“Now you begin to understand how I have yearned for Lightbringer for centuries.”Shadowbane sounded satisfied with himself, smug, though that seemed to be an ancient beast’s default when forced to deal with our messy lives.“I look forward to watching your continued descent into love.”
He was a terrible voice to have in my head.
“Thank you,” I said against her hair, crushing her to me.
Her body was warm and slight against mine, and I was aware—too aware—of how easily she could be broken. She had made herself a target to protect me. I had let her, and I would do it again. Together we would serve mortals and dragon shifters and remake the world. That was worth the cost. We had both decided.
Cara rose onto her toes, her fingers knotting in my tunic as she lifted her mouth toward mine. I had intended to be measured. Careful with her, careful with myself, careful to guard everything I still had to tell her, everything I was still holdingback. Then her hands came up to frame my face; they were calloused, steady, certain. The power of being chosen echoed through my chest.
Her lips were softer than they had any right to be, warm and yielding, and when she leaned into me—when she pressed closer, like she wanted more—I gave it to her. When I lifted her, she made a small sound against my mouth. It went through me like a blade.
Her legs wrapped around my waist as I deepened the kiss without thinking, angling my head, drawing her in.
Mine.
The thought came unbidden. Unwelcome.
“As truth usuallyisfor you,”Shadowbane growled in the back of my mind.
“Stay out, please.”
I dragged my mouth from hers just enough to breathe, but she followed me, chasing the kiss with a stubbornness that made something dangerously close to joy rise in my chest. I caught her lower lip between mine for a moment, slower now, savoring, before letting it go.
When we finally surfaced, the world came back all at once in a rush of noise: our clan cheering us on, shifters arming to fight the monsters being released to the labyrinth. The sounds of voices and leather and metal and boots crushing stone had all faded when I touched her.
She was smiling.
I was too.
Bismyth was making considerable noise. They adored her, and it sent a thrill of warmth through my chest. I had brought them the best in Cara, in our fierce mortal who could save this kingdom, and they knew it.
Somewhere above us, the queen was on her dais. She would find the edges of the protection the bond extended, and she would work inside them with her terrible patience.
When I set her back on her feet, I cupped her cheek, studying the face of this woman who stood against the queen for the sake of our rebellion. The woman who had chosen me.
The woman who would hate me for it.
Her gaze lifted to mine, searching in a way that made something sharp and unguarded catch in my chest.
“Come, wife,” I told her, my voice steady in a way I didn’t entirely feel. There was something in her expression. “We have monsters to slay.”
I turned before she could answer, before I could see whether she followed, trusting that she would.
Trusting her.
The word landed differently than I had expected.Wife.
When I reached out my hand, she took it.
But as she came to my side, she warned me, “You owe me answers, Fear.”
Three
Cara
Ineeded time alone with Fear. He owed me answers, and I intended to collect them if I could get to him without an audience, without the whole of Bismyth standing around us like a wall.
The clan was moving through the grotto toward the labyrinth, toward the waiting nightmare circus of monsters. Kiegan caught my eye, and we traded a quick look. It was hard to tell if he disapproved of Fear marrying me or if he was thinking happy thoughts; orc faces didn’t register much joy.
