Enchanted Ivy

The stone man lumbered toward the door and opened it. Lily walked to the exit. It took every ounce of self- control not to run. Behind her, she heard the unicorn say in his waterfall voice, 'If you are truly innocent, then we will welcome you. Another Key is a blessing.'

Lily heard the tiger man rumble, but she couldn't tell if it was in agreement, disappointment, or hunger. She wasn't about to stay to find out.

She fled the room and didn't look back.

Outside, Lily halted and stared across a college yard, complete with oak trees, sidewalks, and the FitzRandolph Gate. On either side of her were Princeton buildings, and behind her—she turned to look—the building she had been in was Nassau Hall.

'Impossible,' she said.

Leaning against one of the oak trees, Tye said, 'Sorry. You're not dreaming, hallucinating, or crazy.' He peeled away from the tree and crossed to her. 'Are you okay?'

Lily looked back at the gate. Gold eagles perched on the stone pillars, and a thick forest lay beyond. She'd crossed the looking glass into bizarro Princeton. 'Just peachy,' she said. She started to shake, and Tye wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She buried her face against his chest as tears poured out of her eyes. He stroked her hair. He didn't tell her to stop crying or that there was nothing to cry about or any other platitude. He simply held her until she could breathe again without sobbing.

She pulled back. 'I wet your shirt,' she said, touching the tearstains that darkened his T-shirt. 'I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that. I'm not a crier.' She was normally a bottle-it-upper. She reserved any necessary crying sessions for late at night, locked in the bathroom, where Mom wouldn't hear her.

He shrugged. 'It'll dry. Don't worry about it.' Strands of hair clung to her tear-streaked cheeks. Gently, he pushed the strands off her skin. She looked into his golden eyes. His face was only a few inches from hers. For a second, they stared at each other, and Lily had the insane thought that he was going to kiss her. But then he released her and said, 'You're hurt. What happened to your hand?'

'Oh, uh ... you know the dragon on the University Chapel? It bit me.'

He turned her wounded hand over and examined the bandages. His fingers were soft and gentle on her wrist. 'What on earth possessed you to get so close to him?' Tye asked.

'I thought he was animatronic,' Lily said.

Tye grinned. 'Fair enough.' He was still holding her hand.

Her skin tingled. She couldn't tell if it was from his touch or from the air here. 'Last time the Chained Dragon drained a Key, the magic was enough to free him. He killed a lot of people before he was caught again. You were lucky. That Key didn't survive.'

She shivered.

'If you'd been an ordinary human, you'd certainly be dead,' Tye said. 'Good thing you're full of surprises.'

'So are you,' Lily said. She pulled her hand away from his. 'You lied to me. You said you were my guard.'

'Yeah,' he said. He didn't sound the least bit sorry. 'But 'Hi, I'm Tye, I'm a were-tiger' would have been the worst pickup line ever.'

Despite herself, Lily laughed.

His smile faded. 'You aren't supposed to exist, you know.'

'Now, that is the worst pickup line ever.' She tried to keep her voice light. 'Everyone seems very disappointed that I'm not dead.'

'Believe me, I'm not,' he said softly. He laid his hand on hers, over the bandages, and looked straight into her eyes. He didn't have his father's eyes, she noticed. He had human eyes, except for the golden color. 'I thought I was alone,' Tye said.

Lily couldn't think of anything to say. His expression was so intense that it could have thawed a glacier. She felt as if she were melting into his tawny eyes.

'So, what are you?' he asked. 'You don't look like you have wings or a tail. Anything strange ever happen around you? Anyone turn to stone? Anything burst into flame?'

She shook her head.

'Hey, it's okay.' He lightly touched her cheek, and she felt her skin tingle again beneath his fingertips. 'We'll figure it out. I have an idea that could help. Come with me.'

He propelled her across the yard and around Nassau Hall. She heard a faint whispered hum as she passed the oaks. It sounded as if a radio stuck between a station and static were lodged inside her head. Maybe it was a side effect of the blood loss. Or she could have a concussion from when she had fallen onto the plaza flagstones. 'Do you hear that?' she asked.

'Hear what?' he asked.

In the distance, a trio of boys with antlers exited one of the Gothic classrooms. Lily stared, hum forgotten. 'What is this place?'

'It's Princeton,' Tye said. 'Or at least another version of it. Both schools were built when the gate was open to everyone. The two campuses were supposed to foster understanding between the worlds. You know, so that we don't end up slaughtering each other.'

'Oh,' she said. 'You go here?'

'Father's on the council,' he said, 'so I've pretty much been a student here my whole life.' As they crossed the campus, he told her stories about being a student at this Princeton: classmates who could vanish or sprout wings, professors who wrote with six arms on chalkboards, courses that focused on shape-shifter physics. At last, Tye stopped in front of the concrete arches of the football stadium.

'So what do you do here?' she asked. 'Quidditch?'

'Not all the students fit into the usual dorms.' He led her through the arches, underneath the bleachers. Ahead, she saw a football field crisscrossed with clumps of dirt as if it had been unevenly raked. 'We use this place for the dragons.'

Lily halted. Clutching her bandaged hand to her chest, she said, 'I think I'll skip this part of the tour.'

'You need to see this.' He sounded serious and intense. 'You need to understand that the Chained Dragon is the exception. You need to understand that we're the good guys too.'

'Why?' Lily asked. 'Why do I need to understand? Why show me any of this? It's not like I'm ever going to come here again.' She wouldn't come back to a place where the ultimatum of death loomed over her head. She planned to avoid FitzRandolph Gate as studiously as if she were a superstitious Princeton student. 'I belong in the other Princeton, in the human world.'

He looked as if she'd slapped him.

'I'm sorry,' she said. She wished she'd phrased it differently. She hadn't thought he would take it personally. 'It's really nice of you to show me around, but ...'

'Fly with me,' he said.

Lily gaped at him. Now, that was a request that didn't come along every day. 'What part of 'no dragons' was unclear?' she asked. 'I don't want this.' She waved her hand at the dragons, at the campus, at all of it. 'This is not on my life plan.'

'Maybe you need to change your 'life plan,'' Tye said. 'You have a new destiny now. An important and amazing one. If you let me, I'll show it to you.'

Without waiting for her response, he strode out onto the field.

She hesitated for a second and then followed. Above, three dragons soared through the sky. Jewel-like scales glittered in the sunlight so brightly that it looked as if someone had tossed sapphires, emeralds, and rubies into the air.

One of the dragons broke formation and glided down to the field. He skidded along the grass, churning up long furrows of dirt. As he swung his mammoth head toward Lily and Tye, Lily froze. Steam curled out of his nostrils as he breathed. His eyes were swirls of liquid gold.

'Greetings, Tiger Boy,' the dragon said.

Lily shivered at the familiar snakelike sound.

'Come on—ride a dragon with me?' Tye asked Lily. He flashed his lopsided grin at her. 'You can't deny it's a helluva first date.'

She couldn't help smiling back at him. His tawny eyes were fixed on her as if her answer were all that mattered in the world. 'Just back to the gate,' she said.