The next day Ariel, Jett, Gwendoline, Flame and Viper joined Ephephany in one of the SUVs, and they headed back toward the woods that led to Midnight. Since Ariel was coming along, Jett couldn’t refuse Mathis, either, so the witch was with them as well. Quite the fiery argument had taken place when Jett refused to allow Mathis to bring Hugh, his Keeper. Jett convinced them both that his White Swords would act as sufficient Keepers for everyone, including Mathis, and in the end the witch agreed to leave behind his friend.

Speaking of the White Swords: Viper was wearing the usual skin-tight gloves, wide-brimmed hat, and mirror shades, plus he had that special black paint smeared across his face to protect his exposed skin from the sun. Flame was driving.

When they reached the familiar woods, Jett had Flame stop the SUV on the gravel road well outside of the Blue Hurricane territory.

“Why are we stopping here?” Ariel asked.

“A precaution,” Jett said, getting out. “We’re going to continue on foot from here to the camp, staying away from the road. Flame, Viper, I want you to scout ahead.”

The two White Swords disappeared into the thick undergrowth that bordered the gravel road and the others proceeded through the trees behind them.

Ariel crinkled her nose when they were nearly there. The camp wasn’t yet in view, but the stink...

“You smell that?” she said.

“I do,” Jett replied.

“Smell what?” Mathis said.

“You’ll see,” Ariel told him.

They reached the camp. As expected, the cabins were burned right to the ground.

“Our cabin,” Ariel said. “Our backyard...”

“We’ll build another,” Jett said.

Flame and Viper stood on the edge of the scorched clearing.

“There’s no one here, Sire,” Flame said. “Tracks lead away through the woods, in the direction of Midnight.”

Jett nodded. “I guess Gabriel or his so-called advisers are trying to leave me a message.” He glanced at Ephephany. “Are you detecting any sign of latent Strength use?”

Ephephany shook her head. “Whoever did this, did so with ordinary flames.”

Ariel felt a little jealous that Jett had asked Ephephany, and not her. Ariel was beginning to develop the ability to sense Strengthworks, and while the skill was still weak and undeveloped, it was useable. Though she supposed Mathis had the same sense, and probably Gwendoline, and neither of them seemed bothered by the exclusion. She doubted Jett had meant anything by it: he was probably just used to consulting with his dragon witch. And maybe still coming to terms with the fact that Ariel was a witch, too. Hell, she herself was still coming to terms with it, not to mention the fact she was a lion shifter.

As if sensing her thoughts, Jett glanced at Ariel. “Do you sense anything?”

“She’s right, there’s nothing,” Ariel said. She felt suddenly all happy inside. How could she have ever doubted her Jett?

Ephephany raised a brow. “You distrust me already, Jeddah?”

“Not at all,” Jett said. “Let’s just say, it never hurts to have a second opinion.”

“He’s just trying to keep me happy,” Ariel told Ephephany.

That only seemed to confuse the witch even further.

Jett turned to his White Swords. “Flame, Viper, scout ahead. I want you fifty feet apart.”

“Understood,” Flame said.

“Wait,” Ephephany said.

Though Ephephany made no motions with any part of her body, Ariel could feel strong Weaves emanating from the dragon witch—however she couldn’t see them of course.

“What are you doing to us?” Ariel asked.

“Placing a Weave on each of you to give you speed,” Ephephany explained. “With it, we’ll reach Midnight by nightfall.”

“At the price of exhaustion,” Mathis said.

“I will place a restorative Weave upon you all when we arrive,” Ephephany said.

“I forgot how good you were with healing Weaves,” Mathis said.

Gwendoline seemed suddenly jealous, because she looped a possessive arm through Mathis’ elbow. He patted her hand and looked at her fondly as if to alleviate any such feelings.

“It’s done,” Ephephany said.

“Go.” Jett nodded toward Flame and Viper. The two scouts vanished into the undergrowth and the rest of the party followed through the trees a moment later.

Ephephany hadn’t been kidding when she said her Weave would bestow a speed boost. Though they merely walked, the group moved with the speed of joggers.

