Holden watched with mild amusement as Nick poured the last of the box of cereal into his bowl, then splashed milk over it. The box had been completely full when Elise pulled it from the pantry fifteen minutes ago, but Nick had made short work of eating the entire box. Holden knew that the boy’s eating was a mixture of true hunger and of just the need to do something with his hands. Nick had a lot to think about.

Holden had explained everything to Nick that he had just explained to Elise. He told the boy about how his father had almost certainly been a dragon shifter, and about how, under normal circumstances, the man would have taught Nick how to shift. Holden explained that the uneasiness and turmoil Nick had been feeling was due to a restless inner shifter, and that those feelings should ease up now. Holden also told him that the pain he’d felt today when he shifted was abnormal, and that shifting would not hurt in the future, as long as he shifted at least once a month. He even explained what ghosting was, and that this was a very special talent to have, even for a shifter. If the boy was impressed by this fact, he didn’t show it. Nick’s face remained expressionless during Holden’s entire speech. Finally, Holden promised to teach the boy everything there was to know about life as a shifter, then asked if he had any questions.

Nick’s only question had been, “Can I have something to eat?” And so, Elise had given him the only food she had in the house right then, a box of cereal that was now completely devoured. Nick was scraping the last of the sugary flakes from the bottom of the bowl at that very moment. No one spoke. Everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to break the silence, which had grown tense in the last few minutes. Holden knew that Nick would have many more questions as the days passed. He knew that adjusting to life as a shifter would not be a completely smooth ride. But he would let Nick ask the questions when he was ready. The worst thing right now would be to push the boy. Everyone else in the room seemed to understand that as well, because they all kept silent, too, following Nick’s lead.

It was a full minute after the last of the cereal had been scraped from his bowl that Nick finally looked up. He looked directly at his mother, and, with a trembling voice, he spoke.

“I’m so sorry, Mom.”

Holden watched as Elise’s eyes widened. She rushed around the table to her son’s side, taking him in her arms. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” she said, choking back her own tears. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I should never have kept you a secret from your dad. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I was wrong. So very, very wrong.”

“No, mom. That’s all fine. I understand. I mean I’m sorry that I’m…that I’m an animal. I knew something was wrong with me, and I tried to hide it. But it got stronger and stronger and I couldn’t hold it back any more. I’m so sorry. It must be a huge disappointment to know that you have a monster for a son.”

Nick’s body shuddered, and Holden could tell that the boy was struggling not to cry. Nick lost that struggle, though, when Elise took the boy’s face in her hands and raised it so they were looking at each other eye to eye.

“You are not a monster,” Elise said, a fierceness in her voice unlike anything Holden had ever heard. “Do you hear me? I love you more than life itself, and I’m so damn proud of you, and nothing could ever change that. Especially not the fact that you’re a shifter. You have a gift, Nick. A special talent. Anyone who can’t see that and thinks that you’re a monster is missing out on knowing one of the most amazing people this world has ever seen. That’s what you are, Nick: amazing. And don’t you ever forget it.”

Nick was sobbing now, and Holden decided it was time to give the mother and son a moment of privacy. He motioned to Violet, who understood and followed him out onto the apartment’s tiny patio.

“Wow,” Violet said. “What a day.”

“You’re telling me,” Holden said, wearily rubbing at his eyes, which felt like they ached from exhaustion. It was a strange sensation, to feel like your eyes themselves ached. But from the looks of it, Violet was feeling about the same level of exhaustion right now.

“You should go home,” Holden told her. “Get some rest. Besides, one of us needs to call headquarters in Falcon Cross and check in, and I don’t think we should do it from here.”

Violet raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You’re not telling Elise and Nick about the war? I noticed you hadn’t made any mention of Saul or his army, or of the dragon stones.”

“No,” Holden said wearily. “Maybe I should, but I feel like I should give the boy a little bit of time to get used to the idea of shifting before I spring on him the fact that there’s a huge war going on in the shifter world.”

