Chapter 37 #2
Rhaz drew in a slow breath. “In my realm, dragons do not give their hearts lightly.” His gaze never left hers. “We choose only once.”
The words settled between them, simple and absolute. Phin tried to swallow and couldn’t.
“We do not court for sport,” he said, a gentle smile touching his lips. “We are not sensible enough.”
Despite the horror of the evening, Phin laughed. Several heads turned their way, but she ignored them.
“When a dragon knows,” Rhaz continued softly, running a finger down her cheek, “he knows in the deepest part of his heart.” His forehead lowered until it rested gently against hers. “I have known for some time, Seraphina Ironwood.”
Phin’s heart nearly stopped.
“I think part of me first knew it in the pine grove,” he said quietly. “Then at the market. Your downtown.” A hint of amusement touched his eyes. “And I certainly knew it when you ran away after I purchased a ring.”
She groaned. “You’re going to keep bringing that up, aren’t you?”
Rhaz chuckled, but his expression soon grew serious once more. “When I thought I might lose you tonight, I realized something.”
She swallowed hard. “What?”
His eyes held hers. “There is no future I desire that does not have you in it.”
The words struck her harder than any grand declaration ever could. Not because they were dramatic, but because they were true.
Rhaz drew in a steadying breath. “Seraphina Ironwood.”
Nobody spoke. At some point the others had gone silent. Even Quill stopped clipping samples.
“I offer you my heart.” His hand settled over hers. “My loyalty. My protection.” His voice deepened on the last word.
The fire crackled softly behind them, accompanied by the sound of the waves as he spoke.
“I offer you the treasures of my hoard.”
That earned a snort from Jessica.
Neither looked away from each other. “My future,” he continued softly. “My forever, little flame.”
Tears gathered in Phin’s eyes.
“I am a dragon,” he said. “I do not know how humans ask this question.”
A few chuckles drifted through the group.
“But I know how dragons do.” He pressed his forehead gently against hers. “I choose you.”
Silence settled over the beach. A beautiful hopeful silence.
Rhaz’s voice dropped to little more than a whisper. “Will you choose me?”
For a moment, Phin couldn’t speak.
The question hung between them. It was simple and ancient, terrifying in its sincerity.
Will you choose me?
He didn’t get down on one knee and present her with a ring. But she understood exactly what Rhaz was offering.
Tears blurred her vision, not because she was frightened or uncertain, but because nobody had ever looked at her the way Rhaz was looking at her now. As if she were the most precious thing in the world. An irreplaceable treasure.
A watery laugh escaped Phin as she pressed her face against his chest. “I do.” His arms tightened around her. “I do, Rhaz. I do.”
The words came easier the second time. She looked up at him through tear-filled eyes.
For a moment he simply stared at her. Then a smile spread slowly across his face. Not the amused smile that appeared whenever she teased him. No, this was something deeper.
For a moment, he looked almost stunned, as though he couldn’t believe she’d said it.
Rhaz lowered his head and kissed her forehead, and a soft murmur swept through the gathered group.
Phin saw Jessica wipe her eyes while Richard slipped an arm around her shoulders. Pearl sniffed loudly. Louise made absolutely no effort to hide the fact that she was openly crying. Sam smiled and wrapped an arm around both women. Did they even know what he’d just asked her?
Anon looked suspiciously pleased. “About bloody time,” he muttered.
Beside the corpse, Quill capped a specimen vial. “I bet Emory would say that statistically speaking, this outcome was inevitable.”
Nobody paid him any attention.
Rhaz rested his forehead against Phin’s one final time. “I am sorry, little flame, but I must go.”
The words dimmed some of her happiness, but she understood. The creature still needed to be dealt with. Her hand brushed his cheek. “I know.”
“I will return.” There was such certainty in his voice that doubt never even entered her mind.
Phin nodded. “I know that too.”
His smile softened as he ran a finger down her nose. “Good.” Reluctantly, he stepped away. The moment his arms left her, the night suddenly seemed colder.
Rhaz turned toward the remains of the Sarian, firelight gleaming across his features. Golden light erupted around him.
Phin stared. She wasn’t used to watching him shift and suspected it might be a very long time before she was.
The transformation happened so quickly it barely seemed possible. One moment a man stood on the beach. The next, a massive crimson dragon towered above them.
Gasps rippled through the group even though everyone there had seen it before. It somehow never became ordinary.
Rhaz lowered himself as Aaron approached without hesitation. Betty caught his hand before he could climb aboard. For a moment neither of them spoke.
Then Betty rose onto her tiptoes and kissed him.
Aaron grinned. “I will be back, Betty.”
“You had better.” She shook a finger at him.
Aaron’s grin widened before he vaulted onto Rhaz’s back.
The dragon spread his enormous wings and turned his massive head. For a moment, his golden eyes found Phin’s. The dragon gave a slow nod, then launched himself into the sky.
Sand exploded outward, everyone’s hair and clothing whipped wildly beneath the force of his wings. Phin shielded her face and watched him climb higher and higher above the beach until he became a dark silhouette against the stars.
Then he banked sharply over the ocean.
She frowned. “What is he doing?”
The answer came a moment later. Rhaz folded his wings and dove. Several people yelped. Pearl outright squeaked as the dragon streaked toward the beach in a blur of crimson scales and rushing wind. At the very last moment, he extended his claws.
The charred remains of the Sarian vanished into his grasp. With a powerful beat of his wings, Rhaz climbed once more and headed out over the moonlit waters.
Phin stood motionless beside the fire and watched him go.
The dragon grew smaller and smaller against the night sky until he became little more than a distant silhouette. Once that disappeared only the sound of the waves remained.
Phin wrapped her arms around herself. A mix of relief, wonder and disbelief swirled together inside her. But above everything else was love.
Just a few hours earlier she’d been roasting marshmallows with her friends. Now she was standing on a moonlit beach after accepting the heart of a dragon.
The thought should have sounded ridiculous. Instead, it felt right.
Phin smiled, lifted her gaze toward the dark horizon where Rhaz had vanished, and waited for him to come home.