“How is it that you know of Quale?” the shortest of the grays asked me. He was only an inch or so taller than Mischa and I.

The four Compasses took a singular step toward the group. I freaking hated it when they acted like a single unit. The motion had tingles racing down my spine and dread settling in my stomach.

“Take us to Quale.” Braxton had also had enough, he was not even trying to hide his annoyance.

The grays didn’t seem very concerned by his angry stance. Either they had no idea what Braxton was, or they were very used to dealing with dragon shifters. “Follow us,” they said together.

Everyone in our group shucked off any extra layers before taking the first step onto the red dirt. Heat engulfed me and I sighed. I didn’t like to be baked; there was probably some snow wolf in my lineage. Sweating, I stripped off another shirt, leaving myself in just the singlet. I hoped it didn’t take us long to cross this zone, otherwise I’d be naked before anyone knew it.

Gerard started to chatter; he was our tour guide. “There are five areas here in the sanctuary. This is the desert, where the heat loving races make their residence.”

So far I couldn’t see any inhabitants, just long plains of red dirt with a few mountains and rocky crevices scattered around, the sand shifting as we walked. There were some pathetic plants, mostly surrounding small ponds of water. The florae were hardy, cacti-looking species.

Gerard pointed to a long, craggy cliff that was off the far edge. “Stay away from that range of cliffs. That is the territory of the Jinn. They are not very friendly.”

Jinn … genie. I thought they were freaking myths, or at least so well hidden that I’d never meet one. Information on their race was scarce, but we’d done one subject on them in school. Extremely powerful, they’d been rulers of the fire lands of Faerie, and there was even some truth to the wish-granting legend. Of course, you’d be an absolutely moronic moron to trust them with anything, let alone promise them something for a wish. A few desperate humans had found that out the hard way. Despite their evil doings, I was pretty sure no jinn were in the prison system. They were impossible to find, let alone incarcerate.

We were about halfway across the red plains when my thoughts on jinn were distracted by unexpected movement. One of the mounds – which I’d thought was a small mountain – was starting to rise. Holy flying crap! That was not a part of the environment, it was a red dragon. Not a shifter, but an actual dragon.

It was a little smaller, more animal-looking than our dragons, but still in full possession of deadly fangs and fire.