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the house,” Elizabeth pointed out. “We’ll rent it out for a few years. Then, maybe after I’ve completed medical school—”
    “Do whatever you want with your land,” Glorianna interrupted with a flick of her fingers. She stepped away from the younger woman and spoke to the ceiling. “Live in Winoka, live in Eveningstar, live in the mountains of Afghanistan for all I care. Live with this reptile and give birth to a clutch of leathery eggs. Or don’t. Obviously, what I say will make no difference. You’ve made it clear what you think of me.”
    Elizabeth’s face was hot with frustration. “I’m grateful to you for so much. We’ve had our differences, but I don’t see why—”
    “There’s lots you don’t see . But I see everything, Libby. Everything.” She pointed at Jonathan. “For example, I can see the beast wriggling inside this skin you call your husband. Nobody else can see it outside of a crescent moon, but I can. I wonder what Wendy and Hank would say if they knew the truth about him?”
    “Please don’t tell them,” Elizabeth begged. “They wouldn’t understand. No one else would understand.”
    “ I don’t understand!” The mayor’s normally cool demeanor vanished, and Jonathan was surprised to see moisture on the tops of her cheeks. “Everything was going to pass to you, Libby. Everything still can.”
    His bride was sobbing now. “I don’t want that. I want him .”
    “He will be the end of you.”
    “I love him!”
    “How touching. And when you’ve completely given yourself up to life with a monster, and let go pieces of yourself to take care of him and the child you spawn, and each day you lose a little bit more of the promising woman you once were—after years of this, what will be left for him to love in return?”
    Elizabeth was on her knees now and couldn’t reply through the sobs. Jonathan couldn’t stand to see her like this. He stepped forward desperately in front of Glorianna Seabright.
    “What if you hobbled me?”
    He could not have stunned either woman more than if he had taken two bricks and knocked their heads together between them. Glorianna held him in the eye for the first time.
    “What if you hobbled me?” he repeated. “Would you accept her then? Would you love her again? Whatever has passed between the two of you, would making me not a dragon fix it?”
    Elizabeth finally found her voice. “Jonathan! Don’t—”
    A glimmering sword suddenly appeared in Glorianna’s hand; Jonathan didn’t see where it came from. “A generous offer, worm. Do you mean it, or are you being valiant for show?”
    He trembled. Well, right now, I’m thinking I might have been valiant for show. Yet he knew that wasn’t true. “I mean it.”
    The sword swayed back and forth, heedless of Elizabeth’s screaming protests. So was he. For several long moments, it was just the two of them in the city hall chamber: the dragon inside Jonathan, and the blade that threatened to take it all away.
    Finally, the sword disappeared again. “I’m afraid you don’t get off that easily, Mr. Scales. You and your wife will have to live with the decisions you’ve made. So will any child of yours. Our mistakes are not only for us. They are also for the next generation to bear.”
    She sighed at the younger woman. “Get up off the floor, Libby. Get your husband-thing. And get out.”
    As he and his tearful wife left the grotesque council chambers, Jonathan kept his eyes on Glorianna’s. He saw something there he didn’t expect. He knew then that this mayor, for all her imposing words, would keep their secret. And in a way, he told himself, she’s even given us her blessing. Or at least the best she can give.
    He wondered why.
CHAPTER 3
    Schemes
    “Honey, I’m home!”
    Jonathan landed on the porch of their small townhome and edged the door open with a wing claw. The porch opened up on the living room, which doubled as a dining room. He could see Elizabeth in the small