Ginny arrived right on time—still as mysteriously silent as before, but with a warm smile that made Naomi feel completely at ease as she followed her on one of the twisting gravel paths that led through the mansion’s garden.

She’d explored the garden before with Gregory—or at least she’d thought that they’d explored it. Ginny quickly proved her wrong. Within minutes, they were lost in a maze of flowerbeds she hadn’t seen before.

“This is amazing,” Naomi breathed as she turned around.

There were colors all around her. It was as if she was afloat in an ocean of blossoms: red, pink, orange, yellow and a thousand hues in between. Naomi didn’t know much about roses, except that they were beautiful, and that the store-bought ones her ex always brought along when he was sorry had never smelled much like anything.

But these roses weren’t just beautiful. The air was filled with their scent. It was nearly overpowering—but it wasn’t cloying, like a visit to the perfume counter.

The scent was all around her, but it was light like the wind, riding on the breeze that made the flowers gently shift like a candy-striped ocean. It filled her senses with color and beauty, and as Naomi took a deep breath, she felt a strange, intimate connection to this place.

These flowers had grown in the garden for years. Perhaps these rose bushes had even seen Gregory grow up. Their roots went deep into the earth—and the earth in turn recognized Gregory, her mate, as its protector.

It felt like family, like home. This was the sort of place where people lived who loved their home. This was the sort of place where you could raise children and watch them play outside in the grass until the sun went down.

Gently, Ginny touched her shoulder and nodded towards the path of white gravel.

“There’s more to see?” Naomi asked curiously.

Just how big is this garden?

They walked until they’d left the maze of roses behind. Next, they came to a small meadow lined by hedges. Trees in flower spread their branches over their head, so that they walked in light and shadows dappled gold and a silvery green. The air was sweet here as well. Naomi didn’t recognize all of the trees—but she knew the gorgeous, heavy clumps of blue flowers spreading above a bench, which was sitting in an alcove formed by a trimmed hedge.

“Wisteria!” she exclaimed and reached out to touch the flowers.

Ginny nodded, looking pleased.

“This is incredible. Who cares for all these flowers?” Naomi asked.

Ginny’s smile widened. “Gardeners,” she murmured. “It’s a good job. Dragons pay well.”

“All of them?” Naomi asked, thinking with a shudder of the terrible fire dragon.

Ginny silently shook her head.

Seems the conversation is over already, Naomi thought. Though I’m glad she does speak—surely I can’t be as intimidating as a dragon!

After a moment, Ginny nudged her, the skin around her mouth wrinkling as she winked. “This one’s good though. A keeper.”

Naomi snorted a surprised laugh, and a moment later, Ginny was laughing as well.

“Oh, I’ll certainly try to keep him. The roses convinced me.”

This time, Naomi was the one who winked.

“I didn’t know they call it roses now.” Ginny said innocently, setting off a new round of laughter.

“Oh, I like you,” Naomi said when they’d finally calmed down. With a grin, she took hold of Ginny’s arm. “You’re delightfully naughty when you want to be. Please say you’ll be my friend. If I’m going to move in with a dragon, I’m going to need a best friend who’ll understand about dragon things.”

Naomi waved her hand, not quite sure herself what exactly dragon things were. But she was pretty sure that there’d be more surprises coming up.

Ginny tilted her head, suddenly looking serious and a little shy again at the question. But after a moment, warmth filled her eyes, and she gave Naomi a nod.

“Wonderful!” Naomi beamed and pressed her arm. “I can definitely make conversation for two, and you’re allowed to hit me when I talk too much. Umm, and also when I’m making a fool out of myself. They keep talking of alpha ceremonies and fairs and festivals, everyone here seems to know each other, and just a few days ago, I didn’t even know dragons were real. So if I do or say something really stupid, feel free to hit me too.”

A soft giggle escaped Ginny, and she shook her head. “Think I’ll just tell you instead,” she murmured, although she sounded very pleased.

Arm in arm, they kept sauntering down the path, which twisted around the hedge and then opened up to yet another breathtaking view.

“A lake!” Naomi exclaimed in glee. “Seriously, how big is this place?”

There was a pair of swans gliding majestically across the water, and a group of ducks that immediately came forward as soon as the animals had spied them.

Fortunately, Ginny’d come prepared.

She drew a small plastic bag out of her pocket. Soon, Ginny and Naomi were feeding the ducks with bread crumbs. Greedily, the birds gobbled up as much as they could, and a moment later Naomi found out why.

The activity had drawn the swans’ attention, who now rapidly swam towards them, their larger bodies and long legs helping them to quickly snatch crumbs out of the water while the ducks regrouped behind them.

“You’re being quite stupid,” Naomi lectured them sternly. “There’s enough for everyone here.”

