River sat beside me, while Aisha perched on my other side. Nolan, Chantel and Marcilla had also come with us and they sat further up the table. We watched the door as, one by one, the new arrivals gaped at Lucas, looking as though they’d been winded. And when Claudia, one of the last to enter, entered with Yuri, her belly protruding beneath a light pink dress, she positively shrieked on laying eyes on her old flame. She stared at Lucas, wide-eyed and gasping.
Then her eyes shot toward my father, digging into him for an explanation. Derek merely shrugged, and gestured for her to sit down with the rest of us.
As if Claudia would do that. She turned on Lucas again, daring to move closer to him.
“Lucas?” she breathed, blinking rapidly as though she were attempting to wake up.
Lucas nodded, a grimace on his face. “It is I,” he murmured.
Claudia clutched Yuri’s arm for support. The blood drained from her face, and it looked like she was about to faint. “Oh, Lord…”
Yuri ushered her to a seat on the opposite end of the table.
“There will be time for questions later,” my father said, as the last of our Council—Jeriad—entered.
From what I could see, the only member missing was Aiden, who would no doubt be overwhelmed in a teary reunion with Kailyn.
As the door snapped shut and Jeriad took his seat, my father began, “First, acknowledging the elephant in the room.” He pointed toward Lucas and Jeramiah. “Yes, these men you see before you are indeed Lucas and his son Jeramiah.”
Questions erupted but my father steamrolled over them. “We need to set our immediate attention on freeing the Nasiris from the Drizans.” My father went on to explain our predicament and my promise to the fae. “There could be great danger involved,” he went on, eyeing everyone sternly. “And even if all of you were willing, I think we should make this a party of no more than ten. What do you say, Aisha?” He turned on the teenage jinni. “You should tell us everything you know about the Drizans.”
Aisha parted her dry lips, shoulders still sagging. “They’re worse than animals,” she murmured.
“Tell us about their lair,” I urged. “Is it possible for us to penetrate it?”
“Not me,” she replied in a strained voice. “I’ve been banished from The Dunes.”
“What?” I asked.
“I’ve been banished. Kicked out. Expelled. There’s no way that I can go anywhere near the Drizans’ palace.”
Oh, crap. And to think that I’d been so excited on seeing Aisha at first, even going to the extent of considering that she might be up to help us solo; now she was telling us she couldn’t even set foot in the realm of the jinn.
“Jeriad.” My father turned to the shifter. “It seems we will need to call upon your help once again in dealing with the Drizans.”
Jeriad’s eyes darkened. “Freeing the Nasiris is not something that we can request. Not after we just agreed to give them to the clan. I must also make clear, Derek, that although my people were on decent terms with the Drizans in the past, and they owed us a favor here and there, we’re certainly not the best of friends. They might even consider capturing the Nasiris as the settlement of their dues to us.”
“But we have to try,” I said to Jeriad.
“There must be something that we could offer in return… an exchange?” my mother suggested.
Both Aisha and Jeriad looked doubtful.
“I’m not sure what on earth would entice Cyrus enough to give up my family,” Aisha said miserably. “Certainly no amount of material wealth.”
“I have a suggestion.” Jeriad spoke up, standing and beginning to pace up and down. “While it would not be wise to ask them to relinquish the Nasiris, perhaps… just perhaps… the Drizans themselves would agree to help you fulfill the fae’s demands.”
That was certainly an interesting proposition. We had to hope that the dragons really did have enough sway left for the Drizans to agree to such a favor.
“Then what about my family?” Aisha asked, looking distraught.
“I do not know, maiden,” Jeriad replied, his brows furrowed.
I turned to Aisha, actually feeling compassion toward her. Too much had happened since my stay in The Oasis for me to continue seeing her as the annoying, jealous teenage girl she’d always conducted herself as.
“Aisha,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder, hoping to offer at least a little comfort. “We need to just take this one step at a time.”
Ben
It was decided that we would return to The Dunes via the portal in Lake Nasser. Aisha assured us that this was the best way to reach the realm of jinn. I recalled traveling through that portal with Aisha and being curious about the strange world of black sand we’d landed in on the other side. At the time she’d brushed it off and not revealed the truth about where we were.
So that was where we needed to head. Back to Egypt. Back to where all of this had started.
Armed with this single idea of Jeriad’s—clearly the brightest idea any of us had—we decided who would come and who would stay behind. I was deeply touched—though not by any means surprised—by how many were willing to embark on this mission. The lineup expanded to sixteen, and ended up consisting of: myself and River, whom I didn’t even bother trying to dissuade from coming; Aisha; my parents; Jeriad and three other dragons, Ridan, Neros and Tyron; Marcilla, Chantel and Nolan— being fae they could be useful; my sister and Caleb; and finally Lucas and Jeramiah, whom we could hardly expect to want to be separated so soon after their reunion. No witches could come with us, of course, despite how useful they might be. As for Aisha, although she couldn’t enter The Dunes, she could wait outside the realm’s boundaries and be a source of information.
I was sure that Aiden and Kailyn would have wanted to come, but wherever they were on the island now, we weren’t about to fetch them. Besides, my grandfather had been through enough recently. He deserved a break.