Violet nodded, although she didn’t look entirely convinced. “Alright. Well, I’ll head home and touch base with headquarters. They’ll be interested to know that we found a shifter in town, and a ghoster no less. Even though Nick doesn’t have anything to do with Saul’s army.”

Holden shrugged. “Yeah, it almost doesn’t even count as news that we found a shifter here, given the circumstances. But tell them anyway. At least they’ll know that we’ve been trying to search, even though we haven’t had much success.”

“Right,” Violet agreed. “And what about you? How long are you planning to stay here?”

“A few more hours, maybe? I want to make sure the boy is alright before I leave. He’s had quite a shock.”

“And you want to make sure his mom’s okay, too, don’t you?” Violet asked. The teasing note in her voice was unmistakable, and Holden groaned. Was it that obvious that his heart was doing flip-flops over Elise? Well, no matter. He wasn’t going to act on any of his feelings. For him, love was a strictly forbidden emotion. But Holden didn’t want to have a heart-to-heart about his complicated emotions, especially not with Violet, who took great pleasure in running to the ground every possible opportunity to tease him.

“Oh lay off it, V,” Holden said, trying to keep his voice light. “You know Elise and Nick both need a bit of steadying right now. I’m going to calm them down a bit more and then come back to the apartment.”

“Alright,” Violet said, the knowing smile never leaving her face as she made her way to open the patio door and head back inside. “Happy steadying.”

She winked at him, and before he could respond, she was in the apartment, telling Elise and Nick that she needed to go, but that they were welcome to call her any time they needed anything. She gave each of them a hug, and then disappeared out the front door.

Holden walked slowly back into the room, where Nick was absentmindedly tapping his spoon on his empty cereal bowl.

“Still hungry?” Holden asked.

Nick looked up at him and gave a sheepish shrug.

“I’m hungry, too,” Holden said. “What if we order a pizza, my treat?”

Holden looked at Elise for approval, and she nodded, looking relieved.

“Pizza sounds fabulous,” she said. Holden figured she was glad to avoid a trip to the grocery store tonight. She’d had quite a day, too, and probably didn’t want to venture out and chance meeting anyone she knew.

Thirty minutes later, they were munching on extra cheesy slices of pepperoni pizza. Nick’s appetite seemed to finally start settling after the third slice, and he looked over at Holden curiously.

“Violet is really nice,” he said. “And I can’t believe she’s a wizard. It’s so cool that magic is real.”

Holden nodded. “The wizards have been a great help to the shifters. We’ve been…working on some things lately, and they’ve stepped in to help wherever they could.”

Holden saw Elise narrowing her eyes at him. “Are these ‘things’ you’re working on the reason you’re in Blackstone?” she asked. “Do they have anything to do with the ‘research project’ that you refused to tell me about?”

Holden did his best to laugh off her comment. “You’re quite nosy about my work, you know?” he said breezily. “It’s really not that interesting.”

Elise frowned at him, but took the hint that he didn’t want to talk about it. She went back to eating her pizza slice, but Holden had a feeling that this would not be their last conversation about his “research.”

For now, though, Holden needed to focus on warning Nick to be careful. The conversation wasn’t an easy one to have. How do you tell a boy to be proud of his shifter abilities, and then a few breaths later tell him it’s safer to hide them? Holden knew it would be much easier to explain if he told Elise and Nick about the shifter war, but he didn’t want to worry them with those details. Not yet, anyway. They both needed a bit of time to recover from the shock of the day before he sprung even more life-changing news on them.

“Nick, listen,” Holden said, looking across the table to look the boy directly in the eye. “Shifting is a wonderful gift, and the more you learn to control your inner dragon, the more you’re going to love being a shifter. But you do need to be careful about revealing your shifter abilities to others. Unfortunately, there are people out there who view shifters as monsters or freaks of nature. Those people are only too happy to bully shifters and treat them like criminals. Their actions are unjustified, but unfortunately there are more people like that out there than you might think.”

