by Meg Ripley
The smiling man flicked his arm, shifting his hand into a clawed one for a moment. “We’re dragons, just like you are. Well, Varhan is a wizard, but I promise he’s on your side.”
“Get out of the way!” This came from Callan, who slid his dark brown reptilian form around from behind Archard. He approached the strangers, quickly morphing into his two-legged self and reaching out his hand just as his claws and scales transformed into fingers and nails. “I apologize for my cousin’s behavior. We just haven’t seen any other dragons in a long time.”
“Callan…” Archard warned. What he said was true, but just because they were dealing with fellow dragons didn’t mean they were safe.
“It’s quite understandable. My name is Julian.” The man shook Callan’s hand. “This is Varhan, my daughter Kaylee, my wife Naomi, and my son Jacob.”
Archard’s eyes glanced around the room at each person Julian introduced, but they swung immediately back to the one named Kaylee. With her deep brown hair and brilliant emerald eyes, she greatly resembled her father. Unlike him, though, she looked slightly horrified. Archard focused on her dark pink lips and felt his scales ripple. Perhaps she was a wizard, as well, because he felt as though she’d put a spell on him.
“It’s very nice to meet you,” Callan enthused.
Now Lucia came forward. She touched Archard reassuringly with her wing before shifting into her human form as well. “I think you’ll set our minds at ease if you could explain what’s happened.”
Archard didn’t like the idea of his clan putting themselves at risk like this. They didn’t know these people, and the four of them were all they had left. Still, he wanted to hear their side of the story.
Varhan gave a final yank at his wand, and the flames inside Archard prepared to leap forward, lest he put another spell on them. But the wood snapped, and the wizard hit the floor with a hard thump. He examined the splintered stump in his hand. “Ah, damn.”
This was enough to break the tension in the room for many of them, but Archard wasn’t ready to put his guard down just yet.
“Easy there, big boy,” Kieran whispered from his side. His silver scales had melted into warm skin and a shaggy beard, and his dark eyes looked into Archard’s with sympathy. “There’s not enough room in here for all your rage.”
“Fine.” It took a lot of effort and several deep breaths, but Archard folded his wings into his back. The strong reptilian legs stretched while his neck shortened, and he shook his head as his face took on the shape of his human configuration. He ran a thick hand through the dark hair that replaced the spikes on the back of his head and suddenly felt self-conscious as he noticed that Kaylee was still watching him.
“This is a little difficult, because I’m not entirely sure myself of what’s happened,” Julian explained. “You see, we came from Charok two decades ago, just as Tazarre cast his spell. Varhan helped us. My son was born here, and I brought my daughter here while she was still growing in her egg. We were simply trying to see what things were like over there, but something went wrong with the spell.”
“I warned you there would be some side effects we couldn’t predict,” Varhan grumbled as he got to his feet with Kaylee’s assistance, dusting off his robe. “While I can’t explain what went wrong, I did the best I could do to fix it. I used another spell I’d been considering, but I wasn’t sure what it would do. Apparently, it brought you all here.”
“But where is here?” Archard demanded.
“Earth,” Kaylee answered, and her voice pierced straight into Archard’s heart.
She was too beautiful, and he’d never seen anyone quite like her. He wanted to shift back, and the skin on the back of his neck flipped over into scales. He gritted his teeth against each other to regain control. Clearly, if she was part of whatever spell that had brought them there, then she had some sort of power. So why did he feel the need to dart across the room and separate her from the rest of these strangers?
“As far as we can calculate, our planet is on the opposite side of the galaxy from Charok,” Varhan said gently. “It’s a long way unless you have the right spell.”
“You’re saying that you escaped before the Great Curse?” Archard asked. “You abandoned us while everyone was dying? You ran off to another planet and left us?” He couldn’t quite wrap his mind around this foreign planet they were supposedly on, but the idea left a distinct sense of disgust at the base of his spine.
“I promise you, I had a very good reason for going. I’ve spent my entire life since then wishing there was something I could’ve done to save everyone. But there was very little time,” Julian explained.
