As Mikkel reaches up with his free hand, he touches my face with his fingertips. I shiver, feeling his intensity as our dragons are hauled into each other tighter.
“I thought I was not a thing to be loved,” he rasps as his eyes shine brighter, fiercer—even more pained. They seem too bright now, as if with unshed tears. “But you hammered through my walls, Rikyava; you broke every rule I had, about who I am and what I can do. You showed me my inner brightness; that it’s been there all along, despite how much I’ve been a bastard, and still am, sometimes. You showed me I can be both. And have strength, as both. Stronger… because I am both.”
“Our darkness is part of our light,” I tell him as I touch his hand, cupping it to my face.
“I understand that now. I didn’t, before,” Mikkel says as he gives me the smallest, most honest wisp of a smile. There’s no showman in that smile, and no pirate. Only a beautiful man, finally daring to love.
And let himselfbe loved.
Because he’s worth it.
“I love you, Mikkel.” As I reach out, I take the ring from his paused hand. Lowering his left hand from my face, I hold it, threading the ring on his left ring finger. “I claim you. I want you. And I see you.”
Mikkel can’t say anything, as his breath hitches. Tears do fall then, streaming down his face as he stares at me. “I see you, too, Rikyava,” he rasps as he swallows hard. “And I love you.”
As I clasp his hand, holding it in solidarity against the demon he’s always thought he was, Mikkel cries. He doesn’t sob, he doesn’t make asound; he doesn’t have to, though, because I can feel how much his heart is breaking.
Being remade because of our love.
A deep wind whisks all around and through us, then, as Mikkel and I become one. As our dragons are hauled inside each other now, I feel how we dive into each other entirely, glorifying in having found each other.
Because ours is a complex, unconventional relationship; we need it to be whole inside ourselves, however, where we are each complex, unconventional, and sometimes vastly dark.
A massive resonance fills us now, as we’re swept together by the power of our bond, solidified by the rings. As it hauls us together, my left hand brushing Mikkel’s and our rings combusting with power as they touch, I feel a vast night sky open up all through me and him.
As a dark, ancient power goes roaring all around us now, that power is quiet. Calm for the very first time, like the deepest, most beautiful night, I see stars flash in the darkness as Mikkel and I come together.
It’s the deepest resonance of our united Bone Magic, which has no wrath. A beautiful place, ancient and wise, it floods us now as Mikkel leaves the softest, tenderest kiss on my lips.
His kiss is like midnight velvet, as he places it upon me. I breathe him in as we revel in being together. The power of our bond rolls us. For a moment, I go into an instant trance, feeling Mikkel and me together in that night full of endless stars. The stars wink at me through the velvet dark, now green, now copper, now a luminous gold as we come together as true life-mates, at last.
It’s beautiful, and unfathomable, as we find each other in this perfect place now. Because there’s beauty in the darkness, if one can only look closely enough and get calm enough to find it.
We’ve both found it now—together.
Mikkel and I breathe in a deep silence together as that massive power gradually settles. We just breathe now, holding hands upon his chest as he cradles me close, our foreheads together as we take deep inhalations and letthem out as one. I feel our hearts beat in unison. Mikkel does, too, as the sweetest smile lifts his lips.
Then he kisses me one last time.
And takes my hand, turning me towards Baldur.
Baldur waits quietly nearby, as I have my moment with Mikkel. Already risen from the table, he knows what’s coming; eagerness and fire roar through his blue-diamond eyes, as he takes me in, ready for this.
Because Baldur’s waited his entire life to be mine. Now, the last step of our life-mate bond is happening, as Mikkel releases me and he steps close.
Devouring me with his searing galactic eyes.
“Are you ready for this?” I ask him then, as I hold the last ring. The fire opal in this one is almost entirely white, searing with a celestial brightness, though it has tiny flecks of every color in it, with a deep flash of blue. It matches one in my ring right near the dragon’s head, our celestial center, and it suits Baldur.
“You already know my answer,” Baldur chides me gently as he regards me. He reaches out, taking the last ring from my palm.
A cosmic heave of power nearly buckles my knees, as our dragons crash together—endless. I’m breathing hard as I gaze up at him, my heart thundering. I jolted from the massive power in our connection just now; Baldur’s hand is on my waist, steadying me as he draws me in.
There is no hesitation as he holds me close, staring down at me with eyes gone to every color of the cosmos now. His blue irises burn a fiery phosphoric white flecked with gold. A searing ring of crimson is also around them, however, as the cosmic fire of the universe fills my Fourth Drake.
I feel how much Baldur’s soul wants to do battle for me, as I stare up at him now, held close in his arms. Because he wants this; he was born for this. He’s been waiting almost his entire life to be here with me, right now, and do this together, uniting forever under one purpose.
Even though he wants to mate with me all through the skies, however,becoming endlessly one as we fuck some serious Black Dragon shit up, there’s still one tiny problem.
