Page 103 of A Dance of Water (Moon Song #2)

The words were not said in her head, Vale knew, for she did not blush. The claim was just for him and his dragon.

His heart felt strange. Burdened, in a way. Heavy with possessiveness for her and… guilt ?

Vale swallowed. Guilt was an emotion he rarely felt. He found he loathed the feeling.

Mine .

The King ran his fingertips down her back, enjoying the way she shivered from his touch. "My dragon has taken it upon himself to"—his features tightened—"imprint on you."

Luella’s hands grew firm as she tried to push him away again. "Imprint?" Fear made her once sleepy eyes widen. "What does that mean?"

Mine, mine.

Take her.

Protect .

The words of his dragon swirled in his mind, leaving him no peace.

Talons ran along the bars of his ribcage, rattling.

Remember, Vale seethed. I cannot keep her safe if you take over and burn it all to ash.

"Vale? Vale, are you… alright?"

He barely heard Luella over the incessant noises in his head, the tug inside him as his dragon demanded to be let out, spurred on by the mere sight of her, drowsy and cozy in his arms.

But the soft cadence of her tone made the beast inside him pause, hanging on to her every word with reverence. She was like a balm—and he chased the relief she brought. Vale pressed his brow to hers, ignoring the weak noise of protest she made. He breathed her in.

Strawberries laced with faint notes of creamy roses cooled the embers in his lungs.

"V-Vale, what’s happening?" she whispered.

He held her head still against his, cupping the back of her skull. "Just—just a moment."

The dragon’s possessive chants quieted to a low hum instead of a pounding drumbeat.

But amid the raging desire to whisk her away, a clear command rang out:

Protect her. You must.

Vale inhaled sharply and replied, I will.

And the death grip on his ribs relented as the dragon curled up, smoke dissipating as he continued to relish in her scent, in her nearness. In her .

Luella whimpered, and Vale realized he was still holding her tightly, fingers digging into her head. He released her, and she shoved away from him, scooting back against the headboard as she sat with her knees pulled close to her chest.

No.

Smoke choked him.

"Do not pull away from me," Vale ordered. "Come."

Her hand pressed against her chest as she winced, forced to return to her spot, but this time without languid unknowing; her body was lined with unease as she settled next to him, the tendons in her neck straining as she tried to keep herself as far away as possible.

But he was soothed by her again.

It was worth using the Binding mark to get what he wanted.

Vale laid his hand flat against her chest, right over the mark. He knew he must go, but he could not tear himself away from her.

"What will happen to it once this is over?" she whispered.

He traced the lines of the overlapping circles. When this was over…

"The Binding mark is dissolved by the Prima. It would be as if it were never even there."

She breathed a sigh of relief.

He found he hated it, the thought of this mark no longer on her skin, unable to command her.

"But for you…" Vale relished in the way she tensed again at the possessive grumble that radiated out from his chest. "For you, I think I will allow the Binding mark to stay.

" His fingertips hooked on the chain of Tharen’s amulet.

He tugged slightly, watching the way the delicate silver chain dug into her vulnerable neck. Her unmarked neck.

Claim her.

Again, Vale did not know if that was his thought or if it belonged to the dragon. Perhaps both.

"Why are you acting like this? Like… like you w-want me?"

Vale watched as her pale cheeks bloomed with color.

Godsdamn it, he did want her. Carnal desire was something he could give in to without feeling a stab of unworthiness.

He tugged on the chain, forcing her flush against him, her lips grazing his chest. He felt how hard he was for her, but the tangled blanket between them acted as a barrier between his naked form and her lithe body.

"I do want you, darling," said Vale. "I want your body." But his dragon wanted her heart. "Best not to get worked up"—his lips skimmed her crown—"or you will find yourself with the Prima."

She stiffened. "Let me go… I will be forced to be with you soon. Why play with me like this? "

Because he couldn’t help himself.

His dragon huffed, as if laughing at Vale. Ours.

Luella placed her hand on his chest again and tried to shove away, but he grabbed her wrist, fingers encircling her as he held her arm away from him.

He searched her blue eyes. Affected by the night they’d spent together, he was unable to resist the urge to nip her finger. His teeth sank into her index finger, grazing her sweet-tasting flesh. She gasped.

"I believe you are the one playing, darling."

