The pieces click together with sickening clarity.
“The healing reverses.”
She nods. “Your body was more damaged than you knew, child. His power has been keeping you alive. And now that he is gone—”
“The injuries are coming back.” My hand goes to my chest. That hollow ache that’s been building since I woke.
Not new pain.
Old pain, resurfacing. Reclaiming territory K’s fire had been defending.
“How badly were you wounded?” Dragana asks quietly.
I pause. “Fatally,” I finally say, because that much was never in question.
“Oh.” Her face drops. “Oh… Mara…”
Shit.
“So I’m dying.”
“You are ailing.” The distinction seems important to her. “If you reunite with him soon, the bond will stabilize. The healing will complete naturally.”
“And if I don’t?”
She doesn’t answer. Doesn’t need to.
The silence that follows is different from before. Heavier.
I should be panicking. Should be spiraling into full existential crisis mode—Mara Jones, age twenty-six, about to die in a Romanian mountain village because her dragon boyfriend got kidnapped by supernatural extremists.
Except that’s not quite right, is it? Because K isn’t my boyfriend. He’s a man I’ve known for eight days. A man with no memory and a past he can’t access and a tendency to call me by another woman’s name when things get intimate.
A man whose fire chose me anyway.
That’s what he said before. His fire recognized something in me. Decided I was worth saving. Worth bonding to.
And now I’m literally dying without him.
“This is so fucked up,” I whisper.
Dragana makes a sound that might be agreement. “Dragon bonds often are.”
“We’re not bonded—” I start to protest, but she cuts me off with a look.
“What you call it does not change what it is.” She stands, moving toward the door.
“Wait.” I push to my feet, ignoring the way my vision swims. “You said dragon bonds. Like… like mate bonds?”
Something flickers in her expression. Not quite amusement. Not quite pity.
“That is for you to discover, child. But know this: dragon fire does not bind itself to just anyone. It chooses carefully. And once it chooses…” She pauses at the threshold. “Well. You are learning what that means.”
“I need to find him, Dragana.” My voice comes out steadier than I feel. “I’m going to locate where they’re keeping him and call in help. People who can actually get him out.”
She studies me for a long moment. “You intend to stay there. To watch.”
“Until my people arrive, yes.” I lift my chin. “I need to guide them in. Make sure nothing changes before they get there.”
