“This is just sad,” he says, sighing. “Had enough? I’ll take you to Portia if so.”
I’m breathing unevenly and my whole body aches, muscles that are not used to being employed protesting in pain. I cast one last feeble attempt at a hex and it falls flat, landing on the grass before his feet like a faulty sparkler.
I feel the pressure in my head tightening and the agony drowns out his derisive laughter. Then I feel the ground rumble. A flash of bright light. I see through blurry vision the Druid fall backwards, his laughter instantly gone. The shield falls apart all around us, his concentration shattered. I blink against the pain and see a pair of kitten heels land neatly on the ground in front of me. I feel the urge to giggle, the sight is so funny to me for some reason.
Her voice is clear to my ears, despite my disorientation.
Opal is now the only shield I see and her hands crackle with the fibres of magic as she stares down the Druid.
“Get away from my kid.”
The Druid is panting. He throws a spell, but she bounces it back like she’s playing tennis. She throws one of her own and a fierce gash appears on the
man’s cheek.
“Turn the other way, I’ll make it symmetrical,”
she snaps.
The Druid is momentarily distracted, crying out as he touches the wound on his face. Opal hauls me to my feet and pushes me towards the water.
“Please tell me that dragon likes you,” she utters, and I bark out a hysterical laugh.
“I’m sorry, Opal,” I gasp, my voice sounding so strange to me. “I’m so sorry.”
“Get to the dragon, babe,” she says breathlessly. “Go. I’ve got him, go. Get out of this place.”
I hate myself in this moment. We had a house made safe by magic. And I made every attempt to escape it. I squandered it. I messed everything up and now Aunt Opal has to clean up after me.
I watch them duel as I crawl towards Blue. I hope Marley is safe with Aunt Leanna back at the house. In our safe, warm home. I hope we’ll all be sat around the dinner table, being told off, in an hour.
I’ve never wanted to be scolded before, but now it sounds like bliss.
“Kill her!” the Druid screams, pointing at Aunt Opal and instructing the Ripple. The creature looks confused. I crane my neck to look and watch as Opal’s eyes land on the thing. It transforms into Mum and then Aunt Leanna.
Opal curses aloud and blasts one final spell at the Druid. It floors him once again and she takes her opportunity to run to me. I can tell she is still sparing her magic, conserving her energy for this mysterious assignment she has given herself. She grabs me by the waist, and we are airborne.
It is slow and heavy, especially as she concentrates on holding onto me. I’m too weak to fly myself, too weak to help her. She glances down once more, we both do, and I feel her whole body go stiff.
The Ripple has turned into Grandpa again. It stares up at the two of us, wearing his face. I hear Opal make a noise of pain and everything slows down for me. I know she’s trying to get us out, holding back on her magic to focus on flying, but the Druid is not. I watch as he launches one final spell. It’s maroon in colour, like blood that smells of iron, and I watch it hit Opal in the ribs. I wonder if I have imagined it because she does not react at first. Her face is smooth and peaceful. Then, I feel her grip loosen on me. I must be screaming, I can sense it, but I can’t hear it.
We lock eyes and, for a split second, I think everything might just be all right as she fights to smile, trying desperately to look encouraging. I feel myself trying to mirror her expression, her attempts at making everything seem all right.
“It’s fine,” I say brokenly, smiling while a tear drops and falls into the air beneath us. “You’re fine.”
Her eyes continue to try and hold mine but something in them is fading. Her smile, already so weak, loses the last of its strength.
Then she lets go.
Her fingers release my waist, and I know I must be falling too but I still can’t feel it. I feel frozen in time as I watch her fall. She closes her eyes right before landing on the hard ground and, a few seconds later, my
knees hit the grass and the stones as well. I struggle towards her.
“I’ll get Aunt Leanna,” I tell her, my words barely in order – my ability to speak more muddled than ever. I grasp her cold hand and squeeze it, probably too hard. “She’ll—she’ll fix this. She’ll fix you. You don’t need fixing. Sorry. I m—meant she’ll make it hurt less. I bet it hurts. But it’s—it’s going to be fine.”
There is not a flicker of life in her, not a single inch of movement to make me think she can hear or feel me. She is not breathing. I am somehow aware of the Druid casting another shield around us, while screaming at Blue to stay back. I can hear Blue roaring, but it sounds like an echo from the other side of a great cave. I can feel the Ripple watching us.
“It’s fine,” I tell Opal again, rubbing her hand to try and warm it. “I just need to stay here now.”
I don’t even know what I’m saying. What mantra I am repeating over and over again, using home and her face like a charm. Hoping to bring everything back to how it was yesterday. Yesterday, when I thought everything looked so bleak, not realising that so much good was there, right there.
“Somebody HELP ME!” I yell, my words bouncing off the shield. “ANYBODY! PLEASE!”
I feel myself being pulled away from Opal, and my screams turn to feral snarls and then wailing cries.
“I just want to be with my family,” I say, uttering it over and over to myself like a prayer, while pulling on her limp hand. “I just want to be with my family. I just want to be with my family.”
I feel a pinch, and everything falls away into darkness.
Chapter TWENTY
Camelot
I wake up somewhere damp and chilled and shut away from any natural light. A dim candle is lit, but it takes a few blinks and sitting up before my eyes focus on my surroundings. Someone is kneeling in front of me, sitting back on their heels as if they are examining me.
When I recognise who it is, I lunge forward. Only to find that I have a chain around my wrist, attached to the stone wall behind me.
“Finally awake,” Portia says blandly. “You had me a bit worried.”
