The cabin was a single large room. It had heated floors, a pool in one corner, and what looked like a massive bed up high in a loft above the pool. Across from it were two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows and an entire wall full of books. I drifted over to the bookshelf while he was on the phone in the kitchen. I could hear bits of the conversation: Hunter was alive, but Sophie’s uncle had made off with Titania’s Spear, which apparently wasn’t a good thing.
My fingers drifted over the spines. They weren’t the fancy old dusty ones you saw on TV, but the colorful spines of books that people read for fun. I pulled one out with a dark blue spine. A comic, with a spaceship, in Japanese.
I put the book back and took in the rest of the books. There were books in so many languages. “Just how many languages do you read?”
“A few,” he said.
Japanese. Chinese. Hebrew. Greek. Arabic. There were more, but I couldn’t look anymore. I could speak Spanish at least, but I wasn’t even close to being literate. I walked over to the window. He was so smart. He was a magic dragon. And me? I had dropped out of high school. I guessed I was magic now too, but I wasn’t sure who I was anymore.
And those were only two of the things that were so different about us.
He called from the kitchen. “Would you like marshmallows in your cocoa?”
I kept my back to him so that he wouldn’t see the tears welling in my eyes. “Sure.” I glanced upward at the bed in the loft above. There were no stairs or ladders I could see. “Why do you have a pool below your bed? Aren’t you worried about falling out of bed and into the water?”
“I used to have nightmares and wake up in flames,” he said.
Oh.
“I don’t anymore,” he added.
“What changed?”
“Chamomile tea before bedtime. It works wonders.”
I stared outside at the snow-covered pines, the orange-red sky of the setting sun. Things had been so much clearer when we had been literally facing death’s door. But the reality was that we barely knew each other.
I sensed his warmth behind me. This awareness of him was so strange, so not necessary.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said, even as I remembered what he’d said about smelling my lies.
He let out a sigh.
“Fine, I’m not okay. Don’t you find this all weird?”
He tilted my chin to look at me, his eyes meeting mine. I could sense the magic within him, simmering, churning as his blue-golden gaze sent a heated jolt through me. His gaze was electric; he was shockingly alive.
Mine, that bitch inside me yowled.
“Yes.” He inclined his head toward the kitchen. “Come with me. Have some cocoa to warm up.”
He had been nothing but unfailingly polite since we had come back.
I didn’t like it. Men were never so kind and polite as when they were about to drop something on you that they knew you wouldn’t like.
At least before, I’d known what he wanted from me. And now?
“How is Sophie doing?”
“She’s fine. Also, rightfully and incredibly pissed off with Hunter and me. She wants you to come and visit.”
I wasn’t so sure that was a good idea, so I just said nothing.
Disparate emotions of anger and sadness clawed at my chest, still too raw. I changed the subject. “What happened with your sister? Did she kill the Angel of Death?”
All that magic stirred, the pressure in the air changing, and his clothes started to char. “No,” he bit out. Behind us, the pool started to simmer with heat. “It’s worse. She’s working with him of her own free will.”
“What?”
“Something about resolving dimensional rifts. There wasn’t a lot of time to talk, but trust me, there is a conversation that is going to happen.” He took a deep breath. The pool in the back stopped bubbling. “But not right now.”
“Awkward,” I said.
“Yeah,” he replied. “Not like us at all.”
A smile snuck onto my face. “Nope, not at all.”
He came to me and drew me close to him. I rested in his arms, listening to his strong heartbeat.
And it felt so terribly right.
My voice cracked. “I don't know how to do this.”
His hand brushed my hair. “Neither do I. But we’ll figure it out.”
I drew back. “No, you don’t get it. When I was alive, I fucked up everything, everyone’s lives. I was literally born fucking up people’s lives. It was the only thing I was good at. And I—” I took a step backward. “I’m going to fuck this up, Grant.”
“Most likely,” he agreed.
I blinked. “What?”
He winked at me. “You’re just lucky I’m the forgiving sort.”
My mouth dropped open. “I’m spilling my feelings out to you and you’re mocking me?”
