Firebolt
(The Dragonian Series #1)
by Adrienne Woods
(Erika Bester writing under Adrienne Woods)Fantasy, YA, RomanceDEDICATION:To my Heinrich, Maddison, and Jamie-Leigh: I've loved you since the first time I saw you and without you this wouldn't be possible.
Short BLURB
Dragons. Right. Teenage girls don’t believe in fairy tales, and sixteen-year old Elena Watkins was no different.
Until the night a fairy tale killed her father.
Now Elena’s in a new world, and a new school. The cutest guy around may be an evil dragon, a Prince wants Elena’s heart, and a long dead sorcerer may be waking up to kill her. Oh. And the only way Elena’s going to graduate is on the back of a dragon of her own.
Teenage girls don’t believe in fairy tales. Now it’s time for Elena to believe – in herself.
Long BLURB
The Belly of a huge blue beast on four legs, the size of tree stumps, stood in front of the pickup.Elena Watkins loved the fairy tales her father used to tell her.Another dragon came out of nowhere. His scales appeared to be copper. He sank his jaws into the blue dragon.Tales of heroes. Tales of magic.The copper dragon bit fiercely into the blue dragon's neck. Blood pooled on thick puddles on the road.Tales of dragons.The copper dragon trudged toward the pickup. He hooked one of his talons into the windshield - and ripped it off.But that was when she was little. Sixteen year old girls know the difference between fairy tales and real life. And everybody knows...The dragon started to shrink.there are no such things ...The dragon's huge figure melted away into a copper blob. I shrieked...as dragons.as the blob transformed into the fugure of a man crouching low to the ground.Elena knew that too. Until that night. The night a dragon...My father. And he was dying....killed her father.Now there's a lot more that Elena has to learn. And not just about dragons. Because for Elena, not all the fairy tales are false - and not all the real world is real. And if Elena is going to get through what's coming, she's going to have to know a lot more that the difference. She's going to have to get to know someone she's never met. Someone she doesn't know if she can believe in.Herself.
For the love of blueberries, Elena Watkins was destined for greatness, even though she didn’t know it. Forced to travel from home to home every three months Elena’s life was a never ending blur of new towns and new faces, that is, until the night her father was killed by a creature she thought only existed in fairy tales – a dragon. With her father’s death leaving her orphaned, Elena is whisked away to her true birthplace, Paegeia.
Arriving at Dragonia Academy, the premier school for young Dragonians, she begins to feel a sense of belonging in this strange world; a school she was never meant to attend because her father was a dragon. Elena is soon swept up in the rigor of her new life and the new set of skills she now needs to survive: Latin, Art of War, and Enchantments.
Entranced by her new reality Elena learns about the dragons and humans who inhabit her new home. There are two classes of dragons that soar through Paegeia distinguished by their instinctual pretense for either good or darkness. The distinction between these two very different species is vital to Elena’s success in her new world because she has been marked as a Dragonian, a human preordained to ride and tame a dragon of her very own.
With the help of her new friends, Elena is able to navigate the complexities of her new home. Her new roommates Becky and Sammy are even more amazing then she could have ever imaged and to top it all off, Sammy was a dragon. Sammy’s is also the devoted sister of Blake, the most attractive boy at school and the Rubicon; the only dragon of his kind with the abilities of all the dragon species with a pretense for evil. Elena soon finds the love she always wanted with Lucian, the Prince of Tith, who actively pursues Elena throughout her time at Dragonia Academy, winning her heart with his absolute adoration and unshaken dedication.
Unbeknownst to Elena danger is lurking behind the enchanted vines concealing the once thriving capital of Paegeia – Etan. Goran, the darkest sorcerer to ever practice his evil arts in the realm, has lain dormant for over a century behind the crumbling city. The first step in his menacing plan is to destroy the only weapon that can kill him – the King of Lion Sword.
When the sword is stolen Elena doesn’t think twice about seeking it; knowing deep down that it is her destiny to save her new home. She travels to the Sacred Cavern, and discovers the nefarious actions of an unknown man lead to the swords destruction as she follows the trail revealed in the prophetic waters of the cavern.
