Chapter Forty-Four
Dela
“The Test?” I stared up at his face, my stomach doing flips at the look in his eyes, blue irises now swirling like troubled waters.
Whatever the Test was, it was a big deal to him.
“I’m sorry, by the way,” he said. “For whatever happened back in my chambers. I did not mean to hurt or offend you, though it is clear I did somehow.”
“I think,” I said, reaching out to take his hand, “that it was perhaps a case of miscommunication. I thought that you were telling me that after we’d, um—”
“Had sex?” he said bluntly.
“Yeah,” I said, hurriedly moving on. “After that, you said emotions don’t always follow physical longings. I thought you were saying that you realized after we’d gotten together that you didn’t actually have any emotional connection with me. That I was just a, a, well, another kill count, I guess.”
The troubled gaze vanished, replaced by one full of fire and passion as he took me by the shoulders, staring directly at me.
“You are absolutely not just another ‘kill count,’” he growled. “I would never use that term to describe you. Ever. You are so much more than that to me, Dela, and I intend to prove it before the God-King.”
I shivered at his proclamation. “The Test?”
He nodded. “The Test.”
“What is it? What does it involve?” I wondered, trying to rack my brain. There was so much I’d taken in over the past few days, and I couldn’t hope to keep it all sorted. Had he mentioned it before?
“Well, I told you that for dragons, some of us mate out of convenience, right? Not all are blessed with Eternal Mates?”
“I think so, yes,” I said, my head moving up and down slowly while I thought back to our conversations. “That sounds familiar.”
“Do you recall how I said that to formally become an Eternal Mate, it is a bestowed thing, not a natural occurrence?”
I chewed my bottom lip. “Maybe. What exactly does that mean? It was something to do with your God-King, right?”
He nodded slowly. “Yes. We must go to him. There, he will judge us.”
“How?”
To my surprise, Ember shrugged. “I have no idea. Nobody does, except those who’ve gone through it, and they are sworn to secrecy.”
“And you think I’m your Eternal Mate and want to go before your God-King to see if he agrees?”
“I do, yes,” he said.
“Then let’s go,” I said, eager to see what someone else would say.
I couldn’t deny the connection I felt with Ember.
It was unlike anything else I’d ever experienced.
And it would be so refreshing to have a third perspective evaluate our potential relationship.
If he said we weren’t compatible, it would save me a lot of wasted time.
I would be sad, of course, because I liked Ember.
But I would rather move on now than invest even more time.
“Just like that?” he asked, surprised.
“I mean, I’m not a dragon, Ember, so I’m not letting myself get my hopes up too much,” I said, squeezing his hand.
“But I’ve been in so many dead-end relationships lately.
Ones that I thought were going somewhere that I thought had a future.
Being able to have an immortal being judge this one from the start will make all the difference in the world.
If he says we aren’t fit, it will suck. But I won’t sink any more time into a failed relationship this way. ”
“We are a fit,” he growled. “You are mine, and I am yours. I know this. But Dela, you need to know, it’s not quite that simple.”
“What do you mean? Why not? We go there, he judges us, and then we act based on what he says.”
“Seeking an Eternal Mate isn’t to be treated like a game,” Ember said.
“Otherwise, there would be a line of people just seeking their one partner. It is called the Test because the participants are tested. Nobody knows how, but the one thing we know is that if you aren’t Eternal Mates, you don’t return. ”
My stomach dropped out at the finality of that sentence. “You’re not talking about him sending me home and banishing me from the realm, are you?”
He shook his head. “My older brother, Blaze, the one who should be on the throne. He and his mate took the Test several months ago. They didn’t return. You saw firsthand the fallout from that.”
“So, if you aren’t Eternally Mated, he kills you?”
“Nobody knows what he does if you fail, but that seems likely,” Ember said. “It is why so few Eternal Mated pairs exist. Because to fail means the end. Most dragons settle for human-style arrangements.”
“But you can’t.”
“No. To sit on the throne, for me to become the Prince of Fire, I must have an Eternal Mate.”
