Shadows Ahead

By Ava Lauren Grayson

Sadie gives herself sixty seconds to decide the course of the rest of her life.

Follow the scorched trail or forget her entire investigation.

Arson investigator Detective Sadie Jenkins has spent six months following every lead on the arsons in the Northern National Parks. Though she’s sacrificed countless nights of sleep investigating the dozen reported incidents of spontaneous fires throughout the woods, Sadie has had no clue who she is looking for. Or where to find them.

Until now.

“You’re gonna go in, aren’t you?”

Startled by Grant’s arrival, Sadie nearly leaps to the heavens.

“Gosh, Grant, where’ve you been?” Sadie’s eyes fall from Grant’s to the cup of coffee in his hand. She makes a face. “And yeah, I was gonna go in there by myself because the park ranger who agreed to help me with this investigation decided to take three days to get here.”

Sadie snorts at Grant’s goofy closed-mouth smile.

“What? Had to get my morning cup.”

“It’s six fifty-five in the evening.”

“Okay, so I had my morning cup already. Why can’t a guy have an evening cup, also?”

Rolling her eyes, Sadie takes a step toward the woods. “You coming, partner?”

“Actually…” Now serious, Grant doesn’t move. “I don’t think we should go in there, Sadie. It’s getting late. My co-worker, who normally works the night shift with me, called out sick. We’re on our own. Anyway, this is dangerous. Besides the threat of the arsonist, there are known predators in these woods.”

“I’m not scared of a little raccoon,” Sadie remarks.

“I’m not talking about a raccoon,” Grant argues. “Come on, let’s investigate tomorrow.”

But Sadie has no intention of letting the lack of sun nor the threat of an animal ruin her investigation. Her tracking instincts tell her to proceed. And so she does, followed by a protesting Grant.

As the sun grows sleepier and the golden hour turns to silver moonlight, Grant and Sadie creep further into the woods.

“Sadie, I think we should turn back,” Grant whispers. “It’s almost too dark to see anything, and we have no backup out here. What if he has a weapon? What are you gonna do then?”

Sadie hears Grant’s warning, but she isn’t going back. Not now. She can feel in her gut that she is getting closer to finding the culprit. Grant might think they have no backup out here, but Sadie was trained for the possibility of a criminal fighting back.

Sadie’s hand brushes the gun holstered on her belt.

Whoosh.

Something moves through the trees.

“Sadie,” Grant whispers through gritted teeth. “We shouldn’t be this far—”

With a loud crack, branches snap under the weight of something ahead. In the shadows.

Sadie halts. Her blood thickens. “Whoever’s out there, this is Detective Jenkins. Come out with your hands up.”

Silence.

“Shine your flashlight over there,” Sadie instructs Grant. He shakes his head. “Now,” Sadie demands as she moves her jacket aside to put her hand on the gun.

Seeing the weapon, Grant tenses up. “Sadie, you don’t know what you’re doing—”

“Give me that.” Sadie snatches the flashlight from Grant.

“Sadie, you gotta listen to me. You’re gonna provoke him.”

Sadie shines the light into the shadows ahead, then stops.

“Him?”

Grant was right. But it’s too late. Because there, in the thick of the night, Sadie stands face to face with what she can only describe as a dragon.

“Sadie, give me the gun… now.” Grant’s words are gritted as Sadie and the dragon stare each other down. Ivory scales cover the dragon’s body. Predatory rage glows in its crimson eyes.

Sadie drops the flashlight and raises the gun to shoot.

The dragon growls with intense power and sucks in a breath to expel scorching fire upon his hunter.

“No!” Grant yells.

A ball of fire comes barreling toward the frozen Sadie. Something heavy slams Sadie out of the way just as the tree behind her catches fire.

Sadie looks up with shock toward her protector—a cobalt dragon with a closed-mouth smile on its familiar face.

“Grant?”

Leaving Sadie awestruck, Grant unwraps his wings from around her, pushes himself upright, and faces the porcelain dragon.

“You should not have come here.” Grant’s deep voice reverberates through the woods. “And I should not have been covering for you all these months.” Sadie’s mouth falls open. “You need to leave here. Now.”

“Make me.” The opposing dragon bares his fangs. “Son.”

Grant hesitates, a moment of weakness. His father uses the opportunity to strike first. A ball of flames flies toward Grant, scorching his snout. Grant’s eyes flash to meet Sadie’s, wide with fear as she takes in the scene.

Kicking into the air, Grant flaps his expansive wings to push himself above the trees, his father following behind. Gazing up, Sadie gasps as Grant breathes fire toward his father, who dodges the flames and crashes into Grant. The two tumble through the air, clawing at one another’s leathery skin until—

Bang.

Grant’s father cries out before dropping from the sky, crashing through the trees to the ground.

Panting, Grant swoops down to hover over his father. Seeing him weak and injured, Grant closes his eyes and transforms back into his human form, his ranger uniform a stark contrast to the cobalt scales of his previous beastly form. Sadie hesitates as she watches Grant kneel beside his father’s now-human body.

The gun still hangs in Sadie’s hand.

“Son.” The man’s voice wavers with both bitterness and pain as he clutches his bloody arm. He will live.

Grant doesn’t say anything. Instead, he simply rises and turns toward Sadie with an appreciative nod, who returns it back.

“Can I just know one thing?” Sadie looks at Grant with raised brows. “Do all dragons like coffee?”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ava Lauren Grayson is a screenwriter, novelist, and film student based in Los Angeles. With a portfolio of clean and faith-based sci-fi, fantasy, and historical fiction YA books, screenplays, and short stories, Grayson published her fantasy story “Fangs” with Havok Publishing in 2020 and has written for author C.F.E. Black’s blog, TRUTH Readers. If Grayson is not writing, you can probably find her with a set of watercolors or rewatching The Lord of the Rings.

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