We made hurried preparations to leave and headed to the Port, where the dragons shifted into their beastly forms.
I picked up River and settled us both on Jeriad’s back, behind his neck, while Rose and Caleb settled behind us, further toward the dragon’s tail. The others—including Aisha—spread themselves among the remaining dragons.
I placed River in front of me, with her back against my chest and my legs on either side of her, keeping her secure. I wrapped one arm around her waist while my other hand gripped the scales of the dragon. I could’ve flown alongside the dragons, of course, but I wanted to take every opportunity to stay close to River.
The sun had already dipped by now so it did not give discomfort to the vampires among us. The dragons lifted into the sky and picked up speed until we’d flown past the island’s boundary.
Shooting up through a layer of clouds, we emerged beneath a ceiling of twinkling stars. River and I found ourselves with another quiet moment. My right hand traveled up from her waist to the base of her neck. I tilted her head back gently, leaning it over my shoulder, and tasted her lips. She ran her fingers through my hair, pulling me closer.
I realized that she must be cold. She wasn’t wearing warm clothes, and we were flying with great speed and altitude, which made it hard to benefit much from the dragons’ body heat. My body, although not exactly hot, was not cold either. It was lukewarm, which I guessed was better than nothing. I twisted her around so that she faced me, and she wrapped her legs around my waist. I engulfed her in my arms, rubbing her back with my palms in an attempt to warm her, while trailing my lips from the top of her forehead down along the bridge of her nose. She huddled closer to me, gathering her arms against my chest, and rested her cheek against my collarbone.
River. My fiancée. It still hadn’t quite hit home.
“I love you,” I whispered. It felt like I couldn’t say it enough. Knowing what could happen in just a matter of days…
She kissed the base of my throat before resting her head against me again. “I could live fore
ver like this,” she breathed back. “Perched on this dragon. With you. Here. Now.”
“Me too,” I replied.
Her eyelids kissed closed, and a smile spread across her face. I rested my chin above her head, still stroking her back to warm her. At some point during the ride, she managed to fall asleep. That she felt safe enough in my arms to accomplish such a feat atop a dragon, with no safety belts and hundreds of feet of freefall on either side of us, made my heart soar.
Rose and Caleb moved closer to us, and I began to talk to them in a low tone, answering all the many questions they both had. I remained holding River all the while, my hands slowly roaming the contours of her back and waist. And I felt fuller than I ever had in my life.
When the dragons began descending, River woke by herself.
“Looks like we’ve arrived,” Rose said.
River lifted her head from my shoulder and gazed around, bewildered. It took her a few moments to remember where we were.
The dragons descended rapidly and soon a sprawling lake came into view. Lake Nasser. As the dragons touched down on a small islet, I gathered River to me and the four of us slid off the shifter’s back. I held back with River as everyone piled through the portal. Then, holding hands, River and I leapt in together. As we darted through the abyss, I molded my limbs around her so that by the time we flew out, I was able to give her a soft landing. Not that it would have been hard, anyway. The Dunes appeared to consist of nothing but a massive, coal-black desert.
Aisha, having been unable to exit on this side, was still stuck within the portal. And there she would have to remain. She gazed at us sadly.
“Come back and tell me what’s going on as soon as you’ve spoken to the Drizans,” she said anxiously.
I nodded, though I could not promise that we’d be able to fulfill that request.
Aisha pointed us toward the right direction, while Jeriad walked up front, leading us across the desert. The dragons ended up taking flight again to spot the entrance to the Drizans’ lair. Once they’d found it, they returned to us, allowing us to resume our positions on their backs, and transported us the rest of the distance. We touched down on the sand again outside a giant golden medallion in the shape of a scorpion etched into the ground. Their entrance.
My father, being closest to the door, drummed his fists against it before stepping back. Tense silence followed. I cast my eyes behind me, expecting to see Lucas cowering at the back. But he wasn’t. I spotted him with his son a few feet away from my father, obscured by Jeriad’s towering form.
A loud creak snapped my attention back to the golden entrance. It swung open. Out floated a tall male jinni with wild black curls for hair and diamond necklaces adorning his dark, muscled chest. His hazel eyes roamed us, and his jaw positively dropped open as he spied me, Lucas, and the other three fae.
Jeriad was the first to speak. “We are here to see King Cyrus.”
The jinni’s eyes remained on the fae in our group, even as he shook his head and replied to the dragon, “Not with these creatures.” He prodded a finger toward us.
“These are my friends and are of no danger to you, but of course, that’s not a problem,” Jeriad replied, twisting his head to shoot me a glare.
Taking my cue, I immediately backed away—pulling River with me—and the other fae followed me.
I wasn’t sure what the Drizans had against fae, but this sure was not a good start.
Derek
Based on the look the jinni had given Ben, Lucas and the other fae, I was already expecting the worst, and from the grim look on Jeriad’s face, so was he. The Drizan guard led us down through their ornate palace until we reached Cyrus' throne room, which we had visited once before. It was empty now, and we all bundled inside, waiting for the king.
