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THE EUPHORIA OFour climax did not last. It burst like a bubble, vanishing into nothingness. As though it had never existed at all.

Fell lifted his head to look down at me, and I felt the full blast of his wrath in his icy gaze. He was still seething. Still bewildered.

Maybe more than before.

I scrambled out from beneath him, eyeing him warily, wishing for clothes, feeling very vulnerable in that moment... very human.

I opened my mouth to speak, and then stopped. Angling my head, I listened.

Something was coming.

He stilled, too, his head canting to the side.

We heard them before we saw them.

Actually, I smelled them.Dragons.

They had a distinctive aroma. An earthy musk. I would know it always now. They smelled like wind and fog and fire and earth and woods. They smelled like me. They smelled like Fell.

They’d found us. I grimaced. We hadn’t exactly been quiet.

We were both on our feet, bracing ourselves, readying ourselves, staring at the mouth of the tunnel in expectation.

They were getting closer now.

We glanced at each other, a lingering look. Fell reached for my hand, holding it, giving me a comforting squeeze, and I was glad for that. At least I wasn’t alone. At least we were together.

They grew louder, the sound of them advancing, their feet tromping over the floor of the tunnel, death coming, rolling closer, nearing us in the sanctuary of our little den.

Then they were here. Easily a dozen of them. Dragons... but not quite.

Some of them were like us. Human in appearance. But clearly not human. Clearly still dragon in nature. Their skin shimmered, blinking in and out with various colors like it could not quite make up its mind whether it was human or dragon.

Fell’s hand tightened around mine. Face-to-face with us, the creatures stopped hard. Stared. Looked us over, both of us. But they seemed most intrigued with Fell. Beautiful Fell. Their gazes widened as they took him in. I gave Fell’s hand a comforting squeeze, as though he needed this from me. As though I was not the one who needed it from him.

The group of them exchanged glances, murmuring with one another. There was a stirring among them, bodies shifting, parting, making way for something, someone else.

He emerged from the shadows like smoke wafting through the tunnel, taking shape, materializing in the form of a man. Tall. Big. Muscled. Hair silver as snow, flowing long past his shoulders.

I gasped.

It was Fell.

Fell’s face.

I swung my gaze to the man beside me, confirming Fell was still here. With me. But this man, this dragon, had his face, and I felt irrationally annoyed at that. As though he had stolen something that belonged to Fell.

The stranger stared back at us. He looked over my naked body with marked interest before settling his attention on Fell—clearly who most fascinated him.

Unhurried moments ticked by, long as the day.

Finally, his lips parted—those familiar lips, so like the ones I had just felt so thoroughly all over my body. Words emerged, as deep and penetrating as the fog rolling around us.

“Welcome home... brother.”