Page 126 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
I want to drown in her always.
I feel her. I hear her. I see what she sees. I know what she knows. Everything she has experienced over the past few days sweeps over me all at once in a tidal wave of emotion and flickering visions.
Malice. The goblins. The Great Weaver. Her gift.
… Her father.
Her tears soak my shoulder as I drink it all in. Her sobs wrack my form. She has endured so much since that night at the ball in Spindleton.
“I am here,” I rumble, pressing myself closer to shield her from the worst of the heat. “Rest now,Na’therya. I am here.”
“Bene,” my queen whispers. Her body presses to mine. Her fingers tangle in my hair, tightening. “Bene.”
A desperate need suddenly radiates across the link binding us together, far too potent to ignore.
Hers? Mine?
Ours.
All sense leaves me. My inner dragon roars, desperate to rid my queen of my uncle’s stench that clings to her form. To kiss away her every tear. To soothe her of every horror she has had to suffer at his hands.
I lift my head from her neck just as her face tilts upward toward me, her lips gently parting, tears shimmering on her cheeks. A silent plea.
I crush my mouth to hers in answer.
And when I do, something inside me shifts. Something finally clicks into place. The piece of me that has always been missing—her. Her love.
Ourlove.
The key to everything.
Light floods my soul and explodes outward, filling the tower with a blinding light as if I have become a Jewel myself to match my glowingdrakira. Even through my eyelids, I see it. Ifeelit. A luminescence beyond all others. A love that can chase away any darkness.
Even our curse.
Like shackles being ripped asunder, I sense the threads of Malice's initial weave unravel from around our hearts—the weave he placed on us when we were still mere babes.
I hardly dare to believe it. I am almost afraid to hope.
But I know it is true all the same—
At last, we arefree.
And all because we are finally together as we were always meant to be. Trusting in ourselves and the Great Weaver. Leaning on each other for strength.
We are at our most powerful together, my queen and I.
Together, we can do anything.
Salt greets my tongue as our tears mingle into a shared joy. Years of desire, of longing, of love sweep through me, devouring all other thought. All save for one. The one that drifts from my mind to hers:
“There has only ever been you, Aurelia, since that first day in the garden. I hope you know how long I have loved you. I hope you understand that I have only ever wanted you for mydrakira. It wasn’t the prophecy that made me love you. Nor your gift. It wasyou.”
Again, she trembles within my hold.
Again, I gently tighten my arms around her, holding her steady.
“Marry me,Na’therya,”I whisper across the link as we kiss beneath the threat of my uncle’s flames.“Be mydrakira. Rule at my side.”
