He deepened the kiss, pulling me closer and sliding his arms around my waist.
The tears on his cheeks were still wet and they smeared against my skin, marking me.
Oh God. I love this man so much. I would die for him.
And something happened that had never happened before, that would change me for the rest of my life. . .the dragon-shadow dove for us and curled its massive wispy body around us both, shimmering black scales closing us inside the cage of itself.
I trembled from the shock of it all because I could not only feel Kenji’s warmth. . .but I could feel the dragon-shadow too for the first time and it was a velvet inferno. Comforting and terrifying. A storm made of silk and stars.
Holy fuck!!!
When Kenji finally pulled back, the dragon-shadow dissolved into the air, yet its phantom heat lingered on my skin.
What was that?
My bottom lip quivered.
Kenji pressed his forehead against mine for a long moment. His breath came hard and uneven.
I lifted my hands and wiped his remaining tears with my thumbs.
One cheek.
Then the other.
My lips still tingled with the absence of his mouth, and my cheeks were wet with tears that were not mine.
He let out a long sigh. “I would walk through fire for you.”
“You don’t have to. I’m already yours.”
“And still I would do it. Let my skin burn. Hair and eyes melt. Bones crack and turn to ashes and dust.”
“Why would I want that?”
“The reason wouldn’t matter.” He tilted my chin up so I could not look anywhere but at him when he spoke the next words. “You’re my queen.”
I shivered.
He gathered me in his muscular arms and held me for an eternity within the sanctuary of his warmth.
All I could do was close my eyes and surrender to it.
Only then did I register the hollow ache in my own chest. The pain of grief. The heart-aching tremor that began at the nape of my neck and cascaded down my spine like falling dominoes.
The emotional release that finally came.
Then utter surprise at the fact that I had needed his comforting too, just as his Claws and he found release.
God. . .he is my safe space.
Tears fell from my eyes. My body shook and Kenji held me even closer.
Hiroko’s face hit my mind, and my tears shifted to sobs.
Oh fuck. . .
I’d barely known her, yet in that short time she’d become my mentor. She’d walked me through the entire architecture of how to survive in Kenji’s dark world and then taught me how to love a dragon.
