She bounced off the edge of a band of energy when a powerful white thread snapped upward. The energy crackled like lightning around him. Her mouth dropped open when Jabir’s muted shout of “This is the best adventure ever!” faded as his form dropped with a stomach-churning speed down a red tunnel of light.
“No! Dang it.”
Her head whipped around when another thread briefly crossed hers up ahead. Zohar was fighting the pull of his fading thread, his face twisted in grim determination. His thread looked like it was about to collapse completely. Phoenix heart rose to her throat when she saw the orange thread Zohar was struggling to hold onto flicker. If it disappeared, he would be tossed into the dark void of space and die.
“Zohar! Grab my claw,” she frantically called, reaching out for him.
“I can’t. I can’t let go,” Zohar yelled back, his eyes wide with determination.
“You have to. Your thread is fading. If it does, you won’t make it,” she replied, trying to fly faster.
She reached out, the tips of her claws brushing against his fingertips just as he let go with one hand to grab hers. Their eyes connected. She saw a flash of fear followed by resignation when the thread sputtered and he suddenly dropped.
No, no, no?—
“Zohar!” she screamed, her gaze following his tumbling body.
Tears burned her eyes and she released a choked sob when she saw he had landed on a vivid blue thread that was rolling like a gentle wave toward shore. He twisted, his eyes catching hers before he disappeared through an opening that looked like a whirlpool that suddenly formed in the center of his thread.
“Phoenix! What do I do?”
Phoenix looked up when she heard Adaline’s frantic call. Adaline’s thread was unweaving and growing smaller and smaller. Her eyes flashed to a dark purple thread weaving in and out like the tail of a kite caught in a fierce wind. Bálint was on it. He had shifted into his purple and gold dragon and was crouched low on all fours.
“Bálint! Bálint! You have to help Adaline. Pull her onto your thread,” she hollered.
Bálint looked over his shoulder at her and nodded. Crouching even lower, his body flashed past Adaline. He twisted as her rose-colored thread crisscrossed his and grabbed her off her thread a fraction of a second before it burst into millions of brilliant, rainbow sparkles.
“Watch out!” she cried out.
Her warning came a fraction too late. Distracted by the sparkles, Bálint and Adaline didn’t see the fluffy white hole that opened up in the center of the thread they were on. One second they were there, and the next they had disappeared through it.
“Oh, this is a disaster,” Phoenix groaned.
Squeals from behind her drew her attention. Looking over her shoulder, she barely had time to twist out of the way when Amber and Jade flashed past her.
“Hi, Phoenix,” Jade called out with a huge grin.
“Bye, Phoenix,” Amber crowed with a gleeful wave.
Hope blossomed that she might at least catch up with them before it died a swift death as the duffle bag the twins were riding on swerved to the left and bobbed up and down in a chaotic, flickering purple thread of energy that reminded her of the huge slide in the amusement park under the palace.
She caught the echo of the twins’ gleeful laughter—and the sight of massive sailing ships before the opening closed behind them with a brilliant pop.
Tears of frustration burned her eyes again when she looked up. They were all gone. Everyone. There was only her left.
“It figures they would be thrilled about this.”
A sharp pang of guilt twisted in her gut. This was all her fault. She had opened the portal. She had lost them. What if she never saw them again? What if she had stranded them across dimensions?
“Please let them be okay. Please let me find them,” she whispered as the bridge snapped and began to disintegrate.
Ahead of her was an opening. Fear gnawed at her. It was closing and she wasn’t sure she would make it. If anything happened to her, there would be no hope for the others. They would be stranded wherever the portal had dropped them.
Determination filled her and she focused on the narrowing dot of light ahead of her. She didn’t know where it would take her, but it was better than being stranded in the void of space. Her wings flared with renewed energy and her tail snapped, propelling her forward at an incredible speed.
She shot through the opening, folding her wings at the last minute to make herself as small as possible and rotated as she swept through the portal. Her eyes glowed with determination when the portal behind her disappeared. Her gaze swept over the brilliant blue sky, noting the white clouds before she rolled and spread her flaming wings to stabilize herself. In the distance, she saw a magnificent island. Above the massive cliffs, the spirals of a castle rose.
Her heart hammered in her chest when shadows appeared out of the clouds. Glancing to the side, her eyes widened with alarm when she saw the enormous black dragon that swept down and was flying beside her. For a second, she thought her dad had discovered what she had done before she realized that this dragon was not only three times the size of her dad, but he also looked a lot meaner.
