Sir Callie and the Dragon's Roost, page 29
“I’m not angry,” I promise again. “I’m just glad you’re okay. I missed you so much, and I’ve so much to tell you. But we gotta get out of Helston before anything else. Can you really fly?”
Neal stretches his wings again, and I grimace as the bones crack. “Climb up, kiddo.”
For the second time today, I mount a dragon.
* * *
Neal is a whole lot easier to ride than Teo. For one thing, there’s more room to get comfy and secure, and for another his wings are clearly fully formed in a way that Teo’s aren’t. They aren’t translucent in the slightest, and every movement is full of power and confidence.
Neal might hate this shape, but he wields it well.
I feel like the most powerful knight in the whole world when we take flight. With Satin and Neal, no one can stop me.
War rages below us. Helston against Helston. Papa and Willow against Adan and his men. I see Willow’s magic first, bright and fierce, blasting the oncoming swords.
“Go lower,” I call to Neal, and his wing dips obligingly, letting us sail low over the raging battle.
I jump off before we touch down and rush into the thick of the fight, Satin drawn. I don’t attack, though, just beat off anyone who comes near me; battling my way through to Papa and Willow.
They both look exhausted.
“Get to Neal!” I yell. “He’s gonna fly us out of here!”
“Fly?” Willow repeats. “What do you mean ‘fly’?”
“You’ll know when you see him! Where’s Teo?”
“I don’t know!” Willow shouts back. “I haven’t seen xem for a while.”
I scour what little I can see, but I don’t glimpse Teo anywhere. Maybe from the sky.
I shove Willow in Neal’s direction and pull on Papa. “Neal’s waiting, come on.”
Neal is surrounded the way ants surround a fallen apple.
He snaps and bats at anyone who comes too close, never hurting anyone even if he could destroy Helston and everyone in it in a single flame-filled breath.
Half of me wishes he would.
A big half.
But Neal is still Neal, whether he’s a dragon or a human.
Willow freezes at the sight of him. “That isn’t—”
“Yup. It is.” I push him onward. “You can ask questions later.”
With one last confused glance at Neal, Willow blasts a way through the army with a firm force, more like a heavy wind than magic. He grabs one of the curved spines sticking out of Neal’s green scales and hauls himself up, settling firmly before leaning down to help me.
I twist in turn, waving Papa on. “Come on!”
“I’m coming!”
Except he’s not. He’s turned back to the fight, searching for someone he doesn’t have time to look for. “Ewella!”
Seriously? I’m not gonna lose now for the sake of a queen who is literally the reason we’re in this mess!
“Papa, we have to go now!”
He ignores me, diving into the mass of people, and drags out the queen—dazed and disheveled—and he shoves her up onto Neal’s back.
I begrudgingly give her my hand.
“Now can we go?”
Papa nods and starts the climb up Neal’s side.
Wings beat down on either side of us, in the air the moment Papa’s feet leave the ground. It couldn’t feel more different than riding Teo.
Teo…
I search desperately for any glimpse of blue scales.
“Willow, where’s Teo?”
He shakes his head, body trembling behind me. “I don’t know. I—I tried to keep xem within sight, but it was too much. They took xem when I wasn’t looking. I’m sorry—”
“We’ll come back,” I vow. “We’ll set things right.”
I just hope Teo can hold on until then.
Behind Willow, the queen leans to help Papa up. “Careful, Nick,” she says, soft like they weren’t at each other’s throats half an hour ago.
Through a huff, Papa winks at me. “Bit harder than a horse, isn’t it?”
I start to smile back, to laugh and make a joke about how he’s too old for this.
But the first word turns into a scream on my lips.
Because Papa gasps and jerks, eyes blown wide with shock. And I know that look. I know what he feels because I felt it too. I watched Jowan wear the same expression.
I watched the prince fall.
Just like I watch Papa fall.
An arrow in his back.
