Frustration filled me that my parents had left without me. I didn’t want to just sit here on this island. I wanted to help do something to combat this situation.

Caleb seemed to notice my restlessness. He frowned as he looked down at me. “What are you thinking?”

“I hate sitting still.” I began pacing slowly up and down the floorboards. “Has Mona made any progress since they left?”

“I’ve heard no news.”

Caleb’s words replayed in my mind.

We need to make this as difficult for the witches as possible.

More difficult…

“My parents have left, but is everyone else still here?” I asked.

“To my knowledge,” he replied.

There were so many more of us on this island, just sitting here. It seemed a waste of time for us to just be sitting here doing nothing.

I sat down on the bench, dropping my head into my hands as I racked my brain.

Think, Rose. Think.

Caleb crouched down in front of me, placing his hands either side of me on the bench. “Your parents wanted us to stay put until they returned.”

But we didn’t know when they were returning.

As I looked up into Caleb’s eyes, an idea struck me. Now that I’d thought of it, I wondered why it hadn’t occurred to me immediately.

Placing my hands on Caleb’s shoulders, I stood up. “Wait here for me. I’ll be back soon.”

Chapter 21: Rose

I left Caleb on the veranda and began hurrying down the mountainside. I ran so fast I almost tripped up a few times, but I didn’t slow down until I reached the entrance to the Black Heights.

The doors had been left wide open. I ran inside and began hurrying along the tunnels toward the dragons’ residences.

I could feel my body temperature rising—sweat forming on my brow—as it always seemed to do when I was in these creatures’ proximity. I had already reached the first corridor where the dragons’ apartments were when I remembered that I was still wearing my nightgown. I had been too immersed in thought to pay any mind to my appearance. I straightened out the nightgown as best as I could and combed my hair with my fingers, trying to make myself look at least a little more presentable before approaching the nearest door to me and knocking.

Hopefully I’m not disturbing anyone too early. I had no idea who was residing in this particular apartment. When the door opened, I found myself face to face with Ridan. His brown hair was tousled and he wore nothing but a sheet wrapped around his muscled waist.

I took a step back. “I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t disturb you.”

He shook his head dismissively.

“I won’t keep you,” I continued quickly. “I just wondered if you could tell me where Jeriad is staying?”

Ridan poked his head out of the door and looked toward his left. He pointed down the corridor. “Jeriad’s door is right at the end.”

“Thank you.”

I hurried off and Ridan closed the door behind him.

I placed my ear against the wooden door as I arrived outside, listening before knocking. To my surprise, I could hear the strumming of some kind of string instrument emanating through the wood, giving me confidence.

I rapped against the door. The music stopped and footsteps approached.

The door swung open and Jeriad appeared behind it. He was fully dressed—at least, as dressed as these dragons ever seemed to get. His chest was still bare but he wore long dark pants and a deep green cloth wrapped around his shoulders. He raised his eyebrows in surprise on seeing me.

“What brings you here, maiden? Would you like to step inside?”

I shook my head. “That won’t be necessary. First, I wanted to ask you how it went last night with the, uh, damsels.”

A subtle look of contentment settled in on the dragon’s face. He nodded slightly. “This island is blessed with some beautiful females.”

“Did you manage to… single anyone out for the prince yet?”

“Not yet. We have arranged for another meeting with the maidens tonight, when each of us will talk further in confidence. After that, we should have come to a decision.”

“Ah, I see.”

It dawned on me that I hadn’t asked the girls how their dates had gone. I made a mental note to do that as soon as I could. I guessed, however, that most of them had gone well if the dragons were meeting them again tonight.

“I wonder,” I continued, dragging my focus back to the real purpose of my visit, “would it be the end of the world if you postponed those meetings to tomorrow evening?”

The dragon frowned. “Why would we do that?”

“Well, it might not be necessary, but I wanted to ask you for a favor. I wanted to ask if you would be able to accompany us on a trip. We would leave this morning and hopefully return by the afternoon, but… I don’t know exactly how it will go. It’s possible we won’t be back until tonight.”

“Where do you want to go? And how many of us would you want to accompany you?”

“At least fifty would be good. Honestly, we can’t have too many. As to where, it is somewhere not too far from here. Within the human realm.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, breathing out deeply. “I suppose that our prince won’t mind a day’s delay. Now that I think of it, it might be beneficial to have a short break between the meetings. It will give both parties more time to mull over our first meeting.”

“Thank you. I do need to speak to someone else before finalizing details. I will return in less than an hour. Would you be able to let the other dragons know in the meantime?”