“The power,” she says quietly. “It whispers, doesn’t it? Tells you what you might become if you just let go.”
My throat tightens. “Yes.”
“Don’t listen.” Her hand brushes my arm—brief, barely there. “Whatever it promises, the price is too high. I know.” Her gaze flickers to Zyphon’s retreating back. “Believe me, I know.”
Then she’s gone, melting into the shadows that seem to welcome her, leaving me alone with Auren in the scorched courtyard.
THIRTY-ONE
TAMSIN
“You scared me.”
The words are quiet. Raw. Nothing like the controlled precision I’ve come to expect from him.
I turn in his arms until I’m facing him fully. His golden eyes search my face, and for once, I can read everything there. Fear. Relief. Something deeper that makes my heart stutter.
“I scared myself,” I admit. “For a moment, I saw what Morrigan must have felt. How someone might want that power badly enough to destroy everything else to get it.” I press my palm flat against his chest. “If you hadn’t called me back?—”
“But I did.” His hand covers mine, pressing it harder against him. “And you came. That’s what matters.”
“What if next time it’s not enough? What if I open the Crown against Ulrik and I can’t find my way back?”
“Then I’ll come find you.” No hesitation. No doubt. Just absolute certainty, delivered in that cool voice that somehow manages to contain more emotion than any passionate declaration. “I’ll follow you into whatever fire you’ve become and drag you back by force if I have to.”
A laugh escapes me—half relief, half disbelief. “You’d burn.”
“Probably.” He cups my face in his cold hands. “Worth it.”
The casual way he says it—worth it, as if his life is an acceptable trade for mine—does something to my chest. Cracks it open. Lets something in that I’ve been trying to hold at bay since the first time he kissed me.
I’m falling. No—I’ve already fallen. Somewhere between the training sessions and the late nights and the battle against my sister, I stopped falling and started being. Being his. Being someone who can’t imagine a future that doesn’t include cold arms and golden eyes and this impossible, infuriating, perfect dragon.
“Take me to bed,” I whisper. “We have until dawn. I want to spend it with you.”
He doesn’t ask questions. Doesn’t hesitate. Just sweeps me up, one arm under my knees, the other behind my back, and carries me from the courtyard. I loop my arms around his neck and press my face into his shoulder, breathing him in.
In the morning, we’ll fly into war. I’ll wield power that might destroy me. Everything will change.
But right now, in this moment, there’s only him. Only us. Only the quiet certainty that whatever happens next, we face it as partners.
I’ve spent my whole life being trained for duty. For sacrifice. For putting the kingdom before myself.
No one ever trained me for this—for wanting someone so badly that the thought of losing them hurts worse than any wound. For finding home not in a place, but in a person. For knowing, finally, that some things are worth fighting for beyond obligation.
Auren carries me through corridors that have become familiar. Past doors I’ve walked through a hundred times. Into his chambers, where frost patterns trace the windows and the air holds the crisp bite of winter.
He sets me down gently, his hands lingering on my waist. I’m still trembling—aftershocks from the Crown’s power, or anticipation, or both. His thumbs trace circles on my hips, soothing and inflaming at once.
“You’re still shaking.”
“I know.” I reach up and begin unfastening his shirt. My fingers fumble on the buttons, clumsy with residual tremors. “Help me stop.”
His hands close over mine, stilling them. “Tamsin?—”
“I need you.” The words come out fierce. Desperate. True. “I need to feel something other than that power. Something real. Something that’s mine because I chose it, not because I was born to it.” I meet his eyes. “Please.”
Something in his expression shifts. Softens. The careful control that defines him eases, revealing the man underneath—the one who feels too deeply, wants too fiercely, loves with an intensity that terrifies him.
