This wasn’t death. This wasn’t permanent.

I was like Ryodan and his beast. I was both woman and dragon—holy hell—this was the best of both worlds, better than anything I could have imagined! I hadn’t lost anything, I’d gained. “Fully human?” I pressed. “As in, not lethal to the touch?”

You will be as you were before you began to change. But it will be some time before you can shift forms; you must bond with your new skin. The more often you shift, the more skilled you become, but that first time is terribly difficult. It may take many years.

“Years?” I exploded, bristling. That was unacceptable.

He is immortal, small one. He’s not going anywhere.

It hit me then. I couldn’t feel Ryodan anymore. I arched my—good grief, long scaly black—neck to peer over my shoulder but I couldn’t see my back. “Do I have a brand on me?” I demanded.

Your skin is new. Nothing of his mark remains. Trinkets do not survive transformation.

I exhaled gustily, startled to see tiny, dark ice crystals puffing from my mouth as I realized Ryodan must have felt our connection sever abruptly and had no idea what happened to me. So much for our plan to love each other in illusion. It wouldn’t have worked anyway. But it didn’t need to. I could be a woman half the time! Exhilaration filled me. This was incredible! I was a woman who could become a dragon. And become a woman again!

But…Ryodan, Shazam, my friends. I had to tell them. “Take me back to Earth, Y’rill. You can teach me to shift there. I’m a fast learner.” I was practically vibrating in the air with excitement. I’d soar back to Earth, tell Ryodan and Shaz what had happened, then hang out with them, learning all about my new form.

Damn. Ryodan’s beast had nothing on me! I could feel my Hunter lips stretching into a smile as I beamed radiantly. I was badass, the most awesome superhero I could possibly be. If I’d known going in this was what was waiting for me, I’d have embraced it sooner.

Give your new world a chance. It will all be waiting for you when you return. Where did that child I felt when you stabbed me go? The one who couldn’t wait for the next adventure? It’s here. Look around. Is it not magnificent?

“Y’rill, Shazam will fall apart without me! He’ll melt down. He’s so emotional and he doesn’t know where I am. He doesn’t have anyone to take care of him. I have to go back! Show me how to get back!”

Y’rill chuffed softly. Shazam is fine, tiny red.

I jerked to a sudden stop and stared at her. “What did you just say?” I gasped.

Y’rill said tenderly, Shazam is fine.

“After that.”

Those ferocious eyes gleamed with amusement. Tiny red.

Y’rill said she’d been watching over me. “But you’re a she,” I said faintly, trying to bend my mind into a shape it simply refused to achieve. “Shazam is a he.”

You’re the one ascribing genders. We have none.

Y’rill smiled then and I suddenly understood what Shazam’s smile had always reminded me of, which I’d never been able to place.

Thin black lips pulling back from sharp teeth.

Same utterly alien expression.

Shazam’s smile had reminded me of a Hunter. Chills suffused my entire body. No way. Not possible.

I said slowly and carefully, “Y’rill, what were you before you became a Hunter?”

Before I was chosen for this by a great dragon soaring among the stars, drawn by my cries of loneliness and longing for a home, I was once the last remaining Hel-Cat in existence. Y’rill’s eyes flickered with violet lightning. My beloved Yi-yi.

Shaz the mighty fur-beast

Y’RILL WAS SHAZAM.

I just lolled there in space staring at her with my mouth open until she reached over and nudged it gently shut with a talon. You’ll catch space debris. Sorry to bofflescate you.

I was bofflescated speechless; an extreme rarity for me. As I hung there, staring, I replayed my years with Shazam through my mind: his mysteriousness, his constant disappearances, his “other form” I’d known nothing about. His constant, cagey, evasive replies to so many questions, the odd juxtaposition of extreme emotion and wisdom.

We are not permitted to interfere or influence our chosen’s choice in any way. We are never to have contact after the initial invitation. I’ve told them that’s why we have so few young but they don’t listen. Y’rill/Shazam looked abashed. When you got lost in the Silvers, you were so lonely, like I once was, and I was afraid you would die. I came to you in my Hel-Cat form to help you survive.

