“That’s a mate bond forming,” Dorian interrupts, his tone shifting from frustration to a blunt, hard-earned wisdom. “And you’re fighting it because you think you don’t deserve it. It’s stupid to do it to yourself. It’s just fucking cruel to do it to her.”
I sink onto a nearby bench, dropping my head into my hands. “I’m three hundred years old. She’s barely lived.”
“You’re dragons, for fuck’s sake,” Caleb says sharply. “You’ll both live centuries more. Together.”
Dorian steps closer. “The question is: do you want those centuries with her or without her?”
The truth breaks free from the cage I’ve built around it, as unstoppable as dragonfire.
“With her,” I whisper, my voice cracking. “God. With her.”
Caleb’s hand lands on my shoulder, cool and steady. “Then stop being a martyr and go tell her that.”
Horror builds as I consider what they’ve told me.
“She can’t go on that mission. The tomb is unstable, the Syndicate will be fortified—” Fear pulses through me. It’s a feeling I’m not used to. Well, it wasn’t until she landed in my life.
“Which is why you should be there too,” Caleb says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
Except that nothing is obvious right now.
“I can’t. Not after what I said to her.”
“Then you apologize,” Dorian says, rolling his eyes. “Grovel if you have to. But you don’t let her walk into that without you.”
Every protective instinct in my body screams to join that strike team, fight beside her, shield her. Stop her from going at all.
“You’re terrified of her getting hurt,” Caleb observes, his diplomatic tone returning.
“Of course I am, goddammit!” I snap. “She can’t go. I won’t let her.”
“She’s going whether you like it or not,” Caleb disagrees. “The question is whether you trust her to handle herself.”
“Mate bonds aren’t about control, Luke,” Dorian says. “They’re about partnership. Juno taught me that the hard way.” His voice softens as he mentions his mate.
“There is no bond,” I say bitterly. “I ended it.”
Caleb and Dorian exchange a look that makes me feel like an idiot child, centuries of dragon wisdom passing silently between them.
“Bonds don’t end because you’re scared,” Caleb says quietly. “They just make you more miserable when you fight them.”
I stare at the packed earth beneath my feet, my mind a mess of indecision.
“What if Vanya’s right? What if I am too old, too damaged, too—” I run through the reasons.
“What if Ember’s right?” Dorian cuts me off. “What if she knows exactly what she wants and you’re the one being a coward?”
The word—coward—echoes what Ember called me. I flinch, still glaring at the ground at my feet.
“You survived too long by staying alone,” Caleb says. “It’s time to end that and learn to live now.”
“And that girl—your mate—she makes you want to live,” Dorian adds. “Don’t throw that away because you’re scared.”
Something in me breaks. The wall I’ve been building since the mountains—using age, guilt, Vanya’s fury—anything to avoid admitting the truth.
I love her.
My dragon recognized her as his mate the moment we met, fire calling to her magic across centuries of waiting.
