“Hailey… are you sure about this?” Cade tilted his head slightly to the side.

“Is there a reason you’re so worried about her?” Despite what I said to Troy, Cade’s interest in her did bother me. I didn’t want it to, but I couldn’t deny the protectiveness I felt. Protectiveness not jealousy. “She’s going to be with me. I’d never let anything happen to her.”

“Like how you didn’t let her get attacked by Veronica and thrown in the maze to begin with?” Cade’s gaze moved to me.

Oh, he wanted to play things that way? “That was only because she walked over to talk to you.”

“Please stop.” Eloise stepped between us, holding up her hands up and out toward each of us. “I will go with them. Everything will be okay.”

“No.” Hailey shook her head. “I appreciate your generous offer, but you can’t.”

Eloise crinkled up her nose. “I have to. I’m your Guardian Pixie.”

“And that’s wonderful and all, but I can’t let you put yourself in danger.” Hailey shifted from foot to foot.

Eloise frowned. “It’s my job to protect you, not vice versa.”

“But this part is my job.” Hailey sighed. “Please, I need you to understand.” She took slow, deep breaths. I recognized this as Hailey’s attempt to stay calm. What she really wanted to do was scream but wisely realized that wasn’t the best approach.

“I’m coming.” Eloise puffed out her chest. “I may not be strong, but I can help keep you level-headed. And I have plenty of other tricks up my sleeves.”

“Eloise. I couldn’t handle the guilt if something happened to you. I already feel awful enough about everything.”

“What? You don’t trust I can help?” Eloise’s face turned red. Bright red.

“Of course that’s not it.” Hailey appeared horrified. “Please, don’t misinterpret me.”

“Then what is it?” Eloise’s face showed no signs of returning to normal. “Why don’t you want me to come?”

“I already told you. This is dangerous.”

“If it’s too dangerous for me, then it’s too dangerous for you. It’s my job to protect you, and I’m not failing.” Eloise straightened up as tall as she could. “I can’t fail at this job. You think you’re the only one with a lot on the line?” Her eyes blazed. I started to wonder about her history, and why she was so determined.

Something in Eloise’s words got through to Hailey. “Are you sure? I really don’t think it would be failing if you decided not to come with me.”

“It would be great if you could worry about yourself as much as you worry about others.” Cade ran a hand through his hair. “No offense, but you put yourself at risk without thinking and then worry like crazy about everyone else.”

“You offering to come back too?” Hailey inclined her head toward him.

“I didn’t say that.”

“So you aren’t concerned for my safety?” A small grin slipped onto her face.

“If you want me to come with you, I will.” He pressed his lips together into a firm line. “You know that.”

Troy groaned. “What is this? We just left the maze, and now you all want to go back?”

“We can’t leave without Hunter and Anastasia. Besides, what if there’s more down there?” Hailey crossed her arms over her chest.

Troy nodded. “Yeah, sure. Death.”

“I mean down, down there. There must be a reason I kept thinking about burrowing down. And that crack we found.” A new excitement seeped into Hailey’s eyes.

“Oh yes. There’s a hidden utopia underneath, and there will be dancing and cookies and rainbow unicorns.” Troy mocked.

“Troy, don’t go there.” There was a limit to how much more I was going to take from him.

He spun to face me. “Oh, you are always going to side with her now?”

“When she’s right? Yes.” I wouldn’t deny it.

“Oh come on, man. That’s the wrong answer. You need to side with her no matter what.” Cade grinned broadly, revealing all his bright white teeth.

“Yes, but that implies there will be times when she is not right. Hailey is always right.” I winked at her.

“Ok, you got me there.” Cade kicked a small rock.

“Ok. So we are doing this.” Hailey nodded. “I appreciate your offers to help. Hunter is blind down there on his own, and I need to get to him as soon as possible. That reminds me. Glendale. Can you get flashlights or lanterns?”

“Aren’t you a Lightness?” He squinted his eyes.

“Yes, but I don’t want everyone to have to rely on me. What if we get separated—?”

“Get separated?” Troy interrupted. “Great. Here we go. This is a suicide mission.”

“Chill out, Troy. You don’t have to come.” I was understanding more and more Hailey’s comment about not hurting Troy. I wasn’t used to this side of his personality. It was depressing to watch such a great Drago succumb to desperation.

“Oh, I don’t? I can stay here all by myself and hope I’m valuable enough to the demon cat that he comes back for me?”

“You’d come back for him, wouldn’t you?” I knelt down to meet Glendale’s eye level.

“Of course I would.” Glendale licked his paw. “If you needed me to.”

“That’s not enough of a guarantee.” Troy let out a deep breath. “I’m coming with you.”

“Then come. We’re wasting time.” Hailey sighed. “All we ever seem to do when we’re in these groups is waste time.”

Troy scowled. “Returning to the maze is what’s wasting time.”

“Shut up!” Hailey wrung her arms. “I have never used that word more than I have today. Please.”

Troy shrugged. “Ok. What do we need to do?”

“Glendale, where are you on those lights?” Hailey did a leg stretch. I wondered if she was injured or just prepping.

“Oh? You were serious about those?” Glendale looked off in the distance again.

“Yes. Of course I was serious about them.” Hailey closed her eyes for a moment. I knew she was trying to calm herself down. I considered putting an arm around her, but I assumed she’d think it made her look weak and make her mad.

Glendale laid back down. “Sure, but they aren’t going to work.”

“And why not?” I asked.

“Because of the spells down there. Didn’t you notice?”

“What spells?” Hailey rubbed the back of her neck. “This is all getting better and better.”

