Hour of the Dragon - Heather Killough-Walden Page 0,104
and held his breath.
And then Annaleia laughed. It was very soft at first, and he almost mistook it for sobbing. But when her shoulders shook and the small chuckle grew into something like a genuine belly laugh, he gently pulled away and looked down at her, wondering if Victor Maze had somehow made it back into her head after all.
“Leia – ”
“Ares, shut up,” she said with a smile, holding up her hand to silence him. “Just shut up for a second and listen to me.” Then she lowered her hand and took both of his in hers, staring up into his eyes. “People are made up of their pasts. That’s all we are, right? When you think about it, everything that makes us who and what we are is what we remember. That’s it. So there’s a lot packed into that. Some of it is good and some is not so good, and if we’re lucky then some of it might make us proud, but most of it will usually just embarrass the hell out of us or make us wish we could wipe it away.” She was still smiling when she shook her head. “That’s life, Ares. It’s baggage.” A soft chuckle. “Baggage is life.”
He gazed down at her, the whole of him utterly mystified. For the umpteenth time since he’d met her, Annaleia Faith’s words wove a tapestry of common sense across his consciousness that felt more like a sage story than the clear and simple truth it always actually was.
“And… if we’re one of the truly fortunate ones, then at some point in our lives, we manage to meet someone who is willing to do the one very special, very crucial thing for us that seals the deal… and makes them our soul mate. And it’s not what you think. It isn’t magic. It isn’t fate.”
There went his breath again as he waited.
Her voice was so soft as she said, “Our soul mate is none other than the one person who’s willing to carry our baggage for us, for just a little while. And give us a much needed break.” Her crooked smile was tender, but it beamed. “That’s all, Ares. And that’s everything.”
Ares blinked, feeling slightly stunned and even a little dizzy.
Annaleia raised her arms and cupped his face with her hands. “I accept you and all of your baggage because that’s what makes you the man – and the dragon – that you are, Antares Mace.” She stood on her tip-toes then, and he automatically bent to meet her half way, because he would have done anything to meet her half way in a kiss.
Her lips on his were the softest blessing, warm and dry and full of promise. She kissed him like a butterfly’s embrace, and he let her pull away.
She whispered, “But just so you know mister bad-ass dragon, my baggage officially comes with loads of candy, so I’ll expect you to have some stashed in your pockets for me at all times from now on. Capiche?”
Fuck, yes, he thought. “Deal,” he said, simply. He meant it down to his dragon’s core.
His mind yearned for her company, her words, her intelligence and wisdom. His body ached for every-fucking-thing else. But right now he had to go beat the crap out of a chaos god – or anyone and everything who might get between them. Either would do at the moment.
So he turned to the portal exit and yelled, “Not a scratch on her, Kane, or I’ll send your husband home to you with a nasty case of road rash,” he promised, “and one arm.”
Lily Kane’s eyes widened. Most likely because she realized he wasn’t even slightly joking. But of course Annaleia assumed he was, so she gave a soft laugh and shook her head. God help him if she ever really chose to find out just how much of a monster he could be.
With a small amount of hesitance but mostly with resolution, the lovely seer-werewolf Lily Kane nodded. Annaleia met her at the exit, they clasped hands, and Lily helped her jump from the portal to land on sure footing. She turned back to the portal opening.
“I’ll be back for you soon,” he told her firmly, locking the promise in with his eyes.
She looked up at him and gave him a nod. “Be careful.”
He showed her a reassuring smile. But as Antares turned from the exit and it closed behind him, “careful” was quite literally the very last thing he planned