Page 19 of Beneath Scales and Shadows (Lost Lunas of Artania #1)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

SORA

Wind rushed across Sora’s face as she clung to Ignis’s ruby scales, her body moving instinctively with each powerful beat of his wings. The world sprawled beneath them—a tapestry of emerald forests, crystalline lakes, and mountains shrouded in morning mist. She’d never known such freedom existed, soaring through clouds that parted around them like silver curtains.

Ignis banked hard, wings slicing through the air as they caught the updraft.. The movement pressed her tighter against his warm scales, each one radiating a heat that seeped through her riding leathers. She tightened her thighs against his neck, fingers gripping the ridge of scales along his spine.

“There.” His voice resonated in her mind, deep and ancient. “Do you see it?”

Below, nestled within a dense forest, a perfectly circular lake glowed with unnatural brilliance. At its center stood a small island housing a shrine of white marble, its surface catching the light like freshly fallen snow.

Ignis descended in lazy spirals, each circle bringing the shrine into sharper focus. As they neared, Sora made out intricate carvings covering every inch of the structure—ancient symbols that seemed to shift and change the longer she looked at them.

“What is this place?” she called against the wind.

“Sacred ground,” Ignis replied, his mental voice solemn. “One of the Moon Goddess’s tears, fallen to Artania in the First Age.”

The ground barely shuddered as he touched down at the island’s edge, wings folding with quiet precision. Stone cracked faintly beneath his claws, straining under the weight he carried.

Sora slid from his neck, legs wobbling as they remembered their own purpose. The shrine before her featured a central statue—a female elf with uplifted arms, her stone face serene and knowing. Around her feet, three wulfkin in their wolf forms lay in eternal vigilance, their stone eyes somehow alive with ancient purpose.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, taking a step forward.

The water surrounding the shrine suddenly intensified, light erupting from its depths with blinding intensity. The brilliance swallowed everything—the shrine, the forest, Ignis—until nothing remained but pure, searing white.

Pain lanced through her side, and Sora gasped—

She woke with a violent start, heart hammering against her ribs.

The chamber swam into focus—glowstones pulsing gently along crystal-veined walls, familiar treasures scattered across stone shelves. Ignis’s chamber. Their chamber.

Her fingers flew to her side, finding unfamiliar texture beneath her thin sleeping shift. Something smooth and hard covered the area where Princess Jewels’s dagger had struck. A scale. Not silver like her own emerging patterns, but ruby—identical to Ignis’s.

Pain had been replaced by something stranger—an awareness that hummed just beneath her consciousness. The crystal formations embedded in the walls glowed with newfound clarity, their energy signatures distinct and readable. She could sense the ley lines running through the mountain, could track their flow as easily as tracing veins beneath skin.

A soft rumble pulled her attention to her right.

Ignis lay curled beside her bed in full dragon form, his horned head larger than the footboard resting on one folded foreleg. Even in sleep, his face held tension—jaw clenched, eyes darting beneath closed lids. His powerful tail twitched, sending a small statuette tumbling from a nearby shelf.

Without thinking, Sora reached out, placing her palm against his scaled cheek. The connection that bloomed between them stole her breath—his emotions cascading into her awareness with startling clarity. Concern. Relief. Guilt. And beneath it all, a fierce, consuming devotion that made her chest ache.

His eyes snapped open, crimson irises locking onto her face. For one startled moment, he remained perfectly still, as though afraid she might vanish if he moved.

“You’re awake.” His voice resonated directly in her mind, rougher than usual, laden with emotion.

“I’m alive,” she corrected, letting her hand fall away from his scales. “Though I shouldn’t be.” The memory surfaced with painful clarity—Princess Jewels lunging with that corrupted blade, the burning agony as poison spread through her veins. “What happened? I remember the blade, then... nothing.”

Ignis shifted, scales rustling against stone as he rose to a sitting position, wings folding tightly against his back. “The blade carried corrupted essence—designed to kill any with dragon blood.” His tail curled protectively around her bed. “You were dying.”

The door opened before he could continue, admitting Zalaya and Asher. The harpy’s feathers rustled with approval as she approached the bed, her ancient eyes studying Sora with clinical precision.

“Our Luna returns to us,” she announced, her taloned hand reaching for Sora’s wrist to check her pulse. “How do you feel?”

“What do you think?”

Sora rolled her shoulders, testing the give. "It feels like something expensive—graceful, perfect—too elegant to be worn… not mine. And yet… I don’t want to take it off."

“It’s only natural for my Luna to be dressed as the dragon queen she’s becoming,” Ignis said, crimson eyes holding hers with unwavering certainty. “Besides, you’ll need protection where we’re going.”

“And you’re sure about giving this to me?”

His hand paused, head cocking as his lips settled into something wicked and clever. “Who else would be worthy to ride upon my back?”

Asher exchanged a look with Ignis before answering. “A necessary sacrifice. The poison would have claimed you otherwise.”

