CHAPTER TWELVE
Kayla
Ferndale Falls is a truly magical place to live.
But Faerie! Happiness fills my chest with bubbling lightness, and I walk around like a real-life version of the heart-eyes emoji. I’m downright giddy, and I don’t flipping do giddy!
First, we’re in Shadow’s home realm, with blue-leaved trees and magic humming through the air so thickly I can almost taste it on my tongue.
Then we’re watching dragons do aerial acrobatics above some seriously majestic mountain peaks.
And now this: these mini-dragons are the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my life!
The parent prepares another fruit for their babies, and the little ones chirp so excitedly the sounds go past the high range of my hearing.
“What are they?” When I went to one of Skye and Luke’s story times at his castle, the dragon babies were bigger than any of the ones here and able to talk.
“They’re called dragonets.”
“Are they dragons like Luke and Jace?”
“No. Much like Earth has several ape-like mammals that share a distant ancestor with humans, this realm has many lizard-like creatures that share a distant ancestor with dragons.”
“So dragonets are sentient, but they’re not sapient,” I say. At his frown of confusion, I add, “Meaning they can’t speak.”
“Exactly. They’re like one of your Earth dogs or house cats. They’re intelligent, they feel emotions, and they form attachments.” He grins down at me as his hand cups my elbow. “They also like people.”
At his tug, I walk forward into the middle of the clearing until the flock of dragonets swirls all around us.
Shadow sinks to the ground and pats the moss-covered spot beside him.
I sit, and we soak up the magical atmosphere for another hour, the playing dragonets dancing above our heads in hypnotic patterns.
I can’t remember the last time I relaxed without escaping into a book or a game.
Then again, this is Faerie, which is more fantastical than any fiction.
“I think they’re comfortable with us now.” Shadow gestures, and we stand.
Several dragonets come close, hanging in the air in front of us like super-sized hummingbirds, bodies still except for the blur of their wings. Their blue eyes watch me carefully as little heads cock from side to side.
One of the smaller ones lands on Shadow’s head, bobbing up and down and spreading its tiny wings wide. Soon, a couple more join it.
I chuckle. “You’ve got a fan club.”
“You do, too.” He smiles, and it’s a slightly softer expression, lacking any of the hard edges that lurk behind his smirks.
A cloud of dragonets surrounds me, and every so often, one darts in to pluck up a lock of my hair or pat my cheek. One of them chirrups a trilling note, hovering in front of me, head cocked as if asking a question. I hold out my hands, wondering if they’ll light.
“No! She’s mine!” a tiny voice cries out as a dragonet flies up and shoulders the other out of the way. This one’s an adult with huge blue eyes and a lavender tummy. “I’m Dewdrop.”
“Hi, I’m Kayla.”
Dewdrop settles onto my open palms, and as soon as their wings stop moving, their weight feels like about ten pounds.
“Umm, Shadow, I thought you said these guys can’t talk,” I whisper from the side of my mouth without taking my eyes off the dragonet.
“They can’t.”
“Then how do you explain this one?” I tip my head toward Dewdrop.
“I’m not a one! I’m a he,” Dewdrop interjects. “I got to pick, so I picked ‘he.’”
“It’s certainly chirping at you quite a bit,” Shadow says. “But I’d hardly call it talking.”
“Oh. My. God.” I pull Dewdrop closer until he can prop his front legs on my chest. “Do you know what this means? If I’m the only one who can understand you, you must be my familiar!”
This day just keeps getting better and better! I not only finally have my witches’ familiar, but he’s a magical creature from Faerie and the most adorable little flying dragon ever!
“You’re my witch!” He bumps my cheek with his head, rubbing like a cat, the sides of his backward-pointing horns gliding over my skin. He clasps a lock of my hair in his front claws. “So pretty and purple like me!” Then he nuzzles close and starts to purr.
I laugh, bubbles of delight filling my chest until it feels like I’ll float up and fly with the dragonets. I never knew I could be this happy!
Shadow watches me, a tiny smile curling his lips, his green eyes bright and warm and full of joy. He’s happy for me, glad I feel good.
My heart leaps, and I’m smiling so hard my cheeks hurt, but I never want to stop. No guy’s ever done anything so special for me before.
“How did you know?” I ask. “How did you know I’d find my familiar here?”
“I didn’t. I’m as amazed as you are.” He gives a quick shrug.
“After everything you said the other day about being stuck writing your game, I thought seeing something magical might help. My people tell stories of the dragonet glens, but I’d never seen one.
So I asked Jace to get us permission to visit, and here we are. ”
He says it as if it’s nothing, but the amount of thought and effort he put into this trip absolutely blows my mind.
