Water slammed against his wings as they were dragged up—then down—then sideways. He felt like a grain of rice in a giant blender.
He was getting dizzy. Really dizzy.
Worse, the swirling funnel was narrowing.
And at the bottom… was a hole.
A deep, churning black hole that pulsed like it was breathing.
Please don’t open back into space, he chanted silently. Please don’t open back into space.
I going to be sick, his dragon moaned just as the waterspout’s column broke—and the darkness swallowed them whole.
Upper Archives Room: Isle of the Sea Serpent
* * *
“What’cha doing?” Juno asked, his voice echoing in the cavernous underground chamber.
Dolph didn’t answer right away. He was elbow-deep in a toppled stack of ancient tomes, scrolls, and brittle parchment. Dust coated everything, dancing like lazy sparks in the shaft of golden light trickling through the high arched vents.
The archive beneath the upper palace on the Isle of the Sea Serpent wasn’t exactly well-organized. Or well-lit. Or well-anything. The air smelled faintly of sea salt, old paper, and something vaguely sulfuric—like whatever they used to keep the mold at bay had ideas of its own.
Dolph squinted at a half-torn map, muttered something unintelligible, and shoved it aside with a grunt.
He had seen what he was looking for once. Just once. When their dad brought him down here to look for a family crest or some boring relic and he had wandered off.
Now… if he could just remember where…
“Come on. I know it’s got to be here still. Where are you?” he growled, digging deeper.
“I’m right here,” Juno replied cheerfully.
Dolph scowled when Juno bent over and stuck his face directly into his line of sight. “Move,” he ordered.
Juno grinned and plopped down on a crate labeled ‘Unverified Curses—Handle With Care.’ His bare feet kicked back and forth, heels tapping the ancient wood.
“You looking for something?”
Dolph paused, stared at his little brother’s wide-eyed innocence, and shook his head slowly. “What does it look like I’m doing?” he muttered.
Juno tilted his head. “Looks like you’re looking for something.”
“I am,” Dolph muttered, brushing his sand-white hair out of his eyes as he pried open a dusty box filled with framed star charts.
“What is it? Maybe I can help.”
Dolph’s shoulders stiffened. “It’s a map.”
“O-o-oh. A map of what?”
He clenched his jaw and slowly turned his head to glare at Juno. “Old portals. I think it might take us to the Loch Ness monster.”
Juno’s eyes widened in awe. “Like the one Mom told us about last night? From Earth?”
Dolph nodded, his expression softening. “Yeah. The one Mom told us about.”
Jenny Ackerly—their new mom—wasn’t from this world. Not originally. Earth was… different. Parallel. Sort of like a reflection of theirs in a broken mirror. Dolph wasn’t sure how it all worked. He just knew he liked her stories. Knights. Dragons. Mermaids. Boys who never grew up.
