“Do not touch her!” I roared, pointing up and down both sides of the table. “She is mine!”

“What? I have to catch her!” Keira cried out as she stood up and attempted to push her way past me.

“No,” I growled, standing my ground.

Tamhas threw an arm in front of her to halt her progress, while both she and the other witches gaped at me.

“Do not deign to give us orders,” Selene warned.

“She is mine.” I could offer no further explanation and had no time in which to do so before I ran down the tunnel after her. She would come to no good end, wandering in the woods on her own. If she even made it there, fleeing in desperation as she had been.

It was possibly the least intelligent thing I’d ever done, declaring her as mine before the entire clan and a coven of witches, but there had been no stopping it. My dragon had spoken for me, and there was no denying such deep, fundamental truth when the time came.

I finally understood what it meant to find my mate. I understood the determination with which Tamhas had insisted he protect Keira when she first found us. I understood what it meant to care more for another than I did for my clan.

The difference, I was the clan leader. It was my entire purpose. How could I hope to make her mine when the clan needed me as much as she did?

“Emelie!” I called out, my voice bouncing back to me off the cave walls. “Emelie, stop! You’ll harm yourself!”

Her footfalls grew quieter as she put more distance between us. She was extremely quick. I was uncertain as to how I would find her in the woods—the dragon could, but that would mean revealing my dragon before she was prepared.

I would not do that to the lass. It would only upset her more.

“Emelie, please! Let us explain! None of us wish to hurt you!”

“Leave me alone!” she cried out, and in the growing light as I approached the mouth of the cave I made out her petite form as she continued to flee from me.

“You’ll only become lost out there! Please, wait for me. I won’t hurt you.”

She was beginning to slow down; while she possessed speed, she did not have my endurance. I took advantage of this and put on extra speed, catching her before she disappeared into the dense woods just beyond the cave mouth.

“Don’t touch me!” she shrieked when my hand closed around her arm, recoiling as though my touch burned through the coarse sweater.

“I merely wished to stop you before you became lost,” I explained, though my dragon loathed the sound of an apology. I’m merely explaining, not apologizing. It seemed to matter little to him, as he would generally rather thrash his way about and wreak havoc, as he’d been about to do back in the cave.

If anything, Emelie’s run for freedom could not have come at a better time. It gave me an excuse to get out of there without starting a war.

It might also have provided the excuse I needed to put space between myself and my clan, as they were likely furious with me for holding back such sensitive information.

Now, standing in front of a gasping, sobbing, sweating wreck of a girl I wanted nothing more than to enfold in my arms and comfort, there were more important matters to attend to.

“I know this seems beyond understanding,” I said, hands raised palm-out to signal that I meant her no harm.

She was a cornered animal, wounded and terrified, gray eyes wide enough that they seemed to take up half her face.

“You think?” she gasped, nearly laughing in a high-strung, humorless way. “Gee, yeah, I guess it is.”

“I only want you to understand that Keira is still the Keira you knew.” Somehow, instinctively, I sensed this was what wounded her most deeply. The idea that her best friend was someone completely foreign, some “other” unlike herself.

“You don’t know anything about this.” Her eyes swept the ground around us as she took one after another unsteady backward step, her hands moving about behind her to catch obstructions before she backed into them.

She was looking for a weapon.

I forced myself to exhibit greater calm than I possessed. “I know she took a great chance in slipping away from us to look for you. I must admit, I did not wish for her or any of us to go. It meant exposing ourselves to danger—and we have,” I added, “though I do not blame you for it.”

“Oh, thank you.” Her sarcasm was thick, heavy.

“Sincerely,” I insisted, determined not to sink to the level of a bully. I would not order her, I would not use force to subdue her no matter how deeply I wanted to. “She was desperate with fear when she found your bracelet. She knew you needed her. She would not rest until she found you. And she did, did she not? There was no telling what she might be walking into. She knew nothing of the coven, had never met them. She did it for you.”

“She’s a witch.” Disgust mingled with disbelief.

“Aye, that she is,” I agreed, wincing when she stumbled backward.

She caught herself just in time, taking hold of a low-hanging limb to steady herself before continuing.

She had no idea how difficult it was for me not to save her from herself. It was all I wished to do.

“And a dragon.” Her voice shook. “How can that be? You’re one of them, too. How is that possible? How is any of this happening?” There was an edge of hysteria creeping into her voice. I had to calm her before it took over.

“I assure you, we mean no harm. I mean no harm. Keira was just as shocked and frightened as you were when she first met us, but—”

She covered her ears with her hands. “Stop. I don’t want to hear any more. I just want to go home.”

The breath caught in my throat as I stopped short of speaking the words which I was certain would throw her over the edge and into hysteria. Tell her! She must know! The dragon demanded the truth be spoken.

She could not go home. There was no returning to her old life after finding us and knowing what she knew. She was one of us, whether she liked it or not.

“I… I do not know if that is possible just now,” I hedged, hoping to lessen the distance between us that we might sit down and have a real talk. An utterly ridiculous idea, as she was hardly in the state of mind to allow rational conversation.

Her eyes went wider than ever, as though she’d just received a great shock, and her mouth fell open. I realized a split second too late that she was not reacting to me, but rather to the fact that the last unsteady backward step she’d taken had left her foot dangling in open air.

She had reached a sharp cut-off, the face of the rocky slope falling away as though it had been sheared clean. The drop was not steep, no more than a few feet, but she was unprepared.

