The Dragon Queen (Death #4)

26. Calista

Chapter 26

Calista

Khazmuda went hunting, so I returned to my tree house. I showered, slept in a real bed for the first time in weeks, and ate food that I got from the market. Talon told me he needed space to process what had happened, and while it took every ounce of my strength to honor the request, I knew he needed the time.

The very last thing he’d done before he’d returned to me was speak to Vivian, so I understood his mind was in a different place. And as much as I wanted him, I didn’t want him when he was letting go of the woman he loved before me.

I did my best to be patient…and wait.

I sat at the dining table in my tree house alone, drinking a hot cup of tea because I’d finished breakfast a few hours ago. Life had been so chaotic these last few weeks that it was strange to feel peace.

I didn’t even recognize it.

A knock sounded on the door, and I nearly knocked over my teacup when my hand flinched. I pictured Talon’s dark hair and eyes, pictured the man I loved walking through that door and never leaving. “It’s open.” I would be so disappointed if it wasn’t him.

The door opened and he appeared. Not in the armor and uniform he’d worn in battle and death, but a shirt with trousers that Queen Eldinar must have provided him. He usually wore black, so it was different to see him in olive green.

His eyes locked on mine.

I didn’t blink, but my heart rumbled like the earth during an earthquake. I felt so much excitement and love at the sight of him, a feeling so intense it nearly brought me to tears. It was like seeing him alive again for the first time, walking toward me through the sea of fireflies.

He came to the table and took a seat, his jaw clean because he’d shaved it all off. His hair had been washed and combed back. He looked refreshed instead of broken and exhausted. He stared at my teacup for a while before he looked me in the eye. “I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long.”

I missed him like fucking crazy. “It’s okay to take some time. I know you’ve been through a lot.”

He drew in a slow breath, his handsome face hardening before he spoke. “I slept for three days.”

“Wow.”

“In the underworld…there was no sleep.”

That meant there was no reprieve at all, not even in dreams.

“The return of my soul to my body seems to have exhausted me.”

“I’m glad you were able to rest.” I’d barely slept during our time apart, unable to tolerate the bed without him. Knowing he was nearby but not in the sheets with me infected me with a relentless longing. “How do you feel now?”

He looked away, his eyes out the window past me, considering the question with a heavy silence. “The last thing I did before I returned to you was speak to Vivian, and while I was so happy to be with you again, I just needed time to process that goodbye.”

“I know.”

“But it was more than letting her go. It was letting go of everything else.”

I didn’t know what he meant, but I didn’t want to apply pressure when he still seemed weak.

“I’ve never forgiven myself. Never stopped hating myself. I’ve done everything I can to right my wrongs. Done everything I can to give my family peace. You’ve forgiven me for the way I wronged you. Vivian has forgiven me for everything, wants me to be happy and live my life to the fullest…but that’s so hard to do because I still feel like I don’t deserve it.”

“But you do deserve it, Talon.” It broke my heart to listen to this, listen to him view himself as a villain rather than a hero, a man I admired with my whole heart. “You deserve it more than anyone.”

He lifted his chin to look at me again, his eyes covered with armor to protect his soul. He held my gaze for a while before he took a breath and gave a nod. “Maybe I deserve it. Maybe I don’t. But regardless, it’s time to move on…and forward. It’s time to let go of the past and live for the present.” He stared at me for a long time, the armor slowly lowering from his guard eyes. “It’s time to be happy.”

With his hands gripping my ass, he carried me into the bedroom where I’d slept alone this past week. His kisses were slow and purposeful, feeling my lips like he’d never felt their softness before. His mouth was gentle, but his hands were aggressive, digging into my flesh through my bottoms.

He laid me on the bed then moved over me, his heavy weight making the mattress shift under us. One hand slid into my hair, and he gripped it as his kiss hardened, as he released a passionate sigh into my mouth.

My hands slid underneath his shirt, and I felt fire at my fingertips, felt the muscles bulge from the skin. I’d missed his heartbeat next to mine, missed the way he looked at me like I was his most prized possession that no one better dare touch, missed the way he gripped me like I was indestructible but fragile at the same time.

I was so hungry for him, so desperate to feel the reunion of our bodies and our souls. Every moment since he’d come back to reality felt like a dream I didn’t want to end. But once I had him, I would know that it was real, that he wouldn’t slip through my fingers again.

He tugged off my bottoms and took the underwear with them, exposing my bare skin from the waist down. His hand left my hair then tugged my shirt free, his aggression increasing as the moment burned hotter. When I was naked underneath him, that possession burned in his eyes like nothing had changed between us except the intensity, which had increased tenfold.

