Christy asked, “So, what did you just do?”

Heather sighed as she found a soft gown and slid it over her head. “I’m so stupid.” She crawled between the rumpled sheets and turned to face Christy. “Go ahead, say it. That was so dumb, to sleep with him again. I know we can’t work out and I am not even sure if he wants to work anything out with me. Honestly, he doesn’t seem to. I mean, he never says anything but that the portal will open and we can go. I guess that is a pretty good indicator that he wants me to ghost on him, and in a way that will make sure he never has to see me again. Like, ever.”

Real bitterness lay in her words and heart. She asked, “Do you think I’m dumb?”

Christy grinned at her. “Never, Heather. I know you too well. You’re smart and sweet and kind, and you’re damn hot too. Dumb? Not even close. I think he’s just so different from anything you have ever known that you’re drawn to him. I mean, my God, how could you not be?”

Heather knew her friend well too. “You like Blake.”

Christy screwed her face into an expression of disgust. “Blasphemy!” She sighed and dropped the grimace. “I do. Believe it or not, we spent some time together alone, and he’s actually not as heinous as he seems to be. He’s a knight, too. Did you know that he was the one who killed the Orc, like, overlord or whatever they call Orc leaders back in the day? He was just a kid, and he saw his dad fall, and he ran out onto the field and killed that Orc. That’s pretty impressive.”

It all made sense to her: all of a sudden, Christy’s real and physical fear. Heather hugged her, hard. “I take it you still don’t want to have his kid.”

Christy blew out a long breath. “Did Max ever tell you what happened?”

“No, he just said it was not fair.”

Christy scooted closer. “It wasn’t. It’s against the law here for a dragon to kill another dragon, no matter what the circumstances, not even in self-defense. But Blake’s father did just that. There was a dragon that wanted to be king, and Blake’s father killed him because he found out that that dragon had decided not to dirty his own hands and to hire Orcs to kill the royal family. He had to do it to save them all. That dragon was all set to open the gates and kill everyone in their path, except that dragon and whoever he chose to live. Whoever would bow down to him.”

“Wow.”

Christy sighed. “It does seem unfair, doesn’t it?”

“Yes.” It did. All of it was terribly, terribly unfair.

Several days later, the sky was blue, and the clouds raced across it, and of the Orcs, there was still no sign as Heather stood on the roof looking upward and out across the mountains. It was a pretty sight: one that she never got tired of. The walls of the castle reached upward, so high she was sure all she had to do was reach up one hand and touch it.

Despite the view, Heather’s heart was heavy. The portal was opening; she could see the red tint lying across the sky, the tint that said she was about to be sent back to her own world, and with so many things left unsaid between her and Max too. Her heart gave off a powerful ache, and she had to blink back tears. Nothing was right anymore, nothing was ever going to be right in the world—not this one and not her own either. Her life back there, had she ever been as happy as she had been the last days with Max? Time was funny in dragon world, yes, and it felt like she had been there for many years, but she had not been. She had been happy though, after the shock and everything else had worn off and she had understood that she was drawn to Max and that her feelings for him were real.

But had his been real? Did he have any feeling at all for her? Todd had left her so shaken and unsure, and she hurt all over again as she wondered if she had just assumed that he felt the same way she did.

Oh, he liked sleeping with her, and he really liked her company, but that was not the same as being in love, now was it?

No.

It wasn’t.

Tears came up again, and she could not stop them. They ran down her cheeks as her eyes searched the skies, hoping for a glimpse of Max, of the span of his wings as he flew above the earth and toward freedom. He had left, knowing she would have to leave, and he had not tried to stop her or asked her to stay.

If he loved her, he would have asked her to stay right? Well, sure, and he had not so he must not care at all about her.

She dropped her head. On the ground below the castle sat the war machines. Her teeth chewed at her lips. Max had a world to rule, and he had said, over and over, that this was his world—that he would not leave it. She understood that. He loved his world.

Did she love hers? She wasn’t sure anymore, but if she did not have Max, what would that world be like for her? All she would know was sorrow and grief and having to see him, knowing that he did not want or love her, that would be the worst thing she had ever had to feel. That would be worse than what Todd had done.

She sighed again and turned away, heading across the roof and to the door that would lead her back inside the castle. Her heart, however, was so broken that she was not sure what she would be like when she did go back.

That gave her pause. Had she decided to go then? It seemed so. It was the only decision she could make. There was no reason to stay. She was not going to have that happy ending with Max, and there was no way she could be in that world without him.

The stairs were empty. The whole castle felt empty and lonely; all the dragons had gone to see what the Orcs were up to, and if they were indeed about to start a war against the dragons.

The door to the outside courtyard opened, and she stepped through it, not even wondering anymore what made those doors open so automatically. The training ground was empty, and the falcon cages empty too. She spotted Christy walking through a long row of the gardens, and she headed for her.

Heather surveyed her face as they stood staring at each other. “Hey.”

Christy nodded, “Hey. You okay?”

