Page 110 of What did you do?

Loud, high-pitched noises rent the air. You could feel the desperate energy from inside the quiet prison. It sounded like a war had broken out.

“Take her to the crypt,” Eli said with a sad look at Walter before he sped off down the hallway once again.

“Geez, harsh way to tell your fiancée goodbye,” I grumbled.

“It’s where your heart is being kept. It’s in the crypt under the castle, guarded and spelled with blue flames and about every form of fire and magic block imaginable,” Walter explained as he grabbed ahold of my hand again. I couldn’t tell if he did it tocomfort me, himself, or simply to keep ahold of me so I couldn’t run off. I suspected it was all three.

“That’s why you could feel it in the throne room…” I trailed off.

Walter looked at me appreciatively for a long moment. “Yes, your heart is directly under the throne room. There is a hidden door to the crypt behind one of the paintings.”

I pulled Walter’s hand in the opposite direction, to follow Eli.

“No, you cannot go out there yet, Caly,” he said, pulling me away from the battle sounds.

Only they suddenly didn’t sound like just weapons and fighting alone.

I heard snarls.

Heat singed inside my chest, and I snapped a look to my left, through the open prison cell next to us. The woman stood, staring out at the eerily empty sky.

The roc hadn’t come to feast on the prisoners. Where were they?

I inhaled sharply as my eyes snapped to Walter.

“Caly, no!” Walter shouted after me as I slipped my hand free and took off toward the doors.

He caught up to me in half a second, but he only tried to stop me with the look in his eyes—and something hidden within them told me he secretly wanted me to see whatever it was I was about to.

“I’m sorry” was all he said.

27

THE PAST

Caly

Istuffed the last corner of the toaster waffle in my mouth as the screen door slammed behind me with a creak and a bang. Adrianna and Mom had gone into town, and I didn’t want to waste a minute of this time.

The dew-covered grass dampened the bottoms of my feet as I ran out back. I passed the place where those fairy things had been. That had been so cool.

The pretty gold fairy told me I’d be seeing a lot of her, and I couldn’t wait. She was so neat. Adrianna had been getting so annoyed with me because I couldn’t stop talking about how I had saved a real-life fairy.

I wondered if she would come to school with me for show-and-tell.Thatwould definitely get me more friends. I didn’t know why everyone always seemed uncomfortable around me.

My legs picked up speed over the flowers and tall grass.

“Hello!” I sang out to a nearby squirrel.

He would come to my lap and snuggle—I knew he would right now.

This was my favorite. It was the only time I felt like anything liked me, well, besides for Mom and Adrianna—they had to like me though.

My own father didn’t even like me enough to stay. I was glad I didn’t remember anything about him. I didn’t need him or anyone else. Mom was enough for me. Mom was everything to me.

I sat down excitedly, moving my legs to standard crisscross-applesauce position, when all of a sudden, my skin started to tingle. The power in my veins felt like it was being pulled out, but somehow it also felt like it was being pushed back in. My stomach hurt like I had swallowed an anvil. What was going on?

My powers pulsed, and then all of these bright, flashing lights came into my vision. Voices stuttered in and out of my head.

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