Page 66 of Gryphon’s Fire

“Vi and Blu would beg to differ,” I argued. “They would not be here today, alive and well, if you hadn’t faced the past. You could have hidden from it, from your perceived mistakes, but you didn’t. You, my dearest Keir, took the hard road and saved lives because of it.”

“I… I’m not sure what to say.”

“Then do not say anything.” Grasping Keir’s wrist, I tugged him toward the bed. “Come. Rest with me.”

“I don’t think I can,” Keir answered but followed all the same.

Sitting him on the edge of the bed, I bent and removed his shoes, setting them neatly to the side before slipping the socks from his feet. Still crouched on the floor, I took his right foot and dug my thumb deep into the arch. Keir groaned. “Goddess, why does that feel so good?”

Quietly chuckling with satisfaction, pleasing my intended mate settled something deep within my soul. “You carry so much tension within your body. This is but one spot we will work on.”

“Fuck, Lazarus. I don’t know if I can survive you doing that to more of me.”

“Oh, you’ll more than survive it. You’ll thrive. Now, lie back and let me work.”

Flopping down, Keir left his legs dangling over the edge, the rest of his body sprawled on his back, one arm stretched out to the side while the other was bent, the back of his hand covering his eyes.

Silence filled the air with only contented humming sounds slipping through Keir’s barely parted lips as I moved to the other foot and then up his calves, massaging the tension away.

“You are exceedingly good at this,” Keir mumbled, already half asleep. “Is this something they teach all wyvern?”

Low laughter rumbled through my chest. “Hardly. Let us not dwell on how I learned, only that such knowledge is now all for your benefit and your benefit alone.”

Keir scoffed. “Old lover then.”

I grinned. “Very old.”

There was a pause before Keir asked, “Old as in born way before you or old as in you two were together several centuries ago?”

This time, a puff of smoke rose with my laughter. “Would it alarm you if I answered both?”

Keir groaned. “I wouldn’t say alarmed. But you’re right. I don’t want to think about you doing this with someone else.”

“Then do not. Think about how going forward your skin will be the only one I touch with such reverence.”

Propping himself up on his elbows, Keir stared across his chest as he looked at me. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

A frown tugged my lips as I released Keir’s calf. Climbing upon the bed, I placed my hands and knees on either side of Keir’s body, our faces mere inches apart. “You doubt me?”

Keir tugged his bottom lip between his teeth, gnawing on it. “I… It’s not you.” Keir swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “It’s difficult. Trusting. After what happened with my family long ago and then Huxley…I distrust myself.”

A mixture of sadness and rage filled me. “I wish I could have been here, when you were dealing with Tenzen Huxley.”

“Don’t say that.” Leaning on one arm, Keir used the opposite hand to cup my cheek. “Never say that. If you’d been here, you would be dead now.” Keir laid a hushing finger over my lips when I attempted to protest. “No. You don’t understand. You’ve never met a shadow borne. You don’t know what he was truly capable of, the carnage and… It took a djinn to finally stop him, Lazarus. Do you understand what I’m saying? I wasn’t there, but I heard what happened from two separate witnesses. Their perspectives might have been different, but both agreed that without the djinn, they do not believe Huxley would have been defeated.”

I cupped Keir’s hand against my skin, relishing its cool texture. “I did not mean to imply otherwise.” My pride was a creature unto itself, and it was easy to fool myself into thinking that if I had only been there, the outcome would have been so much different. It was a blow hearing otherwise. It was even more deeply disturbing accepting the truth of those words.

“I know.” Keir’s expression softened with sadness. Inhaling, Keir released my cheek and I allowed him to take his hand back, his body easing back onto the bed as his eyes remained locked on mine. “It’s a hard truth, knowing that no matter how hard you fight, that no matter how righteous your intentions, that you are destined to fail. That you cannot win.”

Fear slithered down my spine. “And you feel as if this situation is similar? You feel that you cannot win against Jaakobah.”

Keir shrugged, the action shifting the sheets. “I wouldn’t say that. I’ve at least got a fighting chance against Jaakobah. It’s just… Huxley taught me an important lesson. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how right you are, how justified. Being right and fighting with all you have doesn’t equal victory. It is a discouraging fact.”

I stared down at the gryphon who’d captured my heart. No, not captured. I’d willingly given it. Now, it was time to willingly give something else—something that erased all of Keir’s doubts regarding my feelings and intentions.

Eyes slipping closed, I called my wyvern side, concentrating my inner power into a singular location—my heart scale. All wyvern had one. It was tucked away, barely visible where it lay hidden beneath the scales on our chest.

My heart scale hardened, going from leathery softness to nearly diamond hardness.