Azriel rolled his eyes, fully aware of how strange it would look to anyone who couldn’t hear his bondheart’s words. “Then don’t speak on things you know nothing of.”
“At least I knowsomething,” Razer snapped. “You’d be lucky to know your own name most days.”
Then something happened that Azriel hadn’t experienced in quite some time. Ariadne’s voice floated through his mind, her vinculum with Almandine opening the connection between them. “And whose fault is that?”
A sheepish feeling swept through Razer. If a dragon could blush, Azriel was certain that would be what would happen.
“Damn,” Madan said, shooting Ariadne a grin. “Putting the century-old dragon in his place faster than his own bondheart.”
At that, Ariadne held her head a little higher. “Abandoning Azriel is childish behavior, and you know it.”
“I’m here now,am I not?” Razer opened his consciousness to them, giving them all a brief view of his perspective, high in the air. Below the wisps of clouds, lights shone from the windows ofAuhla’s face, blinking out periodically from the few dragons who patrolled over the keep.
“He is lucky,” Ariadne grumbled aloud. “He has no business disappearing like that for so long.”
Azriel shifted uncomfortably and glanced at Madan and Whelan, who exchanged a look. To his relief, Ariadne didn’t seem to notice. Instead, her attention landed on Ehrun, and her entire body went rigid.
Noticing her tension, Ehrun struggled to hide his internal pain and quickly looked away. “I should go outside and wait.”
“Yes.” Azriel pulled his hand from Ariadne’s, giving her a meaningful look before nodding to the door. “I’ll join you while they say goodbye for now.”
A small sound escaped Ariadne unbidden, but she remained in place as he stepped past her, gesturing for Ehrun to start out the front doors with him. The dhemon turned and followed without question. It was strange for there to be no sharp quip in return. No snide remark about how he wouldn’t be following Azriel’s orders.
Nonetheless, Ehrun stalked down the front steps ofAuhlaand stared down the dark green dragon that stood there, growling softly at him. Anthoria’s sharp eyes studied them both, yet to the dhemon’s credit, he didn’t balk from her. It was almost as though he wanted nothing more than for the dragon to snap himup with her jaws and put an end to whatever existence he now lived.
“Ehrun.” Azriel stretched his legs a bit to eat up the distance between them.
At the sound of his name, Ehrun stopped and turned. “Vhaltrin.”
“I need to know something before you go.” Azriel kept at arm’s length from the dhemon, but still had to tilt his head back a bit to look him in the face.
“I swear to you,” Ehrun said, placing a fist over his chest, “I am of sound mind. I will not hurt your brother or his mate. I wish to make amends for what I’ve done, and I’ll ensure no harm comes to either of them.”
But Azriel shook his head. “That isn’t what I want to discuss.”
Confusion creased the space between Ehrun’s brows. “Oh?”
“The bond.” Azriel sucked on his teeth a moment and glared at a particularly dark shadow in the forest behind the dhemon. “What does it feel like to be reconnected?”
The hard lines of Ehrun’s face softened. A sadness dulled his red eyes as he searched Azriel’s face for a long moment. “Peace.”
Azriel gaped at him. The mere concept was foreign.
Before he could ask for clarification, Ehrun pressed on. “I can feel Rhana again. She’s here with me all the time. Thavii too.”
A hollow pit opened in Azriel’s chest. He tracked a silent tear as it trickled down Ehrun’s cheek, the dhemon looking into the distance with what could only be described as painful harmony. A joy lingered there amongst the sadness that Azriel couldn’t comprehend.
“What do you mean?” Azriel breathed. “You canfeelher?”
Ehrun nodded. “There was a connection we had when she was alive. I could sense her, no matter how far apart we were, but something was missing. She’d bonded to me as well, certainly,which completed the mating bond as we dhemons knew it to be for so long, but…”
He grimaced and shook his head, grappling for the words to describe it. Azriel waited with carefully tempered patience as the dhemon sorted through his thoughts.
“The bond we believed to complete the mating process,” Ehrun finally said, “is nothing compared to having the connection through Keon. It’s like Rhana never died. She’s here” —he touched his chest with his fingertips, over his heart— “and it’s almost as though I can speak to her again.”
The concept was as bizarre as a sky without the stars. None of it made sense, yet the bond within Azriel swelled at the thought of it—almost as though it desired nothing more than everything Ehrun described.
Azriel’s voice turned hoarse as he asked, “What does Rhana tell you?”
