“You underestimate me, sweetheart. I’m tougher than you think.”

  “Your ego is going to get you killed.”

  “I have no ego when it comes to you, little assassin. But you underestimate my determination to have you.”

  For some reason, his words pierce me—a final blow.

  Something inside me snaps. Ten years’ worth of loss and loneliness and holding my shit together by a thread. Since the moment my parents died, I remained closed off—until Legion. He was the first and only one I ever let see the real me, including all my worries and fears and vulnerable places.

  And he hurt me.

  The pain he caused me becomes rage and a determination to hurt him too.

  “You’re the one who underestimates,” I say, my bared hands twitching at my sides.

  His smirk spikes my temper all over again. “We’ll see.”

  Ugh, it’s time to wipe that disgustingly sexy smile from his face once and for all. Stepping away from him, I hold his gaze and slowly peel my armor off then my jacket. Finally, I’m standing before him wearing only a t-shirt and my jeans. Legion’s gaze is hungry as it roams my body. I don’t move, letting him look, letting the exposure of flesh distract him just enough to lower his guard.

  I strike fast, using the element of surprise to my advantage as I rush at him, hands bared and reaching for his throat.

  He doesn’t see it coming. I know it because I see clearly the eye-widening shock as I close the distance. His recovery is just enough for him to sidestep me, and my fingers meet only thin air.

  Frustrated, I whirl and rush him again.

  He dances out of my reach easily, that stupid smug smile still flashing at me. With a battle cry, I try a third time, anticipating his feint and lowering my head, tackling him with a shoulder in the gut. I feel the moment my skin touches his and my heart lurches but there’s no time to react. In the next second, he loses his footing, and we both go flying off the edge of the rocky cliff.

  I scream, watching the hard ground below rising fast to meet us, too fast for anything but death. Before we have a chance to hit the bottom, Legion shifts, scales replacing flesh as large, leathery wings appear. There’s no time for a recovery, not even with wings, but he’s not trying to escape the fall.

  Instead, his enormous wings curl forward, cocooning me inside them. A second later, Legion slams into the ground, and the impact jars me. The wings pull tighter, suffocating me while saving me from a fatal impact.

  An impact I barely feel because Legion takes it for me.

  He makes no sound as he hits the ground. His wings unfurl, and I’m dumped onto the ground in a heap of dust and pebbles. Scrambling up, I lean over Legion’s dragon form, searching for a heartbeat.

  Thud… thud… thud.

  There.

  My shoulders sag in relief.

  “Legion.”

  He doesn’t answer. I resist the urge to shake him awake.

  “Legion,” I call, louder now.

  Fear twists inside me.

  I felt my head connect with his shoulder earlier. And then his wings touched my skin when he used them to save me, which means the fact that he’s unconscious might be from the fall—or it might be from the poison in my skin entering his bloodstream.

  The idea that I might have just killed him leaves me sick and panicked.

  “Legion!”

  My scream is guttural, echoing around us and bouncing off the hills we’ve landed between.

  A rumbling follows, and for a fleeting, hopeful second, I think Legion is waking. But then the ground beneath me trembles, and the rocks on the hill above us begin sliding. Horror dawns slowly then with terrifying clarity as the landslide worsens. Giant boulders are uprooted and careen toward the bottom of the cliffside where Legion and I wait like sitting ducks.

  “Legion, wake up,” I call urgently.

  Above me, enormous boulders bounce and roll at startling speeds. The rumbling grows louder. Closer. The ground beneath me cracks and fissures just as a boulder the size of an RV flies right toward my head.

  Without thinking, I throw myself over Legion’s dragon form, hoping to shield him from the inevitable. Just before the boulder would have reached us, the ground beneath gives way. Suddenly, I’m weightless, both of us swallowed by the earth, falling, falling…

  Chapter 34

  Legion

  Flying is my specialty. Falling is not. Throbbing pain across every inch of my body wakes me with a groan. Trying to get my bearings, I blink, my eyes taking longer than usual to focus. Still in dragon form, I’m on my back in a pile of rubble. My right wing is pinned beneath a large rock, and my ribs are screaming.

