Sunny’s sleep that night was deep and dreamless. She might have slept until noon of the next day if it hadn’t been for Clint gently shaking her awake early the next morning. A glance at the glowing display on the hotel room’s digital alarm clock told her it was just past seven o’clock. Groggily, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. The smell of coffee and donuts filled the room and she glanced around hungrily. Clint was standing by the tiny hotel room desk, which now held two large to-go cups of coffee next to a giant box of donuts.

“I got us some breakfast. I know it’s not the healthiest of options, but I thought maybe you could use a little treat before the day ahead.”

The day ahead. The words brought reality crashing back down on Sunny, and she pulled her blanket up tighter around her body. She was still naked underneath it, but the happiness of the night before suddenly felt far away.

Today was the day she had to perform an ancient magic counter spell that she wasn’t quite sure she could pull off. Her stomach immediately started twisting up in nervous knots, and her anxiety must have shown on her face, because Clint came over to sit beside her on the bed. He reached for her hand with one of his hands, and used his other hand to push back a few stray strands of hair from her face.

“Hey, don’t worry so much, okay? Just do your best today. That’s all that matters. If things don’t go as planned, we’ll try again next time.”

Sunny could only nod. She was afraid if she tried to speak that her voice would come out in horrible nervous squawks.

“How do you take your coffee?” Clint asked as he brushed back another strand of hair. “I brought plenty of cream and sugar.”

“Just two creamers, please,” Sunny managed to say. Clint nodded and gave her an encouraging smile, then went to doctor up her coffee. Sunny got up and pulled on one of the hotel’s fluffy bathrobes, then went to peek at the donut box. Inside were way more donuts than she and Clint could hope to eat this morning. Despite everything, she had to laugh.

“It looks like you were trying to bring breakfast to a class of high school boys or something. How many dozens of donuts did you buy?”

Clint shrugged. “Hey, don’t underestimate how many donuts I can eat. I am a dragon, after all. But really, I just wanted to make sure you had options, so I bought a couple of each type.”

Sunny selected a jelly filled donut and went to sit on the edge of the bed with her donut and coffee. As the coffee washed away the last dregs of sleep, though, even the donut could not comfort her. The day ahead loomed too large. She looked over at Clint, wondering if he felt nervous, too. But he looked confident as he munched on his donut and peered out the window. How could he feel so calm?

He hadn’t said anything about last night, either. Sunny found herself suddenly nervous about that, too. Did he regret what they had done? Or had it just been a one-time moment of fun for him? Because Sunny knew, as she watched him now, that it had been much more than a one-time event for her. When she looked at him, her heart flip-flopped in new, funny ways. As crazy as it was, she felt like she loved him. Was it possible to fall in love so quickly? Sunny wasn’t sure. All she knew was that he made her so happy it hurt. And she didn’t think she’d be able to bear it if he didn’t feel the same way. She was scared to ask, but she had to know.

“Clint? About last night. I was just wondering…” she faltered unsure of quite how to word things.

He looked over at her and smiled, and her heart felt like it was literally melting in her chest.

“Last night was quite possibly the best night of my life,” he said. “I’d love to repeat that night over and over and over. I actually have a lot to say to you about the future, and about us. I hope that we can build a future together. But those conversations will have to wait, I think. The clock is starting to tick on when the Dark Warriors might attempt the disappearing spell.”

Sunny nodded. As much as she would have loved to spend the morning discussing her future with Clint, she knew he was right. They needed to be ready for the mission at hand. Sunny quickly wolfed down her donut and drank her coffee, feeling more awake, and more nervous, with every passing second. She took a quick shower and got dressed in a Torch Lake military uniform that the High Council had given her, even though she wasn’t technically military. She liked the uniform though. The black fabric was surprisingly soft and comfortable, and she loved the way the Torch Lake seal was embroidered into the left chest of the uniform in shimmering golden thread.

Clint dressed in a military uniform as well, and Sunny allowed herself to admire how handsome he looked all suited up. She didn’t say anything, though. They didn’t talk to each other much as they got ready, both of them lost in their thoughts about the day ahead. Sunny had taken a lot of tests in ancient magic while earning her master’s degree, but this was going to be the biggest test of her life. She must not fail. She would not fail!

At just past eight o’clock, Sunny cast an invisibility spell over herself and Clint, and the two of them started making their way toward the woods. Their plan was to get as close to the dragon shifter’s home as possible while staying under the cover of the trees. Clint would stand guard while Sunny did her best to watch for signs that the disappearance spell was being cast. If all went well, she would be able to sense when the spell started and then effectively deploy the counter spell.

If all didn’t go well…the consequences could range from merely another dragon disappearing all the way to that dragon being killed, or Clint and Sunny being killed. Clint was a strong dragon, and could defend against a lot. But there was no way to know how many enemy wizards and shifters they might be facing, or what other magic spells the Dark Warriors might have up their sleeves. Sunny did her best not to think too much about it while she sat with Clint and waited. And waited, and waited.

