Page 76 of Chase Me

“I, Ciara Mosley-Willingham, take you, Jakob Zeleny, as my lawfully wedded husband. I do promise to love you forricher or for poorer, through sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.”

Jakob didn't say anything, and his eyes remained closed.

Ciara's heart stopped, waiting, waiting. Her lungs burned, her skin tingled, and her eyes filled with tears.

He sighed softly. “Aren't I supposed to give you a ring and a kiss now?”

She laughed and cried at the same time, choking over her own words. “You already did.”

A ring and a kiss that she’d denied, almost lost, and wanted more than anything now.

His breath came out ragged. “I wasn't sure you wanted to keep them.”

“I do. They’re mine, just like you are.” She was never letting any of this go ever again.

“About time you figured that out.” He coughed, blood coming out of his mouth.

“Oh, Jakob. You’re hurt really badly. I don't know what to do to help. The other dragons are all still fighting the demon dragons.” All she'd ever had was basic babysitter’s first-aid. She had never had to use it on anything more than her own scraped knee.

He groaned trying to get words out. He coughed again and rasped his request. “My soul shard. Do you have it?”

She plucked the shard up from where she had dropped it when she knelt beside him. “Yes, right here. Should I put it back on you? Will that help?”

Jakob slowly opened his eyes again, the light there fading so rapidly. He lifted his hand, she didn't know how, and she pressed the shard to his palm. He wrapped his hand around both it and her fingers.

“Put it on.”

She moved their hands toward his neck, but he resisted. “No. You put it on. Wear it. It belongs to you. My soul belongs to you.”

His hand dropped, and his eyes fluttered shut. Ciara scrambled to tie the cord around her neck so that he could see his last wish fulfilled. She grabbed his hand back up and pressed it against her chest.

“I have it, Jakob. I have it. Your soul is mine. Forever.”

But he was gone.

The shard burned against her skin, the green light igniting her, him, and the entire world.

Fear and anxiety, lust and need, sadness, contentment, and dare she say happiness all flowed over, around, and through her. She wanted to cry and laugh and throw up and dance all at the same time.

Gah. It was too much. It wasn’t enough.

The dam she’d put up long ago to hold back all of her emotions broke and the world exploded.

The light reached inside of Ciara and sparked and flickered into red flame, blue mist, golden wisps of wind, and the green spark of life itself. It flickered across her body, pooling in her heart and combining the colors into the purest of white hot love.

She arched her back, letting the power flow through her, over her, and out into Jakob. Everywhere the white magic swirled, his body was knit back together. Fire cauterized his wounds, water and ice cooled them. The wind whipped the magic across his body and the lush green life force inside of him grew and grew until he sucked in a great breath. The magic of love surrounded him, mixing with Ciara’s until they both overflowed with it.

Jakob’s eyes flew open and he caught Ciara’s hand in his.Their eyes met, and they gazed at each other in wonder and awe.

The light around them slowly faded, some into Jakob’s chest and the rest into Ciara’s womb.

She wrapped her arms around him and swore she’d never let go.

Uh, are we interrupting something. Want us to come back later, lovebirds?Cage landed in the hole in the wall, shifted into his cocky ass human form and sauntered into her disaster of a living room.

Match and another red dragon followed, doing the same, and then Ky and a green dragon. Ky looked around at the overturned furniture, the black stains all over the room, and at the dried blood covering Jakob. “Bro, she’s not much of a housekeeper. You should think about getting a maid to help out around here,Wahine.”

Ciara squirted him in the face with water. He laughed and winked at her.

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