When she finally pulled away, Midas slowly shifted to his human form. He knelt beside her, but didn’t immediately speak. He just took her hand and maneuvered their fingers so that they traced the stone together.
“This is my vow,” he finally said, voice hoarse from the shift. “It is…the words I do not yet know how to say. The hope in my heart that you will stay with me. To be mate. It means more than hatchlings. To dragons, mate means eternity. Always. Forever.”
Midas knelt, staring at her searching for some reaction that would tell him if he was doing this right. He had no cultural understanding of how humans asked these things, nor did he know the ceremony or language for it—but he understood Elowen in ways the humans never had, and so he hoped that she would accept it—accepthim.
Elowen gently set the stone down in her nest, then knelt with him. She took his clawed hands in both of hers.
She gazed deep into his molten eyes, and whispered: “I shall love you until long after all the stars in the skies burn out.”
A sound escaped him—relief and astonishment. “Do you mean it, Elowen?” he asked, reaching for her cheek.
“More than I’ve ever meant anything in my life.”
He pressed their foreheads together again, unable to look at her, for his gratitude was too great. Then, he kissed her.
And he finally understood why she had told him that humans kiss to show love. For what other action could feel so natural to give in a moment of happiness?
“I love you, Elowen.”
Elowen’s voice broke when she answered. “Say it again.”
He did. Then again. Until it was no longer a word, but a promise.
They stayed like that until the fire faded and the night deepened. And when she laid her headagainst his chest and whispered that she would stay with him for all her days, Midas held her like the only treasure in the world he could never bear to lose.
Twenty-Seven
It wasthe middle of the rainy season, and the downpour had left the mouth of the cave damp and cold. Elowen stood just out of reach of the water, barefoot, letting the soothing smell of rain cling to her.
Behind her, Midas stood in the shape of a man, his hair long down his back. His feet were heavy against the stone as he approached. Elowen didn’t turn, not right away at least. She simply stayed in place, watching the rain, and felt Midas’ heat at her back.
His hand rose to brush her loose hair away from her neck, and tenderly kissed the curve where it met her shoulder. She turned to face him.
His eyes, golden as the dawn, met hers like they always did—like he could never quite believe that she was real. Even now. Even after he had asked her to be his and all the weeks since.
Midas saw something new in her eyes, but he wasn’t sure what it was.
They had never been good at hiding things from each other. Not worry, nor care, nor the way their bodies had been…passionatefor each other as of late.
But they had never been ready. Not until now, like the softness of the rain whispered to them that it was finally the right moment.
Elowen took his hand and led him into the cave wordlessly, past the hearth where she cooked meals and into the alcove where their nest was.
They spoke no words, for there were none needed. Elowen let her hands trace the lines of him—the curve of his shoulders, the scales down his spine, across his abdomen.
And when he touched her, it was with the same tenderness.
Midas had told Elowen before that this sort of intimacy was reserved for the sacred bond of mates. He had been careful to respect Elowen and her body, never touching her until he received her invitation.
He explored every curve of her body like a map he was committing to memory. Like a riddle he was waiting to find the answer to. He did not rush, he savored.
Her sighs were every answer he had ever wanted to hear.
They quickly knew what brought the other pleasure, and moved like the tides are drawn to the moon. Elowen’s fingers tangled in his dark hair and Midas’ lips found every bare piece of her, mixing their scents until they were indistinguishable from one another.
Afterward, they lay together on the furs and quilts oftheir nest, bare in every way. Not dragon and human, but lovers and loved.
Midas kissed her again, and she opened for him once more. As his body moved against hers in a beautiful, steady rhythm, Elowen wrapped her arms around him and whispered his name.
