Charm

“I love you,” I tell him, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Not Jaxon. You, Hudson, and nothing is going to change that. You’re my mate. You’re my best friend.” I lean into him. “You’re my true north and I will always, always choose you.”

instead, he’s apparently bought his own advertising and thinks he’s invincible, given he’s just running around, cape flying behind him, as he makes my job ten thousand times harder. I should be killing the damn dragon and instead I’m playing bodyguard to this overgrown cockwomble.

Hudson and I don’t cheer—I may agree with the sentiment Nyaz is expressing, but I don’t think I’ll ever be good with clapping and whistling for a war.

My parents raised me to believe that fighting was a last resort. Walking away from a fight that doesn’t matter is always a better option than getting hurt or hurting someone.

He smiles, the first real smile I’ve seen since he walked in the room.

Then he slides the ring up my finger, leans forward to whisper in my ear. “‘I love you with a love that shall not die, until the sun grows cold and the stars grow old.’”

The moment he finishes speaking, my finger tingles everywhere the ring is touching and it tightens for a second, like it’s settling into place. Then it’s done and warmth spreads from my hand to Hudson’s as I reach for him and kiss him with all the love and joy and determination burning within me.

Hudson Vega is my mate, and I will fight for him with every ounce of strength I have in my body and my soul. Because he deserves someone to fight for him. He deserves someone to want him.

“I don’t know much about love, Grace. But you’ve taught me that real love isn’t about finding someone who makes you happy. It’s about finding your own happiness and then sharing that with the person you love. You will always be my light out of the darkness, but not because it’s your job to make me happy. Because you light the path I can follow to find my own happiness. And I want to always see that path, let it lead me back to you. Always.”

I want to say that’s a problem for tomorrow, when I’m feeling a little less exhausted, but the truth is there is no time. The irony of running out of time while hunting a time wizard doesn’t escape me, but it’s where we’re at.

I won’t be able to stop him. Grace, and Adarie, will suffer because I didn’t recognize the evil sooner. And Orebon and Smokey—poor, sweet Smokey—have already paid the ultimate price.

I should have recognized it. I fucking should have. I’ve stared it down my whole bloody life. How could I have not seen it now, when I needed to the most?

I stumble back to my feet with some thought of getting to her, but before I can even take a step, the dragon snatches Lumi up in her talons and starts to climb back into the sky.

Orebon is immediately running, screaming for his spouse, but Hudson gets to the dragon first, and he leaps ten feet straight into the air to grab onto her tail. She screams in outrage, thrashes it back and forth, but he hangs on for all he’s worth.

Except I don’t need to be taken care of right now. I just need to be taken.

“We’re not planning on having the kind of fun you mean tonight,” I say as I grab my bag from where I stowed it under the counter when I got to work this morning.

“Well, why not?” she asks, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “You’re young and beautiful and flexible. When is there ever going to be a better time?”

Flexible? Did she really just say we were flexible? What exactly does she think Hudson and I are getting up to in the inn, with its very thin hotel walls?