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Charity reaches out and grabs her hand. “I’m truly, truly sorry. I should have never said those mean things about your name. Seeing you hurt last night… I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

When Aya turns to me, I hang my head. “Enough,” Charity says. “You’ll never hear me spit venom about your name again.”

Aya sucks in a breath. Her scent turns salty. “That’s all I wanted. I’m not asking you to like me, just please…”

Charity doesn’t let go of her hand. “I’m so sorry.”

Another tear rolls down Aya’s cheek, and I’ve had all I can stand. I snatch her back into my arms.

Charity turns to her parents. “I want to let this go.” She glances back with a smirk, like she knows my apology wasn’t real, and winks at me. Then she squeezes her father’s arm, and her fingers tremble on his sleeve. “I thought I was going to die out here last night, Dad. Every time I tried to run, the lightning was already there.” She swallows hard. “I really had this coming. This was a lesson from Mother Fate. I earned it. I won’t tempt a dragon again.”

“But…” her father protests.

Charity grabs her parents by the hands and pulls them toward the cabin. “Let it go. Please.”

They listen. Once they’re inside, I kiss Aya’s hair. “That was easy.”

Kade gets up in my face. Aya steps out of my arms but keeps hold of my hand. “Easy, my fucking ass!” the sheriff yells at the top of her lungs.

My dragon wants no part of this. Even he isn’t stupid enough to mess with Kade. Damon only chuckles as he pulls the denarius coin from his pocket and flips it.

“First,” Kade tells me, “you’re going to do what you said and replace that shed.”

I nod with Aya’s hand still in mine. “All right.”

Kade shows me her fangs as her blue eyes narrow. “After that, you’re going to clean Wintermoon Academy.”

I squint back at her. “For six months,” she finishes.

“Six months?” I repeat.

“You heard me. You’ll be cleaning toilets with Caleb.” She steps back and points at Aya. “And don’t think your mate gets you out of the lightning you put through her. Josiah’s report stays open on my desk. You so much as spark at anyone on this land again, and I’m adding time. See you after the Passing of the Flame.”

Kade teleports away in a swirl of black smoke. Damon catches his coin. “Listen to Mother Kade.” He stops in front of Aya on his way past. “Congratulations. You are going to make a wonderful luna.”

Aya looks away from him. Damon adjusts his suit and walks off.

“Oooh. Caleb’s in trouble?” I turn to Aya. “We’ve got to catch up with our friends.”

Aya nods at me like I’ve lost my mind, and I groan. Tomorrow night, I become alpha. Then I get to clean the Academy while I run a dragon clan.

Damn. What a way to lead.

42

AYA

THE PASSING OF THE FLAME

Aclearing full of dragons waits on the other side of these pines, and not one of them has caught my scent with the breeze blowing off the fires straight into my face. I stay tucked behind the trees at the edge of Ash Clan with my arms wrapped around my middle.

Lauren dressed me for this. She never asked if I was coming. She pulled a gold gown down over me, pinned up my braid, and wrapped a cloak around my shoulders. “Just in case,” she said. Then she kissed my cheek and left me alone in her bedroom to decide. I kept changing my mind on her porch steps.

Fires burn all over the clearing, but the biggest is the pit in the middle. A carved throne sits beside it with dragons etched into the backrest, their wings spread wide. Sam and Tyrion stand behind it with Claude close at her mate’s side. The rest of the clan lines up shoulder to shoulder in their finest leathers without making a sound. I’ve eaten dinner with them. Quiet is not their thing.

Ezra waits up front in a black button-down I’ve never seen before. He doesn’t search the crowd for me or glance toward Hazel’s cabin. He’s made his peace with standing there alone. Watching him do it knots up my stomach.

My wolf is still sulking. She hasn’t made a peep since Charity’s shed burned, and even this doesn’t get her up.