EPILOGUE
Mallory had claimed the east tower for her studies, mostly because the light was better there.
Morning poured in through tall arched windows, turning the pale stone floors to gold and catching on every glass vial and polished instrument laid out with painstaking care. The tower no longer looked like part of a castle, it looked like a sanctuary of learning.
Books were stacked in neat piles, notebooks were scattered across the tables, and sketches were pinned to boards with careful notes written in Mallory’s writing.
Dragon physiology fascinated her not for its power, but for its mercy. And incorporating that knowledge with the benefits from the original plant she had found was gaining momentum.
Dragons healed differently. Faster. If she could understand how dragons survived wounds that would kill a man, like how their bodies knit themselves back together, then perhaps she could develop a way to integrate those benefits into modern medicine cures without giving away the royal secret.
Perhaps fewer soldiers would return from wars crippled and broken.
Perhaps fewer children would learn too early what pain could steal.
She stood at the balcony now with charcoal smudged across her fingers, a notebook tucked under her arm, and the weight of thought softened by the warmth of the sun. The world below the palace stirred awake, but up here there was only sky.
And birds.
They gathered along the stone rail as if summoned, bold little things with bright eyes and quick hearts.
Mallory murmured to them softly, nonsense words braided with gratitude, telling them about wings and weather and the joy of being alive at all.
A sparrow hopped close enough to peer at her and a jay cocked its head, sharp and curious.
She smiled, utterly unguarded, as though she had known them forever.
Life was beautiful. Their wedding had been fast and intimate, with a royal ball for the entire population of Onyxheim. She rubbed her swelling belly. In a few months, they would have their first heir. Love was a wonderful thing.
From the shadowed doorway behind her, Jakob watched.
He watched the way Mallory leaned into the breeze and how she listened, not just with her ears, but with her whole being.
She noticed things others overlooked like the nervous flutter of wings, the shift in air before a storm, and the ache beneath a healer’s practiced smile.
Dragons had ruled for generations, and he had lived his life with strength and duty.
Mallory, without ever trying, had undone him.
A breeze lifted her hair and the birds scattered and rose in a rush of wings and flutters. He stepped into the open.
“Did you talk to her?” Mallory didn’t even turn around. He grinned. She could sense him as well as he could her.
“I did.”
“And?” She turned and he saw the hope in her eyes.
“Meg is coming around. She’s still hesitant to give away too much, but she knows that the Ruecrags are done. She hasn’t repented yet, but I think that she will.”
“So, I might still get my sister back.”
He put his hands on her shoulders. “Meg has a lot to answer for with the courts, but we’ll see. I hope that you do.”
She gave him a smile. She had become comfortable with her sister’s plight and no longer carried the burden of worry. Whatever happened next was on Meg’s shoulders, and Mallory was good with that.
And then he shifted.
The change rolled through him like restrained strength. Scales unfurled in a burnished cascade of blue and bronze, each one catching the light as though the sun itself had chosen him. Wings burst free and blotted out the sky for a heartbeat before folding back with deliberate care.
The other reason she had chosen this east tower. The balcony was huge and secluded. No one could see anything.
Mallory’s breath caught. She would never tire of seeing this wonderful, beautiful dragon that loved her without question.
Her eyes shone as bright as the open sky as she laughed.
The sound was pure joy, and it struck Jakob harder than any blade ever had.
Centuries of battle had not prepared him for the softness of that moment.
She crossed the balcony without hesitation, resting her palm against the warm plate of his shoulder. Her touch was reverent and familiar all at once, as if she had always known this was where she belonged.
“May I?” she asked with a huge, excited smile.
Jakob dipped his neck in answer. I am all yours.
She climbed onto his back and settled between the ridges of his spine. Her fingers threaded confidently into the leathered scales she had traced in drawings so many times before. When he pushed off from the balcony, the palace fell away beneath them giving way to endless air.
They soared.
The wind sang along his wings. The world opened into blue and gold, rivers flashing like silver threads below. Mallory laughed again, the sound carried far and free, and Jakob angled higher, gentler, careful to give her the sky without stealing her breath.
She pressed close, trust warm against his back, and something ancient and irrevocable shifted within him.
Never again will I live without her, Jakob thought, and the vow sealed itself into scale and bone. Never again.
THE END