*Maggie's POV*

As I soared through the air on the back of a dragon— who may or may not have been my boyfriend, I wasn't sure at the moment— my blonde hair whipping out of its carefully styled up-do, and all of the air in my lungs pouring from my mouth in one unending scream, I realized one very important thing: I had, by far, the strangest life ever.

Just a little over a month ago, I was the most boring, average teenager on the planet. I went to school, got decent grades, had a few good friends, and most importantly— in my opinion, anyway— I played video games. My favorite of which was the Shadows of Light series.

And it was the world of that game that just a little over a month ago I was stolen away to.

The Abandoned Order had wanted me for their scheme to overthrow Casimir, the prince of Lumina, and I had had no choice but to comply. Later I found out that my real mission was to kill Casimir's mother, Queen Amaranth, and then be killed myself. But thanks to Kindle, my sort-of-boyfriend and a secret dragon, that didn't happen. He literally crashed the party last minute, and I unwittingly climbed onto his back.

Now, I kind of regretted that choice.

"I've just realized I don't like flying!" I screamed over the rush of wind, clinging tightly to dragon-Kindle's neck.

He rumbled out a throaty sound that I interpreted as a laugh.

"Don't you dare laugh at me," I scowled, "I'm still mad at you."

He roared, and in my mind he spoke. "I know, and you should be. I was stupid."

"Yep," I agreed. Then he dipped slightly and I wrapped my arms around him tighter, screaming again.

"It'll be a miracle if my ears aren't bleeding by the end of this." Kindle mused, emitting another rumbling laugh.

"So how does that work?" I asked in an attempt to distract myself from the fact that I was hurtling through the sky without a parachute. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying instead to focus on the rhythmic beating of Kindle's wings.

Kindle's wings. It was such a strange thought.

"How does what work?" His voice questioned as his dragon form roared.

"Well, all of it, but let's just start with your voice being inside my head." I suggested. My heart was hammering in my chest, and I felt as though at any moment I could lose my hold on Kindle's smooth scales and plummet to the ground. Breathe in, breathe out. Think about the wings instead. Try and slow your heart to match the wings.

"I'm not really sure how to explain it, because no one ever explained it to me," Kindle replied. "Telepathy is the best answer I can come up with. The people I want to hear me can, everyone else hears only roars."

"You're projecting your thoughts into my mind?" I theorized, however the words morphed into a screech as Kindle changed altitude.

"More or less, and relax Blondie." Kindle sighed, "I'm not going to let you fall."

I took a few deep breaths before speaking again. "So, does that mean you can read my mind?"

"I don't think so. And I don't need to anyway," I could hear a smile in his voice, "I'm pretty sure all of your thoughts at the moment consist of mainly panic, with a touch of confusion, and a decent sized portion of hatred towards me. Am I right?"

I shook my head, eyes still closed. "Not about the hatred part. Anger, yes, lots of that. But hatred? Even if I wanted to, I don't think I could ever hate you," I admitted.

"Good, I don't think I'd handle you hating me very well. Even though I kind of deserve it."

"Kind of," I agreed.

After a moment, I had tricked myself into forgetting that I was hurtling through the open air, and my breathing and heart rate settled to normal. Or at least, as normal as I could hope to get them in my current situation. Okay, yeah. This isn't so bad. I can totally do this.

"Blondie, look," Kindle said, the exact thing I didn't want to do.

Hesitantly, I opened my eyes and looked down at the ground below us. We were coming up to some sort of ruins, complete with crumbling stone pillars, dilapidated houses, and the remnants of what might have once been a magnificent palace. As we grew closer, I gasped, my eyes widening. The streets were littered with large bones, reminding me of the elephant graveyard from the movie Lion King.

"Where are we?" I murmured, squeezing myself closer to Kindle as he began the decent.

"My home."

His home. The place King Jareth attacked at the start of the war nearly nine years ago. A cold silence washed over me as I realized the bones below us were all that remained of Kindle's species. They had all been people he'd known, maybe friends, family, neighbors. They hadn't even been buried.

Kindle landed on the outskirts of the ruins with a soft thud, and I clamored from his back as quickly as possible. I hadn't even realized my arms were shaking until I was sitting in the dirt. If I had anything to say about it, I would never fly again.

"I told Faye to meet us here, so if she's not already in the Ruins, she'll be here soon." Kindle explained. He folded his wings in, his tail swishing slightly.

I stared intently at him, my lips pressed together in a firm line. From where I sat, the gigantic black dragon looked even larger and even more menacing. No matter how hard I stared, it was impossible to see Kindle in this creature. Apart from the eyes, there was nothing to show me that it was even the same person.

"Can you change back?" I asked carefully.

"Yes," Kindle responded. The tail of his dragon form flicked, but other than that he didn't move.

"Do it then."

He cocked his head to the side, his firestone eyes staring back at me. "You don't like me this way, do you?" There was no anger or hurt in his voice, just curiosity.

I chewed my lip, twisting my hands in my lap. "I'm... not really sure what to think yet. Just please turn back so that I can talk to you as, well, you."

"This is me, Blondie," Kindle replied. "I am just as much this form as I am the form you're familiar with."

