Faery Worlds - Six Complete Novels (83 page)

He played until the air around him was scorching hot. The dragon managed to fold in its wings, and it dove straight for Erin.

Jason struck all six strings and released the heat bubble, with the face of his guitar pointed directly at the dragon. A giant fireball raced away from him, punching a wormhole of steam through the sheets of falling hail.

It struck the dragon and ignited, casting off blazing comets that sliced up the black clouds.

The dragon roared as the flames swept over it and engulfed its entire body. It plummeted towards them.

Jason dropped his guitar and grabbed Erin's hand, and they ran away together, toward the huge crowd of fans that had gathered behind the club and now gaped at the burning dragon falling towards the street.

The dragon's colossal body crashed to the ground, sending a wave of the shattered asphalt high into the air. Jason and Erin toppled over, and so did most of the gathered crowd.

The flames slowly twisted into dark smoke, as did the dragon body itself, leaving a dark heap of pink smoke behind. The stormclouds began to break up, and shafts of neon light from the Fleet Farm billboard above crept into the alley.

Jason helped Erin to her feet. Mitch and Dred sat up nearby—they'd run, too, abandoning their instruments. Everybody was covered in smoldering pink soot.

A tiny unicorn horn tumbled down through the smoke and clinked against the asphalt.

The audience burst into applause and whistles. Mitch waved, nodding, soaking it up.

Erin looked back at the drift of pink ash snowing down over their instruments. Then she looked at Jason.

“So...did we just kill a dragon?” she asked.

“I think so.”

“That's more excitement than I expected in Minneapolis.” She frowned and touched his cheek. “It got you pretty bad, didn't it?”

“Yeah, how's it look?” Jason turned around so she could see where the dragon claw had raked his back. When he faced her again, she looked like she would burst into tears.

“Jason, I was talking about your
ear
,” she said. “I didn't know about that.”

“I got it when I saved your life from that dragon,” he said. “Remember that?”

“I think I do.” Erin stood on her tiptoes and gave him a long kiss.

“Buttercake!” the elf's voice wailed.

The rough-looking elf with the impossibly long name knelt in the pink ash, clutching the unicorn horn and weeping. “Poor, sweet Buttercake!” he cried.

Grizlemor strolled out from behind a dented trashcan, looking shocked.

“You beat the dragon?” the goblin asked Jason.

“Yeah,” Jason said. “By the way, nice job mentioning that unicorns turn into dragons. Before you ran off.”

“I thought everyone knew that,” Grizlemor said.

“Now I'll have to take her back to the swamp and regrow her!” the elf cried, waving the horn at them. “I hope you're happy!” He turned and ran away into the dissolving pink smoke.

“Should we go catch that elf?” Jason asked.

“If you don't, he'll be able to tell the fairies about you,” Grizlemor said.

Jason and Erin pursued the elf down to a sewer grate at the end of the alley. He slipped into the drain under the sidewalk, an opening much too narrow for either of them to follow him. They heard his footsteps splash away.

“I can't even think about chasing him,” Erin said. “I'm about to collapse.”

“Me, too.”

They walked back up the alley together.

Mitch and Dred were busy with the crowd, who advanced further into the alley now, taking pictures and begging for autographs.

“I wonder if that dragon will be all over YouTube tomorrow,” Erin said.

“It'd make a great video,” Jason said. “Maybe you should write a song about it.”

“Maybe you should,” Erin replied. She squeezed his hand, then went to check on Mitch and Dred. The fans flooded around Jason, hugging him and taking pictures. He felt dazed, but he managed to smile.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

They dusted off their instruments and managed to drive away as the fire department arrived. Dred's van rode uneven and bumpy now, after being quaked hard by her drum, but it still drove.

They were quiet as they made their way out of Minneapolis. Mitch played the Rolling Stones on the stereo, and Dred didn't stop him.

