Gryphon of Glass Read online

  Gryphon of Glass

  Zoe Chant

  For Layla, for making the impossible possible.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  A Note from Zoe Chant

  The Royal Dragons of Alaska

  Shifting Sands Resort

  Shape Shifters: Vol 1

  Green Valley Shifters

  Sneak Preview of The Dragon Prince of Alaska…

  1

  Ding dong!

  The doorbell sent Trey and Rez scrambling for the knob, trying good-naturedly to knock each other aside with their elbows. They flung the door open so vigorously that the children outside drew back in surprise before screaming “Trick or treat!” at the top of their little lungs.

  The kids were dressed in an assortment of costumes: a princess carrying a sword and wearing a wool cap in deference to the chilly air, a blue furry monster swiveling its head to see out of tiny eye holes, a mermaid with a sequined tail over her arm, two superheroes, and a knight.

  “A tiny fellow knight!” Trey exclaimed in delight, and he and Rez both bowed respectfully.

  The child knight looked like he was trying to decide if they were making fun of him.

  “I’m Iron Man!” one of the other costumed children declared. The mermaid tried to hide behind her tail.

  The two parties stood staring at each other until the blue monster asked, “Where’s the candy?” in a muffled voice.

  Gwen, leaning just inside the door, held the bowl out to Trey and Rez with a grin. They took fistfuls of candy and emptied them into the offered bags and plastic pumpkins.

  “Truly, I thought you were jesting,” Rez said, as the children tramped happily away down the walkway back to the quiet street. The unicorn shifter shook his head in wonder.

  “It is a most puzzling custom,” Trey agreed.

  “Are you sure that adults cannot also do this?” Rez asked wistfully, watching the kids comparing treats as they returned to their trek down the street.

  “It’s the greatest tragedy of growing up,” Gwen said mournfully. “We’re going to need more candy at this rate! Where did it all go?”

  Trey looked guilty. “The tiny sweets were very tempting.”

  “I picked up another bag while I was out yesterday,” Ansel called from the kitchen. “Thank you, Ansel!” he joked.

  “You’re an angel, Ansel!” Gwen hollered back.

  “No, you’re the angel!”

  Gwen was dressed in a flimsy white dress over leggings, a halo on her head and tiny pair of feathered wings held on with elastic.

  “Beg to differ,” Gwen retorted.

  Ansel worked some kind of highly variably technical computer job remotely, occasionally taking long business trips to consult. The second hand store that he owned in Wimberlette was clearly not something he required for solvency but seemed to be something he used as a way of emptying a cluttered old house that he’d inherited. Instead of complaining when a dragon broke a hole in the roof of his shop to fight horrible dark forces from another world and trashed his warehouse, he had offered a room in his home to Gwen, who had come through a portal from across the country without a wallet in her pocket and no way to get home. Heather and her unicorn-shifting fae knight, Rez, had followed from Georgia several months later. Daniella and Trey (who happened to be the dragon that had clawed through his shop roof) spent so much time at Ansel’s house that he finally suggested that they simply move in and save on rent.

  He only asked that they keep the space clean and the fridge stocked, and calmly converted half of his gigantic garage into a sparring space.

  Rez and Trey stood watching out of the window while Gwen took the bowl in to refill. “Another troop approaches!” Trey announced with great excitement.

  Ansel and Gwen exchanged an amused look and Gwen hurried back to the living room with the coveted candy.

  The knights greeted this group with a little more decorum and happily handed out brightly-decorated candy to the squealing kids wearing an array of handmade and store-bought costumes.

  The next group was already scrambling up the stairs before the last ones were gone, and for a short while, the knights were kept busy filling pillowcases and tote bags.

  “It is so delightful here,” Rez said, looking wistfully after the children. “So safe and happy.”

  “Pray we keep it thus,” Trey said mournfully. The dragon shifter slung a casual arm around his shieldmate.

  Gwen watched them exchange a look of sorrow and played with her sparkly tinsel halo.

  Sometimes it was hard to remember the impending danger. The boundary between her world and theirs would become weaker and weaker towards the end of the year, and when it was thinnest, the darkness that had destroyed their land would try to do the same here. Gwen had already battled the forerunners of the attack, a terrible vicious bleak and the evil, mindless dours that it led.

  What’s more, she had seen the army they had tried to bring through at the last New Year’s Eve and it still gave her nightmares, remembering how helpless she had been against them. She, Trey, Daniella, and Robin the fable had barely been able to turn them back, and Robin had suffered greatly to seal the portals that would have let them through.

  Gwen re-settled her halo, regretting the fact that she hadn’t been able to do much in the scope of things. Her sword was worthless against the shadowy form, slicing through it without doing any damage. Robin swore that she would come into her power once she was united with the gryphon-shifting knight, Henrik.

  The only problem was that no one knew where Henrik might be.

  Four of the knights had been captured in glass and thrust into a strange world with their mentor, Robin. These ornaments, a dragon, a unicorn, a gryphon, and a firebird, had been found by Ansel...and subsequently sold, one at a time.