“And my resources were limited, unfortunately,” Varhan added.
Lucia nodded. “I think we can understand that,” she said in her calm and diplomatic voice. “And I think there’s much more for all of us to talk about. But I have to admit that this spell and the idea of being on a different planet has left me feeling rather overwhelmed. This is going to take some time.”
“Of course!” The woman named Naomi jumped forward. She was, as far as Archard could understand, Kaylee’s mother, but the two women looked nothing like each other. “Perhaps we should start with giving you a tour of our home. It’s big enough, and I think we can find accommodations for all of you.”
Archard took a solid step forward. “What I’d prefer is for you to send us back,” he asserted. “We never asked to come here.”
Julian glanced at the wizard, who rolled his shoulders uncertainly.
“Ah, you see, that might not be a very simple thing.”
Archard’s blood thundered in his ears. It was a very human reaction, and one that he didn’t prefer to experience. It was easier to handle these situations as a dragon, and his body certainly wanted to be back in that physique, but there simply wasn’t enough space in this room for them all to shift back. “Are you telling me we’re stuck here?”
The corners of Varhan’s mouth stretched down toward his wobbly jaw. “I’m afraid so, at least for now. But I promise you I’ll get working on it right away!” he added quickly.
“I know it’s hard to understand right now, but you should really give Earth a try,” Julian said. “There were several other dragons who came through with me, and we’ve all adjusted very well. It’s quite a pleasant place once you get used to it.”
Archard wasn’t so sure. He didn’t want to come here, and as far as he was concerned, he wasn’t going to stay any longer than he had to. “I want to go back as soon as possible. I can’t just leave my entire world behind.”
“I know it’s difficult right now, but be patient. It’ll be all right.” Julian led the way out of the room, the rest of the dragons following him.
Archard brought up the end, seething inside. It was easy for Julian to tell him to be patient. He’d come to this place of his own volition. But Archard had duties back on Charok, ones that he couldn’t just abandon. Nobody there would understand that, though, not even his own family. He stepped out into a hallway, which made him even more uncomfortable than the library had.
“For what it’s worth, this really wasn’t what we intended.”
He whirled to find Kaylee at his shoulder. Standing right next to her like that, he could see that she was only a few inches shorter than him. Her dark curls tumbled around her shoulders, and she still looked as breathless as she had when they arrived. He studied her face, feeling as though he’d seen her somewhere before. “I’m not sure it matters.”
“Suit yourself, but I just want you to know that we meant no harm. I’m looking forward to finding out more about your world. Well, technically it’s my world, too. Just not in the same way.” They followed the others down the hall, and Julian could be heard at the front of the line giving a grand tour of the place.
“It’s not your world at all,” Archard insisted. “I can see already that you live completely different lives than we do on Charok. I can barely even tell that you’re a dragon.” He hadn’t reali
zed it until he’d said it out loud. Dragons always knew each other, even if they’d never met before. It was an instant knowledge that reached their brains, and though he didn’t know the science behind it, he knew it to be true. Kaylee was more human than dragon, yet there was something else inside her as well.
She tipped her head up ever so slightly, her eyes narrowing. “There aren’t many opportunities to shift in this world. We live among humans who don’t know about us, and we’d like to keep it that way.”
“Are you seriously telling me that I can’t even be who I am here? That I can’t fly and hunt and do…everything else dragons do?” He’d gotten too close to her, his body only a few inches away from hers, and his mind had turned in the wrong direction. Archard should be concerned with his freedom and his future, yet he was suddenly much more interested in grabbing Kaylee and dragging her off through one of the numerous doorways around them so they could be alone. It was a strange feeling, and one he knew he shouldn’t be having.