“So you want me to hide who I am?” Nick asked. His voice held a clear note of belligerence. Holden supposed he couldn’t blame him. After telling the boy all day that shifting was special and that he had nothing to be ashamed of, Holden was now telling Nick to hide his shifter side. The message was confusing, but Holden was doing the best he could. The issues were so complicated.

“I’m not telling you to hide who you are,” Holden said. “I’m just telling you to be careful about who you show your shifter side to. Be sure you only show people you trust, okay?”

“Okay,” Nick said, sounding mildly appeased as he reached for another slice of pizza. Holden breathed out a small sigh of relief, thinking he’d handled the matter reasonably well. But when he looked over at Elise, he could see in her eyes that she was not as appeased as her son seemed to be. Holden had a feeling that she’d be asking him more questions later, and he was right.

A few hours later, after the pizza had been demolished and a few board games had been played, Nick announced that he was exhausted and needed to go to bed. It was only nine o’clock, and Elise seemed surprised that her son was voluntarily going to bed before ten p.m. But Holden was only surprised that Nick hadn’t gone earlier. Shifting for the first time took more energy than Nick had ever spent in a day before, Holden was sure of that. Holden bid Nick goodnight and waited in the living room while Elise, who was still worried about her son, went to make sure he settled into bed alright. Holden could have slipped out before Nick went to his bedroom, but he didn’t want to leave Elise yet. He told himself it was because he wanted to make sure that she was okay after the day she’d had—and he did. But he would be lying if he said that his growing desire for her had nothing to do with his decision to stay.

“You’re a fool, Holden,” he whispered to himself as he sat on the couch, twirling the fringe of a throw pillow around his fingers. He didn’t want to fall in love, but he couldn’t tear himself away from this apartment. Not yet. Not before he had one more chance to look into Elise’s beautiful, deep green eyes.

A few moments later, those deep green eyes appeared in front of him again. Elise sat in the armchair across from the couch, positioning herself on the edge of the seat as though she didn’t plan to be sitting for very long. Holden felt a bit disappointed that she hadn’t chosen to sit on the couch next to him. He was being a fool. She didn’t look at him as anything more than someone who could help her son. There was nothing between them, and, even though it was better that way, Holden’s mood sank at the realization, anyway.

“He was out before his head even hit the pillow,” Elise said, shaking her head. “I don’t think I’ve managed to get him to bed this early since he was a preschooler.”

Holden smiled. “Well, enjoy it while it lasts. He’ll probably be tired for the next day or two, as his body adjusts to shifting. But after that, I’m sure he’ll be back to wanting to stay up late.”

Elise nodded, but didn’t say anything else for a few moments. Holden decided that perhaps he’d overstayed his welcome, and that it was time to go. He pushed back the strange feeling of disappointment he felt at the prospect of leaving Elise, and forced himself to stand.

“I should get going, I suppose,” he said. “You probably want to get some rest, too.”

“Sit,” Elise said, her voice stern. Holden looked at her in surprise.

“What?” he asked, not sure he’d heard her correctly.

“I said sit,” she repeated. “Nicky might be done with his questions for the day, but I’m not.”

Holden raised an eyebrow and sat back down. “Alright,” he said, curiosity filling him. “What else did you want to know?”

“I want to know what you’re not telling me,” Elise said, crossing her arms. “Why are you really here in Blackstone? Every time the subject comes up, you try to make a joke out of it and avoid the truth. But people don’t come to Blackstone on vacation. There’s a reason you’re here, and I want to know what it is. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time with my son, I want to make sure you’re not involved in something dangerous or shady.”

Holden let out a small sigh. She was right to question him, of course. And he admired her straightforward attitude. But he wasn’t sure how much he should tell her. Violet and he were under strict orders not to discuss the war with any humans, but Elise was the mother of a shifter, so she wasn’t exactly your average human. Her son might be caught up in the shifter war if things went badly, and Holden supposed she had a right to know that.

