Page 26 of The Shattered Rite
“I’m a monster.”
You are mine.
His voice wasn’t comforting.
It was absolute.
Vaeronth lowered his head. She could barely think when she reached out and rested her shaking hand against the bridge of his snout. His scales burned like stone left too long in the sun. But she didn’t flinch.
“I should hate you for this.”
You will not.
“Bold assumption.”
I know you.
And somehow… he did.
His warmth pressed around her, wings folding, foreclaws cradling her like she was something precious and breakable.
Eliryn let herself collapse inside the cage of his limbs. She could hear his heartbeat now, deeper than thunder, older than the mountains.
“I didn’t ask for this,” she whispered.
No one does.
“I’m not strong enough.”
You are.
“Vaeronth…”
She hesitated.
Thought about what to say, changed her mind, and settled on:
“My name is Eliryn.”
Vaeronth paused.
And then, reverently, like naming a star:
I know, Eliryn. I have known you in the silence between heartbeats.
Her throat caught. Her eyes burned—not from pain this time, but from something deeper. Something older. Something terrifyingly close to hope.
“I’m not alone anymore,” she whispered.
No. Never again.
She closed her eyes. The stone floor wasn’t cold now. Not within the vault of his wings. Not with his breath steady beside her.
“You’re mine,” she murmured.
And you are mine,Vaeronth answered.Now and always. Until death, and beyond death’s reach.
At the depths of the Undermire, dragon and rider weren’t just reborn.