One of the swans made a bleating sound in retort that sounded so much like an insult that Naomi jumped and turned towards Ginny.

“Oops! Please tell me they’re just swans, and not—you know. Swan shifters. In which case I of course apologize for the insult!” Naomi added hastily, throwing all her leftover crumbs into the water.

The swan bleated again as Ginny began to giggle helplessly.

“Just swans,” Ginny said finally. Then she winked. “As far as I know...”

“Maybe they’re undercover. Maybe they’ve fooled you for years. Maybe they’re... spies!” Naomi gave the swans a stern look.

In response, the swans stared back, the small, black eyes fixed unflinchingly on hers.

“Now that’s a poker face if I’ve ever seen one,” Naomi muttered. “I didn’t know swans were so...”

“They’re big thugs,” Ginny said, emptying her own bag of crumbs into the water. “Big, beautiful thugs.”

Hastily, the swans gobbled up the last crumbs, ignoring their words. A moment later, they made a majestic exit, sliding away as soon as the last bit of bread had been devoured.

“Well. That showed us,” Naomi said. Then, with a smirk, she threw a crumb that she’d held back towards the still waiting ducks. “What now?”

“Statue garden,” Ginny said.

Naomi gaped. “Statue garden? And you just say that like it’s the most normal thing in the world to have your own statue garden?”

“You wanna see?” Ginny asked with a grin.

Naomi lightly boxed her shoulder. “Do you even have to ask? Lead the way! There better be some dragon statues!”

“Better,” Ginny promised, her smile widening. “A dragon statue—of Gregory’s grandpa.”

“Ooh,” Naomi crowed in delight. “Yes, please! And tell me all the embarrassing childhood stories he wouldn’t want anyone to know!”

“The fountain?” Ginny teased.

“The fountain!” Naomi replied with deep delight.

She had no idea what the fountain story was about, but Ginny was now the second person to mention it. Whatever Gregory had done as a child, it must have left a deep impression.

Ginny drew her close, her eyes sparkling. She leaned in, as if to whisper into Naomi’s ear—and just at that moment, there was a horrible sound somewhere behind them, something so loud that it felt as if the earth trembled beneath them.

With a shout of horror, they turned around.

It was just in time to see the arrival of the fire dragon.

Out of the blue, he came tumbling down from the sky, terrible and lethal, shrouded in a cloud of smoke. His jaw was wide open. It was his angry roar that had alerted them.

Now, he roared again. As Naomi and Ginny watched with wide, terrified eyes, a pillar of fire streamed from his jaw, engulfing one of the slender towers of Gregory’s mansion.

Even with the garden between them and the house, Naomi felt a wave of heat.

Then there was a horrible sound, a scream of twisting iron and crumbling stone, and a second later, the top of the tower collapsed.

“Run,” Ginny shouted.

Naomi felt hands shove her. From the mansion, a cloud of smoke arose, rapidly expanding.

Terrified, she reached out again, trying to hold on to Ginny—but then the wind picked up as the dragon roared again in fury. It drove ash into her eyes and nose, and as she sputtered, rapidly blinking, everything suddenly seemed to turn dark.

The cloud of smoke and ash had reached them.

“Run,” Ginny shouted again, somewhere in front of her.

Naomi stumbled blindly into her direction, hands held out—but a moment later, she encountered the hedge, rough leaves and twigs brushing against her skin.

“Run!” Ginny’s voice seemed more distant now.

For a moment, panic seemed to overwhelm Naomi.

Gregory, she cried out silently, her heart racing in her chest as she turned and turned, terrified and utterly lost. With the cloud of billowing smoke all around her, all she could make out were dim shades. Her eyes were tearing up from all the ash in the air, and it was hard to breathe.

“Ginny!” she shouted, blindly stumbling forward—but this time, there was no answer.

Then the dragon roared again.

Fear clenched around Naomi’s heart. Had he heard her? Was he looking for her?

Keeping one hand on the hedge so she wouldn’t lose her way, she made her way forward, away from the lake. After what felt like endless minutes, she finally encountered the little alcove they’d seen before. It was too dark to make out the wisteria, but Naomi nearly wept with relief when her hands encountered the bench.

Somewhere above, there was another roar, and then there was once more the sizzle of fire. When Naomi looked up, she could see a large, threatening shadow circling inside the cloud of black smoke that blocked the sun. In her panic, she quickly rolled beneath the bench, praying that the wood and the wisteria would hide her from the dragon’s eyes.

Gregory, she called out again, her heartbeat thundering in her ears. Gregory! He’s back!

***

Naomi didn’t know how much time had passed.

She was surrounded by smoke, the air heavy with ash. Everything seemed lost. There was smoke rising behind her, coming from the ruin of a collapsed tower. At least Naomi knew that no one had been inside, but even so she’d felt her heart clench with terror when the tall structure had collapsed.