CHAPTER FORTY
“Turn around!” I scream, yanking at any part of Neal I can. Nothing makes a difference. “Go back! We have to go back! We have to save him! We have to—”
Willow’s arms are locked chains around my waist, the only thing keeping me from launching myself right off Neal’s back. “Callie, they’ll kill us if we go back.”
“I don’t care! I don’t care! Neal! Go back! You have to go back.”
“Callie, stop! You’re going to fall!”
Good. I want to fall. If they’re not going to turn around, let me fall and I’ll save him myself.
“Please,” I beg, sobbing. “Please, Neal, you can’t leave him there. Papa—”
“Wants you to live,” says Neal firmly. “We failed you before, we won’t do it again. I will go back for him, Callie, I swear to you, but first I am doing what I should’ve done the moment I got here. I am getting you safely out of Helston.”
I don’t want it. I don’t want my safety at the expense of Papa’s. We stay together. That’s the deal. We’re family. We’re supposed to stay together!
The ground gets farther and farther away. I can’t tell people apart anymore. They’re just a blurred mass, with Papa lost among them.
This isn’t right.
“Callie! No!”
I’m flying.
No, I’m falling. Slipping down Neal’s side. We’re higher than Pioden’s tower. Farther to fall. Few chances I’ll survive. It’s hard to care.
Willow screams my name and snags me with a net of magic, dragging me back up into the safety of his arms.
I writhe and spit, cursing him and Neal and Helston and Dumoor, and I want my dad!
Willow doesn’t let me go. Just holds on until I run out of fight, then lets me sob into his shoulder, his mother safe at his back.
“I’m sorry, Callie.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
We fly until Helston disappears over the horizon.
We fly until Neal can’t fly any farther.
I don’t speak when we land.
We could be five kilometers away or a thousand miles. We could’ve been flying for a moment or a lifetime. It makes no difference.
I have to go back.
We left him there.
I left him there.
And I don’t know if he’s…
I crouch in the grass, scrunching my body up like I can make it disappear, and vomit.
I don’t want to live in this world.
This isn’t how it was supposed to go.
We left Elowen and Edwyn with Peran.
We left Papa and Teo in Helston.
If this is safety, I don’t want it.
I don’t want it.
“Callie?”
“Leave me alone.”
I jump up and stalk away. Willow should’ve helped me. We were supposed to be in this together. He isn’t on my side. He’s on Neal’s. And Neal’s a liar. Dragons lie. Dragons lie.
I lean hard against a tree, eyes closed. My whole body hurts, inside and out.
“Callie—”
“I told you to leave me alone.”
Willow does not leave me alone. He stands his ground. “We need to talk about it.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Tough. It’s not just up to you. You’re not the only one who—”
“You got what you wanted,” I spit. “You’ve got your mother, your freedom. Everything!”
“I know what it is to lose someone—”
“Papa’s not lost! I know where he is! And I have to go back! You should’ve let me!”
“You would have died, Callie. We all would’ve died! You think that’s what Sir Nick would’ve wanted?”
I clamp my hands over my ears like a child who doesn’t want to be told no. “Don’t talk about him like he’s gone!”
“Okay! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean that. Only that he wants you to live! If you had died for him, he would never have forgiven himself!”
“And how am I supposed to forgive myself? It’s my fault! If I had been faster, if I had fought better—”
“You did your best and your best is always enough.”
Tears burn my eyes. “It doesn’t feel like that.”
“I know.” Willow wraps his arms around me and squeezes, burying his face in the crook of my neck. “I’m so sorry, Callie.”
“I don’t even know where we are. How’re we supposed to get home if we don’t know where we are?”
“We’ll find a way,” says Willow. “That’s what we do.”
We stand together in this unknown place beneath a cloudy sky, clear of gulls and magpies and dragons. Far away from the sea. I look back at the grown-ups, at Ewella pressing soft magic into Neal’s limp wing.
I have to face her. I have to face them both. We have to talk and come up with a plan, but just the thought of it makes my chest constrict and my throat close up.
