Ember squeezed her eyes shut. “When you’re sure,” she whispered, her voice strangely thick, like she was holding back tears, “when you figure it out, come find me again. But for now, please accept that I love Garret, and I don’t want the Sallith’tahn coming between us.” Opening her eyes, she met my gaze without hesitation or doubt. “I want you to move on, Riley,” she said. “Find someone else who is worthy of you. Who can give you their whole heart. You deserve it. And I...can’t give you that. I’m sorry.”

Numb, I took a step back. I thought I would be furious, maybe homicidal. I thought I would want to find a certain human, blast him to cinders and scatter his remains across a hundred acres of nothing. I thought I might want to snarl profanities at Ember, the soldier and the whole damn world. But right then, I just felt hollow. Empty. Like someone had carved a hole in my stomach and there was nothing left but a vast, yawning pit.

Ember, watching me closely, swallowed hard at my silence. “Riley...”

“Is that all?” My voice came out flat, and she winced. “Are we done here?”

Ember bowed her head. “Yeah,” she whispered. “I guess we are.”

Spinning around, I strode back to where I’d left my clothes on the hay bales by the door. Not caring what Ember thought at the moment, I Shifted to human form and began pulling them on, feeling the dragon’s sorrowful gaze on my back. And though the vindictive side of me rejoiced at her grief, wanting her to feel the same pain, I knew I couldn’t leave it like this. If she went into St. George territory with the soldier and never returned, the guilt would kill me.

After drawing my shirt over my head, I paused, then addressed her over my shoulder, not quite able to look her in the eye. “Be careful out there,” I told her softly. “I know you can handle yourself, and you don’t need me, but this is still St. George we’re talking about. Come back safe, Ember.”

“I will.”

There was more I wanted to say, questions I wanted to ask, arguments and protests wanting to burst forth, but it didn’t seem to matter now. I stepped through the frame into the late-afternoon sun and closed the door behind me, hearing the hollow thump echo all the way to my soul.

I’ve lost her.

I slumped against the wall, feeling numb inside and out. Ember was gone. She had truly chosen the soldier, to the point that even the life-mate bond meant nothing to her. How she could resist the pull of the Sallith’tahn was a mystery; I had no idea how she could just ignore that instinctive knowledge that we were supposed to be together.