Page 72 of Born in Fire

Her eyes flutter open, unfocused at first, then finding mine. “Dorian?” Her voice is a whisper, wet with blood. “Are… you okay?”

Sweet Jesus…

“Yes. I’m fine. God… Juno… God… please…” I don’t know what to say, what to do. This is beyond me.

“Good.” Her lips quirk up, the smile crooked, strained. “I… saw you. You’re really a dragon.”

A laugh, half-sob, tears from my throat. “Yeah. Yeah, I really am.”

“Just like… the tattoos.” She tries to smile again, but it turns into a grimace of pain.

I cradle her head in my lap, brushing dust from her cheeks with trembling fingers. “Don’t talk. We need to get you help.”

But even as I say it, I know. The blood. The angle of her body beneath the rubble. The coppery scent of death already gathering around her.

She knows too. I can see it in her eyes—the clarity that comes with acceptance.

“It’s okay,” she whispers. “I got to see a real dragon. Pretty cool last sight.”

“No.” I shake my head violently. “No, this isn’t happening. I can get you out. I can—”

“Dorian.” She reaches up, her fingers tracing my cheek. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not fucking okay!” Tears burn my eyes. I blink them back, not ready to mourn. Never ready. “You don’t understand. I just found you. Ijustfound you.”

Her breath hitches, each inhale a little more shallow than the last. “Bad timing… always was my specialty.”

I lean down, pressing my forehead to hers. “Please,” I whisper, not sure who I’m begging—her, Fate, whatever gods might be listening. “Please don’t go.”

“Will you tell me…” She coughs, blood speckling her lips. “Tell me what it’s like? To fly?”

My heart shatters into a thousand pieces. “It’s like freedom,” I say, voice thick with restrained tears. “It’s like being part of the sky itself. The wind becomes your breath, the clouds your playground. Nothing can touch you up there. Nothing can hurt you.”

Her eyes drift closed, a small smile playing on her lips. “Sounds nice.”

“Juno,” I say urgently, feeling her slipping away. “Juno, look at me.”

Her eyes open again, but they’re distant now, focusing on something beyond me.

“I need to tell you something,” I say, the words tumbling out. “I need you to know—I know it’s fast, I know it’s crazy, but I’ve lived a dozen lifetimes, and I’ve never felt like this. I love you. Iloveyou.”

Her smile widens slightly. “I’m glad,” she whispers. “Me too.”

Then she’s gone. Just like that. The light fades from her eyes, her hand falls away from my face, and the brightest thing in my long, dark life is extinguished.

I gather her to me, cradling her broken body against my chest, and I howl—a sound of pure agony that’s neither human nor dragon but something broken and wounded beyond repair.

The building continues to burn around me. Dragons wheel overhead. The world is ending in fire and blood.

And I don’t care. I don’t fucking care about any of it.

Because somewhere in the fleeting connection between us, something vital was torn from my chest. And I know, with the certainty of the ancient creature I am, that I will never get it back.

Chapter 21

Dorian

Three a.m. Four. Five. Dawn bleeds through the blinds. I haven’t slept.

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