Free Old Dark (The Last Dragon Lord Book 1) by Michael La Ronn Page A

shelves upon shelves of food, jars, and plastic cards representing spells that you could take to the front counter and redeem.  
    She cradled a basket under her arm and picked a jar of lotion off a wooden shelf. Then she tested a bottle of perfume, spraying a sample of a vanilla scent on her wrist.  
    She was making her way toward the grimoires in the back when the store erupted into applause and photoflashes.  
    All heads turned to the door as an entourage of people entered. She could only make out several pairs of sunglasses and pointy ears, and a bald head in the center.  
    Her stomach sank. She knew that head anywhere.  
    Several voices cried out. “Mr. Governor! Mr. Governor!”
    The bald head stopped and a hand went into the air, waving.  
    “Hey, guys.”
    Two people moved out of the way and Miri seized the opportunity, hurrying toward the cash registers where the governor greeted shoppers.  
    Ennius Grimoire was tall, with silver tufts of hair sticking out from the sides of his head. He had a trim goatee. Like all politicians, he wore a slim navy blue suit and tie. She could smell his cologne from across the room, a scent like a sickly blend of cigar smoke and lies.  
    He had won re-election twice, and if he won this year, this would be his third and final term. Few governors served less than three terms, and if he lost, it would be a notable historical moment.  
    Two men in suits stood a few feet away from Grimoire. A white orb hovered around him in a strange, elliptical orbit. Rumors were that the governor had made a deal with a dragon for protection, and that the orb was a dragon in Abstraction. If it was true, the dragon had never revealed itself, and no one knew what the Abstraction was.  
    Maybe it was Corruption—at least that’s what Miri had always thought.
    The crowd quieted as Ennius spoke.  
    “You’re probably wondering why I’m here today.” He straightened his tie and glanced around with a sly smile. “I had to see what my nephew’s new grimoire was all about. Since I’m the governor, I wanted to rule out any product defects for myself...”
    A few people said “Oooooooh.”
    Miri groaned. The trash talking was about to begin.  
    Ennius held up a plastic card with a rainbow pentagram printed on it. It was the new grimoire.  
    “Don’t worry, I paid for it,” he said as the crowd laughed. “I don’t dislike Lucan that much.”
    The cameras flashed wildly as he put his finger in the middle of the pentagram. The card lit up, suffusing his face with an astral glow.  
    The pentagram projected off the card and into a three-dimensional hologram in front of his face, an emanation of bright light. He touched one of the points on the pentagram, and a wheel of faces hovered over his fingers: his, Lucan’s, and several others.  
    “It’s actually not bad.”
    Ennius dialed through the wheel with his finger until the image of his own face hovered in front of his. “Let’s see what this thing actually does, shall we?”
    He tapped his face. Glowing words sprung up around it.  
    Governor Ennius Grimoire
    Age: 64
    Party: Magisical Party
    Positions: Pro-magic, Anti-dragon (sometimes), Pro-business…
    And then a biographical paragraph scrolled in front of the governor’s eyes. He read it silently, his face flushing redder as the words rolled by. His lips tightened, and he stopped the scroll abruptly.
    He tapped on Lucan’s face and a similar profile appeared. The governor pursed his lips in thought, and then he swiped away the pentagram. It dissolved like ink in water, and the store, so full of light for a moment, grew dim again.  
    “This appears to be a simple informational grimoire, a wonderful service by a company that’s deeply committed to our political system—there’s no question about that. But don’t be fooled by the innocuous façade. You might think that The Grimoire Company is doing you a favor in providing side-by-side information on the candidates. However, my