“It’s sort of complicated to explain,” Holden said, stalling for time.

“Just do your best,” Elise replied, leaning back into her chair now, as though she were settling in to catch up with an old friend. Holden knew in that moment that he had no choice. Elise’s face was set in such a determined line that he was sure she wouldn’t let him leave until he’d confessed his mission in its entirety.

“Alright. I’ll do my best,” he said, although he still wasn’t sure quite how to begin. He figured he should just start talking, and hope that his explanation came out reasonably coherent. “It’s true that most shifters are good, like I told Nick. But there are, unfortunately, shifters who are evil. Just like there are good and bad people, I suppose.”

Elise nodded, waiting for him to continue.

“Well, one particularly evil shifter recently decided to start a war. His name is Saul, and he’s a dragon shifter who also has wizard abilities.”

“There are shifters who are also wizards?” Elise asked, her eyes widening in genuine surprise.

“Well, ordinarily, no. But there is a branch of wizardry that is known as dark magic. It consists of evil spells that cause great harm, and that actually eat away at a wizard’s soul, so much so that a wizard who continues to use dark magic will eventually be killed by it. One of those dark magic spells allows a wizard to give magical abilities to a non-wizard. Some dark wizard did that for Saul, so he’s now a dragon shifter practicing dark magic. And he’s leading a giant war. He’s gathered together an army of evil shifters, evil wizards, and even some misguided humans, and he’s trying to take over the world.”

Elise laughed out loud. “That sounds pretty dramatic,” she said. “I don’t think one army of shifters and wizards could literally take over the entire world.”

“Well,” Holden said sadly. “I wish you were right about that, but I’m afraid you’re not. You see, there are several powerful ancient artifacts that bestow supernatural powers on their owners. The ancient dragon shifters did have magical powers, and they stored them in several different types of objects. The most powerful of these ancient artifacts are the dragon stones. There are four—an emerald, a sapphire, an amethyst, and a ruby. Each of these stones holds enough power to take down an entire army. The good shifters, whom I work for, have recovered all of the stones but the ruby. We’re keeping the stones in safekeeping, away from Saul and his army.”

“Well that sounds promising,” Elise said, frowning.

“It does, but it’s not enough,” Holden said. “The dragon ruby, which is the stone we still haven’t found, is rumored to be more powerful than all three of the other stones combined. It could wipe out entire armies easily, and quite literally allow Saul to take over the world.”

Elise was quiet, blinking at him in disbelief.

“I know it sounds absurd,” Holden said. “But it’s true.”

“So, what can be done about it?” Elise asked.

“Well, I’m part of an alliance of wizards and dragon shifters that are trying to find the dragon ruby before Saul does. The reason I’m in Blackstone, though, is that Saul has taken up headquarters in Sandview.”

“Sandview?” Elise repeated, a tinge of fear in her voice. “That’s pretty close to here.”

Holden nodded. “Yup. Blackstone is the closest town. Violet and I were sent to scope things out after some of our fellow soldiers discovered that Saul is raising an army by cloning bat shifters there. Don’t ask me how the whole cloning thing works. I don’t understand the details, I just know that it’s allowed Saul to quickly raise a giant army. He’s also been terrorizing the people of Sandview, although we aren’t sure how much. Part of our job is to find out, and to figure out a way to stop Saul’s operations. It’s too dangerous to go directly to Sandview, though, so we were sent here first to get our bearings.”

Elise had a crease of worry running across her forehead. “If things in Sandview are so dangerous, than Blackstone must not be all that safe, either. We’re not that far away.”

“Well, that’s part of what’s complicated,” Holden said. “Saul doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to Blackstone. And that’s probably because there are no shifters here. Or, at least, he thinks there are no shifters here. I’m sure he sent scouts out here to check, but since they couldn’t smell that Nick is a shifter, they assumed there were no shifters, and they left.”

