Chapter 4

Chapter

Four

JIANYU

T he tension radiating off of my mate has my own pulse racing. I want nothing more than to sweep this table aside and pull her into my arms.

It's been days since I've properly held her. The ache within me is unbearable.

Ember is gathering the courage to tell us something, though. Something big.

And I have a sinking feeling that it's something that will change everything .

Finally, she lets out a long, slow breath. "There's this...prophecy."

That word alone has me on even higher alert. Dragonkind is superstitious by nature. We have thousands of years of traditions and rites. In the Stone Kingdom, the High Priestesses would often bend my father's ear with auspices and mystical counsel.

A true prophecy, though? Those are rare--and powerful.

"Supposedly," she continues, "there will be a dragon born of all the great dragon kingdoms."

"You mean you," Rafe interrupts.

She nods tightly. "I mean me. But before I knew that, I'd heard the legend."

"We all have." I press my calf into hers beneath the table.

Malik rubs her hand. "The heir will bring light to shadow."

Rafe nods in agreement.

"Exactly." Ember bites her lip. "But there's more to it than just--" She lifts her hand from the table and flicks her fingers outward. " Poof! Magical dragon from all the kingdoms shows up and voila, the Shadow Dragons are defeated."

Of course it couldn't be so simple.

"What do you have to do?" I ask.

She squirms, and there's more of that shameful, fearful discomfort seeping into our bond. My lungs prickle with indignation. What will it take? What do we need to do to prove to her that we are hers and she is ours? Forever?

"I don't have a lot of details. But step one is to bring forth my dragon." She lets out a low huff of a laugh. "Apparently, my mom and dad knew that might be difficult for me. They thought they'd have time to explain it all to me--to help me through it." Her voice goes rough. "But they didn't."

"I'm so sorry," Malik rumbles.

"It's okay." She pats his hand, like she's comforting him, and maybe she is. But then she refocuses. "I, um. Need help."

"Anything you need," I promise, but I've promised that before.

Shaking her head, she says, "I need a specific kind of help. From my mates."

She glances around.

And then it dawns on me.

"You mean--" I begin.

"I'm a Shadow Dragon," she says, and each time she claims that identity, she does it with more confidence, "with bits of Water, Fire, Stone and Air inside me, and I need..." Her throat bobs, and she glances from one of us to the next. "I need a mate of Water, Fire, Stone...and Air."

Of course.

The truth of it is so obvious.

My stomach sinks, though. Possessive instincts rear up inside of me.

From the moment I laid eyes on Ember, I have wanted her for my own. She was made for me, meant for me.

But she also made for Rafe and for Malik.

And for someone else.

"I'm sorry," she says, rubbing at her eyes. "I know this is a mess, but--"

I interrupt. "Anything. Anything you need, Ember."

Every time she's taken another mate, it's torn at my heart, but I can feel it in my bones that it's right .

"Even if it's another man," Rafe agrees. Our gazes meet, a silent understanding passing between us.

We all look to Malik then.

He looks a little queasy, but he swallows, and resolve settles over his features. "So where do we find this fourth man?"

Some of the tension in the room finally breaks, and Ember breathes out a sigh of relief.

"Uh." Rafe scoffs. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the Air Dragon Kingdom?"

"There are two princes there, are there not?" I ask.

Because it can't be a coincidence. She is the heir to some dragon throne, meant to bring light to shadow. She's mated with three dragon princes already. Surely her fourth mate will be of a royal bloodline as well.

"There are," she allows.

"But..." Malik prods her.

Dark guilt sours the air, and I sit up straighter. "Ember..."

Darting her gaze from me to Rafe, she asks, "You remember me telling you about my really terrible, shitty ex?"

My stomach sinks. "I do."

I wanted to tear the man limb from limb at the time. He broke my mate's heart. Rejected her and made her feel unworthy, leaving scars that haunt her to this day.

The taste of smoke hits the back of my throat. My dragon is ready to rise to the surface and find the man who's put her through so much pain and rain down fire and stone on his head.

But my vengeance isn't what my mate needs right now.

She curls in on herself, pulling her hand back from Malik to twist her fingers together in her lap. "I might have neglected to mention that he was Prince Storm of the Air Dragon Kingdom."

"Motherfucker," Rafe seethes.

And I knew there was more to the story. She was hiding something...

But this? To find out that she was in a relationship with yet another prince of yet another of the great kingdoms?

"Why didn't you tell us?" I ask, a heaviness lodging itself in my chest.

"I wanted to." She looks up at me with guileless eyes. "But everything was so overwhelming, and I knew--I mean, obviously, it was suspicious as hell."

Is she wrong? The way she bonded with me and Rafe at the same time set off alarm bells in my head. It was bizarre. But I trusted in the gods. I trusted in my mate. Her soul was open to me, and it was nothing but pure.

