Rafe chewed over her words, though his brain didn’t register them all. They jumbled into a fuzzy mass and fumbled around in his head.
The study door clicked shut.
Struggling to his feet, Rafe used the arms of the chair for support, and stood in front of the glass case holding the Draco spear. His reflection stared back at him, tired and drooping.
Shit, he looked like Death warmed over. His cheeks were sunken. His color was much too pale. And his Draco specks were dull and no longer shimmering. They blended with the gray pallor of his skin.
He didn’t have much time left.
Rafe shrugged out of his shirt and stared at the scrawl of Misty’s name reflected in the glass. As he began tracing the blazing letters, he blacked out and hit the floor, succumbing to the longest, darkest second of his life.
*
Misty teetered on the edge of the blowhole, her weight shifting, dragging her over.
“Here goes nothing,” she said, and stopped dead as a blast of cold, clammy air hit her with hurricane force. Her senses roused like they’d been asleep for years. Carried on that sudden gust of wind was the sensation that something…or someone…was hurt. Dying, maybe.
She searched the landing below, where spewing seawater met rock, looking for a dead or dying animal. Nothing. She scanned the land behind her, searching deep into the rain forest for signs of an animal or Draco in distress. Nothing there, either.
A wicked bout of nausea spiked in the pit of Misty’s stomach, threatening to bowl her over. Damn, her sixth sense had never been so intense. Something was wrong. Something she couldn’t turn away from.
She scoped out her fingers for the umpteenth time. They looked normal. But they sure didn’t feel normal. She rubbed them together again, feeling sparks of energy jolt from one hand to the other. If she squinted, if she tried really hard, she could almost see electricity jumping between the pads of her fingers. Her fingers had been humming since the Draco stone dropped into Rafe’s hand. Now, she wondered if that electricity was related to the uneasy feeling writhing in her middle.
Damn it, she had the sick feeling that the sensations were only going to get worse until she figured out what the hell was going on.
Letting her feet control her head, Misty stepped back from the ledge and turned toward Castle Arcane.
It didn’t take long to find the back entrance. Winding stairs led up the side ending at a single wrought-iron door. She pushed it open, stepped inside, turning down a familiar, winding hallway as her paranormal senses flared, raising the hairs on the back of her neck.
“Misty?”
She spun around. Queen Elixa stood before her in a blazing red gown, her blue eyes glazed with…was that disdain?
“Queen Elixa,” Misty began, heart pinching with each breath. “I don’t know for sure, I don’t know how to explain it, but I…I think—”
“You’re here for Rafe.” Queen Elixa’s expression soured. “He’s in my study.”
Throbbing pain shot through Misty’s temples as she shook her head. Queen Elixa must’ve misunderstood. “I’m not here for Rafe…at least I hope not. I have a feeling in my gut that something’s not right.” Spit it out, Misty, spit it out. “There’s a Draco dying somewhere in the castle.”
Instead of barking orders that’d send out a search party, Queen Elixa clenched her jaw and stared Misty down. “Of course there is, Misty. It’s because of you we’ve lost the strongest Draco to grace our clan in a thousand years.”
“What are you talking about?” Misty clutched at her heart as it drummed through her rib cage. “What did I do?”
“You wouldn’t let a Draco claim you,” she spat. “You didn’t deserve him anyway. He should’ve picked a Sindraco to be his rider…You’re nothing but a spoiled little brat.”
“Rafe? You’re talking about Rafe? You think that I—” Misty’s stomach fell to the glossed floor. “Why are you talking about him in past tense?”
“Because that’s what happens when a Draco refuses to claim a rider, you naive temptress. They die.” She spun on her heels and stormed down the hall, her crimson coattails floating behind her. “I don’t have time for this—I’m late for my meeting. Do me a favor and let yourself out.”
Misty couldn’t catch her breath. Her lungs simply refused to inflate. Realization set in. Rafe was dying so she could live.
Misty ran down the hall and burst through the door leading to Queen Elixa’s study. She slapped the door shut behind her, searched frantically around the room…and fell to her knees.
“Oh God, Rafe, no!”
He’d fallen on his side, arms splayed out, head twisted at an awkward angle in their crook. His Draco specks looked more like freckles than an enchanted characteristic of the Draco race.