  Rock walls surround me on every side. Above me, a small opening in the Earth suggests how I got here. It’s nearly completely sealed by large boulders, making the light in this cavern almost nonexistent.

  Sifting through foggy thoughts, I try to connect how I got here. Last I remember, Tori came at me on the mountain. She touched me. Fuck, the poison. So far, there’s nothing in me to suggest I’m dying. Well, other than the pain of falling hard on my ass in this cavern.

  Then I remember how we got here. We fell. I shifted to shield her from the fall and then⁠—

  Fuck. Tori!

  I see her several yards away, half-buried beneath a pile of rock and dirt. She doesn’t move. Determined to get to her, I force myself to sit up, groaning at the piercing pain in my wing as it’s stretched taut from my movements. Doubling back to the boulder pinning me, I shove it aside with a clawed hand and then hurry to Tori. The dirt and rock are easy enough to scrape away with my dragon’s claws.

  Fear is an acid on my tongue, and I grit my teeth against my dragon’s resistance to shifting back to my human form. It’ll make the healing process twice as long and three times as painful, but I have to get to her. To feel her pulse against my hands.

  When I get close, I see that her breaths are shallow and barely audible to my sensitive ears. The moment my scales are swapped for flesh, I begin carefully picking away at the rubble half-burying her.

  “Tori,” I call.

  She doesn’t move, and fear grips me harder.

  “Tori.” I raise my voice, letting urgency creep in. Her pulse is there, but her eyes remain closed. I pull the rocks off her, scanning her for injuries. Beyond a few shallow cuts and scrapes, I don’t spot anything. Then, I notice her veins darkening beneath her skin. They go from blue to gray to black, and fear beyond anything I’ve known grips me, squeezing my heart until it threatens to break apart. In this moment, I know with absolute conviction that this woman is the only reason I’ll ever have to live. Without her, I am nothing.

  “Tori.” My voice is hoarse, but even so, it echoes in the silence of the cavern.

  There’s no heartbeat.

  I realize with horror that her breathing has stopped.

  Pain and rage build inside me until I’m trembling with what feels like an earthquake in my bones. I will not outlive this grief.

  No longer caring whether her skin remains lethal, I pull her lifeless body into my arms and hold her against me. The feel of her bared skin against mine is a pleasure I can’t remember feeling in all my thousands of years. It is also the most exquisite pain—experiencing it without her eyes open. Without her alive to share it.

  Reverently, I lean down and brush a kiss over each of her closed lids.

  When I sit up again, I feel it. A tingling in my lips. It spreads fast, sending a numbness across my mouth and down my throat. My hands tremble.

  Fear grips me.

  Not for myself.

  But if I die here like this, who will save her?

  I need Tori to live, dammit.

  Urgency driving me, I run my hands over her body, frantic for something—anything—that could help her before I succumb to the poison.

  When I reach her hip, I feel something solid in her pocket. Pulling out a small vial, I remember how Broca gave it to Tori to help her heal.

  I have nothing left to lose and no time left. My left side has already become paralyzed. Knowing it’s my only shot, I use my right hand to uncap the vial and pour the drops of liquid down Tori’s throat.

  The moment I do, the scent of the vial’s contents slams into me—a scent I know all too well and have spent five thousand years trying to forget.

  Demon tears.

  The shock of it here, now, has me reeling. I realize too late these are not just any demon tears.

  These tears belong to my mother.

  Did Tori know that?

  Where the hell did she get them?

  And what effect will they have on my mate’s survival? My mother always claimed the tears of a demon were lethal. A poison that packed potency unlike any other.

  I can do nothing but wait.

  A full minute.

  Then two.

  My right side becomes paralyzed. I slump to the side, leaning heavily on a large chunk of rock. My breathing slows. Hope is a light that grows dimmer by the second.

