“I suppose we have no choice but to withstand bathing in cold water,” I finished.

Callie yawned for effect, clearly finding me humorous. “It isn’t as tragic as you make it out to be.”

“Do you enjoy taking cold showers?”

“No, but the dragon made a good point. We’ve grown used to only thinking of ourselves and our needs.” Callie stooped to pick a fistful of wild heather as we walked.

I looked up in time to see one of the dragons circling the sky overhead. It mattered not in the least which dragon shifter it was. They were our eyes in the sky, keeping watch over the mountain and over us. Here, over this mountain would they be invisible to humans.

Ancient magic, far older than I was and beyond my understanding. At least the weakening of our relations with the dragons hadn’t affected that—the arrival of more humans meant just as much danger to us as it did to our enemies.

No, not enemies anymore. I had to stop thinking of them as such, at least according to my mother. The one who’d declared them our enemies, to begin with.

“You think we need to stop showering so thoughtlessly, then.”

“I think we need to stop doing everything so thoughtlessly.” She raised the heather to her nose and inhaled, then waved it about in my face, giggling.

“You’re in a good mood,” I observed, ducking away from her.

“What is there to not be in a good mood about?” She opened her arms, tilting her head back at the sky. “It’s a beautiful day, and we’re safer than we’ve been in so long. There’s no need to live solely in a cave anymore. We’re free.”

“We’re not truly free, you know.”

Her face fell. “What is it with you today? It seems as though you’re on a mission to bring down my mood.”

I scowled, though for her sake my face was turned away to keep her from seeing it. I supposed she had a point, and that from her perspective I was determined to rain on her parade. From my point of view, however, that simply wasn’t the case.

“I only want us to remember that any security we’ve found with the dragons might only be superficial. Let us not get ahead of ourselves and take chances we shouldn’t take.” I looked around at the peaceful landscape, at the loch as a breeze from the south cause it to ripple. The grass bent beneath the breeze, and the scent of wildflowers reached me.

It was easy to forget how dangerous a place this could be. How helicopters had landed and how dragons had been murdered, how their blood had soaked into the very soil on which we walked.

“What sort of chances? We weren’t raised to take chances,” Callie reminded me.

“No, we weren’t,” I agreed with a rueful smile. “But even this innocent walk could lead to danger. We don’t know. I wouldn’t want to see this perceived freedom go to our heads, is all.”

“I understand. I do.” She took a deep breath, looking out toward the water. “Just the same, I enjoy this. The fresh air. Seeing the world again.”

She had a point. From where we stood, just at the edge of what quickly dropped off and led down to the banks of the loch, it seemed as though the entire world was laid out before us. It was so green, so fresh, the many streams and rivers looking like silver in the sunlight. They cut paths here and there through the fields and craggy rocks.

“Don’t misunderstand me. I enjoy it as well. I lost track of how long we were in hiding.”

“Too long.” She glanced at me from the corner of her eye. “As long as the girl’s been living, I suppose.”

The girl. Our niece, though we had not yet discussed the relationship with her. The daughter of our older sister, mother’s firstborn child and the only child for many years. Long enough for the two of them to develop a bond neither Calliope nor I had come close to over the course of our long lives.

“You think she ages the way humans do?” I asked, the two of us starting off down the well-worn footpath which led to lower ground.

“It seems that way, or else how would she have become such good friends with Alan’s mate, Emelie?”

I grunted. It made sense. If the two of them had met as children, surely Emelie would have noticed if she aged more quickly than Keira did. “Perhaps the presence of dragon’s blood negated that,” I mused.

“I’d think dragon’s blood would only make it more likely that she wouldn’t age at all.”

“Then again, it isn’t as though you and I never aged. We simply slowed down once we reached a certain point in time. The same with the clan. Perhaps that’s what’s happening to her. She could stop where she is for all we know.” It was a mystery, one to be added to so many others. Life had certainly changed in an instant.

“Regardless, it’s been decades. We can agree on that.”

“We can. Far too long to spend in a cave with little chance of safely venturing out.” No amount of magic could make the cave anything other than what it was. While we’d used our powers to keep ourselves more than comfortable, there was nothing that could replace the simple joy of being outdoors and breathing the fresh air, hearing the birds sing.

Although the thought of a dragon looking down on us left me slightly on edge. I knew their presence was supposed to provide assurance, but I found it unnerving.

Just as I found everything about them, which was part of the inspiration for the shield I’d put up around myself and my inner consciousness. Nothing terribly advanced—there could be nothing gained if my mother sensed the shield and asked why I went to such lengths to guard myself—but enough that my coven and the more perceptive of the dragons would be unable to read anything more than my surface emotions. What I allowed them to see.

Not even Callie was aware of it, and everyone knew of her gifts with mindreading. She was by far the most naturally talented of all of us.

“Mother seems happier than she has in a long time,” Callie observed from ahead of me. She couldn’t see the way my nose wrinkled at this, and that was for the best.

