Page 57 of Dragon's Flame
“How?” Rax demanded—which was precisely what Tarian was thinking, only he didn’t want to grant his fears words.
“Who’re you?” Kenna asked him, looking up before finally realizing the other two men were naked too. “There’s three of you? Three dragons?” she asked Tarian, who still hadn’t spoken.
“You’re alive,” he said softly. “But—I burned you.”
“You did,” she said, bringing her hand up to rest on his cheek. “Then, at the last moment, something erupted out of me—like I’d been given wings. They wrapped around me and I felt the heat. I was definitely on fire, but nothing hurt me anymore, and it kept going, right up until I passed out.” She looked down. “And, of course, I’m naked too. Because why not,” she murmured, but then looked up at him. “But Tarian, our bond?—”
“Is gone.”
Which was why he’d been so soul-certain she had died.
He was still recovering, but she was already two steps ahead.
“Then I’m free!” She whooped. “They won’t want me anymore!” she said, squirming up, to look around. “Not that...there’s any of them left, anyhow, ha!” She took in all the carnage. “Did you do all of this?”
“I had help,” he said. “But now—there is nothing tying you to me.”
She stilled in his arms immediately. “That is the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard you say,” she proclaimed, right before rising up to kiss him.
51
KENNA
“It must’ve been hard for you to choose, seeing as my brother quite frequently says stupid things,” said the dragon to Tarian’s right.
“And you must be Rax,” Kenna said, reaching out an ash-covered hand. Rax shook it with one just as messy, and she kept hold of it, using him to lever herself up from Tarian’s arms. “I can’t believe I’m alive.”
Neither could Tarian, obviously—she had a feeling he was never going to let her out of his sight again.
She also had a feeling she might like that, plus or minus a few college classes.
“And Sarah?” she asked, suddenly remembering.
“She’s fine. I took her back to your place, unwisely summoning him, before coming here,” Tarian said, coming to wrap his arms around her. It wasn’t lustful, or even protective—he felt like he needed to know he wasn’t dreaming, that shedidexist.
“And I tagged along,” announced the other man, who had a devilish smirk. “Really, Rax, this was far easier, and more entertaining, than you built it up to be.”
Kenna watched Tarian flash dark eyes over at the two other men. “He invited you because he knew he couldn’t beat me alone, and he thought I’d gone insane.”
Rax looked around with open hands. “And this doesn’t prove my point?”
“She is Seris,” Tarian pronounced. “Was...Seris. But she’s also Kenna and?—”
Kenna reached up and grabbed Tarian’s head, pulling his face down into her shoulder, shielding him.
“You need to be nicer to him,” she sniped at Rax. “He’s your brother. He spoke very highly of you when we were together, and you know it cost him to ask for your help.”
The other dragon looked aghast, before recovering. “Well, you share Seris’s tongue, so there is that,” he said.
She felt Tarian’s hands fist at her sides. “I’m Kenna—still the same Kenna that I’ve always been,” she said, pulling Tarian’s head away from her, seeing where his tears had streaked his ash-covered cheeks, and she stroked them aside. “But I still want to be with this man,” she promised him.
“And I only want you.”
“Oh God,” said the other dragon. “Now you almost have me tearing up. Lovely to meet you,” he told her, and then to Rax he said, “and you owe me, again.” Then he announced, “But if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to my own beautiful mate.”
He turned, running through the door as a man, then becoming something marvelous and golden right before launching into the air outside.
She turned back to Tarian and rocked up on her tiptoes to set her forehead to his.This was happening.
