Wolf Castle

by Heather Walker

  Elle cried out, “Hey!”

  Sadie laughed and squealed until her sides ached. She screamed in delight. Her legs trembled from gripping Callum’s neck, but she was never in any danger of falling off. She laid down low on his neck and held on tight, and just in time.

  Robbie growled low and narrowed his eyes at Callum. Callum sped across the mountains, but Robbie could outfly him any day of the week. In seconds, he overtook Callum no matter how fast Callum flew.

  Callum dodged one way and then the other, but he couldn’t ditch his brother. Robbie stalked closer behind him and SNAP! Robbie’s teeth clapped closed on Callum’s tail. Callum screeched in shock. He dove sideways and burned down out of the sky into a dense forest.

  Callum slalomed between the tree trunks. They whipped past in a split second. Sadie closed her eyes. She couldn’t look for fear they might crash. She stole one glance over her shoulder. There was Robbie, right on Callum’s tail. Elle gave a maniacal chortle of wicked glee, and they closed in for the kill.

  At the last second, Callum rocketed out of the forest and over a steep mountain. He dove down the other side, and a huge radiant white castle rose out of a shining plane. It burst out of Sadie’s dreams. The colored flags fluttered from the turrets. A few dragons hovered over the walls. Cows and farmers mingled in the fields, and a couple of knights mounted on horses trotted out of the forest beyond.

  Never in her wildest fantasies did Sadie kid herself into thinking the scene could make her so unutterably happy. She wanted to laugh and cry and sing at the same time. This was it. This was Urlu, the dragon kingdom. She was home.

  Robbie blasted past them going a hundred miles an hour. He flew straight to the castle and dove behind the walls. Callum soared over it and beyond, over the forest and across the terrain for many miles in all directions.

  Sadie drank in the sight with her whole heart. She never wanted to land. She would give anything to be a dragon like Hazel, to race and tumble and fight in the air like they did. These rides would be the next best thing, and she planned to do a lot of it.

  Hazel and Fergus appeared over the mountains flying at a much more leisurely pace. They lingered over the castle walls for a few minutes, but when they saw Callum and Sadie hesitating, they dropped out of sight and didn’t return.

  Callum and Sadie ruled the skies alone. He flapped high into the clouds so she could see the whole country spread out below her. She looked down on it the same way she looked down on Mull. Everything that happened down there existed so far away it couldn’t touch her. Only this ethereal world of wind and sun and space existed.

  She belonged to this world now, just like the rest of the Urlu. She would never belong anywhere else as long as she lived.

  Thank you so much for reading Wolf Castle! I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please leave a review on Amazon by clicking HERE. It really helps and I really appreciate it!

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