Epilogue
Tyvaron
Pain.
Heat.
Smoke in my throat.
Metal claws at my mind.
I disobeyed. They scream inside my head. It hurts. They don’t stop.
I should have killed. I should have burned them.
I did not.
The small ones live. The ones they fear. The ones they hate.
I was told to kill and I did not.
Because I remembered.
A flicker. A scent.
Soft skin. Warm breath.
Small hands. A voice like light.
Not prey. Not enemy.
Different.
Mine.
The fire inside me stirs. Old. Faint.
From before the metal. Before the pain.
I crawl back to my cave. To stone. To dark. To quiet.
My wing drags. My bones crack. My fire is weak.
Pain is everything.
But she is close.
I feel her.
I hear her breath beneath the stone.
The pain will return.
The chains will pull.
But for now… I breathe.
And I remember.
And I hope.
My beta readers were very insistent on getting another spicy scene, this time with both you-know-what…