Where once he would have vanished into his dark inner Wraith, however, I feel it get balanced now by a deep, searing light. As the ring of copper blazes around his irises, along with the green, I watch that strangeconflagration burn. I feel his promise of retribution get balanced by love now for those he cares about.
Which lights up his very soul—even as it seethes with darkness.
“I won’t stop you when you punish those who wronged you,” I tell him point-blank now, as I feel what my Third Drake needs to do once everything with the Black Dragon is over. “If Emil Beck survives how we’re going to fuck up Litha, her mates, and the Usurper… you can have him, Mikkel. I swear it.”
“Good.” Staring at me with his darkest wrath devouring his eyes, I feel Mikkel wrestle with his black drake for just a moment. But then he takes a deep breath and something in him clears. As he closes his eyes, he stands taller, smoothing his hands up and down my waist now, as if it helps him.
When he opens his eyes, there’s not a trace of chartreuse left.
The strangest look of befuddlement is on Mikkel’s face, however, as he smiles wryly down at me.
“You’ve done something to me, drakaina,” he says now, as he gazes at me. “You’ve changed my wrath. I can feel it, deep inside... making me want to do this to secure my clubs simply as a support and income system for those I love… rather than doing it out of vendetta.”
“You’ve done something to me, too.” I gaze up at him, feeling us draw even closer in the dark hall as Mikkel pulls me to him with his firm hands. “Because I’m looking at my own innermost darkness now and realizing I’m not all that different from you, Mikkel. At first, I thought we could never get along, much less be life-mates. I thought I didn’t have a ruthless side like you. I discovered I was wrong when the Black Dragon came calling and something terrible inside me told me I could command it. It still wants me to—to wreak havoc on our enemies. And make them suffer forever, for what they’ve done.”
“Pirate.” Mikkel chuckles, though his look is deadly serious now as he whispers his lips over mine.
“Hero,” I challenge him back, unrepentant as I understand we’ve both got each other’s numbers now.
Gazing down at me with a complex look, Mikkel’s dark eyes suddenly blaze, entirely copper.
He surges in, kissing me.
I kiss him back, careening into him as heat roars between us in the dark hall.
7
HEAT
Mikkel and I crash together in the dark hall—and it’s everything I need, as my inner dragons roar. Ever since we got to this underground city, my drakes and I have been too exhausted to have sex and replenish the bonds that bind us. I’m feeling it now, though, as Mikkel suddenly heaves me back against the nearest wall, pinning me to it with his tall, wire-honed body.
I think we’re about to have a spontaneous fuck-session yet again, like all our encounters have been so far, when Mikkel breaks our kiss. As we heave hard breaths, he presses against me, growling; I grind on him, feeling how rock-hard he is through our leathers, not to mention the incredible movement of his black dragon as it surges and coils all around me.
My inner dragons respond to Mikkel’s deadly black heat—and not just my dark side anymore. Because Mikkel’s finally found some of his inner light; he uses it now, as the good in him blazes through his hot copper eyes.
As he cinches one arm hard around my waist, Mikkel scoops me up into his arms in one masterful wave. Despite his current exhaustion, he’s found some kind of crazy energy from our sudden heat; crouching tofetch up both torches in one hand, he carries me like we’re newlyweds, as he strides down the soaring, dark hall, back towards our rooms.
“What? We’re not just having sex up against the wall? Again?” I joke as he carries me with long strides now, his indomitable energy roaring, though he’s still too tired to manifest any magic in the air. His sudden electrified heat gives Mikkel his regular preternatural strength, however, as he carries me now, back towards the quadrangle where we all have rooms.
“No more throw-downs in uncomfortable places,” Mikkel says firmly, though his scorching dark eyes sayjust for nowas he turns a corner. As the corridor opens up into a wide hall devoured by luminous moss, a thick stand of ancient trees growing up out of the floor, Mikkel just strides on through, relentless.
“Spontaneous sex against walls and on pool tables is fun,” his black eyes pin me, seething with hot copper, “but for once, I’d like to show you how I really enjoy having sex. In a big, palatial bed with decadent silk sheets sliding over me as we fuck.”
“Something tells me you’re a drake who enjoys the high life,” I tease him as he carries me, knowing how Mikkel keeps his high-money clubs, aware that his personal life is similar.
“Someday, I hope I can show you how I really live. In opulence, rather than constantly on the lam.” Mikkel’s eyes darken now, as I feel him roil back into his wrathful drake. It doesn’t last, though, as I reach up, cupping his cheek with my hand, making his eyes lighten.
“Do you have a place you call home, Mikkel? Or is home just whichever club you’re at, at the time?” I wonder aloud now, curious about my Third Drake. Because he’s finally opening up, and I want to know more about him. I realize it’s a sensitive subject when his eyes darken again, but not all the way this time.
“Lærke and I have living quarters at each of our clubs when we’re in residence.” Mikkel frowns now, his stride slowing through the thick forest. “They’re outfitted just as she and I want them to be, at each locale.”
“That’s not a home. That’s a very nice hotel,” I tell him now, as Itouch his cheek and watch his eyes. As Mikkel frowns more, I feel his inner drake churn, conflicted that I’m bringing this up. He picks up his stride now, though, as we exit the enormous hall and come into another corridor, close to the dormitory area we’re occupying.
But even though we’re nomads right now, I know how to make a home wherever I’ve landed. Mikkel doesn’t; I feel that conflict sear inside him now, as some deep part of him wants it.
Home. Hearth. And family.
“Only Lærke is home to me now. And you,” Mikkel says as he looks straight ahead, striding with purpose towards our rooms.
