Page 103 of Of Blood and Fire
Is. Bring food?
Unlikely.
Shame. Thank mate for help.
Will.
I glanced up as said mate speared my sword into the ground and then sat down beside me, wrapping one arm carefully around my shoulders to draw me closer, his body pressing warmth against the side of mine. “Help is probably another ten or so minutes away—you going to last?”
“Too right I am. Someone has to supervise the repairs on Kaia’s wings. By the way, Kaia says thanks.”
“She’s more than welcome. Besides, if the queen isn’t happy, then her kin is far from happy, and an unhappy wife always bodes ill for the husband.”
I laughed and leaned my head against his shoulder. “I do feel the need to tell you something.”
“And what might that be, wife?”
“That I, dear husband, love you.”
“Oh, that’s old news.”
I raised my head and looked at him. “It is?”
He smiled and touched my cheek lightly, brushing away the bloody tears still drying against my skin. “You cannot hide feelings when your heart beats as one with mine.”
“Well, that’s fucking inconvenient. I was hoping to make this dramatic statement and have you gushing and weeping with joy?—”
He raised his eyebrows, amusement lurking around the corners of his eyes. “Do I look the type to gush and weep?”
“Well, no, but that was nevertheless the fantasy.”
“Well,myfantasy is winning this war, then settling down with my drakkon-riding wife and raising lots of little kin.”
“A fantasy I could very well get behind, especially if there’s plenty of ‘practice’ first.”
He grinned. “I think we have a deal. I’d seal it with a kiss, but you’re looking a little too fragile?—”
“Notthatfragile, husband.” I pulled him toward me and kissed him, long and slow but with all the passion and love that burned inside. Then I once again leaned my head against his shoulder to wait for the nearing medics.
This war was far from over. We still had to free Zephrine, still had to chase the riders from our land, still had to find out what had happened in Reydia. But we’d had a major victory here today, and that was a very good place to start.
EPILOGUE
The drakkons did come,and it was a glorious sight—a sky filled with red, bronze, and gold beasts, all of them answering that desperate call Kaia had made when she first went down.
Under the guidance of our drakkons and their kin, they helped Esan’s forces drive the Mareritt out of the marshlands and deep into Mareritten’s heart. They’d regroup—theyalwaysregrouped—but it gave us time to heal. Time to plan. Time to help Zephrine drive the riders from her lands.
Some of those drakkons stayed, but most returned to the security of their aeries deep in the mountains, well away from man and the danger we represented. Kaia remained positive that would change, and maybe it would, but I personally suspected it would take decades, if not more.
The riders continued to dominate the skies over Zephrine, decimating much of the farmlands and towns around her, but never breaking the fortress or her people. Zephrine stood defiant, as Esan had.
But as the months ran on, it began to feel as if this war would never be at an end; that blood and death and fire would be our lives for now until the end, whenever that end came.
And then a missive finally arrived from Reydia. Unlike with the Jakarran Islands, the riders hadn’t swept in and decimated their homes. They’d destroyed every means they’d had of contacting anyone, but left them alive to serve. And by doing so, the riders had sealed their fate.
Because Reydia’s people saw their maps and learned the location of their homeland.
Two days after that missive arrived, we flew over and rained fiery hell down on it, destroying their cities, their ports, and their fleets of ships. We were eleven drakkons strong by then, and the paltry rider force they’d left behind to stand guard never stood a chance. Not against the fury of drakkons still needing bloody, fiery revenge.