“There’s a lot you can do,” she replied patiently, obviously having no idea what he was really thinking. She glanced down the hall, where the rest of the party was turning off into a large room and leaving them behind. “It’s just that over the years, a lot of us have gotten out of the habit. Bad things could happen if we’re discovered, so we have to be discreet. But it’s not so bad, really.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Archard snarled. Now that the rest of them were out of earshot, he was having a harder time controlling his body. The most difficult part was that he wasn’t even sure what he wanted to do. Part of him wanted to keep this beautiful woman safe from anything that might harm her, and the idea that they were surrounded by humans who wanted to do just that made his blood boil.
The other part of him knew that someone was going to have to step in and make sure Kaylee was safe from him. The longer he stood here near her, watching the way the shades of green shifted in her intelligent eyes and studying the warmth and tone of her skin, the more he wanted to wrap his arms around her waist and crush her against his body. Even the way her mouth moved when she spoke, like the words only existed because she allowed them to, was hypnotizing. If they were somewhere else and in a different situation, he might not have bothered to control himself at all.
Kaylee crossed her arms and raised one eyebrow, her lips tightening. “Fine. If you want to be grumpy and negative about this, then that’s your problem.”
“What?” He’d gotten so caught up in the energy that crackled between them that he’d nearly forgotten everything he’d said.
“I know this can’t be easy on you,” she replied, her voice impatient. “I can’t pretend to know exactly what you’re going through, but I’m doing my best. You won’t even let me be nice, so maybe I should just stop trying.” Kaylee brushed past him and stormed down the hall to join the rest of the group.
Archard watched her go, any argument dying on his lips. Earth was going to be quite a challenge.
7
Kaylee’s body ached. She was so tired that her eyelids threatened to close as she helped her mother clean up the kitchen, but she knew she wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon. The evening’s events had been far too exciting.
After Julian had shown the new dragons around the house and assured them numerous times that they were welcome to stay, Naomi had prepared a large dinner and Jake had added the extra leaves in the dining table. It was like the family reunion that Kaylee had never realized she’d longed for. Lucia made polite conversation, always thanking their hosts and commenting on how delicious the food was. Callan was fascinated with the new world and asked questions about everything, which kept the conversation going long into the night. Kieran was quiet, but his eyes were wise and it was obvious to Kaylee that he observed everything going on around him. Every now and then, he’d cracked a dry joke that was funny, no matter what planet they were on. Archard had been another matter, but she tried to ignore him as best she could.
Naomi took a dirty plate out of her hand and smiled. “You look dead on your feet.”
“Something like that,” Kaylee admitted. “I just can’t stop thinking about it all. This wasn’t supposed to happen, but I can’t say I’m unhappy that it did.”
Her mother put an arm around her shoulders. “Sometimes accidents give us the most wonderful gifts. Mind you, I plan to have a stern talking-to with your father and Varhan. If that spell had gone differently, you might’ve been seriously hurt.”
“Oh, Mom. I’m fine. I just can’t believe this happened.” Her cheeks were already tired from smiling so much, but she couldn’t stop herself. It was thrilling, and it meant so much for their future. She knew even without asking that her father would be eager to start on the next step, whatever that may be.
“Neither can I, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Stranger things have happened.” Naomi smiled gently to herself as she rinsed the plate and put it in the dishwasher.
“Like what?” As she moved through the kitchen, Kaylee realized just how strange of a thing this probably would have been for the new dragons in their home. From what Julian had told her of Charok, they didn’t have modern conveniences like dishwashers or refrigerators. It was a much more primitive society, though civilized.
“Oh, I don’t know. I think your father and Varhan are waiting for you in the library. You’d better go, or they’ll start talking without you.”
Kaylee dried her hands on a towel and left the kitchen. As she headed for the library, she tipped her head up toward the ceiling. In the extra bedrooms upstairs, her parents had made room for each of the new dragons. Julian had apologized numerous times for the strange sleeping conditions, since none of them were used to sleeping in beds in a house, but they all seemed to accept the hospitality well enough. Even Archard didn’t say much, simply closing the door behind him.
