And the dragon turned back to her.
Her heart stopped.
Smoke curled around his massive frame, blood and soot and battle still clinging to his hide, glittering green eyes searing into hers.
He was monstrous.
A being of legend. A predator. A goddamn dragon.
And yet?—
She wasn’t afraid.
She should have been.
She should have run screaming, should have pleaded for her life, should have felt terror clawing at her throat.
Instead…
She felt relief.
He came for me.
The realization crashed through her like a lightning strike.
Vector—her Vector—had torn through fire, bullets, magic, and death to get to her.
He had burned men alive for her.
And when he lowered his massive head, his deep, thunderous voice vibrated through the entire room, through the walls, through her very bones.
“GET. ON. MY. BACK.”
Raven stared.
A breath—sharp, disbelieving—escaped her lips.
Because she had two choices.
One was logic.
Logic told her that she was looking at a monster, a creature of myth and nightmare, a beast who had just incinerated two men in front of her.
Logic said this wasn’t the man she loved.
Logic told her she should be terrified.
The other choice?
Truth.
And the truth was?—
She loved him.
No matter what he was.
Her lips parted, a slow, trembling exhale escaping her.
