No one else would.

To them, I was the enemy. I would always be the enemy. It also didn't matter. Maybe I would never be welcome here, but that didn't make it okay for the Moles to attack these people. To kill them! Worse, to feed them to us as if they were little more than animals!

No, I would make sure I told Zasen everything he wanted to know about life inside the compound. I would have Kanik teach me to speak Vestrian so well I no longer had an accent. And then, somehow, I would find a way to stop the Moles from ever coming back here, because if I didn't belong in this amazing place, at least the Dragons did, and paradise deserved to be protected.

Finally, Zasen got enough help to pull the woman away from me. Three other men grabbed her, carrying her off as she continued to wail and scream. That was grief. That was the sort of anguish I'd felt when my mother had died, but I hadn't been allowed to show it.

Then Zasen scrambled to my side. "She didn't mean it," he said, lifting me up so he could check me for injuries.

I took a shuddering breath, trying to push back my own sadness. "She did. She did, and she has every right."

Then Naomi was beside me. "Are you hurt?" she asked.

But the moment I was sitting up, they both saw. Right across my side, at the bottom of my ribs, my dress was cut. Blood was staining the fabric and my skin was visible through it. I wanted to press at the injury, but Zasen stopped me.

"You don't want to get dirt in that," he said gently.

"Take her home," Naomi ordered. "You can treat her there."

I shook my head. "No. Please? I'm so sorry, Naomi. I didn't know, but I can still help. They didn't tell us where they hunted or what. I didn't know why people hated Moles until now. I had no idea, but I can still help!"

Naomi just cupped the side of my face. "And now you need to be helped. Go home, Ayla. The easy ones are cared for. The rest may not make it. That mother will not be the only one who wants to hurt you for something you didn't do, and you already need sutures."

"I can take it," I assured her. "They deserve to be angry, and I don't mind. I can still help. I know how to deal with punishment…"

Naomi just shook her head again. "Ayla, you can't. You need to go home, let Zasen treat that gash, and take care of yourself." It was clearly an order.

Then Naomi leaned over and wrapped her arms around her son. Zasen hugged her tightly before pressing a kiss to her brow. He wasn't even ashamed about showing that much affection in public.

Naomi just clasped the back of his head. "Take care of her. She did good tonight."

"More than you know, Mom," Zasen said before slipping an arm under my legs. The other went behind my back, and he lifted. "I got you, Ayla."

I didn't try to fight him, but over his shoulder, I could see all the people still in the street. Too few of them were the bodies of hunters in black. Too many of the others were no longer moving.

Forty-FourZasen

The girl weighed nothing in my arms. Carrying her back to our house was easy, but that thought made me pause. Our house. Not merely mine, Rymar's, and Kanik's anymore, but also Ayla's. Somewhere in the last few weeks, this woman had become something I liked having around.

I'd tried to resist that. I'd done my best to remember she was a Mole, but tonight had destroyed all of it. Kanik and I had left her in the storage area under the stairs with nothing but a child's toy crossbow and bolts meant to poke holes in a target - not kill anything. I'd expected to chase the Moles out of Lorsa and come back to find her and Tamin still hiding.

Instead, she'd killed to protect the child. I didn't know what had happened out of my sight, but I'd watched her use a gun as a club to smash a man's head. I'd been confused when she'd offered a Mole the antidote for our venom, only to find out she'd lied to him to get the information I really needed.

She. Had. Helped.

Not only that, but she'd done it without trembling or shedding a tear. The meek and timid little woman we'd been trying to bring out of her shell had slaughtered men she must've known. She'd been as vicious as any Dragon defending our home - but she'd done it all to save a little boy who looked nothing like her. A boy with a tail and bright teal skin covered in black speckles. A boy who had to look like a monster to her, the same way I did.

And yet when I reached our house to find Kanik and Rymar had not only beaten me, but were carrying out a body? I wasn't surprised. If the Moles had come in, that would explain why Ayla had left the safety of the building. That they were dead actually fit everything else I'd seen tonight - which didn't fit the girl who'd been in my house at all.

"Ayla?" I asked as I slipped into the still-open door and aimed for the couch. "Did you kill people in the house?"

"I'm sorry. They were going to shoot Tamin," she mumbled, making it sound like an apology. "The one in the kitchen did, but I'll clean it. I promise!"

Easing her down onto the couch, I couldn't stop myself from leaning back to glance into the kitchen. Sure enough, there was a large bloodstain in the middle of the floor. Things in the house had been jostled and knocked over. None of that mattered, though.

"It's okay," I said as I shifted to look at her wound. "You did the right thing."

"I didn't shoot the second man fast enough," she explained. "He's the one who shot Tamin. I think the boy dodged, which is why the bullet only hit his leg, but Tamin did that. I wasn't fast enough!"

"You still killed the Mole so he couldn't shoot again," I soothed, pushing her hair back on her head the same way I had with Tamin. "Now I need to look at your side, okay?"

"Okay," she mumbled.

Which was when Kanik came back in. "Ayla?" he asked.

Rymar was right behind him. "Did she get shot?"

"Cut," I told them. "By a Dragon."

"I'll get your things," Rymar offered, heading for the weapons closet.

Kanik simply reached down and tore her dress more, making it easier to see the wound. I'd planned on lifting it up, but when he glanced over and met my eyes, I realized he was right. Ayla was too modest to be okay with that. This would probably be much easier.

"Grab Ayla's medical bag for me?" I asked Kanik.

He did, so I pulled out the numbing agent Mom had given her and quickly dripped it across her side. "Ayla, this is going to make it feel strange, but it won't hurt when I sew your side closed, okay?"

She nodded, those blue eyes of hers locked on me. "Like with my feet. Don't worry, I won't move."

Yeah, I didn't want to think too hard about that either. This woman talked about pain and death as if they were no big deal. She elevated friends to an almost godlike status, though. And children? Clearly she held them as worth protecting, even though she'd shoved a fork into a man's arm to prevent having any of her own.

She was an enigma, but also a very good patient. When Rymar returned with my own clean medical supplies, I did my best to close her wound in a way that would leave the smallest scar possible. Her pale, nearly translucent skin was so soft and delicate. Sheltered was a better word, but one that was making me realize just how strong this woman must really be.

Her demure nature wasn't natural. It was a defense. Her politeness was another. She pulled into herself not because she was unable to fight back, but because she had learned - and I hated to think of how - that it was safer than daring to speak her mind.

"Okay," I said when I was done. "Now I'm going to carry you to the bed you've been using."

She tensed.

Kanik just smoothed down her hair the way I had earlier. "So you don't pull those stitches," he explained. "But we need to take the bandages off her feet first."

That made me look down to find the only things covering her feet were disgusting. The layers of cloth weren't close to real shoes, and yet she'd run outside without hesitation. She'd been in the forest and back out. Never mind the bloodstains!

"I'm not going to wrap them again," I told her even as I peeled off the bandages. "That means they'll be tender."

"I'll be okay," she promised.

Yeah, I had a feeling she would, but once that was done, it was Kanik who shoved his arms under her and picked her up. The man was smaller than me, but Ayla still looked tiny in his arms, and as he headed into my room, I felt a surge of something.