"S-stop." She tugged her hand away. He let her. "How can your dragon speak to me?"

"What I told you—he has imprinted on you." Vale said the word as if it were offensive.

"But what does that mean?"

"He has claimed you, when I will not." At the mere mention of claiming, Vale’s dragon hissed in pleasure.

Luella bundled her hands under her chin, the action made the stone of the amulet twinkle as it caught the warmth of the flames. Vale found himself arrested by the soft glimmer of the silver encasing the stone, the light swirls of the blue held within…

"I do not want to be claimed," she said, her breath hitching when Vale leaned closer and grabbed the stone hanging off the silver chain.

Like jewels. Pretty.

Take.

"Imprinting is rare," Vale shared, transfixed by the way the stone glimmered as he shifted it in his hands. "I do not want my dragon to stake a claim on you, either. But it seems we’re both beholden to him." Smoke curled in the air between them.

"Make him take it back, t-then," Luella stammered as Vale brought the stone to his face, forcing the chain to cut into her neck as she strained forward.

"What did you dream?"

Her hands came up to settle on the chain to relieve some of the pressure. Her fingertips skimmed his. "Is that a demand?" she asked.

Holding the amulet in his hands, Vale stared at her and said, "Yes. Tell me what you dreamed. There are no ears to overhear our secrets." He released the amulet, eyes finding the mark on her chest. He had not lied; he would leave it, keep her will bound to his. "It is only me and you here."

Curiosity and fear flashed in her eyes. "And your dragon." Her voice was soft.

Vale hummed, feeling his beast rise up again. Fuck, he was close to a shift. His skin felt stretched thin over his bones. "He won’t tell."

There was a brief pulse of warmth under his palm. He moved his hand to the side, watching an infinitesimal spark of light trace over the ink of the Binding mark.

From her lips, spilled the secrets he so desperately desired:

"Caliban, on the shore of a beautiful lake. He haunts me. His screams, the echoes of his pleas mingling with hers?—"

Vale stilled. " Her ? In these visions, someone else is there?"

She nodded, so wrapped up in the recount of her dreams that she seemed to forget whom she lay with, for she grew lax next to him.

"A human girl. She is— was —pretty." As Luella spoke, her words grew strained. "Until h-he killed her. I cannot stop dreaming about it. More than any other vision, that one plagues me the most."

All at once, the air left his lungs. "Killed her?

" He did not understand. "Caliban told me his human lover left him after she was unfaithful.

He was brokenhearted. Served him right for trying to love.

" At Luella’s wide eyes, Vale realized he was speaking aloud…

"That godsdamned lying bastard . What else? "

Her teeth dug into her bottom lip as she tried to hold the words back, a pained whimper escaping her.

"Now, Luella."

On a ragged exhale, she said, "He drowned her. In a lake. They were… t-together"—she blushed—"but their tryst turned sinister, and shadows bloomed from the ground and dragged her to the water. She cried for help. But he did not listen."

Caliban had lied to him. His human lover didn’t run off with some simple man… He had grown jealous and murdered her.

Liar, liar.

Find him. Burn him.

Kill.

"That h-hurts," Luella stuttered. Vale realized he was holding her so tightly that his nails cut into her supple flesh, leaving indents on her easily marred, pale skin.

His fingers released her, one by one. He was too consumed by thoughts of vengeance. Fury.

Smoke tinged the air. In the distance, the faintest voices, so light he knew the fae would not hear it, for even his own ears strained to make out the sounds—the Temple Mothers were coming.

It was almost time. His heart clenched, and he ached with desire, knowing it would be soon that they would convene at the altar…

"What else did you see?" the King demanded, words stilted; it was becoming harder to articulate.

His dragon roared inside him, growing louder and louder. Incessant notions and desireful whims of taking her, but even deeper, the sting of betrayal, the worry that he would be betrayed again, somehow—by the naive Princess in his arms.

Love was weak. It was what made Caliban desperate for a savior, desperate for salvation from the wrong god. If Vale gave his heart to his Vincire, he could face the same fate. So he would not. He kept it under lock and key, shoved deep inside him, even deeper than his dragon.

Luella’s words were strained, forced from her lips: "It was always the same dream, repeated over and over and over again. Always at the lake, or the forest that bordered it. Visions of them… lying together, playing together. He was sweet, once, until he wasn’t.

