Dorian Wraith's Arc

Chapter 19 of 27

Evander stepped back from the cot and wiped his mouth. Callie came forward without being asked. She wore the same white and pink dress she had run in, mud on the hem. Beak lifted his small hand to her wrist and set it on Dorian's forehead. "Last one," Beak said. "I hold the door. You show him what you know." Callie nodded once. Her fingers were cold on Dorian's brow. Beak spoke the short word again, and her eyes went far. Dorian stood in the gray field and watched Callie walk out of the mist. She looked younger for a second, then herself. "It's me," she said. "I'm going to show you our street. The bakery. Before any of this." She raised her hand the way the others had. The gray thinned. A shape of a shopfront started to form, warm light in a window, the smell of bread almost there. Then it shook. The window blurred. Callie's face tightened. "Something's wrong outside," she said. "Hold on to me. Don't let go." Outside the cottage, hooves hit the clearing. The barrier Dorian had cast was gone with his magic bound. King Ambrose kicked the blue door open and his men poured in behind him with drawn steel. Beak did not turn. His hand stayed on Callie's wrist, his other hand on Dorian's temple, wings flat against the wall. "Evander," Beak said. "Your father. Deal with him. I keep the line open." Evander stood up between the cot and the door and drew the blade Beak had left him. "Get out of my house," he said to the king. Steel met steel. A soldier lunged at the cot. Beak threw one hand out and a burst of yellow light knocked the man into the wall, then Beak's hand was back on Callie before Dorian's mind could slip. Callie's jaw was locked. The bakery window kept breaking apart in the gray. "I can't hold the picture," she said. "But I'm still here. I'm still here, Dorian. Don't lose me." Dorian gripped her wrist inside the vision and held. He tried to remember but couldn’t. Callie hadn’t shown him an actual memory yet. The gray began to close as Callie called to Dorian begging him to stay. In the cabin, Evander drove the king back a step and shouted for Beak not to break contact. Beak's hands were shaking. "Hurry, Callie," beak said. "Please. Both of you. Hurry." Callie focused and the mental landscape changed to a house. Dorian’s childhood home. She was going to try again.