Page 52 of Dragon Blood

The swaths of color and intense clarity of her senses had distracted her from the knowledge that she would be consumed.

That word terrified her.

She wasn’t sure she could let go long enough to allow it.

Even for just a little while.

Memories of the terrifying eyes filling her childhood vision, the power, the imposing voice in her head, shaking her bones as her body drew taught against the overwhelming connection that she was not ready for.

I can’t breathe.

The Mother.

That first experience of connection collided with the experience happening now as she and Kai sank into the heart of the tree, engulfing them whole.

I can’t breathe!

She began to struggle.

Kai’s arms tightened around her.

‘Astred.’

The sound of her name in his voice, though she didn’t think he’d spoken.

The need to fight ceased rising and slowly eased.

As the potion worked to bring her into alignment with the tree, the tincture surged through her pounding heart. It wasn’t until she accepted Kai’s protective embrace, trusting that he would ensure all was right, that she came into sync with the tree’s life force.

Without his touch, his reassurance, she knew that she would have used her dragon strength to rend and tear the Nexus apart to free herself.

She would have allowed her fear to destroy it.

Which she never would have wanted and for that reason, she would be forever grateful for his presence.

Kai brought comfort to her spirit, her soul.

He eased her raging need to combat the world and stake her claim to it.

He always had.

In his arms, together, they could simply exist, like the gentle fluff that floated past her blurring eyes right before the tree swallowed them whole, clinging to one another.

They floated in a cocoon of darkness, drifting like the fluff.

These terrifying moments abruptly threw Astred into her most cherished memories—all the time she’d spent, just like this, in the sanctuary of his embrace.

These rich memories dominated every other part of her life and relationships.

She still didn’t trust that the tree wouldn’t just eat and keep them for eternity.

Would their bones be found millennia from now, preserving their need for one another long after death, too late for life?

The macabre thoughts left her mind as their bodies gave way, tumbling through nothingness into the satiny shadows of the Astral.

Kai’s arms tightened around her, staying the panic of unrestrained free-fall.

Her instinct was to fling her wings out, claw for purchase on anything that would stop the horrible sensation of being completely out of control.

---