I HAD NO ANSWER FOR Wolfie that evening, but there wasn’t time for one anyway. Because excited shouts from the clearing proved that Ember’s First Rites were already underway. So Wolfie and I shed our clothes and shifted forms immediately in preparation for joining the party.
When we stepped out into the crowd, though, my heart nearly stopped as the little bloodling pup who I’d cosseted and cared for over the last few months leapt into the air in an effort to make it across the now-raging bonfire. She seemed tiny and bound to fall into the flames to my maternal eye, and I surged forward to protect her from harm.
But at the last moment, Glen reached up and gave the bloodling a boost just as if he were still playing Ember ball in the computer lab. And as if she’d been expecting the assist a
