It seemed like the rest of the school day passed in the blink of an eye. As Elodie walked out to the car-rider line, she checked her phone.

Running a little late, Brad texted. 

Elodie huffed a sigh of frustration. Mama's going to kill you. She wanted me home as early as possible.

Relax, Brad texted back, sending a picture of a girl from his college with tortishell glasses and a jean jacket. I'm on my game— I'll take the blame from Mama later.

"Seriously, Brad?" Elodie arched an eyebrow, before looking up at the sea of cars flowing into the road. 

"Everything okay?" Kira sat down next to Elodie on the bench under the car-rider line. Clouds had gathered over the school throughout the day, and now they threatened to spill over with rain, so everyone huddled under the few protections from the rain in anticipation of it. 

"My brother's just being a jerk," Elodie said. "Mama's going to be so mad when we get home later than we asked."

"Dad's late, too," Kira said. "Abba couldn't pick me up— he has to work late at the university. But Dad also had to do some work on an investigative report or something— but he said he'd be here as soon as possible."

The girl looked fearfully out into the cars.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon." Elodie chose her words carefully. "What university does your abba work at?"

"Where else? Skycroft," Kira said. "I swear, that's the only college in this town."

"There's also the community college," Elodie reminded her. 

"Oh, I guess there is that," Kira said dismissively. "Ugh, I think I forgot to take my meds this morning."

"Meds?" Elodie thought of the pills she took for her anemia.

"For my anxiety," Kira said, starting to shake her knees. She tugged back and forth at the sleeves of her flannel, so fast that Elodie thought that she was going to tear the fabric. "It's not so bad in the morning, but when it gets later in the day, it gets worse. Don't know why."

"It'll be okay— do you need to text them?" Elodie asked.

"No, no—"

Then Elodie felt it. Her own heart raced, her palms went slick. She felt as if she could barely breathe, all colors in the world blurred.

"I didn't know that you two were like me!"

The two dragons turned to see Aideen Wentworth marching towards them, marching like a queen despite her cargo capris and old black cardigan. "Come on, follow me."

Too dazed by the confusion and pain of whatever was happening to her, Kira started stumbling after Aideen. Elodie grabbed her bag and Kira's, trying to figure out where they were going. 

With every step, she felt as if she was bigger than her body. Her bones were hurting and stretched. On the soccer field, below the hill of the car-rider line, Elodie watched as Kira fell. The new girl began to writhe and squirm— shifting into a great dragon, with scales of green and violet, and those same human eyes, letting out a roar.

"Kira?" Elodie muttered. She looked to her hands— they were starting to grow claws, and her skin was turning into white and blue scales like a tea set made of china. Elodie squeezed her eyes shut, wanting it all to go away.

Aideen came to a stop, dropping her messenger bag to the ground. She approached Elodie first. Little golden sparks, like the beginning of a fire, drifted from Aideen's fingers as she touched Elodie's snout.

Elodie felt a warmth in her heart— not so hot that it burned, but warm enough that everything around her seemed cold. Then, in a blink of an eye, she was no longer a blue and white dragon. She was Elodie again. 

She turned over her jewelry-adorned brown hands, and did not care that she was getting wet, for the rain started to fall. She was human again, herself. 

Aideen approached Kira and did the same thing. With a snap of her fingers, yellow sparks hovered around Aideen's fingers, and she touched Kira's snout, prompting her to transform in a golden light that enveloped her completely. In a flash, Kira was on the ground, exhaling a sigh of relief. Aideen offered a hand, helping Kira up.

"Thanks," Kira said.

"We're like you?" Elodie asked, remembering what Aideen said.

"Dragons," Aideen said with perhaps the most serious expression that could be mustered in times such as these. "And you must be family, to boot."

"Why?" Kira asked, sharing a look with Elodie. They might not have believed one of the more popular girls in their school if it weren't for those few minutes of being a scaly, fire-breathing lizard.

Aideen looked expectantly to the sky as she walked over to retrieve her messenger bag. "Don't worry, there's some other people like us coming— they'll be able to explain everything, I promise."

