The water brushes the bottom of my foot first, sending a shock of sparks through my leg.
“It might hurt at first, but…” He nods. “Trust me.”
Gritting my teeth in anticipation, I nod. Further and further he walks in, until the water swallows our bodies. The initial sting of it fades quickly, until I’m surrounded by nothing but warmth. It’s to my chest, covering the swell of my breasts, and just below his shoulders. He stops, standing and letting it flow around us. Carrying my long dark hair back in a lazy stream.
Holding me in one arm wrapped around my back and hamstrings, he frees his other one. With one finger I can barely make out underneath the surface, he drags it from the top of my wound down to my knee. Heat gathers along the trail of his touch. Warm, but not excruciating. Once he ends at the bottom of my wound, he shifts his grip on me again and is holding me in both arms.
As I wiggle my toes, I realize my sense of feeling is gone. All replaced by warmth. Moving my hips, the pain in my thigh and abdomen, is gone. “What is this?”
“The elders translated it from the old language to mean a Gods’ river. It’s the purest source of magic. Most of them run underneath the groundfar from where we can see. Throughout the realms, they will sometimes seep out in small flames. But here,” he grins, tilting his chin downstream, “here is a main vein. Though, only I’m able to access it.”
“Because of your royal blood?” I ask as he walks me to a shallower part of the river and slowly lets me down.
“No. Because of myotherblood.”
I squint as I find my own feet. With the pain gone, an endless sense of power and strength courses through me. At my expression he continues, with an outstretched hand should I need it, “As you saw the other night, I’m not fully human. My blood is mixed with dragonblood. Specifically, the sun dragon, Vue.”
“So…you’re a Spoiled, then? But how if the sun and moon dragon have been missing for ages?”
“I’m not a Spoiled. Instead of consuming dragonblood continuously to make me one, I’m…part dragon. The sun and moon dragon are the most powerful breeds. In order to save my life as a newborn, I was given sun dragonblood. Since my human blood was so fresh and malleable, the dragonblood fused with it.”
“So…” I tilt my head at him. “That’s why you have a perfect record with dragon bonding at the Dragon Academy, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I don’t need a bond to communicate with dragons. It’s as easy as it is talking to you. For their species, they listen to me. Part of the sun dragon’s hierarchical influence lives within me.”
My shoulders shake with a small giggle. “The King of mortals and dragons. Perhaps they should consider renaming your title.”
He takes a step closer, the water slipping down to reveal the first row of his abs. “No one else knows, though, Marcella. No one else can know.”
Lowering my chin to look up at him, I ask, “Then…why did you tell me?”
Another step closer, and the water slips to right above his navel. “Because I trust you. I feel…safe with you, I guess.”
“And how can you be so certain of that?”
He turns his face away as he lifts a hand out of the glowing river. A breeze picks up, brushing strands of long hair off his shoulders and whispering it in glorious strands. “The same way…” his voice drifts upon the gentle breeze, “that I’m certain of the wind. Even though I can’t see it, can’t prove it, I feel it. And I know it all the same.”
He lowers his hand back into the water, the breeze coming to a dead stop.
I open my mouth, then close it, before I say, “Then you should know something about me, too. Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of working my way up the ranks. Others might have fantasized about their weddings, but not me.” I watch for his reaction, pressing on slowly when I don’t see much of a change. “So, I’m not sure I should be the woman you spend your secrets nor your affections on, my King. I have no desire, nor training, to be a Queen, a wife, or a mother. You deserve someone far greater than whatever leisurely distraction I might be able to offer you.”
“Leisurely distraction?” he nearly scoffs. As if that’s the most insulting thing I’ve just said. Then he’s walking to me, closing the space between us until I’m tilting my head back to look at him. The star dusted sky stretching out beyond him.
“You speak profanity referring to yourself like that around me. You are not some fleeting moment of lust.” He shakes his head. “And if your heart doesn’t burn to be a Queen, a wife, or a mother, then I would never force it on you. But that doesnotmake you a leisurely distraction.”
“Then if you mean what you say,” I whisper, “give me what I ask for.”
His lips lift in a grin in the split second before he grabs the side of my face. Cupping my cheek, staring deeply within me. Lowering his face to mine, he stops an inch away. One last test of my permission.
“You continue to shake my self-discipline, Marcella Briarstone,” he murmurs.
I grab his forearm and lean up into him, brushing my nose along his first before my lips skate across his mouth. Lightly. Too light. And then I’m lost in his presence, far too close to stay away. Closing the gap between us, I roll my body up into his. Chest on chest, my arms snaking up to wrap around his neck.
It's infinite—the way he kisses me. Deep and intentional, like he’s planned it all his life. Like he’s reserved it for every night hereafter. Over and over we move onto each other. But not rushed and heated this time.
It’s slow. Pulling upon the threads in the deepest parts of ourselves and weaving them together with each kiss. Using my arms as leverage, I hop up to get closer, wrapping my legs around his waist.
No pain settles into me. But I’m far too distracted to look down to see what has happened to my stitches. The shift of weight catches him bysurprise, and while he wraps me in his arms, he chuckles into my mouth as he slides back further into the water.
