Page 137 of Dream Reaper

Something brushed past her, a slithering tentacle of shadow.

It pierced her brother straight through the heart. Pain ignited in her chest, as if it were her body being ripped open by that incorporeal spear. Her scream echoed off the walls of the nightmare palace as Peregrin’s body arched, his eyes rolling back in his head.

It’s just a dream, she screamed as she yanked at the magic so hard it flung her out of the vision.

The shadow howled and withdrew to defend itself. The tentacles slithered past her as they recoiled.

It would come for her again.

But she held on and wrenched more power, magic, and darkness out of the monster. It filled her, consuming her, but she smiled with grim satisfaction as she tasted its panic.

Then she realized she had made a grave mistake.

As the dark magic flooded through her body, she didn’t know what to do with it. The magic touched every part of her being, melding with her body, embracing her…but what was she supposed to do with it now?

And still there was more magic to pull, more to steal.

But she was full, overflowing with dark magic with no place to put it. No way to get rid of it. No way to destroy it.

Ice flooded her veins as tentacles slammed into her. The magic she had stolen created a shield around her body, and the tentacles thundered into it with teeth-jarring force, pummeling it over and over again as the shadow tried to reach her.

Its screams pierced her temples, so loud Ava couldn’t even hear herself think.

Let me take it, a voice whispered in the back of her mind.

But she clung more tightly to the darkness, afraid to let it go, afraid the shadow was tricking her, trying to deceive her into giving it back.

She curled into herself as tentacles thundered against her shield, as screams threatened to shatter her eardrums, as magic tried to eat her alive from the inside out.

Tentacles wrapped around her, pressing against the small of her back. They must have broken through the shield without her knowing.

Ava, let me take it, that voice whispered again, gentle but insistent, and very familiar.

She realized then that the coils wrapped around her were not crushing her. And those were hands pressed against her spine, not tentacles.

Come on, Meat Pasty, he whispered. Let’s finish this together.

Her eyes flew open, and Jerrid was there, his eyes bright with dragon fire, his incisors sharp but his face incredibly gentle. He lowered his head and hovered. She met him halfway, tasting his breath before she pressed her mouth against his.

A spark ignited in her chest, a flicker of warmth and light that flooded through her entire body. As his lips moved against hers, his fingers kneading her spine, the dragon fire coated the darkness inside her in a thin layer of heat.

Her hand moved to finger the hair at the nape of his neck as his dragon fire entwined with her fire magic, his crimson flames with her blue ones, each feeding the other, giving as much as they took so that the magic grew stronger. The giving and taking a dance of sharing strengths, not stealing them.

Together, they were stronger.

The three of them—but no, there were only the two of them now. She could taste Dragon’s fire in Jerrid’s kiss, feel his heat radiating against her skin, but the thoughts in her mind felt like singleness.

Wholeness.

She knew then that Jerrid had done it. That he’d repaired his fractured soul, that he and Dragon were knit back together, no longer one or the other.

There was only Jerrid, but with all the best and worst parts of himself in one mind, with one purpose.

And somehow, she knew that this man would be unstoppable.

He pulled back and let a kiss slide across her jaw before he pressed his forehead to hers. “Do you trust me, Meat Pasty?”

She choked on a laugh. “Always.”