"Oh, sweetie," Madeline stepped back from Rhia and looked her over. "It's stunning. We didn't hold back at all this year, did we?"

Rhia turned slowly to look herself over in the tall mirror. "Are you sure it doesn't look too much like a wedding dress?" she asked nervously, running her hands across the fabric of the skirt.

"What are you talking about?" Madeline gawked. "It's silver!"

"With a white overlay." She insisted and turned the other way. "Maybe we should have gone with the black and green."

"You would have looked like a snake." Madeline stepped back up to her and tugged the bodice tighter. "We'll have to get this taken in. You've lost so much weight since we ordered it."

"Well, it was before Church and I broke up." She looked at the loose fabric Madeline was pinning. "I didn't think I lost that much."

"Given the depression you were in, I'm surprised you didn't lose more."

"I don't know," she shrugged in an attempt to hide the tension in her shoulder. "I thought I bounced back pretty quick."

"Honey," Madeline turned her gently and cupped her face. "I am just starting to see the old you back. It's like you've been on autopilot until your brother's accident shifted you back into gear."

"You mean when I met Nolan?"

Madeline scowled. "No. I don't believe that the presence of a new man suddenly changes your outlook on life. That it just so happened that you two have found a connection is great, but otherwise a coincidence."

A buzzing came from Rhia's purse and she pulled out her phone. Nolan's name danced up at her. She tapped the volume button to silence the tone and tossed it back into her bag, neither answering nor sending him straight to voicemail. She turned back to see Madeline raising a judgmental eyebrow. "What?" she asked innocently. "We're busy."

She stepped back in front of the mirror to let her mother start pinning the looser parts for the seamstress. "Is everything alright?"

"It's fine!" Her voice cracked and leapt a full octave higher than normal. Damn it. She was really bad at lying to her mother. She could lie all day to Richard... but not to Madeline. "Nolan... told me he loved me yesterday." She said slowly.

It wasn't the entire reason she had ignored his call. Partially, yes, but not entirely. Saying 'I love you' didn't exactly compare to the aftereffects of his feeding on her. She had gone home before he'd woken up, leaving him a note on his bedside table. She arrived home expecting the effects of his venom to have worn off and to collapse exhausted in bed, only to find that she had more energy than the goddamn battery rabbit. She took Nova out for a ten-mile run and while the dog collapsed when they got back to the house, Rhia felt like she could do it all over again. She felt better than she ever had before. It was weird and disconcerting.

But she wasn't about to tell Madeline that her vampire boyfriend fed on her, let slip that she might be magical to some degree, and that she was secretly hoping he was wrong.

So, the 'I love you' thing was going to have to do. She met Madeline's gaze through the mirror, hoping she wouldn't probe further. "You haven't been going out all that long." She said thoughtfully.

"That's what I was thinking."

"Did you talk about it?"

"No," Rhia shifted uncomfortably. "He said it while we were having sex and I kind of snuck out before he woke up."

"Classy."

"I panicked! What are you supposed to do when someone just drops that on you in the middle of sex?"

"Most people say it back."

"Most people are insane."

"Saying it in a moment of passion doesn't make people insane." Madeline laughed and stepped back to admire her work. "I'm fairly sure that's how most people say it at first. And then they try to pretend it didn't happen until they can set up a more romantic setting."

"Can we bring up the hem a bit? I don't want it dragging on the floor." Rhia lifted the skirt up to lift the half-inch or so length of fabric off the ground before continuing. "I don't want a more romantic setting. He's a great guy, I want to get to know him, and spend time with him... but I'm not ready for him to be in love with me. I'm not ready to be in love with him!"

"Then why on earth are you following him to Europe? France is one of the most romantic places in the world. If he doesn't find the perfect way to say it there, then there's something seriously wrong with him."

"He lived through the French revolution. I get the feeling he doesn't see France the same way human women do." She let out a sigh. "It's a work thing. Some kind of conference he has to go to and then he's making a vacation out of it. It was already happening before we started dating... and he asked before dropping that bomb on me."

