Page 73 of Silver Slayer

I looked past him toward the cliff edge. "You’re sure?"

"I would not have brought you here otherwise."

"The exiles considered this place safe from squidlin.” He followed my gaze toward the broken stone around the island. “They encountered a wetlock once, however.”

My attention snapped back to him. "The dragon creature you told me about?”

"During suns-fall. It crossed the sea and attacked the settlement." His hand settled over the hilt of the sword at his hip as naturally as mine might have gone to the bio-analyzer I had forgotten in my room. "Vallon told me everyone fled to the caves below. The creature pursued him, Elise, and the young patooga, Chompers, into one of the cloaked crafts."

I stared at him. "So, anything with wings can reach us out here?”

“Wetlocks are only active at suns-fall, during the dark hurs. Although no place outside the dome is without risk." He patted the sword at his side, his expression taking on that unwavering certainty I was beginning to associate with him. "You need not worry. I will protect you."

I could feel the truth of it through the faint connection between us, warm and solid beneath my sternum. There was no doubt in him, no consideration that he might fail. Vennox stood between me and the open island as though the Caspeen Sea, wetlocks, squidlin, and every other nightmare his world could produce would first have to go through him.

The feeling that rose inside me was too tender to examine closely, so I pushed it down.

"I know you will." The words slipped out before I could temper them. "You’re like my own personal silver slayer."

A perfectly arched silver brow lifted.

"Silver slayer?" he repeated, sounding both confused and entertained. "That’s how you think of me? As your personal protector?”

The way he repeated it made the teasing fall out of the moment. My pulse stumbled.

"You protected me on the anomaly planet," I said, feeling heat creep into my cheeks. "You were always there before I even knew I needed you." I laughed softly, shaking my head. "I don't even remember when I started thinking of you that way. It just... happened. I meant it as a compliment."

He closed the distance between us in two easy strides. His grin softened into quiet tenderness that touched the connection inside me and sent a slow warmth spreading outward.

"I find no insult in the title," he said. "Especially if I am yours."

The word hung between us.Yours.

Such a simple thing, but Vennox did not treat it casually. Pleasure moved through our mingled essence, faint but unmistakable, and I understood what that small claim meant to him. He expected me to leave. He had already made peace with losing me, or was pretending he had. To be called mine, even in jest, had reached some guarded place inside him.

I should have corrected the misunderstanding, should have told him that was not what I meant, that I had only been joking, that he wasn’t mine.

Instead, I studied the silver male standing inches from me and felt the strange, undeniable truth pressing back. Somewhere along the way, I had begun thinking of him that way.

Mine.

The realization should have frightened me. Maybe it did. But beneath the fear was something hotter, a thing that felt less like surrender and more like finally admitting what had already changed.

"Then I guess silver slayer stays," I said softly.

His smile transformed. It was not a teasing curve but open and unguarded, filled with a happiness so pure it pressed gently against my sternum in a swirling ebb and flow.

"I like it," he said.

"I can tell."

"I like being your protector more."

The words settled low in my chest. I glanced away toward the sea, needing the distance even though I had no intention of moving from him. "You already decided that was your job."

"It is not a duty." His broad palm curved gently around my cheek, the heat of his scales sinking into my skin as he guided my face back toward his.

"Then what is it?"