“It attacked her,” Nikolas countered stiffly.

Aine’s red curls bobbed when she shook her head. “No. It attacked you because it thought you were hurting her.”

I looked at the drakon that was flying dangerously close to the ground now. It certainly didn’t look like much of a threat to anyone. If anything, it looked ready to collapse. I saw dark red blood dripping from the cut in its long belly.

“We need to get it back to the water,” I told them. I made a move toward the drakon, but Nikolas caught my hand.

“Nikolas, come with me if you’re worried, but we can’t let the poor thing die.”

“Poor thing?” He sighed and released my hand. “I can’t wait to see what Tristan thinks about your newest pet.”

“I didn’t say I was keeping it,” I muttered as the three of us approached the tiring drakon. Really, what the heck would I do with a water dragon, of all things? Although, the lake at Westhorne was much nicer than this puny one, so maybe he would be happier there. I wondered if water dragons and kelpies got along well together.

Nikolas laughed. “You’re already trying to figure out how to get that thing back to Idaho, aren’t you?”

“No,” I retorted halfheartedly.

Aine raised a hand and a breeze came up, lifting the drakon three feet off the ground. It was barely moving through the air now and we had no trouble catching it. Nikolas reached out to turn its body toward the lake, and the drakon twisted and snapped its fanged jaws at him.

“Stop that,” I scolded, and it swung its head in my direction, looking so much like a normal dragon that I expected flames to sprout from its mouth. Instead, it made a loud mewling sound and stared at me with large unblinking eyes.

I patted its scaly side and it didn’t try to eat me, so I figured I was safe. I moved in front of it and began walking backward toward the lake. “Come on, fellow. We’ll get you back home.”

The drakon switched direction and followed me, assisted by Aine’s breeze. Nikolas walked several feet out to my right, ready to come to my rescue in case Aine was wrong about the drakon not attacking me.

When I reached the water’s edge I took one step into the water, and the drakon followed me in. Aine released it and it immediately dove into the lake, rolling on the muddy bottom and making the water too murky to see it. A minute later, it reappeared, floating on the top of the water, half submerged like an alligator.

I crouched in the water. “I’m sorry I woke you up, and that the mean warrior cut you.” Behind me Nikolas snorted, and I smiled.

The drakon blinked at me but did not move.

“You can go back to sleep now. I’ll try not to bother you again,” I told him.

He answered by rolling over in the water and showing me his pale belly that sported a two-foot long gash created by Nikolas’s sword. Blood still seeped from the wound that looked painful and deep.

I felt my power stirring at the sight of the injury, but I was afraid to attempt to heal the drakon. What if I used too much and hurt him instead?

“What’s wrong, Sister?” Aine asked softly and I told her my fears. She came over to lay a hand on my shoulder. “You will not harm him.”

“How can you be sure?”

“It is not in you to harm an innocent creature.”

I looked at the drakon again. “Not intentionally, but I could hurt him by accident.”

“Aine is right,” Nikolas said, prompting me to face him. His gray eyes held mine. “Remember the day I made you use your power on me?”

How could I forget? For a long agonizing moment, I thought I’d killed him. I shivered at the memory of my power throwing him across the arena.

“Your power could have hurt me that day, but you wouldn’t let it. Your instincts kicked in because you didn’t want to hurt me, just like you don’t want to hurt this creature.”

My chest warmed at the unwavering faith I saw in his eyes, and I managed a small smile before I turned back to the drakon. It had drifted closer to me, and I reached for it tentatively. The scales covering its underside were softer than the ones on its back, and I was surprised to feel how warm it was. I ran my hand along its belly, and it wriggled closer to me until it was pressed against my side. I moved my hand closer to the wound, and my power pushed against the walls holding it back, trying to go to the injured creature. Nikolas and Aine had faith in me, but did I trust myself enough to release the power?

A shudder went through the drakon before a wave of pain assailed me. I couldn’t let it suffer. Please, don’t let me hurt it.

“Nikolas, I need you to leave,” I said without looking at him. “I know you think I can do this, but I can’t... not with you here. I won’t risk it after what happened when I woke up.”

“Okay. I’ll see you back at the house.”

It surprised me when he didn’t argue. A month ago, he would have refused to leave me.

I waited until I could no longer sense him before I opened my power to let a trickle escape. As soon as I called on it, it tried to surge forward, and I pushed it back again. Before the liannan, my power had flowed through me like a warm, gentle current. Now it was hot and forceful like a river of lava. It didn’t really burn me, but sometimes it felt like it wanted to consume me – or the part of me that was not Fae.

There was a time when I would have been happy to get rid of the “beast” in my head, but I would do anything to protect my Mori now. When I’d first awakened from my long sleep, my Mori had been huddled, terrified, in the back of my mind. Even unconscious, my body had instinctively erected a wall around the demon to keep it safe from my out-of-control power. Still, it had taken me days to soothe my Mori and convince it I would never let it be harmed.