The smell of burning wood was overpowering. Briefly, she prayed that Gregory hadn’t stored any valuable mementos of his family and childhood there. Then, somewhere in the cloud of ashes that blocked her view of the sky, there was the angry roar of the dragon again.

She didn’t know what the dragon wanted. He’d come out of nowhere, and headed straight for Gregory’s mansion. She hadn’t heard from Ginny again after they’d become split up—now all she could hope for was that Ginny’d found a way back to safety, to alert the town that they were under attack.

Surely any moment now, Gregory and the sheriff would show up—

Gregory, where are you?

Shouldn’t he have arrived before the dragon’s first attack? He’d told her that he could sense a rival in his territory. How long had it taken for the fire dragon to torch the tower? In her terror, it felt to Naomi as though an eternity had passed—but maybe it had only been minutes, and any moment now, Gregory’s wings would carry him through the cloud of smoke?

Naomi coughed. She was still cowering beneath the bench in the alcove, hoping it would keep her safely out of sight of the fire dragon. But even though she was certain the flames from the tower couldn’t reach her here, she felt as if she was choking on the ashes in the air. Everything was gloomy, the cloud of acrid smoke blocking out the sun.

Fearfully, she searched the sky once more. Was that a shadow moving in the smoke? Was the fire dragon still circling the tower?

Is he searching for me?

Terrified, she inched further backward, even though she knew the wisteria and the wood of the bench wouldn’t provide any protection.

If I can just hide until Gregory arrives...

Her chest was hurting. It felt like there was a giant ball of fire where her lungs had been. It was difficult to breathe, but another fearful look at the sky showed her that the fire dragon was still circling the mansion.

I can’t make a sound now. I can’t! No matter what, I must stay silent...

She pressed her hand over her mouth. Something in her chest seemed to rattle when she breathed in. There was a stabbing pain in her lungs, as though she’d breathed in ash instead of air—and her body fought to expel that ash from her lungs.

I can’t! He’ll hear me, she thought in terror as her body convulsed, tears rising to her eyes from panic and lack of air.

And then instinct took over, her body so desperate for air that she lost control.

Hunching over, tears streaming from her eyes, she coughed, again and again, her lungs burning. At last, some of the tightness in her chest seemed to ease and she could breathe in again.

Everything was strangely silent. She could still hear the distant sound of the flames that were licking at the ruined tower. It was a strange, crackling sound, accompanied by the groans of stone and wood.

But something was different.

A heartbeat later she realized that she could no longer hear the distant sound of giant, beating wings. When had she last heard the fire dragon roar?

Maybe he’d given up and moved away, just in time before the coughing fit overwhelmed her...

Tentatively, she inched a little forward, just enough that she could get a view of the sky from beneath her bench. The sky was still dark with smoke.

Then, a heartbeat later, the clouds parted.

Out of the gloom, the fire dragon came diving straight towards her from the sky, jaws parted so that even from the distance, she could see the gleam of fire at the core of him.

Naomi screamed.

There was nowhere to run. She couldn’t outrun a dragon. She had no weapon with which to fight—and even if she’d had a gun and knew how to use it, it seemed impossible to kill this terrifying beast that was hurtling straight towards her.

Still, even so, she wasn’t going to go down without resistance.

There were only seconds left before he’d reach her, but she rolled out from beneath the bench where she’d been hiding.

Instinct had taken over. There was no time left for thought. She was running as fast as she could, her chest and her legs aching fiercely, but she knew she couldn’t stop.

Any moment now she’d feel the heat of his breath on her neck. But dimly, she remembered that somewhere before her, there was a small lake, filled with greedy swans and colorful, small fishes that had flitted back and forth when she and Ginny had tossed some crumbs into the water.

It wouldn’t be much, but maybe, if she could dive into the water, she’d at least be protected from the flames...

There was another roar. It was terrifyingly close.

It was so close that Naomi could now feel the air around her being stirred by giant, beating wings. Despite her terror, she twisted her head to look behind her, expecting to find the fire dragon’s jaws open, ready to close around her.

Instead, she was just in time to see the clouds opening again.

For a moment, it seemed as if the sun itself had come to her rescue. Then, a moment later, she saw just what had caused the cloud of smoke to disperse.

A storm had arrived. Grey storm clouds kept gathering in volume, and a wind had sprung up that drove the smoke away from the mansion. Then there was a flash of lightning and the boom of thunder. The clouds opened, a torrent of rain beginning to fall.

And out of the storm clouds a dragon shot forth, a beautiful creature of silver, lightning playing around the glittering scales that covered his body.

Gregory had returned for her.

He’d arrived just in time. Carried by the storm that he’d brought with him, he plummeted from the sky faster than anything Naomi had ever seen, aiming straight at the fire dragon who’d twisted in the air to meet him.