The Dragon and the Witch Read Online Free PDF Page B

chest. “We don’t keep secrets from each other, right?”
    I pulled out the bullet from my pocket and opened my hand to show him. “Somehow, I was able to remove this from a lion just by resting my hand over his wound.”
    Tolbalth took the bullet from my hand and studied it. “You pulled this out of the lion?”
    “No, I mean, it kind of worked itself out into my hand and I healed him. Do you know how I could do such a thing?”
    “I’m not sure,” he said quickly.
    Again, I had that feeling in the pit of my stomach that he was keeping something very important from me.
    “What are we having for dinner?” he asked, changing the subject.
    “Rabbit with wild grains and beans. And berry pie. Piku and I picked berries earlier.”
    “Tomorrow, I will do the cooking for you, since it’s your birthday.”
    “My dragon father is going to cook for me? I can’t wait.” I half-smiled, trying to get that heaviness away from my heart. For as long as I could remember, Tolbalth preached that we wouldn’t keep secrets from each other, but lately, it felt like that was all we’d done.
    “Want a ride back?”
    I hesitated to leave as I scanned over the gully filled with dragon bones, feeling a sense of dread for the dragons who had died so close to our home. My heart ached for my father to have suffered so much.
    Tomorrow is my birthday . At eighteen, my life should change. I wasn’t sure how, but I’d always heard from Tolbalth that at eighteen years old, a child becomes an adult. Maybe then, my father would share more about who I am and what he knew of my birth. Maybe.
    My father transformed into his massive dragon form and as he kneeled down so I could climb my way to his shoulders, I had a feeling I hadn’t felt since I was five years old. I held on as he ran and took off in flight. The wind smacked me in the face and the beauty of seeing the land from the vantage point of being high above the trees made me want to scream out in absolute excitement. I threw my hands in the air as I rode on the back of my father’s neck, feeling a child-like joy that had a way of healing what I’d just witnessed in the gully. For a short time, nothing mattered except this one moment with my father—this bonding time that we rarely shared except while riding high in the sky.

 
    Chapter Seven
     
    She came again in a silky white dress, her golden hair blowing from the breeze coming in from my carved, rock window. It was chilly in my room, so I pulled the covers up to my neck and shivered beneath them. Part fear, part cold.
    “Mother?”
    She stood at my window inside my room, staring at me with those intense golden eyes.
    “Are you my mom?” I asked.
    She nodded, her hair cascading from her shoulder over the front of her body.
    I realized at that moment, she couldn’t talk to me, at least, I didn’t think she could. I pulled the covers up a little further, uncertain as to why she was standing in my room and how she’d gotten there. This was the first time ever that she’d ventured inside our home. “Why are you here?”
    Her hair floated around her face, framing it like a beautiful pale photo. Her eyes moved from mine as she pointed out the window before she used her fingers to ask me to follow her.
    I had to know. Every year she’d visited me. Most of the time, the dream was in a clearing in the forest. And each year, her presence seemed stronger. This was the first time I could see the fine details of my mother’s face. Her golden eyes, full pink lips and even a small mole on the right side of her face above her lip. She had perfectly shaped brows and her fingers were slender and fragile.
    But as beautiful as she was, there was an odd fear in my mother’s familiar eyes. A tinge just bright enough for me to see the way it held her hostage. And beneath that fear, I could see her desire to share something with me—something that seemed pressing and important. I wasn’t sure what to do.
    This is just a dream, Zadie , I