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“When I came, I was too late. I tried everything to resuscitate you. You’ve always been small, but you were born early, too early. You cast magic from inside your mother’s womb, trying to save her from an assassination attempt. It cost you your life.”

How could they have hidden so much from her? “How did you save me?”

“I didn’t.” He shook his head. “I tried everything I could. I even tried using your sisters.”

“My sisters? Lexine was six when I was born. What could she have done?”

His eyes misted over. “Before you were born, magic imbued your sisters. They were bursting at the seams with it.”

Rowan leaned back in her chair. “What?”

“Lexine brought a bird back from the verge of death. Its neck had snapped when it fell out of its nest. It was barely a hatchling. Axel could lift boulders three times the size of her and at least 300 times her own weight. Zeva was fluently speaking 5 different languages at a year and a half old.”

“I was still getting over the shock of learning that I had a full grown granddaughter, much less 3 great-granddaughters, when your father introduced me to them. I think he just needed someone to watch them while him and your mother grieved. Lilith had been in their lives for so long that they knew her as Auntie Lilith. They didn’t have a great support system at that point.

It was so early in his rule and the royals were not fans of his queen. ”

“Well, when I met them, I had a mad idea. Like blood, one of these girls had to have a good enough match for a magical transfusion.”

Horror swept through Rowan. Magical transfusions were rare because the cost on the donor was too high. Whatever they gave, they never got back.

“You took their magic?”

“Not all of it.”

“They’re shades of what they had the potential of being?”

“Do you really think your sisters are less than just because they don’t have more magic available to them?”

“No.” She didn’t. But she could only imagine the world if her three brilliant sisters had had more power.

“I thought it was what saved you. I was wrong. Uzziel gave me a vision of what had been happening just out of my sight. She was there that day. Saw your potential, the similar way in which magic responded to you. She fused herself to you. Took in your sister’s energies and properly deposited them where they belonged.

I didn’t feel her once while she worked. ”

Her heart slammed in her chest.

A vision of a field full of bloody bodies and the sharp scent of burning flesh slammed into her. It was so similar to what the staff showed her.

Nausea crawled up her throat as she caught the barest scent of rotting meat before it faded.

“What am I?”

“You appear to be an ultimate siphon of magic. We knew you were different since that day your tantrum burnt the forest down.”

Rowan’s eyes fluttered closed. “We? As in everyone, including Lex, Zev and Axel?”

He gripped the corner of the counter. No denial or affirmation.

“Was the Coven, right? Am I too dangerous to be trusted? Do you now accept that Alessandro is my mate because he might stand a chance at controlling me? In case I let the power get to my head?”

“You already have him wrapped around your finger, Rowan. No one can control you, but you. But maybe he can make you feel less alone.”

The word she hated most in the world.

Because for so long, she had indeed felt it.

Her succubus limbs marked her as differing from all of her family physically. Her magic widened that gap. She knew they loved her, that she could count on them for anything. Anything but to feel like she belonged.

It was why Louisa and Kin had become so important to her. They each understood the loneliness that came with their power. Each of them was an outlier.

An image of Alessandro slid into the forefront of her mind at this thought. The biggest outlier in the whole damn planet. A god who pretended he was still just a dragon.

One day, he would be unable to pretend any longer.

One day, he would leave her. Gods couldn’t survive on the mortal plane.

This, more than anything, kept her from sinking into that desire he ignited in her, and she wasn’t talking about that passion side of it.

She’d enjoy that for as long as she could.

She was talking about her desire to trust him with her insecurities, vulnerabilities—her entire fucking heart.

If he left her now, she would fall apart for a couple of months, maybe years, but she’d recover.

Eventually.

If she gave in and gave him everything that being his mate required she wouldn’t.

Mortals, whether marked by and immortal or not, would deteriorate in the celestial realms. Her divinity would allow her to stay longer than others, but her succubus and elf side would wither. She would wither.

Yes. He could make her feel less alone, but if he ever left—she cut that thought off.

“I need some time.”

“Ro-”

“Please. Just a little space.”

“Okay.”

Rowan felt the slightest brush of his magic against her head, a pat of comfort before he phased.

