“I wish you’d told me sooner, Micah,” she began in a small voice.

My stomach plummeted.

“Because there I was all this time,” she continued, “thinking that you didn’t love me… the way I love you.”

Cheers and wolf-whistles erupted in my head. Micah closed the distance between them and, running his hands through Kira’s hair, claimed her lips. They kissed chastely at first, then with abandon.

I shot a look back at Caleb and gave him a big thumbs up. He shook his head in rebuke, even as his chest vibrated from laughing.

Now I had no more excuses to be here. Remaining ducked below the boulders, I made my way back to Caleb.

“Shall we proceed?” he said, rolling his eyes.

“Yes,” I said, looping my arm through his. “Let’s.”

Chapter 40: Rose

I didn’t let myself get distracted again. Even when we passed Griffin with Becky, we continued walking. They appeared to be too wrapped up in each other anyway to notice us.

Gavin and Zinnia had considered Griffin too newly turned and unstable in his abilities to fight, so they’d insisted that he stayed in the mountains with the humans. Even though Griffin and Becky had just spent many hours together in the Black Heights, they couldn’t seem to get enough of each other. I still felt nothing but thrilled for him—it certainly helped to ease the guilt I felt whenever he looked my way.

Arriving outside the entrance to the Black Heights, I felt my palms begin to sweat. I moved to push open the door, but Caleb held me back—apparently sensing my discomfort. He looked down at me with concern.

“Do you want to take a moment?” he asked.

It was uncanny how he seemed to know me better than I knew myself sometimes.

I swallowed hard and nodded. “Yeah.”

I turned to face the clearing that had served as our battleground only hours ago. The dead witches and vampires had been scraped off the ground and disposed of—I didn’t know where. But the signs of the mighty struggle still remained etched on the charred grass.

I began to replay the last conversation I’d had with the fire breathers. Instead of stealing me away, they’d agreed to consider remaining on this island and finding mates from the human girls who lived here. But the more I thought about our discussion, the more I realized how many holes there were in my representation to my father of how “settled” things were with the dragons.

What exactly did they even mean by “needing females”? Were they looking for partners—lovers—or just… baby machines? I’d assumed at the time they’d meant the former—that they’d romance and fall in love with a girl. But I had no idea how these bizarre creatures’ minds worked. Consensual to them could hold an entirely different meaning to us.

My gut clenched. I should have used my brain before offering up the island’s entire population of single women.

And once the dragons had made their choices, would they take the girls back to their realm forever?

What was stopping them from stealing away all the girls and then swiping me as well? Were these noble creatures, or were they brutes? Given my recent escapades with Caleb, I didn’t exactly have a pleasant taste left over in my mouth when it came to the dealings of various types of supernaturals.

I realized I was ignoring Caleb’s advice to not dwell on what-ifs, but right now, I couldn’t help myself.

Doubt upon doubt assailed my mind, until I reached the point of being overwhelmed.

Caleb had meant for me to take a moment to gather my calm before stepping inside. I’d just gone and triggered the beginnings of a nervous breakdown.

But it was clear that waiting any longer before stepping inside would only make things worse. So I stopped pacing up and down and moved toward the door.

Caleb gripped the back of my shoulder blades, digging his fingers into my tense muscles. “Take a deep breath, Maiden of Fire.”

Although he’d called me it in jest, somehow that name combined with the release of tension in my muscles made my breathing steadier, my thoughts a little less frenzied.

I caught his hand and held it tight as we walked through the entrance. We moved quickly to the chamber where I’d left them all. I was relieved when we heard deep voices echoing down the corridor toward us—at least they hadn’t left to wander around some other part of the island and their voices didn’t sound angry. Still, my hand was shaking as I pushed open the door to their room.

When we stepped inside, a hushed silence fell about the chamber as all eyes fixed on Caleb and me.

“I’m sorry for the wait,” I said, looking from one to the other and doing my best to feign confidence. Even though I’d seen them all together before in their humanoid forms on guiding them in here, it was still a shock to the system to be suddenly subjected to a whole room full of these fierce, disquietingly powerful men.

I was amazed by how unfazed Caleb was by them. I didn’t detect even the slightest quickening in his breathing, though he kept a strong hold on me as we walked into the center of the room. Caleb had been through so much in his life, I supposed he was fearless in the face of most things.

Jeriad stepped to the front of the crowd and towered over me. I held his aquamarine gaze as steadily as I could.

“We’ve decided we want this island’s human females.”

My heart hammered against my chest. “I-I’m glad you were able to come to a decision,” I said. “I do have some questions for you. Shall we take a seat?” I gestured toward the benches lining the edges of the room.