“Yeah. I knew if I told you too soon, you’d be all scared about it and not want to do it.”
Kayla straightened. “Of course I’m ready for it.”
“Good.”
Tanya finally spoke up. “Are they all together?”
Both Kayla and Sigrid glanced at her, not sure what she was asking.
“You know. The guys and girls. Are they all rooming together?”
Kayla swung her head around to look at Sigrid since she seemed to have all the answers.
“How do I know? But probably not. Otherwise, they could end up with a bunch of little baby dragons,” Sigrid said, and smiled.
“They may not let me compete. What if they have initial trials to get rid of all those who aren’t ready for this?”
“Won’t matter. You’ll already be there. And you can learn when you can see Alton, get him off to the side and ask him for our lockets.”
“I’ll be totally unknown. Not of this dragon fae kingdom. Surely everyone knows everyone. So then I’d have to be from another. And any of the contestants could know I’m not from theirs either.”
“Then we make up one. You’re a loner, on your own. That’s why you’re such a novice flyer. No adults or siblings to help you learn to fly or play with fire.”
“Okay, sounds good. But what about preregistration. Wouldn’t I be required to do that?”
“They have both onsite and preregistration. Unless you really don’t want to participate in the games. And that’s fine. But you might not see Alton until well after the games are over. That’s cutting it really close to when you need to have your locket in your possession.”
“And yours?”
“That goes without saying.”
“How do you know so much about the dragon games?” Kayla asked.
“I sneaked in as a falcon once. You probably have heard I shift into one. No one paid me any attention. They just figured I was a real bird. No falcon fae anywhere around here.”
Tanya had tossed and turned most of the night, trying to recall what had happened that she couldn’t remember despite any amount of trying. She was glad that Kayla was so excited to leave and participate in the games, but apprehensive too.
And then an hour after Kayla left to face the dragons at the games, it came to Tanya all at once with full clarity. Alton had asked to meet with Kayla, and Tanya was supposed to tell her about the meeting. But then Sigrid had hit her with a handful of fairy dust, and Tanya had forgotten what had happened. Furious, Tanya wanted to ask Sigrid why, but Tanya was well aware Sigrid had abilities she didn’t know anything about. She finally asked anyway, not able to keep quiet.
“Why did you stop Kayla from meeting Alton at her cottage?”
“She had one chance in a lifetime to make this happen,” Sigrid told Tanya.
“Make what happen? It would have been so simple. He would have handed over the lockets, apologized, and that would have been the end of that.”
“Right. But remember when I said I had gone there as a falcon to watch the games?”
“Yeah. So? What has that got to do with anything with regard to Kayla?”
“I fell in love with a dragon fae shifter. Forget it. I don’t expect you to understand.”
“Wait. You’re thinking Kayla’s going to fall for some dragon? Get real. She’s a golden fae. Not a dragon. You’re not a dragon either.”
“Right. But sometimes love crosses boundaries, you know? She just has to hurry before—“ Sigrid paused as if she had said too much.
“Before what?”
Sigrid let out her breath. “Before she turns back into a pumpkin.”
“What?” Tanya just stared at the falcon fae, wondering just what Kayla had gotten herself into with trusting the witch.
“Haven’t you ever heard of Cinderella? The human fairy tale? Their fairy tales show some of the most delightful tricks to play on people, you know. Some are worthy of being called fairy tales.”
“The girl turned into a pumpkin?” Tanya couldn’t believe it! Was that what would happen to her best friend? She had to warn her right away.
“No! The carriage turned into a pumpkin.”
Tanya stared at her in disbelief, not knowing what in the world she was going on about. “What are you talking about? I don’t mean about some stupid fairy tale. What about Kayla?”
“She can’t stay there any longer than midnight of the final day of the games. If she does and I don’t turn her back, she’ll be a dragon shifter fae, for real.”
“Are you nuts? Why didn’t you just let him give her locket back to her!”
“You saw the love potion I make, right? Well sometimes people don’t need it, but they need time to realize they’re the right ones for each other. That wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t participated in the games.”
“I can’t believe this. Un. Real.” Tanya began to leave Sigrid’s cottage, but she grabbed Tanya’s arm.
“Don’t interfere. Please. I know something about this. If you get involved, your actions could ruin it for them and you’d lose your valuable friendship also. Just give them a chance. Maybe when he sees her, he’ll just turn the lockets over to her like he said he would, simple as that. But maybe something really special will happen instead.”
Tanya worried nothing about this whole scenario was going to be simple, and it could be very bad—for Kayla. What would happen if she turned into a dragon shifter for real? Would the queen banish her? What about her mother?
“Okay, okay, okay. I know from your set jaw, you’re all ready to go over there and rescue the fair maiden.” Sigrid let out her breath in an exasperated way. “Listen. I know what I’m talking about in this instance. I want to tell you something that will hopefully convince you to leave well enough alone.”
Tanya thought that nothing would ever convince her of that and she was ready to go to the dragon fae kingdom herself, track Kayla down, and tell her the important thing Sigrid so conveniently had left out about this whole mess.
