The Portal (Dragonlings of Valdier #9)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

The Valdier royal gardens stretched beneath the treehouse, a lush paradise of towering golden-leafed trees, fragrant purple blossoms, and crystalline fountains that shimmered like liquid starlight.

The air hummed with energy, the very essence of the planet pulsing beneath the soil.

Thick branches wove together like nature’s own architecture, forming winding pathways and hidden alcoves where the mischievous group of teenagers had played since they were young.

Fireflies with glowing blue tails flitted lazily through the air, and a warm breeze carried the scent of honeyed fruit and rich, damp earth.

Nestled high in the strongest tree—a massive, ancient behemoth with twisting, gnarled branches as thick as hover bikes—stood their treehouse.

Well, tree-mansion might have been a better word.

It had started as a simple retreat, but over the years, it had been reinforced, expanded, and upgraded with every kind of tech and enhancement the Dragonlings could get their hands on—which was plentiful.

Inside, the walls were smooth, polished wood infused with a faint, golden glow, reacting to the shifting energy Alice and Adaline wove into the structure.

Soft cushions were scattered across the floor, a mix of handwoven Valdier silk and Curizan energy-infused fabric that adjusted for ultimate comfort.

Holographic screens flickered along the far wall, displaying maps, schematics, and random blueprints of whatever Jade and Amber were tinkering with along with the game Bálint was playing.

A massive curved window opened out over the gardens, a perfect place to sit and dream—or, in Zohar’s case, stare moodily into the distance.

He sat there now, his arms draped over the windowsill, his gold and brown eyes brooding, the faintest wisps of a sigh slipping from him as he watched a bug flying from plant to plant.

Roam lay sprawled across a pile of cushions, absently tossing a small energy ball into the air and catching it, his feline reflexes making the motion effortless.

His blue eyes flicked toward the ceiling with each throw, his lips pressing into a pout.

His white-blonde hair was sticking out as if he had forgotten to brush it that morning.

He wiggled his nose and flicked an irritated glare at Adaline when the ball hovered in the air instead of falling back into his hands. She giggled and released her hold on it. He caught it and stuck his tongue out at her before he turned and gave Spring a wink when she huffed.

“I’m so bored,” Zohar groaned, drawing out the last word in dramatic suffering.

Bálint, who was playing a video game, didn’t even bother glancing over at Zohar when he turned to look at the group. “We just had an adventure, remember?”

“Yeah,” Jabir snorted as he rotated a potato chip between his fingers, his face scrunched in concentration. “One that almost got us killed.”

Amber and Jade, huddled together in the corner, exchanged an amused glance as they worked on their latest experiment—a tiny whirring demented symbiot with sleek black metal plating and mischievous glowing green eyes.

The thing darted in and out of the shadows, zipping up the walls before flipping midair and buzzing back to them.

“We had an adventure, too, when we visited dad’s warship. It was fun,” Amber said absently, tightening a tiny wire with the precision of a scientist.

Jade smirked. “Yeah, as long as the idiots trying to kill you are idiots, it’s not so bad.”

Jabir let out a triumphant laugh and held up his chip. “Look! It’s a unicorn!”

Everyone turned to stare.

Roam narrowed his eyes and studied the chip with a critical eye. “That’s just a horse with a dent in it.”

Jabir huffed. “Use your imagination. That looks like a horn to me.” He tilted the chip, pretending to gallop it through the air before gobbling it up with a hum of satisfaction.

Phoenix, who was sitting cross-legged on a fluffy cushion, leaned back, grabbed another bag of chips, and absently flicked it to Jabir when he shook his empty bag and frowned with disappointment.

Her midnight-black hair fell over one shoulder, and the flames reflected in her eyes, giving her an almost otherworldly glow.

She smiled at Jabir’s antics, but then hesitated, something flickering in her gaze.

“That actually reminds me of…” she murmured, her voice trailing off.

The energy in the room shifted.

Spring, who had been quietly reading beside Alice, immediately snapped her gaze up, sensing her sister’s hesitation. “…that time you disappeared?” she guessed.

“When did you disappear?” Alice demanded, glaring at Phoenix with a surprised expression.

Phoenix bit her lip, her fingers tightening around the tablet she was holding. “I…”

Roam leaned forward. “Come on, Phoenix. You’ve got to spill! You went on an adventure without us?”

Anticipation crackled in the air, thick and heady. Even Zohar leaned forward, his curiosity piqued. Phoenix exhaled and lifted her gaze, meeting each of theirs.

“I opened a portal,” she confessed. “And I traveled to another world.”

A beat of stunned silence. Then—

Roam shot upright. “You what? Was it different from any that we’ve been to before?”

Jade and Amber exchanged a delighted glance. “Oh, this just got interesting.”

Bálint put down his game controller and twisted around to face Phoenix. Zohar rose and walked over to sit down between Bálint and Roam, while Jabir’s newest potato chip creation tumbled forgotten from his fingers.

Alice and Adaline exchanged glances, their eyes glowing faintly with delight at the idea of seeing a new world they had never been to—and going on an adventure. They had missed out on too many from the sound of it.

Spring grinned and shook her head. “Go ahead. Tell them about it.”

Zohar grinned and waved an impatient hand at her. “Yes, details, now. What was it like?”

Phoenix hesitated again, but this time, the surrounding excitement was infectious. She leaned forward, her eyes swirling with color, changing with her moods and reflecting what looked almost like stars and galaxies.

“It was different from anything I’ve ever seen,” she admitted. “There were mermaids and monsters and pirates and all kinds of other creatures straight out of the stories our mom told us about from Earth. Oh, and there were dragons.”

Amber and Jade snorted at the same time. “We already have plenty of those.”

Phoenix laughed. “Yeah, but these were different.”