  Gwen sometimes wondered if his generosity was a matter of apology, for not recognizing the magical glass ornaments for what they were, and for accidentally separating the four of them. But Ansel’s hospitality seemed genuine, and his appreciation for their situation was not feigned; if all four knights were not freed from their glass prisons and united with their keys, there would be little to stand between the dark forces of the place they’d come from and the helpless human world.

  It seemed strange that their battle had been less than a year ago, and it was terrifying to think that they were no closer now to finding the two missing knights, with New Year’s looming in a few short months.

  A scream shook Gwen from her musing, and Trey and Rez both reached for the swords at their sides. Heather had decked them out in medieval costumes from her Renaissance Festival contacts, and they had real weapons from her blacksmith friend.

  Gwen was the first one out the open door, but she knew before she got to the bottom of the porch steps that the scream was more outrage and surprise than pain.

  A little brown-skinned boy was lying in the slushy snow beside the steps, holding his arm and wailing. His friends hover
ed over him in various states of scorn and sympathy.

  “Hey there, Superman,” Gwen said kindly, weaving between the kids. “Did you fall off the steps?”

  “Jerry pushed me!” the little boy accused.

  “I did not!” Jerry protested. “You slipped!”

  “You going to want a bandaid on that?” Gwen asked, before they could argue about it further. “I bet we have some fun designs!”

  The little boy brightened at the idea; he was wearing short sleeves despite the snow, and trying to crane to see his injured elbow. “Is it bleeding?”

  “C’mon, I’ll help you put it on,” Gwen said. “The rest of you can come in and play with the dogs for a minute.”

  That brought them all tromping eagerly in with wet boots and laughter. Heather let Vesta down to greet them and Fabio bounded forward with his tail wagging the moment Daniella released his collar.

  Vesta was a tiny Italian Greyhound, close in size to Gwen’s cat Socks, who was undoubtedly hiding somewhere safe from dangerous doorbells and sticky, grabby fingers. Fabio was a full-sized Afghan Hound with a floating blond coat like the cover model he was named after. The children were immediately enthralled with both of them, and the boy holding his elbow looked like he wanted to stay and play.

  “I’m Gwen,” she offered, herding the hurt superhero into the kitchen. “What’s your name?”

  “Lawson,” the little boy said sullenly. Gwen passed him a piece of candy behind her back and he brightened considerably.

  “Looks like you got a little scrape,” Gwen said casually as he unwrapped the treat. “Let’s clean it out and I’ll find a bandaid.”

  Lawson was inclined to snivel over the hydrogen peroxide that Gwen used, but she easily distracted him. “Did you know that I used to teach martial arts to kids just your age?” she said.

  “You know karate?” he asked skeptically.

  “I’m a black belt in Tang Soo Do,” Gwen said, adding, “Fifth degree,” even though it probably wouldn’t mean anything to him.

  He looked duly impressed. “That’s cool!”

  She found a tube of antibiotic and squeezed out a tiny bit to rub over the scratch, which had already stopped bleeding.

  “Feeling better?” Gwen asked.

  Lawson shrugged, like he’d forgotten that there had been any injury at all. “My mom has one of those!” he said, pointing suddenly at the window.

  “She has the same curtains?” Gwen asked, not looking. She screwed the top back onto the antibiotic.

  “The shiny glass ornaments,” the small Batman explained. “But ours is yellow. And a kitty-bird.”

  Gwen felt her breath catch in her throat, and she nearly dropped the tube she was holding. He was pointing at the two glass ornaments hanging from the curtain rod, up out of the reach of two rambunctious dogs and an occasionally destructive cat. One was a green dragon in a ring of white, and one was a blue unicorn.

  Those glass ornaments had once held Trey and Rez, imprisoned by magic.

  “Like those?” Gwen said, choked. “Made of glass, with a white ring around it, and...it has wings?”

  “Yeah! It’s in the Christmas box. I’m not allowed to touch it. Do I get a bandaid?”

  Gwen stared at Lawson for a long moment.

  Henrik.

  He had Henrik’s ornament. Gwen felt a wave of surprise and near-panic break over her.

  This was it. She really was going to get her knight…

  ...and everything that came with him. She was equal parts thrilled and afraid. She’d looked forward to this for so long.

  “Are you okay? I want a bandaid.”

  Gwen shook herself. “Yeah, sure.” Numbly, she fumbled the bandage box open and pulled one out. “We don’t have anything cool,” she apologized. “Just, er, beige.”

  It was pale on his mahogany-brown elbow, but Lawson looked pleased by the badge of honor anyway. “Thanks!”

  When he would have sprung to his feet and rejoined his friends playing with the dogs in the front room, Gwen stopped him. “That ornament, it was part of a set, can I...uh...call your mom about it?”

  “Sure!” Lawson said cheerfully and he would have left it at that if Gwen hadn’t prodded him for a phone number, which he rattled off at full speed.

