eighty of their fellow Burtonwood Academy classmates. Though to be fair, it wasn’t that difficult. For instance, Loni, with her small frame and sharp mind, was always going to be much better at killing wily goblins than brawny harpies, whereas their friend Tyler, who was long and lean, was perfectly suited to hunt the six-foot firebreathing salamanders to which he had just been designated. Then there were the overbulked guys like the Lewis twins, who had ogre slayer written all over them.
“Well, it’s a gift that should be harnessed.” Tyler looked at the chart, his bright red shaggy hair poking out in all directions like an untamed lion’s mane. “I mean, if you’d told me sooner how good you were at predicting this stuff, I would’ve gotten some bets going. We could’ve cleaned up.”
“Tyler,” Loni chided, “not everything has to be about making money and gambling.”
“Want to bet?” Tyler grinned at his own joke as Loni rolled her eyes. “Besides, considering the amount you spent on that weird-looking purple coat the other day, I thought you would appreciate the extra cash.”
“It’s not weird, it’s gorgeous,” Loni corrected him in a stern voice. “Anyway, my horoscope said purple was my lucky color. What was I supposed to do? Ignore the sign?”
“Er, when the sign makes you spend a hundred dollars? Then yes, definitely just ignore it,” he retorted, causing Loni to give him a swift punch in the arm.
Emma turned her attention back to her chart. Loni and Tyler had been bickering ever since they’d started Burtonwood Academy when they were eight years old (apparently it was because they were a Taurus and Leo, respectively), and so she hadn’t really expected them to take a break just because they’d both received their dream designations. Of course the designations wouldn’t be formally confirmed until the induction ceremony in six weeks, but everyone knew that once Principal Kessler had given you the all-important piece of paper, there was no going back.
“Earth to Emma.” Tyler suddenly waved a hand in front of her eyes, causing her to blink. “So has anyone been given dragons yet?”
She shook her head. “Nope, not yet.” Which wasn’t really a surprise, since not only were dragons the hardest to kill out of all the elementals, they were also the creatures that the fewest people showed an affinity for. And there had never been more than one dragon slayer inducted in any given year.
“But of course that’s going to change soon,” Loni chimed in. “Since Emma’s next to go in. Plus, she’s an Aries, so it’s only right that a fire sign should get a fire elemental to slay.”
Emma couldn’t resist smiling. She was one of those few people who did have an affinity for them.
While Burtonwood liked to wait until tenth grade before designating which of the twelve elemental creatures each of the sight-gifted students would spend their life tracking and hunting, there was no denying that Emma’s natural talent for dragons had come out early. And even though Loni was convinced it was because of her star sign, Emma was fairly sure it was more due to the fact that her mom had been one of the greatest dragon slayers ever. Whatever the reason, from the moment Emma’s sight had come through at the age of eight and she’d seen her first dragon (a bad-tempered yellow ridgeback that was terrorizing a camping ground over at the edge of the national park off State Highway 25), she’d been able to instinctively and silently track them.
Emma let her fingers skim the heavy crystal pendant that was hanging around her neck, neatly tucked under her school uniform. Her dad had brought it to her last week as a surprise. It had been one of her mom’s favorites, and he thought she might want to wear it for good luck. He’d been right, and Emma, who still missed her mom every single day, hadn’t taken it off since.
“Emma, he’s ready for you.” A voice shook her from her reverie, and she looked up to see Mrs. Barnes, Principal Kessler’s right-hand woman, standing in front of her. She was about fifty and, as usual, her eyes were covered in purple eye shadow and topped off with a pair of green-framed glasses, which had led to her nickname “Barney.”
Emma nodded and scrambled to her feet.
“Good luck.” Loni reached out and squeezed her hand. “In less than five minutes, all your dreams will come true.”
“And then we can celebrate,” Tyler added in a low voice.