When Aero spoke again, his words blurred. Plans, war, Luamis, all of it dissolved because Ronan, the Wraith, the terror of kingdoms, was afraid of nothing. Except me.
I hadn’t meant to linger. Their voices had dulled to a murmur I could no longer catch. But my body wouldn’t move. It only wanted to stay close to him, to hear him, feel him, before the chance was gone.
And for the first time since the dungeon, I wondered—if I moved now, would the monster in the mirror follow me…or stay behind?
I shifted at the sound of footsteps approaching, disappearing into the shadow of a pillar as the door swung wide and Aero stepped through. His jacket was folded in his arms, his shirt unbuttoned and cuffed at the elbows, exposing badly scarred forearms. For a long moment, he only stood there, eyes fixed where the sea roared beyond the veil.
Wind pressed against the stones, shifting strands of crimson and silver hair from his shoulders while he wiped at his eyes, a breath cracking from him, before he turned and strode down the corridor.
I remained still, my pulse loud against my ribs as I peeked out from behind the pillar, trying to recall which passage led to my chambers. My stomach growled, the dining hall sounding like a more appealing path. I took one step—
—into a wave of dark spice that consumed me.
Ronan leaned against the doorframe, arms folded across his chest, wings shadowing the stone behind him. That grin stretched wide, wicked, and amused. “For a viper,” his eyes dragged over me with infuriating ease, “you’re not very stealthy.”
My gaze crawled down the length of him. The corded strength in his thighs beneath his trousers, the ridged grooves of his stomach flexing with eachinhale beneath the loosened shirt. A vein pulsed on his neck, not with anger but restraint. The bond was open again, his shields lowered at last, and he was hungry.
Most of his arms were covered, but above his wrist, above a worn leathered cuff, my focus landed on the flaming heart drawn into his skin.
His mating mark. Our eternal flame.
He motioned me inside, the door clicking shut, locking us in a room that looked as though the black stone had run out. Or had been purposefully abandoned.
The walls were beige, shelves lined with scrolls, their spines dulled to shadow. The air hit me swiftly, old fire and older secrets. Ronan moved without a sound across the room, drawing something from his pocket, ivory flashing in the dim before he slipped it into a drawer beneath the desk, too quick to catch. Only the wan hue burned in my vision as it vanished from his hand.
Portraits hung along the walls, their frames layered with intricate carvings. My eyes moved across one hung in solidarity, faded with time where a boy, no older than ten, stared back, longbow in hand. His stance was flawless, his eyes bright yet already dulled at the edges. The arrowhead he held gleamed bone-white, polished to an unnatural shine.
Without thinking, my fingers brushed the place where I used to keep my own arrowhead tucked in my pocket. “Who is that?”
He didn’t glance up as he rifled through the desk drawers like the question meant nothing. “Me. Archery was a hobby I learned young. Before war became my craft.”
I studied the boy a heartbeat longer. That loneliness, far too old for his face. I looked to his hand, my gut turning. The arrowheads weren’t uncommon, especially the bone-welded ones. Just coincidence. Still, my fingers dug into the armrest of the low-backed chair I sank into, limbs sprawling into its aged comfort.
When he finally turned, bracing both hands on the desk’s rim, his eyes cut straight to me. “If you’re going to eavesdrop on private conversations, my love,” his tone curled, half amused, half warning, “you might at least raise your shields. I could hear every damned thought in your head.”
I lazily snagged one of the tomes from his desk, smirking as I flipped it open.Ryuu’s Battle History.I flipped through it with pretend interest. “Oops.” The word tasted like a challenge. “Unlike you, I don’t enjoy the bond going dark.”
His brow arched, gold flickering under the crown of his lashes. “I never shut you out.”
My fingers stilled mid-page as I lifted my gaze. “Earlier I tried to reach through the bond, and it was like stone.” Heat crept up my throat. “And theother night…” I stopped, biting the inside of my cheek. I wasn’t about to confess what image I’d sent—the bath, the way my skin had glimmered. “Your shields were up.”
The frown lining his lips deepened, the faintest crack of doubt crossing his features. “That’s strange. I’ve never blocked you out.” There was only conviction as he rounded the desk, taking a step closer. “I would never. Not from the bond. Not from me.” Another step, the weight of him filling the room. “What we have between us…” His voice dipped, rough and reverent all at once. “It’s sacred. I wouldn’t cut you from it.”
I snapped the book shut with a hollow clap. “That’s weird. I don’t remember blood oaths being so,” I tapped a finger against my chin, “intimate.”
A breath hissed through his teeth. “Things evolve,” he said. “And I’ve always held more power than others. Too much legacy in my veins. It would make sense the bond formed stronger between us.”
My eyes narrowed. “Or—” My tongue clicked. “And hear me out…” The book left my hand in one smooth motion, thudding into his chest. His hands shot up on instinct, catching it before it struck. “We’re fuckingmates. And you didn’t tell me.”
His face said everything.
“Oh my gods,” I hissed. “You bastard. Why wouldn’t you tell me?”
The book dropped, its thud muffled against the rug as he closed the distance in a single stride, falling to his knees before me. The dragon prince brought low, palms sliding over mine, trembling.
“It wasn’t about hiding you from the truth,” he said. The look he gave me was a man baring his throat to the blade. “I was going to tell you. On my soul. And if you didn’t want it, I was ready to shatter the bond myself. But you were dying,” his voice cracked, “a breath from death…and my soul—” He shut his eyes, and when he opened them again, they burned, thunder-bright. “The deepest part of me was tearing apart. I would have saved you even if you weren’t mine to keep. I would have done anything.” His hands enclosed mine. “But when I realized who you were to me, I couldn’t stop it.”
I said nothing at first. Only breathed, letting the words drop through me like stones through water. Finally, I asked, “Does anyone else know?”
