Page 109 of Flameborne: Fury
The golden cord of the bond, weaving in my blood like a coiled snake, struck and held the moment Akhane caught her in the air.
I sucked in a panicked breath as the cord ignited. Outside, here and now, both Dragons threw back their heads and screamed, and the herd responded, from miles around. The Keep echoed with the cries and calls of dragons riding the air around us as the bond grasped for her, pulled her back to me, and tied our souls.
Bren’s nails dug into my back. Her tears wet my chest. We both shook, the world disappearing in the wake of that blaze of light and pain.
And as I ached for her, the cordcauterized.Igniting in fire to burn between my ribs, stealing the strength from my limbs, and every thought from my head except that she be safe.
And when every final fiber of that precious thread between us had rejoined its pair, when the lava rode my veins and threatened to blister my skin from head to toe, when the dragons screamed their fury at the pain we were forced to share, it was done.
I came to, laying naked on my side, on the floor of my sitting room, Bren curled into a ball against my chest, my body spooned around her. Both of us shook like newborn foals.
I blinked and took an experimental breath.
No pain.
Thank God, no pain.
But then it all came crashing down.
That beast’s violation and manipulation.
Her father’s rejection and shame.
Her naivete and despair.
How had she survived it?
When the world had finally righted itself and the dragons stopped screaming, Bren raised her head, her gaze pinned down on at my chest at first, but when I lifted her chin, she reluctantly lifted her eyes to meet mine.
I didn’t give her time to ask.
“I love you, Bren,” I rasped. “I love you. You’re mine. And you will remain mine to eternity. Never question that. Do you believe me?”
She blinked and swallowed, but she nodded slowly.
“Good. Now tell me:Who the fuck was it?I’ll kill the bastard with my own hands.”
“I can’t,” she breathed.
“Bren, youmust!”
She shook her head vehemently, looking warily at Kgosi, but then back at me, her reddened eyesso sad,but also determined. “I can’t. Because if you kill him,they’llkill you,” she whispered, her eyes flicking to Kgosi looming over us through the ceiling above. “Remember, Donavyn? If a Furyknight murders another Furyknight, the dragons will execute the killer. I can’t let them take you from me.”
I blinked, freezing as she took my face in her hands and kissed me with such passion, I lost my breath again.
Then she buried her face in my neck, threw her arms around me, and broke down, clinging so tightly I could barely breathe.
And I wept with her shamelessly.
44. Released
~ BREN ~
Everything felt surreal, as if I wasn’t quite solid in the world, when a light wind whistled through the hole in the roof and Kgosi’s head swung with a low, rolling growl as shouts echoed outside.
‘Men are coming. Some brothers, some not.’
I didn’t know why Kgosi still spoke directly to me, but I heard the warning in his tone, and it made me shiver with fear.
