"Oh, she'll love that," he finally said when he could control himself again. "But no. My pattern is from my father. Both myself and my sister got it, even if Jeera's version is solid grey."

"Grey?" I asked.

"Mhm," he agreed, a little curl twisting his lips. "I was told she laid on your legs."

"So the Dragon woman with grey hair, grey eyes, and grey skin is your sister?"

"She is."

I just gaped at him in surprise. "So how did a human woman have Dragon children?"

Which made Zasen chuckle again. "Because her husband - my father - was tailed. His body was colored similar to mine, but his tail was red instead of blue."

"Was?" I asked, catching that word.

Zasen nodded slowly. "Was, Ayla. A Mole killed him."

"Which is why you kill Moles now?" I asked.

"One of many reasons," he promised. "It is why I will even kill you if you try to harm anyone here."

I shook my head. "I don't want to hurt people." Then I paused, realizing that was a lie. "Except the men. I kinda want to kill them a little."

"Then help me?" he asked. "Tell me about what it was like in the base?"

"The compound?" I clarified.

"The place underground where you came from," he explained. "No matter what it is called, I need to know about it."

And I realized this was my chance. This was how I could prove myself. All Zasen wanted to know was something so easy? Well, I would gladly tell him every single thing I knew! Maybe then I'd be able to stay here. And if I could do that? Then hopefully I could figure out how to rescue Meri and Callah next!

So I nodded. "Okay, but can I try to do it in Vestrian? I want to make sure I learn all the words."

"You can do it in any language you want," he assured me. "I happen to think Vestrian is a good one."

Thirty-FourAyla

Itold Zasen what came to mind. Naturally, that revolved around the life I'd led before I was thrown out. He listened enthusiastically as I described everything from our classrooms to where we ate, and then had a lot of questions about food preparation. But when he asked about how to get in the main door, I couldn't tell him.

From the look on his face, it was clearly the wrong answer. Not that he scolded me or punished me for it. He was simply disappointed - and it bothered me more than if he'd used the back of his hand. It made me feel like I'd failed his challenge to prove myself.

So the next day I tried to make it up to him. We headed out a little earlier, when the light was brighter. My eyes tried to clench, but it allowed me to not only see more of the color transitions in the sky as the sun set, but also to have a little more time with the boy from across the street.

This time, Tamin brought over a stuffed animal. When I'd first moved into the girl's wing at the age of six, one of the matrons had given me a doll made the same way. Tamin's wasn't meant to mimic a baby, though. Of course it wasn't. According to Zasen, it was meant to be a bear, tough enough to chase away nightmares and scary thoughts, yet soft enough to hug as hard as he wanted.

The day after that, I was ready even earlier. Bit by bit, my eyes were learning how to cope with the intensity of the sunlight up here. Being distracted by the antics of the neighbor's child made me forget it was supposed to bother me. And the best part? I actually liked the boy.

The moment Zasen walked into the house, I clutched my book and smiled up at him. "Are we talking in Vestrian again?" I asked excitedly, using that language.

He laughed. "I need a bath and clean clothes first, but yes."

I was almost bouncing in my seat. "Maybe I can wait for you outside?"

That made him give me a strange look. "So you can see Tamin?"

"And the light," I admitted. "The earlier I go out, the brighter it is, but it no longer makes my eyes stream."

Slowly, he nodded. "Then go read while I get cleaned up. Kanik can even make some iced tea for us." Then he smiled at my teacher. "And keep an eye on her, okay?"

"Can do," Kanik agreed. "Don't want her getting too hot and sunburned again, right?"

"Right."

There was something off with their tone, but I didn't care. I'd been given permission to not only sit outside early - on my own! - but also to read. Before I'd come here, this would've been a dream come true. Now, it was starting to be "normal."

Not that it was normal to me. At least not yet. I shared a house with three men who never touched me. I could read as much as I wanted, in any subject I could understand. I was allowed to speak, ask questions, and even give my opinion, and while I wasn't always right, I wasn't shamed for any of it.

Day after day, things were good here. I kept waiting for the kindness to end and the men to show their true feelings, but they didn't. That had me thinking about the possibilities of my new life every night before I fell asleep.

In this place, living with the Dragons, women were treated so nicely. It was safe. Things were plentiful. But if it turned out to be the Devil trying to trick me, I'd already learned a bit about the Reapers. They grew plants. That had been mine and Callah's dream. A little farm where no men would find us. But if Reaper men were kind, then maybe we could just change it up a bit? Meri wouldn't mind since she only liked the part about us being happy together.

Yet I hoped this place was real. So, claiming my chair, I opened the book about Peter with the intention of finally finishing it. The boy had been on a wild adventure, and being forced to slow down and focus on each and every word had kept the book from ending too soon.

But my eyes kept jumping up, waiting for that flash of teal across the street. I couldn't imagine what toy Tamin would have today, and it seemed like he had many to choose from. As a girl, I'd only had my doll - until it fell apart.

It didn't take long to realize I wasn't actually getting any reading done. Closing the book, I gave up. My mind was more on Tamin, the world around me, and all the new things than the foreign words I had to work to digest. But when I glanced towards Tamin's home again, my eyes flicked across the flowers at the edge of the road.

They were yellow and orange.

I'd promised Callah I'd send something yellow back. Neither of us had said it, but we'd both meant it would be a sign I was still alive. And I was! I was also thriving.

Cradling my book to my chest, I walked across the grass towards the long box with the flowers in it. My bandaged feet prevented anything from poking into them, and my soles were almost healed anyway. But when I reached the container, I didn't dare touch the flowers.

I just looked, trying to remember if any of them had been listed in the book about Idaho. Could they be poisonous? Meant to keep insects or predators away? If so, touching them would probably make me very sick, but I liked them. They reminded me of Rymar's brilliantly-colored skin.

"Hey!"

The sound of a man's voice made me turn, but not in the way I expected. It hadn't come from up the street or the house. No, this was from the road - and outside the walls. Facing the forest, my eyes landed on a man weighed down with dead animals. Like most people here, he had a tail, and his skin was blonde or straw-colored with pale cream markings across it.

"Hello," I called in my best Vestrian, which probably wasn't very good.

He roared back a few words and began walking faster - towards me - but his tone made me want to shrink in on myself. His muscles bunched up, his eyes locked on me, and a scowl took over his face. I knew that look.

The best I could do was shake my head and step back into the yard, because he was talking too fast for me to understand his Vestrian. Lifting my book, I tried to explain I was only just learning his language, hoping to apologize, but he didn't give me a chance.

Dropping his dead animals in the road without slowing, the man lunged. His feet left the packed dirt of the street, stepping into the grass so he could reach me. His hands closed around my throat. Anger took over his face, and I couldn't even scream! Instead, I used the book like a club, but it wasn't made for that. One slap sent it spinning right out of my hands.

Then he shoved. "Fucking Moles!"