I looked toward the beach, where a large gathering had formed. My eyes were immediately drawn to the dragons, as were River’s. Our breaths hitched. Covered in a thick armor of gleaming scales and equipped with huge leathery wings and a sting-like tail, they were spectacular creatures I’d truly believed existed only in fairytales.

One of the witches, Leyni, appeared on the roof of our submarine, and she transported all of us by magic to the jetty. I looked around at all those who’d gathered, making eye contact with all the familiar faces, many of whom I still had not seen since I’d left the island.

Micah was the first to approach me, nuzzling my leg with his head. Others greeted me also in the short time we had before my father spoke up.

He was looking toward the dragons. “Since Jeriad, Neros and Ridan refuse to be transported anywhere by magic, one of us is going to have to fly with them to make sure that they arrive at The Oasis.” He looked toward my grandfather. “I was thinking you, Aiden. Do you remember its location from all those years ago when your hunters stormed the place?”

My grandfather paused. “Approximately. Obviously, I’ll need a—”

Eli stepped forward, handing Aiden some kind of flashing box-shaped device. “This will help you navigate there easily. I’ve already entered the coordinates.”

“How long will it take you to get there?” I asked. I had absolutely no idea of the speed at which dragons could fly.

Aiden shrugged. “I’m not sure exactly. Although it’s obviously not as fast as by magic, which is practically instantaneous, dragons do still travel at supernatural speed… It should be within hours. Since your father is planning not to use them anyway, it doesn’t matter if we get there a bit later.”

“I’ll go with you,” a werewolf near Aiden growled.

“Are you sure, Kailyn?” Aidan asked, looking down at her and raising his brow. “It’s not going to be a comfortable ride.”

“I’m sure. I’ll come.”

Kailyn. I guessed that was my grandfather’s new girlfriend.

“All right,” my father said, impatience in his voice. “Let’s go.”

Ibrahim cast a spell of shadow over Aiden to protect him from the sun during the journey, before Aiden and Kailyn sped toward one of the dragons. The beast lowered his massive hands, helping the couple climb up onto his back. Then the three dragons spread their mighty wings and launched upward, beating up a gale-force wind all around us.

Once they were in the air, the rest of us formed a large circle in the clearing, making sure each of us were touching. Then my father gave the signal, and the witches made us all vanish.

Chapter 8: Ben

When the wind stopped howling around me and I opened my eyes, it was the strangest feeling to find myself standing back in the same desert I’d fought for so many weeks to escape.

By now, the sun had almost peeked above the horizon. We needed to move fast, or the witches would need to put a shield over us vampires to protect us from the rays.

Looking around the area, I spotted the hunters’ tanks in the distance. There were several more of them now than there had been before, apparently still waiting and watching this area for supernaturals coming in and out of The Oasis.

I looked at Ibrahim. “You should put a protective spell over all of us now, even if it won’t take long to get inside.” I nodded toward the direction of the tanks. “Don’t underestimate these hunters.” Ibrahim nodded grimly.

While he, Mona and two other witches put up protection over all of us, I caught my father looking toward the hunters. He had a mild look of irritation on his face. A strong gust of wind passed through our crowd, bringing his scent closer to me. Although I was already standing next to River, I pulled her even closer to me and backed away from my father.

After the spell had been cast, I moved with River to the front of the crowd and we began walking closer to where I remembered the boundary had been. We led everyone forward for perhaps five minutes. My hands held out in front of me, I kept expecting to collide with the boundary. But after ten minutes, we were still walking through the expanse of desert. We’d come far past where the boundary should have been—that much was clear to both River and me.

River looked up at me, a look of confusion on her face.

“Where is it?” she breathed.

I had no answer.

I turned to look at our companions, their eyes all fixed on us expectantly.

“We should have reached the boundary by now,” was all I could say. “This… this makes no sense.” I looked around, seeing nothing but endless dunes of sand.

“Are you sure this is the right direction?” my mother asked. “Is there no way you could have been mistaken?”

I was sure that this was the spot, but I was so bewildered as to why we had not already reached it that I scanned our surroundings again all the same.

I shook my head. “No. River and I have just led you right up to it—heck, through it. We should be standing above the atrium right now…”

“Is it possible that they got rid of the boundary?” The question came from Kiev.

“Why on earth would they do that?” I said. “And even if they had gotten rid of it, there should be a camel stable in view. Plus an entrance in the ground… It’s almost like it’s just vanished from the face of the earth.”

“That’s impossible,” River said beneath her breath. “We’ve got to have been mistaken about the spot, Ben.”