Page 41 of Fire’s Resonance (Hearts on Fire #1)
“How does it feel?” Bramwell asks, approaching with genuine curiosity brightening his copper eyes. The scholarly dragon clutches a data tablet to his chest, unable to stop documenting even during celebration. “The completed bond? The formal acknowledgment?”
“Like finding a piece of myself I didn’t know was missing,” I answer honestly, watching understanding dawn in his expression.
“The ancient texts mentioned that sensation,” Bramwell says, excitement vibrating through his words. “The feeling of completion, of wholeness that comes with the Guardian Bond. The Silverbranch Codex specifically mentions ‘recognition of self within other’ as a primary indicator of—”
“Breathe, historian,” Raak interrupts, amusement rumbling in his chest.
I smile, leaning against Raak’s solid presence beside me. “They got that part right, at least.”
Contentment radiates from him—an emotion so unfamiliar after decades as the outsider, the defective one relegated to sanctuary margins.
Now he stands acknowledged, respected, his true nature finally recognized by those who once shunned him.
His arm tightens around my waist, gratitude so intense it needs no words.
“You two are disgustingly perfect together,” Ivy remarks, approaching with a glass of something that smells potently alcoholic.
My foster sister adjusts the protective amulet around her neck—the small carved stone marking her as witch-touched, welcomed cautiously by the progressive faction. “All glowy and scale-y and telepathic.”
I laugh, the sound lighter than it’s been in weeks. “Jealous?”
“Maybe a little,” Ivy admits with a wink. “Though I’m not sure the scale thing would work for me. And the whole fire-breathing aspect seems like a hazard around my hair products.”
“You humans and your preoccupation with flammable styling products,” Raak comments dryly. “A true mystery of your species.”
Ivy’s eyebrows shoot up. “Did you just make a joke, Dragon Warrior? I’m shocked.”
I elbow Raak gently. “Careful, your sense of humor is showing. They’ll revoke your brooding badass card.”
His silver eyes glint with amusement. “Only around you two.”
The moment feels surreal—this easy banter between my human sister and my dragon mate, worlds colliding in ways I never thought possible. For all the danger we face, for all the uncertainty ahead, this moment of connection feels like a victory in itself.
The celebration continues into evening, dragons mingling in clusters throughout the hall, music shifting to more energetic rhythms that inspire some couples to demonstrate traditional flame dances—swirling patterns of colored fire accompanying precisely choreographed movements.
Hours later, we return to our newly assigned quarters—private chambers befitting our Guardian status, spacious rooms carved into living stone with crystal fixtures that respond to our combined fire.
The space still feels new, unfamiliar after days spent in Raak’s warrior quarters, but it’s ours—territory we can claim together.
Raak secures the door, engaging ancient locking mechanisms that respond only to Guardian energy. His movements are efficient, practiced, but I see the subtle signs of exhaustion in the set of his shoulders, the tightness around his eyes.
“You pointed a blowtorch at me,” he says suddenly, turning to face me with unexpected amusement glinting in his silver eyes.
I laugh, the memory so distant it feels like something from another lifetime. “You broke into my workshop. What was I supposed to do?”
“A human female, threatening a dragon warrior with a toy flame.” He shakes his head, closing the distance between us. “I should have known then what you’d become.”
“What we’d become,” I correct, reaching up to trace the silver-gray scales along his jawline. They’re smooth beneath my fingertips, warm and alive, hardening slightly at my touch. “If someone had told me then that I’d be standing here now—”
“You’d have set them on fire,” he finishes, his large hand capturing mine, bringing my palm to his lips.
“Probably,” I admit, heat pooling low in my belly as his mouth brushes my skin. “I was stubborn.”
“Was?” His eyebrow raises, humor lighting his features in a way few in the clan ever witness.
“Am,” I concede with a grin. “But you love it.”
The word hangs between us, unplanned but undeniable. Neither of us has spoken it aloud before, though our bond makes such declarations almost redundant. Still, the human part of me needs to hear it, to speak it.
Raak’s expression softens, vulnerability flashing across features usually schooled to warrior stoicism.
“I do,” he admits, voice dropping to a rough whisper.
“Gods help me, I love everything about you, Spark. Your defiance. Your strength. Your refusal to submit even when submission would be easier.”
My heart stutters in my chest, emotion threatening to overwhelm me. “I never thought I’d find this,” I confess, stepping closer until our bodies press together. “Never thought I’d find home in someone else.”
“Not just someone,” he corrects, possessiveness rumbling in his chest. “Your mate. Your Guardian. Your dragon.”
“Mine,” I agree, the word no longer just instinct but choice. Deliberate. Certain.
His mouth claims mine with hungry intensity, weeks of tension and danger and uncertainty channeling into physical connection.
I respond with equal fervor, my arms twining around his neck as he lifts me effortlessly.
My legs wrap around his waist, my core pressing against the hard evidence of his desire.
“We still have so much to face,” I murmur against his lips as he carries me toward our bed—a massive platform covered in fireproof silks that shimmer like captured flame. “Varen. The Purity Circle. The other bonds.”
“Tomorrow,” he growls, laying me down with surprising gentleness despite the urgency evident in his trembling muscles. “Tonight is just for us. For this. For completing what we started in the ceremonial chamber.”
“Just us,” I agree, pulling him down to cover my body with his larger frame, reveling in the weight of him, the heat of him, the perfect rightness of his body against mine.
As clothing falls away and skin meets skin, scales against scales, fire ignites around us both—copper-red and silver-crimson merging into something new and beautiful and entirely our own.
In this moment, nothing exists but the two of us, joined in ways that transcend the physical, bound by magic older than civilization itself.
Guardian and mate. Dragon and human. Fire and form. Two halves of one whole.
Together.