Chapter 34

When Alessandro finally had time to make it to Rowan’s side, night was falling all over again.

He called through their link several times, but she hadn’t answered.

He considered giving her space to take in what she’d done by herself, but the thought of staying away longer than it took to get his dragons settled, the civilians treated and Barros into proper Judgment custody kicked his dragon into a tantrum.

He found her cabin settled on a beach he recognized at once. She was sitting in front of a pile of wings that refused to decompose onto the soft sands that Uzziel had abandoned them on.

Lucifer’s scent was faint. He’d been gone for hours.

She didn’t speak even as he settled next to her.

“Will you ignore me for the rest of our lives?” Were his first words.

She snorted.

“What’s going on in that head, Rowan?”

Her sigh was weary. He didn’t doubt she had yet to sleep.

“This won’t work, Alessandro.”

His nose flared. “What won’t work?”

“Us.” The word was nearly a breath. “You took my choice to stay and fight by your side. I’m not your queen. I’m little more than a precious pet.”

He felt his breath leave at that declaration. “You know that isn’t how I feel.”

She snapped her gaze to him, Odin’s Eye glistened like a tiny starry sky. “A queen’s position is by her king’s side.”

“You are not the queen of a regular kingdom, Rowan. You are queen of the Draconian Thunder, and we don’t play by the same rules.”

He could feel her fury warm her before he could see it redden her cheeks. “What? Am I supposed to be subservient? A meek little damsel to be protected? I will never be like that, not even for you!”

She let out a huff of frustration, crossing her arms and looking away, disgusted.

He growled, “Do you really think I’ve taken hundreds of years to choose a queen because I have a lack of damsels in distress?”

She didn’t deign him with even the slightest notion that she took in his words, but she was still there beside him, still willing to listen. Perhaps hoping that there was some reasonable explanation for what he’d done.

He couldn’t ask for more from his obviously hurt mate.

Frustration welled inside of him as he realized the only way to explain it would ruin the surprise he’d had in store for her after the dust of everything settled.

“Give me your hand.”

Rowan held her hand out but didn’t turn to look at him

“Look at me.”

She turned even further away.

His anger dissipated. He couldn’t help but to find her annoyance amusing. And that is what it really was. She wasn’t as furious as she was trying to make it seem. Even if their bond wasn’t fully cemented, as Lilith had correctly assumed, he could feel her emotions as easily as his own.

“What the fuck is so funny?” She hissed, turning to glare at him.

He leaned down to steal the briefest of kisses before phasing them away.

Dragon City, the true home of the dragons, was in celebration mode.

On the top floor of the tallest tower, at the center of the city, were Alessandro’s quarters.

There were no windows or walls, merely partitions of sheer curtains hung across a low suspended ceiling that gave him some semblance of privacy when he stayed.

The arches and columns that held up the roof gave him the views of the ocean one way, and an expansive forest the other.

The kingdom itself surrounded the castle. White stucco sidings and orange clay roofs were the most popular builds of residential areas, all tight together in the epicenter, and growing distant the further from the castle you got. It was the true inspiration for Draconis’ architecture.

Rowan’s breath hitched as she took in the sight of dragons flying over-head.

Tendrils of fire magic put on a dazzling display of colors that rivaled traditional fireworks. Music only a notch louder than the cheers that crept up from the crowds on the cobblestoned streets below.

“What the fuck?” Her voice shook.

“Dragon City. My home.” He breathed as the magic his people offered him in exchange for protection settled in his bones.

Like in Black Cove, his magic extended over the land.

He could feel the pulse of anyone tapped into the ley lines.

It was so detailed that he could tell down to which spell was being cast and who had cast it.

With the frenzy of celebration, he had to adjust his senses to concentrate on the woman beside him.

The shadows from the fire of lit lanterns down below danced over her cheeks and wide eyes as they consumed the sight of his kingdom.

“Draconis is a front.” Rowan gasped. “This is where all the families live.”

“Yes.” Alessandro answered, “And this is where I would have sent you had you not been with your family.”

She raised an eyebrow, and he could feel her frustration growing once more.

If she had been a shifter, she would have understood him with a simple sift through their link. He had given her access to absolutely everything in his life when he’d offered his neck, while she had offered nothing.