I gaped at them, their gleaming eyes fixed on us as they circled overhead. I spread my legs, preparing to unleash a storm of fire.
“Wait, Derek!” Corrine yelled.
I paused, staring at the witch in confusion. She was staring up at the largest dragon.
“It’s Rose,” she gasped.
The dragons dropped lower and lower until they touched down on the ground in front of us. There was she was, looking fierce as she rode atop the mightiest of the horde with her boyfriend sitting behind her.
My girl.
No matter how much I tried to keep her out of danger, she always found a way to run right back to it.
A Novak if there ever was one.
Chapter 34: Rose
My father gaped at me as we descended in the sky. I jumped from Jeriad’s back and touched down on the grass. Running up to him, I flung my arms around his shoulders.
“Rose,” he whispered into my ear, “what is going on?”
I drew away and looked back at the dragons. “I’ve talked the dragons into cooperation. They’re going to help us fight the black witches. In return, we need to just… uh, let them stay on this island and romance all the single ladies.”
He stared at me incredulously. “What?”
“Yeah… You heard that right.”
He spun round to face the dragons before turning back to me and running a hand through his hair. “All right,” he muttered. “Dear God, this night can’t get any stranger.”
A snapping of twigs came from across the clearing. My heart hammered in my chest as we all whirled around toward the source of the noise. Could it be the black witches have arrived already?
My fear turned to relief as my mother emerged from the trees followed by a group of vampires. Xavier was alongside her, Kiev and Yuri immediately behind. Then came Ashley and Landis. Abby and Erik. Gavin and Zinnia. Matteo and Helina. Trailing behind all of them were the two ogres, Brett and Bella, hauling along two barrels filled with what appeared to be guns. My stomach plummeted when they were the last two figures to exit the woods.
Where is everyone else?
Their faces were filled with a mixture of shock and fear as they laid eyes on the dragons, but seeing that they were causing no harm, they continued running toward us. Reaching our side of the field, they all looked in a horrendous state. Every part of their skin that was visible was smeared with blood, ash and sweat.
I was almost knocked to the ground as my mother ran up to me and held me in her arms, burying her face in my neck. Her eyes were bright red and filled with tears, as though she might have been crying for hours.
“Mom!” I gasped. “What happened?”
She didn’t reply as she flung herself next into my father’s arms. Her body shook against him as she broke down sobbing against his chest.
“Darling?” he asked, brushing back her sticky hair from her face. “Where were you? What’s been going on?”
She seemed to be too hysterical to answer even him. In many ways, her non-answer was more terrifying than if she’d just explained. Terrifying scenario after scenario began to blast through my mind until I found tears streaming down my own cheeks. I was already prepared for the worst.
Caleb ran up to me and gathered me to him. It was as if he’d read my mind.
“Remember what I told you, my love,” he said softly, planting a kiss on my forehead. “Don’t fear what-ifs.”
Biting my lip, I gulped back a sob. “But you saw what happened, didn’t you?”
He swallowed hard before nodding. “But you didn’t. And now you have to stay strong.”
“I know,” I said, trying to steady my breathing. “I know.”
I stepped away from him and dried my eyes with the back of my hand.
Even if everyone who didn’t show up here was taken by the flames, I had to shut down my emotions if I wanted to save the people I had left—surrounding me and within the mountains. If we survived this final battle, I would have a lifetime to mourn those we’d lost.
Right now, I had to turn the grief debilitating me into rage.
I straightened my shoulders, willing the heat to begin coursing through my body and swelling beneath my fingertips. I looked back at the dragons, still standing in the same spot in the clearing, waiting patiently for my next instruction.
With fire and sweat, we will win this battle.
Chapter 35: Rose
Once my mother had calmed down a little and my father briefed everyone about why these dragons were present, he addressed the witches. “The fire is still spreading rampant throughout the island. You need to go and start extinguishing the flames.”
Ibrahim looked shocked. “At least a few of us should stay here.”
“You can, Ibrahim,” my father replied. “But I want everyone else to deal with the fire. We’re in the company of dragons now and your help is less useful here.”
Corrine hugged Ibrahim and kissed him passionately before stepping away and vanishing along with the other witches.
Then my father turned to the rest of us. “Those black witches might arrive through those trees at any moment now. I suggest we all climb aboard our new allies and continue this conversation in the air.”
And so it was done. Caleb and I hurried back to Jeriad and pulled ourselves onto his back. My mother and father mounted Ridan, while Gavin and Zinnia climbed atop Neros. There were more than enough dragons to go round, but—other than Kiev, Yuri, Ibrahim and Xavier who took a dragon for themselves—the rest of the couples shared.
The ogres remained on the ground, dipping into their barrels and equipping everyone with four guns each. They both had looks of sheer terror as they gaped up at the dragons.
“What about Bella and Brett?” I called to my parents while we all launched into the sky. “We can’t just leave them there.”
“We don’t want to call anyone to open up the mountain entrance at a time like this,” my father replied. He stared down at the two of them. “Brett,” he called, pointing toward the distance. “Do you see that cabin up there on the mountainside? Take Bella with you and hurry there now.”
