Holden walked several paces behind Violet, trying to pay attention to what she was saying but failing miserably. They’d been walking for what felt like days to him, although a quick glance at his watch told him it had only been two and a half hours. The late June sun was hot, and his t-shirt was plastered to his back with sweat. He wanted to tell Violet that this search was pointless. They’d looked through all of the small rocky caves at least twice already, and there was nothing to see. But Violet refused to give up yet. She said she just had a feeling that something was out here, and she was determined not to leave until she found it.

“Magicae revelabit,” she said over and over now, sweeping her ring back and forth as she searched one of the small caves for hidden magic spells. She’d already searched this cave, but she knew that, and Holden didn’t bother to point it out. He didn’t have a better idea of what to do with their time right now, and at least the search was keeping her occupied. She hardly seemed to notice that he wasn’t listening closely to her chatter, and this gave him time to think.

He had to tell Violet about Nick. After the conversations he’d had with Weston and with Elise, Holden knew with certainty that Nick was a shifter. A dragon shifter, he was betting, and a ghoster as well. Holden had been relieved to find out that Elise had not met Nick’s father in Blackstone. In all likelihood, Nick was, in fact, the only shifter in Blackstone. With each passing day, Nick was becoming more convinced that Weston was right—Saul hadn’t wanted to waste any of his troops on guarding the tiny little town of Blackstone. Perhaps he’d sent some scouts through, just to make sure that no shifters were hiding here. They would have missed Nick, since he didn’t smell like a shifter at all, and would have reported back to Saul that the town was only occupied by humans.

Holden scratched at the stubble on his chin as he followed Violet to the next cave. Outside of Blackstone, there was a portion of rocky terrain sticking out like an island in the middle of the otherwise barren desert. The rocks were so dark in color that they were almost black, which was where the name Blackstone had come from. No one could say why the rocks were so black, but the townspeople were all irrationally proud of the rocks, as though they themselves had created these wonders of nature. The rocks formed a large expanse of miniature caves, and Violet had become fascinated with the little caves, convinced somehow that there were shifters or wizards hiding there. But a very thorough search had revealed nothing, and still, she persisted.

Holden watched as Violet again began sweeping her magic ring across the cave, checking for any hidden magic spells. She would not find anything, he knew. But he humored her, letting her continue her work without interruption. His mind drifted constantly back to Elise, and Nick, and the long-dead Joey, who had fathered the boy. From what Elise said, it sounded like Joey had been an orphan, just like Holden. Holden’s clan, the Redwood Dragons Clan, was actually made up completely of orphans. Ten of them had been rescued by William, an older dragon shifter, when the last great shifter war had left them without parents. William had raised the ten dragons as brothers, and now, as adults, they were a fearsome clan, a force to be reckoned with. They had joined forces with the Falcon Cross wizards to face down Saul and protect good shifters and wizards from dark, evil magic. Holden had never been as glad for his clanmates as he was now. The war had been hard, and he wasn’t sure how he would have managed to stay calm and sane if he’d have to face all of this evil alone. Knowing his clanmates were with him, and always had his back, had kept him calm, and sane. Holden wondered about Joey. The man had probably had no one. Most of the shifter orphans from the war had been left to drift through life alone, unguided and always wary of what people would think of them if their shifter secrets were discovered. No wonder Joey had been a wild man, as Elise had said. Holden figured he would have been reckless, too, if he’d been in Joey’s shoes, with no one to love him and nothing to lose.

Holden frowned, wondering why a man like Joey had joined the army. Perhaps he’d fallen in love with Elise, and had been searching for a way to bring stability into his life. Perhaps he’d wanted to prove to her that he could be a responsible partner. If that had been the case, it was all the more tragic that he’d never known he had a son. Holden didn’t think Elise had made the right choice in keeping Nick a secret from Joey, but he wasn’t going to judge her too harshly. She seemed to have realized that she’d made a mistake, and hell if Holden hadn’t made some pretty shitty mistakes in his own younger days.

