Page 64 of Rurik
Charlotte faced the glowing heart ahead of her, only a little farther, but the path was harder, and it became more difficult to move with everystep.
“I love you, Rurik. Do you hear me?I love you!” She shouted the words into the blinding snow that tried to hide the heart from her. But she would not stop—she wouldneverstop.
She stretched her hand into the flames, curling her fingers around what looked like a giant ruby. Fire exploded around her, burning her hand, her body, her soul. It was killing her, she knew it. If she kept holding on, she woulddie.
“Don’t let go.”The dragoness’s voice echoed all around her.“Focus on your love for him.”Charlotte closed her eyes, unable to scream as her body seemed to burst apart, and her life drained away. As her life force left her, something of his came to fill the void. Something strange. Something alien. Something…Rurik.
With a powerful burst of light, she fell to the ground, her fingers still clutching Rurik’s heart. When she dared to open her eyes, she saw snow everywhere, but it wasn’t the between-world she’d just been in. Gone were the Barinov ghosts, the shadows, and thestorm.
Wherever she was now, the snowflakes were suspended in midair, as if time itself had frozen over. She tried to stand and jolted when she realized she was not herself any longer. Her arms were covered in obsidian scales, and her fingers ended in razor-sharp claws. Her nose had lengthened into a lethal snout. A sense of something—or rathersomeone—else sharing her body was eerie but not unwelcome. It was the dragon. It was part of her now. It was also part of Rurik. Rurik was part ofher.
Her dragon-self stirred, managing to stand, and she turned to see a beautiful black dragon lying in the snow, still as death. In that dragon she saw her mate, and she sawherself.
Rurik.She moved forward on shaky new legs and nuzzled his chest, huffing warm breaths across his throat. He didn’tstir.
“My mate…”she crooned, singing a dragon song buried deep withinher.
“Little rose?”The response was like a faint echo, but she kept singing. The dragon part of her knew there was magic in dragon song. The sweeping notes spun spells in the air, and her mate lifted his head weakly, his golden eyes fogged withpain.
“Come back to me, Rurik. Don’t be afraid to live. I loveyou.”
This time when he lifted his head, she saw the gleam of returning strength in hisgaze.
“You’ve changed.How?”
Charlotte nudged him, urging him to stand. She and her dragon needed to see him up and moving before they couldrelax.
“Ho-ly fuck,” someone said behind her. She turned and saw someone she recognized, but her dragon also felt him to be a threat, and she bristleddefensively.
Damien. The name was there, along with the memories, but her dragon growled, forcing her brother to stumble back. He fell into the snow next to a large sapphire-blue dragon. Rurik chuckled inside her head, and the sound filled her withjoy.
“Let the dragon go, little one. She’ll slide back beneath your skin, and then you’ll be all right.”She turned to Rurik and watched him change, his dragon morphing into the beautiful, battle-scarred man sheloved.
Her need to be with him was so strong that she collapsed into the snow, trying to get to him, her body doing just as he suggested. The dragon sank back into her, present but hidden. She fell on top of Rurik, and he curled his arms around her. Tears crept from the corners of hereyes.
Rurik kissed her temple and held her close. “It’s all right to cry.” With those words she gave in to the outpouring of emotions that had been bottledup.
“Is she okay?” Damien rushed over, but his voice made her bury her face even deeper into Rurik’sneck.
“She’s overwhelmed. Mikhail saw this with Piper when she first transformed,” Grigori said, having changed back to human form. “What I don’t understand ishow. We have no dragonstone.”
“I am not sure what happened—or how,” said Rurik. “But I recognized the dragon I saw just now as myown.”
“What do you mean?” Grigoriasked.
“I can’t explain it other than that. My dragon and Charlotte’s…are the same dragon but shared between her body and mine. I think we now share the same dragonsoul.”
Charlotte listened to the men talking around her, but she wasn’t ready to face them, not yet. She felt vulnerable and exposed and weak. She didn’t want to open her eyes or let go of Rurik. He was the only thing she could cling to in thatmoment.
“Um,” Damien stammered to Grigori. “Do you guys need clothes? I…just realized that everyone here but me is completelynaked.”
“I’m naked?” Charlotte said weakly. “AndDamien’shere? Oh God…” She’d survived a fall from a skyscraper only to die here now ofembarrassment.
Rurik’s body rumbled against hers with laughter as he stroked her back. “It’s all right, Charlotte, my mate. Everything will be all right now.” Charlotte raised her head, slowly opening her eyes. Her gaze locked on Rurik, and she knew nothing would ever be the same again. And she couldn’t be happier aboutit.
“It’s time for us to face the future,” he whispered. “I loveyou.”
“I love you too.” That was all that mattered. The love that even in death had kept them together and saved them, because love was the strongest magic, the oldest magic. Even death couldn’t stop it. “Now, get me some clothes before Iscream.”