  Another minute passes.

  Tori doesn’t wake, and my hope bleeds away.

  The grief closes over me, and I’m sucked beneath its anguished depths as I try to accept that I’ve truly lost her. I’m so immersed in the pain that it takes me a moment to realize the numbness is gone. I lift my hands then my arms and notice they’re back to normal.

  The poison is gone.

  I’m not going to die after all and the reality of that knowledge crushes me. How can I possibly live without her?

  My grief sends me spiraling. I reach for her then, pulling her close and whispering her name.

  The sudden warmth of Tori’s skin jolts me back to the moment.

  I stare down at her as her cheeks begin to flush and her closed eyelids twitch. The scent of magic hits me then. A rotting, burning smell that reminds me of the creature who set all this in motion.

  It pours out of Tori’s mouth, a dark green cloud that clogs my nostrils and sticks inside my mouth.

  When the last of the smoke has dispelled from her mouth, she gasps, drawing in a sudden breath as her eyes fly open and find mine. Relief floods me.

  Something even more powerful than the mate call slams into me. Love. Unconditional, irrevocable love. I vow to never let this woman go again.

  “Legion.” Her brow furrows, and she glances up at the cavern’s ceiling.

  “Hello, gorgeous.” I smooth her hair back, grateful for the sight of her flushed cheeks and the rise and fall of her chest as she breathes.

  “Are you hurt?” I ask.

  She shifts in my arms, frowning. “Sore.” She glances down at her bared arms and notes the bloodied scratches. “I feel strange. The mate bond. Gods, it’s strong. Did you do something?” Her eyes widen as she finally realizes I’m touching her. “Legion, stop. You can’t⁠—”

  She pulls away, and I release her, mostly so she’ll calm down. She scrambles back, staring at me with growing fear. “You’re going to die,” she chokes out.

  “I’m not. The curse is broken.”

  “What? How?”

  “Where did you get the demon tears you had in your pocket?”

  Her hand goes to her pocket.

  I hold up the empty vial, and she stares at it.

  “You drank it?” she asks.

  “No. You did.”

  “I don’t understand. I touched you. Even before we fell. You should be poisoned.”

  “I was.”

  “Then how…?” She trails off like she can’t bring myself to voice the words.

  “You weren’t breathing.” My heart squeezes all over again as I relive nearly losing her. “You were dying. Maybe already dead. I think your… I think it neutralized the poison’s affects in me.”

  “How am I alive now?” she asks quietly.

  I clear my throat, shoving aside the grief and fear I’d felt a few minutes ago. “I remembered how poison helped heal you before, so I gave you the vial of tears from your pocket. The scent… these were my mother’s tears. Where did you get them?”

  “Em,” she says. “I took this as payment for that last job. She was supposed to give me more after, but we never got that far.”

  My gut tightens as I begin to understand. “What did Em look like?”

  “I didn’t see much except for her dark eyes. She was wearing a long coat and a scarf.” She stares at me. “You think Em is your mother?”

  “I don’t know. I searched for her when I first visited this realm. When I couldn’t sense her, I assumed… If it is her, she’s cloaked herself somehow.”

  She shakes her head, watching me warily.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  “The mate bond. It’s so much stronger than it was.” Her face flushes as she adds, “I can feel you. Like a magnet being pulled.”

  I smirk. “Are you saying you want me?”

  “I’m saying…” She blinks, her gaze sharpening. “Do you think the curse dimmed the mate bond? Is that why I wasn’t half-crazy on Februlune?”

  “The way I remember it, you were pretty crazy for me.” I smirk, and it feels so damn good to joke with her in this moment.

  “I’m serious. I was so scared there was something wrong with our connection.” She takes a deep breath. “But now… it’s all I can feel. How did demon tears break the curse, exactly?”

  “Broca said the curse could only be broken by an offering from the one who cast it. I think my mother’s tears were the offering.”

  The hope in her eyes has me forgetting everything else. Thoughts of my mother are shoved aside, and I reach for her, pulling her back into my arms where she belongs.

