I wasn’t sure exactly which bit of it he was congratulating me for. “Thanks?”
“Your first heist,” he clarified. “I’d say you nailed it.”
Yeah, I guess I did,I thought. “Good luck with your life here.”
He winked at me. “Don’t need luck. I have love.” And with that cheesy line, he sauntered back through the crowd toward his wife.
Others also chose to stay—they’d made lives here, or were afraid, or whatever—but there were plenty more who wanted to come with us. One of Ryan’s uncles, the one who burned hamburgers at barbecues, was first in line. Plus a few wyverns I recognized as recent council members—one who supposedly left his wife and family for a life in Peru, another who had a very nice funeral. Several I didn’t know. And of course, Mom and Ryan.
Stationed by the jewel, Novi handed out vials of the headache medicine. And one by one, we each touched theDoor.
More rainbows.
More headache.
And then…more family.
All around me, families were reuniting and embracing, crying, staring, shouting.
Mrs. Keene let out a cry like a wounded bird as she threw her arms around her son. She sobbed into Ryan’s shoulder as he comforted her. Ryan’s lost uncle milled around the courtyard until a few friends converged on him, slapping his back and welcoming him home.
I started toward my family, but my path was blocked by a familiar pack of wyverns: my old friends. Emma, Emily, Jake, Topher, Rosario, and Carlos. Emma began, “Sky…”
I cut her off. “No, I don’t forgive you.”
Emma dropped her head. Carlos scuffed the ground with his shoe.
Then I sighed. “Maybe I’ll consider forgiving you eventually. But Gabriela sits with us at lunch. And she’s promoted to sole future maid-of-honor status.”
Emma and Emily bobbed their heads simultaneously.
And then they stepped out of my way, and I ran toward Gabriela, Benden, and my brothers. They caught me in a tangled mess of a hug, and when we let go, all of us were crying. We all turned to Mom and Dad.
“Ew,” Liam said.
Our parents were kissing, enthusiastically.
And then we—my brothers, my new friends, and I—threw ourselves onto Mom and Dad, folding them into a great bear hug. Or, you know,dragonhug.
ISET OUT TOsteal a jewel, and I accidentally changed the world.
Gabriela says they’ll have to revise the Wyverns Through the Ages poster. Someday, we may all have a chapter in a Modern Wyvern History course textbook. Like King Atahualpa and Sir Francis Drake. Because of us, it’s public knowledge: the wyverns of Earth can still transform into dragons, and we possess an active portal to our home dimension.
And while the world—both worlds, really—adjusts to this new reality, we are taking full advantage of it. Skipping my mountain bike, I flew in dragon form to Gabriela’s house.
I transformed back to human in her driveway and, after knocking my head on a wind chime, rang the doorbell. Both the chimes and the bell rang, and I heard footsteps and shouting inside. Gabriela’s father hollered for someone to answer the door and her brother called back that he was busy and then her father yelled back something else, which I didn’t quite catch because it was Spanish but must have been something like “do it or you’re toast.” Three seconds later, I heard footsteps thump toward the door, and the door opened.
Gabriela’s brother glared at me. “Gabi, she’s here again!” To me, he said, “You’re copying her homework, aren’t you? That’s the only explanation for why you’re hanging out with a loser like my sister.”
Okay, so not everything is public knowledge. We kept Gabriela’s part in the events of the last Reckoning a secret, to protect her privacy while she’s a minor (my parents’ words, not mine). When she’s older, we’ll tell the truth so she can take her rightful place in the history books, but for now only wyverns know.
“Send her up!” Gabriela called.
“Come down!” I called back. “They said yes! Novi’s bringing it through!”
I heard a whoop, then what sounded like a stack of books falling down, then the thump of someone running down the stairs. “Gotta go!” Gabriela called to her family. At the door, she threw her arms around her brother. “They said yes!”
He looked as if he’d been hugged by a boa constrictor.