She dragged his body over her knees and stroked his forehead. He was chilled. Cold. Matching the freeze in her heart. She put two fingers to his jugular and waited to feel the strum of his vein against her skin…it never came.
He was gone. She was too late.
This wasn’t happening. Rafe couldn’t be dead. She’d been so stupid to ignore her instincts! She could’ve gotten to the castle in time, if she hadn’t wasted precious seconds at the damned blowhole. He should never have taken her there. He should have told her the truth.
Damn it, there were too many things they both could’ve and should’ve done. Now, because of her stupidity and his stubbornness, the only man she’d ever loved was dead.
“I’m here now, Rafe,” she whispered, cradling his head, rocking back and forth. “I’m late, but I’m here.” Regret stung her eyes and words fell like tears. “I wanted nothing more than to be your rider, every day of my life. It’s all I ever wanted, all I ever dreamed about. Feralon is the only place I’ve ever considered home. My heart was left here, Rafe. My heart was left with you…God, Rafe, I’m so sorry…”
Misty softly stroked the letters of her name he’d carved into his chest. They burned at the touch, although the rest of his body was ice-cold. She pulled back her hand, staring at the red, raised letters, feeling that eerie buzz dance across her fingers.
“If I couldn’t be claimed as your rider in life…” She brushed her lips over his. “Then I’ll be claimed in death.”
She slid from beneath Rafe’s body and searched around the study. She found what she was looking for, tucked into the glass case beside him: the Draco spear.
Misty opened the case and withdrew the heavy piece of wood, clutching it in her shaking grasp. She knelt at Rafe’s side. Holding the spear high above his chest, Misty pinched her eyes tight and cleared her mind. Thought about nothing but her burning desire to be claimed as his rider. She let that desire fill her heart, warm her chest and radiate heat through her body. Very carefully, she scraped the tip of the spear against his skin. She began to write, carving her name into his chest over the scrawl of the original letters.
Light beamed from each letter as she finished carving it, blinding her, even with her eyes closed. Low, burning sensations snaked from her hand into her arm, numbing the upper half of her body. Yet she kept writing, thoughts consumed with Rafe and her endless love for him. As she curled the tail on the Y, pulses of heat surged through her veins. Her heart jolted into overdrive with the force of an electric shock.
When she opened her eyes, a gasp squeaked past her lips. Tendrils of white energy—hot and warped like lightning rods—snaked through the room. They blasted from her fingers, tangled around the spear, traced over each letter of her name on Rafe’s chest, spun through the air and into the glass case…right into the heart of the radiating Draco stone.
Queen Elixa had been right.
She could harness its energy.
Misty closed her eyes and pulled on the power source. Filled up on its brilliance. Light surged through her hands, into the spear, into Rafe.
With a cry of agony, he reared up, breathing hard, his chest glowing incandescently white.
Misty dropped the spear, snapping the t
endrils of light back into her fingers.
When Rafe’s gaze shot to hers, full of confusion and wonder, she leaped into his lap and threw her arms around his neck. He caught her, wrapped his arms around her as if she’d disappear if he held too loosely.
“You’re alive,” she breathed into his neck. “I thought I lost you.”
“Never.” Rafe slid his cheek along hers until he found her lips. He kissed her, his tongue achingly soft as it slid against hers. His hands ghosted over her hair, her cheeks, finally cupping her chin.
Love filled Misty’s heart, exploded from her chest, flooding the space between them. It was too much to bear, coming at her from all angles—everywhere at once. It flowed from his heart to hers. She whimpered into Rafe’s mouth, her body going languid in his arms. He massaged her back, his hands skating desperately over her curves like he’d never explored them before.
For the first time, Rafe wasn’t holding back. Misty could feel his love surround her and envelop her heart like floodgates burst wide-open.
When their lips finally parted, Rafe pulled back, their gazes meeting over the letters that claimed Misty as Rafe’s rider. The glowing light stemming from the carving had dimmed, revealing a beautifully scrawled, sacredly claimed name: Misty.
Sighing, Rafe laid his forehead against hers. “How could you do it? How could you give up your life to be with me a handful of years?”
“I would rather live ten minutes in your arms than a lifetime without you.”
