Sky glanced at Fifer. “Oh, that’s right,” she said apologetically. “I forgot that part of your story. So much has happened.”

Fifer softened. “It’s okay. I hope Thisbe can do something to snap Dev out of it too. I just . . . I doubt it.” She sniffed, wanting desperately to stop talking about how amazing Thisbe was and feeling bad at the same time for it. “By the way, how are we supposed to go help Thisbe when she gets around to calling for us? We don’t have any dragons left to fly us.”

Aaron looked up. “I assumed we’d take Spike and Simber and your birds to the Island of Fire and travel through the volcanos.”

“Oh,” said Fifer. “That makes sense, I guess.” She hesitated, feeling weird about everything. “Well, let’s get back to work, then. Are we, uh . . . What are we doing, exactly? Should we go back to Artimé now that the threat is gone?”

Aaron and Sky exchanged a glance, then looked at Talon, who’d been there most recently. “What do you think?” Aaron asked him.

“From the mood of the mansion last night,” said Talon, “none of the Stowes are safe there anymore. The line has been drawn. As for the others, by coming here and declaring your loyalty to the Stowes, I’m afraid you are on the wrong side of that line.”

A Blank Stare

Thisbe’s heart sank at the sight of Rohan. His face was expressionless, and his eyes were dead and completely void of the mirth and compassion that used to be there. Clearly he was under the Revinir’s control. But how had this happened? How had the Revinir gotten to him? The last thing Thisbe knew was that Rohan and Maiven Taveer had found her family’s abandoned house in Grimere and were going to use it as their secret headquarters to figure out how to fight the Revinir. Apparently some part of their plan had gone terribly wrong.

Had the Revinir forced Rohan to drink the dragon-bone broth? She must have, or he wouldn’t be acting like this. Thisbe didn’t dare risk another cursory glance at the other dragons around them to see if Maiven was one of those riders, but when the group of dragons shifted leader positions, Thisbe saw that the old woman wasn’t anywhere among them.