By midday, her nervousness was starting to fade into boredom. She wasn’t the kind of person who liked to sit still for long periods of time, and neither, it would seem, was Clint. He was pacing back and forth, occasionally snapping twigs or leaves off nearby trees, and asking Sunny every five minutes whether she’d felt any magic yet. Finally, Sunny couldn’t take it anymore.

“Why don’t you go get us some lunch or something?”

Clint looked at her with a horrified expression, as though she’d just suggested he sacrifice a child or something awful like that. “It’s way too dangerous. What if the Dark Warriors find you and attack while I’m gone.”

“I can take care of myself, honestly. I know quite a few ancient magic spells that are far better than your everyday, run-of-the-mill attack and shield spells.”

But Clint refused to leave. “The whole reason I’m here is to protect you. If I leave and something happens to you, I would never be able to live with myself.”

And so they waited. The day stretched into late afternoon, and Sunny could feel her stomach growling. The donuts from this morning had long since worn off, and neither of them had thought to actually bring lunch. They had both assumed, foolishly, that whatever the Dark Warriors were going to do would be done early in the day. Sunny had envisioned everything being neatly wrapped up in time for her and Clint to run into town and grab a burger before all the lunch specials ended. How silly that idea seemed now.

At some point, Clint was going to have to go get food. They couldn’t stay out here indefinitely without nourishment. Sunny got grumpier and grumpier as the day went on, and she became far less vigilant about searching for signs of magic in the air than she had been earlier in the day—so she almost missed it when it happened.

She was daydreaming about where things with Clint would go, and whether he might want her to move in with him someday, when the sound of a bird sneezing caught her ear. She sat up straight, instantly alert. Clint didn’t seem to notice, but Sunny knew that many birds reacted to ancient magic by sneezing uncontrollably. The forces that were required for many ancient magic spells irritated avian creatures, a fact that even first year students at the Academy of Ancient Magic had known well.

Sunny’s senses were instantly on high alert. She closed her eyes and tried to feel magical disturbances in the air. She couldn’t feel anything, which was strange. The bird still sneezed. Something was going on, but what? Sunny’s heart pounded in her chest. Was it possible she was just rusty and out of practice? She hadn’t needed to use her ancient magic abilities in quite some time. Maybe she wasn’t as skilled at feeling magic in the air as she used to be.

She didn’t want to do the counter spell too soon, making it ineffective. But doing it too late would be a waste, too. She had to time it right, but that was going to be hard to do if she couldn’t sense when the Dark Warriors were casting the spell.

The bird still sneezed. Sunny noticed, even with her eyes closed, that Clint had stopped pacing. His footsteps no longer crunched across the ground. He must have realized that she was concentrating, waiting for something to happen.

And then, something happened. A rush of magical force reverberated through the air, so strong that even Clint noticed it.

“What was that?” he asked, his voice tense. Sunny didn’t answer him. She was too busy holding her magic ring high in the air, shouting out the words to try to get the counter spell done in time.

“Magicae exsto! Magicae exsto!” she could feel her magical powers, pushing against the magical powers that were trying to make the dragon disappear. But she could tell that she wasn’t strong enough. No matter how much she concentrated, and no matter how many times she repeated the spell, the magic of the other wizard was stronger. It pushed back against her, overpowering her with such force that she could hardly believe what was happening. Sunny had only known one wizard who could perform magic at that level—Barnabas, her old mentor and the head of the Academy of Ancient Magic. But he would never have helped the Dark Warriors. He would have died before he used his powers to help anyone evil.

But whoever was casting the disappearing spell had powers that were undeniably as strong as Barnabas’s powers. Sunny did her best to hold on, but she knew in less than a minute that she was fighting a losing battle. There was no way she was going to be able to overcome the wizard casting the spell. Still, she didn’t give up. She couldn’t bring herself to admit defeat. She could hear Clint behind her, bouncing nervously from one foot to another. She knew he was doing his best to restrain himself from asking questions, but his bouncing was nearly as distracting as questions would have been. She was about to turn around and tell him to stop, when she heard a sudden, loud scream pierce the air.

“Noooooooooo!” cried a loud voice. The agony in the voice was so great that the voice almost didn’t sound human. And yet, the voice was human. And it was eerily familiar.

“Barnabas?” Sunny whispered. “Impossible!”

“Noooooooooo!” the voice called again. It was definitely Barnabas. Sunny’s eyes flew open, and her heart sank. Had things in this world become so evil that even Barnabas had joined the darkness? And if it was indeed Barnabas casting that spell, there was no way she could beat him back. His magic was at least two times as strong as hers. At least.

Burning hot anger and despair flooded her heart. And even though she knew she would never win this battle, she held her magic ring high and furiously yelled, “Magicae exsto!”

A few seconds later, a searing pain shot through her whole body. The last thing she remembered was a voice yelling out “Noooooo!” again. But this time, the voice belonged to Clint. And then, everything went black.