“You should come out there with me,” Maria suggested when she realized her grandfather was just waiting for her to leave.
“I will be out there in a minute. I need some time to…”
She put her hand on his arm. His robe was singed, still smelling of dragonfire and ash. Warmth radiated from him. His look didn’t soften at her touch.
This is not good. Not good at all.
She figured it would be better if she just came out and said what she needed to. No point in prolonging the inevitable.
“Gramps, I want to go with you.”
He shook his head vehemently. “Not a chance, Maria. You are too valuable.”
“What if there are enemies?” she asked. Her grip on his sleeve grew firmer, yet he made no notice.
“There are always enemies in the Dark Forest.”
“But it’s not the Dark Forest! It’s Mom’s grave; all that’s left of her,” Maria protested.
“Near enough to the Dark Forest! And you have more of your mother than her grave,” he tapped his chest, above his heart, “in here. Besides, the Widow already knows my plans; she’s known about them ever since that business with Malakai. She has even sought us out through a portal, and caused great injury to my magic.”
“No, that’s impossible. There’s no way she could know,” Maria said.
“Do not put anything past the enemy, my dear. For all we know, there could be a traitor in our midst.”
Maria’s mouth became a grim line. “Traitor? Gramps, you can’t be serious. Gelbus is our friend, our ally.”
“I named no names. It is just a thought. We must trust no one but each other, Maria. The enemy is vast. They know no bounds.”
She shook her head. He’s not in his right mind, and he expects to go to Oriceran, to the grave of his only daughter, dig her up, and be successful? No, I need to accompany him.
“I know what you are thinking, Maria. I’m fine. A little shaken and a little toasted, but otherwise fine. I can do this on my own,” Gramps said. It was eerie how he could read her mind sometimes. “I should do this on my own. Zimmy was my daughter, and I failed her—”
“Gramps, don’t say that. You didn’t fail her. She was murdered; it wasn’t your fault.”
Gramps hung his head, ignoring her pardon, and continued. “Not only did I fail her, but I failed Dominion, my king—your father—and the villagers trapped in the world in between. But I won’t fail you. I won’t let you get hurt. I will protect you until this task is completed, and those villagers are free of their chains.”
She hugged her grandfather, not letting him get another word in edgewise. Caught by surprise, he hugged her back.
“Aw, my dear, sweet Maria. You melt an old man’s stony heart, you know that?”
“I am coming with you, Gramps. That’s final.”
He smiled. It was a somber smile; he was not letting up. He would stand his ground. Maria saw that as plain as she had seen a dragon rise up from Lake Fever.
“I will tell you what,” Gramps said after a moment of intense staring. “You cannot accompany me on this journey, but I’ll not go alone.”
Maria narrowed her eyes.
“Salem and I have talked; he has agreed to provide the necessary backup in case of an ambush.”
Maria smiled.
It was not a genuine smile, but it deceived her grandfather. He patted her on the shoulder. “There, there, does that not cheer you up so?”
Maria nodded. “It’s better than nothing, but I should still be coming with you. I’m powerful, and I’m learning how to control that power enough to be effective.”
Gramps laughed. It was a nice sound, after all the gloom. “ Effective? Maria, you are far more than ‘effective’ at this point. Not one living soul on Oriceran—at least to my knowledge—can say that they have tamed a Rogue Dragon, nor survived the Trials of Antenele. You are beyond ‘effective’. You are beyond ‘powerful’. That is why you are so precious—not only to me, because I love you, dear, but to all of the worlds. If evil gets out of hand, Maria Apple will be there to stomp it back in its place. If the gates open and the undesirables flood Earth, Maria Apple will be there to turn them back. If the—”
She held up a hand and nodded, her face reddening. “Okay, okay, I get it, Gramps.”
“I don’t know if you truly do, Maria. That is why I cannot have you accompanying me on this task.”
“But I can ride a freaking dragon and that’s perfectly okay?”
Gramps sighed as he lowered himself into the nearest chair. His knees popped with the movement, and the sigh turned into exclamations of pain and shock. “Getting old, getting old,” he murmured before he turned his attention back on Maria. “If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have let you ride that dragon.”
“It was up to you! You could’ve stopped me,” she argued.
“No, I’m afraid I couldn’t. Once you set your mind on something, you don’t give up.”
“Is that a veiled comment of approval?” Maria asked.
Gramps arched his eyebrow. “What? No! No! I mean it when I say you can’t come with me. That’s final.”
“Hmm,” she mused, bringing a hand up to her chin. She was not surprised to spot soot beneath her fingernails. “We’ll see about that.”
“I mean it,” Gramps warned. “If I see you on Oriceran before it is time for us to take on the Widow, then…”
“Then what?” Maria challenged. Her tone was playful. She was just kidding around, but when he answered, his tone was deadly serious.
“Then…then I’ll ground you, Maria! I mean it!”
I’m a ‘beyond powerful’ witch, and he wants to ground me? Maria rolled her eyes, and her gaze fell on something from the chest. It was a sketch of a tall and lithe young man. He
