As the vision faded away, I let go of Drake and dropped to my knees. “We trusted you.”
Khol slid his arms around me and lifted me up before I crumpled fully to the ground. He turned me to face him, his eyes beseeching mine. “What did you see?”
I closed my eyes before responding, knowing what I was about to tell him would only cause him more pain. “Drake is the traitor. He arranged for the Riders to kill Bryn. He’s been putting poison into his food, and he’s been giving me herbs to strengthen the bond between us—so I would choose you.” I thought back to the visions I’d had about Khol after my attempted suicide and when he had been with Shannon. How could I have been so stupid? Those visions were showing me Drake’s reaction to those events. They were a foreshadowing of events to come. “Nala helped.”
I opened my eyes to see Khol’s face constricted into hard lines with the force of his agony. I had just informed him that his most trusted dragon—his second in command—had betrayed him—and to top it all off—my feelings for him had been helped along—pushed by magic. That’s why when I had donned the bracelet from my birth mother cutting off my connection with Khol, my feelings for Bryn had pushed back to the forefront of my heart.
Khol let me go and I crumpled to the ground, my eyes tracking his every move as he stalked toward Drake with deadly intent. Drake raised his chin defiantly at Khol as he came to stand in front of him. “I did it all out of love,” Drake said softly, his voice the only indication of his true fear.
“I know,” Khol said as he reached out with lightening speed and snapped Drake’s neck. I screamed as I watched Drake’s lifeless body fall to the floor in what seemed to be slow motion. And before I could even blink, Khol had ignited his fire magic to burn the remains of Drake. “Macon,” Khol called out as he stood watching Drake burn. Almost instantly, Macon appeared beside Khol, his face showing shock of his own as he looked down to see Drake’s burning body. He dropped down on one knee and bowed deeply before Khol. “You are my second now, Macon. Don’t disappoint me as Drake did.” Khol then turned to me. “I’m sorry.” Pain played across his face briefly before he disappeared before my eyes.
As soon as he was gone, I started to sob. I hadn’t betrayed Bryn willingly; magic had been used on me. How could I have not known? And Bryn . . . he hadn’t so much as touched Nala despite the magic that had been used on him. He had been stronger than I’d been able to be with Khol. I had come close . . . very close to letting Khol have me before I was sent away on my mission in Tennessee. And then it would have been too late. I would have never have had another chance with Bryn again. I looked up to meet Bryn’s burning blue eyes and he came to me and swept me up in his comforting embrace. My Bryn . . . my mate . . . my home. “Bryn,” I murmured. “I’m—”
“Shhh . . .” He rumbled. “I know.” I wanted to ask him if all was forgiven. I knew we had finally mated but that wouldn’t change the fact that he might continue to be bitter about my seeming eagerness to hook up with Khol. And okay, I had definitely been eager, but as it turned out, it hadn’t been entirely my fault.
“Why didn’t you sleep with Nala? How did you resist?” Another topic probably best left for another time, but I had to know.
Bryn tilted my head back toward him with the aid of his long index finger. “Because I love you. Not her.” It was both the most perfect and worst thing he could have responded with. The most perfect because him telling me he loved me so unconditionally was something I was worried I’d never hear, and it was the worst because I hadn’t treated him the same in kind. I hadn’t loved him unconditionally at all.
I slipped my chin off of his finger and crushed the side of my face to his chest. “I don’t deserve you.” And in that moment I knew that I didn’t, that Bryn was more than I ever deserved to have.
“No, you don’t. But I guess we’re stuck with each other from now on.” I could hear the smile in his voice as he teased me like he used to. God, I’d missed him. I clutched him even harder and pushed my nose into his chest so the only thing I could smell was him, and not the lingering smell of burnt flesh. “Let’s get out of here,” Bryn murmured as he tightened his arms around me in response. “I don’t want a reminder of what just happened.” And with that, a familiar feeling of weightlessness surrounded me and I knew Bryn had transported us with his dragon powers out of his room. Not that he needed that room anymore, I thought smugly, because he was mine and he would be back in our room, with me . . . where he belonged.
“Peej,” Bryn rumbled, and I could feel his words more than hear them. “I’ll never leave you again—I swear—I’m here—always.” Tears began to freefall down my face. I couldn’t believe I’d almost lost him . . . again. And in some way, even though Drake had manipulated me, I’d willingly participated in the destruction of our relationship. “Hey,” Bryn tried to console me as he continued to hold me tightly to his chest and tenderly stroked my hair. “Don’t. Don’t think about what could have happened.”
I pulled away from Bryn reluctantly and looked up into the face of the man I loved, the face of a fallen angel—my fallen angel. “We thought everything had been settled before, both in the dragon realm and after. Who’s to say something won’t rip us apart again?” Another huge sob escaped from my constricted chest as I allowed myself to say my worst fears out loud. Who was to say if Bryn was really and truly mine? I’d dared to believe it before and look where that had gotten me. I had been shattered into a billion pieces.
“We’ll be more careful. Trust no one but each other. It’s the only way to survive this apparently.” He reached out and pulled me back into his arms. “I don’t care if that baby is mine or not, I’ll love it like it was.” I didn’t think it was possible but I started to cry harder. I’d wanted to hear those words from Bryn from the beginning, to hear him say he’d never really walk away from me, that it had all been one huge mistake—and it had been. Thanks to Drake. “I love you Peej.”
“I love you too,” I croaked. He then tilted my head back and claimed my lips with a tenderness that spoke of a forever kind of love . . . our kind of love . . . always.
19
I had Bryn back, that was something that only in my wildest dreams had I dared to hope for. And we had the answers to what had happened between us. Despite everything that had happened . . . me becoming the next Dragon Queen, Jenna getting possessed by a Rider, me going to Tennessee on a solo mission, me hooking up with Khol, me finding out I was pregnant . . . well, Bryn and my relationship felt stronger than ever. We had weathered the storm and come out on the other side. He was my true mate now, our marks wouldn’t be disappearing anytime soon, unless one of us died, and I was just too happy to allow myself to think about that grim reality. With Bryn by my side, I could make everything else right again. Because I had also learned that the person I needed to depend on the most was me. Bryn was my partner—my mate—but it wasn’t his job to take care of me, even though he certainly seemed to want to.