“And ships,” Zohar added. “We should definitely steal a ship.”
Alice rolled her eyes. “You can’t just steal a pirate ship, Zohar.”
“Not with that attitude,” he shot back.
Amber leaned forward. “What about the Isle of the Monsters?”
Jade nodded eagerly. “I bet they have creatures no one’s ever seen before.”
Spring exhaled. “Are we sure this is a good idea?”
Zohar snorted. “Spring, literally none of our ideas are ever very good. That’s what makes them so great.”
She opened her mouth—then sighed. “Fair point.”
Phoenix glanced at them all, then narrowed her eyes at Amber and Jade. Zohar snickered when he noticed the twins immediately adopted expressions of perfect innocence. He didn’t miss the way Jade tried to tuck the symbiot robot they had built in her lap.
“If we do this, everyone needs to behave.”
Amber pointed at Roam and him. “Why are you staring at us? You should be telling them that. They’re the ones who almost got killed on their last adventure. We planned what we were doing and captured our bad guys.”
Jade nodded. “They get into way more trouble than we do. Besides, we have tools and know how to use them.”
Phoenix groaned. “If we do this, we need to have some rules. No interfering. We need to keep a low profile so they don’t even know we are visiting, okay? We also need to stick together.” She turned a glare on Roam and Zohar before she did the same to Amber and Jade again. “No starting trouble!”
Amber and Jade groaned, glanced at each other, grinned, then nodded in agreement. Zohar’s lips twitched when he saw the twins cross their fingers behind their back. Roam lifted his hands in the air and smiled.
“Trouble follows me, so I can’t promise,” Roam retorted, before hastily adding when Spring growled at him, “but I’ll try.”
Zohar grinned. “We’ve got this. We’re the Dragonlings. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Phoenix groaned and bit her lip. “I’m beginning to think this isn’t such a good idea,” she muttered to a chorus of protests.
“Phoenix!”
“Come on!”
“Please! Think of the mermaids,” Adaline and Alice pleaded.
“We’ll behave, won’t we, guys?” Jabir said, speaking up.
Phoenix groaned again and sighed when Jabir turned his puppy-eyed look on her. Zohar fought back a grin. He would need to remember that move. Phoenix melted at Jabir’s longing expression.
“Oh, okay.” She looked at him with a doubtful expression. “Like Zohar said, what’s the worst that could happen?”
“Like… everything,” Spring snorted under her breath next to her.
Roam tugged on Spring’s ponytail, causing her to wince when he pulled a little too hard. She released a low snarl and snapped back. Zohar didn’t miss the startled expression in his friend’s eyes, nor the hurt in Spring’s.
He pulled his attention back to the discussion as they completed their plans. Tomorrow morning, following a quick breakfast and the departure of their dads to work on the amusement park, Phoenix would open the portal. They decided they should have a plan in case they were back late.
With a conspiratorial glance, the girls hatched a scheme: they would tell their dads they were doing a sleepover, cleverly switching between their houses each night of their break. Meanwhile, the boys planned to inform their fathers that they would camp out in the garden and practice their training moves.
Spring rolled her eyes and glared back at Roam. “Your dad would believe you more if you told him you were playing video games and eating junk food for the next two weeks rather than training.”
A fiery flash ignited in Roam’s eyes at the subtle, stinging insult. Zohar elbowed Roam and shook his head to keep his friend from digging himself into a deeper hole—one that Spring would happily make bottomless if Roam didn’t quit irritating her.
He turned his attention back to the excitement buzzing in the air, thick with mischief, adventure, and the thrill of the unknown. Leaning back, arms crossed, a smile tugged at his lips.
