Chapter 25 One
ONE
At the end of his slender golden thread, my first true love writhes in and in upon himself, cursed and reliving terrible memories. Because he is cursed, as I see devastating oilslick-black sigils cascade through every part of his auric dragon-flesh here in this awful place, eating him up.
He is cursed by his own memories in this place of madness and ruination—the Black Dragon’s Void. I arrive where Bjorn is now, as I feel how he has lost himself. He doesn’t feel my presence as he writhes in turmoil in this place of sundered skies and nothingness.
I go to him, but he doesn’t sense me; as he churns, I feel in his soul how he feels he’s lost everything. Annihilated thoughts devour him, about everything he’s endured and what his life has become.
Because Bjorn feels he has lost it all—his home, his King, his battle with his father, now even our Bloodbond which joined him to something so good and light. He can’t find his innermost light anymore, and this turmoil inside him claims him.
Eating him up, in this place of no stars.
My heart breaks for Bjorn as I witness his agony here in this screaming hellhole. I realize why he’s not come back to consciousness with his soul trapped in this place; it’s because he doesn’t feel there’s anything worth returning to, now that his Bloodbond with me and all of us is sundered.
I coil around him now in the screaming emptiness, letting him know he’s not alone in this wretched place. Bjorn feels me as I coil all around and through him; I feel him understand that someone is here, someone cares, and has come to find him in his endless, most ruined hell.
As I coil into him now with my auric dragon, stroking and comforting him in his soul’s flesh, I feel how he doesn’t recognize it’s me yet.
He just knows the animal comfort all shapeshifters need; to be held, stroked, and loved, even though we’re stuck here inside the Black Dragon’s Void, rather than in our actual bodies.
He knows someone is with him now, however, and that I’m not letting go, as I open my heart wide to everything he’s feeling, and everything he’s lost.
Bjorn’s worst memories go tumbling through me now, thanks to our auric closeness.
I let them come, feeling them with him. I roar with him; I gnash my teeth with him.
I rake my talons through the screaming nothingness as I buck and writhe, and experience all the pain and loss Bjorn’s had throughout his entire life.
That misery comes, but I don’t let it be all there is. Deep inside, I flare bright all the good times, the laughter, and the love. I show Bjorn the joy as I pour these memories through his auric dragon now, making him understand all is not lost.
Because we never would have found each other, had he not been banished from his clan and sought his fortune elsewhere. I feel him slow in his writhing now, as he feels me show him everything good in his life that has come to pass, even from the bad.
He finally knows it is me; at last, Bjorn feels it is a lifemate who has come to find him in this diabolical emptiness, even though we’re no longer Bloodbonded.
But we’re still lifemates. And I will not abandon him, now or ever, as I coil all around and through him harder, kissing his dragon-lips and pouring my sweet memories into him, even as we writhe in a terrible place.
I kiss him with everything I have now, flooding my heart and all its light through every part of him now. I am using every bit of power I have from my drakes to do it, as Bjorn ceases to writhe out in the stars.
A massive space opens inside him now. With the two of us with lips locked, just breathing together, he ceases moving, and a great pause fills him. He’s not come to peace yet—but he has stopped torturing himself with the worst of the worst, here in this terrible place.
At last, remembering the best of the best.
Bjorn gasps as I feel his awareness of the good times flood back. In that moment, I pour everything that’s ever been incredible between us in through his open lips, his jaws locked to mine.
As I summon every feeling I’ve ever had for him, the amazing and the awful, I flood it all down through his throat, right from my innermost heart.
It reaches Bjorn. He gives a massive sob in the screaming emptiness as all the love I feel for him, through thick and thin, through all our rage, tenderness, and woe, finally reaches his heart.
And his body sobs upon the bed far below.
I feel my love crack him wide open then; so much goodness flows into Bjorn now, as he finally feels the rest of our Bloodbond through me, and how he is never alone.
He knows now that even if we are no longer Bloodbonded, there are people in this world who love him. And through everything, we are here for him.
I am here for him—and will never give him up again.
We bare our deepest fears and hearts to each other now, as we coil and braid together in the screaming emptiness. A gargantuan wave of love heaves back at me now from Bjorn’s innermost heart, and everything inside him becomes light.
As that wave of love strikes me, deep into my heart also, everything inside us ignites.
Cursed sigils are banished from Bjorn’s dragon, and deep within his heart, as a towering burst of auric fire blazes from us, incredible.
That blaze lights up the darkness; auric sigils seethe everywhere through Bjorn now, as he gives himself over to his truest heart.
The heart I love so much, and cannot be without.
We find a space of blazing togetherness now, in this place without stars. His love for me and my love for him raze my blood, all the way into my everlasting soul and back as I join with him now, consummating our love for one another in this place of endless night.
For Bjorn has slid into me, and I have slid into him, in an impossible joining that cannot be achieved in the flesh. As we do, I feel how he wakes with a jolt upon the bed, far back in the physical world.
Seizing me in his arms, he crushes me with his kiss as we crash together on the bed now, feeling everything our auric dragons are doing in the Black Dragon’s Void.
There is no hesitation, only radiance, as our woes and miseries, our loves and joys, cascade so hard through each other now that it shakes this place with no stars.
We have become united now in a way we never found with each other before, as our metaphysical dragons celebrate our new togetherness in this terrible place.
As Bjorn tosses back the covers and I straddle him in our physical bodies, he sinks deep into me, hard. I cry out as he pierces me; but he’s not back all the way yet from the Black Dragon’s Void, where we still writhe together in our burning light.
And I must have him back.
