Thankfully, the Revinir urged everyone to continue on after that. Things went along more quietly in the hours before they passed by the Island of Fire. Thisbe thought she saw a big flash of white and blue in the sea and wondered if it was Spike Furious twisting in the water. It made her heart ache. She was leaving all of her friends and family behind again. But that wasn’t even the hardest part. It was more the fact that the place she was headed was in such turmoil. And the people she was going back to—and with—were compromised.

Thisbe’s heart kept sinking as she thought about what would come next. How was she supposed to break this blasted Revinir mind control spell and free her people? Especially without Rohan’s assistance. He was the one who’d so nobly stayed back to help save his people. Thisbe wanted to carry through with that plan, but she hadn’t expected to do it alone. Was it possible that she could find Maiven? That question led to another: Would Thisbe be free to roam in Grimere now that the Revinir was in charge and she was supposedly under her mind control? Or would she be confined to the castle or stationed as a soldier somewhere? She wondered how hard it would be to move around and do what she needed to do to find Maiven. Whatever the situation was now, Thisbe knew that things would be different from last time . . . she just wasn’t sure how.

Exhausted from being up all night, Thisbe kept nodding off, but she wasn’t sure how to go about actually sleeping—did the others ever sleep? She hadn’t thought about that part of things before. What if they no longer needed it for some reason? But that sounded absurd. They were still human. Even the Revinir slept sometimes—or at least Thisbe assumed so.

But she didn’t dare lie down. Instead she hung on to the Revinir’s spikes so she wouldn’t accidentally tumble off, and focused on examining the rows and rows of the dragon-woman’s thick scales to see if there was any sign of weakness. Or any sparse spot where Thisbe could send off sparks that would actually penetrate the skin.

Soon Thisbe’s heavy lids closed, and she slumped over, unable to stay awake any longer.

When she woke many hours later, night was falling. All Thisbe could see was water. The gorge wasn’t yet in sight. Once she remembered where she was and what she was doing, she fixed her expression and slowly sat up and faced forward. As she moved, she noticed that a couple of the black-eyed slaves on the other dragons were lying down, and she felt better about having taken a nap. It seemed normal after all. That was a relief—learning how to act was tiring and stressful.