"It might have helped us understand what was going on sooner."

"I know." She exhales heavily. She glances between me and Rafe again. "I'm sorry." She looks to Malik, too. "For all of this."

"It is all right, beloved," Malik assures her.

Shaking her head, she brushes her hair back from her face. "It's the farthest thing possible from all right."

"It is complicated," I concede.

"When has it ever not been?" Rafe asks.

I chuckle. "You can say that again."

But it's always been complicated. Ember had two mates, and now she has three. She needs a fourth, and once upon a time, she had a history with one of the men who is a leading contender for that position.

The white of her teeth shows as she worries at her bottom lip. "You're not mad?"

"I'm not sure I'd go that far," Rafe grumbles, off the cuff.

I glare at him, but try to give the question the thought it deserves.

"I'm not thrilled," I allow. "But I'm angrier at the situation than I am at you." I try to smile, but it's strained. "I understand your reasons for keeping this to yourself."

"I was going to tell you."

"But there was no time," Malik says.

I appreciate that he's reassuring her; I'm trying my best to accept him into the fold. But he's been part of this relationship for all of a day, and he spent most of that day keeping me and Rafe locked up behind bars.

Swallowing my annoyance with him, I try to focus on practical matters. "You think Prince Storm could be your mate, then?"

"I don't see how. We...more than locked eyes, if you know what I mean." Ember squirms, and that adorable pink cast returns to her cheeks.

I definitely know what she means. I hate to imagine her with yet another man, but I've seen her make love to Rafe and I've felt her in the throes of passion with Malik.

My blood warms, need stirring within me.

Rafe clears his throat, his eyes darkening as well. "What about his brother?"

Ember's jaw clenches. "Fury. He's even worse than Storm. Storm was at least tolerable, until he--you know." Her mouth wavers before setting into a grim line. "Broke my heart and watched me get thrown out of his kingdom."

A growl escapes me. This man had best hope he never crosses my path.

"Did you..." Malik clears his throat. "Lock eyes with this brother?"

"We've had eye contact, yes," she grits out. "But not the good kind. Any time he looked at me it was to tell me how worthless I am."

She shifts her weight, directing her gaze back to her decimated plate, and it's a good thing. Rage churns through me, even hotter than before.

"So we kill them both," Rafe pronounces.

Ember ignores him. "Fury's the better chance at being my mate, I think." Our bond is awash with conflicted feelings of anger and grief and resignation. "If it had been Storm, I would have known. Right?"

"I think it's safe to say that we are in uncharted waters," Malik tells her gently.

I nod. "An understatement."

"Either way." Ember lifts her head again, squaring her shoulders and trying to hide her pain. But she can't hide it from us. "I need to go to the Air Kingdom and find them."

"When do we leave?" Rafe asks.

"You don't have to come with me," Ember tries.

"Believe me." My words come out more severe than I intend them. "We do."

"We would not let you out of our sight," Malik agrees.

"But..." Ember hesitates, glancing among us all.

"But nothing." With that, I stand.

The electric force pulling me to my mate has been yanking at me since the moment she woke. It lay dormant within my chest while she slept, and it howled the entire time she was in the Shadow King's Citadel. It will not be ignored a moment more.

And it sure as hell isn't going to let her go to a foreign kingdom to find another mate alone.

The fact that her most likely candidates for her final mate are men who were cruel to her, who discarded her...

She gazes up at me with wide eyes, trembling. Braced for the worst. "You can't be happy about this."

And I hate that I'm scaring her. I hate that my intensity is bringing that quiver to her lip, but I can't calm down. I won't.

Not until she understands.

"I'm not," I agree. With that, I shove the table aside, just barely managing not to clip Malik's knee as I do, but I don't care.

Ember sits there, stunned.

"I'm not happy about you having another mate." The words are pouring out of me now. "I'm not happy about having to share you. I'm not happy to have our love thrown to the mercy of the gods, over and over again, or that you have to face the greatest evil to ever stare down dragonkind."

My voice threatens to falter, and I swallow, my throat grating, my dragon growling with possessive heat inside my chest.

"I'm not happy that you need to go into hostile territory to find these men who made you ever feel like less than the goddess you are."

"Jianyu..."

I drop to my knees before her. I cup her face, and the contact of her skin against mine sears me through.

"But I will never, ever let you go there alone."

Fire blazes through my veins, and I pull her in.

As I crash my mouth into hers, it's water pouring over hot stone. I crack in two, and something inside of me is healed.

The aching part--the piece of me that felt her being ripped away and whisked into the realm of shadows... The broken portion of my soul that watched her fall from a black stone tower into an icy sea...

They knit back together at the feeling of my mate, safe and alive and real and here.

I pour everything I feel into the kiss. The desperation and the loss and the fear, and the bone-deep certainty that whatever is happening to her--to us...

It's bigger than any of us.

And I accept it all.