Page 3 of Merry in Moonvale (Moonvale Matches #3)

CHAPTER 3

Kizzi

C haos erupted.

Absolute chaos.

The sprites exploded into motion, panicking in their tiny, shrill voices while they either fled, hid, or simply flew around in a flurry of excess energy.

Casper, the fluffy white cat who had previously been sleeping peacefully in a basket of sheets, strutted into the room, watching the scene unfold with bright green eyes.

Fiella frantically bounced on her feet, clutching the egg with both hands and holding it out in front of her like it would explode.

Which it totally might. We had no idea what was supposed to happen when a dragon egg hatched. There were no helpful texts on the matter.

Ginger ran in circles around the room clutching her antlers, chanting, “Old Gods help us. Old Gods help us,” over and over again while her hooves clanked noisily against the floor.

Redd froze where he stood, looking like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to bolt or scoop Fiella up and carry her away.

Hex leapt from the cauldron and raced toward Fiella, who promptly shrieked even louder and ran in the opposite direction.

And Tandor, bless him, joined in the shouting and ran over to me, tucking his body around mind and shielding me as though the building would cave in. I would have been flattered if I wasn’t so overwhelmed.

It was madness all around.

Tiny cracks continued, somehow impossibly loud even in the chaos of the room. The crackling, popping sound was deafening.

And then the front door flew open.

Everyone froze where they stood. Except for Hex, who took the opportunity to slink over Fiella’s shoe, crawl up her leg, and settle into the crook of her elbow. She looked like she might vomit.

In the open doorway stood Mayor Tommins. The exact folk we were trying to hide the existence of the dragon eggs from.

Fuck .

The gryphon looked taller than ever, imposing and regal in his thick cloak and gloves. His mane of golden hair was smoothed back in a bun, and his heavy brows were pulled together in an expression somewhere between confusion and concern.

And he stared at the scene before him.

Nobody moved. Nobody spoke.

The abrupt silence was almost painful, but I refused to break it, not ready to deal with the consequences of my own actions.

Finally, either seconds or hours later, it was hard to tell, Mayor Tommins spoke. “Kizziah? What’s going on here?”

I choked on my words. “Just hanging out with some friends, that's all.” I smiled painfully. Tandor loosened his grip on me, straightening into a more natural position.

Crack. Pop. Pop .

The gryphon’s eyes snapped to Fiella, where she still stood frozen, clutching the egg between trembling fingers with Hex curled around her arm. His eyes nearly bulged from his skull. “And what’s that?” he asked.

Fiella gulped. She glanced at me, panicked, but I had no help to provide for her. I merely shrugged. We were doomed. Mentally, I prepared myself for an eternity in the dungeons.

“It’s… it’s an egg, sir,” the vampire mumbled.

Tommins stepped inside, pulling the door shut behind him. A cluster of sprites escaped as he did so. “I can see that. What kind of egg is it? And why is everyone screaming?”

Fiella clamped her mouth shut. When Tommins looked as though he would ask again, Tandor spoke up from where he stood behind me. “It’s a dragon egg, sir. I bought it.”

I elbowed him in the gut and whirled around to face the tall orc, shocked. Sure, he had helped me pay for the eggs, but the entire situation was my doing. Well, and Fiella’s, too. But Tandor wasn’t at fault here. And I refused to let him take the fall from me. “No! I was the one?—”

It seemed Fiella wouldn’t let that happen, either. She spoke over me. “It’s my fault, Tommins. I forced Kizzi to buy it for me. This was all my doing.”

Tommins’ gaze flitted between the three of us, and then to Redd and Ginger, who had yet to speak up, but looked like they were both prepared to take the blame, as well. If we were going down, we were going down together, it seemed.

My eyes watered up and my throat tightened. I had to swallow before I could speak again. “I bought the eggs, sir. From a witch in Rockward. It’s a long story.”

Tommins stared for a moment before he spoke again. “You brought a dragon egg to Moonvale. A real dragon egg.”

I pointedly avoided looking at the broken cauldron in the corner, where the two other eggs rested. “Yes. I did.”

“And you didn’t run this by me?”

I nervously smoothed my skirts. “No, I didn’t.”

“And why is that?”

“I didn’t want you to take them away from me. I couldn’t risk it.”

Crack. Pop. Pop.

“Hmm. And now…” he trailed off.

Fiella spoke up. “And now, it appears to be hatching.”

“Hatching,” Mayor Tommins repeated, dumbfounded. “It’s hatching. A dragon egg.”

Fiella nervously shifted her weight, adjusting her quaking fingers to find a firm grip on the cracking shell. “It would appear so.”

“Old Gods almighty,” Tommins breathed. “A dragon. Here. In Moonvale.”

I stepped forward, presenting my wrists to Mayor Tommins so he could shackle them and take me away. “Well, the secret’s out. You can lock me up now. I know I’m in trouble.”

Tommins glanced at my face before his eyes drifted back to the egg in Fiella’s grasp. “Why would you say that?”

I halted. “You—you mean I’m not getting thrown in the dungeon?”

“Of course not. If I didn’t throw you in the dungeon for importing toxic plants and outlawed potion ingredients, what makes you think I would for this?”

That stopped me short. He had a point. “I’m not in trouble?”

Tandor let out a heavy sigh of relief behind me, tucking an arm around my waist to tug me back into him.

Tommins tilted his head. “No. Of course not. As a matter of fact, I think I’m offended at the assumption.” He glanced around the room. “Did you all think that? Is that why you’re all confessing—you thought I’d throw you all in the dungeon?”

Nobody spoke. Fiella coughed awkwardly, while Ginger stared at the floor, and Redd exhaled heavily through his nose.

Tommins stepped toward Redd. “Even you? I thought you knew me better than that,” he said, sounding vaguely hurt.

Redd glanced up to meet his gaze. “No. Well, you are the mayor, you’re in charge of this town. And dragons are… nobody knew how you would take it.”

Tommins straightened, running a hand over the fur trim of his collar. “Oh. Well. No, you’re not in trouble. As long as the town stays intact. But seeing as you all thought… I’ll just go ahead and leave. Stop screaming. You’re causing a commotion.”

And with that, he turned and yanked the door open, stepping hastily outside.

As a cold burst of air flooded through the door, three things happened simultaneously.

Hex tensed, and then lunged for the egg, but they weren’t fast enough.

Fiella tossed the egg away and then covered her face while Redd reached an arm out to catch her.

And the egg burst open, sending chunks of shell scattering to every corner of the room.

This time, everyone screamed, including Mayor Tommins.

Faster than seemed possible, a tiny creature materialized from nothingness, took flight, and bolted out the open door.

And just like that, the baby dragon hatched, and was gone.

When the screams died down, Tommins turned, fixing me with a hard stare. “And that’s your responsibility,” he declared. He glanced around the room. “All of you. If that dragon destroys my town, or ruins Merry Day… As you all said, I do have a dungeon below my office, and it’s been vacant for quite some time.”

How ominous.

He left without another word, leaving the door open behind him.

“What should we?—”

“Oh, fuck?—”

“Old Gods help us?—”

Everyone spoke at once. I interrupted them, sending a small flare of magic through the air to catch their attention. They shut their mouths at once.

I curled my fingers into my palms, feeling vaguely embarrassed. I still wasn’t used to controlling so much magic.

“Shut up. Get yourselves together. Now let’s go catch a baby dragon before it destroys the town.”