Page 82 of The Wings That Bind

She sat up. “Is that what we are, all right?” She shook her head. “We’re a dangerous mix together, Florence. Tinder and sparks. He still scares me. But you’re right, at least when I’m with him, I feel something. Something so intense, it’s—well, terrifying sometimes.”

“I’m not sure I want that,” I said thoughtfully. “To feel that terrifying feeling. It sounds awful.”

Medra giggled. “It’s not all bad. I promise.”

“Still, maybe I don’t want to ever fall in love. It’s so scary. I’m already bonded to a dragon. Can’t that be enough?”

Medra smiled sadly. “Maybe it’ll have to be. For now.” She looked at me thoughtfully. “Or maybe things will change. Kage isn’t so bad.”

“I knew you’d say that eventually,” I said, laughing.

“He’s not hard to look at, all right? I won’t deny that. He certainly has charisma, though he can be infuriating, too. Not as infuriating as Blake, though,” she said, tilting her head in consideration. “Maybe you could come to have feelings for him. At least you don’t hate his guts and want him dead, right?”

I suddenly wondered which was the better foundation for a relationship: a total absence of affection or emotion of any sort, like what was currently between Kage and me, or the tempestuous hatred that Medra and Blake immediately possessed for one another when they first met.

“Try to dream about him tonight,” Medra suggested, only half teasing. “Maybe it won’t be so bad.” She winked.

I curled up in my bed after Medra had put out the lamps. We’d talked until late into the night; now I needed to fall asleep. I had to get at least a few hours of rest or I’d be a mess in the morning. I’d missed a lot of my classes, but my professors had been surprisingly understanding. It helped that I’d continued turning in all of my assignments, and some extracredit ones besides. Tomorrow would be my first full day back, attending all of my regular classes.

Neville was already snoring. He lay at the foot of my bed, his little paws twitching as if he was chasing something in his dreams. Probably a rabbit.

Try to dream about Kage, Medra had said.

I closed my eyes and tried to picture my House Leader. But when I drifted off to sleep, Kage never showed up. Instead, the dream crept in like fog across glass. Warmth spread over my body, heat coiling and spreading beneath my skin. My breath caught. I was dreaming. But it was so vivid. So real. My body arched, hips pressing into the phantom weight above me. Hands—broad, clawed, impossibly strong—gripped my thighs, spreading them open. Not hurting, but unmistakably possessive. And the heat. There was so much heat.

I twisted, sweat beading along my collarbone. I was naked. I could see the rise and fall of my breasts.

A low voice wrapped around my ribs, hard as stones but far more intimate. Open your heart to me, rider. Show me that heart of fire.

I gasped. My dreamself whispered a name. Nyxaris—

This is a dream, another part of me said reassuringly. Just a dream.

Of course it is, he murmured, hands sliding up to grasp my hips as he ground against me. I would never touch you like this when you were awake.

My eyes flew open. My pulse thundered. The room was dark. Moonlight spilled like milk across the carpeted floor. Neville was still snoring. Medra was in her bed, a peaceful lump beneath the blankets. And I … I was burning. My skin was flushed, covered in a sheen of sweat, my legs tangled up in the sheets. I’d clenched my thighs so tightly I was cramping. I lay still, trying to calm my breathing.

It was just a dream. Just a dream.