Behind us, Gerhard shrieked.
"Du… du Teufel! You MONSTER! You will NOT take my daughter!"
Inga turned, her eyes were blazing with something fierce and broken and finally awakened.
"'He's not a monster," her voice was low and calm, her chin lifted, pointing at him. "You are."
Gerhard recoiled like she'd struck him. I stood, pulling Inga and Klaus behind me.
"We're leaving," I said.
"You'll never make it out," he hissed. "The guards?—"
"Are unconscious," I growled.
His face drainedof color.
I guided Inga and Klaus outside, into the moonlit garden. Inga clung to my hand like it was the only thing keeping her from drowning.
"Gideon," she whispered, voice quivering. "How… how are we going to get out of here?"
I turned to her fully. "Do you trust me?"
She swallowed. Then nodded. "With my life. With Klaus's. Always."
My heart broke and healed at the same time. I couldn't resist any longer; I pressed my lips to her forehead, wanting to kiss her into oblivion, but this would have to do for now. "Good."
Then I stepped back. Wings tore from my shoulders in a burst of firelit shadow, and scales rippled over my skin as the dragon surged forward. Inga didn't scream—didn't even flinch—she only watched, her expression a blend of awe, terror, and… belief.
When I lowered myself to the ground, wings tucked, back broad and warm with gold scales shimmering under the moon, she understood.
"Cool!" I heard Klaus exclaim.
She helped him climb onto my back, settling him between her arms. He trembled, but excitement flickered beneath the fear.
"He's warm!" he whispered.
Inga climbed carefully behind him, pressing close, hands gripping the ridge of scales along my neck as if she'd done this all her life.
"I'm here," she murmured. "I won't let go."
The dragon rumbled, pleased, possessive, and most of all, relieved that she was safe and with me.
I launched upward. The villa shrank below us, and the East Sector passed beneath our wings in a blur of ruined streets. The night air rushed around us, cool and wild.
Klaus let out a whoop of pure delight.
Inga's laughter—shaky, breathless, disbelieving—followed like music.
And for the first time in my life, with the woman I loved and the child I would die to protect clinging to my back, I felt whole.
A dragon.
A man.
A protector.
A mate.
