Surprise manages to break through the torrent of awful emotions in my chest. It distracts me enough that I finally manage to wrest the grief and regret back behind the walls where they belong. I drag in a breath, at last pulling myself together again.
With raised eyebrows, I turn to stare at Draven in stunned shock. “Free spirits?Yourparents?”
“Yes.”
“Have you met you? How could a pair of free spirits create…” I wave my hands to indicate his commanding body and militaristic posture, “this?”
He laughs and gives me a soft shove that still manages to make me stumble to the side. “Alright, smartass. Point taken. But it’strue. They were explorers. They didn’t want to have kids since it would get in the way of their adventures. But then when they were like nine hundred years old, they panicked and realized that they wanted to leave a legacy.” He shrugs. “So they had me.”
“Well, they sure got a legacy.” I give him a sly look. “Leader of the Black Dragon Clan, Shadow of Death, and Commander of the Dread Legion.”
He mirrors my smirk, his eyes glinting in the moonlight. “Can’t argue with that.”
I laugh and give him a good-natured eye roll. He just smirks in reply. Sliding an arm around my shoulders, he starts us towards the door again.
“We won’t wait that long, though, right?” I ask as he pulls the door open.
Raising his eyebrows at me, he watches me walk across the threshold before following as well. “For what?”
“To have kids.”
He misses a step. Quickly straightening again, he hurries to catch up with me while a heart-wrenchingly tentative hope flickers in his eyes. “You want to have kids? With me?”
“Of course I do. After we have seen everything this world has to offer, I want to settle down and build a home with you. I want all of it, Draven. I want everything.”
Love shines in his eyes as he brushes his hand down my spine while we close the distance to the staircase that will take us up to his bedroom. “I do too.”
“Can you imagine? A bunch of miniature versions of you and me running around.”
A wonderful laugh escapes his mouth. The sound of it is so soothing that the final tightness in my chest at last disappears.
His eyes gleam in the candlelight as he shakes his head. “Oh, the world doesn’t stand a chance.”
I laugh and wiggle my eyebrows at him. “Perhaps we shouldstart practicing then. So that we know what to do when it’s time to make those kids.”
A devilish smile tugs at his lips as he arches an eyebrow at me. “Coming three times on my throne earlier wasn’t enough for you?”
“If you can’t keep up, just admit that.”
“Watch that mouth, little rebel.” His eyes glitter, and that smirk full of wicked promises remains on his face. “Because now, I really will find another use for it.”
I let out a yelp as he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. With a laugh, I declare, “Domineering, territorial bastard.”
He just slaps me on the ass and carries me into his bedroom.
But even as desire throbs inside me, all I can think about is how desperate I am for a boost of my magic.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Nightmares flash before my eyes. Over and over again. I know that they’re nightmares. That this isn’t real. But I still can’t get out of them. I can’t wake myself up. I can’t move. Can’t scream. Can’t do anything but lie there while it feels as if someone is sitting on my chest and strangling my throat with cold, brutal hands while forcing me to watch every awful memory I’ve ever had with my parents.
Drinking glasses shatter on the floor.
They’re going to hate me. They hate me now. Oh Goddess, they hate me.The thoughts echo through my skull, as real as that day when I broke the glasses.
Screamed arguments between my parents. Arguments about them. About me.
Resentment and hatred.