Brett didn’t need to be asked twice. They both dropped the barrels and went trundling off.
“Gather round,” my father called as we rose higher and higher. The dragons positioned themselves over the treetops nearby, rather than directly above the clearing, so as to not cast shadows down and draw attention. I was tempted to look toward the direction of the devastation, but I stopped myself just in time.
Focus, Rose. Focus.
“We’ll wait up here until they enter the clearing,” my father continued. “Then we’ll take them by surprise.”
The wait that followed was agonizing. We all attempted to remain deathly silent, and thankfully, even the dragons had no problem with this. Their wings beat quietly around us for such large creatures.
“You’re going to have to crawl back once I start shooting fire,” I murmured to Caleb. “Or I’ll burn you alive.”
He nodded, his eyes fixed on the clearing.
“Do you hear that?” Xavier breathed beside us after several minutes. He looked at my father, who nodded slowly.
“They’re approaching,” he mouthed back. He met eyes with everyone, and being vampires, they’d already heard and understood.
“Okay, Jeriad,” I whispered, tightening my grip on his scales. “Here we go.”
My hands were beginning to shake again from the pressure of the fire building behind them. Actually, being atop a dragon now, I would be better served firing guns at them—something the dragons couldn’t do—but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stop myself sending flames down all the same. My heart was drowning in fury.
The moment the first of the crowd of black witches stepped into the clearing, Caleb moved backward, away from me along the dragon’s back, and began positioning his guns, while all the dragons lowered closer against the treetops. The dragons waited until the entire army of witches had gathered—followed b
y a dozen or so of their vampires—before they all swooped down. My eardrums ached from the explosion of gunshots.
Our opponents didn’t know what hit them as they looked skyward in shock, just in time to see flames escape the dragons’ jaws and gush toward them. I took particular pleasure in seeing Rhys’ stunned face. Deadly curses shot toward us, but they rebounded off the dragons’ hides, redirecting toward their own people. Several of their vampires were felled instantly in this way.
The dragons circled round and round like a deadly whirlpool, drawing closer and closer to them on the ground—all the while intensifying their fire while we rained bullets down on them. Fire shot from my own palms, merging in with the dragons’ blaze. My eyes watering from the heat and smoke, I hoped our vampires were coping with the temperature. I looked back at Caleb. He looked too absorbed in firing shots in Isolde’s direction to notice much else.
By now, there wasn’t a vampire left standing and I hoped the witches’ palms had already been too damaged by the heat for them to be able to escape the fiery cage the dragons had created. But in that, I was wrong. Rhys, Julisse, Isolde and perhaps two dozen others disappeared from sight.
“Derek, watch out!” Caleb yelled, pointing toward a blazing ball of blue flames hurtling toward my parents at their level.
Ridan raised his right wing just in time, blocking the curse and sending it hurtling down to the ground.
“We need to take out the leaders,” I said suddenly. “Rhys, his sisters or Isolde. Those four are the most powerful.”
“I already killed one of his sisters,” Caleb muttered. “The younger one.”
“Oh, good… Jeriad,” I said, suddenly recalling Annora’s fate. “Swing your tail, stinger—whatever you call that sharp thing—around.”
It would be like waving a knife in the dark, but those things were long and if I were a witch, even if I was invisible and floating in the air, it would disconcert me to have fifty or so of those lethal things flying about. It would certainly impede their aim.
The other dragons began to follow suit as soon as they noticed what Jeriad was doing.
A shriek came from my left. I turned in time to see a black witch fall through the air and hit the ground, motionless. A hole had been gouged through her stomach. The tail of the dragon Kiev was riding on was soaked in blood. While the witch who’d just been felled wasn’t Rhys, Isolde or Julisse, this was a start.
Encouraged, the dragons began flailing their tails around more wildly. A little too wildly. I had to scream at Caleb to duck as Ridan’s tail came hurtling toward us. We both kept our heads down low against Jeriad’s back after that.
Another scream drew my attention. A short warlock with a bald head had been skewered through the groin on the tail of Xavier’s dragon. Now that he was visible, Zinnia shot bullets through his palms, then his head—not that it seemed necessary.
After two more black witches met similar grisly deaths by Neros and Yuri’s dragon, the curses shot toward us appeared to be emanating from a greater distance. The witches were retreating toward the direction of the ocean.
“Follow them!” my father shouted.
The dragons flew toward them, breathing another storm of fire. And as they did, a panicked female voice—perhaps Isolde’s—cried out, “Retreat!”
We followed their trail until we reached the beach, where we lost track of them.
“How do we know they’re gone?” I asked nervously. “They’re still invisible. What if this is a trick, and they just circle back round toward the mountains?”
“We should head back there,” Xavier replied. “Though I’m not sure there’s enough of them remaining to be any match for us, now that we have dragons.”
“I agree. And I think they know that,” my father said as the dragons flew us back toward the Black Heights.
