Chapter 22 Together
TOGETHER
Ileave Strom with a laugh, before I have to get it together and give a ring to my Third Drake.
Mikkel is pensive as he rises from the table, staring down at the rings in my hand.
I feel his vast inner conflict as we stand together.
Because although Strom felt he never would get married, thanks to the number Alfhild did on him in his youth, Mikkel feels like he never could get married.
Because of his inner beast, Mikkel has felt unlovable his entire life.
Like he could never dare let anyone in far enough to see the real him, except Laerke.
He’s silent now as we stand together, gazing at the rings.
There are only two left, and the one that is Mikkel’s is obvious.
A fire opal with a strange vein of black running through it, the opal has bright streaks of copper along with shimmering light green cracks.
It matches one in my ring, right near my silver dragon’s tail.
I feel Mikkel’s wretched heartbreak as he looks at his ring.
Then reaches out to touch it, skating his fingers over it.
“I never dared to hope,” he says, quiet now as he takes it. As he claims it, a deep heave runs through our dragons, pulling them close as his gaze flicks to mine. As he holds the ring, I see the chartreuse in his eyes is vivid, but also the copper.
The eyes of Mikkel’s dragon searing out from his impossibly handsome face.
“Because of what I am, I never dared to hope I could ever be life-mated.” Mikkel gazes at me, intense. “I thought I could not be loved. I thought I could not love, being what I am.”
As Mikkel reaches up with his free hand, he touches my face with his fingertips. I shiver, feeling his intensity as our dragons are hauled into each other tighter.
“I thought I was not a thing to be loved,” he rasps as his eyes shine brighter, fiercer—even more pained.
They seem too bright now, as if with unshed tears.
“But you hammered through my walls, Rikyava; you broke every rule I had, about who I am and what I can do. You showed me my inner brightness; that it’s been there all along, despite how much I’ve been a bastard, and still am, sometimes.
You showed me I can be both. And have strength, as both. Stronger… because I am both.”
“Our darkness is part of our light,” I tell him as I touch his hand, cupping it to my face.
“I understand that now. I didn’t, before,” Mikkel says as he gives me the smallest, most honest wisp of a smile. There’s no showman in that smile, and no pirate. Only a beautiful man, finally daring to love.
And let himself be loved.
Because he’s worth it.
“I love you, Mikkel.” As I reach out, I take the ring from his paused hand. Lowering his left hand from my face, I hold it, threading the ring on his left ring finger. “I claim you. I want you. And I see you.”
Mikkel can’t say anything, as his breath hitches. Tears do fall then, streaming down his face as he stares at me. “I see you, too, Rikyava,” he rasps as he swallows hard. “And I love you.”
As I clasp his hand, holding it in solidarity against the demon he’s always thought he was, Mikkel cries. He doesn’t sob, he doesn’t make a sound; he doesn’t have to, though, because I can feel how much his heart is breaking.
Being remade because of our love.
A deep wind whisks all around and through us, then, as Mikkel and I become one. As our dragons are hauled inside each other now, I feel how we dive into each other entirely, glorifying in having found each other.
Because ours is a complex, unconventional relationship; we need it to be whole inside ourselves, however, where we are each complex, unconventional, and sometimes vastly dark.
A massive resonance fills us now, as we’re swept together by the power of our bond, solidified by the rings. As it hauls us together, my left hand brushing Mikkel’s and our rings combusting with power as they touch, I feel a vast night sky open up all through me and him.
As a dark, ancient power goes roaring all around us now, that power is quiet. Calm for the very first time, like the deepest, most beautiful night, I see stars flash in the darkness as Mikkel and I come together.
It’s the deepest resonance of our united Bone Magic, which has no wrath. A beautiful place, ancient and wise, it floods us now as Mikkel leaves the softest, tenderest kiss on my lips.
His kiss is like midnight velvet, as he places it upon me.
I breathe him in as we revel in being together.
The power of our bond rolls us. For a moment, I go into an instant trance, feeling Mikkel and me together in that night full of endless stars.
The stars wink at me through the velvet dark, now green, now copper, now a luminous gold as we come together as true life-mates, at last.
It’s beautiful, and unfathomable, as we find each other in this perfect place now. Because there’s beauty in the darkness, if one can only look closely enough and get calm enough to find it.
