“Oh, long story,” I said, casting a glance at the humans, who were shivering more and more with each moment that passed. The dragons’ eyes shot toward them. Before any of the teens could start screaming again, I said, “We have to leave now.”
“And go where?” Griffin asked, still carrying a girl over his shoulder.
“According to the news,” Aiden said, “they were taken from California.”
California. I looked from the humans, to the dragons, then back to the humans. I walked over to the teens.
“Uh… have you ever wondered what it might be like to ride on a dragon?”
Chapter 27: Rose
The teens were still too terrified to go near the dragons… understandably. They backed away as soon as I suggested going anywhere near the creatures.
“Jeriad,” I said, straining my neck toward his towering form. “Would you mind changing back into a human in front of these humans? It will help ease their nerves.”
Jeriad looked irritated at my request, but I was relieved when he granted it.
“Watch,” I said, addressing the humans. “You’ll see in a moment that he’s just a man.”
They gaped as Jeriad’s dragon form shrank, leaving in its place a man—albeit an extremely intimidating man. After all the humans had the chance to stare at him, he assumed his dragon form again.
“There’s no time for this,” Caleb said impatiently. “We don’t know that the witches are truly gone. We must leave.”
He bent down and reached for the nearest human to him—a boy who looked about fifteen. He helped the boy onto his back, then gestured with a nod to Jeriad. The dragon lowered his hand for Caleb to climb up onto, then raised him onto his back. Caleb helped the boy wedge between the dragon’s scales and leapt back down.
He glanced at the others. “Well? What are you waiting for?”
“At least two of us need to accompany the humans on each dragon,” I said.
We set to work assisting the humans in climbing atop the dragons. Then the rest of us mounted.
“Hold on tight,” I whispered to the humans now sandwiched between Caleb and me.
They looked dumbstruck as they stared down at the scales they were clinging to. Some of them yelped when the dragons launched into the air. Rising higher and higher in the sky, we glanced down at the burning castle—enveloped so completely I could barely make out a single patch of stone wall. The firelight flickered in Caleb’s brown eyes as he stared at it. I couldn’t imagine what it must’ve felt like for him to watch that place burn to the ground. I smiled at him when he finally turned to face me.
“How are you feeling?”
“Pretty damn good.”
“Hey,” Micah—now in his wolf form—barked from the dragon behind us. “What about Stellan’s island?” He shared the same look of euphoria as Caleb in watching the castle burn. “I’d really like to see their base there burnt down too.”
“We can’t.” Caleb gestured to the humans. “Firstly, we’ve got these people to drop off. Secondly, we don’t have any way to get inside. We haven’t captured any hostages.”
I was sure that Micah expected that answer, but he looked disappointed all the same.
And so the dragons carried us away from the mountain range, over the woods, and toward the ocean. As we passed the boundary, it was dark outside now. The wind conjured up by the dragons’ mighty wings combined with the cool sea breeze made me terrified that one of the humans was going to slip off into the dark waves. I looked over at Ibrahim, who was riding on the dragon parallel to us. “Is there anything you can do to make them more secure?”
He thought for a moment, then nodded. Less than a minute later, a thick rope closed around my waist. The rope expanded, wrapping around the girl in front of me, and continued until it reached Caleb’s waist. Now we were all bound together on the dragon. I could breathe much more easily. I looked around to see that Ibrahim had done the same with everyone else.
Although it was still chilly, most of the humans had stopped shivering by now. An hour into the journey, several boys’ and girls’ heads began to loll. They must’ve been exhausted. I felt thankful that I had thought to ask Ibrahim to secure them.
Sitting at opposite ends on Jeriad’s back, Caleb and I didn’t say much for the rest of the journey. But I felt his gaze on me almost the whole time. The lightness of his mood that had come from witnessing the burning of his old castle hadn’t left him even now. He was floating.
After a couple of hours, Caleb twisted round and faced forward. He began to give precise directions to Jeriad. After another hour, I caught sight of glimmering lights in the distance. We were fast approaching the shore.
“You see that beach there,” Caleb said to Jeriad, pointing, “the one that’s the most lit up? We should land there.”
I patted the girl in front of me on the shoulder. Her head rested on the back of the boy in front of her. She was sound asleep. I shook her a little until she sat up straight.
“You’re almost home,” I whispered, squeezing her shoulders.
The beach was almost empty at this time of night. We crossed the last of the ocean and touched down on the sand. A couple who were walking by began screaming at the top of their lungs and racing away.
We couldn’t remain here long. I doubted we had much time before dozens of people began swarming the beach to take a look at this bizarre spectacle. While I had a fair amount of trust in the dragons, after witnessing their behavior with our own humans, I didn’t want to try their patience. I didn’t know how they would react to these humans—they weren’t residents of The Shade, after all.