Vale"—he looked down at her at the sound of his name—"what happened to Caliban?

What made him so wicked? How does he control the shadows? "

"I already told you—he prayed to the gods, but the wrong one answered."

"That doesn’t make any sense ," she started. "The gods no longer impart miracles. Is that not true?"

"Your fae gods, perhaps." Vale struggled to infuse calm into his tone. "But the gods of the shifters are as sentient as you and I. They show up when they deign it so."

His words were growing garbled. The dragon shook the bars of his cage, desperate to be let out ? —

Vale jerked himself away from her and stumbled from the bed, the sheet ripping off her body and tangling with his legs as he stood.

"Gods." He squeezed his eyes shut, shoving his fist into his eyes.

Find him. Kill him!

Before he kills what is ours.

Take her, take her, take her, take her, ta ? —

"Shut the fuck up!" Vale roared, turning and sweeping his arm out violently.

Fire scorched his lungs, and he expelled it with a harsh cough, nearly choking on embers. The dragon grew quiet, and there were no sounds in the stone room save his labored breathing. Until a hissed warning broke through the silence:

Hide her. Tuck her away. No weaknesses. Do not let her hurt.

The dragon was desperate to take her to his den, wrap her in furs, and tie her up—just like she had been for the long night they spent together. She, unable to move; and he, the fearsome guardian.

His burning green eyes fell to her, where she lay on the bed. She shivered as he pinned her with his stare.

"Vale?" she hedged. "I—are you…"

The footsteps were near silent as the Temple Mothers approached. Vale jerked his head to the sound. Gods, yes. He could leave before his dragon got his way, but he tried to ignore how pleasing the beast’s plans appeared.

Vale walked to the door, allowing himself a moment of weakness as he stared back at her.

Flushed cheeks, tousled hair, wide eyes, the sheets pulled up to her chin, hiding the Binding mark on her chest. She was a sight.

In this bed, the Princess of Luna. And Vale could not let anyone take her from him.

Mine , the dragon boomed. Vale was barely able to hide his wince from the piercing claim.

It was a concerted effort to keep the strain from his voice as he said:

"I will see you at the altar."

Then, he fled from the room, passing the cloaked Temple Mothers in the dark, stone halls as he practically ran from Luella.

Every step brought him closer to the skies.

His skin itched with the desire to shift, scales already overtaking his forearms and neck, traveling lower as he felt them on his chest.

Finally, the winding paths broke free as he stumbled out of the caves to the mountain gardens. Frost-tipped roses dotted the expanse, mingling with wilted, dead blossoms. The sky was ripe with Luella’s storm—he wondered what it would take to make it finally break.

The edge of the garden was a free fall off the side of the mountain, with no fencing or barrier.

Vale tipped his head back, allowing himself to breathe in the rich mountain air, clearing himself of the traces of her scent that stuck to him, that filled his very marrow.

And he charged with unfettered prowess toward the edge of the mountain.

Air rushed around him, and he turned his body, soaking up the freeing feeling of being utterly weightless as he fell, staring up at the dark cover of her clouds, until his dragon could no longer be held prisoner inside him.

The beast broke free with a fiery roar. Flames lit up the evening sky with orange and red.

His large, onyx wings took him higher. Misty clouds evaporated against his skin as he ascended. And then, thick storm clouds enveloped him, obscuring his vision slightly. His green eyes slanted. Even high above, he could not escape her.

The dragon did not fly far, simply content to exist in the skies for a while and clear his head. He knew his duties kept him tethered close by.

His mate beckoned—Vincire, another word for what she was to him.

The dragon found himself recounting what his mate had shared about the betrayer, Caliban.

He had been a friend at one time, a true brother.

Vale still remembered the day he showed up with stars in his eyes as he spoke of a human girl he had met.

Caliban snuck away to see her as often as he could, and sometime in between jovial sparring matches between brothers and fanciful talks of running away to be wed, his half-brother had changed .

His soft heart had led to his downfall .

Pious to a fault, Caliban had been reverent in his worship of the gods, until the wrong god answered his pleas. The Tenebrae.

And now Caliban went by the same name as the dark god. It could not be mere coincidence.

To find out he had lied, that he had killed his human lover…

Smoke billowed as the dragon huffed.

The downfall of love and all its foolish tendencies.