post. He wore a black vest over an equally black buttoned shirt, and his pants were of the same color. He had the hem of his pants tucked into heavy, high black boots. His vest had a high, stiff collar that hid the lower half of his face, and a simple black carnival face mask finished the job. The man’s long black hair was slicked back, though a few loose strands framed either side of his face. The skin on his bared forehead had a strange texture to it, almost like scales. The man held three more daggers between the fingers of his right gloved hand, and I caught sight of a long sword in a sheath that leaned against his right hip.

What astonished me the most, however, were the blood-red leathery wings on his back. They were slightly folded behind his back, but even with that shrinkage, I could still tell they had an impressive span. The ends curved downward into sharp, bone-like points, as did the highest peaks close to the back of his head.

This guy was more than just a man, and even with his face so hidden I could still tell he was insanely cute.

CHAPTERTHREE

The eyes of the soldier commander widened before his face twisted with rage. He grasped his halberd in both hands and pointed the sharp tip at the man. “You! So, you are the thief who stole the staff!”

The masked man feigned shock, and as he spoke, I didn’t hear his words so much as feel them in my mind. It was like listening to someone speaking directly to your inner thoughts. “I, Commander Edouard? How could you ever believe such a thing?”

The commander sidled up to the side of one of those who held me. A sly smile slipped onto my lips as he kept his eyes on the man while he stabbed a finger at me. “We have your accomplice. What do you say to that?”

The man turned his attention to me and studied me for a moment. “I would say you have caught yourself a treasure, Commander, but not the one you seek.” He inclined his head toward me, and I swore I detected a hint of a smile beneath the thick collar. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, my lady. I hope you haven’t been treated too harshly.”

I glared at the men who held me. “I’ve been treated better at a bar.”

A laugh escaped the masked fellow before he returned his focus to the commander. “You have caught yourself a spirited horse, Commander, but you are mistaken in believing I have tamed this one to my ways. I’ve never had the pleasure of setting my eyes on her before this evening.”

The commander scoffed. “She was caught with the staff, and only you could have taken it from the treasuries, but if you won’t admit to the deed, we’ll soon find out from your accomplice how that was accomplished.”

The masked man chuckled as he flicked the wrist of the hand that held the daggers. At the same time, he parted two fingers, releasing one of the blades so it flew into the air, and he caught it in his empty left hand. “I’m afraid I can’t allow you to mistreat a visitor to our fair city so improperly, Commander.” He pointed the blade at the soldiers. “I’ll give you three seconds to release her.”

The commander swept his eyes over his men. “You’ve caught us off guard, but we’re more than a match for you in this open daylight.”

The man pointed his dagger over his shoulder at the sun. It had nearly disappeared beneath the horizon and dark shadows hung over much of the ground. “You have only a few moments left, Commander. Hand the girl over or you’ll have to contend with my daggers in the darkness.”

There was indecision in Edouard’s face before fury overtook him. “We will do nothing, thief!” He caught the eyes of his men and stabbed his halberd at his foe. “Get him down from there even if you have to chop the post down!”

The three of his men, unoccupied, hurried forward with their weapons clasped tightly in both their hands. The man in black laughed. “You needn’t have worried about coming to greet me, Commander.” He leapt from the post and opened his wings. They spread for many yards in both directions, allowing him to glide down and land between where I stood and the guards who had intended to capture him. He tossed another dagger into his left hand as the guards spun around. “I would rather come to you.”

Edouard caught his men’s attention and pointed at the man in black. “Stop standing there like dunces and get him!”

By this time a large crowd had gathered at the edge of the stalls and watched with curiosity. The men shouted and charged shoulder-to-shoulder with their halberds pointed in front of them. The man spun around, and as he did so he deflected the lead halberd with the short blade of his dagger. The man was thrown off and stumbled into his compatriot, and both of them fell into a heap to one side. The crowd roared with laughter.

While all of this played out, I looked to and fro between my captors. Their complete attention lay on the fight. I took the opportunity to lean down and snap my teeth into the exposed flesh just below the wrist of one of the men. The soldier gave a shout and his grip weakened enough that I twisted out of his hold. I swung my leg up and knocked one of the legs out from under the other man, and that freed me.

I shot forward and snatched the broom from Edouard’s hand. He spun around just as I was pressing the staff against myself. His eyes shone with fury as he leapt at me with one hand outstretched. “You little bitch!”

“Up!” I shouted as I hopped off the ground.

Then I landed back on the ground. My blood ran cold as I hopped again.

“Up!”

My feet still only left the ground for a second. Edouard snatched one of my wrists and twisted it, forcing me to release the staff. “I will have your head for this!”

“You’ll have to get in line, Commander.”

I looked past Edouard and at the man in black. He had tossed the last of the soldiers onto the pair who had nearly stood, sending all three of them toppling to the ground in a heap of frustration. The man turned to us and tossed another dagger into his left hand.

He pointed the blade at Edouard, and in the dim light, I could see that his eyes glowed bright red. “I claim that beautiful head for myself.”

Edouard sneered at him as he roughly yanked me against his side. He pressed the tip of his halberd against my throat, and I stiffened as the sharp blade cut into my flesh. A warm line of blood dribbled down my neck. “I won’t lose to you again, thief.”

The man’s bright eyes dropped to the wound on my neck, and as they narrowed, I couldn’t help but feel a strange, terrible aura come off him. The next moment the remaining daggers were thrown at my captor. Edouard managed to deflect one with the broad side of his weapon, but the other two stuck into his shoulders. The fury behind the throw sent him flying backward and pinned him to the ground.

The man in black darted forward and swept me into his arms, broom and all. “Don’t squirm too much.”

He opened his wings and leapt high into the air. I let out a gasp and pressed myself tightly against his muscular chest with the broom clutched against me. He flapped hard and we took to the air. Not to the great height from which I’d fallen, but enough that I had another view of the metropolis. The sight wasn’t quite as majestic as before, however, because the shadows of night had fallen on much of the city. Streetlamps and lit windows dotted the streets like random stars, and the populace scurried indoors against the encroaching darkness.

My rescuer glided downward at a gentle angle, using the myriad of house heights to hide us from the view of the soldiers. The sea of buildings ebbed and flowed, with large lawns and small parks dotting the landscape here and there. It was to one of the most overgrown parks that the strange man flew us.

Large gray stones ruled over a kingdom of vines and weeds. Dozens of ancient trees stretched their thick branches over the area, covering much of the ground in a cold layer of shadows. A wooden fence surrounded the park, though many of the panels had collapsed beneath the weight of the vines and time.

He landed amidst an overbearing silence and set me down. On the flight, I had lost my land legs, and when I set my feet down, I stumbled backward. My heel caught against a rock, and I tumbled onto my butt. The broom clattered to the ground between us.

In the dim light, the strange man looked down at me, and his red eyes glowed brightly in the dark. My breath caught in my throat and instinct took hold. I scuttled backward on my hands and butt until my back hit a hard stone.

The man didn’t heed my terror, but took a step forward and picked up the broom in one hand. He studied the details left by ants as his wings folded behind him. “How did you come to have this stick in your possession? Did you steal it?”