Elena and her friends engage the mysterious man revealing their existence to Goran and fighting for their very lives.
Excerpt:
Chapter One:
A girl singing her heart out about a miracle boomed inside my ear. A miracle would get me what I needed: a chance at a semi-normal life.The bedroom door hitting the wall expelled the thought from my mind. With his hand tangled up in his copper hair and with huge brown eyes, Dad's figure filled the entire doorway. “Pack your bags.” He had that set to his jaw, the one that meant there was no way out of this. He bolted out of the room just as suddenly as he had appeared.My teeth ground hard against each other, and the sharp pain behind my eyes, I guessed from the lack of sleep, grew stronger. Every fibre of my being wanted to explode.Ever since I could remember my name, Dad and I had been on the run. From what? Beats me.For the last two weeks, I'd been pacing up and down through the house, struggling to fall asleep at night, waiting for this day.For the love of blue berries, no sixteen-year old should live this way!I climbed off my bed, and the first step I took left my toe tangled in the wide leg of my jeans. I tried to regain my balance as the closet inched closer, but with wildly flailing arms, I came crashing down. The thud reverberated across the wooden floor, and it sounded as if I'd broken something.Dad darted back into my room. "Are you okay?" He lifted me back onto my feet as if I weighed nothing.Tears lurked in the corners of my eyes, threatening to burst, as I stared up at him."Don't give me that look, Elena. Please, we need to hurry.” He pulled my suitcase from the top shelf and chucked it haphazardly onto my bed. “We need to go. Now.”"Dad…"He started to grab my clothes from the shelf and tossed them messily inside my small suitcase. Then he paused, sighed, and looked up with soft eyes. He stroked the side of my cheek with his hand gently. “This wasn't the right place, bear. Please, you’ve got to trust me.”His hand reached back to pull everything off my shelf, while my hands curled up into balls of fury. My heart pounded fast as those two words bounced inside my skull. “Trust you, Dad?”"Elena, we don't have much time,” he yelled. “Pack your bags! You can ask questions later." He left, and the hollow “doof” sound from his footsteps stomped loudly as he made his way into the hall.Ask questions? Yeah right! I’ll only get answers that don’t reveal why we are on the run for the gazillionth time.' “Trust me” and “I'll tell you when the time is right” were the only two answers Dad gave. 'Guess time with him will never be right.’It was no use arguing with him anyway. The last time, he threw me over his shoulder and carried me out without any of my things.So I grabbed the stuff I needed: my mp3 player, a photo of Mom that Dad didn't know I had, and my journal from underneath my bed. I tossed them into my backpack. It wasn't much, but it was the stuff that made my miserable life felt less pathetic. I zipped up my suitcase and took a deep breath. Looking around my bedroom for the last time, I said goodbye to my sixtieth-something room.Dad almost ran me over in the hall with his army bag slung over his shoulder. He grumbled, which I assumed was an apology, took my suitcase, and ran down the stairs. He always rented these huge old houses, pre-furnished and near the countryside, and we always left after three months.The pickup's horn honked as I shut the front door. I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. Just two more years, then I'll be eighteen and free from this freak show. Huge raindrops fell hard onto the ground. The smell of wet dirt filled the air. It was my favorite smell.The water that pooled on the ground covered all the gaps in the driveway, forcing me to hopscotch around all of them. My shoe got caught in one of the gaps and I smacked down hard in a huge puddle. By the time I reached the truck, my jeans and shoes were soaking wet.Warm heat from the vents inside the truck hit me full blast as I jumped in; a million goose pimples erupted across my skin. As soon as I shut the rusty door, Dad floored the gas pedal. Tires screeched and the truck spun away as if the Devil chased us. My lower lip quivered softly as he swerved onto the road. The streetlights flew by in a blur as I plugged in my earpieces. The same stupid song about a miracle boomed from my mp3, drowning the sound of the engine and the hard dribbles on the roof, a percussion that became the perpetual soundtrack to my misery.A feeling of utter loneliness consumed my heart as I stared out the window. Homes with white picket fences and the convenient store whizzed by in a flash. A tear rolled down my cheek as I said goodbye, and my breath on the glass created a foggy condensation. Reaching