Page 16 of Davoren
"I don't know how to surrender," I admitted, the words scraping my throat raw.
"I will teach you." Gentleness entered his voice, though his thumb never stopped its maddening exploration of the mark. "You've been fighting your whole life. Fighting your father's expectations. Fighting to maintain dignity while being sold. Fighting to survive." He leaned closer, breath warming my cheek. "But you don't have to fight me, little one. The bond ensures I can never truly harm you."
"Then what's this discipline you mentioned?" My attempt at sarcasm fell flat, undermined by the way I arched into his touch.
"Instruction through pleasure." His thumb pressed firmly against the center of the mark, and my vision whited out for a moment. When it cleared, I was clinging to his shoulders, nails digging into his skin. "Tomorrow night, when we complete the binding, I'll show you exactly how submission to a dragon can feel. How discipline and pleasure intertwine until you can't tell where one ends and the other begins."
"Tomorrow," I repeated stupidly, mind struggling to process anything beyond the fire he'd lit in my blood.
"Tonight, you rest." He stepped back abruptly, leaving me cold and bereft against the wall. The loss of contact was almost painful, the mark screaming its protest at the separation. "Let the wanting build. Let your body prepare itself for what's coming."
"You're just going to leave me like this?" The words escaped before I could stop them, equal parts accusation and plea.
His smile was pure predator. "Yes. Consider it your first lesson in dragon discipline. The anticipation, the need, the ache that won't quiet—all of that will make tomorrow's pleasure that much sweeter." He moved toward the chamber's exit, then paused to look back. "Scarlet will show you to your chambers. Try to sleep, little bride. You'll need your strength."
"For the binding?" My voice cracked on the words.
"Foreverything."
He vanished into the steam, leaving me naked and trembling against the wall. Every nerve ending he'd awakened still sparked with need. The mark pulsed in time with my racing heart, carrying echoes of his arousal that told me he wasn't as unaffected as he'd appeared.
Tomorrow. One more day of freedom—if I could call this freedom, burning with need I couldn't satisfy, marked by magic I couldn't escape. One more day before whatever ritual would bind us completely, seal my fate as a dragon's bride.
I sank down the wall until I sat on wet stone, trying to calm my breathing. Tried not to think about his promises of discipline and pleasure intertwined. Tried not to imagine what 'everything that comes after' might entail.
Failed miserably at all of it.
When Scarlet returned, she found me still there, wrapped in a towel and staring at nothing. She took in my state with one comprehensive glance, then offered her hand.
"Come, Lady Lyris. Let me show you where you'll sleep."
I let her pull me to my feet, let her wrap me in that blue silk robe, let her lead me through corridors I didn't try to memorize. My mind was too full of ember eyes and promises, of centuries of waiting and one night of anticipation that already felt like eternity.
Chapter 4
Consciousnessreturnedinstages,each one more luxurious than the last. First came the silk against my skin, so soft it felt like floating in warm water. Then the scent—smoke and spice and something wild that made my mark pulse before I'd even opened my eyes. Finally, the light: not harsh morning sun but a gentle golden glow that seemed to emanate from the very walls themselves.
I lay still for a moment, cataloging my surroundings without moving. The bed beneath me was beautiful. It was an ocean of midnight blue silk and black velvet, large enough to hold a small dinner party. When I finally turned my head, I saw why the light seemed so alive—veins of gold ran through the obsidian walls like frozen lightning, pulsing with a rhythm that matched my heartbeat.
Or maybe matched the mark's heartbeat. The distinction was already blurring.
My body felt different. Not dramatically—I still had all the same parts in the same places—but there was a strength in my muscles that hadn't existed yesterday. When I stretched,the movement felt more fluid, more controlled. My feet, which should have been agony after yesterday's abuse, only ached dully. I pulled back the silk sheet to examine them and found most of the cuts already closed, leaving behind thin pink lines that would probably fade by evening.
Dragon constitution, he'd said. Even incomplete, the bond was already changing me.
The knock at my door was perfunctory, three precise raps that announced Scarlet's presence before she entered. She moved through my chambers—and when had I started thinking of them as mine?—with the same measured efficiency I'd witnessed yesterday. This morning she wore deep purple, the color making her amber eyes seem almost gold.
"Good morning, Lady Lyris." She set a copper tray on the table near the window with a soft clink. "I trust you slept well?"
"Like the dead." I sat up, pulling the sheet around myself, though modesty seemed pointless after yesterday. "Is that common? After the mark manifests?"
"The bond requires a great deal of energy to establish itself." She began uncovering dishes with practiced movements. "Your body needed rest to integrate the changes. Come, you should eat. The ceremony tonight will demand strength."
The casual mention of tonight's ceremony sent heat pooling low in my belly. I wrapped myself in the sheet and padded to the table, trying not to think about what 'demands' might entail.
The breakfast spread belonged in a palace, not a volcanic fortress. Honeyed dates that glistened like gems, their sweetness so intense one bite made my teeth ache. Quail eggs prepared with saffron that turned them golden, their flavor rich and somehow wild. Bread so light it barely seemed solid, more cloud than crust, that dissolved on my tongue like a whisper.
But it was the tea that nearly undid me. The first sip sent cinnamon across my tongue, familiar and warming. Then camethe something else—a flavor I couldn't name that made my mark flare to life, sending tendrils of heat down my spine and pooling between my thighs.
