"And you?" She looks up from bandaging her arm. "What do you believe?"
I've spent centuries alone, isolated, avoiding exactly the kind of connection Mikhail murdered Saoirse to prevent.
But Lila's standing in my cave, choosing to stay despite knowing what I am, looking at me like she expects truth.
"I believe he was wrong." The admission tastes like surrender. "About Saoirse. About weakness. About everything he used to justify murder."
"But you're still alone." She finishes with the bandage, securing it with practiced efficiency. "Living in this cave. Isolated from everyone except the Brotherhood. Avoiding exactly what he wanted to take from you."
She sees through the defenses I've built, the isolation I've maintained. Too damn smart for her own good.
"Until you arrived."
The words hang between us, weighted with implications neither of us are ready to address. The mate bond. The claiming. The choice she'll have to make about what comes next.
Lila stands, moving to the edge of the tidal pool where bioluminescent algae pulses beneath the surface. She's coveredin soot and blood, exhausted and traumatized, processing impossible revelations that should have sent her running.
Instead, she's here. In my territory. Asking questions. Demanding truth.
The dragon roars beneath my skin, demanding I claim her before she changes her mind, before logic overrides courage.
I push the instinct down. She deserves choice, not pressure from a desperate dragon.
"You should rest. I'll keep watch."
"I'm not tired." She turns from the pool to face me, and something in her expression makes my breath catch. "I'm processing. Dragons. Shifters. Phoenixes that teleport through fire. Blood magic that actually works. Everything I thought I understood about the world—" She stops, shakes her head. "None of it was real."
"Not wrong. Incomplete."
"That's generous." She crosses her arms, a defensive gesture that doesn't match the determination in her voice. "I've spent my entire career studying marine biology, analyzing phenomena through empirical observation, building theories based on repeatable results. Now I'm standing in a cave with a man who can turn into a dragon, talking about immortal phoenixes and ritual magic like it's normal."
"It's not normal. It's reality."
"My reality just expanded significantly." She takes a step toward me, then another, closing the distance I put between us. "So I need you to explain. Everything. Starting with what you are and ending with what Mikhail wants."
The pull to claim her surges, made worse by her proximity, by the way she's looking at me like I'm not a monster. I should step back. Give her space.
I don't.
"What I am? A dragon. Ancient. Immortal. I survive at crushing depths, fly through killing storms. I've existed longer than your recorded history."
"And Mikhail?"
"Phoenix. Older than me. We were friends for millennia before he murdered Saoirse."
Lila processes this with the same analytical focus she applies to marine samples. "He said he loved you enough to make hard choices. That's not friendship. That's obsession."
"Yes."
"And he's going to come back."
"Yes."
"Because he thinks claiming me makes you weak."
"Yes. He'll kill you to free me from attachment. Just like he killed Saoirse. Just like he'll kill anyone I care about until I'm isolated and alone."
Lila's quiet for a moment. Then she reaches out, fingers finding my jaw, tilting my face so I have to meet her eyes. "Then we need to kill him first."
