Page 5 of The Dragon’s Emberlinked Mate (Dragon Flight Academy #3)

Rhythe

Black.

Everything was black.

The sound of static buzzing though my head made it impossible to focus, and struggle as I could, I wasn’t able to move. Was this death? Was this what the rest of my eternity would look like? At least I felt my mate’s presence before I died.

He came for me. If this was all there was, at least I had that.

I allowed the blackness to pull me back in.

Beeping. Beeping in the distance, and then closer and closer. The blackness still enshrouded me, but somehow it was less black. And my head? The staticky buzz was less. Not gone, but less.

My eyelids itched, but as I attempted to rub them, only my finger twitched, and it buzzed like there was electricity flowing through it. Weird.

I tried again and same result. My body was heavy… so very heavy. Even my eyelids were heavy, but I needed to see where I was, that it hadn’t been a dream, that my mate was here.

Multiple attempts to force them open did nothing more. The beeping got louder and louder and faster and faster as I struggled to get them pried apart. A glimpse of light told me I had some success, but only just, as the darkness came once more.

All I wanted was for the incessant beeping to stop and to see. Was it too much to ask? Apparently.

The sound echoing through the air reminded me of the days when my twin and I shared a room and his damn alarm would go off for hours before he finally turned it off.

He never bothered hitting snooze, just let the incessant beeping continue.

Only, Pip and I didn’t share a room anymore.

We didn’t even live in the same house. At least I didn’t think we did.

Everything was blurring together, and I wasn’t sure where reality began.

Did he have a family now or was his alarm ripping me from my dream where he was living his best life, a dream where the dragon I’d always had a weird crush on from afar was sent to me by fate? No. That had to be a dream. All of this was.

My dreams had been plagued with visions of Emmen, so it was no surprise that he had been front and center of this one. But that didn’t explain the pain radiating through me or this new electricity that flowed through his veins and sizzled on his fingertips like my own personal lightning storm.

“Rhythe, baby, are you awake? Please wake up. Open your eyes.”

Somebody held my hand, and I suddenly felt like I was home. It had to be Emmen. There was no other person who could make me feel that way, not even my twin.

Maybe this hadn’t been a dream. He was here. This was his voice, and he called me baby. Did he feel the bond too? Or did I hear it wrong, my mind still not clear?

Before this, I’d only ever been in a room with him one time. But that was enough. I’d know him anywhere. The short amount of time I had spent in his presence months ago was forever burned in the forefront of my mind. I hoped one day to be worthy of being in his presence again.

“Turn the beeping off,” I managed to say, my voice harsh and unfamiliar to my ears. The breath I took to say it, painful and heavy. “I’ll get up in five minutes.”

It was a lie. I doubted I’d even be able to open my eyes, my ability to speak surprising even me.

Home squeezed my hand, and he let out a snorting laugh. “I don’t ever want to hear that beeping stop again. That beeping tells me you’re alive and that your heart is beating.”

“Of course my heart is beating,” I said. I was a dragon. My heart would beat for hundreds of years.

Something soft pressed against my palm—lips, maybe. I forced my eyes open to see Emmen sitting there, by my side. He was everything I remembered him to be except his eyes.

“Am I dead?” I asked. It wasn’t the first time I thought so, but at least now it meant I was with the goddess, my mate finally by my side. But also, wouldn’t that mean he was gone as well?

The beeping got faster, but he didn’t seem to notice, his eyes glued to mine.

His eyes were watery as he shook his head. “No, mate, you are alive. Thank the goddess."

“Was I almost dead?” As soon as the scratchy words left my mouth, I knew them to be true. I still wasn’t able to piece together the random bits of memory I had since leaving my brother’s house, but something bad happened… really bad.

He nodded, his face taking on a pained expression at my words. “Almost.”

“How? I don’t know how I got here.” All I remembered was going flying. I needed to get away from… Emmen. Or at least the idea of him.

“You accidentally flew into a mountain?” It came out as almost a question. The mountain part would be fact, which meant he was questioning the accidentally part.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I assured him. “I was distracted by…”

“By what?”

The one question I didn’t want to answer. He already looked so worried. The last thing I wanted to do was add a layer of guilt to that.

I licked my lips. They were dry and cracked, like perhaps they had to put one of those breathing things on me.

Emmen lifted a cup of water toward me, and I took a sip from the straw. It hurt going down, like I was swallowing glass, but I couldn’t stop. My mouth was so dry.

“Not too much, you need to take it easy.” He took the cup away after I had a few swallows. “What distracted you?”

He wasn’t letting it go and that was probably for the best. Starting off with secrets sounded like the worst way to go.

“You went on a date. You’re dating someone.” I attempted to tuck my head and look away. If my body would just cooperate, I could cover myself in the thin blanket and hide away. My limbs were still mostly immobile.

If Emmen had a person that he was interested in, then I didn’t stand a chance. Mates or not, there was nothing special about me. I was young, without a real future laid out. My accomplishments were nothing compared to his.

Emmen gripped my hand. “Sweetheart, what are you talking about? How did you know we were mates before today? I didn’t know. I’ve never seen you before now, yet it seems like you knew?”

I would blame the medicine and the fact that I was hooked up to too many machines to know better, but I was honest.

“I’ve known for months,” I said. I still couldn’t meet his gaze. “I saw you at an event at the academy. I was going to introduce myself, because you’re… you’re you. You’re amazing, and I’m a big fan. But then the wind shifted and I caught your scent, and I panicked.”

“You didn’t tell me?”

I shook my head. “You deserve so much more than me, Emmen.” My voice cracked. I blamed my dry throat. “You are… so incredible, and I’m just… not.”

He sighed and kissed my knuckles. “We will have a talk about that later. I’m just glad you’re alive.”

I tugged my hand, but I was too weak to actually get loose of his hold. I wasn’t sure I pulled hard enough for him to notice, but that was fine. I didn’t really want to lose his touch. If anything, I wanted more of it.

“If you’re dating—”

“I’m not,” he said, his voice commanding. “I went on a date with someone. Even if I was dating someone regularly, you and I are mates. There is nothing and no one that can come above that.”

I still hadn’t heard from my dragon, but he was there in the background, allowing himself to heal the way I needed to allow myself to. And while I hadn’t spoken to my family, their scents filled the room, even with all the chemically scents that were in my hospital room.

There was so much to say to all of them, but that would have to wait. My body had used up all the energy it’d managed to rally when we sensed our mate, and now, all of it was depleted and I was being pulled back to sleep.