“Oh, sweet, innocent Sera.” She grinned. “So many delightful ways. But shouldn’t you already know that? Kai Drachenburg’s magic is off the charts. He is a dragon on the battlefield. He must be one in bed too.”

Sera’s cheeks warmed—and a few other parts too. But there wasn’t time for distracting thoughts right now. She cleared her throat. “Oh look, the shore.”

Naomi chuckled but didn’t say anything more. They were almost there. Sera could see the sandy beach—and the watchtowers. Every faction on the island had one of those stone towers overlooking the patch of shore they’d claimed for themselves. Sera slid her magic through the air, rolling the fog around their boat like a cloak. They rowed up onto the beach that separated the Princes of Twilight’s territory from the one occupied by the Night Terrors, another group of pirates. The two factions’ flags flapped wildly in the spelled wind.

“Look,” Sera whispered, pointing at the boat further down the beach. It was an exact match to theirs. She turned, her eyes following the contours of the hill, peering past the watchtower to the fortress beyond. Dual strands of magic hummed to her, a mix of fairy and mage. “They went that way. It looks like they decided to rescue the kidnapped children themselves.”

“More like get themselves captured.” Naomi looked down at the storm of footprints in the wet sand. She followed two pairs of them to a sandy trail, where they disappeared. She plucked a floral scarf from the bushes. Ruby’s scarf. “Someone got them.” She bent down for a closer look at the footprints. “A lot of someones.”

Sera inhaled deeply, drawing in the magic scents that lingered in the air. “Mages. Those must be our pirates.”

Nodding, Naomi hurried up the trail, unbothered by the steep ascent. Sera followed. There were a few pirates patrolling the area, but they weren’t that hard to avoid. Their magic was distinct, the potent smell of rum oozing from their pores even more so.

There were two pirates standing guard at the front entrance to the fortress—and singing drunken pirate songs, no less—but only one guy stood at the back entrance. They waited until he turned around to pee into the bushes, then they slipped through the open door.

A mage pirate passed them in the halls, his steps heavy with liquor. He didn’t seem to see them—or even the walls. He bumped into them more than once on his way to wherever he was going. Maybe to pee in the bushes too. The whole operation absolutely reeked of professionalism.

“If this is all the Princes of Twilight have got, the rescue will be easy,” Naomi said.

Sera snorted, turning left at a fork in the hall. “I sense a huge concentration of fairy-mage hybrids in the room at the end.”

“My sisters too?”

“Yes.”

The humor faded from Naomi’s eyes. “Let’s get them.”

She broke into a quick jog, soft and soundless. Sera trailed her, just as eager, if not a bit apprehensive. She felt the children, but no pirates anywhere in this part of the building. Where were they all? Some of them should have been guarding the children. Surely not all of them had abandoned their posts to get drunk—or to pee under the moonlight. This whole thing stank of a trap. Sera shook the thought from her head. The pirates couldn’t have known she and Naomi were coming. Well, not unless…

“Naomi, wait.”

But Naomi had already run into the room at the end of the hall. She was fast. Sera followed, reaching for her friend, trying to catch up to her.

It was too late. Bars slammed down behind her. Iron bars. They were trapped.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Princes of Twilight

“THEY KNEW WE were coming,” Sera said. The room they were standing in, which was hardly larger than a pantry, was empty.

“How?” Naomi asked.

“I don’t know. But they knew.”

“Nothing we can do about it now,” Naomi replied, looking past the open doorway, to the larger room connected to this one.

There, children and teens sat on the floor, clustered in small groups. There must have been at least fifty of them, every single one of them a fairy-mage hybrid. The miasma of magic bounced off the iron bars covering the windows and doors, the collective echo ripping through Sera’s mind like a tsunami. Gritting her teeth, Sera pushed against the onslaught until her magic popped and flipped inside out. The waves of magic melted before her, and she let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, look, we caught ourselves some pretty ones.”

Sera turned. Three pirates stood on the other side of the iron bars. Not only were they not drunk, at least one of them was a first tier mage. The other two weren’t underpowered either.

“Finally, something old enough to have real breasts.”

They might not have been underpowered, but they had the manners of a bunch of piranhas.

“I call the fairy,” one said, licking his lips.

“The other one is cute too,” said another, smirking. “Not as perky as her friend, but I’m sure she’ll do just fine.” He turned to Sera. “What do you say, honey? You looking for a good time?”

“What moving words,” Sera said drily. “I find myself unable to resist your charms.”

A smile curled up his lips. “Really?”

“No, you’re an idiot. If you put your hands anywhere near me, I’ll chop them off.”

His buddies snickered.

He smacked them. “Charms?” he asked Sera. “Just what are you expecting, sweetheart? A sonnet?”