“Visitors.” I set the sword aside but don’t step back. Don’t create distance. “Multiple. Watching from the trees. They wanted to deliver a message from their master.”
His whole body goes rigid. “Did they hurt you?”
“No.” I hold up my hand. Let a small flame dance across my fingers. “Turns out I’m not as helpless as everyone assumed.”
He stares at the fire. At me. Something shifts in his expression—surprise, concern, and underneath it all, that same hungry intensity I’ve been trying not to think about.
“Your power is awakening.”
“Apparently.” I close my fist, extinguishing the flame. “Would have been nice to know that was a possibility before I nearly set Grandma’s journals on fire.”
“You should have told me immediately. Should have—” He breaks off. Runs a hand through his hair. “This changes things. The rogues seeing your power, knowing you’re awakening?—”
“I know.” I cut him off. “I know it was stupid. I know I just painted a giant target on myself. But I’m tired of hiding, Drayke. Tired of waiting for someone else to save me.”
“I’m not trying to?—”
“You weren’t trying to control me.” The words come out soft. Certain. “All those warnings. All those orders. You were trying to protect me.”
He goes still.
“I get it now.” I step closer. Close enough to feel his heat. Close enough to see the way his pupils dilate, the way his breath catches. “The prophecy. The rogues. Whatever they want my blood for. You’ve been fighting this alone, haven’t you? Trying to keep me safe without dragging me into your war.”
“It’s not my war.” His voice is rough. “It’s ours. Whether you want it or not.”
“Then stop trying to fight it alone.” I hold his gaze. “Stop pushing me away. Stop treating me like I’m made of glass.”
“You don’t understand.” The words sound torn from him. “What I am. What I could do to you if I lose control?—”
“Then help me understand.” I’m close enough to touch him now. Don’t. Not yet. “Train me. Teach me. Stop keeping secrets and start treating me like a partner.”
The silence stretches between us. Heavy. Charged. Full of everything neither of us is saying.
Finally, he exhales. A controlled release of breath.
“Get some sleep.” His voice is still rough, but there’s something new underneath it. Something that might be surrender. “I’ll keep watch. When you wake, we start your training.”
“Weapons or fire?”
“Both.” He moves toward the door, but not through it. Posts himself against the frame, arms crossed, gaze fixed on the treeline. “If you’re going to fight beside dragons, you need to know how to survive.”
He’s not leaving. The realization settles over me, warm and unexpected.
Something has shifted between us. A crack in the wall he’s been building. A step toward something neither of us is ready to name.
I head toward the bedroom, pausing at the doorway to look back.
He’s still there. Watching the forest. Guarding.
Partners.The word settles into my chest.Not protector and protected. Partners.
Outside, the first light of dawn paints the sky in shades of gold and rose.
When I wake, I start learning how to fight.
For now, I sleep.
And for the first time since I arrived on this mountain, I don’t sleep alone.