Cuddling Dewdrop close in one arm, I reach out with my free hand and grip Shadow’s hand.
“Thank you.” I should say more, should try to let him know how much this all means to me, but the words tangle in my throat.
Sometimes it feels like my social anxiety is a Befuddlement Spell I cast on myself the second I feel emotional and vulnerable, making me unable to speak coherently. So I can only repeat, “Thank you.”
He smiles wide and bright and radiating joy as if I’m the one who just gave him a present.
My heart leaps against my ribs like a dragonet taking flight.
Dewdrop snuggles closer for a second, then bounces from my arms. “Hungry!” He flies to one of the purple-leafed trees and picks a small cluster of dark-purple fruit, then returns to me. With solemn eyes, he holds out a piece of fruit to me. “Have one.”
“What are they?”
Dewdrop holds out another for Shadow. “They’re apricots!”
“Purple apricots?” I share a glance with Shadow.
“This is Faerie.” He gives a fluid shrug and grins.
“It’s good.” The dragonet digs into his apricot and smacks his mouth together with relish. “Try it.”
The dark-purple skin splits under my teeth, and the juice floods my mouth. The sweet and tangy taste reminds me of an apricot, if an apricot went through a hundred flavor power-ups, that is. I hum in approval. “It’s fantastic!”
“I love it,” Shadow adds.
Dewdrop gives a happy chirp and finishes off his fruit, his little hands spinning it deftly until nothing remains but the pit. He launches from my arms to go and get more.
My eyes track him as worry strikes. “What am I going to do? I have to go back to Earth, but his food is here.” I gesture toward the other dragonets. “His friends. His family.”
“Why don’t you ask him what he wants?”
I nod jerkily. “Yeah, good idea.” The dragonet deserves the right to choose.
When Dewdrop lands on me again, I cuddle him close, enjoying his purr in case… well, in case things don’t turn out. “Hey, so I’m your witch, and you’re my familiar.” I swallow. “But I have to go home, and it’s not near here—it’s not even in this realm. Do you want to come home with me?”
“Of course I want to come with you.” Dewdrop’s blue eyes sparkle. “You’re my witch.”
I quickly add, “There aren’t any purple apricots or dragonets there.”
“You don’t have fruit?”
“No, we do, just not these. We’ve got orange apricots, grapes, apples, berries, pineapple, mango, and lots more.”
“You have got to try mango,” Shadow says. “It’s delicious.”
“I want to try all the new fruits.” The dragonet bumps his head against my cheek and starts to purr. “And I won’t be alone. I’ll be with you.”
I hug him close, my throat thickening with emotion. Oh, god. How can I love Dewdrop so much already? Is it the familiar bond or his sweetness? Or could it be a long-hidden longing from my childhood, when I constantly asked for a pet, but my father wouldn’t let me?
It doesn’t matter. We might have only just met, but I trust the tiny dragon already. It’s an absolute relief to care for him without having to second-guess if I should.
The werepanther stirs. “Ready to go home?”
“Yeah,” I say softly. Home to Victoria. Home to my witch besties. Home with Dewdrop and the little family I’m creating.
Home with Shadow.
Worried the dragonet might escape my hold on the shadow roads, I transfer him to Shadow, who takes off his shirt to fashion a sling he ties around Dewdrop.
There he goes, taking off his clothes again.
But he’s got a great reason to this time, so I don’t say anything.
That doesn’t mean I’m going to let him win this round, though.
When Shadow catches me staring at his chest, I reach out and pet Dewdrop’s head, making it seem like I was doing nothing more than checking on my familiar.
The werepanther’s smirk tells me I haven’t fooled him.
Hands clasped together, we run the shadow roads all the way home, only popping out whenever we need to pass through one of the doors of Faerie. Each time, Dewdrop looks around excitedly. “Are we there yet?”
I chuckle and rub his head. “Not yet.”
When we finally step out into Victoria’s entryway, I hurry to say, “We’re home.”
“Where were you? I couldn’t feel you!” The pictures swirl around the parchment. “I didn’t like it at all.”
“We visited the dragon realm,” Shadow says.
I add, “And we brought you a new friend!”
“A new friend? For me?” Victoria writes.
I hide a wince, worried how the house will react when she finds out Dewdrop is my familiar. What’s the best way to tell her to prevent jealousy?
“Dewdrop, the house we’re inside is named Victoria. She’s a very special house who’s alive. Victoria, this is Dewdrop. He’s—”
“I’m Kayla’s familiar!” the dragonet cuts in, climbing from the sling to jump onto my shoulder. He gives me a cheek rub and purrs, so clearly affectionate there’s no way to hide how close we already are.
