And Falcyn held something in his hand. "If you love him, really love him, we can bring him back."
"W-w-what?"
He swallowed hard and licked his lips before he spoke again. "What I'm about to do is forbidden. It's the darkest of magick. But I can do it, only if you mean what you say. Because if you don't ... you'll consign both my brother and me to someplace I don't want to be and to the cruelest of fates."
Her vision swam. "Please bring him back to me. Whatever it takes. If there's a price for this, I'll pay it."
"Then close your eyes. Think of your fondest memory of my brother and hold it dear. Whatever you do, don't look until I tell you. Understood?"
"Yes." She clenched her eyes tight and held on to Max as she thought back to the night they'd first met. To the sight of him stripping her clothes from her body as he kissed and caressed her in a wild frenzy.
She could still hear his deep, infectious laughter in her ear at the way she jerked his clothes from him to uncover more and more of his incredible flesh.
"Eager, are you?" he'd asked with a grin.
"Don't waste your tongue with words. I've much better uses for it."
Laughing again, he'd obliged her with a searing kiss that had left her breathless and weak. She'd barely loosened his pants before he was deep inside her, filling her to capacity and thrusting against her hips while he held her against the closed door.
With her legs wrapped around his lean waist, she'd met him stroke for stroke, growling and urging him on. She'd raked her hands through his hair, delighting in the sensual way it felt sliding between her fingers as he sated the ache inside her. Then she'd run her hands over his strong, broad shoulders and down his back so that she could savor the sensation of his muscles rippling while he pleased her even more.
It hadn't taken any time at all for her to come, screaming as pleasure ripped through her body.
Then, in the tenderest of actions, Max had cupped her cheek and kissed her while slowing his strokes until he came, too. Still inside her, he'd shuffled backward along the floor, finally stepping out of the breeches that had been pooled at his ankles, until he reached the bed and then, laughing, had fallen onto it with her on top of him.
There his golden eyes had darkened as he slowly, carefully cupped her breasts in his hands and licked his lips. Her eyes had widened as she felt him growing hard inside her again.
"Still hungry?"
He'd expelled a deep, sexy sigh. "For you? Famished. Gods, woman, your breasts are ample and supple enough to shame any woman I've ever seen."
"Then lay back, my lord. I intend to make sure you are well sated this night."
For years, she'd considered him her one knight stand that had seriously skidded off the rails. Now ...
"Open your eyes, Sera."
Hoping and praying for a miracle, she obeyed Falcyn.
Max still wasn't moving. And now there was a grayish cast to his scales.
Worse? Falcyn was now as pale as Blaise. His hair had gone snow-white.
Concerned, she dropped her gaze from his face to the small bowl he held in his hand that contained blood. "Are you all right?"
Sweat beaded on his forehead and upper lip. "Tell me what do you love most about my brother."
"The way he makes me feel."
"And that is?"
She swallowed hard. "Like I can fly. Even when I'm in this body without wings, he makes me feel like I'm in the clouds, looking down on the world."
"Then breathe into him. Let your breath be his."
"I don't understand."
"Embrace the dragon, Seraphina. Breathe into him."
Cupping Max's snout, she did what Falcyn said. Then waited ...
And waited.
Her heart clenched tight as Max remained still and pale. "Nothing's happening."
His hair darkening, Falcyn touched Max's body and the moment he did, a deep, dark crimson light shot through his cells, illuminating them like a flashlight through skin on the darkest night. Translucent and bright.
Before she could move, Max drew a deep breath and opened his eyes.
Sera gasped. "Max?"
He blinked slowly. "What happened?"
"Do you remember anything?"
Groaning, he laid his head back, then cursed. "Falcyn..." He immediately shifted to his human body to stare up at his brother. "You broke your oath."
His gaze went from Max to Sera. "Sometimes it's worth it. We are brothers, after all."
And with that, Max knew that Falcyn had finally forgiven him. "Thank you."
Falcyn inclined his head to him. "Remember the cost I've paid for your life today. Don't ever waste it and don't make me regret it."
Max held his hand out to him. "Never."
Falcyn tucked his hand into his and shook it, not as a man, but as a drakomas. Then he cupped Seraphina's cheek in his hand and kissed her forehead. "May peace and happiness be with you, only."
As he withdrew, she caught his arm. "You're not leaving after this, are you?"
"Drakomai are creatures of solitude."
She glanced to Max before she turned back to Falcyn and smiled. "But they can learn another way. And I'd like to get to know my brother-in-law."
He met Max's gaze with an arched brow.
"You are always welcomed at my nest. Especially since we've lost Illarion."
"What?" Sera gasped.
