The repetitive sound of a whirring propeller jabbed at my consciousness, reluctantly dragging me from sleep. Keeping my eyes closed, I reached out with my other senses, trying to get an idea of where I was. The air around me was cold, and I could hear someone breathing. My clothes were still on, and there was a cushion underneath me, like the kind on a bench seat.

“How long will it take to reach Jedburgh?” Salcombe’s voice was faint, as if it came from the other end of a long room, but clear as day.

“Another day, sir,” a male voice answered. “But we should be able to do it with only one stop for fuel.”

"Good," Salcombe said. "The fewer stops, the better, now that we have the girl on board."

The girl. A spurt of anger filled me, and I resisted the urge to fist my hands at my sides. I’d spent half my life as the closest thing he had to a daughter, and in the span of a few short months, I’d been reduced to “the girl.” If I wasn’t pretending to be asleep, I would have taken the nearest object and chucked it at his rotten head.

But I forced myself to push my anger aside and focus on the words. Jedburgh. Wracking my muddled brain, I remembered it was a small town in western Zallabar. Dragon’s balls. We were headed into enemy territory?

I reached out to Lessie through the bond, hoping we were still within range. To my relief, I could sense her, though her presence was faint.

“Zara?” Lessie’s frantic voice burst into my mind. “Zara, what happened? Where ARE you? I woke up and you were GONE!”

“It’s Salcombe,” I told her, trying not to let her panic rile me up. But the hairs on my arms stood up on end, and my skin prickled. “He and his men must have snuck into the valley overnight, after Tavarian left. They jumped me while I was taking a walk in the woods. I think they used a spell to knock me out before I could call for help.”

Lessie let out a string of curses so foul, they would have been amusing if not for my current predicament. “I’m going to kill him,” she fumed. “The next time I get a clear shot at him, the old bastard is mine.”

“Don’t do anything crazy,” I warned, a little alarmed at the fury roiling in her. I wasn’t surprised that Lessie was angry, but she was seeing red, the type of rage that eroded common sense. “Salcombe has me in an airship, I think. He seems to be taking me to Zallabar, though I don’t know why.”

“Are you done speaking to your dragon yet?”

My eyes flew open at Salcombe's cool voice. He was sitting on the bench seat across from me with a cup of tea in his hand, looking as calm and composed as if we were sitting in his garden. I glared at him, and the corners of his mouth curled into a distinctive smirk.

“Your breathing changed,” he said as I pushed myself into a sitting position. “And there are goosebumps on your arms. You’ve been awake for the past five minutes.”

“I’m amazed you haven’t bound and gagged me,” I muttered, rubbing my aforementioned arms to ward off the chill I felt. While the man sitting in front of me was more like the Salcombe I knew growing up, the madman who’d punched me in the nose lurked beneath the surface. Had Salcombe’s wasting illness driven him to the breaking point, or was it the World Eater himself whispering tainted promises in his ear?

Salcombe shrugged. "And why should I? You're no threat to me." He flexed his hand, shattering the teacup he held. Blood and tea dribbled down his arm as bits of china rained to the floor, and a hulking man dressed in black with knives strapped all over his body immediately sprang into action, grabbing a rag to clean up the mess.

"Are you crazy?" I shouted, then gaped as the half-dozen cuts in his palm vanished. "What…how…?"

“The dragon god’s heart gives me power,” Salcombe said smugly. “And this is only from a single piece. Can you imagine what I could do with all five?”

“You mean aside from raining death and destruction upon the entire world?” I said, glaring at him. At the same time, I opened up my treasure sense, searching for the piece of heart. To my surprise, it wasn’t anywhere near the airship.

“Oh, Zara.” Salcombe heaved a sigh of disappointment. “Your lack of imagination has always been your greatest weakness. Zakyiar isn’t going to destroy the entire world. In fact, the two of us have grand plans for it. And you could be a part of them, if you weren’t so stubborn.”

“I’m flattered,” I said, crossing my arms. “Now can you please tell me what the hell you want, so I can refuse?”

Salcombe curled his lip. “It’s a pity I never managed to cure you of your flippant attitude. But I suppose that’s what I get for taking in a street rat. As far as what I want,” he said before I could snarl at him, “you already know I’m after the other pieces of the heart. And unless you want you and your dragon to die, you are going to help me find them.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. This again. “Salcombe, threatening Lessie’s and my lives isn’t much of an incentive when your endgame is to bring back a dragon god that literally devours worlds. You’re basically giving me a choice between dying now or dying later.”

