Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Dragon's Whisper: The Fablestone Clan, #4
    Dragon's Whisper: The Fablestone Clan, #4
    Dragon's Whisper: The Fablestone Clan, #4
    Ebook172 pages2 hours

    Dragon's Whisper: The Fablestone Clan, #4

    By Sophie Stern

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Nicole has made more mistakes in the last six months than most people make in a lifetime. She got involved with an evil organization and found out too late just how terrible they are. Now everyone's out to kill her: the scientists, the dragons, and perhaps most of all, her former lover.

    Living among the dragons wasn't supposed to be easy, but it was supposed to be safe.

    She didn't realize just how long they can hold grudges though.

    Lee doesn't have time for drama. He doesn't have time for much of anything anymore. He's too busy trying to figure out how the dragons can finally break free from the oppressive forces that keep sending danger their way.

    He needs a break.

    A vacation.

    Anything.

    He doesn't know what he needs, but it's certainly not Nicole.

    Not her.

    Not the betrayer.

    When the past comes back to haunt them, Lee and Nicole are forced to go head-to-head, and Lee isn't sure if he's going to make it out of this in one piece. If Nicole doesn't kill him, she just might break his heart.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSophie Stern
    Release dateJan 31, 2019
    ISBN9781386267676
    Dragon's Whisper: The Fablestone Clan, #4

    Read more from Sophie Stern

    Related to Dragon's Whisper

    Titles in the series (5)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Daisy’s Day In The Sun

      Jul 12, 2022

      Daisy’s Day In The Sun
      8 min read

    • Article

      Face Time With Terry McMillan

      Mar 27, 2020

      Face Time With Terry McMillan
      5 min read

    • Article

      Henry Winkler

      Jan 8, 2024

      Henry Winkler
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Final Truth

      Jan 21, 2020

      The Final Truth
      5 min read

    • Article

      Announcing The winners Of Our FLASH CONTEST

      Feb 29, 2020

      I sever the first two fingers of my left hand on a Tuesday. They fall to the ground at my feet, causing a momentary confusion as I wonder what tree has dropped this odd fruit. Then I see the crescent scar left behind by a fish hook and know that thes

      8 min read

    • Article

      Book Extract

      Oct 24, 2020

      Book Extract
      5 min read

    • Article

      Reading Corner

      Feb 5, 2024

      Regrets, grief and longheld secrets are all in the mix with this novel about female friendship and family dynamics. It centres on two women in their seventies, so there are themes such as ageism and feminism bubbling along. An emotion-packed read and

      3 min read

    • Article

      Perfection

      Jun 9, 2020

      For years I could barely write a page. I thought I was becoming a virtuoso of smallness while the grief, which is wordless, occupied an ever-greater volume. My friend lived in the estates on the bad side of town. Let’s go to the forest, she said when

      9 min read

    • Article

      Deborah Ayorinde

      Mar 24, 2021

      What can you tell us about Lucky? She’s a firecracker. She’s a fighter. She’s a free spirit. She’s a teacher, a mother. She was the backbone of her North Carolina Community. She’s one of those people who have a light about her, and after the terrible

      2 min read

    • Article

      READER Reviews

      Apr 8, 2020

      One of my favourite parts of this book is the map because it maps out the routes that all the female adventurers took. Each of the women went on their own adventures and through this book, I got to explore with them. Most of the time, the journeys we

      5 min read

    • Article

      You Talkin' To Me?

      Jun 22, 2023

      You Talkin' To Me?
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Inventions of Witches

      Oct 30, 2017

      The Inventions of Witches
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ben Marcus

      Jun 15, 2018

      My wife, Gin, once knocked gently on my head, as if it were a door. “Hello,” she kept saying. “Hello. Who’s in there?” She and our therapist, Dr. Sherby, laughed a little about this, so I did, too. What fun. Keep knocking on my head like that, like i

      23 min read

    • Article

      Shiloh

      Jun 20, 2023

      Shiloh
      4 min read

    • Article

      Alan Cumming

      Nov 1, 2021

      Alan Cumming
      5 min read

    • Article

      Reading Corner

      Sep 25, 2023

      An antenatal group solves bumps in the night! Book of the week Hilarious and wildly improbable, there is so much to love about this novel. With a Midsomer Murders vibe, it’s a mashup of chick-lit and crime. The story follows a group of heavily pregn

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Sophia Shalmiyev

      Dec 20, 2019

      Let us begin at the natural home of all the white-men-are-garbage controversies and go right to the crotch area. The post A Year in Reading: Sophia Shalmiyev appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Sexual Tension

      Jun 5, 2023

      Sexual Tension
      13 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Aug 21, 2020

