Page 51 of Mikhail
“Mikhail, I can’t…can’t catch my breath,” she whispered. She felt weak, too weak. Her hands, still covering her abdomen, were warm andsticky.
“No, no…” Mikhail whispered as he cradled her in his arms. His face was etched with pain, but he didn’t let hergo.
The world began to get hazy around the edges of her vision, but she could see his beautiful face soaked with tears. She used what strength she had left to lift a hand to cup hischeek.
“Don’t cry…please…” she begged. “I just wanted to…saveyou.”
“You did. More than you know. I was lost before you found me,” he rasped. “We were supposed to be together. You can’t leave me now. I loveyou.”
She brushed her fingertips over his lips, trying to imprint them upon her memory, how soft they felt. “We are together.” His dark lashes glinted with tears like diamonds. So beautiful, and for a short time he had beenhers.
A chill crept along her limbs and a heaviness filled her chest, one that was slowly suffocating her. She wanted to remember him and take that memory with her into the nextworld.
She tried to catch pieces of memories, shattered shards of a life she could have had with him, but they were moving like leaves in a fall wind. She knew that wind, recognized it deep inside as the thing that would soon carry heraway.
“Piper…” He pressed his forehead to hers, and a tear fell from his cheek onto her skin. “I never deserved you. You are a treasure beyond myreach.”
“Keep me warm,” she whispered, her hand dropping from his face. Her strength was fading now, and it took everything she had left just tobreathe.
“I will.” His words broke as more tearsfell.
“You belong…to me,” she said, mouthing thewords.
He nodded. “My heart is yours. Willalwaysbe yours,” he promised. He kissed her. It was the last thing she would feel. The gentle burning kiss and the beat of her dragon’s heart. And then she felt herself slip away on the coldwind.
* * *
Mikhail feltthe moment her life slipped away. The last bit of breath in her body vanished, and the silence where her heartbeat should have been wasdeafening.
There was nothing there now. Nothing. Nothing atall.
He threw back his head and roared. The rafters of the small museum quaked around them as his dragon surged to the surface. It forced itself through the thick, deadening weight of whatever Conrad’s drug had done to it, but not even that could stop the dragon now. Mate-grief was too strong—lovewas too strong. Already his wounds were mending. Flames filled his vision as he vowed to destroy the man who had taken his love from him. It would be the last thing he would do before his broken heart killedhim.
His mother’s voice seemed to whisper from all around him.Magic calls tomagic.
Magic. He was in a museum full of magical artifacts. But he knew of no spells that could bring back the dead.You can’t be gone. You belong tome.
The memory of Piper’s voice teased his ears.Yes, I gave you myheart.
He stared down at Piper’s still form. A faint hue of red lingered in her cheeks, a hint of the life that had desertedher.
His mother’s voice seemed to fill his head, almost as though she were shouting.The heart of a dragon, which beats rubyred…
An image of the Dragon Heart Stone flashed across his eyes. He reached for his coat and pulled out the fist-size ruby and held it out. The light cast flickering shadows over the stone’s depths. There, in the shadows of the ruby, he saw what he mustdo.
He laid the stone upon her breast, then lifted Piper’s blood-covered hands and pressed them to the surface of the gemstone. He closed his eyes and spoke words that did not come from his own mind, but somewherebeyond.
“I bind this soul to yours, this dragon to yours. By the gods which gave me breath, I return yours to you.” Then he leaned down and kissed his love’s lifelesslips.
Come back to me, little dove. Let me show you how tofly.
A spark leaped between their lips, and he pulled back in shock. Piper’s body was glowing. The Dragon Heart Stone gleamed, a bright light shining like a flame in the depths of the heart of the gem. Then the stone shattered into a thousand glittering red shards before those shards turned to dust. The stone wasgone.
Heat rolled off Piper’s body. Her temperature rose higher than that of a human’s. He reacted instinctively because he knew what that heat meant. He scooped his mate up and ran from the museum out into the deserted streets. Conrad was in the car with the jewels and was already driving away. Mikhail placed Piper on the ground in the small square, and then he stumbled back. Her clothes tore at the seams as her bodytransformed.
A white dragon, pale as the first snow of winter, now lay hunched on the ground, its tail curled protectively around its body. It was new to this world, new to existing as a dragon within a human body. Its soul had slept for untold millennia inside the stone, waiting for ahome.
Mikhail held up a hand and brushed his palm down her nose, smiling as the female dragon huffed softly. Her eyes were like quicksilver as she gazed at him. The wild beast gentled at his touch because she recognized her mate. She nudged his chest with her snout. Fine-boned, yet strong. She was exquisite. His dragon rumbled inpleasure.