Falcyn sighed wearily. "Not lost entirely. Temporarily adrift." He inclined his head to Max. "I shall stay, but only to help you knock sense into Illarion. I won't let those bastards take him. Not after everything else they've stolen from all of us. Now rest. We'll have more fights to come and you have a beautiful swan to soothe."
And with that he was gone.
Sera turned back to Max. She still couldn't believe he was alive again. Laughing, she threw herself against him and kissed his cheeks and lips and neck and forehead.
He laughed, too. "Careful, love. Else I'll think you missed me."
"Don't you ever die on me again!"
"I didn't mean to this time."
Her amusement fading, she pressed her marked palm to his as she moved to straddle him. "As soon as you heal, I want us to bond."
"Sera--"
"No arguments. Our dragonets are grown. They will find their own mates soon. But the one thing I learned today is what the dragonbane really means."
"And that is?"
"Living without your heart, and my heart is you, Lord Dragon."
"Then come, Strah Draga. Bond with me. For I know that without you I don't live. I only survive, and that is the bleakest and longest winter of my life."
EPILOGUE
Max snorted as he caught Falcyn staring hungrily at Tisiphone's posterior while she leaned over the pool table where Colt and Remi were teaching her to play billiards. "I think you used me as an excuse to stay, brother."
Falcyn slid an unamused glare at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Shaking his head, Max handed him a drink before he started breaking down the soda dispensers. Fang had just closed the bar to the humans. It'd been almost three weeks since that fateful night when Sera had crashed back into his life.
And he cherished every minute of it.
Mostly because he knew war was here and a battle was coming. Blaise and Merlin were working on a Daimon cure, but so far nothing had helped them. Apollo was still after all the Olympians and the Were-Hunters.
With Kessar leading the charge.
They were on the cusp of the full moon and with it a bad feeling that Max couldn't shake. While his mate and children were safe upstairs with Aimee, he knew Illarion was out there, working with Apollo against them.
The countdown had begun.
And the Fates hated them all.
Max reached for a cloth, and when he did, he accidentally knocked a glass from the counter. Cursing, he moved to pick it up. The moment he did, an arrow shot past his head.
One that would have hit him had he not move
Furious, he and those around him looked for its source. But it'd come out of nowhere.
Falcyn met Fang's angry glower. "We need Acheron and Thorn to tighten the shields on this place."
He pulled the phone from his pocket. "On it already."
While Fang made the call, Max yanked the arrow out of the wood and saw the note wrapped around the shaft. He unscrolled and read the ancient Sumerian writing before he handed it to Fang, who screwed his face up at it.
"Hieroglyphs?"
"Cuneiform." Max handed it to Falcyn.
"What's it say?" Fang asked.
Falcyn answered for Max. "It's a full-on declaration of war. They are coming for us and they intend to mount our hides to the wall."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Bel m'es quant ilh m'enfolhetis
It pleases me when she maddens me
E[?]m fai badar e[?]n vau muzan!
When she makes me stand gaping and staring!
De leis m'es bel si m'escarnis O[?]m gaba dereir'o denan,
It pleases me when she laughs at me and makes fun of me, behind my back or to my face,
Qu'apres lo mal me venra bes Be leu, s'a lieys ven a plazer.
For after the ill, the good will come very quickly, if such is her pleasure.
~Cercamon
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author SHERRILYN KENYON is a regular in the #1 spot. This extraordinary bestseller continues to top every genre in which she writes. More than 60 million copies of her books are in print in more than one hundred countries. Her current series include The Dark-Hunters, The League, and Chronicles of Nick. Her Chronicles of Nick and Dark-Hunter series are soon to be major motion pictures. You can sign up for email updates here.
Also by Sherrilyn Kenyon
THE DARK-HUNTERS
Fantasy Lover
Night Pleasures
Night Embrace
Dance with the Devil
Kiss of the Night
Night Play
Seize the Night
Sins of the Night
Unleash the Night
Dark Side of the Moon
The Dream-Hunter
Devil May Cry
Upon the Midnight Clear
Dream Chaser
Acheron
One Silent Night
Dream Warrior
Bad Moon Rising
No Mercy
Retribution
The Guardian
Dark-Hunter Companion
Time Untime
Styxx
Dark Bites
Son of No One
THE LEAGUE
Born of Night
Born of Fire
Born of Ice
Born of Fury
Born of Defiance
CHRONICLES OF NICK
Infinity
Invincible
Infamous
Inferno
Illusion
Instinct
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Author's Note
About the Author
Also by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
DRAGONBANE. Copyright (c) 2015 by Sherrilyn Kenyon. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Ervin Serrano Cover photographs by Shutterstock eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-02994-2 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-25002995-9 (e-book) eISBN 9781250029959
First Edition: August 2015
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