I gasp and cling to him as the pure emotion in his flame sears through us both and we kiss like we’ll merge straight into each other, my fingers knotting in his hair, my fire straining relentlessly toward his, the enormity of everything breaking free as we hold each other fiercely, kiss each other desperately.

A cry loosens from me as all the grief for him I’ve been suppressing ruptures free in one violent tide, my heart breaking clear open. Sobbing as he breaks the kiss, I grip his muscular arms, stunned anew to find him so staggeringly solid and real against me. He tucks his head against my shoulder, breathing hard, his neck hot against my cheek as I breathe in his Wyvern male scent and disbelievingly run my hands over his warm back, his taut arms and shoulders, the edges of his wings.

Alive.

I’ve the sense of being swept into an impossible dream, wave upon wave of grief eddying through me along with the overpowering blaze of his heightened fire.

“Elloren.” His voice breaks as he breathes the word against the nape of my neck. His beautiful, deep voice. The voice I thought I’d never hear again. “My love,” he murmurs in ardent Lasair, breath hot on my skin. When he draws back, there are moonlight-glazed tears streaking his angular face, his fiery eyes full of emotion. He presses his full lips to my temple as he pulls in a wavering breath. “My love,” he says again in Lasair. “Elloren, my love.”

“I thought you were dead,” I choke out as I cling to him. “They told me you were dead.”

“Vogel almost killed me.” His voice is ragged as he tenderly strokes my hair with a look of sheer wonderment, as if he can’t quite believe I’m real. “He sent out an assassin who was secretly working with the Vu Trin. We let Mavrik...the assassin...attack me to the point where death seemed assured. To fool Vogel as well as both Realms. To buy me time to survive and train.” He brings his forehead to mine, breathing hard, our arms looping more tightly around each other. “I healed myself,” he manages. “My healing powers have grown along with my fire.”

He draws back a fraction, his hands cupping the sides of my face, the enormity of this moment mirrored in the fervent blaze in his eyes.

A sob shuddering through my chest, I reach up to thread my fingers through his night-darkened scarlet hair, run my thumbs along the edges of his pointed ears. His defined cheekbones. The sides of his beloved angular face.

Yvan’s voice is low and husky when it comes, his brow tightening with concern. “Elloren...what happened to your fire? It’s altered. I can feel it when we kiss, but I can’t grasp full hold of it.”