The Dragon Realm (Dark World The Dragon Twins #2) - Michelle Madow Page 0,49

have otherwise.

“Let’s hold up on hijacking anything until we check out what’s in that general direction,” I said.

“Agreed,” Ethan said.

“Bummer.” Bella frowned. “You’re no fun.”

Mira rolled her eyes. “Says the person who wouldn’t let us leave our suite for the entire first half of the cruise.”

“That was different. It would have been a bad idea. This is a good idea.”

Ethan zipped up his bag and put it around his back. “Zodiac hijacking is an option to consider later,” he said. “For now, we walk.”

“Hey!” One of the expedition guides—Malcolm, the one with glasses who’d held the GPS when the ship had crossed the Antarctic Circle—hurried in our direction. “You can’t go any farther than this.”

“Of course.” Bella smiled. “Sorry.” She gave us a look, and we followed Malcom back to the outer edge of the area we were allowed to be in.

He looked up at the sky, pointed, and started saying something about the birds.

“Very interesting,” Bella said, clearly finding it anything but. “We can go over there, right?” She pointed in a general direction off to the side.

“Sure.” Malcolm startled slightly at how she’d cut him off, like he was offended that she didn’t want to hear more about the birds. “Just don’t go any farther out than this.”

“Thanks,” Bella said. “Got it.”

We walked off, staying in the acceptable area, and Malcolm hurried to another group of tourists to tell them more about the birds. Skuas. I’d learned about them on the TV while I’d been stuck in bed.

They loved hunting baby penguins during hatching season in January. They plucked them right out of their nests. I was glad we weren’t there during that time, because that wasn’t something I’d have wanted to witness.

Bella placed her backpack on the ground, unzipped it, and pulled out four vials of clear potion.

“Invisibility potion,” Mira said before I had a chance.

“One for each of us,” Bella said as she handed them out. “Cheers.” She uncapped her vial and chugged it down.

The three of us did the same.

The potion tasted like air. I wouldn’t have been sure I’d actually drank anything if the vial wasn’t empty afterward… and if my arms hadn’t turned ghostly sheer. A quick glance showed that my entire body looked like that.

Ethan, Mira, and Bella also looked like ghosts. Our backpacks, too, and assumedly everything in them.

“We can see each other because that was from the same batch,” Bella said. “We’re invisible to everyone else.”

“Cool.” I hadn’t taken invisibility potion before, but it felt freeing. Like I was an observer instead of actually there.

Something about being an observer in my own body felt weirdly familiar. Like déjà vu.

“Now, we walk,” Ethan said, and we continued forward without any guides bothering us again.

As we made our way to the opposite end of the island, the snow on the ground thickened. There were more penguins nearby, although we did as we were supposed to and stayed out of their way.

The island wasn’t big, so it wasn’t long before we reached the other side.

“Well?” I looked to Ethan, and he set the backpack down again and reached inside for the heart.

He was done in a second. “We’re close.”

“But not there yet?” I glanced out at the water. It was dark, and it looked cold. If we were going into another underwater kingdom…

I shuddered at the thought.

“We still have to go that way.” Ethan pointed to the mountains across the water again. “Sorry.”

Bella rubbed her hands together. “Zodiac hijacking it is.”

“Not so fast.” Mira held her hand over her forehead to block the sun. “Look.”

I glanced out to where a short, flat-topped iceberg about a few meters long drifted in our direction. A beautiful woman with long, platinum hair stood on top of it. She looked like Elsa from Frozen, except her outer gear was made of thick layers of animal skins, like those worn by Alaskan natives.

She scanned the general area where we were standing. “Where are you?” she asked.

I glanced at the others, saying nothing. Invisibility potion made us invisible, but it didn’t block sound.

“I know you’re out here,” she continued.

Invisibility potion also didn’t hide footprints.

She caught sight of the trail of them behind us, smiled, and the iceberg floated to the edge of the island.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said, her voice soft and soothing. A light metallic smell drifted over to us—she was a vampire. “You can show yourselves.”

I nodded at the others. Because the dragon heart had led us here for a reason. And this woman