His mouth went for my throat, and he kissed me hard as his arm hooked around the small of my back. His breaths fanned across my skin as he made his way down, kissing my shoulder then my collarbone, gripping one of my small tits in his palm before he kissed the valley between my breasts. He made his way farther down, slipping his tongue inside my belly button before kissing my hips and the insides of my thighs. He saved the best for last, giving me a hard kiss to my aching sex that made me call out in pleasure.

His arms hooked underneath my ass, and he kissed me hard again, like he was determined to make me call out like that a second time.

“Fuck…Talon.” It was as if I’d never been touched before, as if Talon had never had me this way, as if it our first time together, when it was nowhere near the finish line. My body had been dead the moment he passed, but he brought it to life with his touch…and I was lit ablaze almost instantly.

My hand dug into his hair, and I writhed on the bed, the unexpected high so good it made me shed a river of tears. I arched my back and pushed my tits to the ceiling, my body unable to contain all the pleasure that rocked through it.

He released my legs and moved up my body, his lips smeared with the arousal he caused. His thighs separated mine, and he folded me underneath him, moving fast like he was too anxious to take this slow.

We’d lain together for a while before anything happened, our hearts aching from everything that had passed, but once his hand was on my thigh and his lips were on my mouth, the match had been lit—and the forest burned.

So absorbed in the moment, he forgot to remove his pants, so he tugged them down to his ass and guided himself to my entrance before he gave a hard shove, so desperate to be inside me he skipped so many steps to get to the front of the line.

I grabbed his shirt and tried to pull it over his head, but he drew my hand away and sank inside me, releasing a deep moan that seemed to originate inside his chest. “Fuck.” He gripped the back of my hair and tugged, forcing my stare on his face as he started to pump hard inside me like he was already too far gone.

My hands moved underneath his shirt again, his hard chest and abs some of my favorite features, especially when he was flushed and covered in sweat. I tugged the material up, already on the verge of another climax because he was so damn handsome and it’d been so long.

But he yanked my hands away. “ Don’t .”

All the heat and passion came to a grinding halt. He was still rock hard inside me, but the tension he exuded from his body was sharp like the edge of his blade. His intense stare turned from possessive to a fucking inferno.

I almost didn’t recognize him. “What don’t you want me to see?”

There was a warning in his gaze, like there would be hell to pay if I tried again.

“Talon.” I softened my voice to soften his rage. I didn’t try to lift his shirt again and waited for his consent. “It’s okay.” My hands went to his arms instead, feeling the way they flexed at my touch. To show him that I wouldn’t cross his boundary again, I moved my fingers into his hair as I cupped my face. “Show me.”

He bowed his head, his anger sheathed, his eyes closed.

My fingers continued to glide through his hair before I drew his face to mine, bringing our foreheads together. “It’s okay.”

He stayed that way for a long time, my body still pinned underneath him, his dick still hard inside me like no amount of emotion turmoil could tame his physical need for me. He seemed to release the breath he was holding and kissed me, a soft and quick embrace before he pulled away and yanked his shirt over his head.

I saw it, the black burns all over his chest, like smoke painted onto the skin, the faint outline of a large hand in the center that was far bigger than any normal man’s. The damage was extensive, layer upon layer, the scars so severe that no amount of time would make them fade.

I stared, feeling the rage burn underneath my eyes and melt the tears from my eyes. It took only a second to understand why the scars were there. Bahamut tried to rip his soul from his body—but Khazmuda fought him from the other side.

The result was the most painful scars I’d ever seen.

I felt him watch my reaction and shifted my gaze to him. “It’s okay.” I’d carried the same kinds of scars, the kinds that no one could see but Talon because I told him they were there. He never desired me less. He never loved me less. To him, they’d never happened at all. And I felt the same way about the scars that would mark his body for the rest of time. “It’s okay.” One arm pulled him to me while my other hand flattened against his chest, expecting to feel the heat of the flames that caused this, but I felt nothing but his strong heartbeat underneath the skin and muscle.

I moved a hand to cup his face and brought his lips to mine, giving him a kiss as passionate as the one he gave me, tasting myself on his mouth, showing him that my love and desire hadn’t changed because of the horror engraved on his chest.

It took him a moment to come back to me, to burn with the flames that I used to engulf him. But he did, his kiss matching my intensity, his hips starting to move again, his hand finding its way back into my hair once more.

Then we moved together like nothing had changed, like we hadn’t been separated, like a demon hadn’t marred his beautiful body, like everything was exactly as it should be. “I love you.”

He pulled his face slightly away so our eyes could meet. “And I you, baby.”