It’s the Final Uncommon Rider Snippet!

It’s the final countdown and tomorrow is the BIG day! Woot Woot! Are you as excited as I am about finding out what’s next for The Uncommon Rider?

Chapter Seven

“How did he send this, by carrier pigeon?” Liv asked, flipping the envelope over, looking for a stamp.

“I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing,” Plato said astutely.

She lifted an eyebrow at the lynx. “You’re right, I think he actually wrote the letter by hand. Do you know how to do that? I’m not sure I can even hold a pen.”

Plato rolled his eyes at her. “Is that really your takeaway after receiving and reading a correspondence from the leader of the Dragon Elite?”

“Well, he already popped into my kitchen, half scaring me to death while I was in my pajamas, making nachos,” Liv stated, remembering when she first met Hiker Wallace. He had a clue that she had a dragon rider, or future rider, around her. Without having her permission and apparently breaking through all her wards, he showed up in her kitchen. It wasn’t the best first meeting, but she thought it went mostly okay.

“And what did you tell him then?” the lynx asked, as if he didn’t already know the answer.

“Well,” Liv began, drawing out the word, “I would have told him about the dragon egg and Sophia then, but for one he hadn’t hatched yet. And secondly, Hiker kept referring to this new rider as a ‘him’ so I was thinking maybe he was asking about a different new dragon rider who wasn’t my little sister.”

“Liv,” Plato said, conviction in his tone.

She threw up her hands. “What? He said, ‘If you learn of the presence of a rider, then I want to know about him.’ And since I hadn’t learned about this ‘him’ I didn’t think that Mr. Hiker needed to know anything.”

“Liv,” Plato said again, a challenging quality to his voice.

Liv sighed. She knew Sophia was the first female dragon rider in history. Hiker wasn’t prepared for this. Sadly, the poor Viking was going to be very, very confused for many reasons. Whatever magic had told him about Sophia was absolutely flawed thanks to spells that Liv had put into place to protect her little sister. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Hiker to know about Sophia and her egg early on, but rather she didn’t want him to know until she was ready. And so, Hiker had probably gotten a lot of false readings up until this point.

On top of learning that he didn’t know everything about this new rider and dragon, due to Liv’s tampering, he was going to find out that this person was a girl. It probably wasn’t even an option in his head. But that shouldn’t be the reason that Liv stopped this amazing thing from happening for her sister. “Fine. Fine. Sophia’s egg has hatched. I knew this was coming. But before, I was trying to delay it. She’s already lost her childhood and now she’s going to have to go off to this strange place where I can’t even accompany her. Sue me for trying to delay the inevitable for as long as possible.”

“You do know that I was a lawyer in a past life,” Plato said casually.

“Of course you were,” she said, not doubting this at all. The lynx also did day trading and wrote novels while she slept, apparently.

“And I get that you don’t want her to leave, but—”

“I can’t hold onto her forever,” Liv interrupted. “I get that. But now this Viking from another century demands that my little sister and Beauregard come to his headquarters permanently.”

“I think she named her dragon <redacted>,” Plato said, hiding a smile.

Liv laughed, remembering when she met the dragon earlier that day. He was no doubt the most beautiful creature she’d ever seen. <Redacted> had an opportunity to get to know Liv during his long stint living in his shell in her house where he could hear all the jokes she made. Then, he didn’t like being called random names. Out of the shell, he was even more opposed to the idea. Sophia told her that she should be glad that he didn’t have fire yet.

“So what are you going to do?” Plato asked, eyeing the letter in her hand.

“Well, I don’t have a pen, so I guess I’m screwed,” she stated with defeat. “There’s no way I can return his message. I guess I’ll just to quit my job as a Warrior for the House of Fourteen, sell all my possessions and move Sophia and Burt to a remote island where I use the full extent of my magical powers to shield them from the Dragon Elite.”

“Or…”

Liv gave the feline an annoyed expression. “Or, I guess I can write back Mr. Penmanship and tell my lovely, baby sister that she has to go to a secret boarding school which I know zero about and can’t visit. Then I’ll promptly take up drinking. How early is too early to start shots of whiskey in the morning?”

“Or…” Plato challenged again.

Although she was pretending, this hurt. Liv had lost so much. Her parents. Her older sister and brother. Her combat instructor. Many friends. And now, even though she wasn’t losing Sophia, it felt like it. “Or…I’ll do the right thing, but only because you’re making me.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” he said matter-of-factly.

Liv twirled her finger through the air, magically making a new piece of parchment appear filled with flowery writing. She read over it once before nodding. “Okay, that will do.”

“Are you sure about that?” Plato challenged.

Liv cut her eyes at him. “Yes, it will do, cat. Shush your face.”

“But you—”

“I believe that I said, shush it!” Liv snapped her fingers, making the letter disappear, sending it using the directions Hiker had given her.

“You realize that you’re complicating things,” Plato said, lowering his chin.

Liv shrugged. “Am I? Or am I giving my little sister the chance she needs? First impressions are everything, after all.”

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Hehehe, I can’t wait to see how Hiker reacts when he finally meets Sophia and her dragon! And what the heck? Why did they redact the dragon’s real name? Grrrrr…..

Friday, November 8th is release day! Grab your copy of The Uncommon Rider, now!