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I grab her wrist, my grip tight, possessive, dragging her away from the others, away from the prying eyes of the wounded, away from the lingering ghosts of war.

She doesn’t resist.

Doesn’t speak.

Not until I slam her against a tree, breath ragged, fury burning in every inch of my body.

Her silver hair spills over the bark, her lips curving in something infuriatingly smug.

“Careful, Nyxara,” she purrs, her voice smooth as dark water. “If I didn’t know better”—

I growl, my claws pressing into the rough bark beside her head, caging her in— “I’d think you cared.” She smirks.

Damn her.

I shift, my form stretching, scales rippling over my skin. My wingsunfurl, dark as the void, as I lower myself before her, growling.

"Get on."

Shesmirksbut obeys.

And together, we take to the skies.

Chapter

Thirteen

VAELA

The flight back to the castle is silent.

Tense.

And utterly delicious.

Nyxara doesn’t speak a word, her wings slicing through the night air, each powerful beat reverberating through my body where I straddle her back. The warmth of her scales seeps through my thighs, but it’s the tension in her frame, the rigid coil of fury beneath my hands, that makes me grin.

She’s seething because of me.

Because of the way I teased that soldier. The way I let my fingers linger on his armor, let my lips curl just enough to tempt. I hadn’t done much, not really. A smirk, a look. A whisper of possibility. But it had been enough to make the Dragon Queen burn.

I feel it now, radiating off her in waves, her anger barely contained.

She wanted to kill him.

She wanted to burn him alive.

Not because he was a threat. No. It was becauseIwas the one toying with him. Because I had looked at someoneelsethe way I sometimes—unintentionally—look at her.

And that, I think, is what she truly hates.

That shecares.

I run my fingers along the ridges of her scales, dragging them deliberately slowly. A taunt. A reminder that I sit atop her now, that sheletme, that she carries me through the night like something precious.

The second we land in the castle courtyard, she shifts beneath me, forcing me to jump off or risk being crushed under the sheer weight of her dragon form.

The moment her feet hit the stone, she storms toward the castle doors.