Page 57 of Burned

“And his polar opposite,” Arson says. “The only match that makes sense here is Demps and Hem. Two book nerds.”

“This is gonna make for some awkward holidays when the in-laws try to skewer us,” Hemingway says.

“But did you sever the bond?” Dempsey asks. “Can you?”

“Dahlia is working on the potion. It’s possible, but…” I can’t get the words out.

“But what?” Alrick asks.

I avoid his pleading eyes.

“But what, Lord?” he asks again.

“A dragon can only be bonded once. If we were to sever our bond, that’s it for me.”

He looks crushed. “Lord.”

“It wasn’t fair of me to mate you without your consent, but you couldn’t give it. You would’ve died, and I couldn’t let that happen. Please forgive me.”

Alrick wraps his arms around me, pressing his face to the crook of my neck.

Lake clears his throat again. “I’msosorry but we really need to deal with the slayer problem. Then we can work on the mate problem.”

“He’s not a problem,” I growl, twisting around as flames flicker from my lips.

Lake smiles, completely unafraid of me. “You know what I meant. Shall we go? Plane’s loaded.”

“How did you get it from Scotland?”

“How do you think we got it?” Nico grumbles. “We’ll wait downstairs while you guys get decent.”

“Maybe we should stay here,” I suggest. “They’ll probably track him.”

“Better if we’re on our turf,” Nico says. “Unless you want to burn down Paris… again.”

Arson rolls his eyes. “That was anaccident. And I covered it up, didn’t I?”

I sigh at my wayward brother then nod at Nico. “Fair point,” I mumble. “Let’s go.”

As my brothers and their mates file out, I’m left in the silence between Alrick and me. Before I can say anything else, he crashes into me, kissing me so hard I nearly lose my balance. I cling to the warmth of him, desperate to hear him tell me he’ll never leave. Our bond twists with pleasure and comfort and my dragon purrs with happiness.

“First things first,” Alrick says, pressing his forehead to mine. “My family is coming for me. They think I’m in danger. I need to go to them.”

“No. Alrick, no.”

He steps back, and the look of determination on his face nearly breaks my heart.

I continue to hold him, accepting that I won’t win this argument. “You have to come back to me. Even if it’s because you don’t want this anymore.”

“Lord. You have to know how much our time together matters to me too.”

“But now you know what I’ve done.”

“To save my life.” He cups my chin. “Yousavedmy life, Balriss.”

The sound of my true name on his lips offers a shred of hope that this isn’t really over.

“You risked your own happiness to save me,” he continues. “You would have severed the bond to release me. That’s a lot to take in.”

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