Page 84 of Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
Because he loved her, he realized with a start. He loved Violet Thistlewaite, villainous origins or no. Hope bloomed in his chest as he opened his mouth to tell her—
“Oy!” Jerome hollered from where he had been blown back by one of Sedgwick’s bombs. “Can you two idiots stop making moon eyes at each other long enough t’help usstop the evil sorcerer from returning?”
Nathaniel and Violet exchanged a sheepish look.
“Pru, how are we looking?” Nathaniel called.
His twin cackled, playing a fast and rousing melody that echoed through the cavernous space and set Nathaniel’s heart pounding in time. “Just about ready for phase three!”
Things happened quickly from there. Violet put out her hands, and a tangle of vines emerged from the ground in front of Sedgwick, tearing through floorboards like paper as they wrapped around his legs, holding him in place, and curled tight around his arms, pinning them at his sides.
“You think you can hold me forever?” Sedgwick taunted, sneering at Violet. His face was red and spotted with beestings, which were already beginning to swell. “You’re weak, Thornwitch. You’ve shown your hand already; I know you won’t kill me.”
“No,” she said coldly. One of her vines crept over Sedgwick’s mouth, silencing him. “I won’t have to.”
A rumbling sound echoed through the large room, and Nathaniel turned to his sister. “Pru, now!” he yelled, and she dropped her instrument, her job done.
“I was totally right, by the way!” she called out in the silence that fell over them all, her voice echoing. “The acoustics in here aregreat!”
The rumbling grew louder, like percussion to the absent tune, and all at once, a massive creature burst through the open doorway, taking part of the wall with it.
Nathaniel had seen a couple dozen rock goblins at once who sometimes combined to make a bigger form. But this must have been the entire slide, and it was enormous. The rock goblins took the shape of a four-legged creature that towered over everything else, dripping dust and bits of gravel from their joints as they moved as one. Nathaniel ducked to avoid a bit of plaster that flew at him as the rock slide spread a pair of giant, stony wings, andhis eyes widened as he realized what it was, the way its long neck swept from side to side, seeking the source of the music the rock goblins had followed here. There were no eyes in its head, but the shape of the creature was clear.
Together, the rock goblins had formed a dragon.
“Got him?” Nathaniel called out.
“Aye!” Quinn yelled back.
“All good!” Violet added, her hands in front of her as she added more and more of her plants to Sedgwick’s bindings.
“Pru!” Nathaniel yelled again. His sister danced toward the front of the room, brought her instrument back into position, and began to play again. The rock goblins, entranced by her music as always, followed like a giant, unwieldy moth fluttering after a lantern.
“He’s the one,” Violet cried, sparing a hand to point at Sedgwick, who had begun to struggle furiously against his bindings. Her voice echoed through the hall. “He hurt Peri! He has the Eye of the Serpent!”
The stone dragon roared, a great groan like the clearing of a pipe, and as its head whipped to the side, Nathaniel caught a glimpse of one of the dragon’s empty eye sockets. A missing piece, just about the size of Peri.
His hunch had been correct, but the truth of what he was looking at struck Nathaniel like, well, a stone. Peri didn’t just have the Eye by chance—Peri had it because the Eye was part of the dragon. Years of storytelling wound complicated paths through his thoughts. The witch and the warrior. The dragon turned to stone. It was all real.
And so the rock goblins, like the dragon they had once been, narrowed their gaze on the hapless alchemist who held the Eye of the Serpent. It barreled forward, as unstoppable as a boulder crashing down the mountainside, and smashed the horrible metalcoffin beneath its mighty feet. As one, the rock goblin dragon surrounded Sedgwick, sweeping its tail around to trap him. It roared again, a cacophony of scraping, croaking sounds that hurt Nathaniel’s ears, and reared its head, smashing through the rafters with a massive crack that shook the castle.
“We have to get out of here!” Nathaniel cried, looking around them. “It’ll take care of Sedgwick and will make sure Peri is okay!”
“Come on!” Violet cried to their companions. She swept an arm toward the door just in time for them to see the crack in the ceiling spread like forked lightning and take down a rafter. The huge beam of wood, and the chandelier connected to it, crashed to the ground, blocking the exit.
Nathaniel looked at Violet in horror.
They were trapped.
A Better Garden
From the moment Jerome caught up to her on the road to Shadowfade Castle, Violet had felt a confusing mixture of warmth and confusion.
“Just stall ’im,” Jerome had insisted. “Keep ’im talking long enough for us to get a few things together. And know we’re right behind you.”
So she’d expected her friends—but the rock goblins? Adragon?
And now they were trapped.
