Don’t touch him.
As you wish.He remained still while I settled on his spine.
Vexxion flitted, seating himself behind me.
“I thought you were riding your own dragon,” I said.
His arm went around my waist, and he tugged me back until I could feel every part of this man I would crave forever. “You, tiny one, will always ride with me.”
17
VEXXION
We flew all day, only stopping to stretch our legs, visit the woods, and eat and drink something. If anyone followed us, I didn’t see or feel them, and I regularly sent out my threads to trace through the air behind us.
Tempest barely spoke to me, and I tried to tell myself I was grateful. The more I knew about her and the more I interacted with her, the more I wanted her. And oh, how I wanted her already.
Mybrand blazed on the nape of her neck, telling me she was not only my fated mate but that I’d bonded myself to her with bites. That must be why I craved her, why my damn cock kept rising whenever she came near.
I was convinced Ihadloved her, though the feeling remained as elusive as it was the moment she placed the new collar around my neck.
I sensed her sadness, though she didn’t give way to sighs ortears like many women would. There was a core of strength within this woman that made me ache to hold her forever, to shelter in my arms and with my magic. To give up my very life if it would keep her happy and safe. How had I gone from loving her to staring at her with a bare, empty cavern stretching between us?
As the sun began to set, we reached the outskirts of the village. Fae looked up as we passed before going back to whatever they were doing. A few made a sign to protect themselves from evil fates.
“I don’t see any dragons,” Tempest said, finally,finallybreaking the bitter silence that had been slowly erecting a wall between us. I should have let it remain, but I couldn’t stop myself from picking away at it, from trying to scale it.
“Dragons aren’t common in the countryside.” I tightened my arm around her. I didn’t need to support her at all. It was clear from her seat that this woman had been a rider from the time she could walk. “Why bother keeping dragons if you can get where you need to go by wagon and horse?”
“Dragonsareexpensive to take care of. And I suppose those in the village can flit if they need to travel very far.”
“Almost no one can flit. It’s a rare skill. Oneyoucan do, I’ll point out.”
“You taught me.” Her voice had hollowed out again, and the feeling echoed within me. All my emotions, other than an unexpected, bitter jealousy toward Brodine, felt trapped behind a mist in my mind, one stronger and taller than the wall Tempest had spent the day erecting. Should I be picking at the mist instead?
“You said I collared you, that you believed you were Nullen,” I said.
“And you said you knew all along who I was, that I was fae.”
I held out my arm, displaying the mark I’d kept masked from the moment it appeared. For some reason, I’d allowed that magic to fail. “I must’ve felt you near.”
“You came over to where I was working with a dragon named Seevar. He . . .” Her long sigh deflated her thin frame. “Delaine killed him.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I killed Delaine.”
A nasty woman. I couldn’t mourn her loss.
“Then you truly are powerful,” I said. For some reason, I didn’t doubt Tempest could do it.
“That’s why you claimed me,” Tempest said. “It’s why you manipulated and, to some extent, used me. You planned all along for me to kill the king and, at the same time, murder you.”
“You should’ve done it.”
“I already told you I couldn’t.”
I grumbled.
