Page 29 of The Queen of Ash and Magic

“I love you, Lysa. Relax with me,” he speaks softly through our link.

“I love you too,”I respond. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

“There ya go. See?” Mom says when I finally stop convulsing and turn into him. We sit like this for a moment before Drake lifts my chin.

“I’m sorry I made you panic. I should have known,” he says.

“You’d figure I’d be the one who got traumatized from that, but it was you,” I say, and he chuckles. “It’s okay. We are learning together.”

“You two are freaks,” Eyrx says. “Ilove it.”

“I think I should say something,” I say cautiously. “You’ve seen it in my memories but… I’ve never told anyone aloud.”

“What is it?” Mom asks.

“I am sterile,” I say.

“What?” Drake asks.

“Isolde did a sterilization spell on me when I was ten years old,” I say. “She didn’t want to chance that Rystar or Aldric got me pregnant. They also didn’t want me to create another useless witch apparently.”

“Baby, you’re not sterile anymore,” Mom says. “When your powers came in, it healed you. It healed everything bad that they did to you. This includes that sterilization spell.”

“So, I’m…? Lately I forget about being sterile but… are you sure?” I ask.

“Yes,” she smiles. “Every dragon can sense it.”

“What?” I ask.

“Female-born dragons give off a pheromone that indicates that she is mated but not successfully bred yet. If you were sterile, we wouldn’t smell it. That’s how everyone knows who can reproduce and who cannot,” Eyrx says. “You might not be able to shift, but you have all the same senses as we do. It will take you a while to separate everything to know what is what, but you’ll get there.”

“What do I smell like?” I ask.

“Yes,” Eyrx smiles. “You have a very strong floral scent anyway, but that sweet addition is what tells us. It’s like a flower dipped in honey.”

“You also smell like Drake,” Mom says.

“I do?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she laughs. “It just means that your bond is strong and you’ve mated recently.”

“Ah… well… that’s one way to say I smell like I got fucked,” I say, and everyone laughs.

“I have something for you,” Drake says softly. I turn in his lap slightly to look at him as he leans over and grabs a box out of his nightstand.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“Open it,” he says. I take the box out of his hands and open it. Inside I find a gold banded ring. It is Ignisium surrounded by gorgeous black obsidian. When I pick it up, I notice that there are flakes of Ignisium on the inside of the band that will lay against my skin. It is inscribed with a language I do not recognize.

“What doesit say?” I ask.

“Shanorak thal drak, il ne varu,” Drake tells me. “It is an old language called Drakari and it means “bound by fire, we are one.” This ring belonged to the last hybrid queen.”

“Who?” I ask.

“My mother,” he says softly as he slides the ring into place on my finger. He pulls the second band out and it is solid obsidian with flakes of Ignisium in it. I take it out of his hand and see that it is inscribed with the same thing. I softly kissed the ring before slipping it onto his finger. “We are bound until death. Only then are the rings able to be removed.”

“That is…” I say but stop when I can’t find the words. Instead, I throw my arms around his neck and hug him.

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