I threw myself forward, arms outstretched. She flung her arms forward at the last moment, our fingertips brushing. It wasn’t enough.

Emelie fell back, her head striking a tree along the way. The sound of bone on unforgiving wood rang through my ears.

By the time I reached her limp body, a trickle of blood had begun flowing down the back of her head, turning the lavender hair a deep, violent shade of purple.

“Emelie?” I lifted her gently, cradling her head in one hand. Her blood was warm on my palm. “Emelie? Wake up.” With my other hand, I tapped her cheeks. They were stark white, cold. An ear to her chest told me she was still breathing, still alive.

“Come with me.” Not that she heard me or had a choice. I lifted her, her thin body draped over my arms and cradled protectively against my chest, before sprinting back into the cave and calling for help all the way.

The very last thing I wanted was to owe anything to the coven.

But pride mattered little when Emelie was at stake.

Keira met me halfway. “What did you do to her?” she shouted, clamping her hands over her mouth.

“Nothing! She fell, trying to get away from me.” Shame burned through my body at the sound of words which carried a heavy truth. She wouldn’t let me touch her or even come near her for fear of who I was. “I was too far away to catch her before she struck her head.”

Keira whimpered as she fell into step beside me, both of us running into the circular room.

Selene was on us in a flash. “What happened to the girl?”

I had no choice but to explain it again, and this time in front of everyone.

“She struck it hard. She’s bleeding.” My sleeve was already soaked with her blood, the scent heavy in my head.

“Yes, head wounds tend to bleed the most,” Selene murmured. With barely a wave of her hand, she produced a settee. “Place her there, gently, on her side. I wish to examine the wound.”

I was as gentle as I could manage, resting her body on the soft cushions as Selene lowered herself to her knees.

“Bring me a torch,” she ordered, and Callie obeyed in seconds.

The additional light brought the tear in Emelie’s scalp into sharp relief, and I groaned at the sight of it.

“Superficial,” she whispered with a glance my way. “Though humans do not heal as quickly as you do.”

“I’m aware of that,” I snapped, then remembered to whom I was speaking and what I was asking her to do. I needed her to treat Emelie, to help her. “I’m more concerned with what might be going on beneath the wound. In her head.”

“You think she struck it hard enough to cause damage?” Keira whispered. I looked up to find Tamhas enfolding her in his arms, holding her close to his chest as they watched Selene conducting her examination.

“I do not know—hence my concern,” I grunted through clenched teeth. Panic spread in my chest, pouring into my arms and legs, consuming me as it never had before. What if I lost her when I had only just found her? Foolish girl, unwilling to listen to reason, unwilling to allow me to even come near.

Selene looked at the woman beside her. “Calliope. Do you think you might be able to help her?”

Callie merely grimaced at the use of her full name, which she did not enjoy and never had. Electra took the torch from her, and I watched as she placed her hands on Emelie’s head.

I looked down at Emelie’s pale, blank face. She was so peaceful, likely for the first time since setting foot in the woods. We had brought her nothing but pain and confusion, caused her to question everything she had ever believed.

Callie’s frown deepened the longer she attempted to assess Emelie’s mind. “She is closed-off,” she murmured, eyes shut. “There is a wall around her. I cannot see her.”

Selene nodded sagely. “An attempt at protecting herself from what she’s learned here. Her mind rejects what she cannot understand, and she is blocking it out.”

“But she’s all right?” Keira asked.

“She is aware, and I sense no severe injury.” Callie’s eyes opened, locking onto mine as they did. “The problem is, I cannot begin to predict when she will awaken. The inner mind is a mystical thing, something not even I am well familiar with. She is stubborn, holding onto her disbelief and fear. That fear may keep her locked in her head for a long time.”

“No. That cannot happen. It must not.” I looked at Selene. “There has to be something we can do for her.”

“I believe the best course of action at this time is to allow her some rest,” she announced, hands folding at her waist.

“You cannot be serious.”

“I am,” she said, her gaze stern. “If the girl needs a bit of time in which to make sense of what has so deeply shocked her, we must allow it.”

“It could take days, weeks, months,” I argued. “We must find a way to access her and bring her back to us.”

“Calm your dragon,” the High Priestess murmured. “He is not thinking clearly, nor is he being fair to the girl.”

“Now, just a minute,” Tamhas snarled, stepping away from Keira to face the witch. “You know nothing of our dragons, so do not speak as though you do.”

“Just as you know nothing of what this poor, innocent child is suffering.”

I had to give the witch begrudging credit, for she did not so much as flinch in the face of Tamhas’s size or strength. Likely because she could bring him to his knees without unfolding her hands, I reasoned.

My dragon, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with her reprimands. Remind her who has the strength, who has the power of ancient blood in their veins! Let her serve as a warning to the others!

Selene looked down at me again, this time smiling in understanding. “I know you wish to reach her, to bring her back, but it is best we exercise caution and give her what she needs. She cannot withstand everything she has learned from us. Let us not force ourselves upon her until she’s had time to process. We will find a way to reach her.”

I had never struggled so.

Another look at Emelie told me she was still safe, wherever she was, and that Selene was more than likely correct. The lass needed time to herself, away from the nightmare we had inflicted upon her.

The last thing I wanted was to cause her pain, and yet we had done just that.

“Should we move her, or should she stay here?” I asked, resigned.