Welp, so much for finessing the info. “He’s my familiar.”
“So not a friend for me.” The atmosphere turns chilly.
“Of course he is,” I hurry to say, untangling one of his claws from my hair.
“Dewdrop will be a friend to all of us,” Shadow adds, and I mouth a “thank you” at him.
“Yes! I love everyone!” Dewdrop hops over to the stairs banister and side-shuffles up it until he can rub his head against the wall. “I love you, Victoria.”
“Did you hear that, Victoria?” I ask.
“Hear what?”
Oh, yeah. No one can understand him but me. I gotta get used to this. “Dewdrop says he loves you.”
The feeling in the house flips like a switch, becoming happy and light, and applause comes from the kitchen.
“What’s that sound?” My familiar flies down the hallway, and Shadow and I follow him into the kitchen, where he lights on the island, eyes wide as Victoria continues to make the cabinet doors open and close softly.
“That’s Victoria’s way of saying she approves of something.”
“Me!” The dragonet perks up, puffing out his little chest. “She approves of me!”
“Tell Dewdrop I love him, too.”
I point to the parchment and ask Dewdrop. “Can you read that?”
“What’s reading?” His head cocks to the side.
I guess that answers my question. “Victoria says she loves you, too.”
The dragonet gives a happy chirp and leaps into the air to fly loops around the kitchen.
Shadow laughs, then glances at me. “Looks like you’re playing translator.”
“Guess so. Sure would be better if those two could talk.” Then I imagine all the trouble they could get into together and mutter, “Or maybe not.”
Shadow offers to go and get pizzas. While he’s gone, I chop up a selection of the fruit I have for Dewdrop.
As soon as I peel a banana, the dragonet leaps onto my shoulder and leans forward. “What’s that? It smells good.”
I break off the end of the banana and hold it up for him.
He’s so excited his whole body starts to vibrate.
Or no, that’s me. My magic rushes upward, filling my chest and exploding through my fingers. The piece of banana squirms in my grip, and I drop it with a surprised yelp as I jump backward.
It hits the floor with a tiny squelch of sound, then scuttles sideways.
Dewdrop lets out a piercing whistle and dives, landing on my banana and smooshing it into paste, which he licks off his toes. “This tastes amazing! And it’s so fun! I’ve never had moving fruit before.”
Shadow reappears carrying two pizza boxes. “What’s this about moving fruit?”
“My magic animated a piece of banana.” I frown down at the rest of the pale-yellow flesh. “I didn’t mean to. My magic just surged, and I couldn’t control it.” I really don’t like being unable to control my powers.
“Do it again! More moving fruit!”
“Maybe later, okay?” I chop up the rest of the banana and add it to his bowl, which also has strawberries, blueberries, and some cubed honeydew melon.
We eat at the kitchen island, and I open my pizza box to find my favorite toppings: sausage and mushroom. My heart gives a little jump at this further proof that Shadow once again knows what I like best. I don’t say anything about it this time, but his pleased grin says he knows he chose well.
Dewdrop tears into his fruit with messy abandon, declaring he loves everything.
“Do you have a favorite?” I ask. “I want to get an idea of what you like.”
“New things.” He hops over to rest his front paws on my arm. “All the things.”
“What’s the saying?” Shadow’s eyes glitter with amusement. “I think you’ve created a monster.”
“After eating apricots for your whole life, I bet you’d freak out over a banana, too,” I counter.
“I would.” He tips his head toward the dragonet.
“In a lot of ways, my life in Faerie was a lot like Dewdrop’s.
Stuck in my panther form, I ate nothing but raw meat.
” At my shocked look, he holds up a hand.
“I enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong. But once I could shift into a man and try all the different foods on Earth…
” He spreads his hands wide. “It was life-changing.”
My heart gives an uneven skip. Shadow always acts so confident I never realized how strange Earth must be for him.
He’s not only adapting to a new culture, new foods, and technology, but also to having a whole new type of body.
I’ve played shapeshifters in various video games, where it’s always been a cool way to give my avatar different powers.
To actually live as one, though? I haven’t given it much thought.
Shadow takes another bite of his barbeque bacon cheddar pizza, and his lashes flutter as he gives this tiny growl of yum. It’s quick and could be interpreted as part of his whole joie de vivre schtick, but it’s not. It’s an unguarded moment of delight and discovery, one that’s vulnerable and real.
Underneath all the games and his cocky surface, there’s a man trying to figure out his place in the world, exactly like I struggled with for so long.
It makes him feel a helluva lot more approachable.
Which is the flipping opposite of what I need if I’m gonna keep my distance.