Holden felt a sudden, strange thrill rush through his veins as he thought of the way Elise had smiled at him at the diner last night. If Joey had fallen in love with that girl, Holden would not have blamed him one bit. She had a smile that could have tamed even the wildest of hearts. Holden felt badly for leaving without saying goodbye last night, but he knew he wouldn’t have been able to talk to Elise about her son anymore once the other man entered the diner. And he also knew that the longer he’d stayed sitting there, the more confused he’d become about why his heart wouldn’t stop beating like crazy. He wasn’t looking for a woman. Sure, Elise was beautiful, but opening his heart to someone was not an option. All that ever came of loving was heartache and loss. Holden knew this all too well from the loss of his parents. The thought of losing one of his clanmates scared him badly enough. He could never handle living every day in fear of losing a lifemate.

“Holden!” Violet hissed at him. The urgent tone of her voice broke into his thoughts and brought him back to the present. He turned to look at her, and the worry written across her face instantly sent his senses into high alert.

“Didn’t you hear that?” she asked, her voice not much more than a worried whisper. She was standing with her back to the cave’s wall, looking out at the entrance with her magic ring raised in a defensive stance.

Holden strained his ears, but heard nothing. He breathed in deeply, trying to smell any suspicious scents in the air. He smelled nothing, but that didn’t necessarily mean much, as his recent discovery of ghosters had taught him.

“I don’t hear anything,” he said, turning to look at Violet with questioning eyes. She merely pressed her fingers to her lips, indicating that he should be quiet. Holden waited, breathing as softly as he could and staying alert for any unusual noises. He was about to give up, when he heard it. From somewhere in the maze of small caves, a voice screamed. The sound was a bit faint, indicating that whoever was screaming must be on the opposite side of the caves from where Holden and Violet were standing. But there was no mistaking the pain and agony in that scream.

Violet looked at Holden with a grim expression on her face. He had a pretty good idea what she was thinking, because he was thinking it, too. This secluded, rocky outcrop would be the perfect place for Saul’s soldiers to bring prisoners for torture. And that scream sounded quite tortured.

“We have to go find out what’s going on,” Violet whispered. Holden merely nodded, then motioned to her with his hand. He started creeping in the direction of the sound, taking care to stay as hidden as possible against the walls of rock. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Violet raise her magic ring above her head.

“Magicae arma,” she said in a low voice. A buzz of energy surrounded them as the protective shield spell she’d just cast went into effect. He wanted to tell her to use an invisibility shield, too, but he knew it was pointless. None of the invisibility shields the Falcon Cross wizards could cast had been able to hold up to the enemy’s dark magic. It was better for Violet to focus all of her energy on the protective shield in hopes of keeping them safe if the enemy was out here, waiting to attack.

For several minutes, everything was quiet. Holden and Violet crept forward at a slow pace, wary and watching. Holden was beginning to think that the source of the scream, whoever it was, had either been silenced permanently or given a reprieve from torture. But then, in a loud, sudden burst, another scream rang out, and another. The sound was pure terror, and almost inhuman. Holden looked back at Violet to see her holding her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with disbelief.

“What are they doing to that poor soul?” she asked, forgetting even to whisper in the face of such a horrendous sound.

Holden didn’t answer right away. Instead, he listened as the screams grew more desperate and urgent. Then, suddenly, he knew exactly was he was hearing.

“That isn’t Saul’s men. There’s not torture going on here,” he said, starting to run. “I know what that sound is.”

“Holden, wait! What the hell are you doing?” Violet’s panicked voice called from behind him. But he didn’t slow down. He kept running toward the sound of the screaming, which was now constant and sounded almost like a roar. When he rounded the corner of one of the rocky caves about a minute later, he found just what he’d expected.

There, on the hot, rocky ground, writhing in pain, was Nick. The boy’s face, twisted in pain, looked so much like Elise’s face that Holden felt like his heart was twisting up in his chest. Holden had a vague realization that Violet had run up behind him. He glanced back at her and saw her standing there uncertainly, holding her magic ring up as though she was unsure whether the boy on the ground presented a threat or not.

“What…what is going on?” she asked in a shaky voice. Even though she didn’t know the reason, she could tell that something was very wrong here.

