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“What’s that?” I ask.

Hazel lifts her face to the sky. The stars are shining bright now that the sun is gone. Up on the bridge, the lights have come on over the lake. “He said they never go anywhere. They’re up there all day, but the sun is too bright for anyone to see them. He told me Wintermoon looks at me the same way. The pain is all they can see right now, and it started long before me. But I’m still up there burning, and one day, the sun goes down.”

My wolf whimpers, and Hazel goes blurry. I can’t hold my tears back anymore. “I secretly hated Tyrion’s class.” I mean it as a joke, but my voice cracks on it. I break down crying with my shoulders shaking.

“Oh, Aya, come here, baby.” Hazel pulls me into her arms. She smells like honeysuckle.

“He always makes me feel something when he talks about the stars,” I sob.

She rubs slow circles into my back. “That’s the power of words. They can cut sharper than any blade I’ve ever come across, and I’ve met a few. But the right ones can hold you together for years.”

I bury my face in her neck and cling to her dress. “I love my name, but sometimes I hate it.”

Hazel hugs me tighter. “I know, and I understand.”

“I want them to let it go and leave me alone,” I tell her.

“Each day it will get easier,” she promises.

I pull away from her and scrub at my eyes. “How do you do it? Deal with the whispers and just keep moving?”

Hazel’s scent turns heavy. “I’ve been fighting this battle my whole life, first with my mother and then with the rest of the world once I learned who she truly was to the supernatural community. The one thread that keeps me together is knowing that I’m loved. That can’t be taken from me.”

She wipes my cheeks dry with her thumbs. “And I also have Nicole. She helped me understand that their reactions are more about them than me. They’re coming from a place of pain they don’t know how to process. Lashing out is how they cope with the harsh realities of the past, and of the present standing right in front of them.”

I sniff. “But Charity doesn’t let up.”

“I’m not going to tell you to ignore them,” Hazel says. “But it sounds like she has some insecurities she’s dealing with, and she’s making them about you.” She cuts her eyes toward the water. “Call me petty, but why is it so bad to let Ezra scare that coven a little? I’m telling you, it would work.”

I burst out laughing. My wolf likes the idea way too much.

“What?” Hazel grins. “I know he’s itching to do it.”

I move up beside her. She doesn’t look at me, but she holds her hand out. I take it, and her fingers are warm and sure around mine. We stand there together and watch the water and the night sky over the bridge.

“Not now,” I finally answer. “Maybe later.”

Hazel laughs. “That’s the spirit!”

I search the dark surface of the lake for a flash of scales. “The Mer… I don’t want them to leave.”

She squeezes my hand. “Then be the future luna I know you to be, and show them that Wintermoon is a safe place.”

I smile and keep my eyes on the water.

37

EZRA

Idon’t look away from Valek as I make slow steps toward his porch. He waits at the top of his stairs and grips the rail he still needs, his orange eyes fixed on me. Behind me the hammers have gone quiet, and every dragon in the village has stopped work to watch us. Their worry sours the air from all sides. They’re wondering if we’re going to fight again.

I stop at the bottom of the stairs and don’t go up. The last time I stood this close to my uncle, we were bleeding. I swallow. Aside from completing the mate bond with Aya, this is the biggest step I’ve ever had to take.

I don’t want to do it alone. I want Aya standing beside me with her hand in mine, but she stepped back on purpose. This part is between me and Valek. She’s right, but I still miss her touch.

My dragon came forward when Valek’s door opened, but he isn’t shoving or snarling today. He sits quiet under my skin, watching his old alpha with me.

This moment belongs to our dragons.