JOURNEY INTO THE REALM: The Spell Master (Journey into the Realm Series) (13 page)

***

“Unbelievable,” Nathan said as we walked into the dragon room.

“I know!” I squealed with delight as I sat down next to the eggs and looked intently at the series of small cracks covering them.

Nathan sat down next to me. I put my hand on my egg and felt its warmth. “See? Look at how close mine is to hatching,” I said.

“You’re right,” he said. “It’s incredible, knowing a dragon is in there.”

I nodded slowly. “I can hardly believe it myself.”

“It’s different, isn’t it?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” I replied, turning my head to look at his face, doing my best to avoid his eyes.

“Being here,” he said. “After spending all those years in the Human Realm and not knowing magic.”

I nodded, reliving the memories of my past. “A part of me knew magic existed, but I could never find it, could never grasp it.”

He surprised me suddenly by covering my hand with his where it rested on the wooden floor. A flush of warmth spread through me, a silent reminder of how Nathan made me feel. Then I buried the feelings away with the rest of my denial, remembering how dangerous it was to allow those emotions to surface.

“And now?” he asked, his eyes tempting.

So caught up in my whirl of emotions, I had forgotten the subject of our conversation. Remembering was a struggle, but once I found the right words, my response came easily.

“I don’t want to leave…,” I said, the unspoken
you
hanging in the air between us.

He knew just as well as I did what I had been about to say. His grip on my hand tightened and for a moment I forgot Stellan, my promise to Zora, how I had told Ellie that Nathan and I were just friends….

My egg began to quiver, more cracks appearing on the surface. I gasped and pulled my hand from under his, breaking the intense connection between us yet again.

“Nathan, I think my egg’s hatching!” I exclaimed.

“I can’t believe it,” he whispered, watching with me in awe, but I could hear an edge to his tone, as though he wished the egg hadn’t ruined our last moment.

A part of me wished the same.

The egg’s shaking increased, and then huge chunks of eggshell began falling onto the blankets underneath. A short time later, the eggshell was completely gone.

“Oh,” I whispered.

A tiny purple dragon sat before us, its big black eyes peering from the blankets. Its shimmering violet scales were wet with slime from the egg, but the creature was breathtaking. Two dark violet wings fanned out as it started to move. A tiny tail thrashed against the ground.

“Ramsey, move forward. It needs to recognize you as the caregiver.”

I nodded and inched forward toward the magnificent creature. It made a tiny squeaking noise, and I jumped a little. I took a deep breath and started forward again. I crouched down and held my hand out to the dragon, not sure of what else to do. Its head reached out and nudged my hand. It made a noise that sounded like a mixture of purring and squeaking at the same time, which I found mildly amusing.

“It likes you,” Nathan told me.

“Really? How do you know?” I asked.

“Dragons make that noise when they are pleased. Your book says so.”

I turned around and saw Nathan holding the book from Rayanne, Aaron’s friend. He had dropped it off yesterday afternoon.

“How did you get that?” I asked suspiciously.

“It was sitting up against the wall. I thought it would be a good idea to take a look.”

“Next time, ask me before you go through my stuff,” I said, and then I laughed. “Because if you don’t, I’ll have my dragon eat you.”

“Hey, don’t say that out loud! It might actually listen,” he warned me.

“Oh, sorry,” I said, remembering how easy it was for dragons to understand our language. “I won’t say it again. I promise.”

“Good.” He smiled, his expression a mixture of both humor and relief.

My dragon was still nudging its tiny purple head against my hand as we spoke. I turned my attention back to it and moved my hand to pet its neck. It purred and squeaked even louder.

“Okay, now I know when a dragon is happy. That’s a good start, right?” I was talking to Nathan, but my dragon nodded its head as well.

“I keep forgetting that you can understand me. That’s fast for a baby,” I told it.

The dragon opened its mouth and smiled, showing two rows of sharp tiny teeth. It flapped its wings and jumped out of the nest. I watched as it inspected Zora’s egg. Almost as it if was disappointed that it hadn’t hatched yet, the dragon turned away swiftly and sighed, smoke pouring from its nostrils. It formed a big ring and flew up to the ceiling.

“Don’t you go creating any fire in here,” I told it.

It nodded and wobbly walked over to Nathan. It sniffed him and then purred and walked back to me. Then it hopped into my lap and snuggled against me. A few moments later, it was snoring in my arms.

“What a sweet dragon,” I murmured.

“Only when it wants to be,” Nathan replied.