out my index finger, I drew a small heart. These were the reasons why Mom had left. She couldn't handle his paranoia, but why she’d left her daughter to deal with it was a mystery. Dad constantly reminded me of the latter, and that was the only time he ever spoke of her. If he ever discovered I had that picture, he would kill me. That was how much he hated her for leaving us.The lights of a vehicle in the upcoming lane shone directly into my face. I shut my eyes, waiting for it to disappear. As a little girl, I used to watch Dad as we drove away from yet another house. He would glare into his rearview mirror every five seconds, every muscle in his face clenched, and his knuckles white on the steering wheel. I hadn’t been able to force myself to peek out the window then, as it used to scare the living crap out of me to consider the possible reasons he was fleeing from, or who might be following us. Now, I didn't look at him or care much for what he was going through. He created this problem. With me becoming the luggage. It was a ritual I endured every three months, and nothing over the past sixteen years had ever changed that.The “Interstate 40” sign flew by in a whirl, and the pickup slowly moved onto the turnoff lane.My eyes started to burn as I stared at the rain running down my window. Each rivet resembled another town, another place I would never again call home. Exhaustion consumed me and my eyelids felt heavy. I laid my head against the window and struggled to stay awake.Suddenly, a dark and huge figure flew past me. Dad swerved to the left, which made me crushed into the side of the passenger’s door. My entire body pumped with adrenaline. I jumped straight in my seat and wrenched the seatbelt over my shoulder to buckle myself in. I tore out my earpieces as I tried to process what had just happened.“What was that?” I looked at Dad.He stared straight ahead with huge eyes. Beads of sweat rolled from his hairline down to the side of his temple. He looked terrified, something that conflicted with his personality. I'd never seen Dad look that scared in my entire life.“Dad!”“Did you see where it went?” he asked, attempting to inject calm into his voice, but I could hear the fear lacing each syllable.“See where what went? Dad what was that!”“You wouldn't believe me if I told you.”“For once in your life, just tell me!” I screamed. Sixteen years of frustration exploded from my lungs. I couldn't take the unknown anymore.“Fine.” He mumbled something else that I didn't catch. "Do you remember the stories I used to tell you?"“Stories? What stories?”“The ones about Paegeia, Elena.” He looked in his rearview mirror again with huge, unblinking eyes.Vaguely, but I didn't tell him that. "What does that have to do with this?"“They're real.”I froze and I stared at him.“All of it, it’s real. The dragons, the magic, the wall, everything is real.”
Meet Firebolt Characters
Firebolt
Our Story stars with 16 year old Elena Watkins that lived with her father. For the past sixteen years she's been moving every three months without knowing why. Then one night, on yet another flee, she discovered the reason. Dragons!!!!
Her father died in the event of saving her life and saved by Matt, another dragon and head of the Dragon Registration Council, who also works or the FBI in his human form. She's taken to her father's birthplace Paegeia, which our humans known as the Bermuda Triangle.
She has to adapt to her new world filled with dragons, magic and humans, known as Dragonians. The latter are destined to become dragon riders, something Elena could never become because of her fear of heights and, and, and.... the list is really long.
But she has no choice. She is born with the mark of the riders, and will gain her extra ability that would match one of the ten dragon species soon. Only then will she know what dragon she would end up with.
The ten breeds are broken up into two groups. You have your Metallics which are good and then you have the Chromatics who are predestined for evil.
When the King of Lions sword got stolen, Elena and a group of friends decided to retrieve the formidable artifact, because without it Paegeia is lost. Never in a million years did she thought she would come face to face with the most evil sorcerer Peageia has ever seen, and to fight not just for her, but for all of her new friends and the one place she finally can call home.
The Two Best Friends:
Becky Johnson is a fellow Dragonian in training. She ascends in Firebolt gaining the ability to control and wield Lightning. Her witty and speak your mind type of personality makes her a favorable with the readers.
HER DRAGON!
George Mills is Becky's dragon. These two tookcare of plenty of melodramatic moments, but eventually found one another.
