Beep, beep, beep.

With an annoyed sound, Liana hit the snooze button on her alarm. Then she closed her eyes again, sleepily burrowing beneath the blankets.

A minute later, she resurfaced in sudden shock.

It was a Sunday. Why the hell was her alarm going off at seven in the morning?

She fished for her phone, then groaned once she found it. The screen said 7:01. It was way, way too early for a Sunday. Especially since she’d only gone to bed a few hours ago.

Oh, right. The landlord wanted to send someone to check that leak in the bathroom.

She should probably be glad that her landlord wasn’t one of those people who just ignored that kind of thing—but on the other hand, couldn’t he have found someone to come a bit later in the day?

She yawned and stretched, then blearily made herself go for a shower. Half an hour later, she sat in the kitchen, dressed and clutching her cup of coffee.

I hope those guys aren’t late. If they get done quickly, I might be able to nap for a bit...

On the other hand, if it turned out that it was really her shower that was causing the leak in the apartment below her, they might decide to break open her wall to fix the pipes. And there was no way she’d be able to sleep through that.

She rubbed her eyes with a sigh. At least there was her date tonight to look forward to...

Half an hour later, the plumbers had arrived, and Liana had grabbed her tiny laptop and decided to retreat to the coffee shop on the corner of her block.

Because this was her lucky day, the leak had indeed been caused by one of the pipes connected to her shower. All the noise was giving her a terrible headache, and even though she didn’t think she’d manage to get much work done, it was better than listening to the banging in her bathroom.

She took the shortcut that led through the little alley behind her apartment complex. This early in the day, the area was completely deserted. Everyone was still asleep—that was, everyone except for her neighbors, she supposed.

It was very silent. It felt a little eerie—it wasn’t a bad area, but it wasn’t exactly great, either. With her pay, she couldn’t afford great.

Maybe one day, she’d get a sudden idea and do the same thing her boss had done: program a little game and sell it for a few millions after a year or two.

But right now, her small apartment would have to do.

There was a weird noise in front of her. Liana stopped for a moment, but she couldn’t see anything.

Someone had been mugged nearby last week—but that had been late at night, and at the other side of the complex...

She swallowed, and just in case, grabbed her phone tightly.

She couldn’t see anyone—and anyway, who’d mug someone out here in broad daylight, just a few steps away from the busy street?

Only, of course, the street wouldn’t be busy at all this early on a Sunday...

Then, out of nowhere, three figures stepped out of the shadows at the end of the alley.

Where had they come from?

Liana shivered. The men were between her and the street where she’d be able to find help in the coffee shop. She’d stopped walking.

A heartbeat later she realized that she was holding her phone in her hand.

She took a step backward as she unlocked it, hesitating just for a moment before she began to dial 911.

Before she’d even got to the 1, the men came rushing forward.

They were wearing strange clothes. All of them were dressed in black leather. They had black hair as well—but their eyes were what had drawn Liana’s attention.

Their eyes were red. Red like fire.

She heard the thud of her phone hitting the ground. Terror had taken hold of her. For a moment she couldn’t move, could only watch the flames flicker in the eyes of the men who seemed terrifyingly inhuman...

And then there was a loud roar, and a strange, rushing sound like that of giant wings above her.

The men looked up—which broke the spell enough that Liana could move again.

Without thinking she snatched up her phone and retreated until she felt the wall against her back.

Her fingers trembled so much that it was difficult to unlock her phone. She had to call the cops. She had to call someone...

And then she looked up again, and her breath got stuck in her throat.

For a long moment, she refused to believe that what she saw was real.

It couldn’t be real. It was impossible.

But there, right in front of her, a dragon had landed.

And not just any dragon. She’d recognize that gorgeous blue-green of his scales anywhere.

“My ocean dragon,” she breathed, her heart pounding in her throat.

The dragon had landed right between her and the three men.

At her words, the strangers looked her way. Their eyes were still filled with flames—but even as she watched, their bodies suddenly began to shimmer.

And a heartbeat later, the three men were gone. Instead, three red dragons now stood where the men had been.