“You’re trying to make excuses to run away. I’m not going to let you do that.”
“Grant—”
“Val. I’m not blameless either. I almost lost you because of my own inability to see who you were.”
“I forgive you for that,” I said, the words coming out in more of a growl than I wanted.
Grant only grimaced. “I don’t forgive myself. I’ll spend my life making it up to you. But we will both make mistakes. They will happen. But we will learn from them. We will talk to each other. And then we will move on.”
“I don’t know how. I don’t know how to live and not fuck things up for people I…care about.”
“You know how to forgive. Despite the life you lived and all the wrong that has been done to you, you still believe in forgiveness. You still believe in people, enough to risk your life to save a woman you barely knew. You think I’m magic, but it is you who are magic, Valentina.”
How had my mother forgiven everything that had happened? I still didn’t quite know.
And if I stayed alive, one day I would have to visit her.
I closed my eyes, pushing the thought away for another day.
“I know I’m supposed to forgive. The actual forgiving, that’s the harder part.”
He took my hand in his. “We’ll figure it out together.”
Grant made it sound so simple. And I wanted to believe him. “You know who you are, what you’re supposed to be,” I said, thinking of his shiny armor and all his magic and books. “I don’t even know how to read anything other than English!”
“I can teach you.”
“No.” I clenched my fists. “I’m going to do it myself. I’m going to get my GED, I’m going to learn shit like calculus, and go to college and learn to be smart.”
“College and smarts are not mutually exclusive, but if that’s what you want, then I’m all for it. You can do whatever you want. So long as we’re together and we trust each other.”
My reply came so fast before I even had time to stop and think. “I do trust you.”
And to my surprise, it was true.
“Do you?” His gaze settled on my hands. “Would you give me your ring?”
I looked at the thin band of metal that wasn’t. Once upon a time, I had treasured this ring because I had stolen it, thought myself so clever. But it was because of this ring I’d been caught, thrown in juvie, and my mother deported. My friend had worn it, and it had become part of my enslavement to life.
And now he was asking me to give it to him.
“Aren’t you supposed to offer me a ring?” I asked, even though I knew we were nowhere close to something like that and wasn’t sure I wanted.
“In time. But right now, I’m asking you if you trust me.”
“You’re asking a lot.”
You will give me everything.
He held out his hand.
I took off the ring and dropped it into his palm.
His big hand closed around mine, holding the ring and my hand both. The pressure in the air pressed against my ears as he gathered his magic. “I’m going to try something. It
might sting for a moment. Do I have your permission?”
“Am I going to regret this?”
Heat surrounded my hands. I looked down and saw that we were on fire. But it didn’t hurt; in fact, it was strangely ticklish.
He smacked me on the forehead. “You’ll thank me for it.”
“You are an arrogant dragon.”
He smiled. “That’s why you love me.”
Blue fire burst from his closed fist.
Magic surged inside me, ringing, resonating. Agony exploded inside me. The floor flew forward, and my vision went dark.
And then I was light.
A galaxy surrounded me once more.
So many stars, so many lives, so much beauty.
I blinked and saw Grant’s magic. No, it was his love.
Against all odds, all rationality, his love was bright, ever-burning and incandescent.
So long as he lived, his love would never go out.
I gasped, and then all my senses returned.
Grant was cradling me, holding me to his chest. I opened my eyes, for real this time.
Tiny little sparks of magic floated around us, slowly burning out as they fell.
“I’m free,” I said softly.
“Yes. And I couldn’t have done that without you.”
“What?”
“You always had the power to free yourself. You just needed some help.”
I am hers.
Grant had freed me. Again. “But you’re not,” I said. “You’re…bonded to me. You know I have no idea what this means.”
Grant shrugged. “We’ll figure it out. Looks like you’re just stuck with me.” He picked me up. “A hot, rich, magic dragon. Terrible fate. Such suffering.”
“Modesty is clearly one of your strongest traits,” I said, rolling my eyes. I caught sight of the loft above us. “How do you get up there to go to sleep?”
Grant swept me into his arms. I let out a stupid shriek of surprise as he jumped.