The day seemed to pass slowly. The trees were a never-ending blur, the only real noticeable change in that blur was the shadow cast by the branches and leaves as the sun crawled across the sky.

Midnight had security cameras hidden along all approaches to the mountain range that harbored the subterranean city, with hundreds secreted within the foothills and surrounding woods alone. Jett had the camera locations programmed into his sat-phone, and he used the phone to guide them between the different cameras. Ephephany had also summoned a Weave that allowed her to detect the EM waves produced by the security cameras, and she was able to corroborate the route Jett led them on. It seemed new cameras had been placed since Jett had last updated his phone data, however, because Ephephany prevented them from walking into the paths of unmarked cameras more than a few times. She could sense the devices from quite a ways and was able to warn Flame and Viper in time as well.

“You see?” Jett told Ariel. “How easy it is for a witch to avoid surveillance?”

“I can certainly understand how that vampire witch was able to hide in the woods for so long,” Ariel said. “Right under our noses.”

Near evening, Ariel began to feel the tiredness Mathis had hinted at. It was a weariness that seeped through to her very core, draining her to the bone. But even if she flagged, she pressed on, as did the rest of the party, although they were visibly struggling to maintain their former speed. It must have been hardest for Mathis, the only human among them: without shifter reserves to tap into, he trailed at the rear of the party, breathing hard. Gwendoline remained close to his side, offering the occasional word of encouragement.

They reached the foothills as night fell and proceeded on through the dark. As Ariel’s night vision kicked in, the woods seemed no darker than at twilight.

At eleven p.m., the wilderness fell away, and the shoulder of a large mountain loomed before them.

Ariel searched for the “Here Be Dragons” sign she had encountered when she first reached this mountain in what seemed ages ago, but she couldn’t spot it. For that matter, with her night vision she saw no signs whatsoever of the winding trail that led up the mountain. Apparently Jett was leading them on a different approach.

“We have to climb over the mountain,” Jett said. “And enter the Hooded Dale. All the external approaches are monitored by security cameras, and heavily guarded. But inside the Dale, dragons have carved tunnels leading from their estates to the valley. Most are unmonitored by any cameras. We’ll take one of those to get inside.”

“When you say climb,” Mathis said. “You mean like sheer vertical faces? Because I have no mountain climbing skills.”

“More like walk,” Jett said, studying the mountain before them. “Though there will be some scary sections. And a few sheer faces, yes. But that’s where Gwendoline and I will come in.”

“You’re going to transform?” Mathis asked.

“No,” Jett said. “Just sprout wings.”

“You may as well go ahead and tell Ephephany our collars are fake…” Gwendoline scolded Mathis and Jett.

“She would have found out eventually anyway,” Mathis told her. “When you and your brother sprouted wings, as he says.”

“I already suspected your collars were fake,” Ephephany said. “But I wasn’t going to say anything. As long as you obeyed the law in spirit, restricting your transformations to only the most dire of cases, I was happy to ignore it. Sprouting wings is something I could care less about as well, as long as no humans are nearby to see it.”

“See?” Mathis told Gwendoline. “Just because she’s a Wayfarer, doesn’t mean she’s a traitor. Her loyalties lie with the dragons.”

“Not the dragons,” Ephephany corrected. “But Jett and the royal family. For the most part.”

Mathis stared up at the long ascent. “How do you expect us to climb that, given our current state? Ephephany, where’s the rejuvenation Weave you promised?”

Ariel sensed invisible Weaves of the Strength moving between them. When those Weaves touched Ariel, she felt a wave of warmth pass through her, and immediately she stood up straighter. The exhaustion seeped away and she felt reinvigorated, jumpy even, like she had the energy to take on the world.

“You’ll have to teach me this Weave someday,” Ariel told Ephephany, imagining all the ways she could put it to use with Jett and herself, mostly during sexy time.

“There is a price,” Ephephany said. “When it wears off, you’ll need to sleep immediately. For longer than you normally would.”

“Flame, Viper, lead the way,” Jett told his White Swords, and the two began hiking up the slope, taking what looked like a deer trail in the dim light.