Until Sigrid told Tanya a secret that no one was ever to know.
Kayla couldn’t believe all the beautiful decorations all over the place, the flowers, plaques advertising the dragon games featuring dragons racing across the sky, shooting golden flames as if sword fighting with fire, dragons capturing flags from rooftops. Billboard posters showed off dragons who had won in previous years for various categories.
She was so enthusiastic, caught up in all the excitement that she barely remembered she was a golden fae, the dragon shifters’ arch enemy. If she’d been thinking more golden fae-like, she would have thought about locating one of the dragon’s piles of treasure while the dragons were busy playing games!
Then in a grassy clearing near a heavily wooded area, she saw tables set up with a banner sign hanging above them, declaring this was the registration area. Each table had a smaller sign indicating who handled what for preregistered dragons based on the alphabet. For those who hadn’t preregistered, another set of tables were off to the side, and on-site registration was also done alphabetically.
Kayla took a moment to steady her rapid breathing before she walked toward one of the middle tables for names from J to M. She was halfway there when she remembered she was using the name Violet and had to detour to the end of the tables.
“Forgot your name in all the excitement?” a girl asked, smiling at Kayla as if she thought she was really funny.
With all the dragons converging in the area—Kayla never imagined just how many that would entail—she didn’t think anyone would have noticed her faux pas.
The girl’s burgundy hair in a mass of curls about her head made Kayla think of the redheaded Orphan Annie, only the color was wrong. She was about Kayla’s age, wearing a ruffled black and pink skirt, black boots and a black fitted tank top. She had style. Kayla would give her that. Only she was pesky and Kayla hoped she’d go away. On the other hand, if it looked like this dragon fae could accept her as one of them and talk to her as if she belo
nged here, it could be a good thing.
“I’m undercover. I use all kinds of different aliases.” Kayla continued to walk toward the registration table. The right one this time.
“Undercover, huh? In that get-up? It’s too showy to be worn by someone undercover,” she said, following along beside Kayla.
“See? It’s working.” Kayla glanced around at what the other dragon fae were wearing. Some were really subdued in browns and olive greens, understated, not showy in the least. But then would they wow the crowds with how truly spectacular they were as dragons?
“Why would you be here undercover?” the girl asked, as if playing along.
Kayla raised her brows.
The girl laughed and this time she seemed genuinely amused. “Oh yeah. You can’t say because you’re undercover. So where are you from? I know it’s got to be a made up place, but humor me.”
“Tenia.”
The girl frowned. “Never heard of it. Are you here with any of your fellow dragon friends?”
“Nope.”
“What’s your name?”
“Violet. Yours?”
“Willow. Guess we’re registering at the same table.”
So far, so good, Kayla thought. She stood in line, waiting her turn, four others ahead of her. She glanced around at the other dragons, looking for anyone she knew—Ena, Brett, Halloran, Alton. No one yet. They might have come and gone already.
“Looking for someone in particular?” Willow asked.
“Nope. At least not that I could say.”
Willow chuckled. “You are so good at this cover story. I would have forgotten it right away.”
“Well, it’s important to be in character because it could mean life or death otherwise.” Which was really true.
Willow laughed again. “Whoa, sounds ominous. So when you find the fae you’re after, what then?”
Kayla smiled at her.
“Oh, right, you can’t tell me.”
“Next,” the woman said at the table and Kayla hurried to take a form and fill it out.
A few of the things on the entry form she had to fill in with her fabricated information: Name, Home Land, but a few things were true: Birth Date, Birth Place.
“Houston?” the fae asked.
“Yeah, my mother’s mistake. She’d gotten tired of waiting for me to be born and so she traveled to Houston to her favorite ice cream shop and ordered her favorite ice cream. Strawberry topped with chocolate fudge and a strawberry on top. It might have been the fae travel there. She wasn’t sure, but the next thing she knew she was having me, and they had to call the police and have her transported to a hospital. As soon as she had me, she took me right home. She said she was certain the hospital staff was completely confused about the whole thing. So I never lived there, but I was born there.”
“Oh,” the lady said.
“Yep.”
“Here you are, dear.” She handed Kayla a badge with a number and another form. “Just pick out the games you want to participate in. There will be a prequalification test to make sure you meet the minimum qualifications.”
“I only just got my dragon abilities. What if I don’t qualify in any of the events?” Kayla wore an expression that said she would be so disappointed if she didn’t make it. In a way, she didn’t want to qualify for anything. She hoped once she was registered, she could just hang around the contestants until she saw Alton and get this over with.
The woman tilted her head, looking a little curiously at Kayla, probably wondering why she hadn’t had her abilities very long.
Kayla shrugged. “We lived where dragons weren’t favored. Mom never wanted me to shift. But then I wanted to come to the games and be around others that could shift whenever they liked. It feels great to be here.”
The woman smiled warmly at her. “I’m so glad you’re here. We have some beginner events for new dragons. We want to make sure everyone has a chance to participate in something and have fun.”
“Thanks.” Kayla was afraid to ask how old the contestants would be. She saw a few young fae running around the place, but at first thought they were with older siblings who were participating. How embarrassing would that be? To be shown up by a ten-year-old fae, or younger?
