Chapter 3
When the black mist faded, my palm was burning so hot that I could hardly feel it anymore.
The Power of Purification drained me way more than I expected. My legs went weak, and my knees nearly gave out.
Then I realized the dragon had disappeared. In the middle of the magma lake, a man was standing there; he'd shifted out of his dragon form and taken the human form.
His pitch-black armor ran from his neck to his wrists, and his long hair hung down to his waist; the tip of his hair was still smoking due to the remnant dragon heat.
His features were sharp; his cheekbones were cold and chiseled; his lips were thin. He was definitely the type who'd never bother with sweet words.
He was 3 inches taller than Arthur. His shoulders were nearly twice as wide as mine. On his neck and collarbone, where the armor didn't cover, black curse marks still lingered, meandering out of sight.
The only things that hadn't changed were those golden-red slit eyes that belonged to a dragon.
He took a step forward, standing in front of me. He crossed the distance from the center of the magma lake to my position with only one step.
His shadow loomed over me, a suffocating pressure coming down from above.
His scorching fingers gripped my chin. "Name?" he asked. His voice wasn't quite the same as when he was a dragon, but it was still hoarse.
"Cecilia Blake," I answered.
"Ignis Dracon," he said, his gaze locking onto mine. "Keep it in mind, Cecilia. That's the name of your master."
"Master?" I laughed. "Who was the one tortured by the curse?"
His fingers tightened a bit around my chin.
Violence churned in his golden-red eyes. He felt the instinct to attack when someone revealed his weakness. It was so fierce that the air reeked of danger.
But underneath all that rage, there was something else lurking, something he himself hadn't noticed: greed and hunger.
The Power of Purification was still inside him. I could feel it. A faint current of energy was winding its way through his veins. Whenever it passed a spot eroded by the curse, his body would involuntarily loosen up for a moment.
In the past thousands of years, that was probably the first time he didn't feel any pain.
"You're my sacrifice," he said, leaving no room for argument. "According to the Abyss's rules, sacrifices are the dragon's property. You're mine now."
"I was thrown down. I didn't sacrifice myself willingly," I said, knocking his hand away.
He loosened his grip, enough for me to pull my chin free. "If you want me to keep purifying your curse, don't see me as your slave."
His slit pupils narrowed a bit. The silence stretched for a few seconds. Then, the world spun.
He slipped one arm around my waist and the other behind my head, lifting me up and cradling me in his arms.
His massive dragon wings unfurled behind him. Even in human form, the wings were still there, covered in black scales, spanning nearly twenty yards.
The wings closed around us, cocooning us so tightly that not a breath of air could get in. I could feel the deep, vibrating heartbeat in his chest.
"Fine, not my slave," he said. His lips brushed against my ear, his voice husky and hot. "Stay with me. Your blood, your Magical Energy, and your life are all mine."
He paused for a heartbeat. His palm covered the sacrificial rune on my wrist, the heat from his touch searing my skin. "In exchange, my power is yours, too."
The rune suddenly burned.
I didn't feel pain, only a strange heat that spread from my wrist through my veins, all the way to my heart. It felt like an invisible thread was being pulled from my blood and tied with another thread.
Blood-red runes snaked up my arm, went past my elbow, shoulder, and collarbone, and gathered at my chest to form a fist-sized totem.
It was a mate's blood pact, the kind forged by the ancient dragons. It was unbreakable, binding us together in life and death.
My vision started to blur, exhaustion from purification and the shock of the blood pact surged up at the same time. The world spun into darkness.
Before I blacked out, I heard his voice. "I finally found you."