How to Lose Your Dragon (The Immortality Curse Book 1) by Peter Glenn (beach read TXT) 📕

I grinned at her and nodded my thanks, then wolfed down the rest of the cookies and took a sip of the tea. It was good, too, but the cookies were definitely my favorite.

After a few minutes of eating, Rick finally broke the silence. “So, where to today, Damian?”

The events of the previous night came rushing back and my skin went all tingly. I shrugged. “Not much, I guess. Wait around for the end of the world. They took Grax’thor, remember? Boudicca can cast her ritual now. We’re screwed.”

Okay, maybe not the best thing to say right after eating those amazing cookies. Maybe I should have thanked Sheila instead…

“Really?” Rick let out a huff. “You’re just going to give up like that?”

“Well what else am I supposed to do?” I threw my hands up in the air. “They won, okay? I’m just one dude against an army. No way can I steal Grax’thor back that easily. Even if I knew where Boudicca was hiding.”

That was the real problem. Getting back the sword wouldn’t be too hard. Heck, I even figured I could take out half her army. She couldn’t have that many thugs, could she? But without knowing where they were…

“There’s got to be something,” Rick insisted.

“Indeed,” Sheila added. “Good boy, Rick.” She patted him gently on the arm and he gave her a slight smile.

He seemed to like the attention she was lauding on him.

“Well, what then? Boudicca only needed three things, and she has them all now.”

“Does she really?” Sheila asked. “Are you sure about that?”

I shrugged. “I think so. She stole the dragon and the sword already. The only other thing she needs is an artifact from her old life, and she can do the binding ritual. And there were plenty of trinkets hanging around in her tomb for her to choose from. I should know. I was there, remember?”

Rick and Sheila both nodded and were quiet for a moment. Rick was the first one to break the silence. “But then, why did they come north to Canada?”

“Pfft. They were following me, remember?” I spat at him. “I came up here to seek Sheila’s help. Her men were just following me.”

Rick’s face contorted into a frown. “I suppose that’s possible, but there’s something that’s been bugging me since the assault last night. If they were just following you around, then why were they at the border crossing ahead of us?”

I opened my mouth to say something witty in response and closed it up again a moment later. “I… uh… I don’t really know, I guess.”

“That was my thought, too,” Rick continued. “It doesn’t make any sense. How would they have known which gate we were going through before we did?”

I rubbed my chin for a moment. “That makes a lot of sense, now that you mention it. And they sure did have a lot of people up here. Quite the operation going, from what I could tell.

Rick nodded. “Uh huh. None of it makes any sense. Why send so many people up to Canada before we even get here, unless…”

“Unless there was something else they were looking for, too,” Sheila broke in.

My eyes lit up as realization finally dawned on me. “The clothing from Boudicca’s old life! That must be up here somewhere. They must have come for it and getting me and Grax’thor in the process was just a bonus.” I slapped my thigh and raised my hands in the air. “We’re not screwed after all! We still have time to fix things!”

“Woohoo!” Rick chimed in. “So where do we look?”

“Hmm,” I said, resting my head on one hand. I reached for another cookie, but there were none left. What can I say? I was really hungry. Way more than normal. “I’m not really sure, I’m afraid. Canada is a really big place.”

“That’s true,” Sheila added, “but you can be fairly certain it’s somewhere near here, or they wouldn’t have found you so quickly.”

“Valid point,” I agreed. “I suppose that narrows it down quite a bit.”

“I’ve got it!” Rick shouted, pointing to something on his phone.

He held it up for all of us to see. I couldn’t read all the tiny words, but the headline mentioned something about new Celtic artifacts on display at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver.

A big smile creased my lips. “Of course! A museum! Why didn’t I think of that?”

Rick chuckled again. “Guess we’ve got a shot after all, eh Damian?”

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s head to the museum!”

The Vancouver Museum of Anthropology was quite busy at one in the afternoon, which I found a bit shocking because it was a Friday, but I guess people who were interested in history just couldn’t wait for it to officially be the weekend.

It didn’t really matter. All that mattered was finding the Celtic exhibit and locating the item that belonged to our late queen. Then somehow steal it out from underneath all the guards, cameras, and other guests without getting caught.

Easy peasy, right?

Part of me wished that I had spent more time and attention in all those strategy classes my mom had put me through all those years ago so I could be a “good little Chinese warrior.” But even if I had, I somehow doubted they would have covered this scenario.

So I was heading into the museum without really having any plan worth mentioning. I decided to keep Rick and Sheila in the dark. No need to let them know I had no idea what to do. Better to let them find that out naturally. Maybe then they wouldn’t yell at me quite as harshly when the truth did come out. A guy could dream.

Anyway, we made it through the front gate easily enough. They’d wanted IDs, but Sheila was able to sweet talk the gate guard into believing her two “stupid American cousins” had left theirs in the hotel, and after a few minutes of pleading and a flash of her platinum card, he’d let