“All those times you disappeared?”

I had to be Hunter or I would lose the right. I could only spend half my time with you.

“But Shazam is so emotional and you’re well, more…composed.”

As a human, you strike me as quite emotional, too, Y’rill/Shazam said, sounding slightly miffed. You saw my wisdom on occasion. I wasn’t always emotional. Then, When we shift, we are what we once were. Flaws and all. The enormity of Hunter can’t fit in a small skin. Another reason most of us choose to remain Hunter. It is difficult to get used to being tiny, driven by our biological natures again. Y’rill shuddered, sloughing black ice into the air beneath her wings. Being Shazam is humbling, I am a very different creature in that form, needy, tiny, lonely. Then her eyes gleamed and she said, You were a good mother to me. I will be to you as well, in this form.

“OHMYGODSHAZAM!” I exploded, as it finally, fully penetrated. “You’re my Shazzy-bear!”

Y’rill smiled. I am. I couldn’t tell you. They say if we breach that one rule, our child will never be born.

“That’s why my black hand never bothered you. I always wondered why I could touch you!”

Y’rill nodded. Also why I told you to make it go away. Reminding you that becoming one of us was your choice. You said you wouldn’t even if you could. I chose well with you. Your desire for adventure is exceeded only by your desire to care for worlds. We do much of that up here. One day you’ll see.

“See what?”

The threads that connect everything. We tend them. We sow them.

I began flying again, gingerly, then with greater gusto. I was flying in space! With Shazam! Holy hell! I always knew Shaz had another, enormous form and stayed “up in the air” but I’d never once imagined that form was a Hunter! I’d even written that ditty about Shaz the mighty fur-beast who lived up in the air, and us battling dragons together.

I snorted with laughter and it came out as a soft, delicate trilling gong accompanied by twin plumes of fire from my nostrils. Criminy, I just shot fire from my nose!

Hunter half the time, woman the other half; with Ryodan half the time, with Shazam the other half; with incredible adventures to be had both ways. Fierce exhilaration filled me.

I knew you’d think so, Y’rill/Shazam said smugly. Come. I have so much to show you.

As excited as I was to see more of my new home, Ryodan couldn’t feel me anymore. “First, take me back to Earth so I can—”

Send him one of your texts, Yi-yi, and let it go. You have all the time in the universe. Others are waiting to meet you. Few are chosen, far fewer born. Most reject it. Only the fearless join us here.

“Ha ha, a text,” I said dryly.

Ah, I forgot, you won’t be able to do that for some time. She sighed. I suppose I’ll break yet another rule for you.

As I watched, Y’rill turned, churning ice beneath her enormous leathery sails, and focused her attention on a nearby star. What do you want it to say?

I tried to nibble my lip, and gouged myself in the cheek with a fang. “Ow!” This was going to take time getting used to. “Tell him I’m okay and I’m coming home soon.”

A thin bolt of pale purple lightning, fine and laser sharp, erupted from a taloned hoof as Y’rill carved a tiny chunk of the star away, etching words on the face of it that shimmered like stardust.

Then, abruptly, Y’rill vanished and reappeared far beneath me, caught the chunk of star and brought it back, tossing it to me. Holy flour balls, she could sift! That meant I could sift, too! I’d eclipsed Batman a million times over. I caught the chunk of star, cupping it awkwardly in my hoof, marveling. One day I’d be able to carve messages on stars. Etch a twisty D for Dani all over the bloody universe. Criminy. Dancer would be beside himself if he could see me now.

Throw.

“Huh? How, where?”

I’ll correct its course. Just throw it.

I did, launching it into space, then Y’rill spun midair, batted it with her tail and sent it rocketing off at such speed that it vanished from sight as if it had entered a black hole.

It is done. He has received your message.

I understood a bit about travel in space and said, dryly, “When? Five million years in the future?”

I adjusted it so that he would receive it at the proper time.

“You can manipulate time?” I was awed.

She nodded.

“I can do that, too?” I practically shouted.