Her arms folded across her chest as she stared out at the sea, the wind tugging at her hair,her hair, that still felt strange, still too much, stillwrongin a way she hadn’t adjusted to yet.
Everything felt different like this, she felt too exposed and too aware.
But it was the relief she felt that was the part she hadn’t expected. She flexed her fingers slightly, watching them move.
“I can’t go back,” she said quietly. “Not to them or to being the small dragon again.”
Her shoulders shifted slightly, as if her body remembered wings that weren’t there right now.
Her real wings, hertrueform. Her rather large true Dragon form, the one that could smite villages and fry arseholes. Not that she had ever smote a village… the temptation had been there, but she just never had the chance.
She hadn’t shifted like that in so long, hadn’tallowedherself to. It had obviously been too risky, but nowthe idea of folding herself back down into something so small felt wrong.
“So,” she muttered. “What are my options?”
Should she stay or run again? Or even hide? But this time not near a magical portal that messes with your own magics. That would mean leaving everything she had come to love behind…
Her stomach twisted at that last one. “No,” she said firmly. “I don’t want to.”
Not yet, not unless she had to, not unless there was no other choice. Edith lifted her head again to look out over the horizon, the view always seemed to calm her. She sighed loudly “I’ll figure something out,” she said.
A faint tingling brushed along her back and Edith frowned slightly. Shivering ever so slightly. It was like someone had walked on her grave. “Okay, that’s new.”
She shifted slightly, rolling her shoulders as if that would ease it… only it didn’t. Instead, the feeling grew. Her body reacted before her mind caught up and Edith turned fast.
“Who’s there?” she snapped.
Her voice carried across the quiet beach, harsher than she intended, and her heart kicked up immediately. Her spidey senses where bang on, even after being magically forced into ashift she didn’t want. But there, on the far side of the beach, behind a rock, was someone watching her. She sniffed a little, catching their scent. It was almost familiar, yet she couldn’t quite put her finger on where from. Then the figure stepped out, a male, and Edith’s breath hitched. For a split second, fear locked her in place. Then she breathed, the exhale taking the fear with it. She stepped back without thinking, the water pulling at her feet as she retreated slightly up the shore.
“Don’t,” she said quickly, holding a hand out instinctively. “Don’t come any closer.”
Hunter.
Instead of moving he just stood there, his head tilted as he watched her, which somehow made it worse. Because stillness like that, controlled and measured. Well, that was dangerous.
“Who are you?” she demanded, her voice wavering just slightly despite her best effort.
She took another step back. If she took a few more steps she would be able to make a break for the safety of the nursery. The sand shifted under her feet. Her body felt unsteady, too new, too unfamiliar, but adrenaline pushed through the worst of it.
“Answer me,” she snapped.
Edith swallowed hard, her gaze never leaving him. This wasn’t just a random encounter on a quiet beach, this was the beginning of something she had been running from for a very long time.
14
Edith had goneto take two more steps back when he moved. Only it wasn’t rushed or clumsy. Just a smooth movement letting him be visible to the fullest. One second partially behind the rock, the next, stepping out into full view like he had always been part of the scene and she had simply failed to notice him sooner.
Her breath caught and her pulse kicked hard against her ribs. She watched as he held his hands up immediately, palms open, non-threatening.
Which somehow made him feel more dangerous. He was dressed in black, of course he was. A long coat; fitted, practical. Everything about him screamed efficiency.
“Fantastic,” she muttered under her breath. His garb was a that of a bounty hunter, it was one of the very twins that were in the Ferrett’s Mott. How had he found his way to the hidden cove? It was all well and good him hunting her, but he better not be after the babies.
Edith dropped the fear, or at the very least she buried it. Deep down, in a wooden box which she locked and then threwthe key away. Instead of going full tilt into a fight, Edith decided to try a different tactic.
“Can I help you?” she asked, tone cautious but not panicked, smiling a little and playing a little coy. As if she hadn’t just clocked exactly what he was. As if her heart wasn’t trying to punch its way out of her chest.
As if she wasn’t calculating the distance between them and how long it would take her to turn and run if she had to. Her fingers curled slightly at her sides, hidden by the casual angle of her stance.
