Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Golden ribbons of late afternoon sun pierced the pale mist, illuminating the village clearing with a dreamy glow.
The fresh scent of wood smoke mixed with pine from across the lake.
Adaline stood on the soft moss, the warmth of the late afternoon sun pressing gently against her skin and keeping the slight chill in the air from making her shiver.
The others were gathered around her in a loose circle.
Mud was practically vibrating with questions. “Okay, but when you make things back on your world—like the fork—what does it feel like?”
Adaline tilted her head, rolling the fork between her fingers. “Back home, it’s just… creation. Like pouring metal into a mold. I picture what I want, summon the energy, and shape it.” She paused, frowning. “But here… it’s different. When I made this fork, I could feel its origins.”
Droplet tilted her head, blinking wide, blue eyes. “Feel its what?”
Adaline’s gaze dropped to the fork again, now resting in her palm. “It was like the metal spoke to me. Not with words… but with impressions. I could feel where it came from. The ground. The ore. The fire that shaped it. The star that created it.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “It was alive.”
Dew, standing a few paces away with her arms folded, smiled softly. “Because it is. All things are. The fork may seem ordinary, but it was once part of something greater. The metal came from the earth… and before that, from the stars.”
Dew lifted her hand and gestured upward.
Adaline followed her gaze, the sky stretching open and endless above the misty lake. Something clicked into place. A memory from school, from science class—how every element in the universe had once been part of a dying star. A supernova. The atoms in her hand were the same as those in the stars.
Her breath caught. She looked at the fork again, but this time with reverence.
“Everything,” she murmured, “is made of stardust.”
“Can you change it to stone?” Droplet asked eagerly.
“Or wind?” Breeze added.
“Ooh! What about fire?” Mud chimed in, his eyes gleaming.
Adaline frowned in concentration and focused on the fork. She pictured rough, heavy granite. The weight of it. The coolness. The feel of jagged edges.
With a soft shimmer, the metal shifted in her hand—turning to solid stone.
A ripple of gasps surrounded her.
“I did it,” she whispered, staring in wonder.
Then, curiosity tugged at her again. She held out her hand and thought of water.
The fork didn’t change.
Her hand did.
Adaline gasped as her fingers shimmered, then dissolved into clear, rippling liquid. She stared at them—translucent and flowing—yet somehow still attached to her.
She wiggled her fingers.
Her watery fingers wiggled back.
A startled giggle burst from her lips.
Dew was suddenly at her side, wrapping a reassuring arm around her shoulder. “Are you alright?”
“I… I think so,” Adaline breathed, turning her hand over and watching as it shifted back into flesh. “What’s happening to me?”
Dew’s voice was low and filled with quiet awe. “I’m not certain, child. But I believe… you are like Princess Gem. Like the royal bloodline of the Elementals. You don’t just use energy. You are energy. You’re connected to the very elements themselves.”
Adaline stared at her hand. Slowly, she curled her fingers into a fist and opened them again. “Then maybe I’m not broken after all.”
“No,” Dew murmured with a comforting smile. “You’re awakening.”
For the next hour, Adaline practiced. She shaped stone and shifted air.
She coaxed fire to dance across her palm and felt her own body shimmer into mist and back again.
Lessons from school—theoretical concepts she had memorized—suddenly made perfect sense.
She wasn’t just recalling facts. She was experiencing them. Living them.
And for the first time… she wasn’t trying to be Alice. Or her father. She was herself. Adaline. And that was enough.
Excited laughter pulled her from her thoughts.
“Look!” Breeze cried, pointing toward the sky.
Adaline followed her gaze—and her breath hitched.
Soaring overhead was a dragon, its vivid purple and gold scales glittering like precious gems in the sun. Wings wide and graceful, it circled once—twice—before beginning to descend.
“Bálint!” she cried, her heart leaping.
But then—another dragon dove after the first, smaller, sleeker—and riding its back was a girl with long silver-blonde hair whipping in the wind.
“Alice!” she shouted, barely able to believe her eyes.
Wind surged around them in a wild spiral. Adaline could feel the presence in it—alive, intelligent, guiding.
Both dragons landed in a burst of wind and shimmering light. Alice leapt from the smaller dragon’s back, laughing as tears filled her eyes.
Adaline didn’t hesitate. She sprinted across the clearing, a cry of joy tearing from her throat.
“Alice!”
They collided in a hug, arms wrapping tight around each other. Adaline laughed and cried all at once, burying her face in her cousin’s shoulder.