"Should we run for it?" Kira asked.

"I don't know, but she did kind of save us, back there," Elodie whispered back. 

Aideen smiled back at them. "It's just really complicated, but trust me— it'll all make sense later."

Right then, there was a flash in the sky, a break in the clouds as a golden portal appeared at ground level. Aideen approached, before stopping and turning around. "Are you coming?"

It was one of those split-second choices that made time go still. For many years after, Elodie would lay awake at night, thinking of that very moment, and how things might have turned out differently if she had not gone with Aideen, or Kira hadn't.

But Kira and Elodie only had to share a look, and they knew there was no going back to their old lives. They would have to follow Aideen.

Elodie stepped through first, into a palace made of precious metals. The floor was made of a reflective gold that wasn't slick to step on, but was as polished as a ball room. All of the walls were open, with thin gilded railings to keep people from falling out. The jade ceilings overhead were domes that seemed impossible tall. There was so little furniture in this room, that Elodie wondered what could possibly take up all of this space.

Elodie stepped away to let Kira in, and she walked into the center of the large room, marveling at the designs in the jade.

Elodie looked back to Aideen as the final girl walked through, and the portal closed behind them. Aideen adjusted the straps of her bag. 

"Well, that was fun," Aideen said. "They should be here any moment."

"Who?" Kira was the one who asked.

"The Council of Crowns," Aideen said. "Eight people like us. Dragon-people. Again— and I'm sorry to keep saying this— it'll make more sense when they tell you."

"Oh." Elodie followed Kira into the center of the room. In the center of the dome was the shape of a dragon's head, with four similar-looking dragons depicted surrounding the central dragon. Each dragon resembled Kira and Elodie's reptilian forms, with scales, wings, and a long tail, and a jewel in the center of their foreheads, as well as a pair of horns each.

All of their eyes were gold, like in Elodie's dreams. And one of the four other dragons, Elodie realized, looked identical to the one in her dream. 

"What is this place?" Kira asked Aideen.

"The Jade Palace," Aideen said in a reverent and slightly haughty tone. "Where the Pendragon rules. I never imagined it was so beautiful. I've wanted to come all my life."

"The Pendragon?" 

"The leader of all of the dragons," a voice said behind Elodie. She turned to see eight humans come down a staircase leading to another part of the palace. All of these humans wore gilded costumes that looked like slightly updated medieval clothing, adorned with jewelry and silk. 

In the center was a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties, with reddish-brown curls held back by a jade headpiece resembling a crown. There was a permanently clever expression on her face, her light blue eyes analytical but not unkind. 

"Think of the Pendragon as being the Dragon Queen," she said. "I am the current Pendragon, Absinthe. It is a joyous day, to meet my successors."

"Successors?" Kira asked, speaking yet again the questions that were on Elodie's mind. 

"These other girls were not raised in our world," Aideen explained.

"I see," Absinthe said, a smile on her full lips. "We must explain, then." She looked to Elodie and Kira. "Would tea please you?"

"Of course," Elodie said, smiling politely and giving a little curtsy. It was a second nature, thanks to Speech and Debate, to instantly become that charming, charismatic girl. Even if she wasn't her most of the time.

"Then follow us," Absinthe said, a grand sweeping gesture accompanying her words.

They turned and followed the eight people up the golden stairs. On the stairs was a crimson rug with a detailed design in golden and green thread. The whole place reeked of opulence at the highest degree.

Elodie noticed how open all of the rooms were, using domes and arches and pillars, with only railings that were not very high up as a prevention from falling. A quick fearful glance told her that they were very high up, the cumulonimbus clouds acting as a shield from human eyes.

"It's better not to think about it," Kira advised, as if she'd read Elodie's mind. 

"Probably not." Elodie met Kira's eyes— but found that the other girl was not fearful at all! Rather, she was excited by all of this— like it was some game or story. Not their lives, which Elodie feared were about to be changed permanently, forever.