Izzy blinked up at him. “I can’t,” she whispered, even as her beast lurched brokenly to its feet.
“Youcan.” Luka’s eyes were almost entirely opal-green, and his voice carried the low harmonics of his drake, but his fingers were impossibly tender on her skin. “You can do anything. I’ve always known it.”
She shook her head, sending a shaft of agony into her belly, and her eyes filled with tears.
His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “Try, Izzy.Please. It’s the only way.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and she could feel his body shuddering with the force of his emotion.
Maybe,her beast whispered.I feel… heat and… power. We’re close here.
Izzy swallowed roughly. Close to what?
Something more. We can try.
She took a labored breath. “Yes… for us. I’ll try. Luka, can you… help me with my clothes?”
“Of course.” He undressed her gently, turning her and holding her as if she were infinitely precious. He was there, he was with her, even as her focus spiraled inward, to her beast and on the call of the heat.
Scales rippled over her skin and retracted, not quite settling. She was too hotandtoo cold. Shiveryandpanting. She grunted, reaching for something. That itch. That crick in her bones. It needed… something.
“Yes,” Luka murmured. “I can feel it.” He took her hands in his, and the sharp points of his claws prickled along her flesh. “Find that power. It’s inside you.”
Her own claws slid out as her beast rumbled out a long, low growl.
Luka lifted her hands and kissed her claws. “So beautiful. Look.” He threaded his fingers through hers. “We were made for each other. Let your drake take control. Let her magic knit you back together.” His voice dropped to barely more than a whisper. “Be with me.”
Izzy’s beast shivered and tried to unfurl her wings, but they lay undeveloped and clumsy. Too heavy to lift, too awkward to maneuver. She lowered her scaled head and panted. Izzy did the same thing in the flickering light of the crystals. They were disconnected, dissociated. Overlapping, but not quite one.
Luka’s fingers tightened on hers. “You’ve always trusted your beast. Trust her now. You can do this.” Tears ran openly down his face. “I’ll be here.”
Izabel closed her eyes and panted.We can do this,she thought to her beast. I do trust you. You are me. I’m you.And then she opened her heart. She gave herself completely to her beast. She reached for that river of molten gold—for the vibrant power that had dwelled in the very roots of the mountain sincethe first transcendent moments of the world—and she let the heat flood through her.
Her beast roared, or maybe she did. Her body was on fire. Her soul was ablaze. Her beast uncoiled with a bellow of pain and glorious freedom, scales flashed and rippled as they roiled together.
Sensation billowed. The great mountains around her were a living thing. Glowing fungi grew across millennia. Spiders, millipedes, tiny shrimp living in ancient pools, colonies of bats, troops of baboons, and sleeping leopards in shadowy caves—they all gave the vast range a heartbeat. Water heated in the underground rivers by deep magma, vented into pools surrounded by lush shrubs and fragrant flowers, a vital, pulsing artery. Luka stood before her, almost entirely armored in gleaming black-and-green scales. She could hear his heart beating. And there was his beast, right there with them. Watching her, supporting her. Loving her.
Mate,her beast rumbled.
Then she broke. Flames licked through her veins as her spine cracked, and power flooded through her. Skin and bones ruptured, and she screamed. Her beast spread its wings, and this time they answered, unfurling in a rush. Magic coursed through her as she knit together in this new form. Organs, muscles, bones, and sinews came together once more. And she was the drake.
“Mate,” her beast rumbled, aloud this time.
Luka looked up at her through his tears and smiled. “Mate.”
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
Relief surgedthrough Luka so powerfully that it dropped him to his knees. He pressed his hands—claws extended—into the heated stone of the cave floor and whispered broken-voiced thanks to the Mother before gazing up at Izzy once more.
She was magnificent—shimmering sapphire and silver, formidably strong, and more elegant than he could have ever imagined.
She hummed a rough purr, blinking down at him, took a step forward, and stumbled. Her legs wobbled, and she sat heavily with a grunt.
Gods, he remembered his own first shift. How terrifying and magical and grueling it was. He rose to his feet and went to her, stroking her glorious scales, loving her and petting her as joy bubbled up inside him. She was alive.
But they couldn’t relax yet. They were some distance from the surface, and she had been severely wounded. The shift would have healed the broken blood vessels but exhausted her even further in the process. She needed water, food, and rest—and none of those were available in this small grotto, no matter its beauty.
She blinked slowly, her head hanging low, and he nuzzled against her. “Shift back for me, my beloved.”
