The poor teens were so shell shocked they struggled even to stand. We all gathered around them, helping them up, and herded them back toward the room that held the gate. Kiev entered last and bolted the door shut.
“Caleb and Rose,” Aiden said. “Why don’t you two go down first and wait for these humans at the other end? We’ll make sure they get there safely.”
Caleb and I leapt through. I held on tight to him as we hurtled down, wincing at the way my stomach somersaulted.
Landing on the other side, I knew immediately that something was wrong. Very wrong. The room was veiled with smoke, and the temperature was much higher than when we’d left. I climbed up and poked my head through the hole where the trap door had been. The door to the chamber above the basement was closed, but smoke was leaking through the bottom of it. I shot Caleb a panicked glance.
The dragons have been breathing too much fire.
The first of the humans began flying into the room, landing on the floor all around us. Several of them began coughing immediately at the smoke. About a minute later, everyone was through the gate. We all climbed up into the room above and I approached the door nervously. I opened it ever so slightly and peered through the crack. A wave of heat scorched my eyeballs, blurring my vision. I clasped a hand to my mouth. The entire entrance hall was ablaze. Walls of fire closed in around us, blocking the windows and the exit.
I slammed the door shut, choking, and looked toward Ibrahim.
“We’re going to need water. Lots of water.”
Chapter 26: Rose
Two girls fainted behind us from the fumes. Griffin and Gavin picked them up and flung them over their shoulders.
“Hurry,” I said.
Ibrahim rushed to the door and opened it slightly. More smoke spilled through. To my horror, he stepped right out and slammed the door behind him.
“What—?”
I hurried to the door instinctively and was about to open it to peer through, but Aiden held me back. “Ibrahim knows what he’s doing. Don’t open it again. We’re suffocating enough as it is.”
I pressed my ear against the door. “Ibrahim?”
I heard him muttering a chant on the other side, giving me relief that he was all right.
The door opened again about a minute later and this time, it wasn’t to another wave of smoke. Cool air drifted inside. I looked over Ibrahim’s shoulder to find myself looking down a narrow tunnel of flowing water, blocking off the flames on all sides and leading directly to the main exit.
Thank God we brought a warlock.
Ibrahim opened the door wide, then stepped back into the tunnel of water he had just created.
“It’s safe to come now,” he said calmly.
We ushered the humans out of the room and instructed them to follow Ibrahim in single file. He began leading them toward the end of the tunnel. Carrying two girls, Gavin and Griffin followed before the rest of us. The humans gazed around at the water in awe. I was sure that most of them believed that they were in a dream.
I heaved a sigh of relief as a freezing gust of fresh air blew through the entrance.
Soon we had all passed along the tunnel and were standing outside on the snowy steps. The teenagers were dressed mostly in T-shirts and shorts. They began to shiver.
We all looked upward. The dragons were still circling the turrets of the castle like a dark, deadly cloud.
“I’m going to go up there now and bring them back down,” Ibrahim said.
Ibrahim vanished. When he reappeared again, he was high up in the sky, levitating beside the silver-orange scaled form of Jeriad. I watched them exchange some words and then they all descended to the ground. Several of the younger teens screamed as they noticed the beasts.
I hurried toward them, holding out my hands. “It’s okay. They’re not going to hurt you.”
I doubted a single human heard my words amid their own screaming.
“Silence!” Kiev bellowed.
The teens fell silent instantly, their eyes now fixed on the grumpy green-eyed vampire in fear.
“It’s okay,” I repeated, even as the dragons touched down on the mountain. “They’re here to help you, I promise.”
Jeriad climbed over the rocks toward us.
“What happened?” Caleb called up to him.
“The witches didn’t put up much of a fight,” Jeriad replied. “They tried at first to protect the castle, but once they saw how many of us there were, they vanished… What took you so long?”
“Oh, long story,” I said, casting a glance at the humans, who were shivering more and more with each moment that passed. The dragons’ eyes shot toward them. Before any of the teens could start screaming again, I said, “We have to leave now.”
“And go where?” Griffin asked, still carrying a girl over his shoulder.
“According to the news,” Aiden said, “they were taken from California.”
California. I looked from the humans, to the dragons, then back to the humans. I walked over to the teens.
“Uh… have you ever wondered what it might be like to ride on a dragon?”
Chapter 27: Rose
The teens were still too terrified to go near the dragons… understandably. They backed away as soon as I suggested going anywhere near the creatures.
“Jeriad,” I said, straining my neck toward his towering form. “Would you mind changing back into a human in front of these humans? It will help ease their nerves.”
Jeriad looked irritated at my request, but I was relieved when he granted it.
“Watch,” I said, addressing the humans. “You’ll see in a moment that he’s just a man.”
They gaped as Jeriad’s dragon form shrank, leaving in its place a man—albeit an extremely intimidating man. After all the humans had the chance to stare at him, he assumed his dragon form again.
“There’s no time for this,” Caleb said impatiently. “We don’t know that the witches are truly gone. We must leave.”
