Sanaa had no idea how she managed to sleep that night. Exhaustion settled on her body as it struggled to process the guppies’ poison, but her mind wouldn't quiet long enough to let her sleep. If the Dragon refused her offer, she had nowhere else to turn. Securing his help was only half the battle. If she expected to live among the Bloodbones, to raise her daughter among them, she needed absolution from the Elders.

Two sides, both powerful in their own right, held Sanaa's future in their hands. Neither had a vested interest in keeping her alive. Worry consumed her thoughts, pushing sleep away anytime it came too close. By sunrise, she gave up trying to rest entirely and padded out to the kitchen. If she hurried, she could get some breakfast and tea in her system before her ravenous baby woke.

When she went into the kitchen, she found Ronin sitting at the table, a laptop in front of him and a steaming mug of coffee to his left. His fingers danced over the keyboard, filling the air with a low, clicking sound.

"Did you sleep?" Ronin asked without looking up from the screen. He looked every bit the reclusive artist. Nobody would suspect he could rip a grown man in two.

"Not well," she admitted.

His fingers paused, and he looked up at her. Obviously, he didn't like the fact that she hadn't followed his instructions to the letter. "You need to rest if you're going to fight."

"When your mother tries to murder you, we can talk about how soundly you sleep." Sanaa didn't bother to keep the edge out of her voice. Her body, her mind, every part of her was stretched to the limit, and the day had just started. There were harsher words waiting for her back in the village.

Ronin glared at her for a second, then pressed the lid of his computer closed. "Keep snapping at me, and I might change my mind about helping you."

The next snappy retort, already primed on her tongue, died in a wave of relief. Her silence must have pleased Ronin, judging by the way his lips turned up at the corners. Damn him for taking so much pleasure in putting her in her place. Why did his eyes so freely roam over the white tank top and satin pajama bottoms which clung to her frame? If she didn't know better, she could swear he could see her naked body through the thin fabric.

The sudden emotional shift left her already exhausted body reeling. The only safe place for her was in a chair. She crossed the few feet to the kitchen table and sat down.

"Don't get excited," he grunted. "Your problem isn't solved yet."

"Do you have a plan?" she asked. "Because I sure as hell don't."

The Dragon shrugged. “The best way to catch anything is to lay a trap, and the most efficient trap has bait."

It took Sanaa's foggy brain a few seconds to put together what he meant. He wouldn't come out and say it, because only a monster would suggest using an infant as a tool to trap evil.

Sanaa shifted in her chair, prepared to fling herself out of it and run down the hall if the Dragon made the slightest move toward her child. "No."

Ronin leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "Then I hope you know more about dark walkers than you've told me."

He didn't have a plan either. Panic set in before Sanaa could suppress the emotion, making it harder to keep her voice in check. She needed to be strong for her daughter. Tears and fear could wait.

“I don’t, but the Elders will. I have to see them anyway."

"I thought you didn't want to go back home?"

She didn't. Sanaa would have been delighted to never set eyes on the trailer again. Before the attack, it had been her home, albeit a humble one. Now it was visible evidence her own mother had tried to kill her. A tangible reminder of her near complete failure to protect her daughter, the one living soul she had vowed never to let down.

"They will be in the community center, our meeting place. People in the neighborhood will have seen the wreckage. If I don't explain what happened and ask for absolution, my baby and I will be kicked out of the community."

“What the hell do you need absolution for?”

“Some sins don’t disappear with an apology, but you can’t have blood feuds running out of control either. If a Bloodbone thinks an action demands blood, they need to have absolution from the Elders before any punishment is dealt.”

“How often do arguments end in blood?”

“Almost never. There are too few of us left for it to be worth the risk. But the threat is enough to keep some people in line, and being heard by the Elders is enough for most people.”

The Dragon snorted. “How delightfully bureaucratic.”

“I take it that’s not how dragons handle disputes?”

Ronin braced his arms against the table and leaned forward. He held her gaze with his rich, brown eyes, a rim of fire dancing along the edge of his pupil. “Wouldn’t know. I didn’t grow up around them. My protection doesn't extend into the village. If I were the dark walker, I would hit you again the second you set foot in the town. Probably before you got out of the valley."

