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The beast chittered as its webbed feet slapped the hardwood. It disappeared through the bedroom door.

Paige hurried after it, sliding her socked feet across the floorboards. A loud crash resounded before she reached the darkened doorway. She froze for a moment, then she raced through the door.

She swallowed hard when she entered, her eyes going wide again. The bat fell from her fingers and clattered to the floor as she gaped around at the sight.

She closed her gaping jaw for a moment before she called out, “Dewey?”

“Paige?” a little voice called from the closet.

“Dewey!” Paige cried, racing to her closet door and flinging it open.

The teal dragon shot from between a blazer and a dress, his arms outstretched. He flung them around her neck, squeezing her and knocking her glasses askew with one of his horns.

Paige stumbled back, collapsing on the bed. She wrapped her arms around the tiny dragon as he hung around her neck. His purple-teal wings pressed against her hands.

“Are you okay?” Paige asked. “Are you hurt?”

His head wiggled back and forth, his scaly skin rubbing against her still-teary cheek. “I’m okay. I’m fine.”

He pulled away from her, his feet resting on her thighs, and wrapped her face in his fleshy paws. “Are you okay?”

Paige stared down at the little dragon. Tears welled in his eyes, and his nostrils flared as he waited for an answer.

Her head bobbed up and down, and she stroked a hand around his tiny face, cupping his chin. “I’m fine. Not even a scratch.”

Dewey flung his arms around her again, and she wrapped him in a tight hug. Across the room, Dickens stalked from within the closet, sashayed to the corner of the area rug under the bed, and sprawled on it.

After a moment, Paige flicked on the light and wiped a tear from her cheek.

Dewey released her, collapsing in a heap on her threadbare comforter. “What a night.”

“Yeah,” Paige said as she blew out a breath, scanning the room. “I can’t understand it.”

“Maybe don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Dewey said, staring up at the ceiling as he flopped on his back.

“I don’t mean just that. That thing being almost on top of me and then just turning around and leaving is only one of the oddities,” Paige said, adjusting her glasses. “But look!” She waved a hand around her bedroom.

The beast had broken through the window not fifteen minutes earlier, scattering glass across the hardwood and ripping the mini-blinds from the window. Now, the room appeared completely untouched.

The window remained intact, no glass littered the floor, and the mini-blinds covered the glass pane, albeit still broken as they had always been.

Dewey propped himself up on his elbows and glanced at the unscathed space. “What?”

Paige furrowed her brow. “Are you serious? That thing wrecked my room, and now it’s completely fine. Like it never happened.”

“Oh, right. Yeah, that’s normal.”

“Normal?” Paige asked as the little teal dragon sat up.

“Yep. Probably used a restore spell to recover anything he messed up. With any luck, your TV is fixed too.”

“A restore spell?”

Dewey nodded as he flitted into the air and flew to the door, peering into the living room. “Yep. The living room’s all good.”

Paige rose to her feet, pressing a hand to her forehead as she shook her head. “Wait, I still don’t get it. What’s a restore spell?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” Dewey said as he twisted to face her. “It restores stuff. I’m betting he used the same thing the night he gave you the beast mark. That’s why your bedroom looked normal the next morning.”