The sun was barely rising over the horizon when Mandy caught her first glimpse of Torch Lake. She and Russ had flown on a commercial airline to Medford, Oregon—which had the closest major airport to Torch Lake—and then flown the rest of the way on Mandy’s broomstick under cover of darkness. Mandy stifled a chuckle when she remembered the look on Russ’s face when she asked him to shift into dragon form to fly. He looked like she’d just asked him to swallow a bucketful of worms.

“Here? Now?” he had asked.

“Yes. Unless you can fly with your arms. We have about eighty more miles to go to get to Torch Lake, and the only way to get there is to hike or fly in. Hiking will take an extra half week, at least. The terrain isn’t the smoothest. So unless you want to add an extra half week to your time away from Chicago, I suggest you shift to dragon form.”

“You said I didn’t have to shift into dragon form until we were in Torch Lake. We’re not in Torch Lake yet.”

Mandy sighed. “You don’t have to. We can walk. Or you can ride on the back of my broomstick, but since you jump like someone is trying to kill you when I so much as accidentally brush my arm against you, I thought you wouldn’t be too thrilled with the broomstick option.”

Russ hadn’t been thrilled with that option, but, in the end, it was the option he took. Mandy shook her head as they continued to glide through the cool dawn air toward Torch Lake. She couldn’t understand why Russ was so ashamed of being a shifter. Sure, some full humans were horrified to discover that shifters existed, but when there weren’t humans around, he should have been more relaxed. He seemed to literally hate the beast within him. Mandy only personally knew the dragons who lived in Torch Lake, and they all seemed extremely proud of their inner dragons. She knew from her job training that several of the dragons living among humans felt conflicted about the fact that they were shifters, but she was still surprised at how strong Russ’s feelings seemed to be. She wondered if there was more to his story than just what was in his file.

She knew everything in his file by heart. She’d gone over it at least a hundred times before she left for Chicago, and a hundred more times after Russ stormed away from her and said he’d never accept her job offer. When he called her to say he’d come, she’d been desperately trying to find some clue in his bio that would help her find a new way to convince him to come to Torch Lake. She had spent the next day terrified that he was going to change his mind, but he hadn’t. She had a feeling it had to do with his money situation. She knew his finances had been nearly destroyed when he was captured during the Dark War, which was why she’d been surprised that he’d initially turned down the offer of a million and a half dollars. As much as she wished his decision to come had been due in part to her, she knew it was all about the money.

She closed her eyes for a moment, letting herself relish the feel of his arms around her waist. This was almost certainly the last time she would ever feel that. He’d taken every opportunity to remind her that there was nothing between them, and she was sure it was killing him to have to ride behind her on her broomstick now. But he was wrong to say that there was nothing between them. Perhaps there was nothing on his side, but every time she looked at him Mandy felt a tingling rush of energy shoot through her. Despite his aloofness, she had never recovered from falling head over heels for him in the bar that first night. She cursed the day the High Council had decided flirting was a good dragon recovery method. If she’d only been able to use the offer of obscene amounts of money from the very start, she might have had a chance to later get to know Russ in a closer way. Now, he would never trust her.

Mandy’s sadness was somewhat mitigated by the sight of Torch Lake coming fully into view. She could never be truly unhappy when soaring above the beautiful city that had saved her. She loved this place with every fiber of her being, and sometimes found it hard to believe that it had only existed for two years. After the heartache of the Dark War, where so many, including Mandy, had lost everything, it was nice to have a place where a new community was being built. The city wasn’t perfect, but it was home, and Mandy felt safe and comfortable here. As far as she knew, no one from her previous wizarding clan had survived. Torch Lake was her clan now, and, despite its imperfections, it had proven itself to be a pretty great place to live.

Mandy took in the magnificence of the city as they approached. It was set on a large lake known as Torch Lake, from which the city itself took its name. Several large, columned buildings rose prominently in the middle of the city. These buildings housed headquarters from many of the official Torch Lake organizations. One building was military headquarters. Another housed most of the wizard departments of magical law and advocacy. A third building contained many combined shifter and wizard organizations dedicated to the prevention of dark magic, including Mandy’s own employer, the Dragon Recovery Division. The High Council offices were in yet another large building. Most of the city was made up of smaller buildings, however. There were small stores surrounding the city, all built in a whimsical brick styling. Further out, the buildings changed again into the cottages where most of the town’s citizens lived. In winter, most of those cottages would have wisps of smoke curling up from them, but now, in the middle of July, the chimneys stood unused.

