I nod.
The moment his fingertips brush my temples, the world fractures.
I'm inside him.
My thoughts are overtaken first by the vast, endless darkness of his dragon mind, coiled tightly around the crushing weight of responsibility. Through it, I glimpse the burden he carries: command that demands sacrifice, the endless duty of protecting others even when it costs him his own freedom. Battles flash past, fought with fire, others avoided through careful restraint. Kingdoms endure because of choices he has made, and magic remains chained because someone had to accept the guilt of choosing thelesser evil.
And threaded through it all is me.
The moment he sensed my magic strong enough to tear the world open.
The rush of relief when he realized I was alive.
His love and devotion fill the hollow inside me, settling beside the gift Ronyn gave, wrapped in memories that aren’t mine.
When I come back to myself, I’m shaking.
Kelan steadies me with firm hands at my waist. His body radiates heat as his wings shudder into partial existence behind him, vast shadows rippling across the cave walls before he reins them back in with a sharp breath.
“You’re our everything, mate,” he whispers. “Everything we want and everything we believed would never be ours.”
I cup his strong, angular face, bringing him closer, brushing my lips across his. Sensation flutters in my belly, and he sighs, and deepens the kiss, cradling the back of my head as he strokes his tongue over mine.
I don’t want to release him, but Darial is waiting.
The golden-haired man doesn’t kneel, but instead, he chooses to sit beside me, close enough that our knees brush. His sun-warmed scent washes across me, as sweet as summer.
His smile is gentle, but there’s sorrow behind it that reflects my own too closely to be a coincidence.
“I don’t show my heart easily,” he admits. “But you already live there.”
When he takes my hands, his magic is different. Darial’s love is lighter and softer, enfolding me like laughter and warmth. I see moments of joy, centuries spent concealingloneliness with charm and humor, and the familiar sadness of being surrounded by people and still unbearably alone.
He shows me the hopelessness, only to contrast it with thewonder.
I discover his delight in small things, like the sound of music floating through open windows in an unfamiliar city, and the flashes of lightning in a particularly active electrical storm. He shows me the precious moments when he allowed himself to forget how long he'd lived and how little of it had truly been shared. His heart has always been open, even when it hurt him to keep it that way.
And then I’m with him.
Darial’s love isn’t heavy with destiny or sharpened by fear. It is gentle and brave all at once, filled with awe that I exist at all. He shows me how my voice already feels like sunlight to him. How the thought of my future happiness fills him with hope.
His loneliness aches differently than Ronyn’s. Where Ronyn’s is a wound, Darial’s is a hollow waiting to be filled. He has loved the world loudly and often, while waiting for the true satisfaction of a mate.
Tears sting my eyes, and when his thumbs brush lightly over my knuckles, rooting me back in my body, his smile wavers as he waits for my reaction.
When he leans in and presses a kiss to my temple, my breath catches. His lips linger, reverent and sweet, and I touch the scales along his jaw, flashing gold over his skin, responding instinctively to my nearness.
The dragons have each reacted to me, unfurling desire that’s new and confusing.
I lean forward first, and Darial inhales sharply as my fingers curl against his chest. Heat flares in my palms, hiswings twitching behind him as I press a soft, exploring kiss to his mouth. Kelan’s hand braces at my back, while Ronyn’s fingers trail lightly down my arm.
Three men.
Three dragons.
They are majestic and powerful, old, and yet filled with youth, strength, and vigor.
I pull back, my heart beating fast, my forehead resting briefly against Ronyn’s.
