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The ring’s glow slightly throbbed while Braxton made his way back to my side. The sea rippled alongside him with each step, letting me know the Dragon was following him. Suddenly, its large head broke the surface once Braxton stopped by my side.
“How are you feeling?”
Blinking away from the water, I focused on him. “Better. My ribs are already mending, but they are not fully there yet.”
Both concern and intrigue entered his expression. It probably took much longer for something like this to heal in the Mirror World. “Do you think you can wear your suit again?”
“No.” I shook my head and glimpsed at the hovering slitted eyes above water, following Braxton’s every move. “Not yet. The corset is too hard for my state at the moment.”
“Yeah, I figured.” Sighing, he searched the ground for something. “Here, this can work.” Bending down, he grabbed one of the leaves we had slept on, ripping the stem from it and using the soft blade to wrap it around my body. “It’s not perfect, but at least it will cover you until we can get home.”
Home. The way he said that, as though it was his too, brought a smile to my face. However, it also reminded me that reality would fall on both of us the moment we were back in my kingdom.
“Thank you,” I whispered, standing, and holding the tip of the leaf to my chest. “Braxton, there is something you don’t yet know.” Swallowing the knot suddenly forming in my throat, I looked up into his green eyes. “Something about me, and my people. You see, I—”
“You are a princess,” he finished for me, and the breath lodged in my throat.
Blinking in surprise, I gripped the leaf much tighter to my chest, feeling it split against my hand. “How did you know?”
Reaching for my other arm, his palm caressed the length of it as it travelled towards my wrist, and he intertwined our fingers together. “Raithian called you the Skyborne Princess when he abducted you at the beach,” he answered simply, but his gaze shifted behind me for a moment, as though he was remembering something else. “Now that I think about it, you said you were the leader of the Skyborne Clan back at the coffee shop, when you got insulted that I offered a free drink.”
My shoulders sagged with the memory, and I cradled his cheek. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I-I thought you wouldn’t understand—”
“I don’t,” he interrupted, resting our foreheads together, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn about you, your kingdom, your people and understand. I just need you to tell me the rest of your story. I know you are trying to get your lands back from the Warlock King. Trying to defeat him so you can live in peace.”
Our story was far more complicated, but yes, that was our main goal. “Yes.”
His lips brushed over mine, and then he kissed me deeply. The gesture was infused by his gentle spirit, and that made me melt into him. “Then I’m going to do anything I can to help you. I know I’m not a warrior like the ones you probably have in your army, but I can hopefully become one. With my mom gone, you are all I have now, Evie.”
Braxton held me closer to his chest, the truth of his need engulfing me whole.
“This world that saw my parents grow up and come together in love is mine too, and I want to learn as much as I can about it. I want to know everything there is to know about you… so I can be there for you.”
“Come together in love…”The words resounded in my mind. The way he said it reflected his mother didn’t belong to his father, or that he had claimed her, but that they had both become one of their own will. For some reason, that made me think of Willow’s statement. Maybe Braxton would challenge me and make me a better woman. Be my strength when everything seemed lost, balance me… And maybe, I could be that for him too.
“I want to share everything with you, Braxton,” I confessed, letting my heart be the one to answer, and I lifted my chin to meet his lips.
He kissed me without reserve, and I gave into him, realizing only then how much I already needed him. Somehow, he’d slipped under my skin.
“Call me Brax,” he whispered against my mouth as the kiss ended, and I smiled up at him, but there was still something he needed to know.
“Brax, when we get to my kingdom, things for us won’t be like they are now.”
“What do you mean?” Concern filtered through his green eyes.
“Well, as the princess, things are very different for me. And they will be for you too. I need—”
The sound of sloshing waves pulled our attention to the water, just in time to see the ocean guardian surging from the surface. Startled, we stepped back, and my body automatically went into a defensive stance. Unfortunately for me, pain stabbed my ribs with the action. Ouch.
“I think… I think he wants me to go to him,” Braxton mumbled, leaving me perplexed.
“How could you possibly know that?”
Brow crinkling in confusion, he shook his head. “I don’t have a clue.” Seeming compelled to follow his guess, he walked towards the shore.
Cringing, I took my place on the rock again to keep from putting pressure on my injury, but my gaze went to his Dragon ring. It was still glowing brightly.
When he reached the deep entrance to the sea, the Dragon swam towards him, and its right arm lifted from the water, placing something on the sand for him.
“Gods be damned!” I gasped, seeing a bundle of sacred skin at Braxton’s feet.
Slitted eyes travelled to me, and Braxton threw a glance my way over his shoulder.
“Thank you, my friend,” Braxton offered with a pleased smile, extending a hand to the ocean guardian. “I’m certain that will keep her as warm as it does your babies.”
All breath left me the moment I witnessed the guardian press his forehead to his palm, eyes closing when Braxton began to stroke his scales kindheartedly. It was as though they shared a profound bond, and they had known each other forever.
Sinking back into the depths of the sea, he disappeared from our sight, but I was still rooted in place by utter disbelief. Water Dragons couldn’t fly like our Dragons did, which meant they were wild by nature, never leaving their habitat. They hadn’t been ridden and never would be, but more importantly, not once in the history of their kind had they interacted with us…
Until today.