As her mother said, Julian and Varhan were in the library. The remnants of the salt, citrine and ashes had been swept from the floor. The rug was back in place, as was the furniture. Except for a few pieces of paper that’d been blown around the room and the piece of Varhan’s wand that still stuck out of the floor, it was like nothing had ever happened there.
But the looks on the men’s faces were enough to remind her that it most certainly had. “The two of you are absolutely amazing,” Julian enthused, straightening a vase on a shelf. He was too excited to sit down, and he busied himself throughout the room. “More dragons! Who would’ve thought we’d not only find them, but bring them back here?”
Kaylee sat down heavily, the leather couch cool on her back. “Yeah, it’s pretty heavy stuff.”
Varhan rubbed a hand over his forehead. “We should be getting to sleep soon. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
“Agreed. I want to try the spell again as soon as possible.” Julian tapped a finger against the silver bowl, the inside of it tarnished from the burning herbs it held earlier.
The wizard let out a low laugh. “No, my friend. That’s not going to happen anytime soon. We need to recover, for one thing. You’re excited right now, but when you wake up in the morning, you’ll realize just how much the magic has drained you. And I think you’re also forgetting that the spell went wrong. It was all purely accidental, and even if we tried, I couldn’t guarantee that we’d replicate it.”
The smile faded only slightly from Julian’s face. “Even so, we have an excellent starting point. With a little bit of time and research, I imagine we can bring more dragons over within a week or two. Lucia said there were other clans still on Charok, ones that managed to survive the War and the Great Curse. We can’t just leave them there.”
Kaylee cleared her throat. She didn’t want to argue with either one of them, but this was her opportunity to express the concerns she’d been having all evening. “Don’t you think we should be working on sending them back instead?”
“What do you mean?” Julian almost looked offended, but Varhan’s eyes twinkled at her.
“Well
, they didn’t want to be here in the first place.” Archard’s words were still fresh in her mind. “We know that at least one of them wants to go back, and I think it’s only fair that we try to accomplish that.”
Varhan leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. He looked particularly old, his face lined with worry, and Kaylee realized she had no idea how old he was. “It’s a noble thought, and one that I’m glad to hear you’re having. The problem is that I don’t know how to send them back. If I did, then I could’ve just sent Julian there like he’d always wanted.”
“I did want that,” her father admitted, biting his lower lip and shaking his head. “But I’m not so sure now. I mean, there’s a lot more opportunity for us here. We don’t even have to live in caves or hunt for food. They’re much better off, and we can help them.”
An uncomfortable feeling squirmed inside Kaylee’s stomach. “But I’m not sure we did the right thing. I know it wasn’t on purpose, but it’s not fair for us to just assume they want to be on Earth because we think it’s better. They might miss their home. Hell, I’ve never lived there and I feel like I miss it.”
Julian put his hands up in the air. “Fair enough. You’re right. I’ll talk to them some more tomorrow. But like Varhan said, we don’t know how to send them back. Not yet. In the meantime, they’ll have the chance to see what Earth is really like and make their decision from there.”
“What about the others?” Varhan asked. “Have you told them?”
“I called Holden and explained things. He thought I was playing a joke on him at first. We both agreed that we should take things slowly. We’ll give it some time before we bring everyone else over. They seem a bit overwhelmed as it is, except for Callan. I’ve no doubt he’ll be staying.”
“It’s Archard that I’m concerned about,” Kaylee said quietly. “He seemed very unhappy about being here; angry, even. I don’t know that he’ll be able to keep this all a secret.” She’d tried not to think about him, especially after their encounter in the hall, but Archard had been on the forefront of her mind ever since the new dragons had arrived. She couldn’t deny her first thought: that she’d never seen such a gorgeous being in her life. His dark hair was swept back against his head, and he kept it a bit shorter than Callan did. Paired with those jet blue eyes, a strong jaw, and wide shoulders, he was like something out of a movie. Even his hostility hadn’t completely turned her off at first. He gave her a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, like her own skin was suffocating her. The way Archard watched her made her feel like she was the only person in the room, and Kaylee had yet to decide if that was a good or bad thing.