Dragon’s Hope

My head was spinning. I didn’t care if it was disrespectful—I sat down where I was, in front of the well. I figured it would be worse if I just fell over.

I swallowed with difficulty, then whispered, “Did I agree to do this?”

Yes. As did the King. As did your seed. They stand here with you now.

My head shot up again. “Now?”

And yet, just as when Ben and I had come through the crowngate after he first let me back in, I felt…something else there. Something full of love and light and intelligence.

Something…just behind me.

Even though I wasn’t afraid, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up in prickling awareness. But again, I didn’t dare turn. Yet again, I felt something: bodiless hands settling on my shoulders, as if whoever it was stood just behind me, lending me a surge of strength and reassurance.

They made their choice long ago, the Tree whispered. They have waited ever since for this moment. They are ready.

Tears were spilling down my cheeks before I even comprehended why. After feeling them there, with me, feeling their love for me…I couldn’t help but love them in return.

The seed that had been planted inside of my iceheart burst into life, cracking it wide open, as I’d known it would. Yet this new desire was far more explosive than I could have imagined, sending up shoots and putting down roots with unbelievable force and speed. After that moment, I knew I would never be the same.

I wanted that child.

Not just any child—mine. Mine and Ben’s.

The one that had waited patiently for us to come to this point for so long. I wanted to hold them in my arms, while Ben wrapped his around us both. I wanted to rock the child as Ben sang them to sleep. I wanted to hold their little hand as they took their first steps, with Ben holding the other. I wanted to sit with them in my lap, laughing as they squirmed while someone tried to sketch the three of us, as Avva had done to Ben and his mother. I wanted to hear their childlike yelps of joy as they discovered the world they had chosen to enter. I wanted to wipe away their tears and soothe all their fears. I wanted to guide them and help them, as much as they would let me. I wanted to see them grow up and grow old, and know that our life and love and happiness would go on, as pieces of us inside of them, long after Ben and I were gone.

I wanted that child more than I had ever wanted anything.