Page 102 of Flameborne: Fury
I nodded, though fear and shuddering insecurity rocked through me. “I… I will—”
‘I hear the fear in you, Little Flame. Do you lie?’
“No!” I rushed, my tears returning. “But, what if he doesn’t want me after he hears it all?”
Akhane keened, but Kgosi growled and she stopped. Then his eye locked on mine and he snorted.‘That is the risk you take, bond-breaker. There’s only one way to find out. Make your choice.’
42. That’s My Girl
~ DONAVYN ~
I swam back to consciousness to a weight on my aching chest and lungs that didn’t want to work. I tried to inhale, to replenish air, and only succeeded in sucking in a cloud of smoke and steam that made me cough until my ears rattled.
But then I blinked and the darkness no longer blanketed me. There were points of light, and heat. The glowing eye of my dragon watching over me, and that soft weight on my chest…
Bren.
She knelt at my side, collapsed over my chest, her arms and hair spread over me as she sobbed my name.
“…Please, Donavyn.Please, wake up.”
It took two tries to lift a trembling hand to her head, but when I did she gasped and pushed upright, shining red eyes wide, tears coursing down her cheeks as she grabbed for me.
I was confused. She babbled, pleading for forgiveness, for my life, begging me to return to her. But I never left. I never—
The pain in my cheststabbedand the little, shallow breath I’d been able to gulp left me.The bond.My chest was hollow. Aching.Screaming.That golden cord that had tied her heart tomine suddenly withered and…
My head spun with confusion and a nameless fear. What had happened? How had it gone so terribly wrong?
‘Your mate lashed out, severed your bond, and wounded us all. She pleads for mercy, for forgiveness, and a chance to heal it. Do you desire it, Donavyn? If you wish to walk away, I will not help her reunite you.’
‘Of course I want the bond healed—she’s my mate!’
‘She spat and bled on the treasure she was given in you. A mate cannot sever a bond if the heart yearns for it. To reunite and lose her again would kill us all. Think clearly, Donavyn. Is she worth it?’
He blew another breath of choking smoke and steam over me so that I could only lay there, one hand on hers which was planted on my chest, eyes streaming from the smoke, my body wracked with hacking coughs. But it was a power of Kgosi’s to create clarity. His smoke overwhelmed the senses, then brought clarity in its wake. I breathed easier when the coughing was done.
Bren’s eyes remained on mine, she gripped my chest, my hair, her lips trembling. She was clearly terrified and begging for forgiveness. Yet, she’d successfully cut our bond? Destroyed it?
The pain in my chest gave a sharp crackle and I lost my breath again.
“Please, Donavyn. I didn’t know what I was doing—”
“I know,” I croaked, swallowing hard, still struggling to breathe. “I believe you.” And I did. But the cold, hard chill of fear had also wrapped its talons around my heart as Kgosi warned me again that if she didn’t hold true, one more blow like this would kill all of us.
She could kill meandour dragons.
‘How could we healthis?’I asked Kgosi.
‘Trust,’he replied simply, tightly.‘She must make herself known to you in even the darkest ways. She must surrender her heart, her fear, her truth into your hands—reforge the bond in the fire of risk. I have warned her. She claims she’ll honor it. But the final choice is yours.’
Bren continued babbling, one hand pressed on my chest, the other clawed into my hair, leaning over me, her eyes shining with tears.
I lifted one weak hand to cup her face, wiping the tears from her cheek with my thumb, remembering the way she’d staggered into my apartment—eyes wide but glazed, body twitching like a frightened horse.And she’d used the safeword to make me let her go.
“Tell me, Bren,” I croaked. “You have to tell menow.What frightened you? Why did you shrink from me?”
“I l-love you, D-Donavyn,” she whispered. “Please, remember that.”
