Chapter 24
We found the monster quickly. However, before I could step through the bushes, Miles placed his hand over my mouth and pulled me close. Beyond the leaves, our quintet was already engaged in battle.
“Wait.” Miles’s arms tightened around me. “You can’t go out there; you’ll distract them. They know we’re here, don’t worry.”
I swallowed hard, the weight of his words sinking in.
Then, through the gaps in the leaves, I caught sight of it.
It was a half dragon, half duck, as Kathleen had said, and it certainly wasn’t a graceful sight.
What in the world would possess someone to make it look like that?
Then it moved, and my breath caught as it stretched its massive wings and lunged in a furious swoop. I barely breathed as it snapped at Julian as he jerked away just in time to avoid two rows of razor-sharp teeth.
My heart was pounding.
I’d seen this monster before.
I’d created it.
It was a childish drawing in messy crayon strokes, scrawled across a page during a rare moment when I had been allowed to go to school. I’d been proud then, proud enough to show it off despite the laughter of the other children.
Art wasn’t exactly my strong point.
But how did Kathleen—
“Remember, it’s just a spell,” Miles reminded me, pulling my attention as Titus—in his dragon form—swooped in on the monster. “It can’t hurt you.” He said this as Damen got smacked in the face with its tail.
“Much,” Miles added.
“Miles—” I pulled his hand. I didn’t know how or why—but this was my fault. “I’ve seen this thing before!”
The black and white eyeballs landed on us, and my words choked as it moved to us, cruising the clearing before I would warn him. I leaned back as it lowered its neck. A scream tore through the air as the creature lunged—and then I was shoved to the ground.
A heartbeat later, it was knocked away. It landed in a heap in the clearing and the fresh air surrounded me once more, and I lowered my arms, blinking.
Miles was crouched defensively in front of me. The earth seemed to shake under the force of his presence. He had one leg extended to the side, while the other knee bent beneath him. He’d used the stick to knock the Snallygaster back and held the weapon to his side, ready.
I frowned.
Why did everyone get a weapon but me?
Julian appeared to be displeased. “Just great,” he said as he stood, swiping his weapon to his side. However, I wasn’t sure to whom he spoke, as neither Titus nor Damen were near him. Regardless, he continued, “Now we’re going to have to play by the rules.”
“Only sometimes,” Miles replied smoothly, picking up Julian’s tone.
Julian looked at him, eyebrow-raising, as he approached the witch.
“But it’s open season when there’s a threat,” Miles finished.
For a moment, Julian stared at him. Then he blinked, shaking his head slightly, and smirked.
“Good to see you, Tu,” he said. His expression softened as he looked me over, concern flickering behind his sharp gaze as he knelt in front of me.
“Hello, darling,” he greeted. “Glad to see you’ve made it back safely. ”
“Y-yeah,” I told him, shaking.
What was wrong with me? This should have been a happy moment. We were reunited.
So why did it feel like I was going to be sick?
Julian’s eyes flicked over me again, studying. But I ignored him as my attention moved back to the Snallygaster. It was regaining its footing.
Julian moved closer and touched my shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he assured me. “We’ve killed it at least a dozen times already; it’s fairly harmless.”
I stared at him.
Julian was calm when he added, “Titus didn’t even get hurt when it ate him.”
When it what ?
Before I could say anything, a new presence loomed at my side—Damen.
“Something’s different this time,” Damen said, his voice even and composed. He didn’t even say so much as ‘hello.’ He was too busy staring at the Snallygaster.
It stretched, and a shiver shot down my spine.
“It seems stronger now,” he remarked, moving slightly closer to me. “Otherwise, that last hit would have killed it. Besides, we haven’t figured out how to make it stay dead.”
“You’re not going to be able to,” Miles replied, glancing back at us. “It’s created from magic. You need to break the spell.”
“Can you?” Damen asked.
The Miles I knew would have shied away from the challenge, but he studied the monster instead. Titus crashed into it, and the two dragons engaged in a battle of flailing tails and gnashing teeth.
Didn’t Julian claim it was harmless? That didn’t seem innocuous to me.
The Snallygaster roared—if you could call the high-pitched, horror-filled screech a roar—before it flung Titus to the side and turned toward us, lumbering across the space in a hurried frenzy.
“Shit,” Damen cursed. Titus was already on the way but couldn’t make it in time. Solid arms wrapped around my waist, lifting me before I even registered the movement.
We landed hard, my breath leaving me in a sharp exhale as my feet stumbled over uneven ground. Damen had released me just as we hit solid earth, his focus already shifting back toward the battlefield.
