I collided into him, arms flinging around his neck, legs anchoring at his waist. The scaled armor on his chest was unforgiving against me, but I didn’t care. I needed the solidity of him, needed to breathe him in until my lungs stopped burning.
His scent wrapped around me instantly, smoke, steel, cinnamon, seeping through my skin, pouring into the bond until I was weightless. With his arms crushing me closer he buried his face into the curve of my neck, and then he inhaled. Deep, desperate, until breath shuddered out of him again. Like he was grounding himself on me. Like he had been undone until now.
“Eh hem.” Ford’s foot tapped against the ground, arms crossed tight across his chest. “News to share?” His brow arched.
Ronan lowered me, reluctantly, to the stone. My arms resisted, fingers clinging to him longer than they should have. My cheeks warmed as I finally registered where we stood—a wide field, every pair of eyes fixed on us.
Elysian loomed just behind Ronan, gaze stoic as usual.
“Um...” I cleared my throat, tugging at the tunic that had ridden up above my waistband. “I meant—”
Sorry about this,I sent down the bond.
Ronan blinked, confusion cutting a line between his brows, right before my fist connected squarely with his nose.
Elva gasped, scandalized, hands flying to cover her mouth. Inessa, less subtle, choked out a laugh, mumbling howshe likes this one.
I’m going to need more information regarding that.
Ford just groaned, tossing his hands into the air. “Big surprise,” he said. “She fell for the hot, brooding dragon prince.”
Ronan’s nose wrinkled as the bone snapped itself back into place. I blew him a kiss, spun on my heel, and strode away, the bond humming like a quake under my skin.
A different tension sizzled in the air as Callum’s fingers sparked, trailing across the edge of his map. His jaw was locked, words coming through clenched teeth. “You’re leading us straight into their line of range.”
Almost three months of travel, and agitation was no longer simmering, it was snapping.
Ronan stepped forward. “Do you think I don’t know my own kingdom?”
“The one you abandoned, you mean?” Callum took a step closer, fire licking higher along his palms.
Ah, fuck.
Ronan growled, answering the flame with smoke.
I shoved between them, both hands up. “You two are exhausting.Why don’t you just whip your dicks out and get it over with?”
“That’s not what this is about,” Callum snapped, though the flush climbing his cheeks betrayed him.
Ronan’s brow arched, a grin carving its way across his face. “Because he knows who’d win.”
“Me,” they said together, voices overlapping.
“Killian,” Ford chimed in, casual as sin, at the exact same moment.
A dead quiet followed, but Killian’s smirk was loud enough for all of us.
“Everyone, stop it,” Elva sang out, rubbing her fingers through her untangled hair. Then, with a sigh, she added, “Or do carry on. You’re all so beautifully tragic, aren’t you?”
Oh fates. She’s going mad out here.
I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. “This is ridiculous, we’re supposed to be a united front. At least, you know, for the time being, remember? Enemies at the gate, world falling apart, et cetera. Ringing any bells?”
Ford leaned sluggishly against a boulder; hands tucked behind his head like he was settling in for a show. “Or, and hear me out, we do what you just suggested and settle it the old-fashioned way. You know,” his grin turned feral as he winked, “measure.”
“Ew, Ford.” My stomach twisted. “That’s my brother.And I was kidding.”
He only shrugged. “Not our brother. Close your eyes, then.”
