Page 3 of Flameborne: Chosen

With a gasp, I lurched to my feet, stomach plummeting to my toes because I was certain I’d already missed the ceremony—only to freeze at the sight that first made my heart sing, then clawed through my ribs to expose it to the cold.

Ruin.

Only one eye and his jawline visible beyond the tree. Jaw stubbled as if he hadn’t shaved today. Hair messy because he’d been running his hands through it—which meant he was tense. I was about to step forward, my lips forming his name, when, eyes bright and hungry, I realized he stared down as he leaned, one hand braced high against the trunk of a tree, the other… The other touching…something.

Something small. Something feminine. Something that giggled and whispered back.

Then he smiled and I blinked.

I gave him that smile. Now he offered it to someone else?

Heart pounding in my ears, shivering with cold and pain, certain this must be a dream,I stared at my love, sunny and strong, in full uniform, the dragonhide leather hugging the lines of his body so that my eyes wanted to follow them. It had only been a few weeks, but even standing in the shadows of the wood, Ruin seemed larger than I remembered.

The darkness of the cured dragonhide set off the gold of his hair and the sparkle in his eyes… The light that winked out the moment my head grew dizzy and I swayed and his gaze snapped up to land on me. In that blink his expression darkened from heady delight to furious horror.

I was locked in, helpless to turn away as he leaned down and murmured in the soft, reassuring tone he’d once reserved for me.

The blood drained from my heart, through my body, out the soles of my feet as I watched him gather her, carefully turning her, but kept her facing him, urging her toward the launch hollow and the sunlight as he whispered and smiled and touched.

And then, when she seemed reluctant to do as he’d instructed, he kissed her.

My skin turned brittle. My heart raced like a bird’s.

His eyes never left mine.

Then she was gone, slipping through the trees towards the growing sunlight. While Ruin descended on me.

Ruin.

MyRuin.

“Ruin?” The word cracked in my throat.

With one backward glance to make sure she’d gone, he hurried towards me.

My heart lightened as he strode through the trees, closing the space between us so quickly with those long legs.

Almost weeping with relief, I opened my arms and tipped up my head, preparing for a kiss—but Ruin barely broke stride when he reached me. He clasped my hand and jerked me deeper into the trees.

“Bren, whatthe fuckare you doing here?” he hissed, his face a tense mask, eyes darting left and right as I stumbled in his wake, gritting my teeth against the pain.

“I-I came to say goodbye. You said you might be gone for—”

“Quiet.Not here.”

Swallowing nausea, pushing away the images now burned into my memory of him with that woman in his arms, I trotted, taking two steps to his one, my body clenching with pain at every footfall. I tried to keep my expression clear, tried to find the words to ask questions I didn’t want answered. But Ruin didn’t look at me as he dragged me away, further from the light, and the hollow, and the dragons—though he looked over his shoulder every few steps, his brows drawing down harder each time.

But he kept my hand in his until we weredeepinto the shadows under the trees. Then he turned on me, releasing my hand as if it burned him.

“Bren,what are you doing here?”

I wished I hadn’t come. I stammered and gulped, trying to find the words that would smooth the creases from his brow.

“Y-you said this was goodbye. I thought… I w-wanted to—Ruin, I needed to see you!” Even I heard the pathetic ring in those words, my voice trailing up at the end in a plaintive, childlike plea.

“How did you get here? Did your mother drive you?” Ruin’s tone was dark. He looked over his shoulder, then muttered under his breath and grabbed my hand again, pulling me further into the trees.

“No, I… I walked—”