Ember met my gaze, eyes dilating as we stared at each other, both in our real forms at last. The heat in my veins didn’t die down but flared higher, consuming and powerful. Everything faded away, until she was the only thing I could see. I was filled with the urge to lope forward, cover the space between us in a few strides and pounce on the red dragon, driving us both to the ground. Where wings and tails and breath would intertwine in the hay, and our combined heat would rise up and spread through our veins until it consumed us both.

Swallowing a growl, I controlled my basest instincts and stalked forward, forcing myself to move slowly and not bound over the straw to get to her. “All right,” I said when I was about a lunge away. “Here we are. What was so important that you needed to tell me like this?”

“Cobalt.” She paused, as if gathering her courage. For a moment, I sensed a terrible struggle within; her talons sank into the floor planks as if she were teetering on the edge of something huge and had to force herself to go on. “I need you...to let me go.”

I snorted. “I’ve never been able to stop you, Firebrand,” I told her. “I knew St. George would probably try to warn the Order sooner or later. I just wish you weren’t going with him.”

“No.” Her voice was a whisper. “That’s not what I meant.” She looked away, her eyes distant and shadowed. “I wasn’t talking about what happened with me and Garret today. It’s more than that. I mean...” She hesitated, not meeting my gaze, then took a deep breath. “Cobalt, I don’t want you to wait for me any longer. I don’t... I don’t want to be your Sallith’tahn.”

For a moment, the world seemed to stop. I stared at her, the last statement echoing all the way to my soul. “What?” I finally asked, and my voice sounded hollow in my ears. Ember closed her eyes.

“We were wrong,” she said, and though the words trembled, her expression was firm. Her eyes opened, piercing and intense, gazing up at me. “Talon was wrong. Dragons can love. We are quite capable of every emotion the organization has tried to stomp out. But Talon has told us we can’t feel human emotion for so long it’s become truth. And we’ve become sort of fractured because of it.

“I love Garret,” Ember said quietly. With a start, I realized I had never heard those words from her in dragon form. “I know we’re supposed to be life-mates, Cobalt, and I’m so sorry, but I don’t...” She faltered again, looking at the ground. “I don’t...”