"Are you still going? It's not too late to change your mind."

"I want to... but at some point, I'm going to have to open my mouth and talk to him about this, and that could change everything."

"Alright. Well, keep me in the loop."

"I will."

"Good. Now let's get you out of this thing. We have to get this to the seamstress tonight if we stand any chance of having it ready for the gala."

Rhia couldn't help the smile as she looked in the mirror. It really was a beautiful dress. She could only imagine what Nolan was going to think when he saw her in it.

The T.V. in the corner caught her eye and she whirled around. The banner across the bottom of the screen read; Uncontrolled dragon magic costs millions. "Can you turn that up?"

Madeline cranked up the volume and the voice of the handsome male resounded through the room. "...reports of dragonkin suddenly turning and losing control of their magic yesterday morning." he said. "While the numbers are still being calculated, the estimate of lives lost is in the hundreds, while loss of electrical infrastructure is in the millions of U.S. dollars worldwide. World leaders are outraged and demanding answers from the United Nations Commission of Human and Ancient Affairs, the Ancient Counsel, and, of course, the dragons who have always been separate of these two organizations and, supposedly, govern themselves and the dragonkin. The U.N.C.H.A.A. and Ancient Counsel have already made their public statements, claiming they are planning to investigate fully and are prepared to apply pressure to the dragons to take responsibility for the actions of their people. We go now to our correspondent in Egypt - Seth?"

The image changed to a different male standing in a room filled with other reporters. "Thank you, Ted," A huge smile was on the new male's face and he was bouncing in his obvious excitement. "It's nine in the evening here in Cairo, and we are standing in the private meeting room of the dragonkin compound, about to witness a first in modern history. Never before have the dragons or dragonkin accepted interviews or called for press conferences. Only a handful of media outlets have been invited to the announcement. There are very strict rules for this announcement. We have been informed that this is a statement only, and the representative for the dragons will not be taking any questions."

There was muttering behind the reporter and a silence fell across the room as three dragonkin walked in through the side door. The male in the middle stood out even more than most dragonkin would have. His skin and hair were so dark, it was hard to see where one ended and the other began. As he took to the podium and the camera zoomed in on him, another banner popped up identifying the male as Keoni Drakos. He looked around the room, bright, lilac eyes glinting even in the distortion of the cameras. "Thank you all for coming," he said in perfect English with only a slight accent Rhia couldn't place.

There was a brief mutter around the room as one of the other kin translated his words into Arabic. Why wasn't he speaking in the country's standard language? Why English?

"I am Keoni Drakos, chosen representative of his majesty Quintiles Drakos, her majesty Luna, as well as my mate and king, Ares Drakos."

Another mutter around the room as many natives to the conservative country shifted uncomfortably. While Rhia never claimed to know anything about dragonkin, she noted that spitefully pointing out that one of the oldest creatures in the world was gay and there was nothing the world governments could do about it, was a very human action. She liked him.

"I have a list of every precise location where dragonkin magic caused damage to either human or Ancient infrastructure. We have also delivered these lists to individual governments so they can take appropriate action." The second kin stepped up and passed out a piece of paper to the members of the press. "I understand that many of you have questions, as do the United Nations and the Counsel. I know many of you are scared and are hoping for assurances that this situation is a one-time scenario and will never happen again. I am not here to make such claims."

The room went deadly quiet and still. Madeline looked up from the back of Rhia's dress to give the television her full attention.

"What happened was an attack on our people. An attack on the dragons and the dragonkin. We do not take this lightly. You, the major news corporations of the world, were invited here to pass on the message we have for the fleas nipping at our feet;" The lights in the room flickered and the video stuttered. "We will give you one month to come forward and beg our forgiveness. You have one opportunity to make this right. If not, remember this;" Keoni's amethyst eyes went to every camera deliberately. "You started this war, not us."