Just another reason why it was best for my thoughts to exist behind a shield.

“I’m sure the two of them will be very happy together,” I muttered, remembering the mother whose heart had so long been closed off—and how wide she’d opened it once Keira had come to us.

“Come on, now. Isn’t it better for her to be with us? Keira, I mean?”

“Keira. Demeter would come up with a name like that.”

Callie snorted. “My name is Calliope. Keira sounds to me like a dream come true.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Try being named Hecate and see how much you enjoy it. But I’d still rather have my name than hers.”

“It sounds to me as if you simply don’t like her very much.”

“It isn’t that I don’t like her, per se.”

“You don’t understand how Demeter could mate with a dragon.”

“That is much closer to the truth, yes. I’ve always questioned it. Doesn’t the thought disgust you?” The merest mention of the idea sent a shiver of disgust racing through me. When I tried to imagine one of the dragons in that way—Dallas, for example—my stomach churned.

“Not nearly as much as it does you, I can tell.” We reached the end of the path, where the ground flattened. She turned to me. “Keira’s father has nothing to do with us. She is our blood, and that’s what matters.”

“The fact that her existence is a reminder of why we were in hiding for so long means nothing, then.” I brushed past her.

How typical, taking the softer, gentler approach. While Callie was a fierce fighter and highly skilled when it came to using her powers, her heart was far too big. She thought with it far too much.

“Why does it have to?” she asked, following me. No way would she let this go.

I should’ve known better than to start. “I don’t want to get into this now.”

“Too late. You shouldn’t have said anything if you didn’t want me to ask what you meant.”

“I realize that now and wish I knew how to hold my tongue.”

She reached out and grabbed me, but I hurled her hand away without touching. “Come on, now.” I tossed back my hair. “You have to try harder than that.”

“I don’t want to fight.”

“Neither do I. I wasn’t trying to fight. But please, don’t expect me to be delighted when I think of my sister mating with a dragon. And don’t expect me to welcome her daughter with open arms—especially since she was not raised in either our world or the clan’s. She has no desire to be one of us or to take her rightful place.”

“You don’t know that for certain. Not even I know it, and don’t think for a second that I haven’t tried to comb through her thoughts.”

“Calliope!” One of our unwritten-yet-firm rules concerned itself with the abuse of power—namely, using our power against unsuspecting third parties. Unless warned or asked if she wouldn’t mind having another party in her head, Keira’s thoughts ought to have remained private.

“I know.” She shrugged, turning toward the loch, folding her arms. “I was curious. And it does matter, to all of us, whether or not she wants to take her place in the coven.”

“You know she doesn’t.”

“We don’t know that yet.”

I winced. There were times when I was every bit the older sister, and this was one of those times. She didn’t flinch away when I slid an arm around her. “Whatever happens, happens,” I murmured, resting my chin on her shoulder. “It’s always for the best, you know.”

“Demeter being banished wasn’t for the best.”

“There’s much more than what’s already happened,” I whispered. “A much larger story, with much more future ahead of us. We don’t yet know how everything will unfold.”

“I know. I know.” Yet there was nothing but sadness in her voice, and I wished I could take it away.

“Something will change. For the better. I can feel it. Can’t you? Can’t you feel how things have changed?”

“Quite a bit has changed.” She chuckled, not in a humorous way. “And you are hardly the optimist, so my apologies if I don’t quite believe this show of positive thinking is quite legitimate. Only minutes ago, I was the one trying to convince you to cheer up.”

There was more I wanted to say, but the sound of Iris’s voice cutting across the empty space between us and the boulder at the start of the footpath caught our attention.

“Dallas says we need to meet!” she called out, hands cupped around her mouth.

And she did not look pleased.

“Dallas says,” I grumbled as we turned about and began the climb up the hill. “We wouldn’t want to keep Dallas waiting.”

“You truly can’t stand him, can you?”

“I can’t. I really can’t.”

“Why not? He always seems to be in a good mood. Joking and such. He’s clever enough. I’ve come to quite appreciate his company.”

I fixed her with a sharp look. “Tell me you don’t mean what I think you mean.”

“No!” she gasped, a hand over her chest. “Hecate, please. Whatever happened to being friends? You do remember friendship, don’t you?”

“Honestly? No.” I couldn’t help but laugh in spite of myself, though it was a bitter laugh. Friendship. Just another aspect of life I’d adjusted to living without. All thanks to Gavin’s treachery and my sister’s inability to stay away from a dragon.

Dallas’s image floated across my consciousness. His sure smile, his intense gaze, his air of cockiness. What my sister construed as charm was nothing more than his ego’s insatiable need to be adored. Why couldn’t she see it?

Probably because she hadn’t shielded herself as I had.

“You should try being friends, just for a little while,” she suggested. “Who knows? You might surprise yourself.”

“I’ve had enough surprises to last the rest of my life,” I chuckled.