Page 68 of Rurik

“Charlotte?” She opened her eyes. Rurik was at her side, arms wrapped around her waist. The scar down his cheek was a thin pink line that she barely noticed. Somehow it had healed more since she’d shared her life with him. She focused on the crinkle of laughter around his eyes and the way he said her name with a gentlereverence.

“Hi,” she whispered, biting her bottomlip.

He cupped her face in his hands. “Hi,” he echoed. She reached up to curl her fingers around his wrists as he held her face. There was something she’d been waiting to tell him since she’d woken up. Now feltright.

“When I was trying to save you…” She sought the words to explain what she’d seen. “I was in a snowy world, and I saw your beating heart, like a living flame. I don’t remember much, but there were dragons all around me, welcoming you home. But one was urging me to reach you, to save you. She called melittleone.”

Rurik’s gaze sharpened. “She called youlittleone?”

Charlotte nodded. “Just like you do. She was green, like youreyes.”

His eyes softened, the jade color turning into a delicate sea-foam green. “Mother,” he mused. “It must havebeen.”

“She told me to hold your heart and never let go.” She curled one arm around his neck, pulling his head down to hers. “And I don’t intendto.”

She tasted a smile upon his lips, the kiss they shared full of an inner fire that they had felt from the moment they first met. When their lips finally parted, she glanced back at the party, which seemed to be going better than either of them hadexpected.

“The Capulets and Montagues will survive together after all,” she said. “Thank God forthat.”

Her dragon grinned back at her. “Thus, with a kiss, we live.” And with that, his mouth capturedhers.