“The boy’s a shifter, but he doesn’t know it yet. His inner shifter is trying to get out and it’s freaking him out. I’ll explain in more detail later. Right now I have to help him.”

Holden quickly went to kneel beside the boy, who was shaking and screaming. His eyes were green and churning, and he thrashed his hands wildly at Holden.

“Get away from me! Get away from me!” Nick screamed.

“Nick, I’m Holden. I’m a friend, I promise. I can help you.”

Nick thrashed out again, but as he did his human hand suddenly turned dark green and then morphed into the long, clawed hand of a dragon. This sent him into a fresh panic, and he screamed even louder, as though someone were standing over him ready to kill him. The hand seemed almost liquid for a moment, shifting back and forth between dark green dragon skin and pale peach human flesh. Nick’s face was pure horror, and he looked like he was about to throw up.

“Get away from me! No one is supposed to see me like this!” he yelled.

Holden continued to kneel calmly beside him. “Like what?” Holden asked. “Like this?”

Holden held up his right hand, and allowed it to shift into dragon form. His own hand’s transformation was much smoother than Nick’s had been. Holden kept his eyes on Nick’s face, watching the boy’s eyes widen as he stared in shock at the fierce, clawed dragon hand that now appeared where a human hand had been only moments before. The change had shocked Nick into silence, and the boy sat, panting and sweating, with his own hand limply hanging by his side, half human and half dragon.

“What…how…who are you?” Nick choked out, looking suspiciously at Holden.

“I’m Holden. I’m a friend, and a dragon shifter just like you. I can help you.”

“I’m not a dragon shifter!” Nick yelled, scooting backward away from Holden until a few feet separated them. “I don’t even know what that is.”

“You cannot change who you are, Nick,” Holden said. His use of the boy’s name seemed to get his attention. “But I can help you control it.”

There was a pause in the conversation as Nick screamed in pain again, falling to the ground and writhing. Violet stepped forward, uncertain but worried.

“What’s wrong with him?” she asked, fear in her voice. “He sounds like he’s dying. We have to get him to a doctor!”

“He’s not dying,” Holden said calmly, motioning for Violet to back up. “He’s just got an inner dragon who has never been let out. Until he shifts, the pain will continue to get worse, and the attempts of his body to shift will get harder and harder to resist.”

Violet still looked uncertain, but she backed away. Holden’s respect for her went up a lot in that moment. He already respected her, as his partner on this mission, but he knew it wasn’t easy for her to trust him right now. Not with a boy writhing on the ground in mortal pain. He felt a pang of guilt that he hadn’t trusted her more and told her about Nick from the first moment he realized the boy’s secret. But he’d had his reasons, and he didn’t have time for feeling guilty right now. Nick needed his help.

Nick had stopped screaming for a moment, his inner dragon taking a short reprieve from trying to get out. But Holden knew it would not be long before the dragon tried again. He’d never seen a shifter child this old who hadn’t shifted before, but he’d heard awful tales of how situations like this caused extreme pain, and often uncontrolled violence on the part of the shifter child. No wonder Nick had been wreaking so much havoc in Blackstone. He was a boy on the edge.

“Can you really help me?” Nick was asking now, his voice a desperate plea. “Can you help me control it?”

“Yes,” Holden said, his voice firm and confident. “But you have to trust me. Can you do that, Nick? Can you trust me, and do exactly as I say? I promise I am a friend. I’m here to help you.”

Nick didn’t answer, but Holden thought he saw a slight nod, and that was enough of an answer for Holden. He walked over to Nick, slowly and deliberately, and took the boy’s hands. Nick trembled but did not pull away.

“Stand up,” Holden said, pulling the boy up as he spoke. “Stand up and hold onto both of my hands tightly. Then close your eyes and just breathe, in and out, in and out.”

Nick did as he was told, whimpering and trembling. Holden waited until he felt Nick’s palms beginning to tighten about his own, indicating that Nick’s dragon was once again trying to fight its way out of him.