Bjorn is inside me, and I am inside him as we heave and thrust, and fuck hard in our togetherness. As he grips my hips in his big, strong hands, pinning me, I ride his every towering thrust with a careening joy beaming from my heart.
We come together in our deepest love now—something we’ve never found with each other before. As Bjorn finally understands that he and I are not adversaries and never have been, that we’re together in this and always will be, our most potent auric fire ignites between us in the Black Dragon’s Void.
That incredible love, which heals all broken hearts.
It shines like a lodestone in the darkness now as I feel our souls crash together, so hard a gargantuan Ouroboros lights up all through the endless darkness inside the Black Dragon’s Void.
A matching wildfire explodes from us as we heave and fuck on earth, just like we do in the Usurper’s endless hell.
And it’s not just Bjorn healed by this incredible oneness; it’s me, too, as I finally understand I am no longer alone, either. Because I have Bjorn in my life now, and my other mates in the Bloodbond, and Laerke is my sister. All of us have found a family together.
And I will never abandon it, as I consummate our most glorious unity yet.
As our towering wildfire lights up the Black Dragon’s darkness, I feel how our unity binds us. We are one; loving and endless, we find each other’s hearts and mend them, all throughout the universe and back.
Because we are found, and healed, in this moment. We are healed deep inside ourselves and also together, as we rut like wild animals now and scream out our love in pure joy far down on earth, and fuck.
We are fucking, even as we are making love; as we pound hard together, I feel how it’s a perfect fit in our endless oneness. Together, we revel in what it means to be Bloodmates, and alive, even in our worst annihilation with the Black Dragon and the Rift and everything else we’ve gone through.
There’s no one I’d rather be with in this moment, fighting and fucking, and loving my way through all of it, just one more day.
And there’s no one else Bjorn would like to be with, either, as he rolls me to the bed now and fucks me mercilessly with a towering golden wildfire I can actually see in his physical eyes, shining through the darkness.
Bright white auric sigils careen through his incredible irises, everywhere. Those sigils explode all through his and my naked flesh as he pounds like a wild thing inside me, relentless.
Our bodies, hearts, and souls ignite as we roar with the incredible overtones and bass notes of our dragons in our voices now, our hands lost to talons as we half-shift in our flesh.
And as our oneness blasts right through the Black Dragon’s Void, shattering the last remnants of curse-work that kept Bjorn tethered there, I feel how the very last sigil inside Bjorn’s innermost heart evaporates.
His truest heart shines now as a dazzling golden light blazes from him, everywhere. White auric fire explodes out all around us in the bedroom in an endless wave now, as we both crash back into our physical bodies.
Free at last.
Bjorn and I cry out as one as we come. The towering overtones and bass notes of our dragons roar through our voices as we are freed.
Because we are free of the curses that bound us; as his soul and mine return from the Black Dragon’s Void, the incredible fire of our union burnishes everything a towering white-gold now in our room, writing endless white sigils into everything around us.
The room is nothing but gold and white, and so are our souls, as we come together, at last. As our Bloodbond is remade, scorching between our chests so hard we both cry out again, I feel how our hearts blaze.
Our united Ouroboros tightens so hard now in the endless skies that it compresses down to a pinpoint—but that pinpoint scorches like the fires of the entire cosmos itself, as it holds all our light.
Everything we are together—one.
Our new Bloodbond is made, as I see with my Bloodwalker vision how those glorious ancient sigils write all through it.
As Bjorn and I finally find this space together, just like I did with my other drakes, I feel how those towering, unknowable sigils reach through all the rest of our Bloodbonds, remaking Bjorn’s union with each of my drakes.
But this Bloodbond between us all is new; as our fully united Ouroboros ceases to be a knot, but condenses all the way down into a brand-new star in the cosmos, an amazing sensation fills me, of knowing what it’s like to be the entire cosmos.
A vision cascades through me then, as I see our endless light banish all the torn places in the standing stones far out in the stars. I see their cosmic nothingness flare with light and become healed, as those access points to the Black Dragon’s Void are just gone, repaired in the universe.
Suddenly, I know this is what we have to do to bring down the Black Dragon. For my Bloodbond has penetrated the Black Dragon’s Void and come back out again—a feat no one believed could be done.
Not only that, but we healed the rips in the stars caused by the cosmic division energy behind all this. That knowledge, more than anything else, makes me sing deep inside with a towering hope now, as I collapse onto the bed and Bjorn falls down atop me.
Bjorn rolls me so I’m atop his chest and not crushed by his massive body, as everything inside me celebrates, so bright.
Because not only have we brought Bjorn back from the Usurper’s Void, remade our Bloodbond, and healed the very stars themselves, I know we have changed the Void inside the Black Dragon.
We’ve somehow weakened it by the light we just ignited there; and I know this is the brightness we must bring to face all our enemies, and the cosmic rift energy that drives them.
We must unite, all of us, to face that massive force that assails us. I don’t know just how it will be done, but I’m not in death and dire things anymore as I lay here with Bjorn.
So incredibly bright.
Bjorn and I heave hard breaths, sweaty all over and so done from that incredible, soul-unifying sex.
As I feel all my drakes, even Laerke, celebrate like crazy now at what we just did, towering roars shaking the stone from the next-door room, I laugh, and Bjorn growls, though a smile is on his face.
Our new Bloodbond burns between us, deep inside my chest and entire body as Bjorn lowers his head, kissing my lips. As we cuddle around each other, our love lights us up from the inside out, filling our hearts and making them shine, as it mends all the rents and rips between us.
Exhausted, we fall asleep together, smiling.
As I know our enemies have nothing like this.