“I thought I lost you,” she whispered.
“You didn’t,” Alice said, hugging her tighter. “I’m here.”
A shimmer of light caught the corner of Adaline’s eye. She turned just in time to see Bálint shift from his dragon form, watching them with a huge grin on his face. He strode toward her and she threw her arms around him too, laughing as she hugged him close.
“I was just about to come looking for you,” she said against his chest.
“Yeah, well… I would’ve found you first,” he teased, his voice low and full of relief.
They pulled apart as two unfamiliar figures stepped forward—a girl with stormy eyes and long dark hair, and a boy whose guarded gaze lingered a little too long on Alice.
Mud growled softly under his breath, “What’s a Wind Spinner doing here?”
The girl smirked at him. “You have a problem with a little wind, mist boy?”
“Mud,” Dew said sternly, her tone sharp with warning.
He muttered and looked away, grumbling an uncomplimentary word about Wind Spinners being full of hot air.
“This is Leanna,” Bálint said, rubbing the back of his neck, “and… Geoff.”
“Geoff helped me,” Alice said quickly. “I ended up on the Isle of Magic. I lost my powers—but I found them again. I just have a new way to use them.”
Adaline’s eyes lit up. “I didn’t lose mine… but I learned something pretty cool.” She looked at Alice, then Bálint, then the others, and a small, confident smile curved her lips. “I don’t have to be like anyone else. I’m me. And that’s okay. I’m not broken. I’m just… me.”
“Of course you are,” Alice said, hugging Adaline again.
“Are you like Adaline?” Mud asked.
“Did you come from a far off world, too?” Droplet added.
Adaline laughed as the group stood in a ring around them, buzzing with questions. It felt good not to be alone anymore. She smiled at Bálint, about to ask him what happened when a sudden cry echoed through the village.
Everyone turned. She lifted her hand to shield her eyes and watched as a massive shadow glided into view.
Balint hissed, his voice hushed. “No way…”
Adaline’s eyes widened. “What’s that?”
An enormous airship, elegant and majestic, descended from the clouds.
Gilded in deep bronze and crimson, its massive sails billowed in the wind.
A flock of paper birds swarmed around the masts before diving to skim along the water.
The prow of the airship was carved into the head of a dragon—mouth open in a silent roar.
“It’s…” Dew breathed, her voice reverent. “The royal airship. The King of the Dragons has arrived.”
The ship crested the lake, sending gentle waves rolling to shore. It hovered, then descended with a graceful downward glide, the majestic black, red, and gold banners fluttering from the masts.
Adaline could only stare, her heart pounding.
Whatever happened next… at least she wasn’t alone anymore.
She had her cousin. Her friend. Her truth.
And a future more magical than she’d ever imagined, laughing in awe as the paper bird flock swept past them.
The moment the airship appeared over the treetops, Bálint’s heart leapt.
“Look!” someone cried.
All eyes turned skyward as the majestic royal airship descended from the clouds, sails billowing in the wind and a massive dragon figurehead leading its path like a celestial guardian. The late afternoon sunlight reflected off its polished hull, bathing the lake in streaks of gold.
Bálint took a stunned step forward. “No way,” he breathed.
A grin split his face as two familiar figures leaned over the side of the upper deck, waving wildly.
“Zohar! Phoenix!” he shouted, his voice cracking with relief and joy.
A second later, Zohar’s copper-and-brown dragon form launched into the air, with Phoenix’s sleek black, feathered dragon right behind him. They soared in tandem, wings slicing the air with powerful grace.
Bálint barely had time to brace before Zohar dropped from the sky, shifting midair. They collided with a thud that knocked the wind out of both of them.
“Bálint!” Zohar roared, grabbing him in a hug and slapping his back so hard it echoed.
“Where have you been, man?!” Bálint laughed, staggering back and throwing a mock punch at his friend’s shoulder.
“Where have you been? I was freaking out that we’d never see you again!”
“Yeah, I felt the same when I saw you disappear. I’m glad you are okay. Have you found out what happened to the others yet?”
“Not yet. You guys are the first,” Zohar replied.
They talked over each other, their voices tangled in excitement and wild disbelief.
Behind them, Phoenix landed and immediately rushed toward the others.
She enveloped Alice and Adaline in a fierce hug, burying her face in their hair as if she never wanted to let go.
Tears shimmered in her eyes—relief, guilt, love, all tangled into one overwhelming surge.