“I hope it
always
wants to be sweet,” I commented.

“What will you name it?”

“I don’t know. How do I know if it’s a boy or a girl?” I asked.

“Let’s look it up in the book,” Nathan said, and he scooted over to me with the book in hand.

We scanned the table of contents for the chapter on baby dragons.

“It says here that baby male dragons have horns on their heads already two inches or more in length. Baby female horns are only about an inch long. The same goes for the horns jutting from each side on the end of the tail,” Nathan said.

“Well, this dragon looks like it has pretty small horns, but does it really look like an inch?”

“I have no idea,” Nathan admitted. “Maybe we can ask it.”

“What?”

“Ask the dragon to choose the picture that resembles it the most. Dragons are smart; they should know.”

“Right.” I gently placed my hand on my sleeping dragon to nudge it awake. Groggily, the dragon lifted its head and peered around. It growled and then looked up at me. “Sorry for waking you, but I need a favor.”

The dragon nodded for me to continue.

“I need to know if you are a male or a female. Can you point to what you are in the book?” I pointed to the dragon book where there was a picture of a male baby dragon and a female baby dragon.

The dragon squeaked and nodded. Then it jumped out of my lap and waddled over to the book. With its tiny tail, it pointed to one of the pictures.

“We have our answer,” Nathan said.

I picked up the purring dragon and placed it back into my lap. It went to sleep almost instantly. “I can’t believe I have a female baby dragon,” I said with awe.

I lifted my head and met Nathan’s eyes. Not even the magnificent creature in my arms could mesmerize me more than those emerald irises.

The front door swung open.

“Crap,” I whispered.

“What?” Nathan asked, looking alarmed.

“My Zora senses are tingling,” I said.

Nathan looked at me blankly.

“Right, you don’t know anything about Spiderman,” I remembered.

“Spider
who
?” he asked.

“Ramsey, I’m home!” Zora called.

“Oh, your sister’s home,” he realized.

“Yeah, which means you have to leave, and I have to get another lecture,” I whispered.

Nathan shook his head and wordlessly took my hand, leading me to the window, which was hidden from view where Zora was standing in the kitchen.

Carefully, he opened the window, making as little noise as possible.

“You want me to go out the window?” I asked in a fierce whisper.

“Ramsey, I didn’t open this thing because your house is too stuffy,” he said sarcastically.

I sighed. “Fine, let’s go before she comes in here.”

“Ramsey?” Zora repeated.

“Now, hurry,” I urged.

Nathan nodded and climbed out the window, landing lightly on the ground. I handed the baby dragon to him – she grunted but didn’t wake up – so I could climb out myself. I resisted the urge to laugh. Hiding from my sister was fun.

Once outside, Nathan pulled me down to the ground so that we were sitting against the house.

I heard footsteps, alerting me that Zora was now in the dragon room.

“Ramsey?” she said, probably scanning the room for any sign of me. Then I heard her gasp. She must have come across the empty dragon eggshell. “Oh,” she whispered. Silence followed. Then: “Why is the window open?” she remarked listlessly to herself.

“I can’t believe you forgot to –”

“Shush,” I said to Nathan. “She’ll hear you.”

I held my breath as she neared the window, knowing if she looked outside, she would surely see us. What would I do if she caught us here? What could I say? Surely, she wouldn’t be too pleased with our little game.

Nathan took my hand and slid away from the window. I followed his actions, creeping slowly and balancing the baby dragon in my lap until we passed the house. I sighed with relief and stood, brushing the dirt off my butt.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Now you go back into the house with your dragon,” he instructed.

“After all that?”

“Well, you can’t exactly go to Aimee’s bonfire from here with a baby dragon in your arms,” he reminded me.

I looked down. “Oh, right. Well, at least I won’t get in trouble for being alone with you.”

Nathan frowned. I could tell he was just as displeased as I was with Zora’s rules.

Without thinking, I took his hand in mine and squeezed. “Thanks for helping me escape. I really can’t deal with Zora after the stunt she pulled earlier. I think I’ll go over to Aaliyah’s to avoid her for just a while longer.”

Nathan smiled. “Good idea. See you later.” He turned and walked down the street. I didn’t watch him very long because I didn’t like seeing him go.

With a heavy sigh, I patted my baby dragon’s head and walked in the opposite direction toward Aaliyah’s.

