The Girl with the Dragon Heart by Stephanie Burgis

Author:Stephanie Burgis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408880760
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2018-04-12T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

‘Oof!’ I landed hard on my elbows, half sprawled across that waiting figure.

It twisted hard underneath me, and I jerked, trying to jump back to safety …

But the door was already swinging closed behind me. It shut me into the pitch-darkness of the servants’ passageway as a low growl rumbled through the stale air and I scrabbled backwards.

What else had the fairies brought along with them?

‘Couldn’t you have knocked first?’ Aventurine snarled.

‘Ohhh!’ I collapsed across her, limp with relief. My heart was still thrumming against my ribs as if I’d just sprinted across the entire first district. ‘What are you doing here, you idiot?’

‘What do you think?’ Yawning, she pulled herself free. I heard the scuffling sounds of her pushing herself up into a sitting position. ‘Looking after you, of course.’

‘After me?’ I shook my head in bafflement as I sat up, tucking my knees against my chest. ‘You’re the dragon, remember? You’re the one all those fairies want to catch, not me.’

‘Pah.’ Her snort ruffled through the enclosed air. ‘I told you, I’ll eat any fairy who tries.’

‘And I told you –!’ No. I gritted my teeth against the furious response that wanted to spill out of me. I had too little time left to waste my breath. ‘Anyway,’ I said, ‘aren’t you supposed to be sleeping in the chocolate kitchen while you’re here?’

‘The kitchen’s fine,’ Aventurine told me. ‘Unlike you, it isn’t going anywhere. But I knew you’d do something ridiculous like sneaking around at night with nobody to protect you.’ She sighed with aggravating condescension. ‘You may act like a dragon from time to time, but you don’t actually have claws or teeth, you know.’

I bared my blunt teeth at her in the darkness. ‘You think not?’

‘Not real ones,’ she said flatly. ‘So someone has to look after you.’

It was too much. I started laughing. But as I tipped my head on to my knees, my laughter wobbled dangerously. I had to blink my stinging eyes again and again, gulping back everything that wanted to escape in the safety of darkness.

‘What is it?’ Aventurine sounded suspicious. ‘What are you doing? It doesn’t sound right.’

‘It’s just …’ I shrugged helplessly, drawing a deep breath to push down the last of the tears. ‘Haven’t you figured it out by now? No one looks after me. That’s not how it works. I look after myself. Always.’

And I was good at it. At least, I used to be, before I’d dived in over my head, so stupidly, hopelessly overconfident that I could manage every new challenge at the palace …

No. That was the victim of a story speaking, not a heroine. I wasn’t going to admit defeat now!

I sprang to my feet, slapping my hands briskly together. ‘So! I’ve got to get to work. But you can go back to sleep now that you know I’m fine, and –’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Aventurine. The air of the narrow passageway shifted around me as she rose to her feet. Her warm arm brushed against mine.

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