“Do what?” I asked as dread weighed heavy in my stomach. 

The girl stood, still pointing the gun at me with the arm that wasn’t in a sling. “Don’t talk to the prisoner. She’s just trying to buy time for her boyfriend to wake up.”

The guy grinned like any brother about to annoy his sister, which they seemed to be. “Hey, we’ve got a few minutes to wait, so what’s the problem?” To me, he said, “We tried to go through the portal to get you, but Frozen Tooth caught us on the way. Roughed us up so bad we couldn’t have caught a fly. Good thing he’s got a thing for gold, or else he probably would’ve eaten us. Struck a deal, and he was nice enough to drop us off at the village doorstep. Even swore he’d chase you to us if he found you.”

“Ren, for the love of-”

He continued like he hadn’t heard the girl. “And we didn’t even have to pay him for a distraction; he’s been looking for an excuse to scare off this village for ages, and the chief using all his magic on you is the perfect opportunity.”

I reevaluated how quickly I could disarm the girl. I might be able to startle her into dropping the gun if I transformed quickly enough. It was worth a try to save the village and my friends from being crushed and possibly eaten by an enormous glacial dragon. Tensing, ready to leap, I started to transform. 

White-hot pain shot up my arms and carved through my back. Gasping, I fought to stand. Ren grabbed my ropes, forcing me to stay on my feet. 

The girl flinched, but Ren just chuckled. “Liv, Liv, Liv, ye of little faith—trust the ropes. I know what I’m doing.” 

Liv scowled. “Don’t get cocky. We lose her, and we don’t get another chance.”

“Another chance for what?” I asked, though I already suspected the answer. Neither of them had paid me much mind when I first came in. It wasn’t until I’d spoken English with Aster that they did anything. To recognize English, they must’ve known someone from Earth who spoke it—someone like Merlin Witherspoon, the boy who fell through a portal to Mystica some fifty years ago. Fifty years was plenty of time to grow up and have a couple of half-human kids to do his dirty work. 

“Don’t you know why we want you?” Ren asked, sounding sincerely curious. 

“That depends. Are you kids of the mad scientist who wants to kill me?”

Liv set her jaw, and I caught a slight tremor in her hand. “You don’t understand a thing about death. You’re immortal.”

I tried to step back a moment and empathize with a girl trying to revive her dead mother. If I could understand her, maybe I could talk my way out of this. Only, it was more than a little hard to be logical or empathetic with a gun leveled at my head and adrenaline coursing through my veins. 

“Phoenixes aren’t immortal, and even if we were, I’m eighteen and looking at a life where everyone I love dies centuries before I do. Guess why—because your dad killed my parents before I was even hatched. And killing them didn’t do a thing for your mom, so he’s sent you two after me now. After I’m dead and gone and nothing’s changed for you, how are you going to tell your kids that you brought an intelligent species to extinction?”

I was shaking now, anxious to get out of these ropes and give her a real piece of my mind. The only thing holding me back was the cocked gun inching closer to my face and the rope’s enchantments. 

Ren’s grip tightened on my wrists. “You’re one to talk about killing, Mars. We know it’s not coincidence you were named after the Roman god of war. You’ve been inciting wars and plagues on Earth and Mystica since the beginning of time, but you’ve slipped up now. You’ve gone soft, made mortal friends, let down your guard.”

Crap, they were just as insane as Merlin. I wasn’t even named Mars; it was just my nickname. My real name was Maria, but I doubted Ren or Liv would believe that. 

“Even if you think I’m evil incarnate, do you really think everyone in this village is?”

“Of course not. They’ll be happy to be rid of you.” He paused and let out a little hmm. “Hear that? He’s coming.”

I didn’t hear it so much as feel the far-away rumbling vibrating through the floor. “Yeah, they’ll be so happy inside Frozen Tooth’s stomach. I’m sure they’ll throw a great big party in there. Then they’ll go down the fun intestinal slide and come out totally intact.”

“We have a deal. He won’t hurt anyone, just scare them away.” He pulled me toward the door, and Liv stayed close with the gun. 

I wanted to literally slap sense into him, but I only had one parting quip before I figured out how to scream loud enough to get Chief Garoth’s attention from wherever he was. “If you really believe that, you’re more of an idiot than I thought.”

“Shut up,” Liv snapped, “or I might reconsider killing you.” Horns sounded outside, and she flinched, her finger worryingly close to pulling the trigger.

I bit back a growl. She seemed just like the kind of person who might let her hot temper get the best of her, and I wouldn’t be of any use to anyone if I was dead. 

We were feet from the door when it rustled and the chief came in carrying an ornate staff carved from solid stone. His eyes narrowed when he saw us. 

“Young goddess, are these friends of yours?”

Liv pointed the gun at him and shot me a look that told me to play along. “Yeah, we’re friends of the goddess. She’s got to go home and raise a dead friend, so we’d better be going.”

Chief Garoth didn’t move, instead fixing his gaze on the gun. “Is that a weapon?”

“Of course not,” Ren chimed in. “It’s a- a translator. We don’t speak fluent Bontair, so we’ve got to use it.”

“Hmm.” Chief Garoth glanced at me. “Forgive me if I’m being… irreverent, young goddess, but might you care to corroborate their story?”

Ren jerked a little on the ropes binding my wrists, as if I needed a reminder that not playing along would have dire consequences. I might’ve been able to revive from the brink of death, but Chief Chief Garoth definitely couldn’t. 

“Yeah, they’re friends, and we’ve got to be going. But,” I hurried to add as Ren prodded me toward the door, “We’ve received word that Frozen Tooth is heading this way, and he’s counting on you to be powerless. You need to evacuate your people immediately.”

He nodded. “We have look-outs, and they’ve sounded the emergency horns. The village is evacuating as we speak. Your small human friend and the voidcat are waiting for you at the edge of the village. Don’t worry, there are two dufflar mounts for you and your larger sick friend. You’ll be able to easily make your escape, despite your condition.” 

His gaze wandered toward the back of the healing house, where Aster lay paralyzed and two of the borin healers cowered behind baskets. He had to have seen something was amiss, but he just turned toward the door as if he hadn’t. At the last second, he stopped and frowned at me. 

“Before you go, would you mind passing over the cemetery? We have several recently dead we’d like revived, and I’m sure they would rather come with us than be desecrated by Frozen Tooth.”

I swallowed. He’d studied dragons at the capital; he knew we weren’t the omnipotent beings of legend. The only reason he would ask such an ignorant question was because Liv had claimed I could revive the dead. Either he thought his capital studies had been wrong, or he was trying to see if my ‘friends’ were lying.

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t have time. Revival takes ages, and with Frozen Tooth on the doorstep, I wouldn’t be able to manage it before-”

“Oh, but you are Host, the phoenix dragon who has driven away Frozen Tooth every summer for millennia. Can’t you do it once more, if only for a short time?”

He was definitely trying to figure out the lie. According to legend, Host was the patron dragon of Hot Springs, and she’d only visited Southern Glacier once to make a treaty with Frozen Tooth so he would let the summer come each year. And she wasn’t a phoenix dragon at all, meaning there was no way to mistake Chief Garoth’s intentions.