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The dragon inside flickered in and out of my own consciousness. I was growing too weary to keep the tether on it much longer, so I gave it free reign in those moments when feeling became too much. When my emotions curled deep inside me into a blinding pain that kept me on the precipice of control. So I relinquished it. I let the dragon take over, and it malformed my body into something vicious. But even as the roaring sounded, and the talons curved, and my scales hardened, the dragon did nothing but sit and watch Maisie in hopelessness.
There was only so much we could do, only so much we could take, before we broke entirely. And the both of us still held onto the hope that her eyes would open. That she would smile and kiss us. Our wife. Our mate.
I loved her so much it hurt, and if I lost her, then I would be lost too. It was a wound I’d not get back from. The Dragon Prince, the vicious soldier of Draconi who rode into battle on his great dragon, who did not bow down to enemies, who feared nothing, not blood nor death or war, would fall apart if Maisie died.
I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her.
I kept my face buried into my palms as I prayed, over and over, to the Great Dragon, god of my mer, that if he brought Maisie back from the depths of paradise, that I’d give up Draconi, to Him and for Him.
All he had to do was bring my mate back.
“Do not swear what you cannot give up,” a voice whispered into my mind, startling me into a straight position.
Great Dragon?
“She will wake,” the mighty voice said. “And you will give up nothing. It is a gift, freely given.”
And for the first time in days, I had hope.