Mom and Charity provided a lunch big enough to feed an army—Mom had thoroughly sanitized the haunted farmhouse’s kitchen and whipped herself into a cooking frenzy in order to “keep up the morale of the people who were going to save her baby.” I stuffed myself with food, mostly in order to keep my hands busy, and then rotated out to the barnyard to check up on Talbot’s and Jude’s progress in training a small group of the Sirhan’s youngest pack members.

But from the looks of it, it wasn’t going as smoothly as I’d hoped.…

“No, not like that!” Talbot barked at one of his students—a young Urbat with a closely shaved head. “Never try to stab someone while holding a knife with the blade pointing downward.”

Jude and the others looked over at them. I leaned with my elbows on the rickety railing of the back porch as I watched.

“If you hold the knife like that, it’s too easy for someone to take it out of your hand.” Talbot’s hand shot out, and, in almost a blink of an eye, he’d captured the knife from his pupil. Talbot turned the knife so the blade angled up and thrust it at his student. The young Urbat jumped back with a yelp.

Talbot sent another sparring thrust in his direction. “See! You can’t grab this out of my hand, can you?”

The student shook his head. Talbot looked up then and saw me standing on the porch. He handed the knife over to the young Urbat and positioned it correctly in his hand. “Give it a try.”

Talbot backed away as the guy started thrusting the knife awkwardly into the air.

He grabbed something off the top of a hay bale and jogged up the porch steps to join me. He leaned his backside against the porch railing so he was facing me and flashed one of his warmest smiles, like he was about to present some sort of peace offering.

“For you,” he said, and extended his hands out, presenting me with a sword incased in a wooden scabbard. “I told you I’d get you a sword. If you still insist on joining the fight, then I want you to have the best one I’ve got.”

I took it without saying anything and pulled the blade from the scabbard, inspecting it. I recognized it from one of our training sessions back when he was my mentor. It was a kung fu short broadsword, with a slightly curved steel blade and a wood-inlaid steel hilt. A tuft of bright red fabric was tied to the end of it.

“You remember how to use it?”

I nodded and sheathed the sword. As much as I liked it, I wasn’t sure I wanted to accept any type of gift from him. I may have agreed to let him join us in the Challenging Ceremony, but he still made me feel a bit uneasy.

“How’s it going out here?” I nodded toward the men training to stab each other.

Talbot hitched his thumbs behind his belt. “You know, for a pack that goes by the name Etlu, most of them fight like crap. The oldest ones at least have some skills from back in the day, but they sure haven’t done themselves any favors by spending the last few hundred years meditating on the mountainside.” He shook his head with disapproval. “What a waste.”

“What, you think it’s better they use their powers to go running around the city, knocking off jewelry stores and pawn shops?” I raised my eyebrows at him.

Talbot’s expression clouded over. “You’re still mad at me for earlier?”

I shrugged. I was still mad at him for so many reasons, let alone his insisting that I shouldn’t be allowed to fight.

“I’m sorry, Grace. It’s just that, you have this great healing power, and if someone you love gets hurt, like your dad, you can heal him. Maybe that makes you see life as not quite so fragile anymore. But what if you’re the one who gets hurt? Who’s going to heal you?” He looked at me with concern in his bright green eyes.

My shoulders dropped. “You and Gabriel tried to heal me once. After what happened at the warehouse.”

“Tried is the operative word there. It didn’t work nearly as well as the way you can do it.” He tapped the back of his shoe against the rungs of the porch railing. “Maybe you can teach me to do what you do.… Then maybe I won’t be so worried about you going into the fight.”

“I’m sure Gabriel already explained it to you when—”

“Honestly, Grace. I don’t remember much of what he said. I was just so desperate to save you I couldn’t really focus.…”

“Then that’s probably one of the reasons it didn’t really work all that well. You’ve got to be totally focused. Clear your mind and think about nothing but your love, or compassion, for the person you’re healing. Try to picture him becoming whole again.” I bit my lip, remembering what had happened the first time I’d tried to heal my father. “Otherwise, it can be dangerous. Like if you accidentally channel your fear, or anger, or hate.”

Talbot gave a grave nod. “Is that what happened to your dad that first time? You said you ended up hurting him more.”

“Gabriel said it’s like letting your inner wolf attack the other person from the inside. The healing power backfired, and instead of repairing his injuries, it reopened them. I even hurt Gabriel. Reopened an already-healed gash on his face. But you’ve seen what it can do when used correctly. I’ve never experienced anything like it before.”

Talbot held up his hands, almost as if he were examining them for healing potential. “That’s some power to wield.” He bit his lip.

“Healing people is exhausting, though. After I healed my parents, I fell unconscious for ten hours straight. That can’t be a good thing to happen on a regular basis. It’s not like I can go around healing an entire hospital of people at once, or anything. That would probably kill me.”

“What about during a lunar eclipse?” Talbot asked. “Aren’t our powers supposed to increase tenfold? Maybe if you could channel enough of the moon’s power during an eclipse, you could do a lot of good for a lot of people.”

“Or a lot of damage, if I wasn’t careful.” I looked down at my hands, thinking about how they could be weapons even more dangerous than the broadsword.

Talbot reached out and grabbed my free hand by my fingers. He drew it close to him and placed it over his heart, pressing it against his chest with his own. “Maybe you could heal the aching I feel inside my heart when I look at you.”

“Talbot. Don’t.” I pulled my hand out from under his and started to turn away.