CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
I LEAN BACK AGAINST ZADDRO'S leg, his familiar black scales digging into my back. The tip of my blade scrapes under my nail, digging out the dirt that collected there from the day, as I watch everyone—my chosen family—muddle around the encampment we set up for the night.
Aemon and Killian have taken the first watch of the perimeter, their shadows barely noticeable in the distance, while our dragons have made themselves comfortable just on the outside of our circle of tents.
Ravina is sitting near the fire with her friends, lying in Jesper’s lap as they talk about everything that occurred with the dragons, marvelling over Ember’s newly bonded beast. The newest addition to our makeshift family—a family I never thought I would truly embrace.
I always had the males I call brothers, but it was never so…
warm. No, the warmth was brought by the presence of my mate.
I still don’t fully accept that I deserve all of this, her love especially, but I know now that I would be one stupid male if I didn’t continue to try to earn that worthiness.
Her bond burns brightly in my chest, and I can’t help but rub my scarred stomach where her mark now sits restored amongst the damage.
And next to her bond, I can feel all the others connected through her, including our creatures—besides Zaddro’s.
I’ve never felt less alone in my life and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
“Just how it was always supposed to be,” my dragon adds.
“Bonds… Mates of both fae and beast were always supposed to be symbiotic. Without one, the realm falls into chaos, and now…” His long head swivels to peer at our group.
“Things are starting to be righted once again. I feel it in the hollows of my bones.”
“We just need to defeat the evil that is my father and figure out how to destroy an indestructible magickal artifact that can control the minds of anything that breathes and summon an army vulnerable only to shadowflame.” I glance over at him with a smirk. “Easy, right?”
He chuffs with amusement. “Easy. Now, stop hanging around my scales; you’re going to scuff them up. Go be with your mate.”
A low chuckle escapes me as I push off his leg and make my way over to the others, pushing his words about balance to the back of my mind until tomorrow.
After days of travel and today’s revelations, we need a night off to not think.
Which is something I never thought I would hear myself say.
I’m not going to borrow tomorrow’s problems when I can live in the moment for once, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing.
Rav senses my nearness and turns her head toward me, her face lighting up in a way that makes my stomach tighten with nerves. She smiles and holds out her hand to me, and I swear that mix of her sapphire eyes and devastating smile could bring a realm to its knees.
I take her hand in mine and settle next to Jesper who nods and winks in my direction before scooping Rav up and placing her in my lap.
“Your turn to be the throne for our Queen. I need to relieve myself,” he states before bounding into the forest with far too much energy.
Rav laughs, her back shaking against my chest, and I marvel at the fact that my mate, the female I was always attached to whether it be a fledglinghood friend, a crush, an annoyingly frustrating cadet or like now, the light of my soul, is mine.
After everything we’ve been through and all the bullshit I put her through.
She twists her neck to look back at me and whispers, “You know, if you keep thinking sweet things about me, I may have to do something about it.”
I brush my lips against her ear. “And what would that be, Princess?”
She shifts her ass and I bite my lip to muffle the sound that wants to escape, my canines piercing my lip.
It hasn’t been just the two of us in so long, not since the night we made our bond official. Our promise to each other is written in the stars for the Fates and all to see, and fuck do I want her. No, I need her.
“Why don’t we escape into the forest, away from all these ears, and you can find out?” she whispers back.
“Deal,” I mumble, nipping at her ear, my hands skimming her waist, but as I go to pick both of us up off the ground, her shadows pull us through and drop us atop a pile of moss in an alcove, somehow protected from the snowy ground. “How did you know this was here?”
“Ember and I found it while scouting after we got here. I stored it here just in case.” She taps her temple.
The noise from the others celebrating and resting at the encampment reaches my ears and I nearly sigh out in relief that we didn’t venture too far from everyone else, just in case.
With that worry off my chest, I grip her cheeks gently between my hands, bringing my face down to meet her lips with mine.
The kiss ignites my soul, and the taste of her lips feeds me like nothing else in this realm.
I swear I could live off her kisses alone.
She leans back, pulling me with her and guiding me between her legs. “I need you, Talyn.”
“If you don’t shadow your clothes off of you, I’ll burn them, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want me to do that…
” My hand slides up past her waist to her breast, where her nipple is pebbled.
I pinch it, causing her to gasp. “I know you’re very fond of the armored corset.
” I smirk when our clothing vanishes a moment later, appearing beside us in a heap, leaving my mate flushed and needy beneath me. “Fucking Fates, you’re perfect.”