“You always were loyal in all the years you advised me…” Jett told Ephephany as he began the climb. “I was never quite sure why you didn’t try to usurp the throne, however. Sure, the Wayfarers teach you not to covet power, but there had to be another reason.”

“Of course there was,” Ephephany said. “You won my respect. It’s as simple as that. You were a good man, and an even better king.”

“Were you disappointed when he gave up his crown to Gabriel?” Ariel asked.

“A little,” Ephephany said. “But he had groomed Gabriel to be king in his place. His brother already ruled twice before, while Jeddah Slept. I had no reason to believe his behavior would suddenly change, as it has.”

“Like I said before, it’s not my brother who’s behind any of this,” Jett told her. “You’ll see.”

“I hope you’re right,” Ephephany said. “But if you should discover that it is truly your brother who is doing this, and your brother alone, will you slink away to the dark corners of the world, never to return, or will you have it within yourself to forcibly remove him, reclaiming that which is rightfully yours?”

“Rightfully mine?” Jett said. “Nothing is ‘rightfully’ mine. To serve as king is a privilege, not a right.”

“That is the answer I had hoped for,” Ephephany said.

“But if he insists on hunting me and mine,” Jett said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to stop him. Because I refuse to hide in the shadows, waiting for him to find me.”

“So you will take the throne if you have to,” Ephephany said.

“Long enough to give it to someone else,” Jett said. “Maybe you.”

“But I don’t want it,” Ephephany said. “And by Wayfarer law, I couldn’t accept in any case. My role is to advise, no more.”

“Then I’ll find someone else from the royal lineage,” Jett said. “Perhaps my father would be willing to return.”

“What about Gwendoline?” Mathis said.

“Like me, she’s broken the First Rule,” Jett said. “She can’t take the throne.”

“Then get rid of the Rule,” Mathis said.

“That’s not so easy,” Jett said. “The Rule, and the feelings of superiority most dragons display toward other shifters, well, both are ingrained in dragon society. My people won’t be ready for such a change for very many years, I’m afraid.”

“You misjudge your fellow dragons,” Mathis said. “And underestimate their capacity for acceptance and tolerance. They will embrace the change.”

Jett shook his head. “You don’t know them.”

“I know some of you...” Mathis said.

“But we’re not necessarily representative of the majority,” Jett said. “Even if we royals removed the First Rule, and told the dragons they were free to mate and love other shifters, my people would still judge themselves the superior race. It’s just how it is. We’re too strong, too innately arrogant, to behave otherwise.”

“Maybe,” Mathis said. “But at least repealing the Rule is a start. And it will give some dragons, at least, a chance to open their hearts to other shifters and humans.”

Ariel stayed close to Jett as she hiked up the narrow trail that led up the slope through the thick pine trees. Eventually the trees began to thin, replaced by brambles and other clinging plants. Soon her pant legs were covered in prickly burrs, and she paused occasionally to swipe them off.

The brambles fell away and soon they hiked along bare rock alone. Flame and Viper picked out a trail that led along the side of the mountain, allowing them to slowly wind their way upward without having to climb. The “scary sections” as Jett called them were portions of the trail with dizzying precipices open on one side. The party continued to occasionally enter areas covered in dense pine trees, momentarily shielding them from any watching eyes in the night.

Sometimes the group reached a dead end in the form of a vertical rock face, at which point Jett and Gwendoline took turns ferrying the others up onto more horizontal ground. Jett’s beautiful wings expanded from either side of his body, emerging from hidden flaps in his dress shirt, and when Ariel’s turn came, he always gently wrapped his arms around her and ascended with the utmost care.

When he’d first flown her like that it had been a little terrifying, but she had grown to love it. The sensation of flying, the security she felt at being held in his strong arms, there was nothing like it.

“That never gets old,” she told him when he deposited her within a cluster of pines. “Question, though: why not just fly us all the way to the top?”

“I would,” Jett said. “But there’s a greater chance we’d be spotted by any scouts on the mountain. If we stick to the surface, hugging the mountain, moving from forested area to forested area, we’re a lot better off.”

And so the group continued in that way up the mountain, until finally they crested the peak and the pine-shrouded valley of the Hooded Dale spread before them in the dark.