Ember did all she could to avoid Ty's gaze as Herobrine led the way out of the building. She'd gotten the two of them to calm down by telling Ty to knock it off and that Herobrine wouldn't ever hurt her. Well, Herobrine had calmed down, but Ty was sulking.

They, Aradyn, and Rosewing were all coming out to watch Jason's transformation. Wispice had gone to fetch Sky, who Herobrine insisted had to watch. Jason had slunk back to stand beside Aradyn and Ty, who were murmuring encouragement to him and caressing his hair, though each was not necessarily doing both. Rose had also joined the trio, though not to encourage Jason.

More to flirt with Ty.

"Ty, I like your shirt."

"Oh, um, that's great," Ember heard Ty mutter.

"Can I hold it?"

"What?"

"Take off your shirt," Rose explained.

"Umm…"

That was about as much as Ember could stomach, so she sped up to be level with Herobrine. The god glanced at her dispassionately. "Hello."

"Hey."

"I am still displeased about your decision to bring Mitch back to life."

"It wasn't a decision. It happened."

"But you decided to care," Herobrine pointed out. "I have noticed that your poor decisions seem to be correlated with the amount of time you spend around Tyler. Would you like to elaborate?"

"You can't blame him for my decisions. And his name is Ty."

"I see." He paused. "I noticed that you and Tyler ate together. In human society, that would typically be considered a dinner date. Which would imply a romantic relationship. Is there anything of that nature between you two?"

"What? No." I think.

"Good. I find him dreadful. I'm glad that you concur."

"No, I do like him!" She realized how that sounded only after the words had left her lips. "I mean, as a friend. He's a good friend."

"Hmm. I think it's more than that, Ember. You spend more time around him than you should. He is impertinent and headstrong and independent and has too much influence over you. I would advise you to stop talking with him. And if you will not listen to my advice, it will be an order."

What? No way. "I—"

"You feel something for him?"

"No, I—"

"Then this should be easy. He is dangerous to our plans, but without him the others will never join. Then, once they are sworn to our side, he might have an unfortunate accident that would be entirely not my fault."

"What are sayi—"

"Tyler will most likely be terminated at the end of his usefulness. He could make this fail, Ember. Think of your brother. You need to get revenge. You can't get revenge if Tyler spoils our plans. It's the only way. He was once a human too. He was scared of you. Hasn't he called you a monster? He thinks it all the time, Ember. He's wrong. He'll never embrace his nature and would side with the humans. The humans who killed your father. Your mother. Your brother, Ember. In a way, he's just like them."

Yes… he was… he was like them. Like a human… he needed to pay too…

Ember shook her head, clearing the fog. It wasn't the familiar purple haze of Zariah's influence, more… "What did you do to me?"

Herobrine stared at her. "I… I did nothing!"

"You were messing with my head."

"Of course not, Ember," he scoffed.

She looked away. He probably hadn't. Right? But… he was going to kill Ty. "You can't kill him."

"On the contrary, I can and will. It only makes sense."

"I'll turn him to our side. He'll obey you. He'll behave. But don't kill him."

The god regarded her for a moment. "You may attempt, but you will fail. And he will die."

Ember turned away and slowed her pace enough to merge with Ty's group. His green eyes flicked briefly in her direction, and then he glanced at a small rock formation.

"You know, I think I'd like to take a look at those rocks," he announced, gazing at Ember.

His meaning could not have been much clearer. "I'll go with you."

Together they moved away from the group, neither of them saying a word. Ty leapt onto a boulder and glared at Ember until she climbed up beside him. His expression was unreadable, and she found herself staring into his green eyes, trying to crack their code.

"So… Herobrine wants to turn me to your side, huh?"

Oh no. "Y-you heard?"

"I heard that I'm impertinent and headstrong, but that's about it. Thanks for the compliments, and I'm not even being sarcastic."

"Just that?" She had to be sure. "That was all?"

"Yes, Emma, that was all." His eyes narrowed. "Was there something I wasn't supposed to hear?"

"No." Ember forced all expression from her eyes. "I was only checking."

"Mmm." Ty didn't sound like he believed her. "You know I don't think that Herobrine is really doing this for the greater good. He's evil, and you should face the facts." He seemed extremely confident about this.

"He is not evil!"

"Emma, you don't know what I… look, Em, the point is, I found out something today, and it's important. Really, really important. Really, really, really important."

"Great. Are you going to tell me?"

"Yeah." He leaned towards her, and suddenly Ember's heart dropped into her stomach. He… liked her, didn't he? So…

So what? She didn't like him back. Not one bit.

You liar.

"I was reading something today, and, well…" Ty paused. His breath was warm against her ear, and his lips stirred her hair. He was so close. No, she wasn't going to start thinking about how nice he smelled, and how extraordinarily strong his hands felt and… Why was she holding his hands?

She let go quickly. No. This didn't make any sense. Ember didn't like Ty. Totally not. She hated how sweet he was, how obnoxiously yet endearingly sarcastic he was; she hated his cute hair, his green eyes, his soft, adorable smirk… Hated him, in fact. Or something like that.

"Em, what's wrong?"

"Everything."

"Well…" Ty pulled back and smirked, that smirk, the one she hated so much. Well, maybe hated wasn't it. She loathed that smirk, because it gave him dimples, and she was useless as soon as he got dimples. It was his secret weapon. And she hated him for it. "That's kind of how I feel. All this stuff with Jason… Mitch dying and being brought back to life… Sky still in prison… Seto being a beat up train wreck… and what I read. You need to hea—but no." He sighed. "You'll never believe it."

"T-Ty…" The words caught in her throat. "I n-need to t-tell you s-something…" She needed to tell him what Herobrine had said. About… killing him.

"Yeah?"

But she couldn't do it. Ember was too scared, and she hated herself for it as she met his gorgeous green eyes. "Never mind." Ty looked at her, his eyebrows knitting together. At that moment, a loud roar came from somewhere on the ground, about where Herobrine and the others were. "The dragon is here."

"Dragon?"

And then, another roar answered it. "Dragons."

Why two dragons? Herobrine only needed one to use on Jason.

But then another thought occurred to her.

"Em…? What's going on?" Ty asked hestitantly.

"We need to get over there. Now."

Wow... HOW DOES EMBER STILL TRUST HEROBRINE? There was drama. It was beautiful. And I'm sure you all just love me for my cliffhangers.

SOTC: "Dragon" by Alyson Stoner (I think I got her name right...)