“Do you think he’ll hear us from here? We’re pretty far from the trash mountain. And what if he didn’t get booted like we did? He’d still be all the way at Ikumi’s gate.”
Lilli frowned. She clearly hadn’t thought of that. “Just try and see,” she suggested.
I nodded, leaving the shipping crate behind and stepping out of the warehouse onto the apocalyptic city street. It was funny how normal it felt now to be here now. I barely noticed the decay and destruction.
I turned my face upward toward the sky. “Atreus!” I called out. “I want to play again!”
But there was no answer.
“Atreus!” I tried again. But the sky remained empty. Atreus was nowhere to be seen.
“What are we going to do?” I groaned. “We have no dragon.”
“No,” Lilli mused. Then her face brightened. “But we do have wings!”
And so we made it back to the gate on our own, flying ourselves to the trash mountain, then down into the lower levels and the wormholes. It wasn’t as fun as riding a dragon and definitely a lot more work. By the time we made it to the star-swept world, I was ready to drop from exhaustion.
But that all went away when I spotted the gate, still open wide. My heart fluttered with relief, and I dropped to the ground, running toward the door.
“Ikumi!” I cried. “We’re here! We’re here to get you out.”
I stepped through the door, then stopped, surprised at what I saw. I’d expected a prison. Maybe bars on the wall, a cot in the corner, a lone toilet, perhaps. Instead it was more like a cozy cottage inside. A warm fire burning in the hearth. A comfy-looking couch sitting in front of a big-screen TV. Under the TV were game consoles—every game console I could think of and some I didn’t recognize. And in the next room there was a queen-size bed and a bookcase overflowing with new-release books. Even more shocking? On the walls were photos. Of a young girl with straight black hair standing next to a very familiar-looking man.
The young girl was smiling happily. And the man?
It was Admiral Appleby.
“This is the nicest jail cell I’ve ever seen,” Lilli remarked, coming in behind me.
“No kidding,” I said in confusion. It is really nice, I told myself. But it is still a prison when you’re locked in, not of your own free will. Right?
My sister looked around, frowning. “So where is she? Why isn’t she here?”
“You should be asking yourselves that question,” came a sudden, familiar voice behind us. “Since you’re the ones who caused this mess.”
We whirled around. To my shock, none other than Josh stood there at the entrance, dressed in his full purple armor and carrying a laser spear. He stepped into the bedroom, shaking his head regretfully.
I stormed over to him, my temper flaring. “Where’s Ikumi?” I demanded, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him hard. “What did you do to her?”
“I didn’t do anything to her,” Josh replied, pushing me away. “You did, by opening up the gate.”
“Freeing her, you mean?”
“Yeah, right. She was free before. Now—well, who knows?” He looked worried. “Thanks to your little cyberattack on the game, no one can get in to find out what’s going on.”
What? I was so confused it wasn’t even funny. “You’re here,” I pointed out.
“Yes. Luckily. I was already in the game before you pulled your little stunt,” he replied. “Grandpa sent me to find you and warn you about what you were trying to do.”
“Rescuing our friend from his evil grasp?”
Josh face-palmed. “Evil grasp? Rivera, are you even listening to yourself right now?”
I squeezed my hands into fists. “I swear if you hurt her—”
Josh turned to Lilli. “Will you please tell him to listen to me? We’re running out of time.”
“Ian,” Lilli said hesitantly. “Maybe we should at least hear what he has to say—”
“Give me one good reason why I should.”
Josh’s gaze leveled on me. “Because if you don’t, you’ll very likely lose Ikumi forever.”
I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to believe him, of course. He could be lying. This could be another trick, another trap. But then, what if it wasn’t? He did look genuinely worried. Which meant he was either a really good actor or…
“Fine.” I plopped myself down onto the couch, crossing my arms over my chest. “But this better be good.”
Josh sighed. “Right. So, after I left you guys in Dragon World, I disconnected from the game to go find my grandpa in real life. I told him about everything you were trying to do and what you thought he was doing. He freaked out. Like, more than I’ve ever seen him freak out before, and he told me you were making a big mistake.”
“Of course he would see it that way, considering he was the one to kidnap her to begin with,” I muttered.
“Will you listen for one second?” Josh snapped. “My grandpa didn’t kidnap your friend. He was keeping her safe from the people who wanted to kidnap her!”
I froze. What?
“Are you serious?” Lilli broke in, stepping forward. “He was protecting her this whole time?”
“Yes,” Josh said, looking relieved that one of us finally understood. “Evidently Hiro, her dad, came to my grandfather asking for his help. They’ve known each other for years. Hiro’s father, Atsuo, and my grandpa used to develop games together until they had a falling out over Dragon World—Dragon Ops—whatever you want to call it.” He shrugged. “That’s why there’s two versions of the same game. My grandpa ended up keeping his on a private server, and Atsuo introduced his to the public as Fields of Fantasy and later Dragon Ops.”
“What does this have to do with Ikumi?” Lilli asked.
“I guess Hiro was desperate. He got wind that a rival game company called Camelot’s Honor was looking for his daughter out in the cloud. He needed a place to hide her—quick. So he asked