We’ve both found it now—together.
Mikkel and I breathe in a deep silence together as that massive power gradually settles.
We just breathe now, holding hands upon his chest as he cradles me close, our foreheads together as we take deep inhalations and let them out as one.
I feel our hearts beat in unison. Mikkel does, too, as the sweetest smile lifts his lips.
Then he kisses me one last time.
And takes my hand, turning me towards Baldur.
Baldur waits quietly nearby, as I have my moment with Mikkel. Already risen from the table, he knows what’s coming; eagerness and fire roar through his blue-diamond eyes, as he takes me in, ready for this.
Because Baldur’s waited his entire life to be mine. Now, the last step of our life-mate bond is happening, as Mikkel releases me and he steps close.
Devouring me with his searing galactic eyes.
“Are you ready for this?” I ask him then, as I hold the last ring.
The fire opal in this one is almost entirely white, searing with a celestial brightness, though it has tiny flecks of every color in it, with a deep flash of blue.
It matches one in my ring right near the dragon’s head, our celestial center, and it suits Baldur.
“You already know my answer,” Baldur chides me gently as he regards me. He reaches out, taking the last ring from my palm.
A cosmic heave of power nearly buckles my knees, as our dragons crash together—endless. I’m breathing hard as I gaze up at him, my heart thundering. I jolted from the massive power in our connection just now; Baldur’s hand is on my waist, steadying me as he draws me in.
There is no hesitation as he holds me close, staring down at me with eyes gone to every color of the cosmos now. His blue irises burn a fiery phosphoric white flecked with gold. A searing ring of crimson is also around them, however, as the cosmic fire of the universe fills my Fourth Drake.
I feel how much Baldur’s soul wants to do battle for me, as I stare up at him now, held close in his arms. Because he wants this; he was born for this. He’s been waiting almost his entire life to be here with me, right now, and do this together, uniting forever under one purpose.
Even though he wants to mate with me all through the skies, however, becoming endlessly one as we fuck some serious Black Dragon shit up, there’s still one tiny problem.
As we stand together in this vast magnificence, a universal glory that brightens Baldur like a comet now, streaking through the skies, I see the need that trembles him. I feel his addiction blaze through him as he shivers before me, ready to touch and to bond.
Because that bond comes with power—and Baldur’s addiction to using high-level magic for insane runic rituals is all about power.
It’s something we can’t have in this bond, unchecked, without addressing it first. I lift my hand to his cheek—forestalling him from truly becoming mine, despite our universal glory.
It’s just the gentlest movement of my drakaina in the Void, as I nip a warning through our bond—for Baldur to wake back up and notice what’s happening to him.
Even that slight movement of my drakaina jolts Baldur like an electric shock, however; as he realizes where he just went in our moment of becoming one, his trance with the power snaps out.
Chagrin fills him, with woe. His beautiful blue eyes darken to a deep midnight hue, as I hold him in that tortuous space.
Letting him know I’m here for him—no matter what.
“The addiction is not you,” I tell him firmly now, as I feel him throw up a wall between us, breaking our resonance.
I reach out, setting my free hand on his heart as I hold his cheek in my palm.
“The lust to go wild with this magic does not control you. You have shown the world how much mastery you have over it already; eight hundred years of containing your power, using it for good, and keeping others safe. It’s time to let all that go now; all the shame, all the fear that something is wrong with you, or evil.
You’re a good man, Baldur; you’re an excellent mate.
And you’re a powerful dragon, not because of the sigils you can create, but because of who you are.
You have the most beautiful heart; it shines like the sun itself.
Don’t hide that from me; don’t hide that from us.
We need you; we love you. I love you, for everything you are.
We will face this addiction together for all the days of our life.
I’m with you. And I’m not turning back.”
“But what if I am evil, Rikyava?” Baldur murmurs now as his eyebrows draw into a hard line, his deep blue eyes afraid. “What if you haven’t even met the Baldur I can be yet, when I’m in that place?”
“Then let me in,” I say, leaning into him as I gaze up into his dark, woebegone eyes. “Let me see. Let me be your Bloodmate, and you be mine… and share our light, our love, our hardships, and our sorrows as one. I’m ready for it. Are you?”