Elise caught on quickly. “So as long as they think there are no shifters here, they’ll stay away. Which is why it’s so important that no one realizes that Nick is a shifter.”

“Exactly,” Holden said.

Elise pondered this information for a few moments. “Why didn’t you tell him about the war?”

Holden frowned slightly. “I thought he’d been through enough already today. I didn’t think it made sense to burden him with more worries, especially when there isn’t really anything he can do to help the war effort. He’s too young to fight, and, besides, he needs to learn to control his dragon better before he’ll be of any real use in a shifter fight.”

Holden saw the panic crossing Elise’s face. “Is this common? Shifters warring and fighting?”

“It happens every couple of decades,” Holden said. “But it’s not a constant thing. And besides, dragon shifters are the strongest of the shifters. Nick will have the upper hand in any fight he might find himself in. His ghosting will protect him, too. Shifters rely on our sense of smell to find other shifters in a battle. A shifter who can’t be detected by smell is very dangerous—and very safe from unwanted attacks.”

Elise still looked worried, but she nodded her head as though Holden’s words had reassured her. “So that’s really why you told Nick not to go around telling everyone he’s a shifter.”

“That was the main reason, yes,” Holden said. “It is true that there are plenty of people out there who treat shifters horribly for no good reason. But those people, while annoying, aren’t usually dangerous. The real danger now would be if Saul’s army discovered that shifters were in Blackstone. I think that, eventually, we’ll need to tell Nick what’s going on. But I wanted to give him a day or two to adjust to the fact that he’s a shifter before telling him that there’s a potential world war on the horizon.”

Elise let out a long sigh. “I think that’s probably a good idea.”

Holden felt his heart twist up in that funny way that was becoming all too familiar. He could tell that Elise felt exhausted, and worried, and he wished there was some way for him to shoulder her pain for her. Without giving himself time to think about what he was doing, he rose and went to kneel in front of the armchair she was sitting in. He grabbed her hands in his, marveling at the way his large, rough hands covered her smaller ones completely. She looked at him and bit her lip, which he could already tell was a habit of hers. He would have loved nothing more than to bite her lip himself, among other parts of her body, but he forced himself to stick to holding her hands.

“Listen, Elise. I know this is all a bit scary for you. And I won’t lie to you. There is a lot of dangerous stuff going on. But I promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to protect Nick. I’ll watch out for him, and I’ll train him how to use his shifter abilities to keep himself safe. I can’t guarantee you that no harm will come to him. I wish I could, but life just doesn’t work that way. What I can guarantee you is that as long as there is breath in my body, I will fight to make sure no harm comes to Nick.”

Elise swallowed hard, but she couldn’t keep a few tears from squeezing their way past her eyelids. She nodded, and gave Holden a lopsided smile. “Okay. Thank you.”

They looked at each other in silence for a few moments after that. It would have been the appropriate time for Holden to let go of her hands and make his way home. They’d said all there was to say tonight. But he did not let go of her hands, and she did not try to pull away. Instead, they sat there, eyes locked. Holden felt a fire beginning to burn inside of him. He told himself to move, to get out of that apartment right away, before his heart betrayed him. But he could not tear his eyes away from Elise’s. And then, before he could stop himself, he was leaning forward, and she was tilting her head toward him.

Their lips met softly, silently. There was no noise in the living room of that tiny apartment except for the ragged breathing of two people who knew this was probably a bad idea, but, for that one tiny moment, didn’t care.

Holden held that soft kiss as long as he dared. And then, with a small sigh, he rose and made his way to the door.

“Tell Nick I’ll stop by tomorrow, alright?” he said, turning as his hand reached for the doorknob.

Elise nodded at him, her curly red hair bouncing on her shoulders as she did.

“Good night, Elise,” Holden said softly. And then, he was out of the apartment before she had a chance to respond. He ran all the way back to the apartment he was sharing with Violet, wondering what the heck he’d been thinking and whether it was too late to keep himself from completely falling for Elise.