He laughs. A dry bark. “That might be the one thing it isn’t. Okay.”
“No. I mean, it’s okay that you’re not okay. Whatever you’re feeling is okay.”
He stands up, shaking off my hand. “Is that what your friends tell you every time you blow up another chunk of school grounds? Because they’re lying to you. It isn’t okay. And it won’t be. So far, it’s only ever been a sign of more bad things to come. You won’t be okay, will you, Snow?”
I feel a wave of red shoot up my back and shoulders, and I clamp down on it, deliberately walking away from him. “This isn’t about me.”
“I wouldn’t think so,” he snarls, “but I’ve been wrong before. It’s always about you around here.”
I drop the book on my desk and make for the door. I should have known this wouldn’t work. He’s such an unforgivable twat, even when he’s being completely pathetic.
* * *
“I thought you were studying,” Penelope says.
She’s got her laptop out on a dining table and papers spread around her. There’s a pot of tea, but I’m sure it’s gone cold.
I lay my hand on the teapot and cast, “Some like it hot!” I hear the tea bubbling, and a hairline crack shoots down from the lid. “I was helping Baz with something,” I say, “but now I’m done. For good.”
She wrinkles her nose at the cracked teapot as I pour myself a cup. I can tell what she’s thinking—Now, that shouldn’t happen—then she jerks her head up and wrinkles her nose at me. “You were helping Baz with something?”
“Yes. It was a mistake.” I sit and gulp down some tea. It burns my tongue.
“Why were you helping Baz with something?”
“Long story.”
“I have nothing but time, Simon.”
That’s when we hear the first scream. I stand up, knocking the table over and breaking the teapot more conclusively.
Kids are running into the dining hall from the courtyard. They’re all screaming. I catch a first year running past me, practically lifting her by the arm. “What is it?”
“Dragon!” she cries. “The Humdrum sent a dragon!”
My sword is in my hand, and I’m already running for the door. I know Penny’s right behind me.
The courtyard outside is empty, but there are scorch marks on the fountain and a stripe of blackened earth. And I can feel the Humdrum in the air—the empty sucking feeling, the dry itch of him. Most Watford students recognize that feeling by now; it’s as good as a siren.
I keep running through the first and second gates, and a wave of heat hits me in the archway as I’m about to step onto the drawbridge. A wall of hot breath. I hold my arm in front of my face and feel Penny grab the back of my shirt. She reaches her ring hand over my shoulder. “U can’t touch this!”
“What’s that?” I shout at her.
“Barrier spell. It won’t work unless the dragon knows the song.”
“How would the dragon know that song?”
“I’m doing my best, Simon!”
“I can’t even see it!” I shout. “Can you?”
I can’t see it, but I can hear it, I think. Flapping. A river of fire pours onto the Lawn and I look up—it’s diving towards us. It looks like a red T. rex with yellow cat eyes and big rubbery red wings.
Penny’s still casting spells over my shoulder to try to ground it.
“What’ll we do with it on the ground?” I ask.
“Not get bombed with fire!”
I try to remember the last time I fought a dragon, but I was 11 then, and I’m pretty sure I just blew it up. Come closer, I think at the monster, so I can blow you up.
The dragon twists in the air without firing on us, and I think for a minute that one of Penny’s spells is working. Then I see its target—a group of kids, maybe third years, crouching under the yew tree.
Miss Possibelf is with them, and I see her casting spells at the dragon with her walking stick. I run towards the tree, pulling my wand out of my back pocket and shouting as loud as I can at the dragon. “Your attention, please!”
I throw the weight of my magic into it.
The dragons stops mid-zoom to look at me, hanging in the air for a moment like it’s been paused. Then it rears its head back and thrusts forward in my direction.
“Oh, blast,” Penelope says. She’s a few feet away. She reaches out to the school—not the dragon—and yells, “There’s nothing to see here!”
“What are you doing?” I scream, breaking right to lead the dragon away from the buildings.
“Your attention spell worked on everyone!” Penny says. “They’re all coming out to watch! There’s nothing to see here!” she shouts again at the gates. “As you were!”
I glance back and see kids standing on the drawbridge and running to the edge of the ramparts. The dragon is diving again, and I decide to run at it. A ribbon of fire shoots over my head. I drop at the last moment and roll away—its teeth scrape at the ground beside me.
It pulls up, snorting in what I think is frustration, then lunges towards me, snapping its jaws. I swing my sword at its neck, and the blade catches and sticks. The dragon heaves up again, and I go with it, holding on to my sword and using the momentum to swing onto the beast’s head, my knees tucked behind its jaw.
This is better. Now I can just throttle it.