Page 54 of Heart Cradle
He shrugged, slipping into his boots. “I told you I’m honest, love. You’ll get used to it.”
She huffed out a soft laugh, cheeks flushed as she fastened the belt at her waist. “Don’t think I’ll forget you said it in the middle of…”
“Oh, I’m counting on you remembering exactly when I said it.” He gave her a once-over, puffing out his cheeks and winking, he then offered his hand. “Come on, let’s go meet my first lady.”
The climb to the roof was quick, though Eiran felt his heart beat faster with every step. Not from fear of Xelaini, she would never harm him. But Maeve… Maeve was human, and this meeting would be nothing like the others she’d faced. Xelaini had no patience for hesitation, no tolerance for anything less than truth.
At the top, the tower’s stone doors swung outward, revealing the wide platform. The wind was sharp, tugging at Maeve’s hair, carrying the clean bite of sky and storm. Dawn stretched pale gold and soft blue overhead but the sky cracked open as a shadow, immense and coiling, dropped through the clouds with impossible speed. Wind howled in her wake and lightning flickered in her slipstream. Wings like storm-forged glass unfurled with a sound like torn thunder, blocking the rising sun, she descended like a goddess slipping from the clouds, vast, elegant, terrifying. She struck the platform like a falling star, claws gouging stone and magic rippling through the air in waves that set the entire tower thrumming. Her wings folded with barely a sound, arching high like midnight oil slicked with iridescence. Xelaini reared her head, scales catching the morning light in shades of deep violet and endless night. Her bright green eyes, burning with impossible intelligence, locked instantly on Maeve. The air between them charged, crackling with storm-slick tension. Each step forwards sent tremors through the stone beneath their feet. Her tail snapped once acrossthe floor, leaving a molten line where lightning kissed the rock, a warning, perhaps, or a welcome.
“Was that landing necessary? We felt you arrive ten minutes ago,” Eiran muttered, stepping forwards.
But Maeve lifted a hand to stop him, her chest rising fast, eyes wide, she looked like she was holding panic back with nothing but pure grit. Then she lowered her head. “I am honoured,” she said softly, voice trembling but true.
The impossible happened, Xelaini laughed, or something like it. A low ripple of amusement that sounded more like grinding metal than anything light. “She speaks true.”
Eiran’s heart stopped, the dragon had never spoken aloud to another in his presence. Not once, not ever, not even to his brothers. Maeve jerked upright, eyes wide and Eiran stared at the dragon, utterly stunned. Xelaini turned her gaze to him, spikes settling against her neck. “She is your mate, little one. That being the case, she is now mine… and I am hers.”
She leaned forwards, her massive head lowering so close Maeve had to tilt her head back to look into those reptilian emerald eyes. “Yes, I think I shall call her Chainling,” Xelaini said, voice lilting with ancient knowing. “Considering the Chain has claimed her, and now, so have we.”
Eiran didn’t even try to hide his smile as Maeve looked sideways at him. “She talks to me.”
Maeve wasn’t sure when it had fully sunk in, that he’d said he loved her, or maybe it hadn’t sunk in at all, not really. Not when she could still feel him on her skin, still taste his name in her mouth, still feel the way he’d held her, been inside her, like they were sewn together. And now… now she was standing on a roof, facing down a dragon the size of a two-story building who had just casually referred to her as Chainling.
What the actual fuck?
Chainling.
It echoed through her head like a incantation, sharp-edged and laced with something archaic. It made her skin prickle and her spine straighten like it meant more than just a nickname and she didn’t know how to feel about it.
“Darling.” Xelaini spoke into her mind.
Maeve jerked, a breath catching in her throat.
“Chainling is a compliment, especially from a dragon such as myself.” The voice wasn’t sound, it was thought, silk-swathed and amused, low as a storm cloud and entirely too familiar. “And the lovemaking was intense. You should feel satisfied… for at least an hour, perhaps.”
Maeve blinked. “Did, did she just…”
“Eiran loves you, as you love him. Admit it to yourself and it will be easier. No rush, whatsoever, but I do hate this internal emotional turmoil, especially when it can be much simpler. Think more dragon Chainling, your life will improve tenfold.”
A low rumble vibrated in her mind like a satisfied purr, maybe a snigger Maeve couldn’t quite tell.Then, with a grace that seemed impossible for her size, Xelaini knelt in front of them, great claws folded neatly, neck arched like a queen at court. Her voice now came loud, crisp and commanding. “Get on now, Little One and Chainling. I have something to show you, and I want her first flight to be before breakfast.”
Maeve’s mouth went dry.
First.
Fucking.
Flight.
Her gaze flicked to the saddle now revealed along Xelaini’s spine, ornate dark leather carved with ancient runes, but newly adjusting. She looked at Eiran, who only grinned, one hand outstretched towards her. “Saddle’s just a bit snug,” he murmured, and she felt the twist of his intention magic ripple through the air, reshaping it to fit her form. “Wouldn’t want my mate flying without comfort.”
Her stomach did a flip, and not just from nerves, Maeve took his hand, stepping up onto the dragon’s bent knee, and together they climbed into the saddle. Eiran settled behind her after strapping her in, with his arms a firm band around her waist and his chin brushing her shoulder.
“Ready, Chainling?” he whispered in her ear, voice a kiss of sound.
She turned to glare at him, half wild. “Absolutely not.”
Then Xelaini launched and the wind tore her scream from her lips, and her stomach plummeted as the rooftop fell away beneath them in a dizzying drop. But fuck, the air, the speed, the power, every moment in flight was a kind of madness she hadn’t known she craved. Maeve’s eyes watered, her heart pounded, her stomach threatened a mutiny, and still she laughed, because she was flying, actually fucking flying!
