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Her entire body emanated a soft, subdued glow, like a single candle in a starless night.
She smiled up at him as they stood ankle deep in the steadily rising water, pulling them deeper into the ocean with each lapping wave.
“I am ready, my love,” she murmured, squeezing his hand in both her own.
“Take me into your arms now,” she entreated.
“Take me home.”
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
The epiphany of how to defeat the Master came to Brigid while she stared into Sai’s opaque dark eyes.
But not just now, as he carried her step by step into the tumultuous sea, to her self-selected doom.
No, she realized this much earlier. Sometime during the Master’s speech about their plans for her.
She realized as she stared into Sai’s possessed black eyes that the one the Master coveted the most was Sai himself.
Yes, they wanted her body and the magic she harnessed through her bloodline. But the Master could have chosen a much more perfect receptable to house their powers. And besides, did they really need Brigid’s magic to grow their own?
Brigid wasn’t so certain.
In fact, she doubted that the Master required any sort of physical shell to spread evil and destruction across the realms. They’d certainly done a bang-up job of it thus far.
She didn’t know what triggered her epiphany, but the way they spoke of fools in love…it was almost as if they were speaking of themselves.
Which led Brigid to extrapolate back to when Sai was first sent on his mission. He was to convince her to come willingly with him, to offer her loving, beating heart.
Why was that necessary? Why did there need to be love?
Like the Master said themselves, they could have lured Brigid to them through other means. Her family, her friends. Even if she hadn’t fallen desperately and irrevocably in love with Sai, she would have done everything in her power to save him. It was enough that shelikedhim. Or even loved him as a friend.
But she knew deep down in her gut that Sai was the key. It wasn’t whom she loved that mattered.
It was whomheloved.
Looking back, Brigid wondered whether the Master inserted Sai into her dreams, whether she conjured him herself, or whether it was Sai who entered her dreams by his own magic. For, certainly he possessed formidable powers as the first dragon of the seas and mists.
Perhaps it was Brigid who lured him. Perhaps the Master noticed his wanderings when he dreamed…
That fateful night when she dreamed the sea for the first time—now it seemed clear that it had always been Sai’s doing, not her own.
Hehad conjured the ocean in her unconscious world.Hehad shown her boundless beauty and magic beneath the waves.
Hadn’t she always thought that he defied her imagination? Both Sai the man and Sai the dragon?
Of all the marvelous fae creatures across all the realms, she could never have pictured someone like him. He had revealed himself to her, bit by bit, ever so carefully and shyly, over the course of her human life.
First, when she was an innocent, curious child. He was just a shadow that watched over her. A whisper in the breeze. Then, when she was a lonely girl. She’d felt his presence grow, but he’d never shown her either one of his forms. She’d sensed him, but he hadn’t been real.
And finally, he trusted her enough to show her the man. First, from a distance, like a hazy mirage. Then, closer and closer, until she could make out his features and form. And finally, close enough to walk beside her. To sit with her quietly while she chattered about everything and nothing, simply reveling in his company.
At last, he revealed the dragon. His true self. He’d taken her breath away with his resplendent beauty. But it was his pure, noble, courageous soul that captivated and enslaved her.
Innocence mixed with passion. Vulnerability and strength. Playfulness and indomitable will.
How could she not be enchanted? How could she not love him?