Sammy Leaf is the other bestie and the total opposite of Becky. She is kind and have a soft demeanor. She's also a Fire-tail dragon, which means she has the ability to breath a red flame. But that's not all, she is also the sister of Blake Leaf, the Rubicon Dragon, and with the role she had plenty of responsibilities and fears that if her brother wont get claimed (tame) he would turn evil.
Elena can not imagine coping with Paegeia's reality without these two girls. Becky and Sammy are the friends everyone needs.
The Boy who stole her heart!!!Lucian Mckenzie is every father's dream boyfriend for their daughter. His gentle, kind and also the crown prince of Tith. The first time he saw Elena, he fell madly in love with her. One of his biggest goals in life is to claim the Rubicon, a dragon one of its kind. It has more than three abilities and the rest are unknown.Will Lucian succeed in fulfilling a promise he made to his best friend a long time ago, or will he fail and leave the Rubicon in peril.
The Dragon.Blake Leaf is the Rubicon. With more than ten gifts he's extremely hard to claim. Everyone silently wish that Elena will end up claiming him before he turns evil, but will that happen!!!! This bad boy throb would make you want more and more and more.......
His Girl!!! Tabitha is the type of girl, every girl want to be her and every boy wants to date her. By the side of the Rubicon, she's got nothing to fear, but will she be able to keep his dark side tamed and his temper down.
Brain is a Sun-burst dragon. They are veil creatures who has a thing for gold, and virgins. Brian is your typical teenage boy that no Daddy would want them near they little princesses and Brian loves to talk about himself in third person. Yes, Brian loves that so much!!! But when the going gets tough Brian showed everyone he is worthy of being one of the bravest dragons there is.
Dragonia Academy
Dragonia Academy is the institution that help our fellow young riders and dragons to be the best they can be and work as a team Run my Master Longwei, a Fire-tail dragon of 3000 year odd, they can't go wrong.
The Doctor and Mother Figure
Constance is the doctor of Dragonia Academy and the first person she met when she came to Paegeia. She is a Swallow Annex dragon and has the ability to heal. Elena feels a strong connection with her and later on their bond will become stronger and Constance will turn into the mother figure Elena never had.
Her Assistant:
Julia is a Night Villain Dragon that Constance took under her wing when Julia was just 14. Now, finished with a Nursing degree, she helps Constance running the infirmary.
The Staff
Sir Edward teaches Mysteries and is Professor Gregory's dragon. Everything in Paegeia that doesn't make sense of how and why, he teaches and explains it in his class room.
Professor Gregory is Sir Edward's Dragon Rider. Being one of the smartest humans alive is not easy. That is why Master Longwei has asked him to lecture Anatomy and teaches the students about their dragons
anatomy and everything they need to know about nature.
Professor Mia teaches how to wield weapons. She is the best at the best and gives her students a hard time
but also teaches them how to be strong and fight like fearless knights. Her class is called ART OF WAR and there isn't a student at Dragonia that doesn't love it. Even Elena.
The Viden is one of Paegeia's most enchanted beings. She's a Moon-bolt dragon that can breathe lightning and can see into the future. She predicts them in the form of riddles and if your riddle, or foretelling as the people of Paegeia calls them, is important to Paegeia's survival it would end up in the Book of Shadows, a magical Book that's linked to the Viden. She's a bit vain though and don't have much time for students who she doesn't think is of value, Elena being one of them. She's sure wrong about that!!!!
The Greatest King That Ever Lived!!!!
King Albert is the one true ruler of Paegeia. His family has run Paegeia since the beginning of time. He died with his wife, Catherine, by the hands of their best friend who turned into the most evil sorcerer alive, Goran.
Our main plot involves Goran trying to destroy the formidable sword, The King of Lion sword, and Elena with a couple of her friends are the only ones brave to stand in his way.
AUTHOR BIO
Adrienne Woods is born and raised in South Africa, where she still resides on the East side of Johannesburg with her husband and two little girls. She's been writing for the past four years and in her free time she likes to review books of new and upcoming authors.
For the love of blueberries, sword fighting, spell-casting and taming dragons was not the academy lifestyle Elena Watkins had in mind when she entered Paegeia.
