Page 3 of Court of Embers (Dragonesse #2)

Chapter

Two

W ithout any physical warning, Rhylan angled downwards, shooting towards the mountainous forest far below.

This morning, I would've been shocked by the extreme and sudden drop. But now I felt him channel his intentions and adjusted my own stance and seat, leaning forward over the soft leather of the saddle and completely unafraid.

He spiraled over the forest, flicking his tail as he searched, and when he found an open clearing on a bluff overlooking the river, he went gliding down for a gentle landing.

I barely managed to slide out of the saddle and over his side before he shifted, onyx scales giving way to smooth tanned skin, the circular scars dotting his back like a constellation gleaming white under the moon.

Rocks crunched under my feet as I stepped aside, pushing stiffening strands of blood-soaked hair out of my face. Rhylan?

He turned, shoving the saddle aside, and stared at me. His eyes were red, not blue, hot coals gleaming in their depths. His canines were still sharp and long, patches of scales shifting all over his body.

His mind was silent. Almost like he was blocking himself off, keeping me out…and then he rushed at me, not just folding me in his arms, but clutching me tight against his chest, so hard I could hardly breathe.

Sera. I can never go through that again . He squeezed me hard, his face buried in my hair, bloody as it was, his hands trembling on my back.

He was not fine. Nowhere even close to it.

I embraced him, ignoring the air being crushed from my lungs, luxuriating in the too-hot skin beneath my cheek. You faced down an Ascendant, Rhylan. You drew blood. No one should be able to do that.

I was losing my mind. I thought you were gone. I couldn’t see anything else.

“Shhhh,” I whispered aloud. “We’re still alive, and we’re fine. We’re right here together.”

But I could feel him, no longer pulsing with rage, but full of a bleak terror at how close it had been.

I could see my own memory playing through a different set of eyes: Asura’s grim satisfaction as she raised the blade, Rhylan’s fear that he was too late…

and the sword coming down close enough to shear several strands of my hair away.

But she failed , I told him. Because of you. I’m still here .

“You were so close to not being here,” he said aloud, and his voice was rough and distorted, the dragon still trying to push through his human body. “I told you before, Sera—I will always go where you go. Even if it’s on the other side of this life.”

I jerked my face away from his chest, staring up at him. Don’t ever say something like that. If something happens to me, you have to keep going. You have to save us all—you have to stop my sister and Tidas—

His eyes were blue again, thank the gods, his humanity winning out over the dragon. But they were hard, determined. Steelier than I’d ever seen before.

I would stop them, and then I would be done. And I know you’d be waiting at the Gates for me.

Of course I would be waiting. And I’d be furious enough to kill you again myself.

The corner of his mouth twitched. A wave of relief spilled through me; he was slowly coming back down from the unreasoning wrath of a dragon, from the endless pit of despair.

Sera, I’ve lost almost everyone I love. Between you and Kirana, there would be nothing left for me .

He stroked my cheek, his thumb lingering on my cheekbone.

I don’t give a damn if I don’t become Drakkon.

All I care about is keeping both of you alive, and preventing them from taking Koressis. That’s all.

You’re just a dragon of simple needs?

Something like that . This time a real smile crossed his lips, and the embers in his eyes…they were coals of desire, not fury.

I breathed out slowly, looking down at the ground for a long moment. I really thought it was over. And all I felt was regret at all the time I’d wasted.

I heard you . Rhylan’s grin, the big, silly smile I’d secretly tucked away in my heart as a talisman, returned. You told me you loved me.

The old me would’ve brushed it off, refusing to meet his eyes.

The me who had seen so clearly, with all my life about to be cut away…

that version of me rose up to kiss his soft mouth, nipping his lower lip for emphasis.

I do love you. I love you in a way I never believed I could love.

I want you to be my Drakkon, and I’ve already amended our current agreement.

Rhylan growled softly in his throat, his lips pressing hard against mine. Do tell.

You will not be allowed to abdicate, of course.

Naturally . His hands slid up, claws slicing through the band holding my hair back. It spilled down my back, and he stroked his fingers through it. Go on.

Your Dragonesse will require you to be ready, present, and willing to serve her in any capacity she needs, at all times.

Rhylan chuckled against my mouth, his hands now roaming down over my spine. Never underestimate my ability to rise to the occasion, princess.