      One critic described The Lightness as the love child of Donna Tartt and Tana French, and that’s a pretty good description. Sixteen-year-old Olivia has run away to The Levitation Center, a remote retreat and the last place her father had been to befo

      5 min read

    • Article

      Shame Is Ever-Present When You’re Sitting in a Cell

      Oct 23, 2020

      Between a strained relationship with my family and the death of a good friend, I’ve struggled to feel like I’m worth something.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Carrie Fountain

      Mar 1, 2020

      Outside Dublin, Texas the radio stationsdisappear and I’m left alone with the faintvoice of a call-in psychologist talkingto a man in Cleveland about the voiceof the self, the narratives that voicetells, how they can be sharp and wrongand cut to the

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Ella Baxter

      Dec 6, 2021

      The lowest standard I hold for a book is that I want it to be so psychedelic, so completely discombobulating, that I am torn asunder. I want to read words that turn my bones to dust. The post A Year in Reading: Ella Baxter appeared first on The Milli

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Dragon's Whisper

    3.5/5

    3 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Dragon's Whisper - Sophie Stern

      Dragon’s Whisper

      The Fablestone Clan: Book 4

      Sophie Stern

      COPYRIGHT © 2019 BY Sophie Stern

      All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

      Nicole has made more mistakes in the last few months than most people make in a lifetime. She got involved with an evil organization and found out too late just how terrible they are. Now everyone's out to kill her: the scientists, the dragons, and perhaps most of all, her former lover.

      Living among the dragons wasn't supposed to be easy, but it was supposed to be safe.

      She didn't realize just how long they can hold grudges though.

      Lee doesn't have time for drama. He doesn't have time for much of anything anymore. He's too busy trying to figure out how the dragons can finally break free from the oppressive forces that keep sending danger their way.

      He needs a break.

      A vacation.

      Anything.

      He doesn't know what he needs, but it's certainly not Nicole.

      Not her.

      Not the betrayer.

      When the past comes back to haunt them, Lee and Nicole are forced to go head-to-head, and Lee isn't sure if he's going to make it out of this in one piece. If Nicole doesn't kill him, she just might break his heart.

      Previously

      Nicole

      THEY STILL DON’T TRUST me.

      I get it.

      I probably wouldn’t trust me, either. Not after everything that happened. Not after I fucking shot Lawrence. I think about that moment constantly. Running it over and over in my head, I wonder why I didn’t do things differently. Just like I didn’t see things were wrong with my ex, I also didn’t see things were wrong with Bernie.

      I should have known.

      Now I’m living in the clan, working to earn my keep, but it’s not where I want to be. I’m not happy here. They don’t like me. There’s always someone watching me, waiting for me to screw up. I know they’re looking for any excuse to kick me out of here, and I hate that. I hate being the reason the dragons are tense and on edge.

      I need to get out of here.

      I need to run away.

      If I can escape, if I can get far away, then they’ll be safe, and so will I. I won’t go back to Lucky. I can’t return to my old apartment. That life is gone: dead and buried. I can start fresh, though. I can start new. I just need to make a plan, and then I can get away.

      I can escape.

      I can be free.

      It’s the middle of the day and I’m in the bakery, stocking the shelves for the dragons who work here. I don’t get paid. As the resident human everyone loves to hate, I kind of just take the odd jobs no one else really wants to do.

      When the door jingles, I realize I’m going to have to leave the stockroom. No one else is here taking orders right now: it’s just me.  The others are all out on break. They figured I’d be able to handle something as simple as taking orders for half an hour.

      Coming, I call out.  I push the bag of flour onto a shelf, wipe my hands on my apron, and go to the front of the store.

      Then I stop dead in my tracks.

      It’s him.

      He’s here.

      My heart soars until I see the scowl that crosses his face as he recognizes me.

      Oh, he says. It’s you.

      Chapter One

      Nicole

      I SWALLOW.

      Hard.

      He still looks just as good as he did before, all of those years ago. He’s still tall and lean, but with broad shoulders and muscular arms that seem to be perfectly designed to wrap around me when I’m scared. He towers over me. Even in his human form, it’s no secret that he’s not really a man. No. Not with those eyes. Not with the way he fills the room. It almost seems hot in here, suddenly.

      Stuffy.

      I catch my breath, but don’t say anything to him.I can’t find the words. While speaking has never seemed to be an issue for me, now it suddenly feels like an impossible goal. If I knew how to form words once upon a time, that skill has vanished from my list of abilities.

      What would I say, anyway?

      Judging by the way his eyes pierce mine, he knows exactly why I’m in Fablestone. He knows exactly who I am, what I’ve done. I’m not under the impression that he came to the bakery just to see me, either. No. He’s here because he wanted something to eat. Me being here is just an inconvenience.