“Me,” I said quietly, turning to stare at Mount Drakonus. Its peak was lost in turbulent blue-gray clouds ringing the upper level.
“Yes,” he whispered. “I realized something before, Dela, when I heard that Albright had you. I was angry, yes, beyond furious. I’ve never felt rage like that before. But on my flight here, that rage tempered, and I was able to look deeper.”
“Deeper?”
“Yes,” he continued slowly as if the words were unusual for him to say. Which they may very well have been. “I asked myself why I was so angry. It wasn’t just that Albright had kidnapped you. That was part of it. But there was another part. A part that showed me how I know you’re mine.”
“How’s that?”
“Because, Dela, I worried that I might lose you. I was angry because I was scared. Scared that he would kill you and that I would never see you again. Never touch you again. Kiss you.”
His fingers tightened around mine, and he pulled me into him, burying me in a fiery kiss that threatened to make my hair stand on end from the electric connection it created.
I dropped his hand and wrapped my arms around his neck.
He stood up straight, and my feet left the ground, one foot kicking up high as he spun me gently in a circle.
“That was quite the declaration,” I said as we parted for air. “I’ve never had a man speak to me quite like that before. So passionately.”
I’d never been wanted the way Ember wanted me. In all sense of the word. But still. The Test sounded serious.
“How can you know it will work?” I asked. “A human-dragon pairing? Has that ever happened before?”
“Not to my knowledge,” he admitted. “But, Dela, something brought you here, into the castle, that very first night. It wasn’t me.
I don’t possess that magic. Only one being does, and I think he was trying to show us something, trying to show me something.
And that thing was you. A human. A race I disdained for its weakness.
He wanted to show me its strengths. And what it could mean for the future of my race. ”
“I questioned it at first,” he continued, hurrying on before I could speak.
“I asked why a human here. I didn’t need that trouble.
I wanted to be rid of you, to send you home and never see you again, despite your beauty and wit.
But something prevented that, and I thank the God-King for it now because it allowed me to see you.
The real you. And now I’m done questioning, done wondering why he brought you here because I can see that you’re perfect for me, Dela.
You’re my mate. There’s no other that makes me burn the way you do. ”
His voice had grown heated and passionate as he poured his soul out to me, and I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by his words.
I’d always thought his emotions were mainly surface-level—heated and full of zest, quick to anger and quick to care—but I was seeing a different side of him, and I was okay with it. But there was one last question to ask.
“What if … what if I don’t want to take the Test? What would you do?” I asked, still unsure. The idea that I could be dead in an hour or two sat uneasily, despite my feelings for Ember.
“Relinquish the throne,” he said instantly, without hesitation.
“For me?”
He paused, thinking over his words. “Partially,” he said at last. “You’re the only woman I could see myself loving for the next century.
However, if you choose not to take the Test because either you do not feel the same or you’re scared, then I will step aside.
There will never be another Eternal Mate for me, and therefore without you, I am not fit to rule.
My youngest brother will be next in line. Ashe would be a good ruler.”
I could see the reluctance in his words. Ember didn’t want to put that responsibility on Ashe, but he would do what was best for the princedom, as he always had. That was the sign of a good prince. Someone fit to sit on the throne.
So, the question that remained for me was simple: would I rather die than live without Ember? Because that was what I was doing. Risking death.
Reaching up, I stroked his cheek and jaw, staring into his eyes, listening to the beat of my heart while feeling the thudding of his pulse in his neck. One, then the other.
Ba-dump.
Ba-dump.
Who was following whom? Which one came first? I didn’t know, but they were there, two distinct pressures that I could feel but not hear.
He smiled at me. My heart skipped.
And then there was one beat. Together, in sync.
Ba-dump.
“Yes,” I whispered, breaking into a grin. My answer was given to me without words. “I will take the Test with you, Ember. I want to live with you. I will risk it.”
“You will?” His eagerness couldn’t be ignored, and my heart swelled at his reaction.
I nodded. “Yes. I will. For you, I will risk it.”