Roam’s grin widened. “Can you open a portal? Can we go there?”

Phoenix blinked, caught off guard. “Well… maybe. But… we would probably get into loads of trouble. I don’t think our parents would be happy if we suddenly popped into an alien world without them.”

Amber and Jade burst into laughter.

“They handled it pretty good when we went to Earth, remember? That’s an alien world—sort of,” Amber scoffed with a dismissive wave of her hand at the idea of them getting in trouble.

Jade grinned. “Yeah, and we were a lot younger then. Besides, you do realize that trouble is kinda our thing, right?”

Zohar grinned and nodded his head. “At least we’d have some fun instead of sitting around doing nothing for the next two weeks.”

The room burst into chaos as they all talked at once about where they wanted to go, what they wanted to do, and who they wanted to meet.

“Was it different from the portals we’ve used before?” Bálint asked.

“Are there really mermaids?” Alice and Adaline asked in unison.

“How many pirates are there?” Roam asked, his eyes brimming with excitement.

“Monsters! Were they like the walking dead kind or the really cute, cuddly kind?” Amber asked, her eyes wide with delight at the idea of meeting a monster.

Phoenix held up her hands. “One at a time!”

She turned to Bálint first. “Yes, the portal was different—more colorful, and longer. I could see all kinds of galaxies.”

Her gaze moved to Alice and Adaline as she answered their question. “There were mermaids, or at least there is a king of them, so I’m assuming there are more.”

She finally turned to Amber and said, “The monsters I saw were cute. I don’t know about cuddly.”

The twins grinned at each other.

“I don’t know exactly how many pirates there are. I wasn’t there for very long, and there was a lot going on. I-I’ll admit, I would love to go back and explore,” she said in a wistful tone.

Roam grinned wider. “So… you’ll open a portal, then?”

Phoenix hesitated. “I don’t know, guys. It doesn’t always work the way I want it to, and I had help last time. This isn’t like the others I’ve opened before on my own. If something goes wrong—”

“It won’t. You’ve got this, Phoenix,” Roam scoffed, dismissing her fears with a mischievous wink. “I vote we visit the pirates first!”

“Agreed.” Bálint laughed. “Pirates have treasure.”

“And ships,” Zohar added. “We should definitely steal a ship.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “You can’t just steal a pirate ship, Zohar.”

“Not with that attitude,” he shot back.

Amber leaned forward. “What about the Isle of the Monsters?”

Jade nodded eagerly. “I bet they have creatures no one’s ever seen before.”

Spring exhaled. “Are we sure this is a good idea?”

Zohar snorted. “Spring, literally none of our ideas are ever very good. That’s what makes them so great.”

She opened her mouth—then sighed. “Fair point.”

Phoenix glanced at them all, then narrowed her eyes at Amber and Jade. Zohar snickered when he noticed the twins immediately adopted expressions of perfect innocence. He didn’t miss the way Jade tried to tuck the symbiot robot they had built in her lap.

“If we do this, everyone needs to behave.”

Amber pointed at Roam and him. “Why are you staring at us? You should be telling them that. They’re the ones who almost got killed on their last adventure. We planned what we were doing and captured our bad guys.”

Jade nodded. “They get into way more trouble than we do. Besides, we have tools and know how to use them.”

Phoenix groaned. “If we do this, we need to have some rules. No interfering. We need to keep a low profile so they don’t even know we are visiting, okay? We also need to stick together.” She turned a glare on Roam and Zohar before she did the same to Amber and Jade again. “No starting trouble!”

Amber and Jade groaned, glanced at each other, grinned, then nodded in agreement. Zohar’s lips twitched when he saw the twins cross their fingers behind their back. Roam lifted his hands in the air and smiled.

“Trouble follows me, so I can’t promise,” Roam retorted, before hastily adding when Spring growled at him, “but I’ll try.”

Zohar grinned. “We’ve got this. We’re the Dragonlings. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Phoenix groaned and bit her lip. “I’m beginning to think this isn’t such a good idea,” she muttered to a chorus of protests.

“Phoenix!”

“Come on!”

“Please! Think of the mermaids,” Adaline and Alice pleaded.

“We’ll behave, won’t we, guys?” Jabir said, speaking up.

Phoenix groaned again and sighed when Jabir turned his puppy-eyed look on her. Zohar fought back a grin. He would need to remember that move. Phoenix melted at Jabir’s longing expression.

“Oh, okay.” She looked at him with a doubtful expression. “Like Zohar said, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“Like… everything,” Spring snorted under her breath next to her.

Roam tugged on Spring’s ponytail, causing her to wince when he pulled a little too hard. She released a low snarl and snapped back. Zohar didn’t miss the startled expression in his friend’s eyes, nor the hurt in Spring’s.

He pulled his attention back to the discussion as they completed their plans. Tomorrow morning, following a quick breakfast and the departure of their dads to work on the amusement park, Phoenix would open the portal. They decided they should have a plan in case they were back late.

With a conspiratorial glance, the girls hatched a scheme: they would tell their dads they were doing a sleepover, cleverly switching between their houses each night of their break.

Meanwhile, the boys planned to inform their fathers that they would camp out in the garden and practice their training moves.

Spring rolled her eyes and glared back at Roam. “Your dad would believe you more if you told him you were playing video games and eating junk food for the next two weeks rather than training.”

A fiery flash ignited in Roam’s eyes at the subtle, stinging insult. Zohar elbowed Roam and shook his head to keep his friend from digging himself into a deeper hole—one that Spring would happily make bottomless if Roam didn’t quit irritating her.

He turned his attention back to the excitement buzzing in the air, thick with mischief, adventure, and the thrill of the unknown. Leaning back, arms crossed, a smile tugged at his lips.

Two weeks off with nothing to do?

Not anymore.