He bent down and reached for the nearest human to him—a boy who looked about fifteen. He helped the boy onto his back, then gestured with a nod to Jeriad. The dragon lowered his hand for Caleb to climb up onto, then raised him onto his back. Caleb helped the boy wedge between the dragon’s scales and leapt back down.
He glanced at the others. “Well? What are you waiting for?”
“At least two of us need to accompany the humans on each dragon,” I said.
We set to work assisting the humans in climbing atop the dragons. Then the rest of us mounted.
“Hold on tight,” I whispered to the humans now sandwiched between Caleb and me.
They looked dumbstruck as they stared down at the scales they were clinging to. Some of them yelped when the dragons launched into the air. Rising higher and higher in the sky, we glanced down at the burning castle—enveloped so completely I could barely make out a single patch of stone wall. The firelight flickered in Caleb’s brown eyes as he stared at it. I couldn’t imagine what it must’ve felt like for him to watch that place burn to the ground. I smiled at him when he finally turned to face me.
“How are you feeling?”
“Pretty damn good.”
“Hey,” Micah—now in his wolf form—barked from the dragon behind us. “What about Stellan’s island?” He shared the same look of euphoria as Caleb in watching the castle burn. “I’d really like to see their base there burnt down too.”
“We can’t.” Caleb gestured to the humans. “Firstly, we’ve got these people to drop off. Secondly, we don’t have any way to get inside. We haven’t captured any hostages.”
I was sure that Micah expected that answer, but he looked disappointed all the same.
And so the dragons carried us away from the mountain range, over the woods, and toward the ocean. As we passed the boundary, it was dark outside now. The wind conjured up by the dragons’ mighty wings combined with the cool sea breeze made me terrified that one of the humans was going to slip off into the dar
k waves. I looked over at Ibrahim, who was riding on the dragon parallel to us. “Is there anything you can do to make them more secure?”
He thought for a moment, then nodded. Less than a minute later, a thick rope closed around my waist. The rope expanded, wrapping around the girl in front of me, and continued until it reached Caleb’s waist. Now we were all bound together on the dragon. I could breathe much more easily. I looked around to see that Ibrahim had done the same with everyone else.
Although it was still chilly, most of the humans had stopped shivering by now. An hour into the journey, several boys’ and girls’ heads began to loll. They must’ve been exhausted. I felt thankful that I had thought to ask Ibrahim to secure them.
Sitting at opposite ends on Jeriad’s back, Caleb and I didn’t say much for the rest of the journey. But I felt his gaze on me almost the whole time. The lightness of his mood that had come from witnessing the burning of his old castle hadn’t left him even now. He was floating.
After a couple of hours, Caleb twisted round and faced forward. He began to give precise directions to Jeriad. After another hour, I caught sight of glimmering lights in the distance. We were fast approaching the shore.
“You see that beach there,” Caleb said to Jeriad, pointing, “the one that’s the most lit up? We should land there.”
I patted the girl in front of me on the shoulder. Her head rested on the back of the boy in front of her. She was sound asleep. I shook her a little until she sat up straight.
“You’re almost home,” I whispered, squeezing her shoulders.
The beach was almost empty at this time of night. We crossed the last of the ocean and touched down on the sand. A couple who were walking by began screaming at the top of their lungs and racing away.
We couldn’t remain here long. I doubted we had much time before dozens of people began swarming the beach to take a look at this bizarre spectacle. While I had a fair amount of trust in the dragons, after witnessing their behavior with our own humans, I didn’t want to try their patience. I didn’t know how they would react to these humans—they weren’t residents of The Shade, after all.
Ibrahim vanished the ropes that had been fastening us all to the humans and we helped them down off the backs of the dragons as fast as we could. I was glad to see that the two girls Gavin and Griffin had been looking after had come to by now. They were looking around wide-eyed and anxious.
“Gather round,” I called to the humans, beckoning them toward me.
“We need to contact the police,” Aiden said.
“Why don’t you, Ibrahim and Caleb come with me,” I replied. “We’ll take these people and the rest of you can wait here with the dragons.”
Since there were no objections, we set off. Sand soon gave way to concrete, and we found ourselves standing at the side of a busy road. I looked straight ahead on the opposite side. There was a line of restaurants.
We crossed the road carefully while herding all the teens and reached the other side. Aiden led us into the nearest restaurant to us. It was packed with diners. There was no way that all the humans would fit in here, so I suggested that I go in while the men waited with the teens outside. I pushed open the double doors and headed straight for the welcome desk.
“I need to contact the police urgently. May I use the phone?”
The woman behind the desk parted her lips in surprise, then nodded and handed me a phone. “Of course.”
I dialed the emergency code. As soon as I was connected, I explained that I had with me over twenty missing people. I gave the name of the restaurant, then hung up.
“Thank you,” I said to the woman.
She was still gaping at me as I hurried out of the restaurant.
“Well?” Caleb asked as I emerged outside.
“They’re coming.” I turned to the teens. “It won’t be long now until you’re back with your parents. The police are coming.”
The teens already looked much more relaxed being in this familiar environment, and now they were positively beaming.