  My shoulder throbs with the effort thanks to my still-healing wound, but it’s nothing like it was when we landed here.

  “Hey—” Tori struggles against me, but I hold tight until she gives in. Still, when I look down at her, there’s fear in her gaze as she studies my face and chest anxiously. “What if you’re wrong?”

  “Darling, I’ve been holding you and touching you since we landed down here. If the curse was going to kill me, it would’ve happened already.”

  She sighs. “You’re right. I just don’t want to risk losing you,” she admits.

  “Do you mean that you’d be upset if I died, little assassin?”

  She flinches, but the vulnerability in her gorgeous eyes grows. “Yes,” she whispers. “Very upset, actually.” Her gaze dips to my mouth, and desire stirs in my still-healing body.

  “Strange, considering you recently tried to kill me,” I say.

  “I’m sorry,” she says, her voice breaking as tears fill her eyes. “You lied. I was angry.”

  I tuck her hair behind her ear, enjoying the softness of her skin beneath my fingers. “We should work on our conflict resolution.”

  “We should,” she agrees, her eyes unwavering on mine.

  The air between us thickens with the scent of desire. Not mine. Hers.

  I don’t bother asking permission. Not for this. I’ve waited too damn long already. If she doesn’t like it, she’s welcome to try to kill me again.

  With a growl, I crush my mouth to hers. She gasps and tenses then melts. Her hands come up to thread in my hair and pull me closer. I lose myself in the taste of her on my tongue, the feel of her body against my hands, the sounds she makes as I claim her mouth. My kiss is a silent promise to do the same to her body and her soul.

  My hands trace over her hip, hooking into the waist of her pants. Without breaking our kiss, my fingers loosen the buttons, and I yank the fabric aside, sliding my fingers through her wet heat. She gasps and rocks into me, and I slide a finger inside her, then two.

  “I’ve owed you this since that night in the library,” I tell her.

  My voice is ragged, but I don’t care. The feel of her body against mine is a drug, and I’m already hooked. Since the moment we met, I’ve wanted nothing more than this. Now that I have her, the reality is so much more potent than anything I imagined.

  “Legion,” she whispers as I slide my fingers in and out of her.

  “You feel so good,” I tell her.

  She grips my neck, tightening her hold as her tight walls contract around my fingers. I don’t stop, pushing into her and watching, rapt, as she comes apart for me. When she whimpers my name, I steal the sound with another kiss.

  Chapter 35

  Tori

  Overwhelmed by the feel of him, I melt into Legion’s touch, riding the wave of pleasure until I’m lost to my senses. His fingers drive me up and over the edge faster than I ever thought possible. All the while, his eyes never leave mine, the glint of desire mixing with a devotion I didn’t expect and am not sure what to do with. I feel his hardness against the back of my thigh, and almost immediately, I can feel another orgasm building at the idea of having him inside me.

  “Legion,” I whisper, sitting up so I can straddle his lap. “I need you.”

  He doesn’t stop touching me, his fingers massaging my clit, as he holds my gaze. “I’ve wanted to touch you like this since the moment we met.”

  He slides a finger inside me, drawing a sharp breath from me as he watches my expression closely. Like he’s drinking in my pleasure. Drawing it out. Like we have forever for this.

  I’d like to think we do.

  His eyes are hooded now and almost dangerous with the desire sparking in them. “I want to watch while you come for me, little assassin.”

  His words send a shiver through me. His other hand comes up to cup my breast, his thumb brushing over my nipple.

  “Do you like it when I touch you like this?”

  An hour ago, I would have said no. But it would have been a lie.

  Still, I can’t help but think how close we are to talking about sex—an act that would seal the mate bond. Now more than ever, I understand Legion’s resistance to being bound again. And I refuse to ask him to do that even for me. This will have to be enough. I care for him too much to ask for more.

  I press kisses to his jaw, his cheek, his mouth. “Yes.”