I sent him a mental image of just what I was expecting, and he groaned against my lips, the steel length of his cock hard against my stomach.

“Already proving yourself? We’re staying right where we are for tonight,” I said, my voice gone hoarse with desire, the adrenaline from the Judgment transmuting into sudden, all-consuming lust for my mate.

What we didn’t speak aloud and both perfectly understood was that we needed this.

The levity, the jokes, were just a thin bandage for the roiling need beneath.

The mate bond, formed under such traumatic conditions, would rattle in our bones until we affirmed it to each other, physically and mentally connecting.

There was a reason civilized mate bonds were pursued with ceremony. It offered the bonded pair a chance to connect, to go skin deep, to synchronize their minds.

Maybe it was trained into me after a life of abstinence and denied wants and needs, but I could make it to Jhazra Eyrie, waiting for that first affirmation.

Rhylan couldn’t. Not with the fury that had been building inside him since the Judgment, the snap of all reasoning thought as he turned on Illiae.

If he didn’t release it, settling our bond, he might go deep into the primal rage the next time he shifted…and it would take time we desperately needed, time we didn’t have, for him to come back from that— if he could.

More than one dragon had been lost to primal rage before.

I wouldn’t risk it with him, even if I felt exposed and vulnerable out here in the wilds.

I wasn’t quite sure of which territory we were in, if we were encroaching on another eyrie’s boundaries; to be ambushed while lost in the throes of a bonding night would most certainly mean death.

Rhylan read my thoughts and ripped a blanket from the saddlebag, throwing it over his shoulder.

Don’t feel vulnerable. I’ve got you , he growled in my mind, scooping me up in his arms and starting for the cavernous bluff, riddled with holes. This is no man’s land.

I held back on my first impulsive reaction. Any other time, and I would’ve demanded he put me down so I could walk on my own. Uncaring of what he needed or wanted, only focused on the appearance of needing nothing and no one.

Instead I wrapped my arms around his neck, resting my head on his shoulder, enjoying the feeling of the raw strength in Rhylan’s arms.

There , I said, catching a glimpse of a dark cavern mouth. It’s hidden .

It was only visible from our vantage point under the ground, hidden by a thick canopy of trees. We would have to go back for the saddle, for the supplies in the saddlebags, but—

It can wait . Rhylan’s mental voice was thick, edged with flames.

He strode into the cave, revealing it to be a shallow, rounded cavity in the side of the bluff, with a smooth sandy floor; the dark marks of a firepit in the center revealed that we weren’t the first stealthy travelers to use this place as a shelter.

I wriggled from his grasp, and Rhylan threw the blanket over the floor.

He didn’t allow me to take more than two steps. Relentless hands gripped me, drawing me back into his grasp.

Rhylan pushed the blood-stiffened strands out of my hair over my shoulders, tilting his head to kiss my throat.

I felt his deep satisfaction, the primitive dragon sense that his mate was safely in his grasp, and for me, there would be no running.

Not that I would run from him. Never, ever again. I’d spent too long running already.

His fingers moved over my laces, tugging them at first, and swiftly moving to tearing, his fingertips becoming claws and shearing right through them. My leathers loosened, and the heat in the dragon’s mind, the play of his lips on the vulnerable skin of my neck, made me shiver.

I ran my hands over his chest, the warmth of skin and smooth scales under my palms, liquid warmth pooling low in my belly. I’d been wrong. I didn’t want to hold off, and couldn’t push away my eagerness.

We were safe enough here. We should consummate the bond, letting his dragon claim me for good.

But Rhylan couldn’t hold back. There were no gentle kisses or caresses. He tore away my leathers, growling as his lips touched the thin scratch on my neck, the only wound Asura’s sword had left on me.

His tongue flicked out, lapping the blood away, and then he used lips and teeth, raising goosebumps on my skin.

Even exposed to the cool night air, Rhylan’s body warmed me, the scales shifting over his body in broad patches. He bore me down to the blanket, refusing to allow me up when I wanted to mount him first. He grabbed at my wrists, pinning them to the blanket.

I couldn’t fight the strength of a dragon.

Stay down , he snarled in his mind. You’re mine .

A shiver of anticipation ran down my spine, my hips already arching to meet him. His cock was a heated iron bar sliding over my core, his mouth following the line of my throat, and I gave in to the desires of a dragon.