“It doesn’t hurt,” she breathed.
He swallowed. “How—” he began, and couldn’t get out any other words.
“Have you ever used your powernotto threaten, or attack?”
“What other purpose would they have?”
Her eyes lit up. “Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out?”
His wings curled around her, around the warm and smiling perfection of the woman who had haunted his dreams since the day he first saw her. But this wasn’t a dream, or a nightmare.
It was his life. A life that, only a few days ago, he would never have thought possible.
Maya smiled up at him. Her head was wreathed in shadows. Shadowy wings, limned with brilliant green, unfurled from his shoulders and wrapped around her, soft as kisses.
“How is this possible?”
“I have a theory.” She touched his wings again, and he held his breath. “But it requires turning everything you thought you knew about the world upside-down.”
He shook his head. “The duskfireisdestruction. Every bad memory, every pain you thought you’d left long behind you…”
“I thought I’d left you long behind me, Corin Blackburn. But here you are. And it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.”
“I always thought…”
She smiled at him. “If there’s one thing the last few years have taught me, it’s that things aren’t always what we think they are, Mr. Blackburn.”
“So I have found, Miss Flores. But I know one thing is true.” Her eyes filled his soul. “You’re my mate,” he said simply. “And Tomás is your son. I will fight for you both, and cherish you both, as long as my heart beats. The way I should have from the start. And I would be honored to be yours, if you will have me. Your mate. Your husband. Tomás’s father.”
“I already told you I’m yours.”
“Tell me I’m yours, too.”
Her face glowed with happiness. “You’re mine and I’m never letting you go.”
He sighed and buried his face in her hair.
“Tell me again.”
“You’re mine. My dragon.”
They stumbled to the bed and sat together, her in his lap, face to face. His wings surrounded them both. A blanket of purest night, lit through with green light like distant shooting stars.
If he’d ever dreamed of this, it would have been a nightmare.
Even now, his instinct was to flinch away from it. But Maya held him steady.
He laughed unevenly. “It always tried to break free when I thought of you being mine.”
“It didn’t seem to cause you any problems the first time we slept together.”
“I was holding so much of myself back.”
She stared at him, amazed. “That was you holding yourself back?”
“Not physically.” He kissed her, and his wings whispered all over her body, careful and caring. “I wanted to pleasure you, and to claim you the way I should have when we first met. And I did. But it wasn’t all of me. I kept my magic leashed.”
“And now?”
