Enchanted Ivy

thought of their mind games. First the book and now with the dragon ... why so many reminders of her father? What did he have to do with this crazy game?

'Once, there were many Keys. One by one, they were destroyed.' He laughed again, and she shuddered at the sound. 'I even destroyed one myself.'

The Old Boys wouldn't send her on a hunt for something that didn't exist. Would they? 'Are there any left?'

'Oh, yes.'

'Tell me,' she demanded.

'The Key is not an object,' he said. 'The Key is a being who is half human and half magic, a parent from each world. Only such a being can pass through the gate. Only such a being can allow others through the gate.'

'Where can I find this Key person?'

'Come closer, and I will whisper to you.'

Shoving her foot into one of the ornate hinges, Lily boosted herself up. She reached up and grabbed the stone vines near the dragon's tail to pull herself higher—

'Lily!' Jake cried. He grabbed the back of her jeans.

Before he could force her down, the dragon's head shot toward her. His jaws clamped down hard on her hand. She screamed as stone bit into her. Below her, Jake yelled. Spots burst in front of her eyes as pain coursed up her arm like fire. Bits of red orange flame darted out of the dragon's mouth and around her fingers. She screamed again.

Jake yanked her down. Stone scraped gashes along her hand as he pulled her out of the dragon's jaws. Red splattered across the wood door and stone trim. His arm around her waist, Jake half carried, half dragged her down the steps to the plaza. Her head spun.

The dragon screeched. He pushed his talons hard against the chain, and the stone stretched and strained. Dimly, Lily heard Jake: 'Oh, shit. Don't die! Oh, shit, what do I do? Dammit!' He ripped his sleeve off his shirt in one quick jerk and wrapped the cloth around her hand. More swirls and spots spun over her eyes as she stared up at Jake's face. A second later, he was shouting into his cell phone—she hadn't seen him take it out. Only a few words made sense. She blacked out.

A few seconds (or minutes or years—she couldn't tell) later, she opened her eyes to see Jake's face swimming inches from hers. She was cradled in his lap. 'He could have killed you,' Jake was saying. 'He should have killed you. You shouldn't have survived that.'

She focused beyond him on the chapel arch. Black dots still danced over her eyes, but she thought that the dragon had grown. He filled half the arch, and the stone chain bit deeply into his thick neck. 'He grew,' she whispered. Stone didn't grow. Stone didn't live. Didn't talk. Didn't bite.

'He had long enough to drain you,' Jake said. 'Why aren't you dead?'

'More!' the dragon howled. 'Need more!' He let out a scream that shook Lily's bones and echoed across the plaza. She shuddered hard.

Jake looked up at the dragon and then down at her. 'You're one of them,' he said. He shoved her hard away from him. She rolled off his lap and onto the stone plaza. She lay there, cheek against the flagstones. Every muscle felt depleted. She couldn't process his words. 'God, I helped you! I even thought you—' His voice was so full of revulsion that she flinched. 'You don't belong here. Monsters belong on the other side of the gate.'

Gate ... She remembered Tye's voice: If you feel faint or weak or anything, go through the gate! She seized on that memory. It was the only coherent thought that penetrated the dark swirls in her brain. She felt weak; she needed the gate.

Lily lurched to her feet. The plaza tipped and spun.

'More!' the dragon cried.

She heard other voices shouting. All she could think was gate. She needed to go through the gate. Every muscle shaking, she half ran and half fell across the plaza and through the East Pyne courtyard. She stumbled past Nassau Hall, and the green lawn of the yard tilted before her. Her ears roared as her vision spun.

She caught herself against an oak tree. Her fingers curled into the bark, and she breathed in the scent of the tree. It strengthened her. She pushed away from the trunk. The few people in the yard swam in and out of her field of view. She avoided them, dimly hearing them call to her, asking if she was okay, as she wove her way toward FitzRandolph Gate.

She stopped in front of the gate and looked up at the Princeton seal. It blurred into a smudge as she gazed at it. The stone eagles multiplied as her vision swam again. Beyond the gate, she saw Nassau Street. A traffic light held cars at an intersection. Go through the gate, Tye's voice repeated in her memory. 'Why?' she wondered. But it hurt to think through the aching haze. It was simpler to obey.

Lily plunged through the gate.

Everything flashed white.

Seconds later, Lily lay flat on her back on grass, not sidewalk. She stared up at the front of FitzRandolph Gate. She saw the Princeton seal ... but the stone eagles were gone.

In their place were twin eagles with feathers of metallic gold. The birds screeched and then lifted skyward from the stone pillars. They circled above her, shadows against the cloudless sky. She saw another bird with firelike feathers streak between them, and she saw a shape that looked like a winged lion, silhouetted against the blue. ... Where am I? she thought. What's happening to me? She tried to scramble to her feet and collapsed forward onto her hands and knees.

She lifted her head. A tiger paced slowly toward her. His tail lashed from side to side. Her heart started to thud so loudly in her ears that it muffled all other sound. Gritting her teeth, Lily pushed herself to standing.

Muscles shaking, she backed away as the tiger approached. Run, her mind whispered. Run! But she couldn't. She stumbled.

The tiger shimmered as if he were drawn in smudged ink. His fur rippled, and he collapsed and then stretched upward. Legs shot down, and arms reached out. Slowly, the blur solidified into a boy with orange and black hair.

'Tye,' she breathed.

He caught her as her knees buckled, and she crumpled.

CHAPTER Six

Lily heard a murmur of voices, and she tried to open her eyes. Her eyelids felt as if they were glued down. She raised her hand to touch her face, and she felt cloth. She forced her eyes open and saw a white cloth wrapped around her hand.

Bandages, she thought. How nice. Her vision faded.

Next time she woke, she was on her back, looking up at a ceiling of wood tiles. At first, they wavered and spun, but then they resolved themselves into a static geometric pattern. She turned her head, but the motion made her vision blur again. Figures standing near her looked like streaks of white light and shadow.

She felt panic rise up into her throat, choking her. 'Tye?' she said. It came out as a croak. She tried again: 'Tye?'

'The were-tiger boy isn't here,' said a voice that sounded like a waterfall. Words cascaded down. You could drown in a voice like that, she thought.

She squinted, but her eyes wouldn't focus right. The voice's owner was a white smudge against a brown background. She thought she saw a streak of gold. 'Where is 'here'?' she asked. 'Who are you?'

'If she's awake enough to ask questions, then she is alert enough to answer them,' another voice said in a deeper tone, tinged with a growl.

'Patience,' yet another said, an airy voice this time, almost amused. 'She was drained to nearly nothing. All your fine interrogation skills are useless on the unconscious.'