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3
EVANNA
The melody of palm leaves lazily swaying in the breeze filtered into my ears, bringing consciousness back to me. My side still ached, a slow throb making its way into my chest, but the way Braxton held me against him, taking the burden off my injury, made me feel lighter.
A deep warmth engulfed me with his arms wrapped around me, my cheek resting on his bare chest, and I wanted to remain like this forever. Hidden from the rest of the world, from this war, from the loss, and the hard choices that awaited me once I made it back home. I didn’t want to go back.
Being with Braxton like this, made me feel like someone else. It made me wish I was someone else. With him, there were no duties or expectations. There was no legacy weighing heavily on my shoulders. The truth was, I loved the Skyborne name and everything that it represented, I loved our history and these lands, there was nothing I wouldn’t risk for my people, but when I was with Braxton, all of that went away.
The problems, the lives lost, the burden of our sacrifices all disappeared, and it was just he and me. In his arms, I wasn’t the Skyborne Princess, but just a normal girl. One who could be touched with kindness without it meaning anything more than that. One who could let her guard down, and trust him blindly, because his very essence exuded nothing but light. One who wanted to be seen like he saw me, who could admit she wasn’t all that strong, and sometimes all she wanted was to allow herself to hide under the blanket and cry.
Perhaps with him I could just be me, even if I didn’t exactly know who that was. Innocent? Silly? Funny? I had no idea, but he made me want to find out. He made me want to leave everything behind, and just be with him, like this, forever.
A part of me suddenly began to understand why the Harbinger of Justice had left. Maybe it was all too much. Maybe he had given so much of himself to this fight, that he was dying inside, and he needed to let go before he too was lost to it.
Could I ever just let go? Would this nightmare ever end?
Pushing the thought out of my mind, I slowly pulled my eyes open, but I didn’t want to move. My gaze fell on Braxton’s toned pecs, where my cheek rested, and my hand followed the natural lines, dipping towards his abs. Muscles slightly rippled under my touch, and my gaze lifted to find his eyes closed. He was still sleeping. When my touch glided up his chest again towards his shoulders, confusion captured me briefly.
His body felt fuller under my palm, more toned than it had been as my fingers pressed down on his biceps, as though he had built more muscle since I first saw his body like this. My hand relished the feel of him, and its exploration continued, enjoying the way his body gave into me with each touch.
The chiseled edges of his jaw greeted my eyes when my admiration lifted to his face, his thick bottom lip, and even his sculpted nose made my stomach flutter. It was hard to describe how handsome he truly was, because his sex appeal wasn’t really all on the parts of him one could see—although those parts were absolutely delicious. What most attracted me to him was the energy that called me to him even when he wasn’t around. That spirit inside him that somehow connected with mine, and made me feel complete, safe, for the first time in longer than I cared to admit.
It was the way he held me, the way he spoke to me, the kindness that showed through his eyes when he looked at me like he was doing now, that made me never want to let go.
Braxton’s yellowish-green eyes shimmered with intensity as he focused on me—after waking up with my handsy exploration of his torso. A small smirk tilted his lips when he found me admiring him, but not a single word left him as he lifted my chin and captured my mouth in his.
My soul hummed with his kiss, and I gave fully into him, feeling an anxious tingle rush through my body with need for him. I was hungry for him in a way only his love could quell.
“Good morning, baby…” His whispered words fanned my lips, bringing a full smile out of me.
I’d never heard that endearment before, but it felt so special, so sweet when he called me that, I didn’t want to be called anything else for the rest of my life.
“Morning,” I answered, a moment before his mouth danced with mine again.
Who knew kissing could be this addicting? Or maybe it was just because Braxton was kissing me. I never wanted to stop, but he did, placing one last kiss on the tip of my nose and leaned away to glance down at me.
“Your hair looks just like liquid gold under the sun this morning,” he admitted, running a hand through my loose strands, and I smiled again.
My mouth opened to tell him how much his eyes looked like sea crystals under the bright rays, but the sun suddenly seemed to disappear from above us. A sloshing sound followed, and my head whipped around to find what had caused it.
A sharp inhale of breath thrust into my lungs. “Water Dragon.”
“Holy hell!” Braxton gasped at the same time, and our necks strained to look at the head of the creature snarling at us.
“Do not move,” I calmly instructed him, deeply confused.
Water Dragons were not hostile creatures, especially not towards me or my people. Yet, the giant male that weaved out of the sea before us, with his serpent-like body, seemed ready to devour us. His pearlescent and scaly blue body shimmered beautifully against the sun it now blocked from us, and the gills on either side of his head trembled with the water rushing through them—causing the snarls we’d heard.
My gaze dropped to Braxton and me, trying to figure out what we had done on its island that had the ocean guardian so insulted. As far as I knew there was only one thing you never, never did. Touch the nest of a Dragon.
When my eyes focused on the warm and soft fabric that had engulfed us through the night, providing us cover, a ravishing dread gripped my chest. “Braxton, where did you get this?!”
His attention dropped from the creature, though he remained as still as possible against me. “The strange seaweed blanket? It was washed up with a bunch of logs on shore, laying wrinkled among them. Why?”
Gods!
“It isn’t seaweed…” I whispered, trying to figure out what to do. “It’s shed skin, and those weren’t just logs washed up on shore. They were protecting his eggs.”