Mandy started slowly descending on her broomstick, making her way toward the buildings in the center of town, where Commander Hawkins, a High Council member, and some other higher-ups from Dragon Recovery would be waiting to meet them. She felt herself relaxing in a way she hadn’t been able to since she left for Chicago last week. She hadn’t realized how much on edge she’d been while away from home, but now that she was home again, much of the stress that had been weighing on her was slowly lifting.

The High Council followed and enforced most of the standard wizarding laws—laws that strictly prohibited the use of magic outside of city limits. The laws were intended to prevent humans from discovering the existence of magic, and any wizard who violated those laws would face strict penalties. The whole time Mandy had been in Chicago, she had been terrified that she might somehow forget where she was and accidentally use her magic ring to perform a spell. She hadn’t forgotten, of course. It was difficult to forget when you were thinking about the laws every other second. But it had been ages since she’d been in the middle of so many humans, and she’d found the whole experience quite stressful.

“This place is huge,” Russ said, his voice breaking into Mandy’s thoughts. He seemed to be talking more to himself than to her, but she answered him anyway.

“It’s on the larger side as far as wizard or shifter towns go, that’s for sure. But I think the reason for that is that the town is a combination of both wizards and shifters.”

“That’s pretty unusual isn’t it?”

Mandy smiled. It made her happy that Russ’s interest had been piqued even a little bit. She knew he had a hard heart when it came to all things shifter, but she believed deep down that if he really got to know the town of Torch Lake and the people here, he would see that wizard and shifter communities weren’t always bad. In fact, they could be downright wonderful.

“It is unusual,” she answered him. “In fact, it used to be almost unheard of before the war. But one good thing to come out of the war, at least, was a strong alliance between wizards and shifters. That alliance resulted in several wizard-shifter combination towns across the country, all of which are relatively large. I believe Torch Lake is the largest of the combo towns, though.”

“I don’t think anything good came out of the war.”

Mandy resisted the urge to let out a large sigh. Russ’s tone was sharp, and his words were unfair. The war had been awful, true. And of course, all of the good shifters and wizards wished it had never happened. So many lives had been lost or destroyed. But how could anyone say with a straight face that nothing good had come of the war? The war had ended centuries of bad blood between shifters and wizards. Now, together, the shifters and wizards were stronger. Their alliance would make it extremely difficult for darkness to rise again in the way it had under Saul’s twisted leadership.

Mandy bit her tongue, though. She didn’t want to make Russ angry right now. Not when she was so close to handing him off to the Dragon Recovery team. She had been worried since the moment he agreed to go with her that he would change his mind. If he decided for whatever reason to go back on his decision to accept the job at Torch Lake, she would be deemed a failure. Once she handed him off to the team, though, her portion of the job was considered complete. If Russ decided to back out at that point, the fault would be placed on Commander Hawkins’ shoulders, not hers.

“Well, I know the war was awful, all things considered,” Mandy said carefully as she descended so low on her broomstick that their dangling feet were almost touching the rooftops they were flying over. “But I hope that you’ll at least enjoy your time in Torch Lake. If nothing else, you don’t have to worry about pretending here. Everyone is either a shifter or a wizard, and they all know that shifters and wizards exist. It can be quite a nice break to not have to constantly worry that someone is going to discover the secrets you’re hiding.”

Russ grunted. The sound was becoming a familiar one to Mandy—she’d noticed that Russ often made that noise, but she could never quite tell whether it was a happy sound or not. She decided in that moment to keep her mouth shut. She just needed to leave him with Commander Hawkins, and then she could make a beeline back to her house. It would be nice to take a shower in her own bathroom, and sleep in her own bed. But she couldn’t ignore the sadness that filled her when she realized that she would soon be saying goodbye to Russ. He would be shuffled off to the dragon training team, and she would be moved on to her next assignment. An assignment that would involve chasing down a new dragon in some new town. At least, she hoped it would. She had grown sick of office work, and now she had proven that she could bring a dragon back. She hoped the High Council would be happy enough to have a new dragon in town that they would overlook the fact that she’d had to use money to bring him here. The more Mandy thought about it, the more convinced she became that the High Council must have wanted to try the flirting method in order to save themselves money. But why? They had almost limitless resources, since they had combined the wealth that dozens of shifter and wizard clans had left behind. There was no shortage of money with which to bribe reluctant dragons.

