Magic Eclipse: A Dragon Born Novel

Magic Eclipse: Prologue

The Fairy Queen was packed that Saturday afternoon, not surprising considering it was the best dress shop in all of San Francisco. The bundle of tiny silver bells over the door jingled, signaling new arrivals: a pair of combat mages, dressed in leather and denim and armed to the teeth with enough steel to make even a former monster-hunting mercenary like Sera gawk at the ostentatiousness of it all. As they stepped inside, she reached automatically for her sword-but she dropped her hand the moment they turned toward the rack of dresses on summer clearance. It appeared they were just regular shoppers after all.

"I'll take the one on the left," Lara told Sera, her head peeking over the rack of white wedding dresses she'd been browsing. "You go for the one on the right. She's giving those sundresses a shifty look."

"Sorry," Sera said. "I thought they might be assassins."

"I don't think anyone is crazy enough to come after the mage who defeated the Grim Reaper."

Maybe Lara was right. In the past few weeks, no one had made a move against Sera, even though the whole world knew by now precisely what she was. Whether they were afraid of her or simply afraid of Kai she didn't know. But she couldn't just let her guard down. The supernatural world considered her an abomination. Sooner or later, someone crazy enough would come along and try to grant her an early grave. There were more than a few members of the Magic Council who were still sour about the fact that they weren't allowed to kill her-at least not if they didn't want her dragon-shifting fiancé to step on them.

"I'll watch the door," Lara said. "You concentrate on your assigned mission." She held up the only scarlet wedding dress amongst a sea of white fabric.

"I don't know. It's a bit ostentatious, don't you think?" Sera fingered the stitching on the dress's high thigh slits. Well, at least she could kick in that skirt.

"My brother shifts into a twenty ton dragon. He loves ostentatious." Lara waved the dress in front of Sera. "Try it on. You know you want to."

"I think I stand out enough already."

"Well, you won't be wearing that big sword on your wedding day."

"No sword? I was thinking it would make a great accessory." Sera smirked at her.

"It's a good thing you're not planning the wedding."

"Afraid I'd scandalize your parents?"

Kai and Lara hailed from one of the supernatural community's oldest and most powerful magic dynasties. The Drachenburgs owned the world's largest magical research company and had a seat on the Magic Council, the organization that ruled the supernatural world. And along with all that power and prestige came a generous helping of age-old traditions. That was just part of being one of the magical elite. If someone had told Sera just a year ago that she would be marrying into one of these dynasties, she'd have laughed in their face.

And yet here she was.

"You're the woman who finally got my brother to settle down, the one who tamed the dragon. The perfect son." Lara rolled her eyes with sisterly affection.

Sera snorted.

"Of course our parents adore you," Lara continued. "They never thought Kai would marry. Like ever."

Luckily, the Drachenburgs didn't have a problem with her unusual magic. And they were refusing to let anyone else have a problem with it either. Sera had never had anyone except her own family look out for her like that, but Kai's family was. That meant a lot. There weren't many people who would stick out their neck for a Dragon Born mage.

Long ago, the Dragon Born had been respected, worshipped even. But the supernatural community had turned against them the day they'd learned that the Dragon Born weren't dragons but instead people with a split persona: a mage side and a dragon side. Sera's dragon was a part of her, but during battle she could break away from her, taking corporeal form to fight alongside her.