Miles was stiff, struggling. Rae sensed the darkness inside him, inky fingers of it paralyzing him with fear. She also sensed Zander’s magic and his compassion that blazed as large as he was.

Rae knew in that moment, as the compassion entered her through his touch, that Zander didn’t heal simply because the magic compelled him to, because he did a grudging duty. He truly wanted to help people, to make them whole again.

It cost him. Rae remembered how he’d lain in the yard at Ezra’s house, cramped with the pain he’d absorbed from Ezra’s father, Robert. He’d done that so Robert could die in peace.

Why then, why, was this generous and largehearted man all alone?

Same reason she now was, Rae supposed. Shifters were a superstitious bunch. They liked the idea of Guardians and healers but didn’t want their weird magic anywhere near them on a good day.

Miles kept shaking, growling as Zander pulled him closer. Rae kept her arms tight around Miles as well, her forearms crushed between both men’s firm abdomens. Zander laid his head on Miles’s shoulder, looked down at Rae, and winked at her.

At the same time, Rae felt Miles give a great shiver, then start to shrink.

Rae released him in alarm, sliding her arms out from under Zander to back away. Zander kept hold of Miles until the man shrank rapidly out of his grip.

Zander stumbled forward and fell against Rae, who steadied him. He nuzzled her cheek. “Hmm. Not a bad place to land.”

Miles squirmed out from between them, leaving his clothes and his pistol in its holster behind. What popped out from the mound of jeans, T-shirt, and jacket was a gray-furred, long-tailed fox.

“Whoa,” Piotr said, moving the tranq gun to it. “Where did that come from?”

“Miles,” Zander said. “He’s a Shifter.” He gazed down at the fox, who glared back up at him. “And he’s kinda cute.”

“He’s adorable,” Rae said, dropping to one knee.

Miles’s fur was a dark gray all over, except for a pattern of lighter gray across his head and around his pointed muzzle. His graying hair as a human, she realized, didn’t come from age, but the markings of his fox. He had a little red fur in him too, around his chest and down into his front legs.

Miles turned dark eyes to her, looking almost embarrassed that he’d shifted in front of her. Rae knew that not all Shifters liked to be petted but she took the chance and stroked the top of Miles’s head. His fur was wiry but soft and very warm.

“I didn’t know there could be fox Shifters,” she said.

“Yep,” Zander answered. “The Fae shits experimented on a lot of creatures. Not all of them survived, and of those that did, not all were viable. But a couple rare ones got through. Like polar bears and, I guess, foxes.”

Zander had his hands on his hips, comfortable standing there without any clothes. He had the body for it, every muscle tight, a dusting of black curls across his chest and another line on his lower abdomen, a glory trail that led to . . . glory. A couple times now, Rae had seen how seriously large he was, and every time, her face and body had gone hot as he’d noticed her noticing.

Zander turned away and caught the wheel, deftly turning the boat before they rammed to their death against a sheer wall.

“Piotr, go down and release Ezra,” he said. “I’m going to take us back to my boat and you’ll pilot it out of here. All right with you?”

Piotr studied him, his round face troubled. Then he nodded. “I think you’re crazy, my friend, but I will try. What about . . . ?” He gestured to the fox who was sitting next to Rae.

“He’ll be fine,” Zander said. “We’ll take care of him. You just take care of my boat.”

“Wait, we’re going back to it?” Rae blurted. “What happened to getting out of here?”

Zander didn’t look at her as he moved controls. “I’m not leaving my boat to rot in the Graveyard. Piotr can follow me out.”

Piotr was obviously terrified but the look in his eyes showed perfect trust in Zander. Was everyone around Zander as insane as he was? They were, Rae decided. But they weren’t wrong. Zander seemed to engender trust, as though everything he did, no matter how dangerous, would come out right in the end.

Rae must be as insane as his other friends were, because she was starting to trust him too. If he said he could steer them out of this scary place and find a guy to fix the sword of the Guardian, he probably could.

Piotr gave Zander a nod, laid the tranq gun next to Rae, and left the wheelhouse. He lurched on the deck as the boat tipped but caught handholds with the ease of long experience and disappeared below.

Rae kept petting Miles, carefully not reaching for the tranq rifle. She didn’t want to spook him. “What are you going to do about these other guys when they wake up?” she asked.

Zander wasn’t looking at her. He studied the swirling mists with a frown. “I’ll think of something,” he said.

“Great.”

“Yeah, isn’t it?” Zander sent her a grin over his shoulder. “Fishing all day gets boring. This is much more fun.”

Rae and Miles shared a look. “Sorry,” Rae said to the fox. “He’s not my fault. He was foisted on me.”

Miles’s forehead wrinkled in an expression so like his human one Rae wanted to laugh. Instead, she smoothed it out and kept petting him, while Zander guided the boat through the roiling water.

* * *

Zander didn’t much want Rae out of his sight, but he asked her to help Piotr lock up Carson and his men. Zander couldn’t leave the wheel, Miles was still a fox, and Ezra, when Piotr helped him into the cabin, was half asleep from tranqs. He leaned back on a bench and closed his eyes.

Zander gave Carson’s men small doses of the tranq to make them continue to sleep—tricky, because humans couldn’t take the large amounts Shifters could. Too much and he’d kill them, and Zander wasn’t a killer.

While Rae and Piotr were busy lugging bodies, Miles hunkered in a corner Zander pointed him to. “Stay,” he said. “Good fox.”

Miles growled but settled in, watching Zander’s every move as Zander piloted his boat.

Once Rae and Piotr were dragging Carson off, Zander exhaled, and in that moment, the fears and horrors that he’d healed from Miles washed over him.

Damn, he hated this. Zander didn’t have time to deal with a healing hangover right now, but Miles’s emotions poured over him.