Page 103 of Dragon Charmed

“Let’s see if I can find her.”

“With what?” Ben said.

“A tracker app.”

“You put a tracker on her?” Eric asked.

“Yes, I put a tracker in her necklace and her stuffed dragon too. I did it when I first gave them to her. What if the Templars have her?” She clicked on her phone. “I see two pings on the app.”

They crowded around her phone.

“She’s in the valley,” Marcus said.

They rushed outside to the back deck. How were they going to do this?

“I’ll gather some of the guards, and we’ll follow you shortly.” Marcus jogged off.

Tessa held out her phone to Ben, her hand shaking. “Take it. I want to come, but I would just slow you down.”

Ben took the phone from her. Megan stepped up and wrapped her arm around Tessa’s shoulders.

“We’ll find her and bring her home,” Ben said.

Ben and Eric launched themselves into the sky, Ben’s heart thumping like it would burst, finally overriding the voice of reason in his brain. First Tessa and now Lily. If anything happened to her, he would never forgive himself.

They flew for at least ten minutes, and Ben frowned at the dots on the phone. He called out, “Eric, the two dots are no longer together. We should almost be on top of one of them.”

They flew lower and landed in a small opening between the trees. Ben used his dragon sight until he saw a flash of purple. “There!”

Eric ran over to it and held up the dragon. “She must have dropped it.”

Ben studied the other blip on the phone. “The other should be close.” Except all he saw in front of them was a cliff face.

They flew up above the trees and looked on the top of the cliffs. “I don’t understand, where is she? How can she be below us?” Had she dropped the necklace too?

They landed on the cliffs, and Eric took the phone and his eyes widened. “I think she’s in the cave.”

Ben’s stomach dropped. “The one where I was attacked?”

Eric nodded. He leaned over the side. “The opening is behind the brush there.”

“I’m going in,” Ben said.

“It could be a trap,” Eric said as he texted someone.

“I need to get to her.”

“I’ll be right behind you. I texted Marcus and they should be here soon.”

Ben nodded and they flew over the cliff face to the brush. It had been moved slightly. He yanked it the rest of the way, furled his wings, and hunkered down to crawl into the cave. Damp air and dirt greeted him as he moved farther into the cave. He could hear Eric coming in behind him.

After a few feet, the cave widened and he was able to stand. He opened his dragon eyes to see in the darkened cave. It smelled and looked familiar in the inky recesses of his mind. “Lily? Are you here?”

Sniffling came from the far corner of the cave, and he spun toward the sound, his eyes focusing on the little girl crouched behind a large rock. He rushed over to her with his arms out in front of him. “Little bit, are you okay?”

Lily’s eyes widened when she saw Ben, and she reached for him as well. He swooped her up and hugged her to him, taking what felt like his first breath since Evelyn had told them she was missing.

He checked her over quickly for injuries and didn’t find any. “Did someone bring you here, sweetie?”