He held her gaze. “It already does for me, Leena. It’s not something I can control. I think my dragon claimed you after that first kiss. But that doesn’t mean you have to reciprocate. You have your life, your obligations. I understand.”
Leena closed her eyes, tried to find that centering force inside herself she used when she gazed into the tears of the goddess. She wanted a vision, a sign, something to tell her what to do. So she prayed… until something occurred to her. “The goddess is dead?”
Colin blinked. “Yes. But Raven is going to resurrect her.”
The goddess wasdead. She’d almost prayed to a being that was no more.
Leena took a moment to wrap her mind around that truth. Her entire life as a scribe had been lived in worship of a celestial being who was …gone. Immortals, it seemed, didn’t always live forever. What did that mean for her? Her vow? Was she bound to a being who no longer existed? If Raven succeeded in bringing the goddess back, would she be bound again?
She swallowed hard before speaking. “Upstairs, when Crimson had her knife to my throat and I thought I would die, I closed my eyes. I knew I should pray to the goddess to care for my soul. But there was only one face I could see, Colin. And itwasn’thers. When my life flashed before my eyes, all the scenes were of you. When I thought about what I’d regret—” Tears trailed down her cheeks.
“You regret our night together?”
She shook her head. “I regretted that there was only one night. All the scrolls I’ve written, all the years I spent recording what happened to other people, I wouldn’t miss any of that. I didn’t even think of it. I thought of you.”
Colin’s tentative smile twitched at the corners. The mountain rumbled again. Behind him, Raven was circling her wand. One by one, Colin’s brothers and sisters appeared in the cave along with Avery and Clarissa. The witch was calling for Colin to join them. They needed him, which meant Leena had to make a decision. It was so hot. Her brain boiled in her skull, and her body ached.
“I won’t hold you,” Colin said again. “I just want to protect you.”
“Give me your tooth.” Leena met his gaze and raised her hand to his cheek. “And give me your bond.”
His eyes widened until she could see the whites. “The vow I made died with the goddess. I want you, Colin. I want a life with you for as long as I have left.” She didn’t add that at the moment, that life was looking quite short.
He reached into his mouth and turned his head away from her. When he turned back, there was blood on his lip and a sharp, jagged tooth pinched between his fingers. He held it in his palm. His ring glowed red, his dragon magic transforming the tooth into a slender white pill. He offered it to her.
She picked it up, pausing for only a moment to appreciate it in the red glow of the cave, and then she swallowed it down. It seemed to wriggle in her throat, and when it hit her stomach, it radiated its magic through her core, her limbs. Immediately the heat became bearable, and the exhaustion she’d felt a moment before bled from her.
What was left in its place was an intense need for him, one she’d have to wait to act on.
“Colin, we need you,” Gabriel called.
He pressed a soft kiss to her lips and helped her to her feet before joining his siblings. She watched him go, thinking that happily ever after couldn’t start until they survived to see tomorrow.
Raven gestured toward the cradle.“Each of you stand in the crater where your egg would have been,”
Xavier tossed up his hands. “Are ye mad, woman? How in the name of Hades are we to know where our egg once was?”
But Rowan spread her wings in excitement. “I do! I know this! The queen always lays her eggs counterclockwise.” She pointed to the first indentation to her left. “Starting there. See how it’s more worn than the others? That’s from centuries of use. This one looks relatively new, right?” She gestured to the end of the ring. “Mother probably had to make these last two. Nine eggs were unheard of.”
The mountain rumbled around them, and Avery wavered on her feet. “Raven, the heat.”
Raven looked at her sister. She was a sweaty mess, her shirt darkened down the front and at her pits. Her hair stuck to her head. Avery was the only one of them who couldn’t take her mate’s tooth—her magic neutralized it, which meant, for all intents and purposes, she was human.
“Fuck, hold on.” With a wave of her wand and a whispered incantation, Raven made it snow. White flakes drifted over them as if they were sealed inside a snow globe.
“Thanks.”
Her lips pressed flat. “I don’t know how long it will last once we start the resurrection spell.” She placed the bloody diamond she’d been holding in the first cradle.
Tobias’s eyes locked on to it. “What is that, Raven?” His voice was low, solemn. He knew. On some level, she thought they all did.
“Marius. Eleanor spelled the heart to keep his soul trapped inside. As sick as it was, it’s a good thing for us that she did. We need him for this spell.”
Clarissa tightened her blond ponytail. “What now?”
Raven reached for her sisters’ hands. “This is where we come in. Dragons were born in the mountain. Aitna made the first one from the fabric of the universe, and centuries later, Circe gave them the ability to transform. Eleanor has stolen Aitna’s power. Aitna’s dead, but she’s not gone.”
“So, what do we do?” Avery asked.
