It feels like he’ll be okay.
He’ll live.
He has to.
My thoughts slip away, and I calm my mind just like Roman said. I let it all drift into silence until his rumbling tone kisses the back of my mind.
You did it. We’re almost there now.His tone shivers all through me and I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to their words within my mind.
Where are we going?I ask the voice skimming along my thoughts.
To see a powerful mage about some deadly dragons,he says rather mysteriously.
My eyes narrow, but he never says more. I’m just about to ask him more when warm sparking magic fills the night air.
Then... the world spirals away from me. The darkness of the sky bleeds into the shining stars. It all goes black with a crackle of fiery magic that feels oh so similar to Avian’s.
And I just know.
I just know he’s taken us away from the kingdom of Hell.
For now.
Epilogue
Four weeks later…
“Mails here!” Roman sweeps my hair away from my neck and presses a lingering kiss slowly along my skin.
My lashes flutter closed as he drops a scroll in front of me only to slide his big palms across my stomach. He holds me from behind and the biggest smile consumes my features. It’s a happiness that isn’t surface level. It goes deep and spreads until it’s warming every single inch of me.
“Don’t stay up late tonight with the neighbors,” he pleas with quiet whispers along my neck. “You have a den of hell houndswho want desperately to break in our new home by fucking you every night, beautiful. What could be more important than that?”
Our new home. It isn’t a den. Not really. It’s more of a warm bungalow that’s just big enough for our bedroom, washroom, and the cutest kitchenette that faces the sunrise every morning. We sit on a small hill that basks in the sunlight of the Kingdom of Minden. My old pack is miles away but there isn’t much of anything left there for me these days.
Not when my baby sister is so busy ruling theQueendomof Hell.
I arch a brow at Roman as I stare up at his ridiculously handsome face.
“Gee, I don’t know,” I say with sarcasm dripping from every word. “Maybe making sure the other dragons know we like it here. That we enjoy being a part of their community and want to be included for the rest of forever?”
“We know you like it here, Cersia,” my neighbor, Arlow, sing songs as she walks by our open window. “Let your mates love you. The one only just got off of his crutches only a few days ago and has been looking like he wants to literally jump you every time you so much as smile his way. Literally just throw the dog a bone, girl!”
Zilo strides in on booming steps that rattle the old wooden kitchen table that I sit at. Warm fingers drag across my upper arm as he slides into the chair next to mine. Avian drifts in behind him with a flush of pink kissing his high cheek bones. The bruising along his face is all gone now. He healed nicely but that doesn’t mean I want to hurt him the very second his doctor gave us the okay for me to bounce on his dic?—”
“Are you blushing?” Roman barks out with a wolfish smile engulfing his entire face.
I think they may have overheard the neighbor’s talk of Avian jumping me.
I hope he does, if I’m being honest.
I drag my attention away from the three men as they take turns grabbing warm blueberry muffins out of the bread basket on at the center of our table. From just out the open window, Arlow’s green big eyes smile down at me and pure unstoppable happiness floods me entirely. I didn’t think I’d ever find a place like this. Roman and Avian knew exactly where to take us though. The rumors were true: there was a small clan of dragons in a faraway village from my own. Not many, sure. But three massive dragon shifters, a hellhound, and a mage named Arlow have welcomed us into their little community. She’s expecting now. Her belly is swollen with what may very well be a dragon inside her tiny body.
Or maybe not.
Maybe the rare breed of deadly creatures is meant to die out with us being the last of our kind. I never wanted a litter of my own, but a ping of sadness hits me dead center in my chest with the thought of my father’s lineage ending. I shake the sentiment away as I remove the black twine from around the mail and begin reading the scroll from the top. It says …
Dearest Sister,