Still, our fire breathers positioned themselves around all sides of the mountains. We all waited with the dragons for hours—some hovering in the air, some on the ground, others perched on cliffs—except Xavier, Ashley and Landis, who hurried inside the Black Heights to make sure everyone was all right.
After six long, tense hours had passed, with no signs of the witches returning, we could only conclude that they’d gone.
Chapter 36: Sofia
A part of me was still in denial, while the other part had already given in to the truth.
We all had so much to do in the aftermath of the witches and dragons’ attacks, yet all I wanted was to lock myself in a room and curl up in a ball.
The nightmarish scene I’d witnessed by the beach still remained etched in my mind’s eye, playing mercilessly, over and over again.
The blistering wave of heat. The cyclone of fire.
The cries of those scrambling to get away.
The silence of those who couldn’t.
Once the dragons had sent down their flames, it had been hard to see for more than a few feet in front of me. I’d been situated further back in the clearing behind the beach, away from the brunt of the first inferno, but if I hadn’t run just when I had, mine would have been another life claimed.
I hadn’t even seen the final count of people whom the black witches had lined up along the beach. But I knew Saira, Micah and countless other werewolves—practically helpless against the witches in their four-legged form—had been there. Claudia, Eli and so many others in our vampire army had been there.
I knew my father had been there.
The dragons. The victory over the black witches. The sight of my daughter spouting flames. All of it faded into the background as grief consumed me. Traveling through the air on our dragon, back toward the most devastated area of the island, I couldn’t even speak as Derek asked me to recount what happened. I just pointed feebly toward the direction of the Port.
Most of the flames had been extinguished by now, thanks to our witches’ efforts, but this left me all the more terrified to look around as we touched down on the charred sand. There was barely a single discernible object—just lumps of ash.
I found myself leaving Derek’s side and wandering toward the strip of sand where my father had been imprisoned. Fallen trees lay atop it, and beneath, more piles of ash. I fell to my knees, dropping my head into my hands. I shut my eyes tight. After all Aiden Claremont, most feared of all the hunters, had been through… for it to end like this.
It was too much to bear. Tears streamed down my cheeks like rivers, wetting the parched ground.
Someone touched my shoulder. I couldn’t look up, but from her scent, I sensed that it was Rose. She wrapped her arms around me and buried her face against my neck. The tears on her own cheeks moistened my skin.
“Grandpa,” she choked. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”
I wasn’t sure if Caleb had told her or if she’d just guessed, but hearing my daughter speak those words was salt to my already gaping wound. I grabbed her and pulled her close, breathing into her hair. I sensed my husband approach. He knelt on the ground beside us.
“Dad,” Rose sobbed, “is there no way they could have survived?”
Derek sighed heavily. “We’ll search the island, darling.”
Slipping an arm around both of our waists, he pulled us into standing position and propped us up against him as we headed back toward the group. I was relieved that Derek took charge of things when I was in no state to.
“Ibrahim,” Derek said. “Have all the fires been extinguished now?”
“Yes,” the warlock replied.
“Then send word to Xavier that people can come out of the mountains now.”
When Ibrahim vanished, he turned to Corrine. “Has Mona been located?”
“Not yet, Derek,” she said, shaking her head sadly.
Kiev cursed, dropping to his knees and slamming a fist against the ground.
“Then whatever protection you can restore over this island,” Derek continued steadily, “restore it now.”
“Okay,” Corrine said. “I’d like at least three witches to help
me.” She gathered together Adelle, Leyni and another witch, Shayla, before vanishing with them all.
I gazed at Yuri standing opposite me with blurred vision. I couldn’t imagine the pain he was going through. He’d lost both brother and wife in one swoop.
“And now,” Derek continued, “we need to search the island for more survivors. We’ll start with areas that are worst affected and move on from there. We must leave no stone unturned.” He looked at Bella and Brett. “You two are in charge of searching the caves. If you find anyone, report back immediately. Everyone else will search the rest of the island.”
And so we dispersed. Although I couldn’t conceive of how anyone who’d been on the beach when the dragons had struck could have survived, my heart kept the hope alive.
We spent the next five hours running around the island, searching through the charred undergrowth and moving toward the areas that hadn’t been touched by the flames. We shouted out names until our voices broke.
Kiev’s voice rang out in the distance. “I’ve found Mona!”
Hurrying toward him, I found him standing on the old rowing boat in the middle of the lake, the witch lying unconscious in his arms.
“She was just lying here… in this boat!” A mixture of joy and relief filled his voice, two emotions that I prayed I’d be experiencing shortly.
“How do you think she got there?” I called.
“No idea,” he said as he began to navigate the boat toward me. “She’s breathing, thank God. So I guess we’ll find out once she comes to.” He reached the bank and leapt out before racing away with Mona. “I’m taking her to Corrine,” he shouted back over his shoulder.
As he disappeared into the dark woods, my hope strengthened that perhaps we’d find the others too.
But that renewed hope only ended up causing more pain.
We didn’t find them.
After what felt like my seventh time traveling past the same stretch of forest, I finally stopped and stood still, staring around at the ravaged trees.