"Mom?"
Theresa cracked open an eye at the sound of her daughter's voice.
"Mom, are you awake?"
Theresa closed her eyes. "Yeah. What?"
There was silence for a moment, then Abrey laid back down. "Nothing. Sorry to wake you."
Theresa rolled over and looked at Abrey's sleeping form. For the first time since she and Lucas split when Abrey was eleven, the whole family was together again—relatively speaking. How ironic that they probably wouldn't survive the first day of the family reunion.
Realizing that it was too late to go back to sleep, Theresa got up and walked into the bathroom of the hotel room they had rented. The room had two beds, one that she had claimed and the other Lucas took. Jenlauer had decided on the couch, and Abrey had to settle for the floor. The Hutchinsons, Bracken, and Kendra were in the adjacent room.
Theresa splashed some water on her face and dried off with the small white towel the hotel provided, considering the strangeness of all this. Apparently, the prince of the fairy kingdom and his wife had a daughter who, in some alternate timeline or something, was kidnapped along with a shadow charmer who was good but is evil now and a boy who's more than he might seem, but his parents won't tell her exactly what he is; and these kids met her and befriended her in this alternate timeline, then the shadow charmer almost caused the end of the world, but the other girl stopped her, reset the whole week, and nobody remembers.
And then these kids got summoned to a forbidden dragon sanctuary, and just happened to stop by the gas station where Abrey worked, and Abrey called Jenlauer, who just happened to have recently acquired a helicopter—and, apparently, was one of the kid's captors in the alternate timeline.
"You'd think an old-timer like me would be used to stuff like this by now," Theresa chuckled softly to her reflection. She glanced back at her sleeping family, realizing how much she'd missed them over the fifteen years they'd been apart.
Theresa shook her head, turned off the bathroom light, and got back into bed.
XIXIXIX
Alexis stared at the fire Lena had made with a few broken branches and matches from Will's backpack. They had decided to camp by Nemus' corpse, and use its mass to try to shelter them. Alexis was hugging Will's backpack tightly to her chest, as if holding her last tie to him as close as she could would bring him back. Lena prodded the flames with a stick, sending sparks into the air.
"Nemus was probably the oldest dragon in the world until today," Lena explained, breaking the silence. "He's been around almost forever, and he was only recently admitted to Wyrmroost. My dad met him once and knew about him, so that's how I know."
Alexis said nothing, uncharacteristically quiet. Lena began to chatter to fill up the emptiness.
"Dad said that the only thing anyone had ever seen of Nemus were flickers whenever he blinked. No one ever heard him either, and I already said what his breath weapon was. Dad says the Latin word for nobody is 'nemo', and they got that from Nemus."
Alexis looked up, her brown eyes solemn. "Nemo's a fish."
Lena laughed, despite the situation. Alexis smiled briefly.
Suddenly, a flash in the sky behind the dead dragon caught the girls' attention. They both looked up to see stars streaking across the sky.
"It's October 21st," Lena breathed, staring at the beautiful scene before her. "Meteor shower."
Alexis smiled. "I guess we can actually enjoy it this time."
"No crazy evils trying to kill us at the moment."
The girls' laughter that ensued was cut short by a new voice. "Touching, comical, I'm sure, but I'm afraid you're incorrect."
Alexis gasped and turned toward the voice, gripping Will's backpack a little tighter. Lena unzipped her sweatshirt and reached for her horn.
"Who's there?" Alexis asked tentatively.
There was a little chuckle. "Don't you recognize my voice?"
Lena put a hand over her mouth to hold back a scream as a little girl stepped out of the shadows, the light of the falling stars glinting off the blade of the survival knife in the girl's hand. Alexis furrowed her brow in confusion at the malice in the little girl's eyes.
"Joy?"
The little girl clenched her teeth and lunged forward, pressing the tip of her knife against Alexis' throat. "That is not my name!"
Alexis scrambled backward, slipping her arms through the straps of Will's backpack and slinging it over her back. Lena pulled out her horn, holding it like a weapon.
Aisha smiled wickedly. "It does seem appropriate that our weapons should match our disposition." She waved her knife, and the glinting blade morphed into a sword-length extension of tangible shadow. "It was easy to find you, Lena, even without the help of that little fairy."
"Tirin's deal was with you?" Alexis asked incredulously.
Aisha looked up at Alexis with contempt. "Yes. It was. She agreed to lead the boy to his death atop Moonfang Peak, separate the strong from the weak, and let the weak little shining princess meet her doom at my hands. In return, I sent her on a believable wild goose chase to find a fictional artifact to make her the dragon she believes she was born to be. Did you know? Your little guide was never a real fairy in the first place, but a dragon who had been changed by fairy magic while in the egg. Actually, I believe it was the same egg that hatched the dragon you intruded Wyrmroost with. But, that's an entirely different matter, completely unimportant. What matters is that I'm about to kill you."
Without warning, Aisha charged Lena with her unnatural shadowy blade. Lena met the blow with her horn as Alexis scurried back toward Nemus' body, grabbing a stick from the fire.
