A tidal wave of pure, raw relief unlike anything he had ever known.
The fire rushing out of him was no longer trapped. No longer building inside him like a ticking bomb, like an unstoppable storm. It had a home now.
Her.
His dragon rumbled, wild heat rising in his chest, a sound of pure devotion.
She was accepting his fire. Accepting him.
The flames lingered, twining around her body, changing her, bonding her, making her his in a way that no force in the universe could undo.
And then?—
A shift.
A crackling pulse of power.
A new source of fire igniting.
Not from him.
From her.
His dragon stilled.
Because now— the flames were coming from her. She was dragonfire. Part of him. His.
The fire whipped around her in a whirlwind, a golden-red inferno born of his magic, but now fully her own.
And standing inside it all, untouched, remade, his forever?—
Was Raven.
Still burning.
Still glorious.
Still his.
Vector shifted back.
His body shrank, wings folding inward, scales melting into pale, human skin, dragon form giving way to the man once more.
He stepped forward, naked, the fire wrapping around him, welcoming him, recognizing him as hers.
And then he was there, inside the flames, inside her magic.
He pulled her into his arms.
She came willingly, eagerly, fire dancing over both of them, power coursing through them, binding them so deeply, so completely, they could never be apart again.
His voice was hoarse, wrecked, ruined. “I love you, Raven. You are mine.”
Her fingers tightened on him, her lips curling into a smile, her body still burning, still alive with dragonfire.
“I will always be yours.”
And then—he kissed her. This time, the fire was theirs.