I was silent for a moment, and chewed my lip harder to keep it from quivering. This is Kindle, just like he said. It's still him, just a different side of him, and I already decided I wanted to be with him before I knew what he really was, so what difference does it make? I can learn to accept this side of him too, can't I? I dropped my eyes to my hands. Although that's what I had to do, I knew it would be difficult.

The enormous dragon in front of me snorted a sigh and rolled his large eyes, and then a swirl of fire appearing from what seemed to be nowhere engulfed him and he started to shrink.

I watched in awe as his scales caught fire and swirled upward in a plume of smoke. The smoke became so thick that it blocked everything, and I had to wonder if the burning was painful or not. I assumed not, because he touched fire all the time without a problem.

"You might want to look away, just saying," Kindle's voice spoke from the cloud of smoke instead of in my mind.

Instead of doing what he suggested, I just tilted my head and like an idiot asked, "Why?"

I got my answer rather quickly, as the smoke cleared slightly and I realized that apparently Kindle's clothing did not stay intact during a transformation.

I shrieked, hurling my shawl at him and slamming my face down into my lap.

"I did warn you," Kindle sighed.

"Ssh! No talking until you're clothed." My voice was muffled by the many flouncy layers of my gown.

Kindle chuckled, but said nothing more.

After a moment, I heard the approach of running feet.

"What happened to Maggie, why is she curled up like that? Is she hurt?" Faye questioned, speaking quickly. There was a brief pause before she said, "Um, Kindle? Would you like some clothes?"

"Please," Kindle replied.

From beyond my gauzy sanctuary, the sound of ruffling fabric and shuffling feet reached me.

"Poor thing, she's probably scarred for life," Serpina patted my back comfortingly.

"It's not like she saw anything, the smoke was still too thick. She's just being Blondie. I bet you her face is brighter than a tomato right now," Kindle remarked.

Serpina snickered quietly, then shook my shoulder. "It's okay, he's dressed now."

I raised my head slowly, glaring daggers at Kindle. I could feel the heat on my face, informing me that his assumption of my face color was probably correct.

Kindle's overly serious face as he tried to fight a smile confirmed my fear.

I took a deep breath in an attempt to return my face to its normal color and looked around at the people Faye had brought with her. I recognized Serpina, of course, as well as the three people Faye had introduced me to at her birthday party— Inari, Emrys, and Nikko— and behind Kindle, the ghost Carlyle waved at me. Along with the people I knew, there was also a handful of strangers. It dawned upon me that I actually had no idea why we'd all gathered here in the ruins of Kindle's homeland.

"So... what happened?" I asked.

"It's kind of a long story," Kindle shrugged, running a hand through his hair, "But for now I'll give you the short and to the point version."

"Okay," I nodded. I decided it would be best to get up off the ground, and so I stood and brushed the dirt from my gown.

"Three days ago on the night we returned from the Royal Dinner, when I went to speak with Seraphim in your place, he told me what his true plan for you was. He told me you were a decoy, to kill the queen and take the fall in place of an actual member of the Order." Kindle began, watching me with apologetic eyes as he spoke. "My plan was to warn you, but Seraphim told me that if I breathed a word of your true 'mission' to you, he would kill us both. And so, I came up with a new plan. I had to make you hate it here— make you hate me— so that you would leave that very night and go back to your own realm."

Hearing Kindle actually say the words, my heart leapt in my chest. "So it was all just a trick," I murmured, "You didn't actually mean any of it."

Kindle nodded, and it took all of my willpower not to sprint the distance between us and throw myself into his arms.

"I should have known better of course, because you're far too stubborn to give up just like that." He laughed quietly, shaking his head as a fond smile formed on his lips, "You actually went so far as to kick me out of my own room."

I shrugged, "well I wasn't going to sleep in the hall." Unconsciously, my feet inched slightly closer to where Kindle stood. "And then what happened? Why are we here and not back at the Abandoned Order's castle?"

"Seraphim is starting the war, Maggie." Faye answered before Kindle could, her expression worried. "He's plotting an attack on Lumina this very night. And so Kindle flew off to save you," At the word flew, she cast a pointed glance at Kindle, and I remembered that I wasn't the only one to learn for the first time what Kindle actually was. "Meanwhile, Serpina and I gathered supplies and people who sided with us and we, well, abandoned the Abandoned Order."

"And now we're here," Serpina shrugged.

"Faye, you said you gathered people who sided with you?" I questioned, "What side is that, exactly?"

"While we agree with Seraphim on revenge against King Jareth, we don't want to take revenge on all of human-kind. Basically, Seraphim and Lydia want to do to the humans what they've done to us, but in doing that we'll be no better off than where we are right now." Faye explained carefully, "equality, where neither the humans nor the non-humans are above the other, is the only way we can achieve peace. And that's what we believe," she gestured to the people that stood around us.

I smiled, Faye's mentality was beautiful. If the humans and non-humans could work together as equals, there would be no unrest in the Shadow Realm. "So are you planning on fighting against Seraphim?" I asked, "and Casimir?"

"Not me," Faye shook her head quickly, "I'm not the fighting type. But yes, essentially that's the goal of our group. We will go against whoever we must, for the sake of everyone."

With a newfound determination coursing through me, I nodded, "Alright. Well, count me in."