Heather cupped her elbows with her hands. “I guess.”

“If you want to go home, we have to go. Max left orders for us to be taken through as soon as we are ready to go, and since the portal’s going to open soon, I suppose sooner rather than later would be our best option.”

Heather’s throat went taut and thick. “He could not even take me himself” The bitterness in her words seared the back of her throat and tongue. “I guess that’s it then. He really doesn’t want anything at all to do with me.”

Christy hugged her. “I’m so sorry, Heather. I am. I really wanted it to work out for you. I did.”

“Me too.” tears drowned her eyes and then ran down her face. “I did too. I wanted us to be together and to have some kind of wonderful life together, and I guess I never thought about him being a dragon, or about how that would all work out. I mean I did think about him being a dragon, but I never wondered how we could…” She stopped there. Her head swum at the amount of things that she had hoped for, had wanted. She whispered, miserably, “I never wanted all the things I wanted with him, not even with Todd. Maybe that’s my fault. I mean, he never offered. I just got caught up in the romance of it all.”

Christy’s shoulders slumped. She looked around at their surroundings. “Well, who could blame you? It is a castle and a fairy land.”

“There’s no such things as fairies. So, I guess you mean elves.”

They looked at each other, both of them trying to smile at the flat joke but neither of them really able to. Christy finally said, “I guess we should change back into our old clothes.”

Heather looked down at the soft and very lovely violet dress she wore. She did not want her old clothes; she wanted that dress. She wanted Max and that world and everything that might be, but even as she wanted those things, she knew that she would never have them. “You’re right.”

The wings beat the air. The portal was above them, its glorious colors flashing and shining and Heather stared at it, her heart aching and hurting and her whole body shaking with misery that made the dragon she was riding aboard fidget and twitch below her, a sure sign that her leg muscles were too rigid and she needed to relax them to keep from harming him.

She did; making herself loosen her muscles was hard but she managed it and just as the portal took them in, spinning them through a field of sheer white nothingness.

Spires and tall buildings appeared in her field of vision. They zoomed straight down, the dragons moving at a dangerous speed to keep themselves from being seen by humans as they aimed for a deserted alley.

The dragons touched down. Wind whipped her hair as Heather climbed off and then they were gone, their scaled bodies flashing for a second and then vanishing in a burst of speed and strength.

Heather sighed, “So now what?”

Christy chewed on her bottom lip and then looked down. “Your heel’s fixed.”

Heather looked down at the boot that Max had fixed. “Yeah. I hope it holds. I don’t know where we are; do you?”

Christy shook her head, “No. let’s get out of this alley. That seems to be the first logical step.”

It was, but with every single step, a sense of disorientation and dislocation settled in and stayed in Heather. She stopped at a newspaper stand and bent to look at one, her mouth dropping open as she saw the date. She nudged Christy, who also looked, groaned, and then took her arm, leading her away from there.

Time was funny over there, and it seemed she had lost a few months in the world in which she moved. Heather trudged down the avenue, her nose wrinkling at the smell of the pollution and car exhaust and her forehead crinkling too as the noise of cars and trucks and people crammed into tight spaces beat against her eardrums. The place was so loud!

Christy said, in a sad voice, “Well I guess I am going to have to figure out what to do next. I am sure I got fired at some point.”

Heather shot a look at her face. “You care about Blake, don’t you?”

“What? Hell no! He’s…” Christy’s face softened. “Oh shit. I don’t want to talk about it. The good thing is I still have an apartment thanks to my paying my rent for a whole year. Not sure if you can say the same, so if you need a place, mine is yours too.”

“I am sure I will.” Heather surveyed the shoals of pedestrians clogging the gray concrete sidewalks. “Do you think anyone even missed us?”

“No. I mean they likely figured I went to a different job. Your boss is a dick who probably figured you left like everyone else. Our neighbors don’t give a damn. I mean, it’s the city. Nobody really knows their neighbors. And since neither of us have any real sort of family there’s probably no way anyone reported us missing or anything either.”

“You are probably right.” Heather’s mood flattened yet again. “I don’t know what to do now. I guess I can say I lost my mind and ran off for a tour of some exotic country or something and try to get a job. I don’t even know what happened to my stuff either.”

They were in front of the building that Heather had lived in now. Christy said, “Well, let’s go in and ask or at least try to get into the place.”

“That sounds reasonable.”

The lobby was the same as ever, but it looked uglier, dirtier and more run down, or was it that she had simply been away long enough that she could see just how seedy it was?

Either way, it felt gritty and a little dingy. They went up the stairs, and she tried her keys. They didn’t fit, but the door swung open to reveal a middle-aged man with beady eyes and a suspicious glare. “Can I help you?”

Christy said, “Oh shit. Heather, you big dummy, you got the wrong apartment!”

Heather went with that. She gave the number on the door a second look and cried out, “Oh! Oops! Wrong floor! Sorry!”

