He huffed a laugh. “I noticed.” Xander looked away from me, his voice surprisingly serious as he asked, “Does my age bother you?”
Blinking, I thought it over. “I mean… Not really. I just, I haven’t Matured yet, and I don’t really know much about dragons. Will you… Are you…” I huffed, dropping my face into my hands. My words were caught in my throat and I couldn’t seem to get them out.
Xander chuckled. “Aileana, are you trying to ask me if I will grow old?”
“Yes,” I said into my hands. My cheeks were warm, and I peeked out my fingers to see Xander smiling.
“Not very quickly. Dragons Fade at a slower rate than elves. Besides, it’sveryhard to kill an adult dragon. As you’ve seen, we heal much faster than elves or humans. I expect to have many years left in my future, as long as a certain feisty redhead stops trying to kill me.”
“But…” My mind raced to the story he had told me earlier. That other cavern seemed like it had been a lifetime ago. “Your village. The fire you told me about. The burned buildings…”
He nodded, his gaze distant. “Yes. A contingent of Death Elves murdered my entire village. They had a number of strong sorcerers with them. Burning their bodies was just a sadistic touch. We are made of flesh, Aileana. Not immortal. But much harder to kill than most.”
Pondering his words, I pulled my hands away from my face. I stared at the bump under his tunic where the pieces of the map rested. “Does that mean you’ve spent the last century trying to getonepiece of the map?”
My mate coughed. “Yes, well. I didn’tjustlook for the map, you know. After Saena and I escaped the village, we wandered for many years.”
“Where did you go?” I tilted my head. “Surely it couldn’t have been safe for the two of you to remain in Ithenmyr. Not after what High King Edgar did to you and your family.”
He shrugged. “We spent some time in the other Three Kingdoms.”
“You’ve left Ithenmyr?” I gasped. “What was it like?”
“It was… Everything that I thought it would be and nothing like I thought. The other kingdoms… They are dangerous, Aileana. In many ways, more dangerous than Ithenmyr. Saena and I went into the Southern Kingdom together, but only one of us came back.”
“I can’t imagine the pain, Xander.” My vision blurred as I pressed my lips against his hand. “I am so sorry.”
His eyes were hooded as he nodded. “Thank you. After I lost Saena, I was broken. Nonna found me wandering in the woods a few months later. She took me in and raised me. Dragons don’t Mature as fast as elves. It takes upwards of fifty years for dragons to grow into adulthood.”
My brows raised. “Nonna must be….”
“Ancient,” he finished for me. I made a sound of agreement, and Xander continued, running his hands up and down my arms. “Even I don’t know exactly how old she is, but I do know she’s a very powerful witch.”
“Clearly,” I said.
Before I could say anything else, a flash of brilliant red light came from outside the cavern. It was followed almost instantly by a rumbling of thunder as the ground itself shook beneath us.
I shot to my feet, my eyes wide as I stared in the direction the light had come from. “What was that?”
Xander swallowed, pushing himself to his feet and widening his stance. He clenched his fists as he tilted his head. “Whatever that was, it can’t be good.”
“Nonna said we weren’t far from the road…”
“And that looked suspiciously like Death Elf magic,” he finished for me.
The implications of what that meant flitted through me. Fear began to take hold of me, squeezing my heart as Remington’s face flashed before my eyes.
We stared at each other for a very long moment.
“Xander,” I whispered. “If that was… What are we going to do?”
He stepped forward and laced his fingers through mine. His touch was hot as our skin met.
Thatthingbetween us grew even further as he said, “Whatever it was, Aileana, we will tackle it together.”
“Because we are mates,” I whispered.
This bond between us, the intertwining auras that Nonna had seen, felt like a living entity that pulsed as we stared at each other.