She was turned away from him and kept a foot of space between them because she was still angry.
Still hurt.
Still terrified of the dragon who had dropped her from the sky and forced her to shift or die.
Pyrran's jaw clenched.
He'd made a terrible, unforgivable mistake.
And now their queen couldn't even look at him without flinching.
The moonlight came through the open arch of their chamber in a pale, silver flood. It pooled across the bed like spilled milk and caught the edges of Sol's black hair.
His dragon stirred beneath his ribs and ached.
The bond between the three of them pulsed faintly in the dark. It was a low, golden thread that Pyrran could feel more than see. It hummed where Sol's skin touched Korin's. It thickened where Korin's breath fell warm against the back of her neck. And it reached for Pyrran across the empty space of the bed like a hand extending through water.
Pyrran could feel her dreaming too.
Not the details— those belonged to her—the dreams slipped along his naked body.
Warm.
Safe.
Honeyed.
Pyrran inched closer to inhale their mate and Korin's arm tightened around her waist.
Even unconscious, his brother was a sentinel. His jaw was set, his body curved around Sol like a wall of bone and muscle. The faint iridescence of Korin’s dormant shift shimmered just beneath the surface of his skin.
Korin would not let Pyrran unexpectedly grab her again.
Guilt sank deep within Pyrran’s heart.
Do not worry, brother. I have learned my lesson. I will never doubt you again.
There had been a time—before Sol, before the bond cracked open every sealed chamber in his chest—when he had dreamed of a moment like this.
He had been the sharper brother.
The one who burned first and thought second.
The one the elders had crowned before the human kings had united and killed them.
The elders had claimed that the twins had too much power, too much fire, and no anchor.
TwoPyrathryxtwin dragons burning through the world without anything cold enough to hold them still.
Pyrran had leveled a mountain range before his second century.
Korin had boiled a sea. Before all died, they had feared the twins and not because they were cruel, but because they wereuncontainedand an uncontained fire did not choose what it burned.
Sol would be the containment.
Her ice would never weaken their flame. It would focus it.
Give it edges.