The imposing jinni burst through the door a few minutes later, wearing a golden crown laced with hibiscus, and floated toward us. He had grown a thick beard since we’d last seen him, and he flashed us a broad smile, revealing thick, gold-plated teeth. Apparently he was in a good mood. Something that can only help…
He stopped before Jeriad. “What brings you back so soon?” he asked, his voice rich and hearty.
“I have come to request a real favor from you this time, Cyrus,” Jeriad said.
Cyrus cocked his head. “A real favor? And what might you mean by that?”
“Collecting the Nasiris, as I’m sure you’ll agree, was not entirely a favor since there was such great interest in it for you.” Jeriad’s tone remained polite, yet assertive.
“I suppose that is true enough,” Cyrus conceded. “I might be willing to do you a favor, depending on what it is.”
He drifted up to his giant throne and took his seat, his beady eyes roaming us like an eagle’s.
Jeriad looked at me and nodded slightly, indicating that I begin my explanation. Taking a step forward, I began to recount our predicament as told by my son, even as countless questions rose in my own mind. What do the fae want with the jinn anyway? And for that matter, what exactly are fae? Ben had returned as one, but otherwise I had never heard of such creatures except in fairytales.
As soon as I mentioned the fae, Cyrus held up a hand and lifted from his chair.
“We cannot help you.”
I stared at him, my heart sinking. “What do you mean?”
“We do not work with fae, in any way, shape or form.” He turned back to Jeriad. “I’m sorry, noble dragon. But you’ll have to search elsewhere.”
“Then would you free the Nasiris instead?” Sofia blurted next to me.
I winced, already anticipating Cyrus' response even before he turned on Sofia and looked her over coldly. “The Nasiris are ours, fair lady,” he said. His voice had turned to ice. He never had liked Sofia. Not since she had tried to interfere with his assault on Nuriya back in The Oasis.
“You wouldn’t agree to spare… anyone at all?” she pressed. “Not even two or three?”
To this, Cyrus did not bother to even respond. He simply roamed toward the exit, calling over his shoulder another apology to Jeriad for being unable to help.
As he left through the door, the same guard who had escorted us down here returned to the room before stating the obvious. “I believe the meeting is over.”
Ben
After the fae, River and I had retreated, we waited about a mile away for the rest to emerge. In this flat landscape, we caught sight of them as soon as they climbed out from the trapdoor. We hurried over to them and bombarded them with questions.
As expected, all had not gone well in the meeting with Cyrus. Clearly, the Drizans had some kind of long-standing feud with the fae that Aisha didn’t know about. They seemed to despise them as much as they despised witches.
That meant we were back to square one. Our original plan. Although it could hardly be called a plan when none of us had a clue how to pull it off.
We traveled with the dragons back to the portal, remembering our promise to keep Aisha informed. Her mournful face lit up a little on spotting us approaching the abyss, and then a little more after we told her what had happened.
“So we need to rescue my family after all,” she murmured.
Since I had already suspected that the Drizans would not come through, I’d already been thinking ahead to our next step while the others met with Cyrus. I figured that, before anything else, I should assume my subtle form and try to get a better scope of the palace and locate the Nasiris. But first, I wanted to know as much as possible about the Drizans’ lair. The first question that sprang to my mind to ask Aisha was whether they had some kind of protective barrier over the palace, like The Oasis had, and like we had in The Shade. Aisha assured me that they didn’t, as it was a way of showing their dominance over all jinn tribes.
“Where do you think your family could be?” I asked next.
Aisha swallowed hard. “I hate to think… They could be kept in the prison on the lower floors, or they could be kept as servants on the higher floors.” r />
“Okay,” I said, clenching my jaw. “I’ll just have to look around. If I was invisible, would they have some other way of detecting me?”
Aisha looked uncertain, but replied, “I don’t think so. Not if you don’t make any noise, or do anything else to draw attention to yourself.”
River’s hold around my hand tightened. “Are you sure you’re going by yourself?” she asked me quietly. “Why don’t you take one of the other fae with you?”
“While we have no clear plan, it’s best only one person goes down there to scope the place out.” I kissed her cool cheek before turning to the rest of them, nodding grimly. “I’ll be careful.”
“Don’t you dare get caught, Ben,” Rose said sternly.
“Yeah…”
I drifted away from the group, flying over the sand, back in the direction of the Drizans’ palace. As much as I hated to, I willed my body to thin until I was invisible, feeling like a ghost again. I’d no idea how I’d even made the transformation, just as, now that I thought about it, I had no idea how I’d actually moved my old body. As a human or vampire, when I’d wanted to stretch out an arm, I would just stretch out an arm. Making myself invisible as a fae was no more difficult.
I soon approached the medallion entrance. Steeling myself, I sank down into the door and emerged on the other side in an eye-wateringly lavish entrance chamber studded with gems and diamonds whose total value—for all I knew—could have been hundreds of millions of dollars. As I continued my way into the Drizans’ palace, the senseless luxury only increased. I found myself wondering just how many other tribes they’d ransacked along the way to amass such riches.
I traveled slowly at first, careful to stop every time I saw a passing jinni and keep close to the wall until they passed. Then, after several minutes of navigating the corridors, which thankfully weren’t all that busy, I gained a little more confidence.