“I love you too, my Cary.Du betyr alt for meg,” he says, and joy fills me like church bells pealing and sounding all through my body.
He kisses me, and it feels like the same flames are coursing across my skin, filling me with warmth and love and sparkling like champagne in my bloodstream.
His arms fasten tight, and his scent weaves around me. I gasp as sparks and lights twine around us like a line of fairy lights. They twinkle, and I inhale the smell of gingerbread, rich and warm. “Sigurd,” I say and then nothing more. At this moment, his name is everything.
“Elskling,” he whispers.
The lights flash and glitter, and I feel a wave of memories wash over me—a small child playing in the snow, the first sight of a strange, green land, an endless parade of friends and comrades. I’m seeing his memories, I realise with a shock. Emotions suddenly flow over me like a wave—love, lust, longing, and pure unadulterated happiness. I’m feeling his emotions, and it humbles me that they’re directed at me.
“MyCary,” he breathes, and the lights bind around us tighter and tighter until I hear a deep, resounding snap that’s quickly echoed by a grumble beneath the earth. The lights disappear, and that’s when I feel it—a tug deep inside me. It’s a tether to my dragon.
“The lights?” I whisper. “What are they?”
“’Twas our bond settling,” he says in an awed voice. “That is what our bond looks like.”
“It was so pretty.”
He kisses my head and, if possible, hugs me even tighter. “Not as pretty as my mate.”
The wind tugs at our clothes, and the gulls wheel and dip above us in the grey sky. But I’m warm all over, and I could swear I feel my heart pulsing. It feels like I have the sun inside me.
“What is this feeling?” I whisper.
“’Tis the bond. It began last night with the knot, but now we have declared our feelings and so the mating ritual is complete.” He looks down at me. In his eyes are twin flames, making the golden depths sparkle. “We are true mates, and we are tied now. Will you stay?”
I pinch him gently. “I will always stay. Where else would I go without you?” His eyes close in relief, and I hug him again because I can.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I whisper.
“I did not want you tied to me because of the idea of the bond. I would have you free and happy.”
“I’m still free, aren’t I?”
He nods immediately. “Think of the bond like a wedding ring, but a million times stronger. It ties us together in ways you cannot imagine. I will always know where you are, and you will know the same, because we are linked. But you are still you, and I am still me.”
“And you areneversecuring my happiness at the expense of yourself again. I don’t think so,” I say grimly, and he laughs, the sound rich and vibrant. “If you had gone over to the Sunlit Lands, I would have followed you.”
“Why?” He seems to be holding his breath.
“Because an adventure just isn’t an adventure without my dragon.”
“Mayhap that is truly what soulmates are. Two halves of the same whole. I will always seek your happiness.”
“And I’ll always seek yours,” I finish. “How lovely.”
His face fills with so much love and happiness that it humbles me. “I have so much I wish to show you. So much more of this world that you do not know.”
“But you will live forever if you want.” The thought of me passing and leaving him behind makes me speechless for a moment.
But then I notice his eyes have grown wicked. “What’s up, my Sig?” I ask.
“Ah, Cary. You too can live forever if you choose. You are my mate. I have knotted you, and your blood calls to mine. We will be together forever, and then one day we will choose to move to the worlds beyond this one.”
I gape at him until he finally reaches out and closes my mouth helpfully. “And what happens in those next worlds?”
His eyes gleam gold. “Me, you, and magic, of course,elskling.”
I wrap my arms around him and lean into his sturdy strength. My wild Viking. My sweet dragon. “Well, I think that sounds like my version of perfect,” I whisper.
