in the back of her mind just how easy it would have been for him to rise over her, to make her feel small and weak, to make her feel inferior—but that simply wasn’t him.
“I am a dragon now. But if you touch me, if you bond with me…I will be like you. And you will have me to protect you until my dying day.”
The urge to reach out and touch him that very moment was so strong that Leyloni forced her hands behind her back and locked them together. She searched his eyes, uncertainty and yearning roiling within her.
Why was she hesitating? Was this not what she wanted, what she had always longed for? A mate, a male of her own?
Arysteon tilted his head down and moved it just a little closer. “Make me yours, Leyloni.”
“What if it is nothing more than a myth? A story?”
“You thought that once of me, yet here I stand.” His breath was warm across her skin, smelling of storms and sweet spices. “If it is but a myth, we have naught to fear. Touch me.”
Her heart quickened as she slowly reached out, stopping her hand a hair’s breadth from his snout. He did not look away from her.
She settled her palm against his scales.
Leyloni was aware first of his warmth, which was so much fuller than what she’d felt radiating from him before. His scales were hard, firm, but not as rough and unforgiving as she’d imagined. But her awareness of all that lasted only an instant.
Her breath hitched and her muscles seized as something powerful jolted into her, buzzing and crackling and filling her with more heat than she’d ever thought possible. It ran in tingling waves from her hand into her body, flowing straight to her heart, where those waves coalesced and built into something larger and stronger. She had the distant notion that this should’ve been the greatest agony of her life, but there was no true pain.
And as that energy continued to build inside her, she felt its connection to Arysteon—to his heart.
As suddenly as it had begun, that jolt ceased. Leyloni’s muscles relaxed all at once, and she fell backward, landing on her backside hard enough to clack her teeth together. The thrumming inside her faded slowly. But Arysteon commanded her full attention before she could even wonder at what had just happened inside her.
Arysteon snapped his head away as countless tiny arcs of lightning raced across his scales, jumping and crackling wildly. The lightning rapidly increased in size, volume, and intensity, giving off a blue-white light that illuminated the cavern in flickering pulses. He scrambled backward, away from Leyloni, and a pained growl tore out through his bared teeth.
Leyloni’s heart raced, and cold terror—far worse than the deepest winter chill—permeated her chest, gathering around her heart.
What was happening? What had she done?
“Arysteon!”
Thrashing his limbs, tail, and neck, Arysteon stumbled through the cavern opening. His body was only partway through when the lightning dancing over his scales became so fast, thick, and bright that Leyloni could no longer make out the individual arcs. The light intensified, and Leyloni’s hair—not just on her arms, but on her head—stood up.
Serek giggled. Leyloni glanced down at the baby to see him sitting beside her, his smile wide as he stared at Arysteon. The baby’s short, dark hair was standing straight up.
The air around them was charged with unfathomable energy. The light around Arysteon now completely obscured his body from sight. That light flared brighter still, so bright it hurt, and in its blue-white luminescence, Leyloni was vaguely aware of shaped stone blocks, columns, and carvings amidst the roots and debris all around the cavern.
Her mouth went dry. Somehow, she knew what was coming. She felt that energy gathering, felt it building to a terrible climax.
Arysteon roared. It might have been a wordless, agonized bellow, closer than ever to the sound of thunder…but it might also have been her name.
Leyloni shoved herself aside, wrapping Serek in her arms as she landed on her knees and leaned forward to shield him with her body. Serek struggled and fussed. Leyloni did not relinquish her hold; she squeezed her eyes shut, clenched her teeth, and sent a silent prayer to Mother Eurynome.
Please let Arysteon be all right. Please.
None of us need to suffer any more than we already have.
The light and energy behind Leyloni grew so intense that she could see it as a red glow through her eyelids, could feel its heat racing up