“ARHHH!” Cassie screamed until her throat
ached. In a bright green flash she was whisked out of the Heart of the Seven
Faeries. She wobbled when she landed in front of Archel who was transforming in
Patrick Field’s living room.
“WHAT’S HAPPENING TO ME?” Archel bellowed.
Tears streamed down the boy’s feathery cheeks. Blonde fur rose from his pores.
Scrawny pubescent muscles filled out, elongated, and bent in abnormal
directions. Archel bucked as a python tail ripped out of his lower back. He
fell onto four paws, stared at the ground a moment, and then let out a
terrifying eagle’s screech.
The groundskeeper, Patrick Field, stood in
the doorway between his living room and kitchen. His bottom jaw hung open, his
eyes were wide, and arms had gone limp. Although he had managed to maintain his
grip on the two lunch plates he’d been carrying, the sandwiches and granola lay
in heaps on the floor beside him. A small part of him wanted to back out of the
doorway, to pretend he’d never seen the girl appear and the boy change. The
rest of him was frozen in place gawking.
“A—a—” Patrick stammered, lifted one plated hand and pointed it at Archel, “a griffin.”