- Adrienne Woods: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=360305224089961
Title: Thunderlight
Series: The Dragonian Series, book 2
Genre: young adult fantasy
Publisher: Fire Quill Publishers
Release Date: 21 November 2014
publish in December 2014.
Book Description:
Vibrant, scale swathed wings… Abilities that can be harnessed by a chosen few… Dragons…
All this may seem like old news, but for sixteen year-old Elena Watkins the world of Paegeia is not finished revealing all its secrets. During a summer break intended for relaxation, she discovers that her harrowing adventure to retrieve the King of Lion sword wasn’t the destiny foretold by the cryptic Viden, a dragon with the ability to see a person’s true fate. The words inked onto the page of the mysterious Book of Shadows remains black and Elena must return to Dragonia Academy to discover their true meaning.
Upon her return to the magnificent castle she has to face a challenge of a different kind, keeping her boyfriend Lucian McKenzie, the Prince of Tith and love of her life, away from the dangerous new student, Paul Sutton. As a Wyvern, Paul has made it his mission to claim Elena as his rider but he is proving to be more perilous than at first glance.
Everyone knew that Wyverns were bad news, and just as evil as the darkness that lurked inside Blake Leaf, the Rubicon forced to fight against his inner nature every day. But Elena can see a small light lurking in the darkness, a destiny still unfulfilled; to prove that Wyverns can be claimed.
Will Lucian’s dark secret about Wyverns and Elena’s need to prove their true nature cause their love to be torn apart? And which of Elena’s friends will be sacrificed this time if she is wrong?Excerpt:
Chapter One Castle of Etan
Anger, betrayal, and hate turned my stomach acid, it consumed my mind and I watched as bottles, papers and books on the desk, flew off and crushed to the floor.
A maid rushed to my side. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes reflected fear. The dustpan in her hand trembled as she started to sweep up the jagged shards of glass. Rising from the floor she began to straighten the books that had fallen to the floor in a heap. Every few seconds I would notice her eyes dart nervously in my direction as if a mere breath would make me lash out as her with my outstretched hand.
I touched her face gently until my hand reached her neck, tightening slowly as my anger began to rise once again. My grip tightened around her soft, shapely neck as I lifted her up from her position on the floor at my feet. Listening carefully I could hear her heart fluttering like a bird trapped inside a cage.
“How did I become this way?” I thought, giving voice to my reality softly.
She just stared at me with round, brown unblinking eyes. Her eyes were sunken deep into the surface of her face and her cheek bones were sharply defined.
Looking at her sullen face made me feel worse. I lifted up my other hand and struck the woman hard across her cheek.
A cry left her mouth and I threw her from me as if she weighed nothing. She skidded across the floor landing in a heap against a wall of cold, unforgiving stone. If I was a dragon I would blast fire, redeem this wretched place to a pile of insignificant ashes.
Two other maids, hearing the startled cry, rushed into the room. Their eyes were wide as they took in the room and the immobile heap near the far wall. “Sorry, me lord,” the older one said. “She’s new, we will train her better.”
They picked up the maid who had come too and begun sobbing. She clutched the side of her face, cover the huge red hand print where I struck her.
I nodded. The old maid knew her place well, although I still didn’t care for her name, she knew where she stood.
I plunged myself down onto the chair and closed my eyes. A silent roar growled inside of me lighting a fire of rage deep in my core.
The girl had made it.
The Rubicon saved her life, so a part of him was still fighting me. I could still see her eyes searching mine. They bore into my soul, seeking answers. How was this possible! The wall wouldn’t allow any human to go to the other side.
Albert’s laughter echoed inside the castle; a startling reminder that good would always win. He would pay dearly for this. I would find a way, but I promised she wouldn’t live much longer.
I got up, rubbed my face hard and let the emotion of my anger escaped my lips. The rage that emanated from deep within me overpowered the haunting laughter and echoed throughout the entire castle.
“Master,” Cain’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Speak my loyal servant,” I said out loud. “What is the news?”
“Everything is in place. We won’t fail you,” his voice said in my head.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and let it out hard. “We’ll see.”