Mandy didn’t have more time to think about it. She was approaching the town square, where she could see Commander Hawkins and the others gathered in front of the High Council’s building. She came in for a soft landing, and did her best to keep a smile on her face as she felt Russ’s arms pull away from her. She knew it was ridiculous for her heart to ache so much over a man she had kissed one time, but she couldn’t hold back the feeling. It filled her with an emptiness like she had never known, but she could not allow anyone here to see that emptiness in her face. She had a job to do before she went home to fall apart.

“Your Honor,” Mandy said as she approached the High Council Member standing next to Commander Hawkins. She recognized the Council Member as Oscar Ceyus, and bent her head low in respect.

“Mandy, welcome home. Please introduce your guest.”

Mandy nodded to Councilor Ceyus, then turned to Russ. “I am pleased to present Russ Porter, dragon shifter and the newest trainee in the dark monster elimination program. Russ, this is Oscar Ceyus, one of our wizard High Council members. Next to him is Commander Hawkins, one of the Commanders in charge of dragon recovery and training.”

Mandy glanced at Commander Hawkins as she spoke, and was surprised to find him looking right back at her with an expression of utmost contempt. Did he still dislike her? She had brought a dragon home, for crying out loud. She had proven she could do it. What more did he want?

Mandy turned her gaze away, looking back at Russ who was now shaking hands with Councilor Ceyus. More introductions were made of the other, lower ranked but still important dragon training specialists. Mandy only half-listened. She felt anger boiling up inside of her. She’d hoped for a little recognition from her commander. Was that too much to ask for? She’d thought that once he saw that a woman could do the job, that he’d be a little kinder. But no, he was disappointed that she’d succeeded. What a joke. Mandy’s fuming thoughts were only interrupted by the sound of her name. She drew her attention back to Councilor Ceyus, who was speaking to her again.

“Mandy, the Council owes you a debt of gratitude for your service. We are grateful for your hard work in bringing Mr. Porter to us, and we will make sure our commendations are noted in your work file.”

“Thank you, your Honor,” Mandy said. She was holding her breath, waiting for someone to say something about how she had failed to complete the mission in the manner she was originally instructed to use. But no one said anything. Everyone was beaming back at her. Everyone except Commander Hawkins, who still wore an angry glare, and Russ, who was staring off into the distance and avoiding her gaze. Mandy almost laughed. The man she wanted to stop looking at her wouldn’t stop. And the man she wanted to look at her refused to look. It was definitely time for her to go home.

Thankfully, Councilor Ceyus seemed to agree. “You’ve done good work, and I imagine you’re very tired. You are officially dismissed, and may go home to rest. You are excused from work today. Please report back at your normal time tomorrow morning.”

Mandy didn’t wait to be told twice. She nodded respectfully and then turned to leave. She should have made a show of saying goodbye to Russ, but she didn’t. She worried that if she tried to speak to him, he would say something snarky about her in front of everyone. So, without another word, she picked up her broomstick and started walking. She could have flown, but right now walking sounded a lot better. She’d flown all night, and it felt good to stretch her legs. She could hear the voices behind her telling Russ about where he would be staying and when his training would start, and she let out a slow, relieved sigh. The handoff was complete. If Russ decided to flip out and leave now, it wasn’t her problem.

This thought should have made her happy, but it didn’t. Instead, it only reminded her that her involvement with Russ was completely done. Sadly, she turned back one last time to catch a parting glimpse of him. To her surprise, he was looking at her. He didn’t look away when she caught him staring. Instead, he shook his head in a no motion a few times. Mandy had no idea what he meant by that, and before she could try to read anything else in the expression of his face, one of his new trainers was grabbing his arm to lead him away.

Mandy watched him walk away before turning to resume her own walking. Why had he shaken his head? Was he telling her that he was planning to leave? That he didn’t want to do this? She let out a long, frustrated sigh and picked up her pace.

“He’s not my problem anymore,” she said aloud. But even as she spoke the words, she knew they weren’t true. Russ Porter might have been handed off successfully to the trainers, but he was going to be causing problems with her heart for a long time to come. Mandy hadn’t realized when she took this job that dragons aren’t so easy to forget.