She wandered to the immense waterfall with Zel on her tail. The water shimmered and pounded, making Thisbe’s chest vibrate. It was one of the first things she’d seen when she and Fifer and Seth had crossed over the gorge for the first time on Hux the ice blue. It was wide and powerful, falling off the cliff into the vast nothingness below.

The image in her mind of her mother had given her a tiny glimpse of what this used to look like before the worlds separated. The gorge had once not existed, and this area had been part of the sea that led to the seven islands. Somewhere along here was where Thisbe’s mother had been abducted by pirates, who’d somehow gotten help from Rohan’s mother.

Rohan. His name was on Thisbe’s lips in an instant, but she made no sound. She closed her eyes as her heart stabbed beat after beat inside her rib cage. How could she answer his message when she had no words? All she could do was hope he’d forgive her someday. She was keeping this secret for the purest of intentions, no matter how awful it made her look. She was protecting him and all the others from having to tell the truth to the Revinir if, somehow in this process, the dragon-woman managed to capture anyone and force them back into compliance. Like Zel, here. In her right mind, the young woman might be totally against the Revinir, but she could do nothing about it except report everything as she saw it back to the dragon-woman. It would be so easy to foil this entire slippery plan that Fifer had conjured up. Thisbe had to stay strong no matter what.

But it was hard to do. It seemed like every minute there was a mental fight. A temptation to give in and give up. How bad could life be with the Revinir perpetually in charge? With mind-controlled dragons and humans ruling over everyone? Thisbe and Fifer and Dev and the rest of them could just retreat, and maybe start life over in Artimé. There was always room for more there. But no… the Revinir had promised to take over the seven islands next. There was no place safe from her—not even another world on the volcano network, because the dragon-woman knew how to use that system too. It was up to Thisbe to stop everything now, before it was too late. They’d already needed to concoct this dangerous plan just to get close enough to the dragon-woman to take her out. It was this… or surrender. And then what? Locked in the dungeon to ride out their lives until there were no more black-eyed people left? Or… worse?