Outside the door, there was a loud knock. “Ryan, who are you talking to in there?” His father! The knob began to turn, and Ryan strode across the room and threw himself against the door.
“Just talking to myself.” Ryan called, pushing against the door. To us, he whispered, “I’ll buy you time. Leave the gold.” Adding to my pile, Worm deposited the gold bars on Ryan’s bed.
“Open the door, Ryan,” his father commanded.
I wanted to say more, to tell him to come with us, to tell him everything I felt, but there was no lock on the door. Ryan couldn’t hold it for long.
“Go!” Ryan whispered.
I hoped he could read all that I wanted to say in my eyes. “Thank you.” And then I turned and jumped out the window. Wings grew out of my back, and I transformed fast this time.
I felt a thump as Worm landed on top of me.
Through the open window, I heard the door bang open. His father was shouting, and I heard Ryan claim that he’d done the heist: he’d robbed their vault. See, there was the gold, on his bed. He’d completed his first heist and wanted to be presented to the council tonight, per wyvern tradition.
Clever boy,I thought. He was buying us time.
I didn’t stay to hear more, but it was enough. Ryan was lying to his father, for me. He’d made a choice again, and this time he’d chosen me.
With Worm on my back, I flew away. Toward home.
THE AIR TASTED RIGHT.Like snow and spring and smoke. And the mountains looked right too: the Rockies, with the sun positioned between two peaks perfectly, like it was posing for a photo.
“It’s beautiful!” Worm called.
It took a fair amount of self-restraint not to say my world was better than his, but I managed, because I’m heroic like that. “On our world, you don’t have to stay in a single valley. Our world extends for thousands and thousands of miles, and you can go anywhere in it!”
“And will I be welcome here?”
“That all depends on who it is you want to do the welcoming. You’ll have to enroll in high school, and that can either be the best time of your life or the worst.” I marveled at myself for thinking about something as normal as school at a time like this. “I can’t promise it will be better than Home, but itwillbe different. Unless we fail. In which case, Ryan’s father will either kill us or shove us back through the Door. Maybe we should worry about that first, and then worry about how well you’ll fit in at P. Murphy High?”
“What’s P. Murphy High?”
“Home of the Fighting Badgers.” Up ahead, I saw my road. “Hang on.” Tilting, I flew into the wind. From the air, my house looked kind of like a birthday cake. The white brick walls were frosting, the copper gutters were icing trim, and the chimneys were birthday candles. Yum. I hoped Dad had some decent food in the kitchen.
I know, I know, but I couldn’t save my mother and unite two worlds on an empty stomach. I also had to pee. You have to remember these kinds of things when you’re planning a heist, or any sort of activity that will change your life.
I flew toward the backyard. Spiraling down, I aimed for the wide space of grass. “You’re coming in too fast!” Worm yelped. “You’re going to hit—”
I crashed into the top of a pear tree. It bent under my weight, then snapped, and we thudded to the ground. Worm rolled off me. “No offense, but you need more practice.”
I tested my wings. Unbroken. Legs, okay.
I heard shouting from the house.
Dad! Charles! And then Liam and Tuck came barreling out behind them. I began to lope forward, my tail swinging. And Dad roared, shooting flame out of his mouth.
Yikes! He didn’t recognize me.
“Dad, stop!” Quickly, I changed, and the world around me expanded as everything shrank—or more accurately, as I shrank into my human form. Since I was midrun as I tried to change, I stumbled over my feet and skidded into the grass, chin and hands first.
Dad broke off the flame. “Sky?”
I jumped to my feet. “Hi! Not dead. Really long story. This is Worm. Do you have any pizza? I seriously need pizza. And we need to pull off a heist tonight, or we’re never going to see Mom again.” Could not resist sneaking that last bit in there like that. I hoped my voice didn’t sound as hysterical as I felt. “This time, I’m not taking no for an answer. We’re going—”
And then my father and brothers were hugging me, all of them at once, which made for a tangle of arms and torsos that nearly knocked me over again. I squeezed them back just as hard, wrapping my arms as much as I could around my brothers and burrowing my face into my father’s chest. He smelled like familiar forests, the kind around Aspen.
Over my head, Dad said, “Welcome…Worm, is it?”
