“Magnificent, you said.” The flame flickers, dims. “Is that what I am? What Fire-Bringers are?”
“Yes.” The word comes out rougher than I intend. “Your bloodline carries fire that can rival dragon flame. When threatened, when desperate—” I break off. Try again. “What you did today took most Fire-Bringers years to master. You did it on instinct.”
“It didn’t feel like instinct.” She stares at her hands. At the fingers that channeled enough fire to reduce a dragon to ash. “It felt like drowning. Like being swept away by a flood and just... hoping I’d wash up somewhere safe.”
“That’s how it starts. Raw and uncontrolled.” I take her hands in mine before I can think better of it. Her fingers are cold. Trembling slightly. “But you survived. You controlled it enough to direct it at the enemy instead of everything around you. That’s more than most manage their first time.”
She’s quiet for a moment. The flame on her finger dies.
“They were after me specifically. Weren’t they?”
“Yes.”
“The poison. It was designed for Fire-Bringers.”
“Yes.”
“So this isn’t random. It’s not rogues stumbling across me by accident.” She meets my gaze. No fear in her eyes—just grim understanding. “They’re hunting me.”
“Yes.”
“And this won’t stop, will it?” Her voice is steady. Accepting. “No matter where I go. No matter what I do. They’ll keep coming until they get what they want.”
“Yes.” The admission tastes like failure. “It won’t stop.”
She nods. Slow. Thoughtful. Processing the reality of her new existence with the same stubborn practicality that’s defined her since the moment she arrived on this mountain.
“Then I need to get stronger.” She sits up straighter, wincing at the pull of her healing wounds. “I need to learn to control this fire instead of just reacting with it. I need?—”
“You need to rest.”
“I need to be ready.” She catches my arm when I try to ease her back down. Her grip is weak, but her gaze is steel. “They’re not going to stop, Drayke. You said so yourself. So I can lie here feeling sorry for myself, or I can prepare for the next attack.” Her jaw sets in that stubborn line I’ve come to know so well. “I choose to prepare.”
The dragon stirs. Not with frustration or fear, but with pride. Admiration.
Strong. Our mate is strong.
“In a few days.” I ease her back against the pillows despite her protests. “Tonight, you rest. Soon, we’ll train. Both fire and blade.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
She holds my gaze for a long moment. Searching for something. I don’t know if she finds it, but eventually she nods. Settles back. Lets her eyes drift closed.
“You’re not running this time.” Her voice is already fading into sleep. “Noticed that.”
“No.” I brush a strand of hair from her face. Let my fingers linger against her temple. “I’m not.”
Her breathing evens out. Deepens. She sleeps, and I stay beside her, watching the firelight dance across her face.
She didn’t run. She fought. She burned a rogue to ash and took poisoned claws across her shoulder and still—still—she’s planning for the next battle instead of fleeing for safety.
Any other human would have broken by now. Would have begged me to take them away from this madness, to protect them from the monsters hunting them.
Not Selene.
She’s adapting. Becoming. Rising to meet a destiny she never asked for with the same stubborn determination she brings to everything else.
