Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser Series Book 5) by Meghan Ciana Doidge Page B

in shock. Yeah, I was way too calm for my own good. “Like you said, Warner’s on his way.”
    Scarlett pressed her hand to my cheek and turned toward Gran, who also stepped up to touch me lightly on the shoulder.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. Tears were suddenly threatening where there hadn’t even been a hint of them before. “I couldn’t figure out how to contain her without really hurting her.”
    “She’ll be back,” Gran said. “And you’ll be ready.”
    “No,” Scarlett countered sharply. “You’ll call your father. She’s a dragon. She’s his responsibility.”
    “Yeah, but the map’s mine. She’s already gone after an instrument of assassination and gotten a nasty lesson in why dragons can’t wield them, so why take the map?”
    “The map is a piece of power,” Gran said. “She was seeking objects of power.”
    “But then why come specifically to Jade, Pearl?” Scarlett asked. “I think you’re wrong. She needed Jade’s alchemist powers. Taking the map was merely leverage.”
    “Thank you, Scarlett,” Gran said frostily. “I was attempting to soothe your distraught daughter.”
    “Jade is far more resilient than that, mother,” Scarlett said.
    “Yes, daughter. But it is nice to be babied once in a while.”
    Scarlett snapped her mouth shut on her mounting indignation. Yeah, Gran did that to us all.
    “I have a containment spell for your satchel,” Gran said as she hustled ahead of us up the stairs to the pantry. “So nothing accidentally falls out. It was going to be a birthday gift, but I see you need it now. Give me an hour or so.”
    She disappeared into the pantry. I looked at Scarlett, but she shook her head.
    “A little spell isn’t going to kill me,” Gran snapped from above us. She’d poked her head back through the doorway.
    “Bottomless would be nice too,” I mused, thinking of all the things I had to cram into my bag these days. Chocolate bars, maps, cellphones, knives, artifacts —  
    “Not in an hour!” Gran snapped. Then she disappeared into the bakery kitchen.
    Scarlett laughed under her breath as she climbed the stairs after her mother.
    Geez, I hadn’t been asking for a bottomless bag … just saying it would be nice.
    ∞
    The damage to the bakery storefront was worse than I’d allowed myself to acknowledge. I’d have to close for a few days, maybe even a week, and order a new door … and new tables … and new chairs.
    Anger washed through me. Fierce, burning anger seared through the steady resolve that had gotten me through the altercation and the building of the blood ward. I was probably looking at thousands of dollars’ worth of damage. My heart and soul was in this bakery.
    I was shaking again. I needed to stop shaking before I did something extra stupid, so I found a broom, grabbed a garbage can, and started cleaning.
    I had to remember to remind Scarlett to remove the cloaking spell from the bakery tonight. And put up a closed sign. Otherwise, I wasn’t sure what people would think if they came for cupcakes, then couldn’t find the store. I wasn’t sure what sort of spell Scarlett had used. I wasn’t sure if I should call the police. Should I file a report? Could you even file a vandalism report without any witnesses? But if I didn’t file a report, wouldn’t that call extra attention to the damage? Customers were going to ask questions.
    Oh, God. I was melting down over mundane things so I didn’t have to think about a crazy dragon running around with my map.
    The second I’d secured the blood ward, I should have walked right through the portal and sought out Pulou.
    But I didn’t. Even knowing that I should didn’t make me move in that direction.
    I was just so, so angry.
    A dragon had done this. A dragon had been allowed to do this. Pulou knew about the kid who’d been in the fortress. Pulou knew about the shadow leeches. Pulou had spent hours and hours with Warner, dissecting every last thing the sentinel knew about his era