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Fire erupted around us in a whoosh of blue flame.
“Do you deny what is between us?”
“Yes!” I shouted, even as my dragon battered against me in denial. I sobbed in silent gasps as my emotions warred within me.
Julian would always win these battles. I didn’t have the strength to stop him. He kissed the nape of my neck and then bit down gently, the scrape of his teeth sending visible sparks along my skin.
“If you don’t accept your own powers, how are you going to accept mine? Do you want me, Rena?”
I could only see the truth of my desire and his when our minds were connected like they were.
“You know I do,” I said, resigned.
“Will you open yourself to your full power and give me everything you have?”
I nodded wordlessly.
“I need to hear the words, Rena. There will be no going back once you agree. I will take everything you have, and I will give you everything in return.”
“Yes.” The word was so soft it was almost silent.
Julian roared in triumph and we tumbled to the floor. A symphony of colors played behind my closed eyelids. The lights flickered in the room. Lightbulbs popped and tinkled to the floor, plunging us into darkness. The windows cracked and then shattered in a shower of glass. Snow swirled into the room like a blizzard, but didn’t melt when touched by our fire. Water poured from the faucets and flooded onto the carpet, building until there was a lake beneath us and waves ebbed and flowed.
And then we collapsed in a heap together as the mating fire slowly died out.
The last thing I remember before submitting to sleep was that the powers that had unleashed in the room weren’t familiar to me. They were like nothing I’d ever seen or experienced before.
The problem was, I didn’t know if they’d belonged to me, or Julian. Either way we had a problem.
ChapterTwenty-Five
“I’m going to be formally presented to the clans as Archos,” Julian said the next morning as he shook me awake.
I pushed his hands away and rolled over. It felt like we’d just gone to bed. I looked for the clock on the nightstand, but didn’t see it there. The table was turned over on its side and the clock lay faceup on the floor. The red numbers glowed 7:15. I’d been asleep a little over an hour.
After we’d made love the night before—the first time—and let loose the powers that had brought the elements to crash down upon us, the magic that had seemed so destructive at the time calmly put things to rights again. The water drained and the carpet dried. The electricity came back on and the lights fixed themselves. The cracks in the walls sealed themselves, and the room was left almost whole.
I looked around and winced at the broken furniture and overturned plants that lay around the room. The elements hadn’t caused the furniture to break. We’d done that all on our own, and Julian hadn’t gotten around to putting things back together. No wonder I was so sore. And no wonder I’d spent the short time I’d been asleep trying to keep myself from rolling to the floor. The bed dipped down at an extremely weird angle.
“Gods, why does everything have to be so formal around here? And early,” I added.
I was tired of the pomp and circumstance Drakán protocol seemed to demand. I missed my home and my solitude. I’d not had ten minutes of time to myself since I’d stepped foot inside Drummondsey Castle.
Julian was already up and dressed, and he brought a cup of coffee over to me and wrapped my fingers around the hot mug. My dragon immediately popped her eyes open and began to move around as the smell and heat reached her.
“Have you noticed that you’re not very agreeable in the mornings?”
I growled and took a scalding sip before the coffee had had time to cool off. “Maybe if I ever got more than a couple of hours sleep at a time I’d be in a little better mood.”
“Are you really complaining about last night?” he asked rubbing his finger across my bottom lip.
My lips twitched before I could help it. “Complaining might be too strong of a word.” The cobwebs started to clear from my mind, and I finally took a long look at Julian. He’d dressed in another black suit and white dress shirt, but he’d forgone a tie and the collar sat open, exposing the strong length of his throat. His blue eyes were bright and alert, and he smelled like sin. He looked good. Really good.
He growled and moved across the room. “We need to be downstairs in twenty minutes, and your hair is…” He waved his hands above his head in a gesture that made me afraid to look in the mirror.
I pulled the covers off and put my feet on the floor, having every intention of going into the bathroom and making myself presentable, but Julian’s eyes flared and I felt the lick of his magic against my skin before he could reel it back in.
“Twenty minutes is plenty of time,” I said, getting a running start at him.
