“You can see it, can’t you?” I ask her. “You can see my aura?”
Her breath hitches. I want to wrap that breath around me and pull it into my chest. Feed her air right into my lungs. I need her with a ferocity that extends beyond anything else.
We aren’t going to finally find each other only for her to be stolen away from me. I won’t let that happen.
She won’t let that happen either.
I watch her eyes scrape against my outline, no doubt eyeing the aura that must be flaring around my body the way hers does for me. Our energies always called to one another, even before our päyur bond solidified. Even before we ever met.
Behind me, the dragon dissipates. I don’t have to see it, I feel it disintegrating into the air like smoke on the empty street.
“Come here.”
Her lips part and her chest starts rising and falling rapidly, as if she’s not sure if she should attack again or run in the other direction. She’s not afraid of me though. Wary and confused, yes. But there’s a part of her that knows I’d never hurt her. Even if she doesn’t remember, she knows that.
So I wait. I have faith. Because the only thing I believe in, is her.
She takes a step. One small step. Then she stops, like she’s surprised she did it.
“Auren…” the other male says, but she ignores him, which is a really good thing for him.
“Are you going to tell me who you are?” she says.
“You’re not asking the right question,” I reply.
I watch as she takes another step forward, almost subconsciously, like she can’t help but be drawn toward me. If it weren’t for the gold holding me in place, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself either.
They say old spirits are drawn to the dawn. That they can’t help but haunt the light. That’s what I feel like. Without her, I’m caught in endless darkness.
Her throat bobs, and then her voice comes out softly. Tentatively. “Who are you…to me?”
A smile of pure pride tips my lips, and I swallow down a lump of emotion. “Very good. Now come to me, baby, and I’ll show you.”
There must be a force in the realms unknown, a goddess-sent gift that pulls us toward one another. Because even though she seems lost in the dark too, she comes.
She comes toward me willingly.
Our auras reach for each other, dark and light tendrils stretching…
When she’s right in front of me, I call to the rot within her magic, making it tug the gold away from my arms. Her eyes widen as she sees the golden ropes fall away. “How—”
Then our auras meet. Join.Collide.
Our bond shatters the air.
Shadow and light blinds, shoving away everything else, until all that exists is her. We stare at each other, caught in this cocoon of our own atmosphere while the world trembles with our bond and everything else disappears.
Together. We’re finally fuckingtogether.
She sucks in a breath, like she’s been holding it for too long. Like she’s been lacking air since we were ripped apart.
Then, her face changes in an instant, and gone is the shock, the wariness, the uncertainty. In its place is something utterly life-changing.
Her beautiful eyes fill, and her gilded lips part.
“Slade.”
Our auras might’ve shattered the sky, but her saying my name shattersme.