“This is crazy…you’re crazy.” His shoulders drooped like he’d just returned from a lifelong journey that had sucked the blood from his veins and the life from his soul.
She smiled. “Yeah, but I’m your crazy.”
“You’re mine. You’re really mine,” he sighed. “Never thought I’d live to see the day that you’d become my rider.”
“Technically, you didn’t.” Misty laughed as she kissed him again, darting her tongue past his lips. This time Rafe was the one who moaned into her. With a swipe of his arm behind her back, Rafe picked her up and spun her over. He laid her on the ground, pinning her with the wide span of his body, stealing her breath.
His Draco specks had returned, shimmering bright shades of emerald and evergreen. More brilliant than Misty had ever seen. She eyed each speck carefully, wondering how long it would take her to memorize their unique size, shape and shade.
“I felt you,” he mouthed against her lips. “When you came into the castle…before you dropped at my side…I felt your presence around me, inside me.”
Rafe pressed his hips against her center and made slow circular motions, causing dampness to warm the space between her thighs.
“I didn’t think it was possible for a Draco to sense things like that,” she said, her hips beginning to wiggle beneath him. “But I feel different, too. Like I can draw on the energy of the Draco stone at my whim.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Rafe nipped at her ear and leaned in for another kiss. “Some of the energy from the Draco stone is probably still rushing through you.”
Misty definitely felt energy lingering in her body, but Rafe’s body hovering over hers was a damn fine distraction. “If that’s true, how long would it stay in my system?” She reached her hand between their bodies and stroked his bulging shaft through his jeans.
He hissed through clenched teeth and rolled his eyes back. “Not sure. There’s a legend that says some empaths can harness the energy of the stones.” His voice was hoarse, jagged. “That’s why no Draco had ever claimed one—it’d potentially give them too much power over our race. You could be in touch with our energy for days, years…maybe even indefinitely.”
“Well, that’s quite the spread.”
His gaze slithered over her body. “Exactly what I was thinking.”
Misty unbuttoned her jeans and shoved them off her ankles, then followed with her panties. With Rafe’s help, she shimmied out of her sweater, unhooked her bra and cast them both aside. Rafe was practically salivating by the time she was undressed. He kicked off his pants like they were on fire and settled between her legs again.
“Do you think—I mean—” she fought the words out “—if I could harness the energy of the Draco stone, do you think I could live longer than other riders?”
“After the spark show you performed earlier, I’d say anything is possible.” He slipped inside her. “God, you’re perfect. Absolutely flawless. I love every sweet inch of you.”
She moved against him, arching back with each slow thrust. Her nipples pressed against his chest, brushing the newly raised ridges of her name.
“I’m yours.” Misty planted her feet on the ground and raised her hips, then sank low, maneuvering higher and lower, to take all of him in. “I’m never leaving again.”
As his pace sped and their hips collided with each thrust, Misty began to tremble, her core clenching around him with little tugs.
“And, good God, I must’ve been out of my mind to tell you to.” He groaned and plunged into her, taking what she offered. He slid a finger between her legs and teased her tender spot until she shattered beneath him. “Tell me you love me, Misty….”
“I love you, Rafe.” She bucked, relishing Rafe’s body pushing against her, as orgasm after orgasm fluttered through her core. “I’ll love you forever.”
Rafe removed his fingers from her tender flesh and suckled them into his mouth, licking her sweet juices with swirling draws of his tongue. Rafe pulled out to the tip then sheathed himself inside her again, letting the whole length of him slide into her warmth. With a groan that sounded borderline painful, his muscles seized as he released his seed.
When the tension finally left his body, Rafe snaked his arms around Misty’s neck and collapsed on top of her. The pressure of his body felt good. Right. Perfect.
He sighed, keeping his shaft buried deep inside. “I’m afraid if you love me like this forever, I may wind up being your sex slave.”
As far as Misty was concerned, forever could come as slow as it liked.
“That wouldn’t be such a bad thing.” She raked her fingers down his back.
“No…far from it.” Rafe caressed her forehead, her cheek, melting Misty’s heart. “Just tell me it can be this way, every day, until our last breath.”
“It’ll be exactly like this,” she said. “Our perfect slice of forever.”
*
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ISBN: 978-14592-2275-5
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