“I want to help with research,” Hope protested.
Alaric sighed. “The adults have it covered.”
“You mean the humans?” Hope arched an eyebrow and her voice got condescending. 
“Look.” Alaric turned, putting his hand on his hip. “I am still trying to come up with punishments for you and Josie, so you don’t want to push my buttons today.”
Hope crossed her arms, taken aback. “Why am I being punished?” 
“You know what you did.”
“Okay, so what did Josie do?” 
Alaric looked away. “That’s none of your business.”
“Fine.” Hope shrugged and turned the corners of her mouth down. “I’ll just ask her myself.”
“You? Talking to one of my daughters?” Alaric scoffed. “That’ll be the day I die.”
“Good thing you already have a grave then.” Hope smirked. “Because I voted for Josie for witch council.”
Alaric’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but before he could say anything, Hope shrugged again and left for the library. 
She pulled out every book she could find on dragons and got to reading, disappointed to find everything was about fictional dragons or old legends. There was nothing about dragons as an actual species.
She finally leaned back in defeat, looking around the library. She didn't know how Dorian and Dr. Saltzman did it.