Sanaa swallowed. She hadn't been this close to the Dragon since the night she offered herself to him. Her fingers twitched as sensory memory and visual input connected. He hadn’t said much when he changed to his human form. Pity.

"If something happens to me, the Bloodbone tribe will be the only place my daughter has to go. The protections they would give her disappear if I’m ejected from the tribe. I can't put that at risk." Not when the odds of her dying in the fight were so high. Maintaining a tie to the tribe was just as important as putting the dark walker down.

Ronin nodded. Sanaa was beginning to think he was asking questions just to study her reactions. She didn't see why it mattered. "Eat. We'll ride down after breakfast."

The Dragon didn't speak to her again for most of the morning. He made breakfast, while she bathed and dressed the baby and herself. He didn't have much to say during breakfast either, but the silence suited Sanaa just fine. She was too busy putting as many forkfuls of food in her mouth as she could manage to replace what she lost in the skirmish with the hell spawn.

The silent treatment continued as they rode his horse down the path out of the mountains. By then, Sanaa's mind was fully occupied with the coming appeal to the Elders. If they refused her absolution, it was tantamount to a death sentence. Ronin might still help her, but the Elders would know and count it as much a transgression as if she had done it herself.

"It's just over there." Sanaa pointed in toward the largest building in town. It was only half the size of Ronin's house.

The scent of powdered lemonade and dream flower wafted through the window panes. Sanaa hoped the pungent herb in their pipes made them more charitable, but her hopes were dashed the second she walked through the doors.

The Bloodbone tribe had five elders, four of whom sat in pairs near the wall playing checkers. The Chief, Ramon, sat at the center table, pipe to his lips and a game of solitaire spread on the table before him. All of them glanced at Sanaa with narrow eyes and climbed to their feet, more than one knocking over their chair.

"Intruder!" Janna, the Seer, screamed.

Bastian, the Scholar, roared. "Sanaa, are you insane!"

The Tribunar Pair, Omar and Elena, stayed silent, but both moved to Ramon's side, their hands sliding to the blades strapped to their thighs.

Ramon climbed to his feet and held up a hand. As quickly as the room had erupted in chaos, it fell into silence. "Sanaa, who is this stranger you've brought to us?"

"He is the Dragon of the mountain." Sanaa dropped the statement like a pipe bomb, watching the Elder's stunned faces.

Each of the four lesser Elders stared at Ronin, their mouths slack and eyes narrowed as they tried to gauge whether she spoke the truth. It was exactly the reaction Sanaa had counted on. None of the Bloodbones had ever seen the dragon in human form. That alone might make them take her more seriously.

Only Ramon managed to hide his surprise behind a neutral mask, though the brief moment his eyes widened gave him away. "And what does the Dragon of the Mountain want with the Bloodbones?"

Sanaa answered before Ronin had the chance. "He's agreed to ally with us against the dark walker." She could feel the dragon's eyes burning into her back at her words, but he said nothing. Strictly speaking, she was stretching the truth. He had agreed to help her, but only on his terms. The Elders wouldn't give her the absolution she needed if they knew too many details.

Janna clicked her tongue and shook her head, her gray hair fluttered like cotton around her ears. "If a dark walker hunted among the community I would see it."

As the Bloodbone Seer, Janna was tasked with divining all threats to the community. Sanaa never put much stock in her predictions. Janna often flailed her arms and screamed about encroaching skinwalker tribes, but she never once predicted a drought or the recession in the rest of the world which decimated the Bloodbone's already meager resources. Meanwhile, the tenuous truce that kept their race from extinction held, bolstered by generations of intermarriage.

“She’s hunting my daughter and me. The dark walker is already known to you, Seer." Sanaa struggled to keep her tone neutral. She couldn't afford to offend Janna and lose a potential vote in her favor. “Her name is Niabe Chavez."

Niabe, the Bloodbones’ secret shame. Sanaa's mother had grown up in the community, just as she had. When her husband left her a widow too young, and a single mother to a growing toddler, Niabe moved to the city to find work. None of the Bloodbones knew for sure how it happened, but Niabe acquired the dark lust for power and lost her soul in the process.

Ramon took care to hide his emotional reaction from the other Elders, but Sanaa knew him well enough to spot the way his eyes crinkled in pain. He knew the story of Niabe’s fall better than anyone. “What is it you want, child?"