He set me down gently. “Like that.”
I looked over the edge of the loft floor and saw the clear blue water of the pool beneath. “This is kind of scary, you know.”
“I know,” said Grant, understanding in his eyes. “But it will be fun too.”
“Is that a promise?”
He smirked and shrugged off his jacket, the shirt stretching across his chest and shoulders. “Would you like me to show you?”
Something inside me shivered in anticipation.
His arms came around me, and then he was just holding me. “Valentina, I love you,” he said against my ear.
“I love you too, Grant,” I said.
“Good.” He stroked my hair. “Hold on to that thought.”
And then he flung us off the loft into the pool.
Warm water closed in around us, surrounding me, washing away all my doubts and fears. I opened my mouth, and he kissed me.
I shoved him away and swam upward. I emerged to the sound of his guffawing laughter. I glared at him, trying to be angry, but his joy was overpowering. We had survived the doorways of death itself to be here.
He swam over to me. I tried to splash him in the face, but his arms simply shot out and pulled me to him. He kissed me hard, and I was surrounded by all his focused dragon intensity.
His kiss was liquid rocket fuel, and I melted. I wrapped my legs around him, my hands roaming all over that gorgeous muscle, and kissed him back.
Grant pulled back and looked me in the eyes.
“Things will get fucked up, Val,” he said, his forehead against mine. “I’ll make mistakes, and so will you. That’s life. But we’ll be all right.”
I wound my hands around his neck. “As long as we’re together.”
He kissed me hard. “Always.”
***
Want to read Val and Grant’s hot sexy bonus epilogue?
Here’s a taste:
My mouth tasted like perfumed smoke and incense. My tongue felt big, strange, swollen.
“Val?” said Grant's voice. “Are you all right?”
"Give me a moment." My voice sounded strange as if it were underwater. I was slowly getting used to this disorientation of my senses.
It came with what I was: a chaperone or guide to one’s final end (as opposed to the temporary end I had been in when I originally died). Sometimes, I found myself in that place in between, called by a soul who didn't quite know where to go. I helped them figure out their path. Doing it made me feel good, gave me a purpose. It made me feel right.
The problem was that when I came back from the threshold of death, my senses often were temporarily mixed up. It wasn’t uncommon for me to see smells like chocolate (which looked like red velvet in light oddly enough) or hear bright lights that tinkled like bells.
I opened my eyes, and saw Grant staring at me, as if I were a stranger. This was a little odd. Usually when I came back to myself, he was ready with a cup of tea and even sweets.
My eyes sharpened. Whoah, had the colors on the rug always been so vividly burnt red and blue? I blinked and realized Grant was still looking at me strangely.
"What? What's wrong?"
He spoke as if to himself. "It is you, Val. Your scent hasn't changed, and neither has your internal fire within." He was always referring to the fire or magical something that connected us.
"But… You look different."
"What?" Sometimes words were hard.
I looked down at myself.
And saw —
This bonus epilogue is ONLY available to newsletter subscribers. To keep reading, get it free ONLY at this link:
https://www.karalockharte.com/BondedDragonBonus
(Note, if you sign up for my newsletter at a different link at for example, Facebook, you will still eventually get the bonus epilogue, but it will take a few days at least.)
***
Dear Reader,
It’s not what you think it is.
The story you heard isn’t completely true.
The Angel of Death did come to the fairy queen’s library that night.
There was a fight.
But I held my own. And in the end, I went willingly.
Why did I go with the man responsible for my brother’s death, you ask?
I have my reasons.
In fact, I clung to them, trying to focus on the reasons why working with him would save us all.
Especially during those nights that should have been inconsequential.
Our people hate each other. I have to keep reminding myself, I have to keep telling myself.
It’s not real. It won’t last.
No matter how much I might wish otherwise.
Because wishes are for dreamers.
And I know better than to believe in dreams.
Aurora’s story coming in ABDUCTED BY THE ANGEL in late 2019!
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Bonded to the Dragon: The Lick of Fire Collection: Dragon Lovers Page 14
