Our bodies, hearts, and souls ignite as we roar with the incredible overtones and bass notes of our dragons in our voices now, our hands lost to talons as we half-shift in our flesh.
And as our oneness blasts right through the Black Dragon’s Void, shattering the last remnants of curse-work that kept Bjorn tethered there, I feel how the very last sigil inside Bjorn’s innermost heart evaporates.
His truest heart shines now as a dazzling golden light blazes from him, everywhere. White auric fire explodes out all around us in the bedroom in an endless wave now, as we both crash back into our physical bodies.
Free at last.
Bjorn and I cry out as one as we come. The towering overtones and bass notes of our dragons roar through our voices as we are freed. Because we are free of the curses that bound us; as his soul and mine return from the Black Dragon’s Void, the incredible fire of our union burnishes everything a towering white-gold now in our room, writing endless white sigils into everything around us.
The room is nothing but gold and white, and so are our souls, as we come together, at last. As our Bloodbond is remade, scorching between our chests so hard we both cry out again, I feel how our hearts blaze.
Our united Ouroboros tightens so hard now in the endless skies that it compresses down to a pinpoint—but that pinpoint scorches like the fires of the entire cosmos itself, as it holds all our light.
Everything we are together—one.
Our new Bloodbond is made, as I see with my Bloodwalker vision how those glorious ancient sigils write all through it. As Bjorn and I finally find this space together, just like I did with my other drakes, I feel how those towering, unknowable sigils reach through all the rest of our Bloodbonds, remaking Bjorn’s union with each of my drakes.
But this Bloodbond between us all is new; as our fully unitedOuroboros ceases to be a knot, but condenses all the way down into a brand-new star in the cosmos, an amazing sensation fills me, of knowing what it’s like tobethe entire cosmos.
A vision cascades through me then, as I see our endless light banish all the torn places in the standing stones far out in the stars. I see their cosmic nothingness flare with light and become healed, as those access points to the Black Dragon’s Void are just gone, repaired in the universe.
Suddenly, I know this is what we have to do to bring down the Black Dragon. For my Bloodbond has penetrated the Black Dragon’s Void and come back out again—a feat no one believed could be done.
Not only that, but we healed the rips in the stars caused by the cosmic division energy behind all this. That knowledge, more than anything else, makes me sing deep inside with a towering hope now, as I collapse onto the bed and Bjorn falls down atop me.
Bjorn rolls me so I’m atop his chest and not crushed by his massive body, as everything inside me celebrates, so bright. Because not only have we brought Bjorn back from the Usurper’s Void, remade our Bloodbond, and healed the very stars themselves, I know we have changed the Void inside the Black Dragon.
We’ve somehow weakened it by the light we just ignited there; and I know this is the brightness we must bring to face all our enemies, and the cosmic rift energy that drives them.
We must unite, all of us, to face that massive force that assails us. I don’t know just how it will be done, but I’m not in death and dire things anymore as I lay here with Bjorn.
So incredibly bright.
Bjorn and I heave hard breaths, sweaty all over and so done from that incredible, soul-unifying sex. As I feel all my drakes, even Lærke, celebrate like crazy now at what we just did, towering roars shaking the stone from the next-door room, I laugh, and Bjorn growls, though a smile is on his face.
Our new Bloodbond burns between us, deep inside my chest andentire body as Bjorn lowers his head, kissing my lips. As we cuddle around each other, our love lights us up from the inside out, filling our hearts and making them shine, as it mends all the rents and rips between us.
Exhausted, we fall asleep together, smiling.
As I know our enemies havenothinglike this.
26
LAST
Bjorn and I are dressed in battle leathers as we make ready to head out to the Black Rift. Because that’s what we have to do now, as we complete our final preparations, gathering everything we’ll need from our quarters and getting ready to go.
We’ve already been out and about all morning; a council was held here at Harnakje in the Grand Council Hall of the True Black Dragon Knights, a place I’d never even known existed before, to discuss our last move against the Black Dragon and all the forces controlling it.
Svanhild Magnussen, Mormor Annika, and the rest of the True Knights High Council were there, plus my stepfathers, Ström’s family, and a barely recovered Prince Halfdir.
Discussion raged all morning about whether we should bring our full forces or only a high-level strike team in to face our enemies and liberate our King; though our Prince wanted to bring all our remaining warriors to get his father out and raze the Black Dragon and its captors, my Bloodbond argued against it.
Because we know, as I step aside to a private niche now from the bustle in the late afternoon, my drakes and Lærke packing our last suppliesin silver silk fly-bags, that bringing the full force of our might against the Black Dragon will only bring death.
We can’t sacrifice all our fighters in this last battle; and we can’t sacrifice others we love. We have to protect them—if for nothing else, then to act as a second front to defend the world.
If we fail in our last move against the beast today.
