After another long week and many treacherous days, they finally neared the peak of the mountain range. They stopped and settled down in a nearby cave, preparing themselves for the next day.

Jesika left the cave to go relieve herself, leaving Rowan, Darryn and Aquila sitting in a circle. They were all thinking the same thing.

Jesika had yet to give up. And tomorrow was the day they were to attack the dragon. They had failed.

Darryn groaned, clutching his head in frustration. “Rowan, what happened to your freaking plan?”

Rowan shrugged, looking unconcerned. “I underestimated the queen’s stubbornness.”

Darryn lowered his head, glaring at him. “You think? I WARNED you this would happen. Now we’re one night away from freaking suicide.”

Aquila shook her head, keeping her voice even. “Darryn, please. Raising your temper and throwing blame won’t help us one bit. So, we messed up. What’s important is what we do now. We can’t let Jesika go fight that dragon. With or without us.”

Darryn sighed heavily, leaning back on the rock behind him. “And how are we going to do that?”

“We trap her so she can’t,” Rowan suggested dryly.

“We make one of our beasts drag her home,” Aquila added.

Darryn gave them both an unamused look. “Both of you know very well we can’t do that,” he deadpanned.

Rowan laughed, a dry, hollow, frustrated laugh. “Then I suppose our only option is trying once more to convince the woman out of this. We practically need to beg for her to change her mind.”

Aquila groaned. “But she’s not going to listen!” she argued.

Rowan turned on her, wide-eyed, his voice risen: “What choice do we have, Aquila?!”

She whimpered, bringing her knees up to her chest and burying her face in them. Darryn hesitantly started to reach his hand over to comfort her when Jesika returned, making Darryn’s hand shrink back. Jesika eyed the three, who were obviously at loose ends.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

She arched one brow, crossing her arms, shifting her weight. “What’s up with you three? And what’d you do to Aquila?”

Aquila rose her head and Rowan looked at Jesika.

“Come sit down with us, Your Majesty,” Rowan said, patting the spot to his left.

She seemed hesitant, but did so, sitting down cross-legged. “What is it?” she asked warily.

Darryn started to speak, but Rowan held up his hand to stop him. “Let me,” he said. He then turned to Jesika. “We think you should reconsider battling the dragon.”

Jesika furrowed her brows. “What do you mean? You think we should revise our strategy?”

Rowan shook his head. “We think we should turn around and go back home. Give this up.”

Jesika laughed, that same hollow laugh that Rowan had a couple minutes ago. “Is this a joke?” she asked. The three shook their heads. She shot to her feet, glaring down at them. “Why would you even suggest this? You want to back out now?! Now that we’ve wasted, money, time, food and supplies getting here?! How can we back out now?!”

Darryn shot to his feet too, looking at her with a desperate plea in his eyes. “Because we should have never gone in the first place!!” he yelled.

Rowan sighed, face-palming. Jesika’s reaction to Darryn’s words were as Rowan expected it would be. Stricken and hurt. And burning hot mad.

“We should have never gone in the first place?!! You agreed to go!!!” Jesika paused, whirling on Rowan. “What about you, Rowan?! Were you always against this too?!”

Rowan sighed, leaning his head back, realizing there was no calming her down now. “Yeah, actually I was. I had just hoped the forest would make you want to turn around itself.”

Before he knew it, he was yanked to his feet by his collar. He now stood before her as she clutched his shirt, nose to nose with Jesika. She glared at him with a deathly stare, but Rowan stared back with a bored, uncaring look.

“Do you take me for a coward?!”

He rolled his eyes. “I took you for a reasonable person who wouldn’t go headfirst into a dangerous situation you have no business being in. I only hoped the forest would wake that up in you. Obviously, I was wrong.”

She gripped his collar tighter at his insult, looking like she wanted to swing at him. Instead, she threw him back to the ground roughly, knocking the breath out of him a moment. She backed away, shaking her head, disbelief joining her expression.

“Fine. I get it. I shouldn’t have ever asked you guys to come out here, to put your lives in danger for me. That was too much to expect of you. So, no. You don’t have to go fight her tomorrow.” They didn’t take a relieved sigh; their tense muscles didn’t release. They knew better than to expect her words not to have a “but”. “But I want to make it clear, that I AM going to fight her tomorrow. With or without you. So, that’s your guys’ decision.” And there it was.

With that, she went to the other side of the cave, preparing for sleep. The three shared a silent look that spoke all that it needed to.

Author’s Note

A shortie but uh... The next chapter is the big day!!