I was impressed that we had to wait barely five minutes. Cars pulled up all around us and uniformed police officers hurried toward us. They headed straight for the teens, except for one—a tall caramel-skinned woman with short cropped hair. Her eyes traveled from me to each of the men, then back to me.
“You are the person who called?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Your name?” she asked.
I was about to blurt out my real name, but I wondered whether that was wise. Of course, it wasn’t like these police knew about the Novaks, but all the same, I decided I preferred anonymity.
“Alice Jenkins,” I said, offering a hand to her. She shook it firmly.
“Ms. Jenkins, we’re going to take you and these gentlemen in for questioning. Please step this way.” She pointed back to her vehicle.
I shot Ibrahim a glance, and he nodded. None of us wanted to get entangled in a lengthy interview process, so we all huddled closer to the warlock. I cast one last lingering glance over the teens just before we all vanished.
We reappeared again on the beach. I was shocked to see how quickly the situation had escalated. Swarms of humans were now surrounding the dragons, although they were keeping a fair distance. They all had their phones out as they took pictures and recorded footage.
Micah and the three vampires looked relieved to see us as we approached. The dragons, still in their giant forms, were looking irritated by the flashing. Before more people could arrive, we climbed back onto the dragons and they took off again into the sky. Gasps of awe erupted from the beach below. Climbing closer to Caleb on the dragon’s back, I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked back at the glimmering shoreline. Although my heart was warmed to imagine those teens returning to their parents, I couldn’t help but feel grief for those we had left behind. And for those the witches had yet still to make victims out of. For those we couldn’t save.
The work we had done tonight was just a drop in the ocean.
“We have to end Lilith,” I whispered.
Chapter 28: Derek
After letting the hunter go, I left the alleyway and walked back toward the beach. I found Corrine with Sofia beneath the shade of a cluster of trees, where I had told them to wait.
“What happened?” Sofia asked, looking me over anxiously as I approached.
I gathered her to me, holding the back of her head and placing a kiss on her forehead. “I dealt with him.”
“So it really was a hunter?” she asked.
I nodded. Caleb had told us about the fracas he’d had with the hunters on his way to try to rescue us from Annora’s curse. It really was no surprise that an organization had formed again after Aiden had shut it down about two decades ago. There had been too many victims since then thanks to the black witches’ vampires.
“Did you kill the bastard?” Corrine asked.
“No. I just gave him a good shaking. He won’t shoot so carelessly next time he sees a vampire.” I placed an arm around Sofia’s waist and looked at the witch. “Let’s return now, before there are any more distractions.”
Corrine grabbed hold of the two of us and barely three seconds later, we were gone. Once the air stopped rushing around us, the familiar sight of the Port came into view. “Let’s hope that by now Mona has come up with something.” I imagined that the black witches might be stealing more teenagers as I spoke.
“Why don’t we visit Xavier and Vivienne first?” Sofia said. “It’s on the way.”
But when we arrived at my sister and brother-in-law’s apartment, nobody was at home. Since Aiden’s tree was the next one along, we checked in there. He wasn’t at home either. We were about to head for Mona and Kiev’s after that when someone shouted down at us. We looked up to see Zinnia waving from Eli’s balcony.
“Come up here!” she yelled.
We hurried up the tree and Zinnia grabbed Sofia’s arm as soon as we exited the elevator.
“Zinnia, wha
t—?”
She dragged us through Eli’s front door. The living room was packed with people. Their backs turned toward us, they all seemed to be focused on the television.
“Guys,” Zinnia said, “they’re back.”
Two dozen people spun around to greet us. I noted Xavier and Vivienne right at the front near Eli. Then my eyes traveled further along the room and fixed on the screen. Sofia, Corrine and I gasped at once.
I squinted, pushing my way through the crowd closer to the television, believing that my eyes must’ve been mistaken. But they weren’t. Sofia and I knelt right in front of the screen, so close that the glare hurt my eyes.
We were looking at a sandy beach crowded with dragons. Several men in dark clothes stood next to them, and surrounding the group were swarms of humans.
The woman reporting the scene on the television seemed lost for words as she stammered and stuttered her way through trying to describe the situation.
As the camera zoomed in further, I could clearly make out the features of the men standing right by the dragons. Kiev, Griffin and Gavin. Now I also spotted a wolf sitting nearby—Micah, it seemed. Corrine clasped a hand to her mouth, kneeling down beside us.
Before any of us could voice our bewilderment, Zinnia spoke. “As you can see, some of us left the island—my boys included. Rose got it into her head that we ought to storm the witches’ islands in search of the humans.”
“Rose? Did she go, too?”
“Yes.”
I glared at Xavier and Vivienne, who looked like they were steeling themselves. “I didn’t give anyone permission to leave before we returned,” I said. “Especially not Rose. Why would you have let her go?”
Vivienne stood up and walked over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Calm down. Rose is safe. They all arrived in California—Ibrahim, Caleb and Aiden went too. The reporter just mentioned before you entered that about two dozen teens have been dropped off at a nearby police department.”