“Hey – it’ll be okay,” he told her – and before he could second guess himself, he reached out, stroking his fingers over the soft roundness of her cheek.
She shuddered, and for a moment Henry was worried he’d made a misstep – before realizing shewasn’tshuddering in horror, if the slight flush that was creeping over her face and her sudden quick, sharp intake of breath were anything to go by.
“Um. We should go in,” Luna said quickly, her hand coming up to squeeze his fingers with her own before letting them drop again. “Before you make me do something inappropriate.”
“Well, I probably don’t want that… well, I mean, just not right here, at this exact moment,” Henry stammered out, before internally cringing.
Wow. You are so bad at this,his hellhound felt the need to inform him as, before he could say anything else stupid, he knocked on the door of the cabin.
The door was opened a moment later, and Henry found himself looking into the face of a woman, who looked almost exactly like what he would have imagined if anyone had ever asked him to imagine what a park ranger looked like. Her long dark hair was pulled back into a sensible ponytail, and she had a spray of freckles over the tanned skin of her face – she was clearly someone who spent a lot of time outdoors.
“Ah, you must be Henry,” she said, stepping back to let them past her. “Oh, and Luna – sorry, I didn’t see you there at first. My name’s Kira – Kira Dearborn. Sylvie probably already told you a little about me.”
“She did,” Henry said, nodding. “I really can’t thank you enough for letting us use your cabin to talk about… well, whatever it is that’s going on here.”
As he entered the room, glancing around, he saw Caleb as he stood up from one of the chairs in what was clearly a children’s common room – it was lined with bookshelves housing books about nature and animals, while children’s drawings of trees and a map of the park were hung up on the wall. Clearly, the ranger’s cabin was used as much for education as it was for Kira’s base of operations.
“Nice to see you again, Henry,” Caleb said, with a quick grin. “And nice to meet you for the first time, Luna.”
Luna nodded, staring up at Caleb – and hewastall, even taller than Henry, and Henry was used to being the tallest person in the room.
“Oh, uh, sorry,” Luna blurted out a moment later. “I forgot my manners. It’s nice to meet you too. I just. Uh. Well, it’s just that. Um. You don’tlooklike a dragon…” She suddenly scrunched her face up in mortification. “God,sorry.I was just saying to Henry I hoped I wouldn’t say anything rude, and the first thing I do is stick my foot right in my mouth.”
Caleb and Kira laughed, seeming completely unperturbed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Caleb told her. “I get that a lot. Or rather, I don’t. Which is how I know I don’t look much like a dragon.”
Henry swallowed as he glanced around while Luna and Kira started chatting amicably. Sylvie and Gale must have already told Kira and Caleb that he was a hellhound, and so far, they didn’t seem to feeltooweird about him. But he guessed they must just be doing a good job of covering it up, since they’d been forewarned.
“Well, it really is great that you’ve found each other,” Kira was saying, a twinkle in her eyes as she looked at Luna. “How are you dealing with the whole ‘fated soulmates’ thing?”
“Um. IthinkI’m getting used to it,” Luna said, glancing up at Henry. “Or else it just hasn’t quite hit me yet. It’s a lot to take in.I mean, hellhounds and dragons are one thing, but finding out we’resoulmates?That’s… that’s something else.”
“Yeah,” Kira told her, patting her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, though – it’s best if you just go with it. That’s what I found – and I haven’t regretted it for a moment. I know you’re only in Girdwood Springs for the festival, and I have a lot going on while we have so many extra people in town, but if you ever want to talk about things from a non-shifter perspective, then I’m sure we can find some time to chat.”
“I’d really, really like that,” Luna said, perking up. “I mean, it’s just so comforting to know there’s people around who know how I feel!”
“Believe me, I was grateful I had Sylvie to talk to,” Kira laughed. “Not that Caleb here isn’t great and all, but you know, they grew up as shifters, and this is all totally normal to them. Sometimes you just want someone to quietly freak out to, even if it’sgoodfreaking out.”
“Well, I’m very happy to hear I’m freak out-worthy,” Caleb said smoothly. “But before we get to that part, perhaps we should discuss this curse business.” He frowned as he ran his eyes over Luna. “Because I candefinitelysee you’ve got one. Not a bad one, but a curse nonetheless.”
Henry, who had been glowing with happiness as he watched Luna and Kira chatting happily, suddenly felt his mood dampened. But it was good to be reminded of why they wereactuallyhere, even if he wasn’t totally sure how Kira and Caleb could help them yet.
“Hmmm,” Caleb mused, turning his eyes to Henry. “Did you know youalsohave a curse on you?”
Henry nodded grimly. “Well. I didn’tknow.But I definitely suspected. Gale didn’t say anything about that at the café, though.”
“Maybe because it’s also a pretty weak curse,” Caleb said. “But also… well… if I can put this in a kind of indelicate way, it’s probably also because you’re a hellhound. Hellhound auras can be… pretty intense. It’s hard to see anything else. But dragons are like wyverns – we can see these things a bit clearer than other types of shifters.”
Henry guessed that made sense – dragons and wyverns were pretty closely related after all, and wyverns were known for being especially magical.
“The curse doesn’t seem to have much effect when I’m standing close to Luna, though,” Henry said. “For some reason.”
“It might be the kind of curse it is.” Caleb cocked his head. “Unfortunately, I’m a bit of an expert on curses.”
“Caleb was cursed when he met me,” Kira explained, laughing. “A real doozy. A generations-old dragon curse on his whole family line. It took some doing to get rid of that, let me tell you.”
“Oh,” Luna murmured, sounding about as gloomy as Henry currently felt. “Is… is it going to be hard, then, to break it?” But then, a thought seemed to occur to her, and her face hardened. “But wait –whydo I have a curse on me? Is it just random, or did someone…putit on me?”
