Her mother held her hands to her lips to amplify her shout. “There’s a ghost on Elegy Island!”
The higher she mounted, the louder the dragon’s wings pounded the air. Her head throbbed with each concussion. Her stomach churned. They were flying too high—there was no oxygen here. Her brain was compressing inside her skull …
Magdala awoke with a gasp. She lay in a soft bed, covered in dark sheets. The curtains were drawn, but a shaft of light shone between them, slicing across the faded carpet.
“Ash!” Zephyr shouted from beside her bed. It split through Magdala’s head like a pickaxe. “She’s awake.”
Magdala squeezed her eyes shut and tugged the sheets to her ears.
The bed creaked, and Magdala opened one eye. Asherton sat on the edge of the mattress, looking down at her with a furrowed brow. “Tell me how you feel, Mags?”
“Like a dragon is sitting on my head.”
He rubbed his thumb over his lips. “What do you think, Zeph?”
Zephyr passed him, a blur of blue sweater and tweed. “Oh, stop worrying, Ash. She’s fine. The venom isn’t dangerous except in very high doses. One little caterpillar couldn’t kill a woman of her size.”
Even in her foggy state, Magdala smirked. Angelonia would have dropped dead in an instant.
Asherton said with a nervous laugh, “After all that, and it was I who nearly gotyoukilled. There’s irony for you.”
He touched the back of his hand to her forehead. Magdala flinched and slapped his hand away.
“Leave her be, Ash,” Zephyr scolded. “She’s fine.”
“She looks pale.”
“I always look pale,” Magdala slurred.
“No, you normally have a pink, rosy flush in your cheeks. You look peaked.”
“Stop talking. Your voice gives me a headache,” she groused.
The mattress rose as Asherton got up.
“As I suspected,” Zephyr said. He held the shirt Asherton had been wearing in front of him. Quickly, Magdala checked to see if Asherton was wearing a shirt now and found, with some satisfaction, that he was not.
“There’s that rosy glow,” Asherton said happily.
Magdala’s rosy glow intensified.
“Lucent Pine sap,” Zephyr announced. “Spattered all over it. Look.” He cupped his hand over a faintly soiled spot. A dim blue light glowed in the shadow. “That’s why Lewis attacked.”
Magdala sat up heavily. “Where does Lucent Pine sap come from?”
Asherton held out his hand. “Don’t hurry to get up.”
“She’sfine.” Zephyr sighed. “Remember how many times your brother was stung while he propagated those caterpillars? At least a dozen in a summer, and he never fainted.”
“Well, he was a lot bigger than Mags.”
“Not much,” Zephyr said, appraising Magdala over his spectacles. “In answer to your question, Miss Devney,Lucent Pine sap comes from one specific forest a thousand miles away.”
Asherton pointed out the obvious. “This was no accident.”
“You don’t say,” Magdala said moodily. Her head cleared enough for her to realize she was lying in Asherton’s bed. She froze, her fingers digging into the mattress.
“You do look better.” Asherton smiled. “Lots more color in your cheeks.”
