Too Late for My Shifters' Regret novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Hatch

I got him out of the dining hall before anybody could stop staring.

He walked fast, with his head down and one hand over the horns.

I had to jog to keep up.

"Where are we going?" I said.

"Somewhere without eyes."

The training ring behind the arena was empty at night.

Just sand, and a ring of torches nobody had lit, and the moon coming over the wall.

He stopped in the middle and stood there breathing hard.

I took the egg out of the sling I'd started carrying it in and set it down on my folded shawl.

Then I went to him.

"Let me see."

"It's fine."

"You're bleeding. Let me see."

He bent his head.

I reached up and parted his hair with my fingers.

The horns were the length of my thumb, black and smooth, curving back.

The skin around them was torn and wet.

"Does it hurt?"

"Like teething."

"How would you know what teething feels like?"

"I'm doing it right now."

I laughed, and he looked up at me, and his face was much too close.

"It was you," he said. "When you pulled those threads back. It all came back to you, and you were so full it spilled over. Into the bond. Into me." He swallowed. "The collar held the dragon down for a year. You just told it to wake up."

My fingers were still in his hair.

I should have taken them out.

I didn't.

"Is that bad?"

"No."

"Are you sure? You're shaking."

"That isn't the horns."

The moon was behind him.

His eyes were very gold.

I'd been looking at his mouth for about three days and pretending I hadn't.

"Briony," he said, low. "Tell me to step back."

"Why?"

"Because if you don't, I'm going to kiss you."

I pulled his head down.

His mouth was warm.

That was the first thing.

Two weeks ago he'd been cold all the way through, and now his mouth was warm on mine, and it was because of me.

He kissed me slow at first, carefully, like I might change my mind.

Then I made a sound against his lips and he stopped being careful.

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