Their scales gleamed, their eyes shining with the same red fire that she’d seen in the eyes of her attackers.

They were smaller and leaner than her ocean dragon. They looked a little bit like the fire dragons in her game—but less majestic. There was something mean about them. They looked like hunters—and for some reason, Liana knew that she was the prey.

The dragons hissed. Smoke rose from their nostrils. Then their jaws opened, and Liana could see flames dancing around their teeth.

This couldn’t be real. Actual, fire breathing dragons didn’t exist. She was probably still in her bed, having a nightmare...

Then one of the fire dragons exhaled, and a jet of flame shot right towards her.

She could feel the heat of it on her face, a scream building inside her chest even as she told herself that she’d wake up any second. Then the ocean dragon spread his wings and roared. A jet of water shot out of his own jaws, hitting the fire, which vanished in a sudden cloud of steam.

A few droplets of water hit her cheek.

With trembling fingers, she reached up to brush them away, then stared at her fingertips for a moment.

Water. Water that glistened in the morning sun, cool like dewdrops against her skin...

It was no dream. It was real. She could feel it—it was all real.

Either that, or she’d gone insane. But given that she’d been able to feel the heat of the fire that had nearly devoured her, right now didn’t seem to be the time to worry about that.

Worry about not dying!

The fire dragons were rearing up threateningly. Even though they were smaller than the ocean dragon, they were able to breathe fire—which right now seemed like a rather unfair advantage to Liana.

You can’t kill someone with water, can you?

She really hadn’t thought that through when coming up with the suggestion for the game designers...

Hissing, their tails thrashing back and forth, the group of fire dragons advanced.

At the same time, all three dragons opened their jaws. Flames shot forward.

This time, with three flames mingling, it looked like a pillar of wildfire came tearing down the alley right towards her.

Liana cried out in fear as she felt the incredible heat against her face—and then her ocean dragon roared and spread his wings.

From nowhere, a wall of water had appeared between them and the dragons. As she watched, the jets of fire hit the wall—and turned into harmless steam.

Again the fire dragons roared in anger. All of a sudden, one of them rose into the air, beating his wings as his head came forward. At the same time, the two other dragons advanced, hissing as they shot more fire at the water barrier.

From above, the third dragon simultaneously released another jet of flame that came straight at them.

Just in time, her ocean dragon answered the attack with one of his own.

This time, the fountain of water he spewed forth was so powerful that it didn’t only completely extinguish the fire the third dragon had sent their way, but it enveloped their attacker in the air as well.

The fire dragon screeched as the water hit his body. Steam rose from him, as if there was an inner fire that had been extinguished. Struggling to keep his wings beating, he crashed to the ground a moment later, and the ocean dragon used the moment of distraction.

The wall of water that had shielded them from the other two dragons suddenly began to wobble. Then, without warning, it collapsed to the outside, more and more water joining the flood until it washed the two remaining dragons away in a giant wave.

Wide-eyed, Liana kept staring at the battle raging in front of her.

She’d never seen anything like it. She still didn’t believe this was real—but for once, her body knew better than her mind, her heart racing with panic.

Still clutching her phone tightly in her hands, she began to inch away along the wall. If she could make it out of the alley, she’d find other people, phones—and cops.

She didn’t even make it halfway to the end of the alley when from out of nowhere, a fourth fire dragon appeared.

She didn’t get more than a second’s glimpse of red scales before large, black claws tightened around her body.

A heartbeat later, she was in the air.

She shouted, wriggling desperately despite the tight grip the claws had on her—until she saw just how far up they were, the alley far below now.

Terrified, she froze. If she fell from this height, she’d be dead...

That was when the fire dragon’s claws released her.

And then she was falling.

She knew she was screaming, even though she could hear the sound of her voice only as a distant roar. Her heart was beating so fast that her chest ached. She couldn’t breathe, she could only stare at the ground below that was rushing up to meet her...

And then something closed around her, stopping her fall.

Dizzily, she twisted her head, certain that she was about to die. She caught a glimpse of claws the deep blue of the ocean at night, and scales that gleamed blue and green like the waters lapping at a Caribbean beach.

Then everything went dark.