“Alright, Nick, I know this hurts a bit and feels strange, but I promise you I’m going to take care of you. Keep your eyes closed, and breathe in and out as steadily as you can. Focus all your energy on your breathing. Don’t think about anything else, and don’t open your eyes. You’re going to feel almost as though a rush of electricity is shooting through you. Ignore it, and the pain, as best you can. Just breathe, Nick. Just breathe.”

Nick’s grip on Holden’s hands tightened even more, until Holden felt as though the boy’s small hands were going to crush his much larger palms. But still, Holden held on. The boy kept his eyes closed as he’d been told, but after a few moments he began to scream again.

“Breathe, Nick! Just breathe! Don’t think about anything else. Keep breathing, and keep your eyes closed.”

Nick continued screaming, but he did seem to be making an attempt to steady his breathing, despite his screams. After another few moments, his grip on Holden’s hands loosened, and the boy’s hands and forearms started shifting into dragon claws once again. Nick screamed, and started to try to fight the transformation. His hands began to turn human once again, and Holden knew he needed to step in.

“Nick, don’t resist it. Just breathe. Focus on the energy you feel in your core, and just breathe.”

Nick’s hands turned back to dragon claws. A popping sound echoed across the nearby rock walls as Nick’s shoes flew off his feet in shreds, giving way to the giant dragon feet that were breaking free from Nick’s human form. As soon as those shoes came off, Holden knew that Nick was going to see this transformation through. For the first time, the boy would see himself as the dragon that he was.

The rest of the dragon came forth in a rush of power and energy. Nick’s t-shirt and shorts tore away, and desperate human screams became the loud, primal roars of a dragon.

“Get back, Violet,” Holden yelled over his shoulder. “And keep that protective shield up. He’s going to be disoriented and a bit wild when he’s all done shifting.”

Violet did as she was told, flattening herself against one of the rock walls as Nick finally became fully dragon. He was enormous, with the deepest green dragon hide and scales that Holden had ever seen. His head had two sharp horns, and his long tail was magnificently spiked. Two wings had sprouted from his back, and Nick seemed unsure of what to do with them. He flapped them a few times, stumbling about as he stretched out his dragon body. Holden knew Nick must be feeling disoriented. The dragon ran straight into one of the rock walls, which seemed to freak him out. He roared, and took off running in the other direction, flapping his wings and swishing his tail, until he ran into another of the large rocky walls. The dragon coughed a few times, and then breathed out a stream of fire. This seemed to surprise him, and he ran in fright until he bumped into another rock wall. Holden held back, letting Nick’s dragon thrash about in confusion for a few minutes. Violet watched with wide eyes, and was surely glad for her protective shield in the next moment, when Holden’s large, spiky tail swished directly at her. It stopped when it came into contact with the protective shield, and swished in the other direction.

When Nick’s dragon finally started to calm, Holden walked up to him, speaking slowly and firmly.

“Alright, Nick. You did really well for a first shift. Now it’s time to get you back to human form. Nod your head if you can hear me and understand me.”

Nick’s giant dragon head bobbed unsteadily up and down, and Holden gave him an encouraging smile.

“Good,” Holden said. “Now, I want you to hold very still, close your eyes, and breathe in and out steadily once again. As you do, concentrate on your dragon claws, and imagine them becoming human hands once again.”

Nick’s dragon eyes blinked shut, and his dragon chest shuddered a bit as he attempted to steady his breathing. Holden was silent, waiting and hoping that Nick was doing as he’d been asked, and was concentrating on his human form. It took a few minutes, but Nick seemed determined to master this, and Holden waited patiently. Then, his patience was rewarded. A sudden pop of powerful energy rushed across the space between them, and Nick began shrinking in size. His thick dragon hide once again turned to human flesh, and his tail and wings disappeared. In less than a minute, Nick was in human form again, lying on the ground shaking and sobbing. But his sobs no longer sounded tortured or filled with pain. They sounded tired, and relieved.

Holden went to the boy and scooped him up in his arms.

“Shhh. Shhh,” he said. “It’s all over now. That’s the worst it will ever be. You’re going to be fine.”

Holden looked over at Violet, who was still standing against the rock wall, uncertain of what she should do.

