Oh, dear.

This is much worse than I thought.

Caleb reached the roof and moved to wrap an arm around me. As much as I wanted to feel his touch, I gave him a sharp look. “I’m too hot,” I whispered.

I didn’t like the way Jeriad was staring at Caleb.

“You need females,” I said, gulping as I stepped in front of Caleb. “While I’m, uh, unavailable, I’m sure if you stayed with us long enough, beautiful men like yourselves could win the hearts of many a lady on this island.”

Jeriad paused, looking over his shoulder at the dragons still hovering in the air behind him.

“Do they possess fire as you do?” he asked.

“Um… not exactly.”

“Then they can’t help us. Only you—”

A grey-blue scaled dragon approached behind Jeriad, manifesting into a brown-haired humanoid form and jumping down onto the roof beside him.

“We should consider the maiden’s proposal,” the man said.

Jeriad shot a look at him. “What do you mean, Ridan?”

Ridan looked at me thoughtfully before replying, “You forget Farrias. One of the mightiest warriors in our history. Yet he was the result of the illicit affair between Sideon and his human servant, Trisanda.”

“That example hardly makes your case,” Jeriad replied. “You’re speaking of a legend. Sideon could have impregnated any species and the child would have turned out as strong. We don’t all possess Sideon’s potency.”

My insides writhed when Jeriad’s gaze wandered back to me. It was clear he was running out of patience.

A third dragon transformed into his human form and stood next to Ridan and Jeriad. His hair was silver-streaked and he had moss green eyes.

“I still agree with Ridan. If this island is filled with humans as the lady says, they might prove to be more valuable to us than her alone, even though she does possess fire. True, the majority of us are not like Sideon, but we might not need to be. Our strength might be enough.”

Jeriad exhaled deeply. “But Erisard’s instruction was explicit.”

“He wasn’t aware of the large human population on this island,” Ridan said.

A tense silence ensued as the trio stared at each other.

I dared break the silence after a minute had passed. “I, uh, don’t mean to interrupt, but if you’re even considering staying with us, you ought to know that our humans are currently in grave danger. An army of black witches is on this island and they’re after our humans. If we don’t do something about it, you won’t even have this option any more.”

“Black witches?” Jeriad’s eyes sharpened.

“Yes. They might have even found our humans as we speak and be stealing them.”

Ridan gripped Jeriad’s shoulder. “We don’t have to make a final decision now. But we should keep this option open. Even Neros agrees the humans could be valuable. Let’s help them drive these scum away, and in the meantime we can think about what our decision should be. I fully believe this is what Erisard would instruct us if he was here.”

To my relief, Jeriad grunted and leapt up, transforming back into a mighty dragon in mid-air. Neros and Ridan followed suit, joining the rest of their horde surrounding us in the sky.

I felt Caleb’s arms wrap around my waist. I leapt back instinctively, expecting him to be burnt.

“You’re not hot,” he said softly, staring at me in awe. “You’re just warm.”

That was shocking to me. I wondered if perhaps because he was a cold vampire, he didn’t notice it as much. Either that, or I was beginning to get control of my body temperature along with the flames that burst from my fingertips. I didn’t have much time to ponder over it, however, as Jeriad’s voice boomed down.

“Where to, maiden?” He lowered to our level, indicating that we mount him.

I couldn’t help but grin to myself as I climbed up onto his back, Caleb sliding onto his hide behind me. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to being addressed as maiden.

I didn’t know what was going on now around the island. It had been a while since I’d been watching the battle scene on the beach from the top of the mountain. I twisted my head back to look at Caleb. “Where should we go first?”

There was a sadness in his eyes as he said, “We should just head straight for the mountains. That’s where the witches are heading toward.”

“Okay,” I said, looking back down at the dragon. I pointed toward the mountain peaks in the distance. “Those are the mountains.”

I held on tight as we began speeding toward the distance. Launching higher into the sky, I gasped at the sheer extent of the destruction. My heart ached to see the damage to our beautiful redwoods. Some of it I was sure was caused by my father’s fiery battle near the entrance to the Residences, but the vast majority of it was due to the dragons.

I prayed that we hadn’t lost anyone to those flames, yet I couldn’t see any way these flames hadn’t caused at least some casualties. Somehow, I suspected that the sadness in Caleb’s eyes was confirmation of this. But I dared not ask him now. I couldn’t afford to break down. Now, I had to be stronger than ever to help The Shade survive this battle and keep the dragons on our side.

Caleb’s hand slid to the base of my throat. He bent my neck gently back against his shoulder. Pressing his lips against mine, he kissed me slowly and tenderly.

His voice was hoarse as he whispered into my ear, “I’ve never felt prouder to be your man, Rose Novak.”