He slammed the door shut. Christy put an arm around Heather’s drooping shoulders. “That is one question answered anyway. Come on; maybe we can find out what happened to your stuff anyway.”

It didn’t really matter. She had not had much, just clothes and few knick-knacks and mementos. Still, Christy seemed determined, and Heather knew that part of that was due to Christy’s needing to do something to make the re-entry into this world less heinous.

They went back down the stairs and then made their way to the desk. The man behind it was new, and she tried for a smile, but it didn’t really meet her eyes. “Hi. I’m…I lived in 3-B. There seems to be a mistake. I was supposed to have my things shipped to me and…”

“Oh. That’s you? Yeah they put your stuff in the downstairs lockers.” He fumbled out a key. “You have a bill here for storage and I’ll have to have payment in full before I can let you get the things.”

Christy snapped, “That is ridiculous! No way is she paying for storage! This was management’s mistake! She arranged to have her things shipped to LA, and to have it done on time. Whoever the manager is here, well, they dropped the ball. We were overseas and not available to know that there was a mistake and that that mistake meant that her things were here! In fact, we should be billing this building for the inconvenience and the hassle and the…give us the keys!”

The guy behind the desk stuttered, “Well, um, see…the old manager left. He went to Florida or something. Like…I don’t know…I mean, this is not my job. I was just told you had to pay.”

Heather rolled with Christy’s lie. She kind of had to. She had no idea if she had any money in the bank or if the credit and debit cards in her wallet even worked anymore. “I am not about to pay for your mistake! In fact, I will sue you before I do that!”

His eyes rolled. He shuffled and danced for a moment and then he gulped out, “Okay, look. I don’t know if anyone ever expected you to come and get it anyway and the guy in your old place has been bitching like crazy about wanting the storage space, and since he also wants to pay for the storage space because they don’t come free anymore, I guess we could always just say we threw your stuff out to make room?”

Christy said, “You’d be in the right, legally speaking, to get rid of it all given how much time has passed. So, we’re just going to get it, and say nothing. Okay?”

He handed over the key. “Yeah, but listen, let’s keep this between us, okay?”

Christy fumbled around in her pockets and came up with a few bills. He made them vanish. Heather and Christy went down to the basement and to the locker and then they began the task of gathering up the plastic trash bags that held her stuff. Tears started and dripped off Heather’s nose as she grabbed yet another of the cheap plastic bags. “My whole life is in trash bags. I don’t even know what that says about me or my life, but somehow it seems fitting.”

The sobs started and she could not stop them. She dropped the bags and crumpled onto the floor. Christy hugged her, hard. “Girl, it’s okay. It is. I know it hurts and you are hurting bad. I could kick Max in his balls for what he did to you! The least he could have done was say goodbye!”

Heather let a last harsh sob rip up from her throat. “I don’t think he cares that I left. In fact, I know he doesn’t. If he did, he would have stopped me, or at least tried to stop me. Wouldn’t he?”

Christy turned away and began gathering bags. “I don’t know, Heather. I just know I got us both into a really shitty situation and it’s all my fault that you’re heartbroken and…and I don’t even know if you still want to be my friend after all that I did to you!”

A little laugh broke from her lips. “You’re crazy. It was awesome. I mean, come on, who can say they saw dragons, and rode on them too? And got to dance on mountaintops and eat under the stars? I can, and so can you. So yeah, it sucks that it didn’t work out for me and Max but…but that was the biggest adventure I ever had and am likely to ever have.”

She got up off the floor, and they hugged again. Christy sighed. “I won’t miss the lack of running water.”

Heather found herself smiling again. “I know, right? But if we could have just convinced them to put in plumbing, it would have been a five-star resort experience! I mean, come on, it’s a castle.”

It was a castle, and castles belonged in fairy tales. Fairy tales were supposed to have happily ever after endings, but that fairy tale—hers and Max’s—had not had that ending. Instead, it had just ended.

She was going to have to live with that fact and make the best of what had happened to her. She was going to have to learn to put that behind her and maybe, one day, when she was a lot older, she would be able to look back on it all and find herself swept away at the good memories and the sheer romance of it all.

Todd had left her with no good memories because she had never really loved him. She had loved that her family loved him and that he wanted the same dream her parents wanted for her, and that he made her feel like it was okay to settle.

Max? She had not settled. He was everything she had ever wanted, and he had not wanted her in the same way. That was okay; she could, eventually, learn to accept that. She had no choice in the matter. She was in her world, and he was in his, and that portal was closed and would not open again except from his side—and it was clear he had no intention of opening it.

She blew out a long breath. “I guess it is a good thing we are still friends since it also looks like we are about to be roommates.”

Their laughter was short but real. They took the bags and trudged up the stairs and back out onto the street where they hailed a cab. The driver didn’t bat an eye when he saw what they were carrying. Of course not. There were millions of people in the city, and nobody gave a damn about anyone else or cared what they might be doing. She could have a body in those bags and he would not care.

That thought just made her miss Dragon World all the more.