Because a gift is to be kept, not given away.

You belong here with us.”

Chapter 23: Rose

Although his words chilled me, I wasn’t about to back down on my request.

I had no choice.

I had to return to the human realm, even if it meant returning with a fire-breathing dragon.

Charis questioned me further about the purpose of my visit there.

I told him that I needed to find an old friend and help him out of a sticky situation.

Charis disappeared for a while, leaving me alone in the cave as he went to discuss my request with Erisard.

I was relieved when he returned and said that his king had agreed.

Next, I had to explain how exactly we were to return.

We needed to travel through the gate in the realm of the ogres, because that led directly to the island where I’d left Caleb and Annora.

Whether they were still on that island remained to be seen.

I couldn’t imagine Caleb leaving without discovering what had happened to me, but Annora was devious and she could have played some tricks in order to convince him.

Whatever the case, our first stop had to be the island.

It was large, but with Charis roaring and myself shouting, Caleb’s ears shouldn’t have a problem picking up our noises.

The other possibility was that Caleb had left the island on the boat he’d been building.

Even then I hoped he wouldn’t have travelled too far on that primitive thing.

Hopefully, Charis and I could track him down in the ocean if we both made enough noise.

If Caleb hadn’t been a vampire, I would have been much more worried about finding him.

But if we managed to make it back to the human realm, I was convinced that if we spent enough time searching for him we’d find him without too much difficulty.

I told the dragon I wanted to leave immediately, and Charis agreed.

Climbing onto his back and holding tight to the scales behind his neck, I clenched my stomach as he launched into the air.

I’d told him I wanted to get the job done as soon as possible and he was taking it to heart.

His speed was breathtaking.

We had almost reached the beach when a cry caught my attention down below.

It was a familiar voice.

“Wait,” I said, squeezing my legs against the dragon’s hide even though it was so rock hard, I was sure he couldn’t feel it.

He slowed down and I scanned the landscape for any clue as to the source of the noise.

And then I saw it.

A dragon in full transformation cornering an ogre at the entrance to a cave.

It was the ogress.

“I want that ogress,” I said.

“I want to bring her with me.” As Charis hesitated, I wondered whether I might have finally found out how far these creatures were willing to go to satisfy my demands.

But then he dipped in the sky and hurtled full speed toward the entrance of the cave.

Landing with a thud that seemed to shake the entire mountain, he moved in between Bella and the dragon who was about to pounce on her.

“Find yourself another one,” Charis muttered to the dragon as he nudged Bella toward him with his right hand.

“Bella,” I called down.

Her sweaty face lit up as she saw me, the panic draining from her expression and giving way to relief.

“Come.” I could see that she’d been injured already.

Her right arm was soaked in blood.

The other dragon didn’t even have a chance to protest as Charis—albeit reluctantly—helped the ogress onto his back.

As she plonked herself down next to me, I had to stand up as her huge form almost squeezed the life out of me.

Once she was settled down properly, Charis launched into the sky once more.

As we left that bizarre realm and headed back toward the ogres’ beach, I just prayed that our arrival wouldn’t come too late.

Chapter 24: Annora

Caleb’s thirst for me only seemed to be increasing—as could be expected.

As a light rain drizzled over the boat, we both sat beneath the shelter.

He had one arm around me as he sucked from my wrist.

I brushed the hair away from his forehead with my free hand.

He barely flinched.

I noticed that as the hours passed, he seemed to recoil less when I touched him with affection.

Hopefully another sign that he was slowly losing himself to me.

But I was beginning to grow impatient.

I’d been starved of him for so long.

I would have given anything for him to just look at me even once with affection.

To hold me in his arms.

Feel his lips against mine.

As he withdrew his fangs, I reached for a cloth and dabbed the blood away from his mouth.

He leaned back in the seat, closing his eyes and groaning.

Before he could protest, I lifted myself onto his lap and locked my arms around his neck.

Pressing my cheek against his, I whispered into his ear.

“We’re going to be okay, Caleb.

We’ll find ourselves again.

We just need time.” He didn’t welcome my advance, but he didn’t immediately brush me away either, which I’d half expected him to do.

I dared press my lips against his neck, and began to trail them across his skin up toward his cheek.

He turned his head to face the other way.

I raised my bleeding palm closer to his face.

His eyes still closed, I dabbed some of my blood over my lips and leaned forward to catch his in mine.

He clenched his jaw, his whole body tensing up as though trying to resist my touch.