While I would’ve preferred Callie didn’t wake up this way, if she had to, she’d done it at the best possible time. I was just about to do something supremely ill-advised when her voice broke through the strange hold he had over me.

“Oh, Callie, I’m sorry!” I crawled to her. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I lost control over our connection. I lost it. I’m so sorry.”

Her wide, blue eyes searched mine. “Please help me,” she whimpered. “Please, Hecate, I need help.”

“I know.” I stroked her cheeks, her forehead, her hair. “I am so sorry. I want to help you. I’ll do anything.”

“Where are we?” she whispered, looking around in a panic.

“Just rest,” I cooed, kissing her forehead before easing her head back against the makeshift pillow I’d created. “We’re in a cave not far from where the crash occurred. Still waiting for help, but the storm has not yet ended. A tree fell just now. That’s what surprised me and woke you as a result.”

“My legs…” She reached for them.

“No, sweetheart, no.” I held her hands back, the two of us weeping. “I know it hurts. We’re going to try to help you. I promise.”

“Where is Dallas?”

I looked around. Where was he? The cave was only so large, and we were trapped inside.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he was moving the tree out of the way. An entire tree.

“Is he really doing that?” Callie whispered. For a moment, it, seemed, she forgot the pain and confusion. “Am I imagining this?”

“No,” I murmured, awed, watching him move the massive thing aside. “I see it, too.” Even at our strongest, none of us could move something so large and solid. We could make things appear out of thin air, but we couldn’t have pushed a full-grown, ancient tree aside as easily as he did.

The muscles of his arms, shoulders, and back flexed and bunched as he worked. Impossibly large, impossibly strong, impossible to look away from. Awareness sprang to life inside me, deep in my core, flooding my body with a telltale warmth. My mouth went dry, palms clammy.

He turned to us once the job was done, standing just outside the cave mouth. “Aye?” he asked, looking from one to the other. As if there was nothing out of the ordinary going on. His hands rested on his narrow hips, his solid chest rose and fell as he caught his breath.

To my surprise and dismay, my heart skipped a beat.

“Lie back,” I urged Callie after managing to pry my eyes from him. “You must rest.”

“My shoulder is dislocated,” she observed. There was no blame in her voice, only wonder. “I still can’t use my arm.”

“I know, I know.” I cast a worried look toward Dallas, but he pretended not to notice.

Instead, he knelt beside me, smiling down at my sister. “It’s good to see you awake again. Though I understand you’re suffering, and I’m sorry for it. I truly am. I would like to help you, if I can.”

I listened and watched with my heart in my throat. If she accepted him, there was nothing I could do to stop her. Frankly, watching her like this, listening to her pitiful, pained whimpers and knowing her legs could become infected was torture. I couldn’t imagine anything worse.

“How could you help me?” she whispered, all innocence. Like a child. Like the child she used to be, my baby sister. Mine to protect. I’d done nothing to protect her until now.

“Hecate, could you put more wood on the fire?” he asked without turning my way. “We need warmth in here. Once Callie’s bones begin to mend, we’ll be able to change her clothing and make her more comfortable.”

“Tell her what you have to do to help,” I hissed. “She needs to decide for herself.”

“Decide what? No matter what it is, I’ll do it. No matter the price. Please, please…” A single tear trickled down the side of her face, soaking into her hair. I turned away, unable to watch anymore.

“Wait until I make my offer before you accept,” he advised with a smile in his voice. He sounded warm, friendly, tender. It brought to mind the great gentleness he employed while carrying her from the SUV. “You might already know this, but dragon blood is very powerful. We were taken prisoner for the express purpose of bleeding us, that our blood might be used or sold or some such thing. I want to give you some of my blood now. It will heal you.”

She was silent for a beat. “Your blood?”

“That’s right, lass.”

“Right away? Will it be immediate?”

The hope in her voice threatened to crush my heart. I could barely stand it.

“I can’t be certain. To be honest, I’ve never shared blood with a witch before. I cannot say how quickly it will affect you.”

“It could harm you,” I whispered over his shoulder. She needed to know. She deserved to know. It all seemed so unfair. There was no choice to be had here, for the pain would be enough to convince her to do anything. She wasn’t thinking clearly. She was merely reacting.

I saw this truth in her eyes when she looked up at me. “It could harm me? Worse than I’ve already been harmed? It hurts everywhere. I cannot stand it.”

“I understand.” I placed a hand on her head and offered a silent prayer to our goddesses and ancestors that this was the right decision. That no harm would come to her and she would never regret this.

“You’ll take my blood?”

“I’ll do anything. Please,” she begged, clutching his arm until her nails dug into his skin. There was nothing I could do. I wanted her to be at peace, to feel no pain, to heal.

I did not, however, wish to be anywhere near my mother when she found out about this.

“How will you do it?” I asked, hovering over them.

“I suppose the easiest way would be for her to drink the blood from my vein.”