With that the three dragonkin turned away and the press conference was over. Rhia felt cold. Madeline's fingers were digging into her arms. They were both thinking the same thing: What happens to the rest of the world if the dragons went to war?

Before the newscasters could speculate on that very question, Rhia grabbed the remote and turned off the T.V. They stood in silence for a long moment. Just outside, they heard the bathroom door slam and Richard retching. Madeline snapped out of her own revere and rushed out of the room to check on her husband.

Rhia carefully stepped out of the dress and reached for her regular clothes. Her hands were shaking a little. The Ancients going to war was nothing new. The fae factions had been at war with each other since long before modern man, the lycanthrope and the shifters were constantly fighting for territory, and the entire orkish civilization entirely revolved around honourable warfare and wasn't even newsworthy anymore. The dragonkin were the only species that had never gone to war. They never fought amongst themselves, and no one was stupid enough to challenge them. Until now.

Madeline came back into the room a moment later. "He's alright." She grumbled. "You know how he gets when any talk of war comes up."

She didn't know, but Rhia just nodded watched her tuck the dress carefully into the garment bag. "Are you going to tell Richard that I'm going to France with Nolan?" she asked carefully.

"Not if you don't want me to." She shrugged. "After what he pulled at dinner, I don't think he has the right to be involved in your business if you don't want him to be."

Her words were filled with barely restrained anger. The air became thick with awkward tension. Rhia didn't want to ask if everything was alright between her mother and her husband. She knew her adoption had always been a contentious point between them. Over the years she had been able to figure out a few things; both wanted a second child, they had a hard time getting pregnant, and they fought regularly about adoption. Around that time, Madeline found Rhia in the ally next to her studio, and that was that.

Knowing that made it even harder to ask the next question. "Hey, mom," she said slowly. "Do you still have my old baby blanket? The one you found me with?"

Madeline stopped fiddling with the dress. "Of course, I do." there was a sad smile on her face. "Your father wanted to get rid of it years ago, but I just couldn't let him throw it out."

She went to the closet, rummaged around the old boxes of forgotten art supplies and nick-nacks she'd collected over the years. She finally withdrew with a vacuum sealed bag. Rhia looked down at it, almost afraid to touch it. It was a beautiful piece of work, obviously custom made. It was a mix of blacks, blues, greens, and whites in a pattern like the creator was inspired by the northern lights. There was a hiss as air rushed into the bag for the first time in who knew how many years. She reached into the bag and pulled it out. It was heavier than she expected. With Madeline's help, she spread it out over the back of the couch and ran her hand across the soft material. It was softer than anything she had ever felt, feeling like a mix of fur and microfibre fleece. The top of the blanket, embroidered in rich gold, were the letters that spelled out her name. Rhiannon.

"How did I carry this thing?" she wondered aloud.

"You weren't when I found you." Madeline shrugged. "You were just wrapped up in it. Don't you remember?"

She shook her head, not able to look away from the beautiful blanket. "My first solid memory is that parent-teacher conference in the first grade, and you started crying after Mrs. Harrison said I was coming out of my shell and making friends. Between then and when you found me are kind of a blur. I do remember spending a lot of time in the hospital..."

She shook her head, forcing those memories out of her head. She would never tell Madeline about the Heritage tests. She would sooner open her vein in the middle of a pack of starving vampires than let her mother know what Richard did to her.

Madeline let out a long breath. "You're trying to find them again, aren't you?" she asked quietly.

"I have to know, mom." She said in explanation.

"You want to know who you are."

"No." She shook her head and turned to face Madeline again. "I know who I am. I am Rhia Kincaid. I am your daughter. I need to know who they are. So I can decide if I want to look them in the eye before I wash my hands of them. I'm ready to move on."

Madeline cleared her throat of the emotion beginning to well up and started folding the blanket again. "I know I keep saying this but call me if you need to talk. Or if you want me to be there. Or if you just want to get dinner. I'm here for you."

"Thanks, mom."

~