I dive back in, kissing her again while my hand finds its way between her legs only to find she’s already drenched and ready for me.
She moans. “Jesper kept teasing me the entire time. I swear he does it on purpose.”
“Remind me to thank him for readying you for me.” I press my tip to her and nudge it into her entrance. “It’s been too long since I’ve had all of you just for myself, and I don’t think I can hold back.”
“Fuck me already, Tal. I need to feel you inside—” She gasps as I thrust hilt-deep inside her, her nails digging into my shoulders, urging me on.
Her body clenches around me as we move in a frenzied tandem. All want and need, pure primal instinct of needing to claim your mate and make sure the realm knows that they’re yours.
The base of my spine begins to tingle but I hold it back, needing her to come first. Needing her to fall apart in my arms. “Come for me princess. Now.”
She bites into my shoulder, muffling a scream as her body tenses and shakes around me, her cunt milking me dry as I fall with her until we are nothing but breathless heaps on the moss next to each other.
A soft sigh leaves her lips and she nuzzles against me. “I needed that with you,” she mutters softly. “I feel like things have been so crazy lately we haven’t had much time to just be us.”
“Me too. I’ll sneak you away more often.” I pull her close, not nearly ready to let her go.
She giggles and for some reason it makes me feel like I’ve conquered the tallest mountain. “Oh, yes please. Especially during those damn royal meetings.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I murmur.
We lay there for a moment, watching the fireflies light up the alcove, before she sighs. “We should probably head back before the others start getting impatient.”
“Let them be. They’ve had more time with you. Another few minutes won’t kill them.” My fingers run along her smooth skin, soaking in her presence.
“I suppose you’re right.” She grins up at me, leaning in for another kiss, when my hairs stand on end.
I sit up, still holding her against me. “Shadow our clothing on,” I whisper, which she does without hesitation.
The shadows seem to pulse and I hear Jesper, running toward us at full force. “Watch out!”
The male from Craven’s cabin in the mountains steps out of the shadows in front of us and I instinctively put myself between my mate and the interloper.
The shadows pulse again and I reach for my blade as the male stretches out his hand toward me and the realm slows. Jesper jumps between us and the last thing I see is his mischievous grin before him and the male disappear. From here we can hear Tisur’s roar and it shakes the ground.
No! That fucking bastard! Where are you?
I try to reach him through the bond but there’s nothing.
I still feel him there, so he must be alive, but what in the fucking Fates just happened?
In a blink of an eye somehow Jesper put himself in the middle, and we barely had a second to react. Did he just stop me from being taken?
Ravina’s rage pours through the bond like an erupting volcano.
“No! Jesper!” She grabs my hand and shadows us back to the camp, dropping us right in the middle of everyone.
“They took him! They took Jesper!” Her hands are steady as she grips her blades just as the first sound of wraiths screeching in the distance rent through the field. Their noises make my flesh pebble.
“We are under attack. Arm yourselves and stay close!” Killian bellows, taking his place at Ravina’s back as she replaces her daggers with her sword, tears of anger rolling down her face as she wars with the panic in her chest.
I grab her hand. “We will get him back, I promise. Let’s just end these fuckers first. Take out your frustration on them,” I whisper.
She nods, unable to speak as she squeezes my hand back before heading to Vasari, lighting her sword with shadowflame.
I glance over at Tisur. He roars again, his serpentine eyes nearly feral with rage from his missing rider.
The bond to him opens just a bit and his thoughts are broadcast to all of us.
“ My rider, I can’t feel him. Don’t know where.
Don’t know where. Don’t know where.” My throat closes and we all try to push soothing thoughts toward his beast but I’m not sure it does much to help.
In moments we each have a weapon blazing with the purple flames.
The first wraith breaks the treeline and doesn’t hesitate as it streamlines straight towards us, smoke and shadow surround it, moving faster than any fae could possibly move.
Dozens follow and Evisdor, Vasari and Ember’s white dragon Ivna shoot spurts of shadowflame toward the advancing group, taking out as many as they can.
A few slip through, and Aemon and I dive into the fray, taking out any that dare get close.
Nero soars above Ravina and I can hear him chattering to her, being her eyes in the sky as she whirls around with the grace of a warrior queen, with Killian at her back.
After the longest ten minutes of my life, the field grows quiet, with nothing but our heavy breaths filling the space.
Everyone is okay.
Everyone but Jesper.