“Just sign up for your barracks over there, and turn in your game form to that man at that table over there. A board with all the prequalification games will be listed with times and locations. You just need to be there on time. Once you’re prequalified, a board will list names of those who made it and when the real event takes place. Be sure and list a good number of games that you can try so that if you don’t prequalify in some, hopefully you will in others. But no matter what, have fun.”
“Thanks.” When Kayla turned to leave, she saw Willow eyeing her speculatively.
“See you around,” Kayla said.
“Wait up. I’ll go with you.” Willow hurried to fill out her form and said, “I’ve been here for the last three years.”
“Okay, then you know the ropes,” the woman said.
Kayla didn’t want to hang out with Willow, but what could she do? She’d have to play along for a little bit. Willow was probably more like an expert at this, so that meant she wouldn’t be in the games Kayla had to participate in at least.
“Thanks.” Willow whipped around with her game form in hand and took Kayla by the arm. “You didn’t tell me you were a novice. Then again, that might just be your cover. Pretend to be a real beginner and then watch the expert who is your real target.”
Kayla smiled. The fae probably got a kick out of her story. Then she lost the smile. She wished she wasn’t pretending to be such a phony. Sure, it was a fae way, but still, she was beginning to warm up to the annoying dragon, and she hated to have to lie to her. Then again, Willow knew she was hiding something.
“So which one is the girls’ barracks?”
“The one to the right,” Willow said.
Then a golden dragon near a refreshment stand caught her eye. Brett? An olive green dragon moved in next to him, and Kayla was sure it was Ena and Brett then. The two of them kissed each other, their long dragon tongues curling around each other’s in a friendly way. Kayla watched with fascination, unable to look away.
“What’s the matter? Never been kissed by a dragon before?”
“No.” Not that Kayla should have admitted it, but the truth was she’d never seen a dragon kissing another before.
Suddenly, a blue dragon materialized out of the blue sky high above, but as he drew closer to the ground, his scales shimmered into silver, then violet. Had to be Alton. He was truly beautiful, and Kayla noticed then that others were watching his shifting color display.
“That’s Alton.” Willow folded her arms and stopped to watch as he landed on the ground and shifted. “He was supposed to be mated to Ena. That’s her, the olive green dragon over there. She got hung up on Brett, the golden dragon. He was human raised though.”
“Are you from here?” Kayla asked.
“Nope.”
“Are you with anyone here?”
“No. I came alone. My dragon clan is small and no one is the age to really compete well any longer. They’re either too old, too young, or just no longer interested.”
Several dragons standing closer to Alton made jokes about his scales changing colors. “Gonna distract your opponent with changing the color of your scales?” a guy asked.
A girl punched him. “Hey, if you could do that, I’d marry you in a heartbeat.”
Kayla smiled.
“I dunno,” Willow said to Kayla. “Can you imagine have dragonlings whose scales changed color constantly?”
“I think they’re beautiful.”
“Violet…don’t tell me your scales are that color too?”
“They are. I love that shade of purple. It’s a rich royal hue.”
“The two of you would be a matching pair. Cute. Until his scales turned a different color again. Let’s go get our barrack’s assignment. We can sleep
anywhere. I mean, girls with girls only. Boys with boys. But it’s not alphabetized or anything. Then we need to sit down and decide which games we’ll participate in. I’ll help you if you need me to explain the various kinds of games. Have you even seen them before?”
“No.”
“Okay, then I’ll advise you as to which are the easiest and how to prequalify.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.” Kayla glanced in Alton’s direction, but he was headed for the preregistration table.
“He’s kinda cute, isn’t he? But he’s still hung up on Ena.”
8
Alton smelled lavender on the breeze and instantly thought of Kayla. He looked around to see if she was at the registration area, pretending to be a dragon fae again, but how could she when Halloran and others knew her by sight? And why wouldn’t she have just met with him at her cottage like he said he would do instead of standing him up? He’d waited for hours, even thinking to leave the lockets on her porch, but was afraid someone else might steal them.
He continued to search the area here, but except for the people setting up the games, registering the dragons and such, everyone else that was here were dragon shifter fae. Not dragon fae. Not seeing any sign of Kayla, Alton headed to the preregistration table and got his number. He’d already filled out his game choice sheet. For the first time ever, though, he worried about whether he would prequalify for some of the more strenuous events. He couldn’t believe how long it was taking for the injury from the bolt to heal. Now he knew something of how Brett must have felt when he had suffered wounds like this.
Alton considered the barracks and whether he wanted to stay there or at his castle. Resident dragons could do either, their choice. His castle would have better accommodations and servants to cater to his every whim, but sometimes staying in the barracks offered him a way to learn more about his opponents. His heart wasn’t really into any of this though. Not when he hadn’t resolved things with Kayla.
That wasn’t like him either. He was usually eager to win as many of the games as he could, extremely competitive, and wanted to be the winner to take all. He thought his disinterest this time had to do mostly with being wounded. At least he blamed it on that. He didn’t want to think a golden fae was distracting him like this.