Page 7 of Monster's Pet

“Take Pinkie,” Rhiannon crooned softly to Lilia, reaching for Dip. “You’re going to sleep, little one,” she continued in the same tone, cradling the mini dragon to her breast. “We will find out what’s bothering you and stop it.” She sprinkled a golden dust over Dip and then did the same over Pinkie Pie.

The dragons’ eyelids drooped and then closed, their wings relaxing a moment later.

“Thank you,” Lilia said brokenly. “I couldn’t leave them! I didn’t know what to do! What’s wrong with them?”

Rhiannon shook her head. “I have no idea, but I’m hoping to find out. I have a meeting with Professor Wright before dinner. Maybe he’ll have an idea of the cause. It’s school wide.”

“What do I do with them now?” Lilia asked, now holding her two sleeping dragons in her arms.

“Keep them comfortable,” Rhiannon advised.

“Rhiannon!” came a shout from the hallway.

“I think you’ve got another patient,” I said, squishing to the side of the archway into our dorm.

“Thanks,” Rhiannon said tiredly.

“Anything I can do to help?” I asked.

“Try to find out what would cause all the familiars to freak out at once?” Rhiannon shrugged. “It’s not like I have time to research right now, if I’m being run off my feet taking care of everyone’s pets.”

“I’m heading to the library after I leave my things anyway,” I said. “Good luck.”

Rhiannon waved as she left.

“Although it looks like it’ll take longer than ten minutes to get going,” I added, looking around the room. The dragon fire had burned pretty much all the material in the room, and their wings had knocked over everything else.

“I’m sorry—” Lilia began.

“Nothing to apologize for, and it won’t be difficult to put everything to rights,” I reassured her. “Thank goodness I’ve gotten that boost of energy from returning to a nexus point. It’ll be a cinch to fix this and my magic will be replenished by morning.”

It was quick work to return everything to its normal state, but Aiden still knocked on the door before we were done.

“Everything okay here?” he asked, eyes wide with surprise. “What happened?” He extinguished a smoking ceiling beam with a flick of his wrist. The fire had gone out, but the embers had still been smoldering.

“Thanks, I hadn’t gotten to that one yet,” I said with a tired smile. “There’s something wrong with the dragons. Well, all the familiars.”

“That explains the increased chaos,” Aiden said thoughtfully. “No idea what caused it yet?”

“Babe. I’m good, but evenIneed some research time.”

“How fortunate that we’re heading to the library.”

“I know, right?” I beamed at him.

“We’ll finish up here,” Lilia said. “Good luck.”

“Thanks. I have a feeling we’re going to need it.” I took Aiden’s hand in mine and we headed out.

The halls were full of students and teachers, either chasing a runaway pet or standing in groups discussing the problem.

“If the professors don’t know what’s going on, how are we going to solve it?” I asked anxiously.

“We’ll figure it out. I have faith in you,” Aiden said.

“No pressure,” I muttered under my breath.

Surprisingly, the library was quiet. We headed for my family’s heritage secret room in the back of the restricted section, taking the hidden passageway and ducking into the room filled with books. It lit upon our entry, and the portrait of my eight times great-grandfather Darragh greeted us cheerfully.

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