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It’s about as big as a bus, eyes glittering as it stares at all of us, and then it opens its great maw with a high-pitched scream.

My blood runs cold. The people on the freeway are shouting and filming with their phones, and then the dragon swoops closer and lets loose a white-hot blue streak of fire into the air before landing on a shiny black Mercedes parked haphazardly on the shoulder.

The dragon grips the roof of the car and picks at the round logo with its talons. Its eyes are sharp and intelligent, and its ears prickle forward with interest, the Mercedes crumpling under its weight as it regards the people watching it in a mixture of fear and awe.

The dragon arches its neck, a powerful and sinuous gesture, scales glistening in all the colors of the spectrum, and some colors I didn’t think were possible. It’s absolutely beautiful, and terrifying. I can’t move, can barely breathe.

The dragon roars, shooting another burst of blue-hot fire at the foolhardy few trying to get photos.

The bearded man drops his phone and scrambles away, running back toward his car. Now panic has started to set in, with people actively screaming and abandoning their cars.

Fancy pokes her head out of Erica’s backpack and meows in alarm.

Jenn’s face is streaked with concern. “How did it—did we travel to your—”

Kat shakes her head. “Not as far as I can tell, we don’t have cars like this, and this huge road thing doesn’t exist—this whole area is residential neighborhoods and parks and trolley lines—”

I unlock the door, looking out the window frantically. “Should we run and leave the car?”

“My mom will kill me if I just leave this car!” Erica says. “Also how would we get home if—”

Jenn turns around and fixes Kat with a look. “How dangerous is this dragon? What’s the protocol for dealing with this?”

Kat blinks. “There were rumors of a dragon living underneath Los Angeles, and the recent tremors might have opened up a fissure or something, but that doesn’t explain why the dragon is here , in your world—”

“If we could get through a portal, what’s to say other things can’t?” I glance back at Kat. “The other day there were some wyverns at a gas station and people had uploaded a bunch of videos about it, but now they are all gone.”

Kat frowns. “The Order must have people on this side trying to keep it all a secret.”

Erica points at the huge dragon. “How are they going to keep that a secret? Hundreds of people have seen it by now.”

The dragon lets out a horrific roar and abandons the Mercedes, swooping up into the sky again and circling us overhead.

“So what do people normally do?” Jenn asks again.

“How can we help?” I ask.

Kat exhales and shakes her head. “I’m not— no one is prepared for this! A dragon is, like, a council-level emergency!”

Erica’s brow furrows. “Are there firefighters or, like, dragon people or—”

“I mean, a group of wyvern wranglers would probably be the best people to handle this, but ‘handle’ is a loose word; the council would probably deploy some experts to try to get the dragon to settle down and go back to her hoard with minimal damage, but they’re very temperamental and territorial—”

“If that dragon came through a portal, it must be confused,” I say. “We have to do something!”

Erica glances at Jenn. “What can we do? We’re just a bunch of kids!”

Jenn takes a deep breath. “Kat—you said magic could be worked with just intention and raw mana—and there’s enough of it in our universe to do a certain number of spells.”

Kat takes a deep breath and looks up at the dragon overhead. “There is enough raw power here to do something.” She glances at the people cowering, hiding behind overturned vehicles, trapped as the dragon snorts out another set of flames.

Sirens ring out behind us. Someone must have called the police, but I can’t imagine what they would do.

The dragon swoops down and lands on the now-defunct Mercedes again, clawing and ripping off its door, and then it locks its gaze on me.

I look into the depths of those opal eyes, glittering with all the power and unknown of a whole other world.

I see confusion and pain, and most of all, fear.

I think about what it felt like to be in a completely different world with no idea what the rules were, how to survive, and this dragon looks young and scared and completely out of control and lashing out.

I don’t know what happened to the wyverns, or what might happen if this amazing creature gets captured by the authorities here—people might kill it or experiment on it—and I don’t want to sit around and wait to see what will happen.

“We have to do something,” I say. “Can we lure the dragon away from the freeway and hide it somewhere?”

Kat shakes her head. “Not in its current state—she’s way too visible, way too angry right now—”

Fancy meows.

Kat brightens. “I have an idea. I’ll need your help, but we can do a state change—shrink the dragon. To something more manageable, like the size of this cat.” She takes a deep breath and looks at us. “Are you all up to do a bit of serious magic?”