The Dragonstones Trilogy
Chapter 18

You cannot protect her. James screamed and jumped out of bed. He looked around. Where was he? Then it all came back to him. He was at the motel. Sara was in a nearby room. James sat down on the bed and tried to calm himself down. It was just a nightmare, but one that could come true. James closed his eyes, and saw it.

He didn’t recognize where they were, but he and Sara were fighting Aevill. Sara was preoccupied with Cole. James felt anger wash over him. From what James had seen, Cole seemed like a nice enough guy, under normal circumstances. But no matter how much he tried to convince them that he was a friend, Cole would always be a danger to Sara. She failed to see that. The vision went on. As if in slow motion, Aevill sent tendrils of dark magic after Sara. She was too busy fighting shadow flames to see it. James knew he had to do something. He sang his fastest travel song, but it did no good. He would not reach her in time. Already the dark magic was within arms reach. Sara would die, and it would be because James wasn’t fast enough. He wouldn’t get there in time to save her. As the vision ended, James’s worst fear was confirmed in a small voice whispering the same words he heard each time. You cannot protect her.

It was the vision he had seen at the cave, and no matter what he tried, he could not stop those images, and that voice, from haunting him.

Speaking of haunting...James felt eyes on him and looked around. In a corner of the room, he saw a familiar face, but not a living one. “Should I expect to see you every night then?” he asked the ghost.

The man took a step toward James. He glowed faintly, which James had at first found rather eerie. “I will visit when I need to.”

“Is now one of those occasions?”

“It is.” He took another step toward him, and James had to resist the urge to scoot back. Sara’s dad could be pretty intimidating when he wanted to be. “You are traveling alone with my daughter, on a very dangerous mission.” James detected a threat in Mr. Day’s voice.

“I won’t let anything happen to her,” he assured the ghost with more confidence than he felt.

“Are you so sure?” The ghost’s question brought back all of James’s personal fears.

He thought of Sara. Her beautiful smile, her long flowing hair, her quiet strength. Even before he knew that she had the Dragon Magic, he had known there was something different about her. When his family had moved back into Mageton, and he first went to her school, he had wanted to get to know her at once. He trusted her enough to show her the cave, one of his favorite places. It was even more special now that he went there with her.

James was brought back to reality as he thought of what would happen if she were to get hurt, or worse, killed. When Drusk had tried to kill her with a magic based sickness, it pained him to see her on her bed every day, so close to death. When Drana and Cole attacked her, there was nothing on his mind besides the fact that he had to keep Sara safe. When her mother had died, it had almost killed him to see her in so much pain. James was glad that he had been able to keep her from seeing her dead mother’s body. He still had trouble getting that image out of his head.

If the smallest thing happened to Sara, he would blame himself.

“Something happened in your visit to the cave. I was there,” Mr. Day said.

James felt a little uneasy at that. He had had no idea that Mr. Day had been there. “Lots of stuff happened in there,” he said carefully.

“You formed a connection with my daughter.”

“So that’s what happened.” James had wondered why he had been able to hear Sara’s voice, especially when she wasn’t speaking. He had suspected that they were thoughts, but he hadn’t known until now. James also remembered the first few times they had touched after the cave, when they were about to meet Cole at the park. He had felt energy go through him, and Sara had looked like she felt it too.

“Can she hear what I’m thinking?” he asked Sara’s dad. Mr. Day had known certain things before, on earlier visits. James guessed that it had to do with being a ghost.

“Sometimes.” The ghost looked at James, unblinking. “This connection will help you, but also make my daughter more vulnerable. Be careful with her. I don’t want any more members of my family to join me. Not yet, at least.”

James looked at Sara’s father, and somehow found the confidence he needed there. “I will keep her safe,” he told him.

The ghost was quiet for a second, then said, “I believe you will try.” He turned to leave, then looked back. “Be careful around her. If you were to do anything I disapprove of...” the ghost smiled. “I would haunt you for the rest of your life.”

“I know sir. I will.”

Mr. Day nodded, then disappeared, gone to wherever ghosts went.

James leaned back on the bed, and thought of Sara. She had told him about her visits to the Dragon Cave that he almost felt like he knew some of the dragons personally. With some of them, he did. He thought of how the dragons thought she would be the one to kill Aevill, although they used different words. He had no doubt that if she was ready, and he was able to keep her alive until then, she would be a formidable enemy. Aevill had better beware.

James fell asleep again thinking of Sara, and the small chance that she felt the same way about him as he did about her.