Cardboard Castles by K.L. Young

Author:K.L. Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dragons, fantasy, dragon, homelessness, orphan, realms, magic, unreliable narrator, female protagonist, strong female
Publisher: K.L. Young
Published: 2018-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

25

I wake in the middle of the hospital bed, gasping for air. The falling sensation as you drift off to sleep consumes me, only now I’m sure I’ve been dropped into this place from a twenty story building. Frustration boils in my veins, and I scream until my throat is ablaze with the effort of it.

Trent bolts upright from one of those oversized chairs you can sleep in, shaking his head like he’s trying to get water out of his ears after a swim. “You okay?” His voice, gruff with sleep, rumbles in the air between us, but his urgency is clear.

“I have to get back.” My words crackle like static.

“You were dreaming, Jos. That’s all.” Trent’s clothes are such a wrinkled mess he looks like he’s been sleeping off a three day drinking binge.

“I’ve been here the whole time?”

Trent nods. “Haven’t let you out of my sight.” He grins sleepily and adds, “Was keeping an eye on you through my eyelids, you know.”

I want to laugh at his joke, to pretend that only this realm exists. “I’m sorry. I can’t stay.”

“Yes, you can.”

It’s as if cobwebs coat my mouth. I scramble for the pink pitcher of ice water on my bedside table. It feels so good trickling down the back of my throat that I struggle not to gulp it down in front of Trent. “What did you find in Livi’s office?” If he told me before Brice swept me back into Camden, I have no recollection.

He eases onto the side of my bed. “Nothing, really. I looked for her notebook first, but it must’ve been with her. Then I tried to find your file, but all her drawers were locked.”

“Shit. Now what?”

“The only thing I was able to find was your old address on Livi’s desk. There has to be some reason she’d have written it down so recently.”

The idea that hits my brain is as bright as the sun itself. “Think my father went there, when people started poking around the castle?” I climb up beside Trent, folding my knees beneath me in a vain attempt to contain the weird mix of fear and excitement building in my chest. “Why didn’t we think of this sooner?”

“I don’t think he’s there, Jos.” Trent slides his arm through mine and for a split second it feels like before. When we’d race up and down the sides of the gully behind my house until we couldn’t catch our breath. When life was full of fireflies and bonfires.

But my hammering heart reminds me I can’t let myself get lost in this. Whatever this is. “Why don’t you think he’s there?”

“It’s hard to explain right now. I’d like to go check it out, but wanted to make sure it was okay with you first. Livi says it’s not always a good thing when people go tripping into other people’s memories, so I figured I should at least ask.”

“Okay, but what if you find something that makes you never want to see me again?” The words are out of my mouth before I fully register what I’ve said.

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