Fifer shoved a stick through the fish’s mouth. “Good.” She felt a weight lift off her shoulders. “Besides, have you even tried to leave since you got here? The dragons might not let you.”

Dev was quiet as he spied their second course. He scooped up the fish and brought it over. “No. That’s been on my mind too. But I do want to try talking to the dragons a bit more.”

“Talking?” Fifer scoffed. She handed the knife to Dev, then went to the water to rinse her hands. “They just ignore me when I talk to them.”

“Roaring, then,” said Dev. He glanced at the dragon nearest them. The creature was alert but not looking at them. They’d made this trip to the river so many times that the dragons no longer seemed to get worried about them being so near this particular boundary. Perhaps they even thought that the two of them couldn’t or wouldn’t cross it. “At least they react to my roars. Don’t you think that indicates something?”

“Like what?”

“That I’m actually getting through the mind control.”

Fifer, who didn’t have much experience with the mind-control part of the Revinir’s powers, could only shrug. “All I know is that these are not nice dragons. And if they can scorch a flock of magical ravens into ash, they can do the same to you.” She stood up and turned to him. “And I wouldn’t be able to handle it if something happened to you.”

Dev felt something thick rise to his throat. It wasn’t fire. It was something emotional. He remembered what the Revinir had told him. And he was angry that he kept thinking about it. That she had retained that amount of control over him. “When the Revinir…” His voice came out gravelly, and he cleared his throat. “Before she threw me out of the window, she said not one person in the world cared about me.”

Fifer looked up. Her eyes grew shiny. “And did you believe that monster?”

Dev’s bottom lip twitched, and he fought to still it. “Yes.”

Fifer held Dev’s gaze. “Well,” she said, “she was wrong.”

Sound the Alarms

Receiving Fifer’s first send spell after so many weeks without a word had been a relief until Florence opened it. Florence and Simber had read it together in utter confusion, then called in Aaron and Maiven and Rohan. And then Ishibashi and Sky. And Carina and Seth. And Lani and Samheed. Nobody could make sense of the shocking turn of events, especially Rohan.

“Could this be some sort of a trick?” Rohan asked. He couldn’t fathom it.

“I think we have to treat it as real,” Lani said. She glanced at Aaron, who’d sunk to a chair and covered his face.