"Lena! Duck!" Alexis cried, heaving the flaming log. It should have hit Aisha, hurting her or at least making her back off from Lena. Instead, the fire was almost immediately put out with a wave of Aisha's hand. The log fell to the ground, useless. The only light now was coming from the meteor shower, which was dimming. Aisha was able to slip into darkness, becoming invisible.
"Shade walking," Lena whispered. Suddenly, Aisha appeared a few feet away from where she had vanished. Lena barely had time to whirl around and block the strike before Aisha disappeared into the darkness again.
"Why are you doing this?" Lena asked in desperation, dodging a thrust from Aisha's shadowy sword. "Just because you're a shadow charmer doesn't mean you have to be evil!"
Aisha laughed. "Your personal connections have weakened you, Lena. Your uncle is a fool, a weakling, believing that he can use the powers of darkness for the benefit of light. Perhaps my brother is under the same illusion."
Their blades clashed again, sending unnatural sparks of light and darkness into the air. Aisha pushed her sword against Lena's horn with strength that didn't fit her tiny form. Soon Lena had her back to the ground, just barely able to keep the dark blade away from her skin.
"I searched for you, Lena," Aisha spat. "I hunted and chased and fought and I caught you. And now…I'm going to kill you."
"No," Lena managed to whisper, her strength about to give out.
"Oh, yes," Aisha replied, her dark countenance full of malevolence and sinister triumph. "First you, and then your prattling little friend, and then your family. Everything that is dear to you will fall. It's a pity that your little boyfriend will perish without knowing who was truly behind both of his deaths." She grinned wider, the whiteness of her teeth clashing against her dark brown skin. "Imagine that—Bradley Hutchinson will die twice, on the same day, at the hands of the same person."
Lena dropped her horn, unable to resist any longer. Aisha's dark sword shrunk back into a little knife that she pressed against Lena's neck. Suddenly Lena noticed out of the corner of her eye that Alexis was fiddling with a small crossbow from Will's backpack, trying to get it to work.
"Farewell, shining princess," Aisha said, raising her knife for the final strike.
Lena found her strength and her voice. "No!" She pushed upward with her horn and stood up, causing Aisha to fall backward. The shadow charmer immediately got back to her feet after falling, and swung her knife toward Lena's neck. Lena ducked, and Aisha's knife nicked her cheek instead of slicing her throat. Lena's hand went subconsciously to the cut.
Alexis figured out the crossbow and aimed it toward Aisha. "Lena! Get out of the way!"
Lena's eyes widened. "No!"
But it was too late. Aisha gasped and abruptly stepped backward as the arrow entered her small body, the cruel arrowhead protruding through the center of her back. Her black eyes widened, staring straight ahead. Time seemed to slow down as the knife fell from Aisha's hand, clattering against the stony ground, and Alexis lowered the crossbow. Lena got up to catch Aisha's body as it fell, cradling her lifeless form in her arms.
Lena stared at the dark spot that was spreading across Aisha's simple red tank top—it wasn't just blood. The blackness seemed to travel in swirls over the little girl's entire body, turning whatever it touched into nothing but a shadow. Soon all Lena was holding was an arrow.
She looked up at Alexis and shook her head. "What just happened?" she asked softly.
Alexis glanced at the arrow in Lena's hands, not truly believing that the blood on it was there because of her. She looked back at Lena.
"No," she said finally. "I'm going home."
Alexis adjusted Will's backpack on her shoulders and walked in what she hoped was the direction of the gate as the stars continued to fall, untouched by the sorrow and fear below them.
XIXIXIX
"Oh, Celly-belly, you startled me," the blue female dragon said smoothly, facing the silver dragon. "Have you come to scold me for that little fiasco with those humans a while back? It really wasn't my fault, you know."
The silver dragon lifted his head. "You abandoned an egg twelve years ago. It was recovered by a young man shortly after, who gave it to his wife. Did you know this?"
The blue dragon narrowed her eyes. "Yes. Why?"
"This couple nurtured and hatched the egg," the silver dragon continued. "It survived and was raised by them, in human form, hidden."
"I don't see why we're having this conversation," the blue dragon said evasively.
"Why did you abandon that egg?"
"Is it really that important to you?" she countered.
"Answer me, Nafia," the silver dragon ordered.
After a pause, the blue dragon obeyed. "Its father wanted it to survive."
"Who was that?" the silver dragon inquired.
"Really, I'm still failing to see the reason behind your interest in-"
"Who is the father of this egg?" he repeated forcefully.
The blue dragon gave up trying to avoid the answer. Her triple voice fell to a whisper, as if she didn't want any outsiders to hear.
Bradley's dream was cut short as he was abruptly dropped onto the ground. Raxtus was getting up from underneath him.
"Sorry, kid," Raxtus apologized as Bradley rubbed his head. "The sun's rising. We might want to get an early start. It's a long flight."
"Right. Yeah," Bradley nodded. He swallowed hard. "Let's go meet the dragon king."