“Don’t,” Willow murmurs. “Just breathe. Right now, that’s all we can do.”
He’s right. Of course he’s right.
I close my eyes, and I breathe.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Having named every person I’d ever made eye contact with for the acknowledgments of Book 1, my goal for Book 2 is to keep it short and sweet. Make no mistake: There are even more humans I am indebted to this time around!
Always first, thank you forever to my wife, Christine, for her endless love and support and ability to catch typos even after ten pairs of eyes have missed them! And to Delta and Lexie for the infinite cuteness that sustains me through the darkest days.
Thank you eternally to Callie’s immediate family: Megan Manzano, Liesa Abrams, Emily Harburg, and Lili Feinberg. I am truly the luckiest author in the world to be blessed by a team who loves and cares for my fictional children as much as I do (and puts them through less grief!). Thank you to every person who has given their time to make this book what it is and to make sure it has the best shot, from the sales reps to the marketing team to the copyeditors and designers. You made this messy Word doc beautiful, and the Labyrinth Road team is an incomparable force!
Thank you, Bob Diforio and Pam Pho, for being the solid foundation holding up my career!
The words on the page are only one way characters come to life, and I am so thankful to cover artist Kate Sheridan and audiobook narrator Dani Martineck, whose talents completed the magic and made my imaginings real!
My deepest appreciation for all the booksellers I have been lucky enough to meet during my debut year, who have truly championed Book 1 and worked hard to get it into children’s hands. Special thanks to the Novel Neighbor for hosting my preorders and my launch party (and not being annoyed when I spilled two drinks on the books); Main Street Books, St. Charles, for guidance and wisdom; and the Chesterfield Barnes & Noble for providing a comfortable place to work and caffeinate! Shout-outs to Kassie, Stephanie, Haley, Emily, Austin, Star, Sarah, and Amy. Bookish people are the best people!
Love to my dear friends Cat, Dorian, Simone, Amanda, Britney, and Marilyn for always cheering for me! To the Class of ’22 Debuts, we made it! It’s been an honor to be included in such a stellar group of authors, especially Maria Tureaud, George Jreije, and Shawn Peters. To all my writing friends, Forgers, and Sub Solidarity, there’s no one else I’d rather face this wild industry with! My endless gratitude to Alder, Nic, Elm, Mol, and Elle for existing and championing queer kidlit. The world is a better place for your presence.
Thank you to fellow Labyrinth Road authors Megan Reyes (Heroes of Havensong: Dragonboy), Terry J. Benton-Walker (Alex Wise vs. the End of the World), Andrew Auseon (Spellbinders: The Not-So-Chosen One), and Deb Caletti (The Epic Story of Every Living Thing and Plan A) for your support and camaraderie. Our editor has excellent taste in people!
Thank you to my family, blood and chosen and work, past and present. I am so grateful to have each and every one of you in my life. And an enormous shout-out to the incredible street team who took up the challenge and made sure their local bookstores and libraries knew about Callie. Thank you for all your hard work!
Extra love to my fellow KinderCare teachers for your continuing support and patience, especially Grace, Jean, Alanna, Melissa, Kelly, Savannah, and Christy. There’s no one else I’d rather spend time away from my computer with!
Thank you endlessly to all of Sir Callie’s early readers who loved it enough to yell about it to the universe, especially those who were kind enough to blurb and review. It will never not blow me away that folks enjoy spending time in my imagination!
On that note, thank you to all who have picked up Sir Callie, who have read it and shared it and recommended it. Seeing my book in the wild, especially in the hands of kids, continues to be like a wonderful dream I never want to wake from. To all the reviewers, big and small; to the librarians and teachers on the front lines; to the grown-ups who understand how important books are: thank you for seeing value in my stories.
And finally, thank you for continuing to love Callie, Willow, Elowen, and Edwyn! I can’t wait to continue this adventure with you.
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Esme Symes-Smith, Sir Callie and the Dragon's Roost