***

Later that night, I headed to Aimee’s for the bonfire. I had a skip in my step as I made my way down the dirt roads after spending most of the early evening and night with my new baby dragon. I named her Kalani, which meant Heaven in Hawaiian. Like most young girls, I had enjoyed picking out baby names way ahead of schedule…like twenty years ahead. Kalani had been one of my favorites, so I was putting it to real use now.

After my visit with Aaliyah, I had walked back into the house to find Zora overjoyed that my dragon had hatched. In fact she was so excited that she never once brought up my previous whereabouts and whether or not they had included Nathan.

Memories of my time spent with Nathan today lingered in my mind, especially of his hand over mine and the way I openly held his gaze without question. I shuddered. Such instances couldn’t happen again, no matter how difficult they were to avoid. I just had to remember who had my heart – Stellan. I missed him so much my stomach ached; it was the only feeling able to remind me of who I truly loved.

As I approached Aimee’s house, the bright fire blazing tremendously, I reflected on how much I had enjoyed the first week of school. Stellan’s absence, my lingering confusion over Nathan, and dark thoughts of Finn’s return often clouded my mind, but I was managing. And for the first time in my life, I felt accepted at school by others who were like me. I was still different because of my secret, but this time I wasn’t rejected for my uniqueness.

Everyone was seated around the fire when I finally arrived. I was pleased to see Reid from ability class sitting next to Janie. My group of friends was swelling far past what I originally expected. On the first day, I had hoped for just one person to be my confidante, like Carmen was in Wisconsin, but now I had a circle of friends eager to support me.

“Hey, everyone!” I called.

“Ramsey!” everyone cheered.

“Glad you could make it,” Aimee said. “Take a seat.”

I sat down on one of the logs between Brielle and Aimee. Tavis sat on Aimee’s other side, followed by Nathan. Ellie, Daran, Janie, and Reid claimed the other log.

“Now that everyone is here, we can start the party!” Aimee said.

Everyone clapped and cheered.

“Let’s start by singing and dancing!” Janie suggested.

“Who’s got a song to sing?” Daran asked.

“I do!” Brielle said. “Anyone ever heard of
Sing by the Fire
?”

“I have,” Ellie said.

Naturally, I was totally clueless; I didn’t know many elfin tunes. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy listening.

Nathan got up and walked over to me. He held out his hand. “Let’s dance,” he suggested.

This time, I didn’t even hesitate. I took his hand and joined the others in a dance around the flames. I tried not to dwell on the fact that the warmth I felt wasn’t coming just from the fire. As we danced, Brielle and Ellie began to sing:

Sing by the fire,

Under the moon;

Sing by the fire,

Dance by the moon.

Sing by the fire,

Light up the sky;

Sing by the fire,

Don’t let the light die.

Sing by the fire,

Reach up to the stars;

Sing by the fire,

Wish on the stars.

Sing by the fire,

Join in the song;

Sing by the fire,

Keep singing along.

Sing by the fire,

Until the song ends;

Sing by the fire,

And start it again!

We all clapped and cheered as they finished their tune. With the roaring fire, lively music, and festive spirits, the whirlwind of the party was intoxicating.

After a few more songs, we took a break just to talk and tell stories around the fire, but it wasn’t long before we were up again, laughing and reveling in the sweetness of the night.

As midnight approached, the heat from the fire invigorating and the music pulsating to the point of utter bliss, I suddenly felt…
strange
.

All at once every good feeling fell away. I was light-headed, and my back began to itch with a burning sensation I could barely stand. At first, I thought it was from the fire, so I moved away from the flames. Then images of the beautiful meadow, which I dreamt about every night, began clouding my vision, sending me into a confusing haze.

The meadow images blinded me to the real world, making me wobble and dance awkwardly. Soon the images became so real that I went back and forth between seeing the Elf Realm and the dream.

The sensation over my back worsened as I continued to dance. I tried to ignore it, telling myself I was only sore from fencing earlier; but the pain was sharp and excruciating now, like nothing I had ever experienced.

Suddenly, everything was too much to bear. I stopped dancing and put my hands over my face to try to block out the dizzying images. But doing so only made them clearer. Now I couldn’t see any of the Elf Realm. All I saw was the meadow, simultaneously glorious and unpleasant, like the fairies I feared so much. Could this be one of their tricks? Or was something wrong with me?

“Ramsey, are you all right?” I heard Nathan ask. His voice was all wrong, abnormally slow and elongated.

The Realm surrounding me was moving in slow motion as I struggled to become myself again. I swayed and gasped for breath as the pain in my back grew to a climax. I couldn’t hold myself upright. The meadow was spinning before my eyes….

“Ramsey!”