“Can you cast some sort of sleeping spell on him?” Holden asked. “He needs to rest.”

Violet nodded and rushed over. Holden figured she was glad that there was some way she could help out. She raised her magic ring above his head tenderly.

“Magicae dormeo,” she said in a soft voice. Almost instantly, Nick’s sobbing ceased. His eyes closed, and he went limp in Holden’s arms. The boy’s breathing changed to the steady rhythm of sleep.

“I’ll clean up this mess, too,” Violet said, pointing her ring at the shreds of clothes that had torn off of Nick’s body when he shifted. “Magicae eradico, magicae eradico.”

As Violet spoke, the spell she was using caused the torn clothes to disintegrate to dust. When she was done, she looked up at Holden with a suspicious expression.

“You didn’t seem all that surprised to find a shifter here,” she said, her tone somewhat accusing. “I get the feeling that there’s something you’re not telling me.”

Holden sighed. “Yeah. There’s a lot I’m not telling you, and I owe you a big apology for that. We need to get this boy to his mother, though. Can you cast an invisibility spell so that we can head into town without being seen? We can take him to our apartment and find him some clothes, and then we can try to track down where his home is located.”

Magicae invisibilia,” Violet said in response. The energy of the invisibility spell buzzed around them. The spell might not hold up well against dark wizards, but it would keep Violet, Holden, and Nick completely concealed as they walked into town. And it was a good thing, too. Holden didn’t want to imagine what the people of Blackstone would say if they saw him walking in with Nick in his arms, asleep and completely naked.

“Thanks,” Holden said. “Let’s go, and I’ll explain everything.”

And he did. As they walked back toward town, Holden told her everything. He started with the moment he had realized Nick might be a shifter—the moment he’d seen those green, churning eyes. Then he told her about his conversations with Weston about ghosters, and with Elise about Nick’s long-lost father. When he finally stopped talking, Violet was silent for quite some time, her brows knitted in thought. Holden worried that she was angry, but her face gave nothing away. When she finally spoke, thought, her voice sounded more sad than angry.

“You should have told me,” she said. “You know I wouldn’t have laughed at you. I would have tried to help you from the beginning.”

“I know,” Holden said. How could he explain to her that one of the biggest reasons he’d kept silent was that his feelings for Elise confused him? He was determined not to let his heart get tangled up with Elise’s, and yet he feared that it already was. Besides, he had a feeling he was going to be seeing a lot more of Elise. Nick needed his help, and Holden wasn’t going to leave the boy hanging. That likely meant spending a lot more time around Elise. Holden looked down at the boy sleeping in his arms, and then sighed. The boy was likely going to be in a state of shock when he woke up. Holden could only hope that he could calm the boy in time to keep him from lashing out at someone in town or destroying someone’s property. Holden felt as though each day here seemed to bring something new to worry about. Elise. Nick. Ghosters. Violet’s anger. It had been much easier when all he’d had to think about was whether Saul had any men here.

But Violet spoke again, then, and her words made it clear that she didn’t hold any sort of grudge against him. “You’re a good man, Holden, taking care of the boy like this. He’s really lucky you’re here.”

Holden smiled gratefully at her as they arrived back at their apartment complex and started walking toward their building. “Thanks, V. I only hope his mom agrees with your opinion on that.”

Holden feared Elise was not going to react well to the news that her son was a dragon. One thing was certain: the next few hours were going to be full of difficult situations.

“I didn’t sign up for this,” Holden muttered to himself as Violet fumbled in her pockets, looking for the keys to their apartment. “I’m supposed to be chasing down dark wizards, not babysitting young shifters.”

And yet, Holden already felt himself excited by the idea of training Nick in the ways of shifting. The kid had had a rough start at life, but he had a ton of potential, too. He was plucky and determined, and Holden thought they were going to get along just swell—provided that Elise allowed him to help. The thought of Elise tied Holden’s stomach in knots again, and he pushed away those thoughts as he walked into the apartment and deposited Nick on the couch while he went to look for some clothes.

There was only one way to find out what she thought about shifters, and that was to go talk to her about this whole situation. It was time to get this show on the road.