My claws flex against her skin, careful not to cut. I press my nose to her hair and breathe in her scent, trying desperately to ground myself.
"If I keep you asleep, we'll both die. The magic is eating itself, eating us, trying to force what it needs. Mutual awareness. Choice from both of us. Things I can't give you while you're trapped like this."
I press my face against her throat now, breathing in her scent. I kiss her softly here again and again. I lick over the bite marks.
"I have to wake you. Maybe soon. Before it's too late. But Adelaide, treasure, I'm so fucking scared you'll hate me. Scared you'll try to leave. Scared you'll look at me with those amber eyes and see only the monster who took everything from you. Or maybe I want you to hate me. Hate me and kill me. Put me out of my misery for loving you so much. For imprisoning you like I have. I deserve that from you. I know I do."
My voice breaks.
"I didn't know. I thought I was protecting you. Keeping you safe. But I was killing you instead. If I had never touched you that first time... maybe... maybe things would have been different. Maybe not. Maybe my heart would have always recognized your heart as my mate."
I hold her tighter, my wings cocooning us in darkness.
"I'm sorry.I'm so sorry. But I can't lose you. Even if you hate me. Even if you want to kill me. I don't think I can let you die. We still have a little bit of time to figure it out, love. I'll make this right. All of it. You deserve as much. I just need to figure out how to keep you safe once I wake you. How to stop people from coming and trying to kidnap you."
The silence is deafening.
I stay there for another moment, then force myself to pull away. To leave the bed. To leave her.
My wings drag as I walk out of the room, down the corridor, down the stairs. Down and down and down to the lowest levels of the castle, where the stone is oldest and coldest, and the darkness is complete.
I pace. Back and forth, back and forth, my tail lashing behind me, my claws scraping against stone. My wings keep trying to spread, to fly, to do something with this nervous energy that's eating me alive.
She needs space. Even unconscious, even trapped, she needs space to process what I've told her. Or maybe I'm the one who needs space. Space from the truth. Space from the decisions I have to make.
I hear a rustling of leaves coming from the courtyard. Metal clanking against metal.
"Princess! I've come to rescue you!" A prince has made it past the thorns again. Just what I needed... a distraction. Somewhere to place all my aggression.
Perfect.
I take the stairs three at a time, my claws gouging the stone. The rage that's been building for months, years,decades, finally has somewhere to go. Someone to go through.
The courtyard is bathed in moonlight when I burst through the doors. The prince stands in the center, sword drawn, his armor gleaming silver. He's young. They're always young. Always so fucking sure they're the hero of this story.
"Dragon!" he shouts, raising his sword. "Release the princess, or face my—"
I'm on him before he finishes. My claws rake across his breastplate, and the screech of metal fills the air. He stumbles back, swinging his sword, but it's pathetic. Slow. Weak.
They've all been so weak lately.
Or maybe I've just gotten stronger. Faster. More vicious.
The aggression that's been eating at me, making me rougher with Adelaide, making me choke her harder than I mean to, making me fuck her with a brutality that borders on savage… It's made killing these princeseasy. Almost boring.
Almost.
I catch his sword arm mid-swing andtwist. The bone snaps with a wet crack, and he screams. The sword clatters to the stones.
"She's MINE," I snarl, my voice coming out deeper, more guttural than usual. "Did you really think you could take her from me?"
"Monster!" he gasps, cradling his broken arm. "She's a prisoner! I'm here to—"
"To what?" I slam him against the courtyard wall, my claws puncturing the stone on either side of his head. "Save her? From me? I'm the only thing keeping her safe, you ignorant fuck. I'm the only one who's ever cared about her. The only one who's everlovedher."
My claws are trembling. Not from exertion. From the need to tear, to rend, to destroy anything that threatens what's mine.
"You're insane," he whispers, blood trickling from his mouth where he bit his tongue.
