Dragonkin Are from Mars, Changelings Are from Venus

The final book in the Shadow Valley series

Now available!

Dylan paced, shooting glances toward the door. Aiden sat on the sofa with his parents, Tiago in a chair. They deliberately kept distance between them whenever they weren’t alone. Mom and Dad were on the other sofa and Tiago’s guardian sat in a chair against the far wall.

They were all waiting for Mr. Johnson and Dylan got more nervous by the second. “Why wouldn’t he just tell us what this is about? Why does he have to make everything into a… thing?” Calling them all together like this, it couldn’t be anything good. Had Morgan shown up? Was he coming to kill them?

The doorbell rang and Dylan jumped. Dad got up. “I’ll get it.” As he walked past Dylan, he said, “Stay here, please.”

Dylan crossed his arms, but didn’t argue.

A moment later Dad came back with Mr. Johnson and a woman. “I’m sorry if I worried you,” the warden said. “But I wanted to meet with all of you together. This is Warden Nichols.” He gestured toward the woman. “She’s going to be your new school liaison.”

“What?” Dylan clenched his fists. “After all the shit that happened last year—”

Mr. Johnson held up a hand. “That’s exactly why I’m introducing you to her here, now. I want to assure you that things will be different this year.”

“I’ve been briefed on what happened with Warden Bradley and I promise you, I’m not him,” Warden Nichols said.

“Do you have enough wardens that you can assign one to the school?” Aiden asked. The wardens and the cops had been slaughtered by a group of anti-treaty people at the end of the school year. They’d lost over half their number and the ones left were scrambling to maintain order.

“Not really.” Mr. Johnson sighed. “But student safety is one of my top priorities. The junior high and elementary schools will have liaisons as well. And they will protect students, not treat them like suspects.”

“The anti-treaty extremists attacked the school, so we have to assume it may be a target if they make another attempt,” Warden Nichols said. “That is, if there are enough of them left to organize.”

“Oh God. If they come back…” Aiden rubbed his arms, and his mom put an arm around him.

“If they do we’ll kick their asses again.” A little part of Dylan hoped they tried so he could take out his anger on them. But the other part of him remembered the terrible fight at the school and the destruction at City Hall and hoped they never came back.

“At this point, everything is a precaution,” Mr. Johnson said. “Otherwise, I want everyone to get back to their normal lives as much as possible. Having a warden at school will hopefully reassure parents, and the police will regularly patrol the borders to look for any suspicious activity.”

“Great,” Dylan muttered. Because his parents’ property was along the border, that meant there would be cops snooping around all the time. Just what he needed—less privacy.

“We appreciate everything you’re doing,” Mom said. “I know you must be working hard.”

“Yes, thank you.” For just a second, Mr. Johnson’s neutral expression slipped and Dylan got a glimpse of how tired he was. Dylan felt just the tiniest little bit sorry for him.

“My parents?” Tiago asked, a slight tremble in his voice.

“I’m sorry, we still don’t have any information on their whereabouts,” Mr. Johnson said.

Aiden had trapped them, but by the time someone had gone to check, they’d disappeared. They hadn’t been among those dead or captured.

“If they dare to come after you again, we’ll take care of them,” Dylan said. At least Cat Boy had stopped protecting his parents and told Mr. Johnson that they’d tried to kidnap him twice. Dylan had thought the warden would be pissed Tiago kept that information from him, but he hadn’t acted like it. Maybe Mr. Johnson had too much else to worry about to care.

“We won’t let anything happen to you,” Rosalind, Tiago’s guardian, said.

Tiago looked between them and nodded, though he didn’t look sure. “Thanks.”

“We’ll all look out for each other,” Aiden said. His eyes met Tiago’s for a second and… how could Dylan have missed that they liked each other?

“Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help,” Aiden’s mom told Mr. Johnson. Dylan felt sorry for them. Like his dad, Aiden’s parents didn’t have any magic so there wasn’t much they could do. Unlike his dad, they’d had all this dumped on them only a few years ago.

“I will. The PTA and the neighborhood watch will have to play a bigger role this year. As Aiden said, we all have to look out for each other.”

“I’ll have regular office hours twice a week after school and every Saturday,” Warden Nichols said. “To handle any concerns and help build a sense of community.”

Dylan wondered if they were all about to hold hands and start singing. “So we can all forget that the wardens murdered that guy?”

Everyone looked at him.

“What? Just because those anti-treaty assholes wanted to ruin everything doesn’t mean we should ignore what the wardens did.”

“Dylan—” Mom started.

Mr. Johnson sighed. “Considering the circumstances, investigating Mr. Abelli’s death isn’t a priority. And one of the wardens involved was killed during the attack. But I’ll do what I can to make sure we follow up once things are settled.”

Which was a nice way to brush things off, but it was true the wardens had to focus on other things. They had to catch all the people that had escaped. And the wardens still hadn’t been able to find Morgan, the dark fae that Dylan had released.

“For what it’s worth, I’m in support of a full investigation,” Warden Nichols told Dylan.

He arched an eyebrow, wondering if she was trying to win points or if she really meant it. “So you don’t think wardens can do whatever they want?”

Her face tightened, but she said, “I think they can make mistakes just like anybody else, and because we have a higher responsibility, we need to be held accountable.”

“Hmm,” Dylan said thoughtfully. Definitely in Mr. Johnson’s camp and not Warden Bully’s but Dylan didn’t really trust any of them.

Mr. Johnson’s phone beeped and he pulled it out, frowning at the screen. “I apologize, but I need to be going. Warden Nichols?”

“It was nice to meet you all. Feel free to contact me if you need anything.” She pulled out business cards and passed them around.

Dylan hesitated, but ended up taking one. She had to be better than Warden Bully.

Get the final Shadow Valley book now:

Dragonkin Are from Mars, Changelings Are from Venus (Shadow Valley #5)