Page 106 of Ash

And she dreamed:

A light in the darkness.

Pale gold, laced with silver, and with sensation woven through it—pain, as extreme as her own but deeper, as though it had been endured for a very long time.

Her vision cleared, and she saw a golden Dragon soaring into the air.

She followed him on wings the color of midnight. He was larger than her, but she was swift. With rapid wingbeats, she drew even with him.

And she knew him.

“Ash,” she whispered.

He didn’t respond. Not even a twitch, as if he did not know his own name. He banked away, and she followed. Something within her told her not to let him go.

“Ash!” she shouted.

A flinch through the golden body. The narrow head tilted to regard her with a huge silver eye. Crystal tears skidded along his skin, peppering her as she followed.

“Ash is no more,” he rumbled.

Alarm surged through her. “No. You are Ash.”

The Dragon uttered a groan that seemed torn from his very soul. The golden wings folded, and he dove. Suddenly frightened for him, Dani followed. But his greater weight carried him away from her, faster and faster, plummeting toward the ocean far below.

Somehow, she knew he wasn’t planning to stop. He was going to hit, and hit hard.

A huge form rushed past her, the turbulence knocking her into a spiral. Flapping wildly, she leveled out.

Tyrez.

The Dragon’s scales gleamed turquoise in the moonlight as he dove after Ash, talons extended. Heart in her mouth, Dani followed.

Gravity worked in Tyrez’s favor, carrying him ever closer to his goal. But Ash dropped near enough that the waves spat at him before the bigger Dragon wrapped his strong forearms around him. With a crack like thunder, Tyrez spread his massive wings and attempted to stop both of them.

But the ocean was too close. They hit hard and vanished into the spray.

“No!” Dani leveled out above the spot where they’d disappeared. Just as Tyrez’s triangular head broke the surface, his wings beating the water to foam as he struggled to lift them away.

Movement in the depths—the ocean predators closed in. The Dragons had seconds, no more.

No. She wouldn’t let it happen. Dani pushed with her mind, driving the water away from the two males, crashing it against the teeth coming for them and stopping the predators cold.

Then Tyrez’s wings broke clear, and he lifted himself and Ash from the water. The moment Ash’s limp form appeared, Dani flew beneath him, pushing up as much as she could.

A huge mouth lined with razor teeth rose from the water, snapping at them. She swept it away with a single push of her mind, slamming a wave straight down its throat. By the time it came back at them, they were already too high for it to reach.

Tyrez took Ash not to the cliffs, but to the beach. By the time he got there, the Dragon was a man, coughing and choking on the water he’d inhaled.

They landed on the coarse gravel. In an instant, Tyrez shifted to human. He wrapped his arms around Ash and held him, his own eyes filled with glittering tears. She sensed his warm energy wrapping around the smaller man, striving with a sense of desperation to put the pieces of his mind back together.

Dani walked toward them, mildly surprised to see she now had human legs. She should be upset that Tyrez was so clearly bonded to Ash. But instead, her heart filled as she knelt before them. She wanted so badly to touch—she reached out to wrap her fingers around Ash’s shoulder.

Energy coursed through them and into her. It sang to her. That they were hers. And she was theirs.

A big hand touched her arm. Tentative, asking permission. She stiffened, but there was an instant shift in their energy as Tyrez folded her into their bond. She should be panicked, being wrapped up in such a way. Trapped. But the fingers rested lightly upon her, they didn’t demand. Only asked. So instead, she embraced it, opened her soul, and fed it into the mix.

Their energy united.

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