“Very cool.”
I breathed carefully onto the fiery flower creation, sending a snowy, glacial stream out and enveloping it in a very measured way that didn’t actually put out the flame and ruin his beautiful creation, but instead melded with it.
We both watched in awe as it hardened, and crystallized, while the flame within remained holding the shape of the flower.
Zayn levitated it between us right beside the holoscreen.
“Ourget-wellpresent for Vax,” he said. “You think it works?”
Wow.“I think it’s incredible.”
He grinned from ear-to-ear. “You wanna head back inside now, levitate it over the nightstand beside him, so when he wakes up it’ll be right there, hopefully make him smile?”
“Great idea.”
He turned and headed for the porch entrance to the house, the holoscreen and flower following as he strode along.
I stopped walking and sucked in a breath.
“Zayn, wait. Just one moment. There’s something… and I thought about holding off until things… stabilized, but…” I shifted my weight. “I can’t. You deserve to know.”
He jolted and spun back around, eyes shooting wide. “Oh, fuck, now what? What’s happened? Was there something you left out about your meet-up with Vorzyr, Fanor, and Cornelius? Is it bad? How bad? Just give me a tiny warning, enough for me to brace myself and—”
I burst toward him with my dragon speed, closing the distance between us. “I love you.”
He blinked. “You… wait. You’re—”
“There was nothing bad, hellion. This was what I wanted to tell you, what I couldn’t hold off any longer. I love you… a fuck of a lot.”
His lips quirked. “A fuck of a lot?Is that so?”
I grinned. “Absolutely so.”
He threw his arms around me. “I love you, too, icicle. So fucking insanely, honestly.”
I chuckled against him. “Sounds about right. Especially for our foursome.”
A disturbance in the atmosphere just outside the ward had me pulling away all too soon, and I turned, focusing my senses quickly.
A rumbling might was cutting through the air.
A dragon.
I frowned. “What the—”
Then I felt that familiarity.
The magic. The scent. The overall presence.
“Torvek,” I uttered.
“What?” Zayn said. “Torvek is here?”
Before I could get out a word, the fire dragon in question burst through the ward, his vermillion magic enveloping him.
And he did not look happy.
His nostrils were flaring, his eyes narrowed and sparking fiercely with his magic.
