Page 101 of Bride of the Black Dragon
Then the meaning sinks in like ice water flooding my veins.
My pulse spikes.
“What are you talking about? What do you mean?”
“The collar—it killed my Drake,” he says quietly. “At least, I’m almost sure it did. I can’t feel him in me anymore. And without him… it’s just a matter of time before I go.”
I shake my head violently.
“No! You can’t leave me—I won’t allow it! I love you!”
His lips curve faintly.
“I love you too, little dove. But I cannot live without my Drake. Now that you have one of your own, you must understand. The Drake is my other half—I need him to survive.”
He coughs weakly, each breath sounding shallower than the last.
“I’m glad you were able to bring me back enough for us to speak one last time. But I don’t think…” He trails off, his voice fading. “Don’t think I’ll last much longer. I cannot live with his spark extinguished inside me.”
No. The word reverberates in my skull. It isn’t just a denial—it’s a refusal—a primal rejection of the idea of losing him. I just got him back! He’s my husband…my lover…my mate.
Tears burn in my eyes, blurring the gold light of the cliff. I want to scream, to tear at the sky, to do something. But crying won’t help.
There has to be a way.
I think of the times he’s healed me before—how his Drake’s power mended my broken skin, how his touch drew the pain right out of me. I remember his strength, his warmth, the golden glow of his eye when his Drake was alive and well inside him.
My mind flashes back to the first time in the dungeon—when his Drake’s eye was dull and gray just like this…when he was half-dead and broken.
But then, when he took me—when we came together, heart and soul, flesh and flame—his Drake had come back to life. His eye burned gold again.
The realization hits me like lightning.
That’s it—that’s how.
I brought his Drake back once—I can do it again!
I hope.
I lean over Xaren, cupping his face in my trembling hands. His breath is warm and shallow against my lips.
“I won’t let you leave me,” I say fiercely, looking into his eyes. My voice shakes but my resolve doesn’t. “I’m going to bring him back—your Drake. I’m going to heal him.”
He blinks at me, confused.
“Elaina, what—how?—?”
I kiss him.
It’s not gentle. It’s desperate—full of everything I’ve ever felt for him—all the love and longing and fear and fury I’ve held inside since the first moment I saw him in that cold, dark cell.
The world tilts around us. I can feel heat building low in my belly, the echo of the Drake inside me rising in answer to reignite his fading spark.
Please, I think, pressing my lips harder against his. Come back to me. Feel me. Live.
The sun beats down on our skin, warm and golden. The wind sighs across the cliffs. And somewhere deep inside me, I swear I hear the rustle of wings.
55
