“Retreat!” Fifer ordered. “Get Simber!” Shimmer and the remaining birds retreated and flew toward the mansion as the Revinir soared away from it.

Seeing that her spells weren’t working against the dragon-woman, Thisbe quickly scribbled a help message on the new send spell and sent it to Florence. But before the girls could attempt to do anything else, the Revinir swooped low and signaled to the sea below her.

The surface erupted. Six red water dragons exploded from below, where they’d been lurking, hidden from view and waiting for their cue. They rose up, water spraying everywhere, and flanked the Revinir, snarling at Thisbe and Fifer. As darkness fell over the land of the seven islands, the Revinir and her mind-controlled dragons flew in formation to the west, heading for the world she ruled. As she went, she flipped the girls upside down and shook them. Components rained down into the sea. The girls tried to catch them and managed to save a few. Fifer saved more than Thisbe because she’d loaded up her vest and her robe. But there was nothing else they could do. They gave up fighting with magic. It wasn’t worth wasting the components they had left.

“Why can’t you leave us alone?” Thisbe shouted to the Revinir when she was upright again.

“Because I need you,” said the Revinir. “I can’t take over the land of the dragons without the black-eyed rulers on my side. Don’t you know that by now?”

“You think kidnapping us is going to bring us over to your side?” Thisbe asked.

“You’ll come around. There will be so many benefits for you. I’ll tell you about them in time.”

“Then why aren’t you kidnapping all of the other black-eyed people?” Fifer retorted.

Thisbe gave her sister a panicked look. She didn’t want the Revinir to know the others were in Artimé too. But it turned out not to matter.

“If I have you two, the others will follow,” said the dragon-woman. “They’ll go along with whatever you say, because people care about you. You’ll see. Thank you for sending your little spells to summon them, by the way. That was helpful. They’ll all come to me in Grimere, and we can fight it out on my home turf with all of my dragons. Nice and tidy.”

“You’ll never take over this world or the land of the dragons,” Thisbe growled. Furious, she sent more fiery blasts at the Revinir’s underbelly, trying to find a weak or sensitive spot. At least she didn’t run out of this kind of weapon as easily as she used to. And she didn’t need a component for it. But that didn’t help if it was totally ineffective. She thought about the three obliterate components in her inside vest pocket and hoped they were still there. It wasn’t safe to use one on the Revinir now, with Thisbe and Fifer attached to her. They’d all be annihilated. But if she saw her chance… she wouldn’t hesitate.