Zalaya’s jade eyes held Sora’s gaze steadily. “You have experienced the ancient blood bond ritual. A fragment of your king’s heart now beats within you, his scale shields the wound, and his flame purged the corruption from your blood.”

The implications crashed through Sora’s mind with stunning force. “You bound us?”

“The ritual joins life forces,” Zalaya explained, arranging healing herbs beside the bed. “Not a full mating bond, but something almost as profound. His strength flows into you when needed. Your pain is his. His emotions yours to sense.”

“And mine his?” Sora asked, suddenly conscious of the tangle of feelings coursing through her—confusion, gratitude, and something deeper she wasn’t ready to name.

Zalaya nodded, wings shifting as she prepared a tincture. “The bond allows you to sense one another, to draw strength across distance. It can never be severed.”

Asher pressed a cool cloth to Sora’s forehead. “You’ll notice increased sensitivity to magical energies, enhanced awareness of your surroundings. These are side effects of sharing draconic essence.”

“Like my dream,” Sora murmured, remembering the shrine, the statue, the blinding light.

Ignis’s head lifted sharply. “What dream?”

“We were flying. You took me to a shrine in a lake—a statue of an elf surrounded by wulfkin.”

Asher nearly dropped his healing supplies. “The Weeping Shrine,” he whispered, exchanging a shocked glance with Zalaya. “A sacred place known only to clan elders.”

“The blood bond deepens your connection to Artania itself,” Zalaya explained, her voice softening with something like reverence. “The Moon Goddess speaks to you through visions.”

After the healers finished their examination, promising to return later, Sora found herself alone with Ignis. The scale at her side pulsed with warmth, responding to his proximity.

Ignis shifted to his dragoon form, scales flowing like liquid fire until he stood beside her bed in his half-human state. The change brought him closer to her size but did nothing to diminish the power radiating from his form.

“I had no choice,” he said, voice rough with emotion. His crimson gaze wouldn’t meet hers. “You were slipping away. The poison had nearly claimed you.”

Sora sat up carefully, testing her body’s strength. The movement should have caused pain, yet she felt only a dull ache where the wound had been. “You saved my life.”

“At what cost?” His tail lashed behind him, betraying his agitation. “I swore I would never take your choices from you. That all decisions would be yours to make.” His jaw clenched, scales darkening with shame. “Yet when faced with losing you, my selfishness prevailed.”

Something softened in Sora at the raw vulnerability in his confession. This powerful being, this king who commanded legions with a thought, stood before her laid bare by fear of her rejection.

“Is that what you believe?” she asked, remembering the devotion she’d felt flowing from him. “That saving my life was selfish?”

“Binding you to me without consent?” His wings folded tighter against his back. “Yes.”

Sora reached for his hand, her fingers small against his scaled palm. “I stepped between you and that blade by choice, Ignis. I chose to protect you.” The warmth of his skin against hers sent ripples of awareness through their newfound bond. “Would you have me regret that choice?”

His fingers closed around hers with exquisite gentleness. “Never.”

“Then don’t ask me to regret yours.” She tugged him closer, guiding him to sit beside her on the edge of the bed. “You gave part of yourself to save me. That’s not selfishness—that’s sacrifice.”

His thumb traced circles on her palm, each motion sending sparks of heat up her arm. Through their bond, she sensed his relief mingling with lingering doubt.

“You don’t hate me for binding you?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Sora shook her head, a small smile forming. “How could I hate the one who gave me part of his heart? Literally?”

Something shifted in his expression—tension melting into cautious hope. His free hand rose to her face, talons carefully retracted as he brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. The touch sent a current through their bond, his desire flowing into her awareness with startling clarity.

Want. Need. Restraint.

Her breath caught as the intensity of his emotions washed over her. The bond amplified everything, transforming what might have been subtle attraction into consuming hunger. His scent—midnight stone and ancient fire—filled her senses, calling to something primal within her.

“I can feel what you feel,” she whispered, her own desire building in response to his.

“Not everything,” he murmured, eyes darkening. “I shield the worst of it.”

“Why?”

“You’ve only just awakened. Your body needs rest, not...” He faltered, his gaze dropping to where her sleeping shift had slipped from one shoulder, revealing silver scales tracing patterns across her collarbone.

Exhaustion swept through Sora suddenly, her body reminding her of its recent trauma despite the supernatural healing. Her eyelids grew heavy, vision blurring at the edges.

“Rest,” Ignis urged, easing her back against the pillows. His palm cupped her cheek with impossible tenderness. “There will be time for explanations later.”

She wanted to protest, to ask more questions about this bond between them, but darkness pulled at her consciousness, dragging her down into dreams.

Forest surrounded her, dense and ancient. Moonlight streamed through interlaced branches, casting dappled silver across her naked skin. She ran, feet barely touching the moss-covered ground, heart pounding with exhilaration rather than fear.