“The whole place is covered in spells to make you think you are going the wrong way. To make it impossible to have light. To make you lose hope. I know most of you are immune to mental magic, but the physical is still there.” Glendale didn’t bother to sit up as he delivered the news.

“Ugh. And we’re really going back.” Cade groaned. “Not that I’m trying to worm my way out of it.” He shot a look at Troy.

“Oh yes. Make me the villain here.” Troy rolled his eyes. “I don’t mind at all.”

“Good. Glad you don’t mind.” I smirked. Now that sounded like the Troy I knew.

“Why do you have to be so happy all the time?” Troy pivoted. There was a brightness in his eyes now that wasn’t there when he first arrived.

“Ok. You want to go back? I’ll do it.” Glendale scratched his ear. “I will drop you guys off and come back in a few hours.”

“Why can’t you stay with us?” Eloise asked. “Wouldn’t that save you time?”

“Traveling dimensions doesn’t take me long so I’m not concerned.”

“Come on, Glendale.” Eloise put a hand on her hip and leaned over him.

“If you wanted me to come, Pixie, you could have just asked instead of backhandedly waiting for me to offer.” Glendale closed his eyes.

“But isn’t it nicer when you offer yourself?”

Without opening his eyes Glendale continued on. “You’re a Guardian Pixie, not a shrink.”

“But that doesn’t mean I can’t offer advice when it’s warranted.”

“Ok. Enough of that. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it now.” Troy became suddenly animated.

“All right then. The Dragon lord has spoken.” Cade chuckled.

“I take it Cade and Troy have become great friends.” I lightly knocked my shoulder into Hailey’s.

She leaned into me. “Troy didn’t make many friends down there.”

“He told me about the fire…”

“Yeah, it’s changed him. Is that normal?” There was genuine concern in her voice. She might have been annoyed at him, but she still cared.

“I’ve never met a Drago without his fire before, but I would think it would.” I knew I wouldn’t want to live without mine. It wouldn’t have been as bad as having been controlled by a Scarber or believing I was forever trapped as a Dragon, but it would have been bad.

Not for the first time Hailey read my mind. “Worse than realizing you can turn into a dragon?”

“I admit that freaked me out at first, but in the end I realized it’s kind of cool.” Especially now that I could control the transformation. Control was the key part.

“It is pretty cool.” Hailey smiled. “I’m guessing that form is going to come in handy before the end of this.” Then she leaned in and whispered, “I have to ask. Do you have any idea how she triggered the initial change? How suddenly you can become a dragon?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t remember anything. I woke up naked and tied up—”

“Naked?” Hailey sputtered out. “You were naked?”

“Yes. I wasn’t thrilled about it either.”

Cade let out a whistle. “What is with Veronica and getting shifters naked?” Evidently he was listening in.

“Uh… what don’t I know?” I looked between Hailey and Cade.

Hailey averted her eyes. “The Scarber somehow captured Hunter when he was in the shower.”

“So he was running around naked down there?” Talk about making a bad situation worse.

Hailey nodded. “Troy gave him his shirt which he fashioned into a loincloth, but at first yes, he was.”

“That would suck.” I knew full well what being naked at an inopportune time felt like.

“Yes, it would. I’m grateful I had clothes on.” Cade patted his shirt covered chest. “I’m still not sure how I got this shirt, but I’ll thank the cat later. But back to you. You were naked and tied up. Then what?”

“Then she turned me into a dragon. Like magic.” I wished I could remember more, but I kept coming up against a wall in my memories.

“And even now you can’t remember anything from the time you were still at the party to when you woke up bound and naked?” Hailey pressed.

“No.” And I had a sickening feeling I’d never know.

“Hopefully you’ll get the memories back eventually.”

“I agree it would be good to know, but I’m not entirely sure I want to know.” It couldn’t have been pretty.

Hailey took my hand. “Whatever it is, it’s over. And we’re going to get her. She’s not going to win.”

“No. She’s not.” We wouldn’t let her, Randall, Dara, or anyone else get away with it. “You ready for this?” Hailey may have been the one spearheading, but I knew she was nervous too.

She gestured for me to walk off a bit from the others. I readily followed.

“I’m not really ready, but it’s the right thing to do. I also think it’s the only way forward. Otherwise where do we go? Running to The Society headquarters to wait is out of the question. The only other thing I’d do is guard Owen and Daisy, but that might attract more attention. If Glendale is right and they are protected…”

“Then they’re safe. Agreed. We can’t risk bringing the fight to them.”

“So we go into the maze, find Hunter and Anastasia and figure out why I am so fixated on whatever is under the maze.” She clasped her hands together. “You don’t think I’m crazy, right?”

“Not for a second. Don’t ignore your instincts. It’s the best thing we have going for us right now.”

“That’s a bit of a frightening thought, don’t you think?”

“No. It’s not. I have faith in you. It’s time to have faith in yourself.”

“Think Troy is going to survive his return trip?” Hailey nodded in the direction where he stood frowning.

“Yes. He’d be worse off if he stayed back here alone. Besides, we don’t really know when or if we’ll be back. If your hunch is right and there is something underneath the maze…”

“I know. We just need him to be a help and not a detriment. You know?”

“I do know. I’ll talk to him.” I was likely the only one in the group he’d possibly listen to, and even that was iffy.

“All right. Let’s join the others and do this.”

I pulled her into my arms. “Remember, as soon as life returns to normal I’m whisking you off for a romantic getaway.”

“I’m counting on it.” She kissed me. “Now let’s get this over with.”

“That’s the spirit.”