I laughed, hardly believing that I was alive and mated to the Dragon King. The King who loved me. I had won, triumphed against the trials of a god. Holy fuck. “I promise, Shale. Never again.”
Shale pulled me into a kiss, and I didn't care that his mother and a bunch of priests were watching. I languished inthat kiss and celebrated our win. Our miracle. Yeah, I had paid for it, but I was good with that. I'd pay it again. Ten times over.
“Well done, Sebastian Dahl,” Ranu said.
I jerked away from Shale to look at his mother, expecting to see the God staring out of her eyes. But her stare was lifted to the statue. I looked up and up and up and found the God's eyes gone dark, black as they'd been when I was in his arms.
“Holy fuck,” I said and scrambled to my feet.
Shale got up with me and held my hand as we faced Ranu. “Thank you, Great One. Thank you for sending Sebastian back to me with my love.”
“He held on,” was all Ranu said before the darkness faded from his eyes, and his presence departed.
Shale looked at me.
I shrugged and smirked. “I promised.”
Chapter Forty-One
We had breakfast with Shale's parents, who were now, evidently, my parents too. As we dined out on the terrace of their beautiful estate, surrounded by thick jungle, Dragons started to arrive to congratulate their King. Word was spreading that the Dragon King had been blessed with a second mate. All those vicious rumors about him would soon be quashed. No one could deny that a second mating was a blessing from the Dragon Gods, not to mention the blessing of Ranu returning Shale's love.
“Those priests were into me,” I said with a smirk at my mate. Holy fuck, Shale was my mate!
The shock of it kept coming in waves. I'd be fine, very calm, and then—wham! It would hit. Mate! It was hard to process after everything that had happened. Just the day before I'd been facing a life without Shale, certain I had to escape him to be happy. Then I went through divine torture to free his love, offering my soul for it. Now, I was mated to Shale and immortal.
Shale, who shared a couch with me, his body as close to mine as it could get, laughed. “I was a bit surprised by them kissing your hands. I would have gotten upset if they hadn't been so reverent about it.”
“It was weird. They were weird.”
“They were in awe of you—a human who had met every challenge their god gave him and came back from the other realm alive.”
“The other realm,” I whispered and shook my head. “I thought I was there, that I had walked into the God's world. And even when it became clear that I hadn't, it still felt so real.”
“You collapsed just inside the doorway.” Shale's face, which had been locked in an expression of joy all morning, shifted suddenly into something tremulous. “The force holding me released me, and I ran to you, but you were gone. It was only your body I held. It breathed and lived, but you weren't in it.”
“I told him to have faith in you,” Duchess Thera said. “I knew you'd succeed, Sebastian. As soon as I saw you, I knew you were the one who would save my son.”
“She's always had a sense about such things,” Duke Naven said. “When Shaleros was . . . broken and on the verge of being lost to us, she sensed it and went to him.” He drew his mate into his side and kissed her. “You saved him first, my love.”
“And I questioned that decision for years,” Duchess Thera said with a sad look at her son. “I worried that I'd done the wrong thing. That I should have let you go.”
“I'm glad you helped me, Mother.” Shale took her hand and squeezed it, then leaned over to kiss my cheek. “I'd live a thousand years in that half-life for Sebastian.”
I stroked Shale's cheek and pressed our foreheads together. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he took great delight in saying, his lips spreading into a broad smile.
“Say it again.”
“I love you, Mate.”
“What did you see?” Duke Naven asked me. “When you went into the God's realm, what did you see, Son?”
Son. How odd to have a Dragon call me kin. And I had yet to contact my birth parents with the news of my mating. And immortality. I couldn't wait to hear their voices. Their shock. I'd have to call Galin too.
Then I realized that Shale had gone deathly still beside me and the group of Dragons gathered around us leaned in closer to hear what I had to say.
“It changed with every test,” I whispered.
