Chapter One
Roughly three hundred and some-odd years in the past…
Slain dragons lined the battlefield, most of them not moving. Some tried to make a last-ditch effort to survive, but this war was over, and everyone present knew it. Smoke and the smell of burning flesh wafted through the thick air—a would-be sign to those in the distance that a battle had been fought on these grounds. However, no one was near enough to know the events that had come to pass on that day.
No one would know until it didn’t matter anymore.
The moans of the riders sprawled beside their dying dragons was an insufferable sound to Talon Sinclair, a Councilor for the House of Seven. He yanked a handkerchief from his robe pocket and covered his nose and mouth, unable to stomach the smell much longer. He’d stepped through a portal moments after a deadly blow assaulted the final demon dragonrider.
The five Warriors for the House of Seven that he’d enlisted stood on the battlefield nearby, wounded from the fight, but none of them close to death. That had been because the demon dragonriders hadn’t seen this battle coming and walked right into the ambush. To make the fight even more decisive, Talon Sinclair had all of their magic locked at the House of Seven without them knowing it—a magical governing device that he’d invented and would use to control all in the magical world one day. It made it so that an unsuspecting magician’s magic suddenly was gone, rendering them defenseless in most situations.
Everything was going to plan.
One of the oldest magicians to ever live, Talon Sinclair had worked hard to take over the magical worlds slowly. That had involved making it so pesky mortals couldn’t see magic and erasing them from the House of Seven, which had once comprised them and made it the House of Fourteen. No one would remember that though, because he’d erased that history and written a new one.
Taking control over the other magical races hadn’t been hard. The elves, giants, and gnomes didn’t care, keeping to themselves and minding their affairs. The fae were too much in a drunken stupor most of the time to realize that the world had pretty much changed overnight after the conclusion of the Great War. Magicians would do what the House of Seven wanted, which Talon Sinclair now controlled.
But dragonriders… They’d always been a thorn in Talon Sinclair’s side, upholding justice and putting mortal affairs at the top of the priority list. At first, it had been easy to dwindle the dragonriders’ numbers, pitting the Dragon Elite and Rogue Riders against each other, encouraging both sides to fight one another. Brother against brother. Few fights had more vengeance and personal gain behind them than between Hiker Wallace and Thad Reinhart.
Then it appeared that Hiker Wallace had won, sending Thad Reinhart to the depths of defeat. However, the leader of the Dragon Elite hadn’t seen what was coming next.
Overnight, mortals weren’t able to see magic anymore, and suddenly the precious moral adjudicators for the mortals were utterly useless. Talon Sinclair had felt no better victory than when the Dragon Elite sulked away to their headquarters, not to be seen again.
However, the Dragon Elite was composed of angel riders—those who wanted to do right by the world. The biggest nuisances for Talon Sinclair because they poked their noses where they didn’t belong.
Once they were gone, there was only one group to take care of—the demon dragonriders. They kept to themselves without Thad Reinhart’s leadership. However, they were still individually powerful, and if left unchecked, they might reform a group, one that could take over the magical world. Talon Sinclair couldn’t allow that to happen.
Expertly, he’d called all the demon dragonriders to that spot, inviting them on false grounds, using personal reasons that appealed to the rider’s particular interests. It wasn’t hard since they were selfish-minded. Once there, the demon dragonriders’ magic was disabled at the House of Seven, and the ambush commenced.
Talon Sinclair looked out over the battlefield littered with dead bodies and smirked. Dragon and rider must have been so perplexed without magic that they didn’t see the first or second blows coming. By then, their swords and fire were useless against the five Warriors for the House of Seven that Talon had enlisted for the tasks, led by his very own relative—Cassius Sinclair.
The Councilor strode over to where the Warriors all stood at attention, their focus on him. Many gave Talon looks of fear. He’d told them that the demon dragonriders were threats and convinced them that they needed to exterminate them. These Warriors wouldn’t question Talon, which was why he picked them: Cassius Sinclair, Solope Chienne, Lucille Mantovani, Jazebella Acker, and Enzo Bernardi.
Talon left the Beaufonts and Takahashis out of the lineup, knowing that they’d ask too many questions. They’d argue that there were other methods besides murder. They’d ruin everything. But they hadn’t, and now he’d done it.
There might be a few demon dragonriders left in the world, but like the Dragon Elite, they were powerless in this world that Talon Sinclair was quickly taking over.
Talon halted beside Cassius, the Warrior he trusted the most. Like Talon, his hair and beard were all white, having shared the same albino genetics. Their light-colored eyes briefly met as Talon leaned close and whispered in Cassius’ ear.
“Wipe their memories,” he ordered while cutting his gaze to the other Warriors.
It was better if there was no way the others could talk about this incident. Having a memory of it would pose too many risks.
Cassius nodded, a determined expression on his pale white face.
“If you have a problem with anyone, you know what to do,” Talon finally finished before marching forward and opening a portal back to the House of Seven.
He didn’t wait for Cassius’ reply. The Warrior would know that he should murder those who potentially could be trouble, the same as the demon dragonriders. That might be for the best anyway since it was high time there were new families in the House of Seven. Ones that Talon Sinclair could more easily control as he poised to take over the magical world further.
Chapter Two
Present day…
“What’s a breakfast burrito?” Evan stared at his plate of food like it might jump back and bite him instead of the other way around.
Trin, the housekeeper for the Gullington, gave Sophia a confused expression. “They don’t know what breakfast burritos are?” She swept her metal cyborg hand at the others at the table: Wilder, Mahkah, Hiker, Ainsley, and Quiet, excluding Mama Jamba for obvious reasons.
“They didn’t know what tacos were when I first got here.” Sophia laughed at Evan continuing to regard the tortilla stuffed with eggs and bacon and veggies.
“How is that possible?” Trin rested her hands on her hips while shaking her head at the group.
“Because we’re not Americans,” Evan stated, then pointed at Mahkah. “Well, he is but that doesn’t count because I don’t think his tribe spent much time at taco joints before he came to the Gullington.”
Everyone looked at Mahkah as though expecting the stoic Native American to answer. He swallowed his bite of hash browns, unhurried. “Not much. No.”