Please don’t be dead; please don’t be dead.
It couldn’t end like this. We couldn’t win this battle only to lose the war. Merlin couldn’t die. And he hadn’t. I refused to accept it.
Fluffikins and Dash continued to fight for what felt like ages. It must have felt like a long time to Drake, too, because he decided to depart from the original plan.
“Yo, dragon breath!” he shouted, jumping up and waving his hands in the air.
“You! I thought I already disposed of you!” Dash roared and pulled away from Fluffikins, making a beeline for Drake.
Oh, that stupid jerk. Now he was going to die, too. Why couldn’t he have just waited like I told him?
I was still weighing this question in my mind when Drake disappeared right before my eyes and reappeared on the dragon’s back, driving him on toward the magical cage that had imprisoned Merlin earlier.
At the last possible second, Drake disappeared again. No, that wasn’t it. He moved so fast, he became invisible to my human eye.
He leapt from the dragon’s back right before the massive monster crashed into that tiny cage.
Being a magic cage, the second the dragon made impact, his power was absorbed into its bars, returning Dash to his natural form.
The old man with the long beard.
First Merlin’s magic and now Dash’s had made the cage even more powerful, and it easily quadrupled in size to accommodate its new humanoid cargo.
“Lock it!” I screamed, but Drake was already on it.
Fluffikins flew over and landed on the ground with a heavy thump.“It seems your first lesson with Connie went well.”
“Yeah, turns out being a vampire isn’t so bad,” Drake admitted, jamming his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
“All right, you’re coming with me,” Mr. Fluffikins said to the pitiful creature in the cage before summoning a thick pink mist and flashing them both out of existence.
That just left me, Drake, and Merlin.
“Let me help you with those,” Drake said. He zipped over to my side with impossible speed, then grabbed hold of my chains and pulled them apart like they were nothing more than the finest of threads.
I balked.“Could you have done that the whole time?”
“Probably,” he admitted. “But I’m still getting the hang of things.”
I gave him a high five, then fell to the ground at my cat’s side. I scooped Merlin into my arms, and he nestled into my chest. He was still alive but would be mighty embarrassed about this later.
“We have to get back to town and find Luna,” I told Drake.
“Let’s get going, then,” he returned.
“Wait,” I said, staring into Merlin’s little kitty face. His tongue stuck out slightly between his lips. He looked so innocent in that moment.
“I can’t go with you,” I said with a sad smile. “I can’t leave Nocturna. Not anymore.”
25
“If you’re not leaving, then I’m not leaving,” Drake insisted, totally catching me by surprise.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, flapping my hand. “Go, if you can.”
He kicked at the burnt earth.“Okay, but how?”
“Well, how did you and Mr. Fluffikins get here in the first place?” Honestly, I’d been wondering about that for a while now.
“That pink magic stuff of his,” Drake answered without missing a beat.
“I’m sure he’ll come back for you once he’s done making sure Dash is nice and cozy in that prison he mentioned.”
Drake nodded as if it didn’t matter. “But what about you?”
I sighed and stared down at the unconscious cat in my arms.“Only Merlin could take me in and out of Nocturna. I’m bound to him as his familiar.”
“But he doesn’t have magic anymore, right?”
“Right.”
Drake’s face wore a mix of emotions, so different than his usual tranquility. “So how are you going to get out of here?”
I shivered and hugged Merlin tighter to my chest, suddenly realizing how cold it had become now that the adrenaline had worn off.“I’m not.”
He scrunched his nose as if in disgust, then shook his head.“Well, you can’t stay on this mountaintop. Let me take you somewhere.”
“No, Drake. Really, that’s o—”
But before I could finish my argument, he snatched me into his arms and took off down the mountain at a blinding speed. I clung to Merlin as best I could, terrified of dropping him to his death.
“This a good place,” Drake said, setting me to my feet a short while later.
I kept my eyes squeezed tight, afraid to look. At least it seemed like the world had stopped spinning around me.
After drawing in a deep, calming breath, I cracked one eye open and stumbled.
Drake reached out a steadying hand, holding me as I held Merlin, who was still out cold.
“You brought me back to the village,” I said, surveying the miniaturized Bavarian town that rose up around me.
Drake shrugged.“Seemed as good a place as any.”
We both glanced around the quaint village. An old Himalayan couple strolled past us on the other side of the street, but otherwise the place was deserted.
“Excuse me,” I called out. “Might I ask a favor?”
They paused and stared at me with huge, unblinking eyes.
“Could you help my friends get back to the other side?”
“Yes, we can help,” the lady cat answered with a cute, squeaky voice. “Our house is just down the road. Meet us back here about ten minutes before dusk, and we’ll ready our portal.”
“Thank you,” I said, dipping my head in a bow. Unfortunately, I’d just realized my mistake.
The Himalayan couple returned my bow and carried on their way.
“They’ll get you out of here, but not until later. The portals only open at night,” I confided in Drake. Well, at least I’d have company as I figured out this new life of mine.
We both glared up at the sun, which had reached the top of the sky.
Drake offered me a cautious smile.“Well, I can think of worse ways to spend the day, especially since I’m going to have so many of them in my long, immortal life.”
“Are you really immortal?” I asked as we navigated the empty walkways of Nocturna. Its feline residents had ambled off to bed by now, it seemed.
“There are still ways I can die. But not many. Most vampires stick around a very long time.” He pushed both hands in his pockets and let out a deep, stuttering breath.
“How do you feel about it? Being a vampire, I mean?”
He shrugged.“At first it was a shock, but I’m used to it now.”
“Already? I mean, you only found out yesterday.”
“Yeah, but I guess I’ve been one for a couple years now. Remember how I told you about that time I saw the white ghost in the rainstorm?”
I nodded, engrossed in his story.
“I think it happened that night. Fluffikins and his team are trying to help me retrieve that memory. They think it’s the key to finding out why I’m different.” He frowned for a moment, then rearranged his features into his signature mask of apathy.
“You’ve always been different, Drake,” I pointed out with a laugh.
He chuckled, too, but I could tell his heart wasn’t in it. “Yeah, but they mean something else. I can do things vampires aren’t supposed to do.”
“Like walk through fire?” I suggested.
“That, and other things.” He shrugged again. “I dunno. There’s a lot for me to figure out.”
I wanted to help my friend, but I didn’t know how. All I could do was listen while he was in Nocturna and hope for the best after he left it. It would take some getting used to—the idea that all my friends and family would have to carry on their lives without me. They wouldn’t even know what had happened…
My phone buzzed in my pocket with an incoming call.
“Really? I have cell service in another dimension?” I fished it out of my pocket and saw that Kelley was the one calling.
“I’ve gotta take this,” I said to Drake before pushing the button to accept her call. “Hello?”
26
“Gracie!” Kelley shouted into my ear via the cell phone. “You’ll never guess what!”