  “Say it again,” Gwen said desperately, reaching for pen and paper. “Slower.”

  Releasing him back into the room with his friends and the two self-declared love-starved dogs, Gwen stared at the number on the page.

  Henrik.

  Her...destiny?

  Before she could lose her nerve, she picked up the house phone and dialed the number.

  Only when the woman picked up did she realize that she hadn’t asked for any names. “Is this Lawson’s mom?” she asked hesitantly to the very young voice that answered.

  “Hang on!”

  After some garbled background conversation, someone crossly asked, “What?”

  “Er, is this Lawson’s mother?”

  “What did he do?” she demanded.

  “Nothing!” Gwen assured her quickly. “Nothing at all! Well, he fell down on our front step. I gave him a bandaid.”

  “He’s okay?” the voice at the other end of the phone asked suspiciously.

  “Fine,” Gwen promised. “He screamed like a banshee, but forgot about it five minutes later.”

  She was rewarded with a chuckle. “Yeah, he does that. What’s the problem? I need to come get him?”

  Gwen paused. I need your Christmas ornament to free a fae knight from another world didn’t seem like a successful way to start. You have my destined fairy knight trapped in glass and I’d like him back, please seemed, if anything, even crazier.

  “I...ah...have a set of glass ornaments and it sounds like you have one of the pieces I’m missing. A golden gryphon in a white ring. A Christmas ornament. A...uh...kitty-bird.” She wasn’t doing a good job of not sounding weird.

  Heather came swirling into the kitchen in her swishy Renaissance dress just then, oblivious to the fact that Gwen was on the phone. Vesta was tucked under her elbow and Fabio was romping at her feet. “Hey Gwen—!” She lowered her voice considerably. “Sorry!”

  At the other end of the line, Lawson’s mother said off-handedly, “Yeah, I think we got that. Amberlynn, you leave your little sister alone right this moment!”

  “Can I buy it from you?” Gwen blurted. “I’ll pay whatever you want. It’s...it’s kind of important. Part of a set, you know.” Should she say it was a family heirloom? Explain more?

  Heather stared at her, mouthing a question, and Gwen had to turn away and listen closely over the poor connection and the sound of her own pounding heart. Fabio, unhelpfully, came prancing to greet her and lick her hand hopefully, his nails loud on the kitchen floor.

  “I’m sorry, what was that?” she asked, when she couldn’t make sense of the voice.

  “Yeah, sure, I could part with it. I think I paid twenty for it.”

  “I could come get it right now!” Gwen said desperately, before she could stop herself.

  “It’s in storage,” the woman said.

  “Tomorrow?” Gwen said, trying to keep from sounding too eager. “Let me know your address, and I can swing by whenever it’s convenient.”

  After a pause so long that Gwen had a stab of worry that she’d hung up, Lawson’s mother gave her the address of a house just a few blocks over.

  “I’ll bring you thirty tomorrow. Forty! Tomorrow afternoon,” Gwen said, then she added, “I’ll call first.” That made her sound less creepy, right?

  “Amberlynn, you let go of that child! You do not want me to…!”

  This time, Gwen was sure she had hung up.

  Her own hand was trembling as she returned the phone to its cradle, and she turned to find Heather gazing at her with round eyes.

  “Was that…?”

  “I found Henrik,” Gwen said, her voice quavering like her hand had. She cleared her throat. “I found him.”

&nb
sp; “You found Henrik?” Daniella stood in the entrance of the kitchen. There was a lull in the trick-or-treaters, and her words caught the attention of the knights, who were swiftly there, demanding answers.

  “Our shieldmate!”

  “Where is he?”

  “How did you find him?”

  “What happened?”

  “Is he okay?”

  “How do you know?

  Gwen took a deep breath to calm herself. “The kid who got hurt, Lawson, he recognized your ornaments. I got his mom’s number and her address, and I’ll just go and pick it up tomorrow.” She managed to speak casually, like it was no big deal.

  Trey and Rez gave whoops of joy, ignoring the doorbell to pound each other on the back, sweep their keys into their arms, and dance them around the kitchen. Gwen dodged back and slipped up to perch on the counter, grinning despite herself because of their contagious glee.

  “Finally!” Daniella said, escaping Trey’s embrace to hug Gwen. “You must be so excited.”

  Excitement was the smallest portion of what Gwen was feeling; she was dizzy with conflicting emotions as she hugged Daniella back.

  She’d gone willingly with Robin to follow her destiny, thrilled to be part of something bigger and more wonderful than her narrow life of serving coffee and teaching little kids martial arts. The fated partner of a noble warrior, with true love like Daniella, and later Heather, had found? Yes, please!

  The months since had dampened her enthusiasm as doubts crowded in: what if they never found Henrik? What if she couldn’t be a proper key? What if Robin had made a mistake in finding her? The fable’s power was unpredictable in this world, and they admitted that they didn’t have complete control over their magic.