“I’d follow you anywhere.” The truth of it settles into my bones. “But I don’t think leaving will be necessary. Dragons can fly. Valdoria isn’t that far. And the Brotherhood will function just fine with three brothers in residence and one splitting his time with his mate’s kingdom.”
“You’ve thought about this.”
“I’m a strategist.” I pull her back down against me, wrapping my arms around her. “I’ve been planning our future since the moment I realized I couldn’t lose you.”
“When was that?”
“When you collapsed in the throne room.” The memory still makes my chest tight. “When I held you and felt you dying and knew that if you stopped breathing, I would too. Not physically. But every part of me that had started living again because of you would freeze over and never thaw.”
She’s quiet for a moment. Her hand finds mine, lacing our fingers, her warmth grounding me.
“I thought I was going to die.” Her voice is soft. “In those moments when the Crown was draining me and I couldn’t stop—I thought I was going to die without ever telling you how I felt. Without ever having this.”
“You didn’t die.”
“No.” She squeezes my hand. “And now we have everything.”
Everything. The word feels too small for what we have, and exactly right at the same time.
Dawn findsus on the road to Valdoria.
Not literally—we’re flying, my dragon form cutting through the early morning air with Tamsin pressed against my scales. But the metaphor holds. A new day. A new beginning. A new chapter in both our lives.
The Brotherhood saw us off at sunrise. Drayke clasped my arm with the respect of equals, Selene at his side smiling with knowing warmth. Rurik made inappropriate comments that earned him a glare from Aisling and a laugh from everyone else. Zyphon simply nodded—the understanding between us, forged in shared grief and survival, needing no words.
Nasyra embraced Tamsin before we left. I couldn’t hear what she said, but I saw Tamsin’s expression shift—surprise, then gratitude, then the fierce emotion of someone who has finally found their people.
The Fire-Bringer sisterhood has grown to four. Bound by fire and survival and the peculiar joy of loving impossible dragons.
We reach the Valdorian border as the sun crests the mountains.
I land on a ridge overlooking the ruins of Tamsin’s kingdom. The destruction stretches for miles—collapsed buildings, scorched earth, the remnants of a life that ended weeks ago when the Shadow Clan attacked. But there are signs of survival too. Smoke rising from distant camps. Movement on the roadsbelow. People returning, rebuilding, refusing to let their home stay broken.
Tamsin slides from my back as I shift to human form. She stands at the ridge’s edge, the Crown dormant against her chest, her eyes fixed on the ruins with an expression I’m learning to read.
Not grief. Not anymore. Determination. Purpose. The face of a queen surveying her kingdom and planning its rebirth.
I step up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist, my chest pressed against her back. She leans into me without hesitation—the easy intimacy of mates, of partners, of two people who belong to each other.
“It’s going to take years to rebuild.” Her voice is steady. Assessing. “Maybe decades.”
“Good thing you have a dragon.” I press a kiss to her temple. “We’re patient. And we’re very good at long-term projects.”
“Is that what I am?” She turns her head to look at me, amusement flickering in her amber eyes. “A long-term project?”
“You’re everything.” I tighten my arms around her. “Project. Purpose. Future. Home.”
She turns fully in my embrace, her hands rising to cup my face. The claiming mark pulses between us—hers and mine, frost and flame, ice and fire intertwined.
“You’re mine.” She says it simply. Certainly. As if it’s the most obvious truth in the world.
“I’m yours.” I match her certainty with my own. Saying those words comes easier every time. “Now and for the rest of our lives.”
“That’s a long time for a dragon.”
“Not long enough.” I kiss her—soft, reverent, full of promise. “Not nearly long enough.”
When we part, she’s smiling. The sun rises higher behind us, casting golden light across the ruins of Valdoria—but alsoacross the roads filling with returning refugees, the camps where survivors are gathering, the foundation of a kingdom that will rise from the ashes.