      What...can I get for you? I manage to squeak out. My voice sounds hoarse and sick. I sound terrible. Scared. I don’t really care that I sound this way. It’s how I feel, after all. I am afraid. There are so many things I’m afraid of that I don’t even know where to start.

      So I’ll start with him.

      I’ll start with feeling scared of the way he looks now and the way he looked back then. Back when we were in college. Back when we had big dreams of saving the world together. I’ll think of how scared I was when he rolled over and kissed me in bed, when he asked me to marry him. I’ll think of how afraid I was at the idea of that sort of commitment.

      I’ll think of the look on his face when I said no.

      Now, Lee doesn’t say anything. He just stares at me.

      Hard.

      Stone faced.

      It’s as if he never knew me, never loved me.

      Maybe he didn’t.

      Maybe this is all just one big cosmic joke. Maybe it’s just nature’s way of being like, Haha! Got you! He was the first boy I ever kissed. I don’t think I ever told him that. He was the first one I ever did anything with.

      And I just wasn’t ready.

      Suddenly, my heart hurts just as bad as it did the day he walked away. It’s been years. It’s been ten damn years and I still can’t breathe when I think about Lee. I can’t think about him without having my heart crack. The little scars I thought were healed really aren’t so strong at all.

      I swallow hard as tears well up in my eyes.

      He doesn’t say anything.

      He just stares at me.

      My hands come together and I start wringing them.

      Please say something, I silently beg. Anything. If he could just speak, then maybe this wouldn’t seem so terrible. Maybe I’d be able to forget how I betrayed the creatures of the forest. Maybe I’d be able to forget about the way I let them all down.

      But he doesn’t speak.

      Lee just stands there. The world seems to stop as I look at him, and finally, he turns his back on me. I have to physically stop myself from reaching for him, for trying to get him to come back. I have to stop myself from trying to get him to turn around and just look at me.

      He didn’t really look at me.

      He saw my eyes, but that was it.

      And all I saw was anger in his.

      The Lee I remember wasn’t angry. Not until that last day. Not until I said I wasn’t ready for marriage. Not until the day he left. He thought I was saying that I didn’t love him, but that wasn’t it at all. I was scared. Afraid. I was just a kid. 19 might be old enough to get married legally, but my heart? My heart was still so terrified at the idea of committing to something so big.

      Maybe I was wrong.

      Obviously, I was wrong.

      And now he’s here.

      And now he’s gone.

      I stare at the door, watching the space where he left. For a while, I let myself wonder what my life would be like if I hadn’t gotten swept up in an evil organization. What would things be like if Lee and I had stayed together? If I had been braver? Bolder? If I had been more clear as to what I needed or wanted or was able to give, maybe things would have been different than they are today.

      Maybe he wouldn’t have walked in here, taken one look at me, and decided that I wasn’t worth his time or energy.

      Today, in Lee’s eyes, I wasn’t even worth a smile.

      Finally, I take a deep breath and start stocking the shelves. They aren’t going to stock themselves, and by my calculations, I only have twenty minutes until the bakers come back from their lunch break. They aren’t going to want to talk to me, either, so I might as well finish up my work as quickly as possible. Then I can go back to being invisible.

      At this point, I’m able to complete tasks easily. I’ve been here long enough that things like placing flour in the right bins, washing the measuring cups, and even organizing the recipes for each type of product is simple. I’m able to do almost everything by muscle memory.

      I’m almost finished when I hear the bell ring above the door again. For a brief second, I let myself believe that it’s him, that he’s come back to talk to me. Does he want to clear the air between us? Does he want to apologize for how he acted a few minutes ago?

      Maybe he walked out of the bakery and started thinking about me.

      Maybe he remembered all of the fun we had together.

      Our relationship ended poorly, yeah, but maybe time does heal some wounds. Maybe Lee is ready to talk about how things ended between us. We’ve both grown up and moved on. We should be able to talk like adults, right?

      Just a second, I call out. I’ll be right there. I wipe my hands on my apron and take a quick glance in the little mirror on the wall. I’m convinced it’s only there so we can make sure we don’t have flour on our noses before talking to customers, which happens more often than I care to admit. I take a second and look at my hair, my face, my skin. Once I’m satisfied that I’m flour-free, I paste a smile on my face, and I head out of the storage room.

      When I enter the front room of the bakery, though, it’s not him. It’s not Lee. It’s someone else.

      Something else.

      It’s not a dragon.

      I can tell by the man’s shifty eyes that he’s not human, but he’s not from here, either. He’s not a member of the dragon clan. I don’t claim to

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1