"Absolution."

Each of them stared at her with icy eyes. Only the Chief spoke. “No one has asked for absolution in two generations.”

“It’s a relic,” Bastian said, pushing his glasses higher on his nose. “A remnant of a time we’re well rid of.”

“I’m not talking about a broken engagement or a stolen six-pack. A dark walker never breaks from a hunt once it starts. You taught me that, Uncle.”

Ramon leaned forward in his chair, bracing his arms against the table. “Don’t make this about our family, Sanaa. You consort with men outside the tribe and parade your shame freely, now you want the community you disdained to take your side?"

"Maybe she'd honor your traditions if you had any that were worth a damn," Ronin spat.

Sanaa winced. The Elders wouldn't contradict the Dragon—not to his face— but he wasn't helping her case.

The Chief bristled at the stranger’s judgment. "I don't know what this one has told you--"

"She didn't have to tell me anything. For fuck’s sake, she just said she’s being hunted. One of your children is being hunted.”

Ramon pulled himself to his full height. “Sanaa isn’t a child. We have our laws. Until the girl’s father can be identified and a proper marriage arranged, we can’t consider her one of us.”

“I’ve been here for ten years listening to you people and your pitiful prayers. You call yourself leaders? A real leader would save his people. A real man would save his family. He wouldn't leave them to die in the desert from malnutrition or thin, inbred blood."

Sanaa flinched as Ramon slammed his palm on the table. She wanted so badly to turn around and tell Ronin to shut up, but she couldn't risk losing his aid. If either side refused to help her, she had no hope of fighting off Niabe. No hope of securing her daughter’s future.

"We honor your customs when we barter for your spells, Dragon. I would ask you to pay us the same favor."

Sanaa heard Ronin growl quietly behind her, but he stayed silent.

"The Bloodbone Elders haven't granted absolution in decades,” Bastian said. “This council has never done it." And from his tone, the Scholar was content to keep that tradition intact.

"And there better be a damn good reason to ask for it now," Elena spat. She was the youngest of the Elders, only about ten years older than Sanaa. Next to Ramon, Elena had taken Sanaa’s disgrace the hardest.

Sanaa expected the Elders to challenge her, for the love of hell she was asking their permission to murder her mother. They wouldn't be doing their jobs as leaders of the community if they didn't question her motives. She knew all of that. Nothing about the meeting, so far, had taken her by surprise...not even the disapproval on the five pairs of eyes trained on her.

"My home was attacked last night." She hated the way her voice quivered as she spoke, knowing they might mistake it for a lie. "The evidence is there for anyone to see."

Omar waved a dismissive hand. "For all we know that was a personal squabble. It’s not as if you are an innocent. “

He was right, they all were. The fight wasn't between a dark walker and the Bloodbones. The baby had only caught Niabe's eye because of Sanaa's own stupidity. One moment of weakness had been all it took. Sanaa would have paid any price, even her own flesh, to take that moment back. The best she could do was offer her pride.

She bent forward, shifting the baby's weight as she slid to her knees. "I know I've let you down, brought dishonor and strife to the tribe. But please. You've all known me since I was a girl. In your hearts, you know I wouldn't come to you if my cause weren't just."

Sanaa tilted her head down toward the floor, letting her black hair hide the tears welling in her eyes. She would have given them those too if she thought it would help, but skinwalkers didn't look kindly on weakness.

Heavy silence fell on the room, leaving only the sound of Sanaa's heart beating in her ears. The four lesser Elders had said their piece. By tribal law, Tribunars granted absolution, but those laws were outdated. Omar and Elena would let Ramon pass judgement.

"You’re right, Sanaa, I have had more hand in raising you than anyone. You’re my brother’s child. All I have left of him. Which is exactly why it hurts me to see you fall so far. You bore a child out of wedlock. By the law, you must atone for that. We cannot trust the word of one of us who has fallen so far."

Sanaa sank her teeth into her lip, squeezing until she could taste the twinge of blood in her mouth. Damn it, she hadn't murdered anyone or betrayed the tribe. She'd only had a baby. Words of objection sprang to Sanaa's mind, and she blocked them all behind her clamped lips.

