Chapter 37
THIRTY-SEVEN
CASSIA
The moon hung low over the Pacific, painting the sea cliffs in silver light. Cassia found Aero exactly where she knew he’d be—standing at the edge of the Dragon Ledge, staring out at the water like he could see the disaster building beneath its surface.
Maybe he could. Storm dragons had senses she was only beginning to understand.
The walk from her cottage had taken longer than usual. Every few steps, she’d paused to argue with herself. Turn back. He needs space. This is a terrible idea. But her feet kept carrying her forward, drawn by something stronger than sense.
Gust had thrown a fit when she told him to stay behind. You’re going to see the dragon. Alone. At night. Before a battle. This is how witches get eaten, he’d accused through their bond, ruffling his feathers in outrage.
“He’s not going to eat me,” she’d told him, though the look she got in return suggested her familiar found that claim dubious.
She’d left him at the cottage anyway, despite his offended protests. Some conversations required privacy. Some nights demanded it.
“You should be sleeping,” she said, her voice carrying over the wind.
Aero didn’t turn. “So should you.”
“Couldn’t.” She crossed the grass to stand beside him, close enough to feel the heat radiating from his skin.
Dragon metabolism, he’d explained. His body ran hot—warmer than any shifter she’d ever known, warmer than should be possible for a creature who wasn’t actively on fire.
She’d started craving that warmth without realizing it—seeking out excuses to stand near him, to brush against him, to feel the fire beneath his careful control.
“Neither could I.” He finally looked at her, and something in his expression made her chest ache. The mask he wore for everyone else—the ancient, untouchable dragon elder—was gone. What remained was raw. Vulnerable. Terrified in a way she’d never seen him.
“What are you thinking?”
“Tomorrow.” His jaw worked. “What might happen. What I might lose.”
The wind whipped her hair across her face, and she didn’t bother to push it back. “We’ve prepared. The town is as ready as it can be. The alphas know the evacuation routes. Delos is recovering. The wards are reinforced.”
“I’m not worried about the town.”
The words hung between them, heavy with implication. Cassia’s heart kicked against her ribs.
“Aero—”
“Tomorrow might go badly.” His voice was rough, stripped of its usual clinical distance.
“I’ve survived a very long time by not caring about outcomes.
By staying detached. Treating everything as data to be analyzed, problems to be solved.
” He turned to face her fully, and the moonlight caught the lightning flickering in the depths of his eyes.
“I can’t do that anymore. If something happens to you—”
“Then we should make tonight count.”
He went still. Completely, utterly still, the way only a predator could manage. “Cassia.”
“I don’t want to spend tonight thinking about what might happen tomorrow.” She stepped closer, close enough to feel his breath catch. “I don’t want to lie awake in my cottage, alone, wondering if I wasted my last night being careful. Being controlled. Being afraid.”
“If we—” He swallowed hard. “Our magic. It’s volatile when we’re close. When we touch. We could—”
“I don’t care.” She reached up, pressing her palm flat against his chest. The hum between them rose to meet her touch, but it didn’t arc or crackle. It flowed. Warm and steady, like a current finding its ground. “I’ve spent my whole life being careful. I’m done being afraid of my own power.”
“Cassia—”
“I want you.” The words came out fierce, unfiltered, everything she’d been holding back pouring through the cracks in her restraint.
“All of you. No holding back. No worrying about property damage or magical volatility or any of the thousand reasons this is probably a terrible idea.” She fisted her hand in his shirt, pulling him down toward her.
“I want to know what it feels like when we stop fighting this.”
His control shattered.
One moment, he was frozen, the next, his mouth was on hers—desperate, demanding, eight centuries of discipline crumbling in the space between heartbeats.
His hands found her waist, her back, tangled in her hair.
He kissed her like she was oxygen and he’d been drowning, like she was the answer to a question he’d been asking his whole impossibly long life.
Cassia melted into him. Opened for him. Let him take, and take, and take while she gave everything she had.
His tongue swept against hers, and she moaned into his mouth.
The sound seemed to break something loose in him.
He growled—actually growled, his dragon rumbling beneath the surface—and hauled her closer until there was no space between them.
She could feel every hard line of his body pressed against hers.
Could feel exactly how much he wanted her.
“Aero.” His name came out breathless when they finally broke apart. “That was—”
He kissed her again before she could finish. Deeper. Slower. His hands slid down her back, over the curve of her hips, pulling her flush against him. Heat radiated from his skin, dragon fire simmering just beneath the surface.
She’d been kissed before. Plenty of times. But nothing—nothing—had ever felt like this. Like coming home and catching fire at the same time. Like every nerve ending in her body was suddenly, gloriously awake.
His mouth left hers to trail down her jaw, her throat. When his teeth scraped against her pulse point, she gasped and clutched at his shoulders.
“Tell me to stop,” he rasped against her skin. “Tell me this is too fast, and I’ll stop. I’ll walk you back to your cottage, and we’ll pretend—”
“Don’t you dare.” She grabbed his face in both hands, forcing him to look at her. His eyes were wild, lightning flickering in their depths. “Don’t you dare stop.”
Something fierce and possessive crossed his face. He kissed her again, harder, his hands sliding beneath the hem of her shirt to find bare skin. His palms were hot—so hot—spreading fire everywhere they touched.
The wind rose around them, but it wasn’t chaotic or destructive. It wrapped around them like a caress, their combined magic responding to the heat building between them.
Cassia kissed him back just as fiercely. He matched her beat for beat. When she nipped at his lower lip, he groaned and ground his hips against hers. When she scraped her nails down the back of his neck, he shuddered and pressed her closer.
Lightning flickered in the clouds overhead. Thunder rumbled in the distance. But it didn’t feel dangerous. It felt…
Right.
“Cabin,” she gasped against his mouth when they finally came up for air. “Unless you want the whole town to see—”
He didn’t let her finish. One arm hooked beneath her knees, lifting her against his chest like she weighed nothing. Storm dragons were strong. She’d known that intellectually. Feeling it was something else entirely.
They barely made it through the door.