“You need to listen to me.

This island is in serious danger.

I’ve brought home a dragon.” That stunned them both into silence.

“What?” my father spat.

“A dragon is waiting at the Port.

He thinks he owns me, and won’t leave without me.

If I want to stay on this island, we’re going to have to kill him.” “How—” my mom gasped.

“Again, no time.

We have less than fifteen minutes before the beast starts going on a rampage and burns this whole island down.

I need you to take me to Mona.” A silence followed.

“Mona isn’t here,” my dad said.

“What?” Caleb and I exclaimed at once.

“That’s also a long story,” my mom said, her face growing paler by the moment.

“But she left.” “Oh, Lord.” I clutched my forehead.

The spell of night was still upon the island, as I assumed was some kind of protective spell.

“So the other witches are keeping up security? We still have them, right?” “Protection of sorts,” my father said grimly.

“Not nearly as strong as Mona’s.

And we’re missing Patricia, Ibrahim and Corrine.

Otherwise, the others remain with us.” We’re without all of our most powerful witches.

Although I was burning to know what had happened to those three witches too, again, there was no time.

I gulped.

My father took the lead from here.

“We’ll gather all the witches we have, as well as all vampires and werewolves brave enough to attempt to fight off a dragon,” he said as he helped me onto his back.

I cast my eyes back at Caleb and beckoned him to follow us as we all went racing into the woods.

“Do you know anything about dragons?” I asked as we ran.

My mother shook her head.

“I didn’t even know they existed,” she said.

“I’ve never been sure if they were fact or myth,” my father said, his eyes focused straight ahead of us.

“Caleb?” I looked over my father’s shoulder toward him.

“I’ve never encountered one before face to face,” Caleb said, looking at me seriously.

“But I’ve heard a thing or two about them.

Their hide is virtually impenetrable even by a witch’s curse.

The only vulnerable parts of their body are their nostrils and eyes.

But the former are hard to get to—their nostrils close when in combat.

Really, their eyes are the way to injure them.

To end one, the penetration into the eye socket would have to be forceful enough to enter their brain.” My mouth went dry.

The dragons’ eyes were tiny compared to the rest of their bodies.

How does one even reach their eyeballs without first being burned alive by their fire? “So we’ll keep instructions simple,” my father grunted.

“Focus on the eyes.” We passed the next five minutes hurtling around the island and shouting for as many witches, vampires and werewolves who were around.

Familiar faces stared at me in a similar fashion as my parents had, as though they couldn’t believe their eyes, but then relief washed over them.

Aiden in particular insisted on running up to me and hugging me before passing me back to my father.

By the time ten minutes had passed, among the other vampires we’d gathered were Claudia, Yuri, Zinnia, Gavin, Eli, Matteo, Helina, Landis, Ashley… We also had a dozen witches and a generous crowd of werewolves—although, since it was daytime outside The Shade, they weren’t in their wolf form.

I wondered where Kiev, Xavier and Vivienne were—why they weren’t among the crowd.

I also wondered how my brother had been keeping all this time, but I didn’t want to distract my parents at this moment.

We all needed to focus on the task at hand.

Most of our army still had no idea why we were gathering them, until my father and mother began shouting instructions as we raced through the trees.

We made one last stop before arriving at the Port—The Shade’s armory.

Everyone gathered weapons—mostly long spears and guns.

My forehead was dripping sweat by the time the last of the crowd grabbed their weapons and we headed straight for the Port.

I was sure that we were already pushing the time limit.

A deafening roar piercing through the air confirmed that for me.

“We need to hurry!” I urged, tugging on my father’s cloak.

“Sofia,” my father called, lowering me to the ground as The Shade’s warriors began hurrying away toward the Port.

“Stay here with Rose.

We don’t want her anywhere near the beast.” My mother gripped my arms as my father ran into the woods after the army.

A spear in his hand and some kind of sharp hook resting over his shoulder, Caleb cast one last, lingering glance at me.

“Remember what I told you earlier,” he said softly before racing after my father.

I choked up as I stared at two of the most important people in my life, disappearing into the darkness.

I motioned to run after them, but my mom gripped my midriff and held me back.

“You heard what your father said,” she said sternly.

“Mom,” I said, clutching her shoulders, “it’s all my fault that the dragon is here and our people are risking their lives for it.

I want to at least be there to witness what happens.” She ran a palm over my forehead, then sighed.