Above, something vast shifted through the canopy, branches groaning under its weight as it tracked her. The knowledge sent thrills of anticipation down her spine.

She wasn’t prey fleeing predator.

She was an omega calling to her alpha.

Ignis crashed through the trees behind her, his roar shaking the forest floor. She darted between ancient trunks, laughing as he pursued, the game as old as time itself.

He caught her in a small clearing, the moonlight swallowed by the sheer breadth of his form. His scales shimmered like rubies in the darkness, eyes burning with hunger no longer restrained.

“Mine,” he growled, the word resonating through her bones.

“Make me,” she teased, reaching for him.

His form shifted, flowing from full dragon to dragoon with fluid grace. He pressed her against the wide trunk of an ancient tree, its bark biting into her back as his body held her fast, all heat and hunger. His maw found hers, a low growl in his throat as his forked tongue traced the seam of her lips, then slipped deeper.

Her body arched against his, every nerve ending alight with need. Scales scraped against scales, the friction creating sparks in the darkness. His taloned hand found her bare thigh, claws carefully retracted as he traced burning patterns up her skin.

“Please,” she gasped, as his mouth left hers to explore the sensitive junction of her neck and shoulder.

His growl vibrated against her skin as his teeth grazed her pulse point. Not biting, not yet, but promising what would come. His hand slid higher, finding wetness that betrayed her desperate need.

“So ready for me,” he murmured against her throat, voice rough with restraint even as his fingers teased her entrance. “I want you in all ways.”

She whimpered as one thick digit slid inside, stretching her with exquisite care. His thumb found the sensitive bundle of nerves above, circling with maddening precision.

The pleasure built with supernatural speed, spiraling higher as he added a second finger, then a third. His free hand tangled in her hair, tilting her head back to expose more of her throat to his hungry mouth.

“Ignis,” she pleaded, teetering on the edge of release.

His eyes blazed with molten intensity, scales rippling with inner fire as he pressed her harder against the ancient tree. “I must have you,” he growled, the words rumbling through her bones. “All of you, in all ways possible.”

His mouth claimed hers again, hungry and demanding. When he pulled back, his gaze held hers captive. “Do you know how long I’ve desired you? Since that first moment at the Selection Ball, your scent called to me across the crowd.”

His hand continued its relentless rhythm between her thighs, drawing whimpers from her throat. “I would make you my queen,” he confessed, voice rough with emotion. “Worship every part of your body until I’ve mapped each curve, each hollow, each sensitive spot and burned them into memory.”

Heat spiraled through her core as his fingers curled inside her, finding places that made her vision blur. Through their blood bond, she felt the depth of his conviction—his desire layered with something far more profound.

“When your blood filled the air at the northern pass,” he continued, his free hand cupping her face with startling tenderness, “I knew true fear for the first time in centuries.” His voice broke. “The thought of losing you before we’d truly begun...”

Sora arched into his touch, her body tightening around his fingers as pleasure mounted. His forked tongue traced the shell of her ear, sending shivers cascading down her spine.

“I’ve never been more grateful than when you woke and didn’t hate me for binding you to me,” he whispered. “But a blood bond isn’t enough. I want you to choose me, Sora. Not from obligation or prophecy.”

His thumb circled her most sensitive point, drawing a desperate moan from her lips.

“I want you to take me for who I am,” he growled, pressing his forehead against hers. “For what I am, in all my forms—dragoon, dragon, king.” His eyes searched hers. “Could you ever want a monster as your mate?”

Fierce desire consumed her, overwhelming in its intensity. Their bond amplified everything, creating feedback loops of sensation that spiraled through her body. His want, her need, his hunger, her surrender—all blended into a storm of emotion that threatened to sweep her away.

“I choose you,” she gasped, the confession torn from somewhere deep and true. “I’ve already chosen—”

Her words dissolved into a cry as pleasure crested, exploding outward from her core in waves of blinding intensity. Her body convulsed against his, scales shimmering with inner light as her release claimed her.

Ignis didn’t relent, his skilled touch prolonging her pleasure until she thought she might shatter. Through their bond, she felt his satisfaction, his pride, his barely leashed desire to claim her completely.

“Mine,” he growled against her throat, the vibration sending another pulse of ecstasy through her oversensitive body.

“Yours,” she agreed, voice breaking as a second orgasm built impossibly fast upon the first.

His fingers twisted, pressed deeper, and she fell again, harder this time. Colors exploded behind her eyelids as the forest around them seemed to vibrate with shared energy. Each wave of pleasure more intense than the last, until she could no longer distinguish where one ended and another began.

“Let go,” he commanded, his voice both gentle and unyielding. “I’ll catch you.”

The third climax consumed her entirely, tearing through her body with supernatural force. Her consciousness fractured, unable to contain the overwhelming sensation.

As darkness claimed her, she heard his promise resonate through their bond:

“When you’re ready, my Luna, I’ll show you pleasure beyond dreams.”