My stomach turned. Even Callie seemed to balk at this, though only momentarily. “That will do. I can do that.”

“Callie…” I groaned.

Dallas shot me a withering look. “It’s the fastest way. Unless you have a syringe somewhere and haven’t told me about it.”

I rolled my eyes but backed away. “Do what you must. So long as it helps her.” I sat off to the side, drawing my knees to my chest before feeding the fire more wood. She would need to be comfortable and warm. After that, I wrapped my arms around my legs and wished this was nothing worse than a terrible dream.

The storm in my brain had long since subsided, having broken when the connection between Callie and myself broke. In its place was a strange, new sensation. The feeling that I wasn’t alone in my head anymore.

All will be well, a foreign voice assured me. You need not fear.

“That’s very easy for you to say,” I muttered under my breath, watching in a mix of fascination and horror as Dallas used a flat, sharp stone to slice his wrist.

Blood instantly appeared there, dripping from his muscular forearm. He lowered it to Callie’s lips and to my further horror, she drank what he offered. I had to close my eyes. It was all too terrible to witness.

“How much does she need to drink?” I whispered, willing myself not to be sick.

“Not very much,” he murmured, sounding as though he was very far away. There was nothing in the world but the two of them, locked together, with him sharing his life essence and powers and her gratefully accepting.

“There, there,” he murmured. “It will all be better now.”

I opened my eyes in time to see him pull his wrist from her mouth. Suddenly, she began to tremble from head to toe.

“She doesn’t look better.” I crawled over to where she trembled, harder all the time, until she seemed to be seizing. “What’s happening to her?”

He looked as alarmed as I felt. “I don’t know. I’ve—”

“You’ve never done this before.” I grabbed his arm. “You’ve never done this before?”

“Everyone knows our blood heals—”

“But you’ve never healed anyone with your blood before?”

“No.” He looked down at her. “No, I haven’t.”

Then, just as suddenly as it began, the seizing stopped. She went still, at peace again.

“What’s happening now?” I moaned, touching her face. It was ice cold. “She’s freezing.”

“You’ll have to change her out of those clothes now,” he decided. “I’ll find something in the bags, but you have to change her. If she’s cold, the wet clothing won’t help. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to see,” he added when I hesitated. “Just take her clothes off. I won’t watch.”

True to his word, he turned his back to us and began going through the suitcases while I wondered where to start. I removed her shoes and socks and wished I’d done so sooner when I saw how bone-white and wrinkled her skin had gone. She must have been so uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered as I went along. Why hadn’t I been smarter? I was supposed to be intelligent, but I had made all the wrong decisions.

There was no choice now but to remove the cotton pants she wore. No matter how bad it looked, she needed to be warm and dry.

“How are you progressing?” Dallas asked over his shoulder.

His voice spurred me to action. “Fine, thank you.” I worked the soft, elastic waistband over her hips and down her thighs. Only once I reached her knees did my heart clench, for now I could see the bruising and swelling. It was a terrible sight, and I had let it go on.

Dallas held out a stack of clothing, behind him, including a similar pair of loose, cotton pants. I put them on but rolled the legs up past her knees. I had to be able to see how she was healing. There could be no more avoiding her condition.

Her t-shirt came next, and my stomach turned at the sight of her dislocated shoulder.

“Do we need to reset this?” I asked, running gentle fingers over her coven tattoos before sliding her arm into the sleeve. The same symbols we all bore on our arms, shoulders, chests.

“It will reset itself.”

“How would you know?” I demanded. “You’ve never done this before, remember?”

“Do not take your concern for her out on me. I did what I could to help.”

“You behaved recklessly!”

He turned to me, his mouth twisted in a snarl. “If you possessed a tool that you knew had the power to help someone, to spare them from suffering, would you not use it? I know you would. I can sense it in you. That is all I tried to do. I wanted to help her. And I believe this is going to help. We need to give it time.”

“How much time? I know, I know.” I held up a hand to stop him, then returned to dressing Callie. “You have no way of knowing.”

“That’s right.”

I was about to say something else when I lifted Callie’s right arm—so cold—and found her shoulder had moved back into place.

It can’t be.

I moved it again—slowly, afraid to jar her too much—and I let out a cry of surprise. “Dallas!”

He was by my side in a moment, leaning over to watch me move Callie’s arm. As though some sort of magic had taken place which neither of us had ever seen before.

But it was magic. Blood magic, or something like it.

“I always heard about the power of your blood, but I never imagined I would see it with my own eyes.” I lowered her arm, still as slowly and gently as possible.

There was no bruising on her shoulder, at least nothing I could see when I pushed her sleeve up. Only her ink.

“It’s working,” he marveled. “It’s really working.”

The relief in his voice mingled with the relief in my heart, and this time, when I threw myself into his arms, it was an act of joy.

That joy spread and grew and led to me taking his face in my hands and pressing my lips to his before good sense told me not to.