The guard pondered that for a moment, then tried again. “Wonder how much of that spunk will be left in ya when you’re danglin’ off the end of a—”
I ran a hand down my face. “What has you so down that you have to be this way? All that’s required of guards is for them to guard things. You’re choosing to be grumpy all on your own. Life isn’t so bad.”
It was at that moment the guard was impaled from behind by a broadsword.
My lower extremities experienced an extremely negative visceral reaction in sympathy.
The guard slumped to the side. Standing in his place was a figure wearing long purple robes, their face shadowed by a hood.
“Amy?” I asked, withdrawing from the front of my cell.
The figure kicked aside the guard and strode forward. They stopped before me, head lifting slowly. Dim light washed over the ghoulish contours of a skull, each grinning tooth outlined in black shadow.
CHAPTER 43INWHICHI MAKEAGRANDLYSTUPIDGESTURE
BRYCE
It was hard to ride in on a white stallion to save the day when I didn’t have a white stallion. Going on foot was also useless, as it was too slow.
I’d leveled my head enough to realize Courtney would not be so cruel as to leave me in this world for good, even if she had run away to get some space. Likely, her next step would be to start fixing her mistakes so she could get us both home as quickly as possible. Home, where she could stop spending so much time around me, her new least-favorite person.
As much as it terrified me, I knew what had to happen next.
I had to win her back before she did something stupid, like try to single-handedly face an army of monsters.
I slipped out of town and headed into the woods. My heart thudding in my ears drowned out the chatter of wildlife. Despite the cool shade of the trees, sweat coated every inch of my skin.
I hadn’t climbed a tree since—I’d never climbed a tree. At most, I sat on a lower branch. Trees were wobbly and sharp and strangely rough and slippery all at the same time. Trees brokebones. I’d always thought the act of climbing trees served no purpose aside from recklessly endangering yourself, until now. Now it served an even stupider purpose.
I wasn’t a hero, and no giant eagles were going to provide me with aLord of the Rings–style Uber lift. But I did have a dragon hunting me that Courtney was convinced wanted us alive.
I selected a tree with branches spaced close enough together that I might stand a chance of hitting one on the way down, should I fall. As I wrapped my arms around the first branch and clumsily heaved myself onto it, I cursed my heart for getting myself into this mess. What I was doing proved what I’d always known: love was dangerous. The difference was now I’d decided it was worth the risk.
I scrambled onto the next limb, legs flailing. I began counting each limb, taking comfort in the orderly numbers. “It’s worth the risk,” I reminded myself a second time. “Worth the very risky risk.” I grunted as I scrambled higher. “The very scary risky risk.” I was close to the top now, the breeze swaying the trunk. I crawled up one more branch and gingerly got to my feet.
“The totallystupididea,” I said under my breath, looking over my shoulder as I scanned the sky. “Courtney, you’d better be right about something for once.”
Courtney wasn’t in on some secret joke, nor could she magically make me happy with my own life like I’d once thought. Deep down, I already knew how to be happy. I just had to let myself feel it. My whole life, I’d been emulating a slug. Feeling nothing, surviving. It was time to live.
So here I was, getting out of my own way, even though it scared the shit out of me.
A screech pierced my ears, followed by a distantthud, thud, thud.
I was in the dragon’s web now.
If Courtney was right, and Greg the mouse wanted us alive, the dragon would deliver me back to the castle and Greg. Courtneywas likely there, too, trying to recapture a dragon or defeat an army. I’d just have to escape Greg’s clutches and find her. But first I needed to catch the dragon’s attention.
Dread washed over my body, making my limbs tremble. My foot slipped a little, bits of bark dislodging under my boot and crumbling down through the leaves below.
I replanted my foot, but it was too late. My body bent one way, then the other. Hands flying desperately, I sought something to hold on to. I leaned for the trunk but misjudged how far away it was. My arms pinwheeled as I tried to regain my balance. My heart felt too light, like I was already falling.
And then I was falling. My stomach lurched into my chest as I plummeted off the branch.
Then suddenly, something snagged me around the middle, pulling me up, up, up, and sending my stomach right back down into my toes.
I pried my eyes open, then quickly shut them again when I caught an aerial glimpse of the forest below. My feet dangled over nothingness. The firm leg wrapped around my chest combined with the whistling wind made it hard to breathe. I risked another peek up, which awarded me an unpleasant sight of the dragon’s bristly underbelly.
I didn’t know why Greg wanted us alive, and I didn’t care. If the dragon got me back to the castle before Courtney left, that was all that mattered.
