Reena dashed to the ledge. “Mica!”

Her red-headed friend tumbled end-over-end through the fierce winds toward the unyielding asphalt of Third and Main.

No, no, no, no—

The building shifted. Not with the wind. With the weight of the giant pink dragon.

Reena choked on her breath as a massive talon seized her off the roof. The dragon snatched her off her feet, pulling her close to its chest, and dove into the wind.

They fell so fast, Reena’s eyes watered. Or maybe she was crying. She couldn’t tell.

She reached out her hands toward Mica’s tumbling body. Mica’s carrot-colored hair frizzed out around her panicked face, so pale her freckles looked like ants.

We won’t make it! We won’t catch her in time!

Gravity dragged them downward relentlessly, but Mica had fallen first. And Epic Center wasn’t that tall.

The giant pink dragon flapped its wings and thrust them forward.

The manicured lawn of the grounds around Epic Center came into focus. Reena could see the cars in the parking lot. She could smell the vegan pastry baking at the vegetarian cafe across the street.

The dragon turned in the air, catching a wild breeze from above them, funneled between the tall downtown buildings, and tucked its wings tight against its body.

The dragon snatched Mica out of the air and unfurled its massive wings at the same time.

The whiplash drove the air out of Reena’s lungs with a violent jarring sensation. The dragon sailed upward toward the sky, banking and twisting to avoid the downtown buildings.

Mica was still screaming.

How did she still have air in her lungs?

The dragon’s mighty wings pulled them higher and higher and higher, above the top of Epic Center before it spread them to their full width and soared away from the city.

The air was frigid, but the dragon’s grip was warm. Its skin burned under Reena’s hands.

“Mica!” Reena shouted.

Mica had finally stopped screaming and looked toward her, clutched in the dragon’s other talon. She nodded, although her wide eyes were saucer like and her expression resembled a suffocating catfish.

Rena clung to the dragon’s talon and tried to change position, but the dragon tightened its grip.

Reena started to shout, but a powerful pulse of energy jolted down her spine. Her vision blurred again.

Fire surrounded them, burning fierce and bright and glorious. The Darksiders didn’t stand a chance against the furious inferno Bast had laid down between them and the royal family.

Bast? Reena tried to breathe through the heat. Who is Bast?

The world looked different again. Still dark, but the shadows glittered with refracted light. And everything seemed so much smaller than before.

She looked down.

Eedo Hani! Again, her father’s sister stood at her side, but she was tiny. So small. How had she gotten so small? Had she shrunk?

Her eedo grinned up at her, the same expression on the painted portrait that hung over their dinner table at home. Confident and jovial, a sparkle in her dark eyes.

And she wore—armor?

Shining plated armor hung from her shoulders, her hips, and protected her back and chest. It gleamed in pink and rose hues, intertwined with bronze and silver.

“That should hold them, Bast.” Eedo Hani nodded at her. “Let’s find the princess.” She pulled a helmet shaped like the dragon’s face out from under her arm and settled it over the spiky twists on her head.

The world spun around them.

Reena’s heart lodged in her throat. Why was this happening? Was it the dragon? But how could it be the dragon? What happened to the fluffy red panda?

Mumbling voices echoed in her ears, exclamations of delight and the warbling of praise songs far in the background.

She opened her eyes to gaze into Eedo Hani’s face.

Young.

She was so young.

Eedo Hani whispered something in the language of the old home, cradling Reena close to her, holding her tightly. Gentle hands fell on both of them, voices raised in excitement and joy.

Eedo Hani beamed down at her.

The air felt colder than it had before. So cold that even the warmth of the dragon’s skin couldn’t reach her. Had the wind gotten louder?

“Reena!” Mica had begun to shout.

She sounded so far away.

The dragon’s grip on her tightened further, and a low rumbling began deep in its throat. The cold world around them jolted and shifted again, going dark.

So dark.

There was no escape. No key. No way out.

Help! Someone help!

With the clunk of a lock and the whine of the door hinges, dim light spilled into the cell. The air smelled of dust. So different from the world as it had been.

And before the door of the cell was a girl.

A scrawny little thing in vibrant pink and purple clothes, long braids draping down her back and shoulders. Big dark eyes blinked in surprise.

“A red panda?” the girl stared rudely. “Why has Dad got a red panda inside his safe?”

That’s me. Reena realized numbly. I’m staring at myself. But how—is this how the red panda saw me? Am I seeing from the red panda’s eyes?

The steel-boned grip the dragon’s talon had around Reena’s chest tightened even further before the beast shuddered in mid-flight. Reena shook herself out of the vision.

Wichita was gone.

The clear horizon ahead of them had gotten awfully close. The velvety golden wheat of a field outside of the city was closing in on them.

We’re falling.

She tried to breathe, but her lungs wouldn’t inflate.

Why are we falling?

“Reena!” Mica was screaming again.

Reena wrapped her arms around the dragon’s talon and clung to it, laying her head along the nearest claw.

I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. Reena closed her eyes. You’re a dragon. A real-life dragon. So fly. Fly a litter further.

She was so tired.

How had she gotten so tired so fast?

“Please,” she whispered. “You can do this.”

Reena’s ears popped as the air pressure shifted. The wind howled and wailed in her ears so loudly she couldn’t hear anything but the throbbing of the dragon’s heart. Calm and consistent.

She focused on it, the only sound in her ears.

If the dragon were scared, wouldn’t its heart have been beating faster? Maybe that was a good sign. Maybe the dragon was still in control after all.

Why am I so tired?

She yawned.

She should have been panicking. Her mom would have been panicking. Cecilia certainly would have been.

But panic wasn’t her style. And what good would panicking do anyway? It might scare the dragon, and right now, the dragon was the only thing that could save them.

Reena grunted as the world shifted again. Something shook her, a powerful jolt. Whatever energy she’d had drained out of her like melted candle wax.

A nap wouldn’t hurt, would it?

Maybe when she woke up, she could learn the dragon’s name and how the dragon knew her aunt. Even if it were just a dream or a concussion, it had been nice to see her aunt smile. Her aunt had been happy. That had been lovely.