“Dragonslayers,” Grizlemor said, shaking his head. He sat on the heap of pink-dusted instrument cases behind them. “Queen Mab will have a new respect for you. Which isn't necessarily a good thing.”

“I told you guys the fairies were nothing to worry about,” Jason said.

“You call getting attacked by a giant candy dragon nothing to worry about?” Dred asked.

“Grizlemor,” Mitch said. “I'd like to ask you a few things.”

“Such as?”

“Things about being a goblin, basically.”

“Ah. I happen to be a learned scholar on the subject.” Grizlemor puffed his way from the back of the van to the front. He sat on the dashboard, dangling his feet while he answered Mitch and Dred's questions about goblins, fairies, elves and unicorn-dragons.

“How’s your back?” Erin asked Jason. “Shouldn’t we go to a hospital?”

“Nope, I’m fine. It’s just a scratch.” A diagonal streak of pain burned across his back where the dragon had clawed him. It did hurt, but he didn’t want to complain. He wanted to get home.

Jason and Erin looked at each other, smiling. He took her hand, and she let him hold it for a minute. Then she slowly pulled away and gazed at the night outside her window. Her reflection showed a confused look. She would be thinking about her boyfriend, the one who was too busy shooting a German pizzeria commercial to see her first show.

But she had kissed him, and Jason knew she didn't hate him. Far from it.

Jason closed his eyes. Despite the aching wound in his back, he gradually dozed off as he rode home, and he dreamed of fairies, and of music, and of Erin.

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J.L. Bryan
studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories. He is the author of The Paranormals trilogy (
Jenny Pox
,
Tommy Nightmare
, and
Alexander Death
), the biopunk sf novel
Helix
, and other works.
Fairy Metal Thunder
is the first book in his new Songs of Magic series. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, one baby, two dogs, two cats, and assorted attic squirrels. His website is
http://jlbryanbooks.com
. You can also follow him on
Twitter
or
Facebook
.

Read more in the Songs of Magic series!

Fairy Blues

Fairystruck

Fairyland

Fairyvision

FEYLAND: THE DARK REALM

Book 1 in the FEYLAND Trilogy

ANTHEA SHARP

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real events or persons is purely coincidental.

Copyright 2011 Anthea Sharp. All rights reserved. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away. Support independent authors - read legally! To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, other than for review purposes, contact
[email protected]
. Print copies available at most vendors. Visit the author at
www.antheasharp.com
and sign up for her mailing list, Sharp Tales, at
https://tinyletter.com/AntheaSharp
for news of upcoming releases!

COVER: Design - Kimberly Killion,
www.hotdamndesigns.com

Model – Jessica Truscott, faestock.deviantart.com

QUALITY CONTROL: If you encounter typos or formatting problems, please contact
[email protected]
so they may be corrected.

DEDICATION:

For all the readers in my family – but most especially, for Brynn.

PROLOGUE

J
ennet faced the Dark Queen, her mage staff at the ready. Excitement fizzed through her blood like it was carbonated. This was it. She’d completed the quests, mastered each level of the game, and made it here. The final boss fight.

“Fair Jennet.” The queen’s voice was laced with stars and shadow. “You think to best me in battle?” A faint smile crossed her pitiless, beautiful face. Her dress swirled around her like tatters of midnight mist.

“I plan on it,” Jennet said. She tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear, then shook off the sudden anxiety that settled on her shoulders, cold as snow.

She had no idea what this particular fight held. Feyland was the hardest sim she’d ever played, full of weird twists and turns. She thought about it all the time. The game filtered into her dreams, shaded the edge of her days. Sometimes the computer-generated world felt more real than her ordinary life.

“Very well,” the queen said. “I accept your challenge.”

Jennet couldn’t see any weapons on her opponent, and that dress was no substitute for armor. Safe bet that this was going to be a magical duel, spell-caster against spell-caster. Jennet flexed her fingers around the smooth wood of her staff. Anticipation spiked through her, tightening her breath.