Page 103 of The Dragon King
She stared at the fire for a while before she looked at me again. “I have a question…”
“Ask.”
“Why does Queen Eldinar have the gift?” Green flames danced in her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“You said that some have the blood of dragons in their veins, that it’s rare. How can an elf possess it?”
I shook my head. “My answer remains the same—I don’t know. Queen Eldinar has opened her lands to us as well as her heart, but I don’t think she shares all of her secrets—as she shouldn’t. I suspect the relationship she has with Macabre has yielded her such benefits.”
“You’re saying Macabre granted her the gift?”
“Possibly.”
“How would he do that?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Anyone can fuse with a dragon if that’s what the dragon wishes. But not everyone can communicate with a dragon as their equal. I suspect that the gift is transferred once a fuse has taken place, that even when you break apart, a piece of the dragon remains with you always.”
“But if Queen Eldinar has the gift, that means she would have already fused with Macabre.”
“Possibly.”
“But he seems so against the practice.”
“It would have been impossible for them to communicate otherwise,” I said. “Perhaps it was only for a moment so they would be able to speak, and then they separated. Or perhaps they’ve been fused this entire time but pretending otherwise. She says she has the gift, but perhaps she was just fused.”
“But why would she lie to us?”
I smirked. “Because otherwise, she would be a hypocrite. Her own people would overthrow her if they knew she’d broken their law and fused with a dragon. I doubt she even told her husband.”
Her eyes shifted back and forth as she looked at me.
“I won’t out her,” I said. “She clearly has no mal intent toward the dragons, and that’s all that matters.”
She turned back to the fire, lost in thought. “That would mean Macabre lied as well.”
“But he would do anything for her, so I’m not surprised.” I stepped away and opened my closet to find the armor I’d had made before I left. I’d told my blacksmith to hang it up in the closet when it was finished. I carried it back to Calista and presented it to her, the same armor set I’d gifted Queen Eldinar.
Her eyes immediately scanned over it, taking in all the features, including the shine of the Black Diamonds that were secured to the surface the way a blade was attached to a hilt. Her stare lingered for a long time before she looked at me again. “You made me one as well.”
“Because my woman deserves the same as any king or queen.”
Her eyes slowly softened as they looked into mine. “You could have kept those diamonds for yourself.”
“I would rather share them with the people I care for.” I placed the armor on the table so she could admire it in the firelight. Dragon scales were hard as stone, and their external smoothness made them the perfect surface to deflect a blade and push off arrows. They were impenetrable to everything, including fire. Not once had this armor failed me. “Besides, you were the one who found some of these. They should belong to you.” Knowing that I was the reason she’d lost ten years of her life had kept me up at night, but now I felt even worse about it. All that time she’d lost, all the torture she’d received, because my depression had turned me into a fucking lunatic.
She had the grace to pity me, her eyes soft with kindness. “I’m ready to go to bed.”
“You don’t want dinner?”
Her eyes flicked back and forth between mine before she moved into me, rising on her tiptoes as her palm cupped the back of my neck. Her soft lips kissed mine with the enthusiasm of a desperate woman. But she wasn’t desperate for payment or pleasure.
She was only desperate for me.
I would never see the Realm of Caelum with my own eyes. I would only know it from tales that probably weren’t based in truth. But when I was between Calista’s legs, I felt like I was there. In a land filled with light, with pleasure that always throbbed at the fingertips, with a peace that only those who’d passed on could understand.
Wedged between her soft thighs with her nails digging deep into my ass cheek, I rocked into her, giving her only the amount that made her moan in pleasure and not wince in pain. Locked together in the throes of a passion that burned hotter than the flames in the fireplace, our souls grazed each other. I loved Vivian and would have spent my life with her without a single seed of doubt, but my bond with Calista was vastly different. The foundation was strong like a mountain range, formed through earthquakes and floods, withstanding time and all the forces of nature. Our love started as hate, but it still blossomed into a beautiful garden without an ounce of water, as if it was destined to be.