Sam shook his head. “I’ve worked with him a lot more than you, and I never saw any of that.”
Mara’s voice grew louder. “His eyes turned red, and he was about to pounce on one of his customers this afternoon. Later at the warehouse, after I repaired the roof, he seemed amazed at my ability, like he had never seen it before. He called it magic.”
Sam eyed her doubtfully.
“He actually said the M word, and it wasn’t metaphysics. After that he gave me another round of the ole red eye. I had had enough.”
“So what did you do, if you didn’t use the Chronicle?”
“I’ve always thought it was more complicated than that. I had to get the dragon out of him, before I could send it back to its own realm—at least that seemed like the logical approach. Remember the crystal I used to separate this realm’s mom from your realm’s mom on the bridge that night?”
“I’m not sure that would work in Ping’s case,” Sam said.
“Why not, hotshot?”
“Mom’s body was taken over by a consciousness from another realm, so it makes sense metaphysically that you could pull it back out again somehow. If I understand correctly from Ping’s explanations, his body—the one he occupies now—is an amalgamation of his and the dragon’s bodies. It’s not just a simple matter of yanking a consciousness out of where it doesn’t belong. They both belong there, metaphysically speaking.”
“Boy, you really have been hanging around him too much. You’re beginning to sound like him.” She paused and glanced over her shoulder, as they accelerated down the ramp onto Interstate 205 heading south. “Anyway it didn’t work.”
“What happened?”
“Mostly I just confused myself and pissed off the dragon. At least that’s how it looked, before it busted another hole in the warehouse roof on its way out.”
“And you think it’s going after Mom again?”
“I don’t have any particular reason to think it’s going after Mom, but, if there’s even a remote chance, we need to be home, until we know what’s going on.” They drove in silence for a few minutes, then Mara said, “Your Mara, the one from your realm, used the Chronicle to visit other realms to collect reptiles and things for your mother’s cult. Am I remembering that right?”
“Yes, why?”
“Was the dragon one of those creatures she brought back to your realm from somewhere else?”
“Well, yeah. It’s not like I come from a realm where there are dragons flying around all over the place.”
“Did your Mara ever tell you where this dragon came from or why she brought it back?” Mara asked.
Sam shook his head. “We never talked about it. I mean, it only made sense that they would get all excited about having a dragon to do their bidding, since they worshipped reptiles. Having a dragon for them would be like a car collector having a Maserati, don’t you think?”
“You say they were excited?”
“Oh, man, it was insane. There were celebrations and rituals and public events to make sure people knew that Diana had a dragon that would do her bidding.”
“Really? How so?”
“How so, what?”
“How did they get the dragon to do their bidding? How did they control it? Did Mara use her abilities to control it somehow?”
“Mara didn’t really have much to do with it after she brought it back, and the dragon always seemed to do whatever Diana wanted. I don’t think she had to force it or train it. It just wanted to please her, I guess, like a pet or something. Why so many questions about the dragon?”
“No reason. Just figuring out if there’s a piece to this puzzle I’m missing somehow,” she said, as they turned into their driveway.
CHAPTER 53
Sam found himself getting drowsy, reading the last page of the colorful children’s book he held on his lap, while sitting on the edge of his mother’s bed. He had tucked Hannah in more than fifteen minutes earlier. Finishing, he closed the back cover softly, preparing to make a quiet exit. Her eyes were closed, and her lips were turned up in a relaxed smile. It still amazed him that this was his daughter and that he could feel so deeply about someone he’d met less than two weeks earlier. When he had crossed over from his own realm and had met the version of Mara and Diana who lived here, he had mixed feelings to sort out. He had to separate his past relationships with them from