I swipe fiercely at my cheek. “Sometimes. Not mine, though.”
“Where is she?”
“Not here. Never really here, if you know what
I mean.”
“I don’t.”
“I wasn’t what she wanted,” I say, laughing coldly. “She wanted a boy. I was supposed to be called Douglas. The room was blue and everything. Sometimes I think about how Douglas was supposed to be. Probably really sporty and athletic. He wouldn’t drop a million throws like me. Or fall down or trip over his own feet. He would do really well at school and the teachers would all love him. Pleasure to teach. Gifted and Talented. Named during assemblies. Kind of
like Marley.”
I cannot see Alona through the blur of tears, but I can feel her staring at me.
“Leanna loves Marley so much,” I choke out, forcing a very unconvincing smile. “She watches him, even when it doesn’t look like she’s doing it. She hugs him all the time. My Mum never hugs me. She always looks at me like I’m an employee whose on their last warning.”
Alona clears her throat and reaches out to touch my forearm. “I’m sorry. We all need light in order
to grow.”
“But you know what?” I feel a bitter taste in my mouth. “No matter how much Leanna loved Marley, and she does. More than anything. She still fell under a Siren’s spell. And at the end of everything, I was the one who stood alone on that island. Facing down a monster. Ready to save him.”
I remember how alone I felt. How frightening it was.
“I thought no one was coming for me. But I didn’t care. I always thought I was a selfish person, and I sort of am. Sometimes. But it just had to be that way. They wanted Marley safe more than me. I was sure of it. So, I just gave them what they wanted.”
“Weren’t you terrified?”
“Yes. But he’s family. And my best friend. And when someone like that is in danger, you sort of forget about all the arguments and the sore feelings and bitter stuff. None of it matters anymore.”
Doing the right thing becomes as easy as breathing when it’s someone you love. I can’t say it out loud because it’s embarrassing and exposing. But that’s how it feels.
“I’m just thinking about all of that tonight,” I add, “because, when the grown-ups are in bed, I’m going home.”
Alona’s green eyebrows shoot up into her hairline. “Home?”
“Yes. Edinburgh. I’m going back with the dragon. Tonight.”
Chapter Eleven
Ghost Town
“It was here. Where I saw him.”
Marley and I are by the bank of Loch Ness and
I’m about to call Blue. Marley’s mind is on other things, clearly.
“Marley,” I say. “I believe you. I do. I just don’t know if it’s what it looks like at a first glance.”
“Call this dragon,” Marley replies stiffly. “I know what I saw.”
I nod. “You don’t have to come with me, you know.”
“I want to.”
“If flying makes you sick—”
“Ramya!”
“Okay, okay.”
When the dragon appears, both of us forget the quiet fight we were having. We stare up at the enormous beast with fear and awe.
“How are you going to tell it to get us to Edinburgh?” Marley murmurs.
It is a very fair question. “She understood me when I spoke to her last night.”
“She?”
“I’m certain Alona was right.”
“Next you’ll be naming her.”
I don’t tell him I already have.
The dragon stares at us coolly. I step towards her, with outstretched hands as usual. She watches me approach.