Salcombe’s eyes glittered. “While I would be the first to admit you do not deserve a second chance, I cannot refute the logic in your words. Very well, if you need an incentive, I shall give you one. Help me find the rest of the pieces, and I will ensure that you and Lessie survive the coming fallout. If you prove your loyalty now, I will ensure that you have a place by Zakyiar’s side. Betray me, and when I finally resurrect him, I will ensure that you and Lessie become his playthings for a very, very long time.”

I shuddered at that. I didn't know what it meant to become the plaything of a blood-thirsty, amoral dragon god, but I was confident I didn't want to find out. "Fine," I lied. "I'll help you." I might as well play along while I figured out what to do. Maybe I could find an escape window while we were traveling. It would certainly be better than allowing myself to be tortured and killed.

“By the way,” Salcombe said in a silky voice, “if you are thinking about trying to find a way to escape, don’t bother.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lock of red hair. “I took a few clippings from you the first time I kidnapped you and purchased a spell from a mage to trace you through your hair.”

My stomach dropped. “Is that how you managed to find me in the valley?”

“Indeed.” He gave me a smile that was pure malice. “So long as I have these locks of hair, I can find you anywhere, Zara. And the next time I have to come and collect you, I won’t be nearly so nice.”

Salcombe returned the lock of hair to his pocket, and it took everything I had not to lunge across the space and strangle him. But the hulking brute who seemed to be part mercenary, part manservant watched me with a hungry stare, as if he would like nothing better than an excuse to put his meaty hands on me.

No thanks, I thought, returning his stare with a cool one of my own. He gave me a wolfish grin that sent icy shivers up my spine, and it took everything I had not to immediately look away. Damn. If only I had my weapons with me, or even my supply belt!

Salcombe spent the rest of the trip forcing me to be his research assistant as he combed through several texts on mage genealogy. According to him, these books contained clues to the location of another piece of heart belonging to a mage family that had relocated numerous times over the last three hundred years. Part of me wanted to set the books on fire, but the other part was reluctantly fascinated, and I was glad Salcombe was including me. Perhaps I could find some clue that would give me an advantage and use it to steer him away from the heart.

“Yes,” Salcombe finally said, tapping at one of the entries in the journal he was studying. “I am convinced that Jedburgh is the last location where the Starkold family descendants lived. They owned several properties in Western Zallabar, but this is where they were when the parents died.”

"It's a sad story," I said quietly. The parents had passed away from scarlet fever, leaving behind two offspring that were adopted by a relative from their mother's side. "I wonder where the children are now."

Salcombe snorted. “I don’t know why you are wasting your pity on them,” he said. “They had family to take them in, which is more than you had at their age.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Salcombe ignored my snark. “We will start with Jedburgh, but the plan is to tour all four properties,” he said. “Trolbos will accompany us”—he gestured to the brute standing nearby—“as our manservant, and you will be my young wife.”

“Eww.” I wrinkled my nose, my skin crawling at the idea of posing as Salcombe’s wife. Did that mean I had to let him paw me?

“Don’t worry,” Salcombe said dryly. “I will behave as if I am the pinnacle of propriety. I have no interest in a flighty, naïve woman young enough to be my daughter.”

I should have been relieved, but my stomach was a knotted mess of nerves over this entire situation. “You do realize we are on the brink of war with Zallabar, right?” I pressed. “What if they decide to take us prisoner?”

“Then that’s all the more reason to get in and out of there as quickly as possible,” Salcombe said.

I shook my head. I was trying to be optimistic, but the heavy weight of despair slowly sank onto my shoulders. I tried to reach out to Lessie as Salcombe turned his attention back to the books, but although I could feel the barest hint of her presence, she was too far away to communicate now. And even if she wasn’t, what good would it do? She couldn’t fly out of the valley, or contact Muza or any of the other dragons. Tavarian was all the way in Quoronis, and Carina, Rhia, and Jallis were in Zuar City. There was no way to call for help.

I wish I’d penned those responses before I left, I thought morosely as I sank into my chair. Because, try as I might to stay positive, I had a feeling those letters would have been the last my friends would have ever heard from me.