Apparently he was just as desperate as his son to find an answer. Sofia gaped, turning on her husband.

“What?”

“I think Ben should return,” Derek repeated calmly. He turned his eyes toward his son, who had his gaze fixed on his father. “But I don’t think you should go alone. That would be foolish when we have many capable people to accompany you.”

Ben looked reluctant. “I don’t want to be the cause of any more casualties,” he said. “This is my problem and I don’t see how it’s fair to expect any of our people to share my burden.”

“Not expect, Ben,” Derek said. “But I think that you will find that many on this island will want to help their prince.”

Ben bit his lip, apparently seeing truth in his father’s words.

“So far from what you’ve told us,” Derek continued, “we know that they have an army of vampires, five witches, half-bloods and a lot of humans. Unless there was anyone else living there you didn’t see, that’s hardly much to contend with. We have stood against much, much worse. You said that the witches cast a protective spell over The Oasis, but I don’t see that as anything that the force of our witches combined couldn’t crack. And once inside the atrium, we wouldn’t leave until we’d solved this mystery—why you had that vision, why you are experiencing these voices, why you are still hearing sounds of that place even thousands of miles away.”

Ibrahim cleared his throat. “Derek,” he said, “before doing anything, we need to wait for Corrine. The look on her face when she was examining those tattoos… We shouldn’t take her reaction lightly. She told River and Ben to wait in this room until she returned, and I really think that you should heed her advice.”

Derek and Ben both let out sharp breaths. “How much longer is she going to take?” Derek asked.

Ibrahim shrugged. “You saw how she wouldn’t tell any of us what she was thinking. She just said to wait.”

“Well, we have waited enough,” Derek said. “Would you just go and talk to her? Even if she is not sure of whatever she suspects, she can at least give us some idea. She can’t keep us in the dark any longer.”

Ibrahim looked reluctant, but nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Ibrahim vanished, leaving Derek, Sofia, Ben and me in the room.

“Of the people who are willing,” Ben said, “who do you suggest we bring?”

“First off, as many witches as we can spare,” Derek replied. “Then we should bring an army of vampires, werewolves… and I also suggest we bring a couple of dragons if they are agreeable.”

Dragons. The notion was so strange to me. Since we had arrived, neither Ben nor I had come across any, but I had seen footage of dragons lined up along a California beach on the TV. My mother had convinced me those giant beasts had just been works of a talented CGI artist.

Ben’s eyes turned on me, his hold on me tightening.

“River,” he said, “I don’t want any of this to affect your plans. You said that you would wait for me to turn into a human before thinking about going to visit your family. Well, now that’s not possible, you need to start thinking about your own plans. I don’t want to drag you any further into my problem.”

My own plans… I was so overwhelmed with everything that had happened in the past twelve hours with Ben, I’d barely thought about my own plans.

As much as the idea of visiting my family thrilled me, I didn’t feel comfortable about abandoning Ben. It felt like we were on this journey together, and just as he’d been there all along to help me, I ought to do the same for him. Although the idea terrified me, I found myself saying, “I want to come with you, Ben.”

He immediately shook his head. “No. It’s going to be far too dangerous, and I really can’t see the need for you to come.”

“You don’t know what exactly is going to happen while you’re there,” I persisted, “and there might be a need for you to have my blood near you. For a start, the place is filled with humans.”

“River—”

“As for danger,” I continued, cutting him off, “it will be very different this time. You’ll be going there with a whole army. From the way you and your father are talking, it sounds like the only ones in danger will be the residents of The Oasis themselves.”

Ben looked toward his parents, as though he wanted them to back him up in convincing me to stay. Sofia set her eyes on me. And then a small smile appeared on her face.

I wasn’t sure why she smiled exactly, but she said, “One thing your father and I have learned recently is to never underestimate a determined seventeen-year-old girl.”

Ben looked surprised by his mother’s response. He paused, then said with a sigh, “Okay. If you want to come, I won’t try to stop you… But what about your family? You’ve been saying all this time how much they need you, how much you want to get back to them.”

“I do want to visit my family,” I said slowly. “But maybe I could visit them now, while you’re waiting for Corrine and making preparations to leave? I would only need an hour or two.” I paused, realizing that I wasn’t confident in leaving Ben’s side for even that amount of time.

Ben seemed to be reading my thoughts. “Yes, you could do that. And I would find a way to manage during that time.”

“How will you manage? Even with me by your side, you struggle to rein yourself in.”