The fate of magic rests in the hands (and claws) of a cranky dragon, a feisty apprentice...and a prince who may not be all he seems? Get ready for the sequel to the New York Times bestselling hilarious fantasy adventure in the new series from the author of the Story Thieves. You were warned to stay away from THE DRAGON’S APPRENTICE. It was forbidden for a good reason, as it told the story of a village girl named Ciara finding her own book of magic and learning spells from a dragon of all things. These are dangerous ideas , and no one should be allowed to see them. Fortunately, Ciara’s story didn’t end there, or she might have doomed us all. No, thankfully, a true hero to the Draconic Empire, Prince Aiden, has come to Ciara’s village to stop her and her teacher, Scorch the dragon. The prince, like his father the Emperor, is a powerful magic-user. And Aiden uses his power to keep us safe from strange, forbidden books. If anyone can stop Ciara from teaching others magic and therefore summoning the horrible Revenants that once defeated the Dragon Mage herself, it’s the Empire’s beloved prince. Let’s just hope that Ciara can’t spread her knowledge of magic before the prince can find her and put an end to her evil deeds once and for all… "A hilarious , swift-paced, thoughtful, and heartbreaking fantasy adventure." — Kirkus Reviews James Riley is the New York Times bestselling author of the STORY THIEVES, HALF UPON A TIME, ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME, REVENGE OF MAGIC, and DRAGON’S APPRENTICE series. He’s never apprenticed with a dragon . . . yet . He’s pretty sure there’s still time, though, especially if he could do it as an online video apprenticeship sort of thing. Does that exist? If not, it should: Learn Magic over Zoom (and Try Not to Burn Down Your House)! Chapter One For any of you reading this book to learn magic, you might have noticed that the first few spells felt a bit easy. Don’t worry! Everything is going to get much harder from here on! —­Bianca of Skael The sun had only been up for an hour or so when a loud noise woke Ciara. Her eyes flew open, and she practically leapt out of the bed she’d put together the night before in Bianca’s old quarters in the Dragon Mage’s tower. A second noise, and this time she recognized it: wood breaking. Oh, right. Her magic teacher, Scorch, had mentioned he was going to build a door for the tower that morning. She rolled her eyes, annoyed at being awoken so early, and wondered how she could pay the dragon back. And then it hit her. Scorch had said she needed to be ready for the Empire to return someday, so to practice her magic. Shouldn’t she be acting like that was a possibility now, this very morning? After all, who was to say it couldn’t be a Wyrm downstairs, breaking into the tower? Okay, the Emperor’s soldiers were nowhere close to Skael, so it was basically impossible that one might show up now, but Ciara was sure her teacher would be proud of her for not taking any chances. And if Scorch himself ended up getting ambushed in an embarrassing way, well, he could hardly be mad at her for doing what he’d said. And maybe that’d teach him to be so loud that early in the morning. Ciara slowly grinned, cracking her knuckles. “Spellbook,” she whispered to the journal, which sleepily floated out from the spot beneath the blankets next to her, where she’d tucked it in the night before. “This is an emergency. There’s an intruder, and I need a spell to hide, so I can ambush them. Do you have any invisibility magic?” At her words, the book shook itself fully awake, then flipped open, turning directly to her requested spell. Only, there were two Draconic words on the page it had opened to. Ciara blinked in surprise, having never seen more than one word per page before. She moved to trace the top word, thinking it must be that . . . but then stopped, moving her finger down to the bottom word instead. It could be either. And if she cast the wrong spell, who knew what kind of magic she might accidentally set off? And now she could hear heavy footsteps climbing the stairs toward her room. “Okay, new plan,” she whispered to the book. “I need an illusion to distract them. Do you have anything that might look a bit like me, if we put it in the bed? Then I can hide and jump out at them when they come in.” The book dipped low in what seemed to be a nod, then turned to a new page—­a blank one this time. But before Ciara even had time to question that, a line began to be drawn over the page as if by an invisible pen, forming a new Draconic word. The steps were getting closer, which meant she was out of time. Having no choice, she silently asked the Dragon Mage to protect her, then traced the word with her hand, hoping she was ready for whatever illusion the book might provide. As it turned out, Ciara wasn’t even close to ready, given that she found herself staring right into her own face. Somehow, her spellbook had created an exact illusion of her, right