“Stay here,” he ordered, not even looking at me.
Then he was gone.
I pushed myself up on unsteady legs, swallowing the dizziness. My body felt wrong—too heavy and too light at once. My hands trembled.
Something in me knew before I turned my head.
The Snallygaster was still coming.
Even with Titus and Damen attacking it from both sides—it was trying to break past them.
Trying to get to me.
A low, shuddering breath left my lips.
Why?
I barely realized I had stepped back until my heel hit the base of a tree. The bark bit into my palms, grounding me for a brief moment, but my mind was slipping.
“Bianca?” Julian’s voice pulled me back. He’d moved beside me, and his gaze flicked from me to the Snallygaster, then back.
His expression changed as Damen stepped back to my side.
“Something’s wrong with her,” Julian told him.
“No shit,” Damen replied. “She’s been off since she got here.”
“That’s not it.” Julian’s grip tightened around his weapon. “She’s not reacting.”
Damen glanced at me then. The Snallygaster shrieked, twisting unnaturally, still trying to force its way through past Miles and Titus.
Julian’s tone sharpened. “It’s not attacking her.”
Damen went still.
“It’s trying to reach her,” Julian added.
A roar echoed through the area, and my head pounded in response.
The pain reverberated through my skull as my stomach recoiled.
I doubled over in pain and could distantly hear Julian and Damen’s voices exclaiming in dual sounds of alarm, but I couldn’t feel them, feel anything, outside of the exploding pain radiating from my chest.
It moved outward, a hurricane of compressed emotions finally breaking free, and the sharp wind tore through the space with a shriek.
There was a short silence, and I lowered my hands from my ears, cracking open my eyes to see that I was now alone. Damen and Julian—even as they returned to their feet—had been thrown from me, and the battle formation quickly reformed.
The Snallygaster was nearest to me and didn’t hesitate to resume its stampeding attack.
“ Bianca !” I looked up as Miles’s shout reached me from across the clearing. His relaxed features had shifted into something fierce and wild, and even as the others turned to race between us, his mouth pressed in a measure of grim determination, and his eyes narrowed.
He moved his attention down, and the earth shook as he knelt and pressed his hand to it.
Before I could fully realize what he was doing, the ground beneath my feet shifted, and I screamed as I fell until the cool, moist soil pressed against my skin. The sound of the battle faded as the earth closed over my head.
I expected panic, but my racing heartbeat began to calm until there was stillness. A pulse throbbed through the earth like a steady, ancient heartbeat. I was no longer floating, falling through my thoughts.
For the first time, my mind was quiet.
Colors—sharp, bright, happy—began to bleed through the darkness. A classroom. Paper decorations swayed from the ceiling. The scent of glue and cheap crayons filled my nose.
My feet barely touched the ground, and I was holding a crayon so hard it should have snapped.
The paper beneath me blurred.
I was drawing.
I knew this moment.
But I didn’t.
I hadn’t remembered it until now.
“What are you drawing?”
Miss Kay’s long, red hair fell over her shoulder as she leaned over my desk. “It’s beautiful.”
“A dragon,” I replied. I stuck my tongue between my teeth and put the finishing touches on its wings.
“That’s unique,” she remarked. “You’re supposed to draw a picture of your hero. Most of the other girls drew princes. What made you choose a dragon?”
I froze, my heart racing.
What good was a prince? They were still people. And I didn’t like people much—especially boys.
“I want a dragon.” The words left my mouth before I could stop them. I pressed the crayon down harder. “So he can eat the bad guys.”
Why couldn’t a dragon be my hero? What was wrong with that?
Miss Kay’s scary face softened. She touched the edge of my desk. "What bad guys, Bianca?"
My throat closed.
The words—the truth—were there, somewhere, buried in the back of my mind, screaming to be free. But I couldn’t say them.
I didn’t even know why.
Instead, I squeezed the crayon until my fingertips ached.
“Why does your dragon also look like a duck?” she asked instead.
I could suddenly breathe again. That was easy.
“Because it can kill them.”
Didn’t she know? Ducks were scary. I’d seen one chase a full-grown man at the lake once. Kieran told me people used swans instead of guard dogs because they were deadly.
I hated them.
I hated them so much.
Miss Kay didn’t answer. She just looked at me.
And then— Mr. Richards was so angry, angrier than I’d ever seen him. It hurt so, so much until—finally—I went to sleep.
And when I woke up, I was somewhere else. They never let me go to school again.
“ Bianca !”