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"Wouldn't that be what we shouldn't do then?"
Arlo chortled and shook his head. "Yes, but he thinks we are too scared to do that. He knows that we are plotting, but we haven't made a move yet. He is counting on us not having the numbers or the balls to go to those gates and bring the fight to him."
"That might be true, but I see my father anticipating that."
All three of them laughed. Enzo suppressed a growl. He knew it was at his expense as if he had said something they found to be wrong.
Beckett was the one to confirm that, saying, "I think you give your father way too much credit. He would have gotten rid of us long ago if he were smart. We four have been rising to power since we were young. Many people here find us to be the real kings of the dragons. They want us on the throne. The only thing stopping them from joining us to claim it is the possibility of losing the lives that they built here. People are too comfortable to be willing to give everything up without a reason that truly benefits them. Otherwise, we would have tried to storm the gates when that barrier went down."
Esen nodded. "Yeah. I have to agree. You think your father is untouchable because he has made himself look like he is. He is just a man who can shift into a semi-powerful storm dragon, but still a man. He is not a god. The Great Dragon is our only god, and your father is not that."
Enzo wanted to argue, but it was no use. They made a point. His father was not the Great Dragon. He could be defeated.
"How do we do that? I'm not trying to make him seem untouchable. I am trying to think of a way for us actually to win here."
Arlo spoke up. "That's going to be the hard part. With a barrier around the kingdom, Gemar made it ridiculously hard for us to infiltrate it to ambush them." Arlo was right. The new barrier threw a wrench in their plans.
"We need Kaida to break the barrier and storm into the kingdom. We take it by force," Enzo finally agreed, though he thought this was not the best strategy.
"It's the only plan we have. Without knowing the weak points and being able to sneak into the kingdom, and with the barrier stopping us from getting in, breaking down the barrier with Kaida and launching a full assault seems to be our best and only play. It might be just stupid enough to work."
Enzo growled and kicked himself off the wall. He hated not having more options. Every strategy they could develop would still rely on them breaking down the barrier and alerting his father and his troops of their presence. "We need something else to assist us here. Some kind of force multiplier to make our attack hit harder than just us. Do you have any allies we could recruit to make this plan a bit less suicidal?"
Beckett shook his head. "No. The allies that we could have used returned to the kingdom. Adrien, Remy, Azulia, and Sundrei would have done anything for Kaida, including jumping into the fight. With them gone, we don't have anyone but who is on this island."
"No witch powerful enough to help us with our barrier?" Enzo asked them.
Arlo answered with a sigh. "No. Adrien was the only truly powerful witch on the island—at least powerful enough to cast a secondary barrier to alert us if it was broken."
"Our shields? Could that work?" After he said it out loud, he knew that wasn't a possibility.
Beckett shook his head. "No. It would deplete our energy and prevent us from having the strength to fight if we reached the kingdom."
"Yeah, I thought of that after I said it. I don't know what else to suggest."
Enzo started to walk toward the house. He wanted to bring Adrien to put a barrier around the island to keep Kaida and everyone else safe. The idea of risking their lives left a pit in his stomach. Why couldn't they make the island safe again and live out their days making this their kingdom? That sounded a much better option than charging into the kingdom to take it for themselves. That way, all five could be happy and not have to deal with this anymore.
"I know what you are thinking, and I wish it could be that way, too. We have only wanted to be happy with our lives and bring peace to our people. You don't know that we have received letters from your father stating that the island will no longer be open one day. One day, he would come in and wipe it off the map. There have been warnings since we were young that we are only here because he deemed it necessary for now. As much as we wanted to keep the peace, we couldn't. We have bided our time to find the right moment to put a stop to this. Your father on the throne is the only threat to dragons surviving. If he would come here and wipe us off the board as he wishes, then one day, the dragons would no longer be here. Storm Dragons can't always just mate with each other. That would lead to our extinction. It is in history books for a reason. Even here, not many of the same types mate with each other."
Beckett's words hit too close to home. He thought of that throughout his life and feared it to be true. The longer the kingdom only relied on the Great Dragon being able to pair them within the Storm Dragon's lines, the faster the Storm Dragons would die out. But to know that his father threatened his people just because he saw them as lesser beings than himself was something he could not tolerate.
"We need to wake Kaida and explain everything we know. Then we need to gather those willing to fight with us and knock my father's ass off that throne."
Struggling to open her eyes, Kaida noticed four black figures surrounding the bed. She growled from deep within her as a warning, not allowing anyone to believe they could take her by force, even if they tried. Kaida called her magic to her, and it quickly flooded through her body before she heard the crackling of the plasmic energy around her hands. A throaty chuckle she recognized made her relax only for a moment before the strength and love from her mates flooded her mate bonds. Kaida sighed and felt the tension in her body ease before her eyes finally managed to open completely. After a few blinks, her vision cleared.
Beckett was to her right, Enzo was to her left, Arlo was at the right foot of the bed, and Esen was at the left foot. They were hiding grim lines in their faces with a smile. It did not fool her for a second as the emotions in the mate bonds settled. There was tension there about which she didn’t know. Something caused them all to try to mask what was happening. She wasn't going to let that slide.
"What happened?" Her voice was gravelly like she hadn't had water in days.
Beckett lifted a glass from the side table and, with his magic, filled it to the top. A couple of ice cubes floated at the top. "Drink first. You've been out for a few hours."
Kaida lifted her neck just enough to bring down the contents and kept his gaze. Once finished, she set the glass back down on the side table and had a warning rumbling inside her chest.
"What happened?" she demanded to know.
Enzo sighed and grabbed her hand. With a squeeze, he took a deep breath and answered her, "I know what happened with Blaze. Unfortunately, my father came to the island without us knowing."
Kaida's growl returned. "What?!"