"But the little one is an innocent, and the sins of the mother do not belong to the daughter. So, we offer her mercy. A champion may be chosen from one among the tribe to undertake the child's protection."

"What Bloodbone would fight on my daughter's behalf?" Ramon may have found the infant worthy of mercy, but others in the tribe wouldn't be so kind. Who would fight for the bastard child of an impure Skinwalker?

"One who has taken her into his household as his own blood."

"You mean the farthest you'll go is keeping the kid, while Sanaa fucks off and dies like a good little girl," Ronin said. She could hear the fury in his voice.

Sanaa leaned back on her heels, forgetting in her shock to hide her tears. Ronin was right, the Elders were willing to help, but only to a point and only if she paid with her blood. Her eyes moved down to her daughter, still drunk on her milk and napping in her blanket. She was an innocent. Sanaa's sins hadn't tainted her in the eyes of the tribe or the Dragon.

Wasn't her life a fair enough price to save her daughter?

A crashing sound rang out on the other side of the room. On instinct, Sanaa moved to cover her daughter as the Dragon roared.

Janna and Bastian scrambled toward the back of the room. Omar and Elena took defensive stances in front of Ramon.

Ronin glared at them all, chest heaving and eyes aglow with amber flames. "Weakling of a Chieftain! You would separate a suckling child from her mother for your own petty vengeance?"

Ramon held the dragon's gaze, his body rigid and defiant even in the face of a raging dragon shifter. "She has had many chances to atone–"

"Shut up!” Ronin roared. "I've listened to your judgement, skinwalkers, and now I have made mine. I will serve as champion for both daughter and mother, but my help won't be free."

Bastian spoke up, though he didn't move from his spot behind Omar. "O-our tribe has limited resources–"

The Dragon turned his blazing gaze on the Scholar until the smaller man fell silent. "The father, he bears as much guilt as Sanaa. My price is his identification and punishment."

Cold panic ripped through Sanaa. "Wait! Dragon, stop!" Damn it, why did she bring him to the meeting? How had she miscalculated so badly? She was exhausted and terrified. Neither made for good strategizing.

"Sanaa has refused to name him,” Elena said. “Repeatedly."

"And I fucking refuse now!" Sanaa didn't care if they saw her tears now. If she panicked, maybe they would think she was too afraid to name him. She didn’t care if they thought she was a coward. Better that than everyone knowing the truth.

"Have you no pride, woman?" Ronin spat. "Do you love this asshole so much you would hand your daughter over to a tribe who doesn't care whether she lives or dies?"

Did she love him? Sanaa didn't know the answer any more than she had the single night she spent with him. She sure as hell didn’t have time to think about it now. “It's not about that."

"But the Dragon speaks truth," Ramon said. "The father needs to atone as much as you."

"I understood what I was doing. I knew what would happen if anyone found out. He didn't." Now wasn't the time for a sudden romantic revelation. The pain, the abuse, it would end with her.

"Sanaa, if you name him you can both atone," Bastian said. "Then we can all move past this."

"And protect the child together," Elena added.

She wanted to believe them, they were the only family she’d had for most of her life, and for thirteen months she had weathered their sneers and insults. Sanaa told herself to be strong, to stay strong for her baby girl. But she was so tired already. And didn't she deserve their punishment?

Ramon sighed and straightened his shoulders. His eyes softened. “I would have turned anyone else out months ago,” he said.

"I know."

"This can’t continue, Sanaa. Name the father, so we may seek atonement from him or the girl is no longer welcome among us. You will no longer be welcome among us. “

His words left Sanaa reeling on her knees. They had finally backed her into a corner. If she didn't reveal the father's identity now, the Elders would sentence her and the baby to death. It hadn't occurred to any of them that she wasn't keeping the secret to protect herself.

Tears slid down her cheeks, the only ones she’d allowed herself to shed since the night she found out she was pregnant.

She turned to Ronin. His eyes still blazed with dragon fire and rage. Would he hate her more after she told the truth?

"I tried to stop you," she whispered. "But my baby needs the safety of the tribe...so do I."

The Dragon's brow furrowed, but Sanaa only saw it for a second before she turned back to the Chief. She closed her eyes, and braced her spirit for the words that would damn or save them all.

"My daughter is the child of the Dragon of the Mountain."