Page 116 of Courting the Dragon Prince

“No.” Onyx sighed. “I always hoped to have a relationship like theirs. I hoped to find love in marriage.” He swallowed. “Even when I knew I’d be forced to marry someone for the peace treaty, I still hoped I might find love with my spouse.”

“Then you and I were arranged to be married,” Luther said, voice flat. Luther tried to release Onyx’s hand.

But Onyx squeezed, not letting Luther go. “When I was told I’d be marrying you, I lost all hope of finding love and happiness in marriage.”

Luther looked down. A muscle in Luther’s jaw twitched.

Onyx cupped Luther’s cheek, lifting his head. Luther’s gaze returned to Onyx’s.

“But since then, we’ve gotten to know each other and spent time together. I’ve seen sides of you I didn’t know were there. And now …” Onyx trailed off.

“And now?” Luther asked, voice soft.

“Now …” Onyx caressed the soft skin of Luther’s cheek with his thumb. “Now I’m starting to think maybe all my hopes for this marriage will come true.”

Luther smiled, a bright, wishful thing. “Really?”

“I care for you, Luther,” Onyx said. “I’m glad I was married to you.”

Luther placed his hand on top of Onyx’s. “Me too.”

They both leaned forward, lips pressing softly together. Onyx’s hand slid to the back of Luther’s neck. A breeze ruffled Onyx’s hair as they kissed.

It wasn’t quite a declaration of love. He wasn’t quite ready to say the words yet. But soon, maybe. Every day they spent together, Onyx’s feelings for Luther grew stronger. And so did his hopes for a happy future together.

After several moments, they broke apart and began to move towards the stairs leading down and out of the temple.

“So is this where you learned to meditate, channel, and throw rocks?” Luther asked.

Onyx paused and looked back over the temple. “Not quite. It’s where I was introduced to meditating and channelling. But it was at the Mystic Mountain Temple where I came into my power and honed those skills. Honestly, I didn’t spend much time here once I began my training. The war had already started when we were sent to the temple. At the time, the fighting was mainly along the borders.”

Luther stood silently, gaze on Onyx, just listening, giving Onyx the space to talk. It had been an age since Onyx had opened up like this. Growing up, he’d always had his sister. And his mother. Since his sister’s death and his mother’s descent into grief, he’d had no one.

Until Luther.

“My sister was two years older than me. We grew up very close, and when it was time for her to begin her training, we begged Mother to send us together. To make an exception for me.” Onyx smiled. “Mother relented. So away we went to a temple far from the Draconia border and the war.”

“How old were you?”

“I was eight. Tourmaline ten.” Onyx stared at the granite pillar from the Mystic Mountain Temple. “It was strange training as the war raged on. There was a knowledge that we were training to fight. We focused on learning to use our powers for combat, not on things like construction and crafting. And we were only trained by very old and injured earth elementals. All the young and fit trainers were away fighting.”

Onyx frowned. “Still, the war seemed so far away at the time. It was just some distant thing that didn’t affect our daily lives. We just trained. And we complained about the weather, the food, the chores, and the long hours of meditating on the cold, hard stone.”

“See!” Luther laughed. “Even you found it hard.”

“We did.” Onyx smiled. “But we loved it all the same. We constantly competed. Although, Tourmaline always won. It was always who could run to the stream the fastest, who could carry the most water up the mountain, who could catch the biggest fish, and who would come into their power first. That was the big one. We were desperate to come into our power before the other.”

“Who came into it first?” Luther asked.

“Everyone expected it to be Tourmaline, since she was older. But we shocked everyone.” Onyx chuckled. “About two years after we arrived at the temple, we came into our powers on the same day. Someone suggested it was because we were so close that our channelling had become entwined.”

Onyx took a deep breath and walked towards the granite pillar. Luther followed a step behind him. Onyx paused in front of it. He placed his hand against the hard stone.

“Fuck. I miss her so much.” Onyx’s eyes burned. “The war raged on. The fighting crept further into the Grey Mountains. We grew old enough to join the fighting. Usually, we fought together, side by side.” Every word Onyx spoke felt like a jagged stone scraping against the insides of his throat. “The place we’d trained became a place we had to defend.

“Normally, the temple was well defended. But we received word from our Voltaria allies just over the border that there had been several enemy attacks. I and others went to provide support. My sister and only a few remained. We did not think the temple would be at risk of an attack.” Onyx took a shaky breath.

As he spoke, Onyx felt like his heart was being cracked open, like he was digging up old wounds he’d tried to bury.