“Toughen up,” the monster growled.
Before I could look for the monster, the quill in Derrick’s hand snapped in half. Then, with an underlying growl, he said, “Get out.”
Gerond and Myles stopped laughing and their eyes went wide. The boys quickly retreated, slamming the dormitory door shut behind them.
Derrick threw the broken quill aside and yanked open his desk drawer. As soon as a new quill was in his hand, Derrick let out a long breath and melted back into the person I knew.
He dipped the quill in a pot of ink and wrote: “Dearest Birdie, I won the Spring Exhibition. Life has never been better.”
My fingers traced the parchment. We had wasted so many years trying to impress one another…what would our lives be like had we just been honest from the beginning?
Suddenly the ink on the parchment morphed into new letters, spelling out the message: “You will never escape your bargain, sorceress.”
What bargain?
I turned around, ready to confront the monster, but stardust-flecked Midnight had replaced the memory of Derrick at the writing desk.
“Serafina, get away from him!” He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into the darkness of his embrace.
I pushed against him. Light entered my vision and suddenly I was tucked in my bed again.
“Stop protecting me, Midnight!” I yelled as I shoved off the blankets. “I am trying to help you!”
Boom.Hairline cracks appeared in the floor beneath the bedroom door.
The monster was coming for me. I sprung from the bed and retrieved my silver needle from the air. The thread of infinity tied itself through the eye and coiled in an endless loop near my feet.
I threw open my bedroom door and stepped into the ballroom of the castle of dreams.
With a wave of my hand, the shattered black and white tiles flipped back and exposed a wide pit. I stood on the edge and looked down—no bottom in sight.
I let out a shaking breath and steeled myself. I had slayed a giant, how difficult could the monster in Derrick’s mind be?
My needle flew in the air, weaving the glowing white thread of infinity into a ladder that dropped into the pit.
The silver needle floated dutifully at my side while I descended the ladder.
Down, down, down, I climbed, my feet dropping into the darkness one after the other. Suddenly, my left foot did not hit the thread of the next rung of the ladder, but pressed against solid ground. I silently released the ladder but it still glowed, the only light in the pit.
My needle quickly stitched a lantern from the thread. I gripped the knotted handle and held it up—I could only see a few inches in front of me.
“Hello, sorceress.”
My heart jumped and my hair stood on end. The monster was near. I swung my arm. The light of my glowing lantern blanketed the area around me, but I found no sign of…
Then its hot breath skated across my shoulders.
I spun around and my eyes dragged up. Head of a bull. Muscled arms of a man. Steel armor on its shoulders. A mouth that was too wide.
Worst of all, it had big, very human, Hyton Blue eyes.
A chill ran through me but my neck burned, where its teeth had once left bruises. My ears pricked with the memory of every promise of possession it had whispered.
I knew Derrick, but I knew the monster too.
His name was Alastar.
A huge claw pricked me underneath my chin and pulled my face up. Alastar took in a deep breath through his wide nose and his pupils dilated.
