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Dorothy McFalls
a book bubble about
Curse of the Midnight Dragon
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author Insight
The dragons return!
But, oh, dragons are feral and dangerous and they might cause more trouble than Celestina ever expected.
Book Excerpt
Curse of the Midnight Dragon
“Sky Girl!” Patty called. “Sky Girl!”With my sword tip held up, I twirled around in search of the danger. The ship lurched. She slammed into me, sending both of us careening dangerously toward the side of the boat. The railing wasn’t nearly high enough to keep us onboard.Patty screamed. I wrapped my arms around my friend, hoping I’d be able to grab on to something…anything before we plunged into the frosty Winter Sea.Soren cursed, tossed aside his wooden sword, and moved with mind-blurring vampire speed. Raya also moved faster than my eyes could track. Soren’s strong arm encircled my waist with such force, my feet went flying into the air. He whirled in a graceful arc that shifted our momentum and kept me on the ship. Raya snatched Patty by the arms, catching the poor girl just as she tripped over the railing. The two of them fell backwards landing on the deck.“What the hell, Patty?” Gray shouted as he caught up to the rest of us. He yanked the girl from Raya’s grasp and shook her shoulders. “You could have been killed!”Patty, her entire body shaking, pointed into the sky.As we all looked up, Soren’s arms tightened around me.Dragons.I pressed a hand to my mouth.Dragons.Two of them.Their leathery wings seemed to spread across the sky as they glided like clouds above the ship. A red one. And—tears sprang to my eyes—was that…was that my green dragon?The sun glinted like gold off the green dragon’s scales.It is him! It is him! My heart sang. The echoes of the child who used to watch the dragons and dream of running away with them ached to dance around on the deck with unfettered joy at the sight of my green dragon tracking our ship.He used to sun himself in the valley next to Earst’s castle. I’d watch him and dream that he’d one day rescue me from the tower Queen Beatrice had stuck me in. And then, just recently, he’d returned to save me.But he couldn’t carry me away. The magic in my slave collar had repelled him like two magnets trying to touch their north poles together.What is he doing here? Why is he following me?It wasn’t as if he were truly my dragon. Pretending he’d been mine had been a girlish daydream—a wish—not reality.Still.Look at him!A smile sprang to my face.My dragon.He hadn’t abandoned me because of this vile collar I wore.I grinned at Soren. “He’s magnificent, isn’t he?”Soren didn’t smile back. All the color had drained from his face. “We need to get you inside.”Prince Cullen’s creepy crewmen were flooding the deck with crossbows in their hands.“What’s happening?” I cried.“They’ll protect you.” Soren grabbed my hand and tugged. I pulled back, resisting his efforts to get me off the deck.“I don’t need protection. Not from them.” I gestured toward the sky. “They’re mine. They’re my dragons.”Soren was shaking his head. “What if they try to take you?” He held both of my wrists now and was pulling me toward the door that led to the cabins. “What if they try to carry you away? The collar will—”“No!” With the same kind of slippery move I must have used to free myself from his ropes, I twisted away from Soren. I couldn’t let him take me away when Cullen’s men were threatening my dragons. I charged over to Driscoll, who had already raised his crossbow and seemed to be taking aim at the green dragon.“No!” I used my growly voice. It was a voice I’d once used as a playful voice to scare the young princes under my care. It was the same voice I’d later learned carried a strange magic that compelled magical creatures to obey me.Driscoll, being a vampire, was a creature susceptible to the power of this voice. He immediately lowered the crossbow.“Don’t shoot them!” I growled to the entire crew. “Leave them alone! Leave them alone!” At the thought that any one of those three dragons might be harmed, my growls turned to sobbing hysteria, which apparently carried no magic. The more I shouted and cried, the less control I had over the crewmen. One by one, the men started taking aim with those awful crossbows again. “Stop! Stop! Leave them alone!” How could anyone wish to harm such beautiful creatures? It was a miracle that there were such things as dragons in the world, and Cullen’s crewmen wanted to destroy them? “Stop it! Stop it now!”“Stand down,” Soren called to his brother’s men.Driscoll glared at Soren, his crossbow once again pointing toward my green dragon. “I have orders to protect—”“Stand down,” Soren repeated, “or I’ll take that crossbow along with the arm holding it.”For several tense moments, Driscoll kept his gaze and his aim on the dragons above us. Finally, with a muttered curse, he let the crossbow drop. It clattered as it fell on to the ship’s deck.The other crewmen, watching this, lowered their weapons.The red dragon above us opened its mouth and roared. Fire poured from its mouth. The flames were so intense the air all around us heated up. I threw out my arms, closed my eyes, and reveled in its warmth. The heat danced like pinpricks of lightning on my skin.Oh, if only I could join those dragons in the sky. If only I could soar with them like giant sailing ships.“They’re going to roast us!” Patty shouted.I opened my eyes to find Patty huddled on the deck with her hands over her head. The crewmen were raising their crossbows again. Soren wrapped his arms protectively around my shoulders and pulled me snug to his side.“We’ve got to get you to safety.” He looked more worried than I’d ever seen him. Gray and Raya were at his side with their swords in hand.Fire licked the sides of the ship.“They’re going to sink us!” Raya warned, her muscles tensing as if preparing to battle the dragons singlehanded. “There’s nothing we can do to stop them.”
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