73: Those words in Chapter 71

She set down her wine glass. Her hand reached across the table and rested on the back of his hand.

His scales shimmered with a dull gold light in the candlelight, their temperature slightly lower than human skin. Her fingers were warmer than him. The temperature difference made both of them pause for a moment.

"You are leaving tomorrow. You have left me before—flying out to sea, flying into cities, flying to places where I could not see you. But this time is different. This time you are flying to King's Landing, becoming completely human, without a tail, without scales. When you stand at the gates of the Red Keep, no one will know you are a dragon. And no one will know you are mine."

Her voice was very soft, as if she were talking to herself. But her eyes were fixed steadily on his vertical pupils. Violet ones. The light of the dragon-glass lamp danced within them.

Drogon's vertical pupils dilated slightly. His tail stopped behind him.

He turned his hand over and clasped hers. Her fingers looked fragile in his palm, yet they were warm. The violet flame stone ring on her thumb pressed against the webbing of his hand.

"What are you afraid of?"

"I am afraid of you being discovered. Afraid of you being burned by wildfire. Afraid that you will meet someone in King's Landing who makes you unable to take your eyes off them—and then forget the way back to Dragonstone."

Silence. He released her hand. He stood up, walked around the table, and stood before her. He bent down and pressed his forehead against hers. This was the action he did most often in his dragon form.

Doing it in human form now was more intimate than any words. His eyelashes brushed against her eyebrows.

"My memory is very good. I remember your violet eyes. I remember the first hair accessory you gave me. I remember you holding me and rushing up to the city walls. I remember you shackling my ankles. I remember you shedding tears for me four times—once on the funeral pyre, once on the city walls, once on the ship, and once when you pretended to be asleep after the chains were unlocked."

His voice was very low. His tail slowly drew circles behind him.

"If you are afraid I will forget—then shackle me a few more times. Shackle me until I remember."

Daenerys closed her eyes. Her forehead pressed against his. Her eyelashes lightly brushed against the edges of his scales. Her breath was mixed with the sweet scent of wine and dragon-glass lamp oil.

She reached out and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. The scales there were softer and denser than elsewhere, their temperature slightly lower than human skin.

"I won't shackle you tonight. Tonight—"

She didn't finish her sentence. The blood bond resonated and suddenly intensified at that moment.

Their two heartbeats suddenly synchronized through the contract link. From a calm sixty beats, it leaped directly to one hundred and twenty.

What she felt was not fear. It was a possessiveness surging from the silver mark on his chest, suppressed for countless days and nights.

It was not a human's possessiveness. It was a dragon's. Primitive. Burning. Unadorned.

He wanted to knead her entire being into his scales. He wanted every inch of her to be stained with his scent. He wanted to use the most ancient way to confirm before leaving—that she was his.

Daenerys tilted her head back. Her violet eyes looked directly into his vertical pupils. Her breathing had quickened, but her voice was steady.

"I can feel it. That thought in your heart—the one that has been there since that night in Meereen. You want to confirm that I am yours. Not through chains, not through the blood bond mark—but through something else."

Drogon's vertical pupils constricted violently. His voice was hoarse. His tail stiffened behind him. The scales on his toes, which were hooked onto the floor, opened slightly.

"That thought has always been there. But I am afraid of hurting you. I am a dragon. My bloodline is 1,600 points—my body is incomparable to a human's. I might—"

She extended a finger and pressed it against his lips. Her finger was trembling slightly, but her eyes held no retreat.

"I am not afraid. You are a dragon. I am your mate. Whatever a mate must endure, I will endure. As for those fears you mentioned—ever since the day I hatched you, I have not been afraid."

Hatched. The word made her pause for a moment. Then she smiled. Not the smile she gave her subjects. It was the kind of smile that said, "How could I use that word?" There were fine lines at the corners of her eyes.

Drogon did not speak again. He picked her up from the chair.

Her weight was as light as nothing in his hands. The deep purple silk slid across his arms, cool to the touch.

He placed her on the bed. A stone bed. A slab of obsidian. Bedding brought down from the ship was spread over it. His movements were surprisingly light—lighter than when he put away dragon-glass shards.

His short black jacket was unfastened, revealing his chest covered in fine scales. The light of the dragon-glass lamp flowed across the scales.

The silver dragon claw mark on his chest was the same shape as the golden mark on her wrist, but the color was opposite. The muscles beneath the scales were taut. He was restraining himself.

Daenerys reached out to untie the ribbons of her gown. Her fingers did not shake. The deep purple silk slipped from her shoulders.

Her body appeared paler than moonlight under the dragon-glass lamp. Her collarbone. Her shoulder hollow. Her breastbone. Below her collarbone, that golden dragon claw mark was glowing slightly—not reflecting the light, but glowing itself. The response of the blood bond.

She grabbed his wrist and pressed his hand against the mark on her chest. Her palm covered the back of his hand. Warm. Dry. Trembling slightly.

"Can you feel it? Here, this is your mark. Inside, this is your heartbeat. From the moment you bit me on the city walls—I have already been yours."

Her voice was so low it was almost inaudible. But through the blood bond resonance, every word reached directly into his consciousness.

The moment their skin touched, the marks on both their chests lit up simultaneously.

The silver dragon claw mark and the golden dragon claw mark shone in unison. They flickered through their skin in the dark room. The blood bond resonance was no longer a one-way transmission of heartbeats, but transformed into a two-way, burning resonance from soul to flesh.

She could feel his heartbeat thumping in her chest. He could feel her heartbeat thumping in his chest. Two sets of drums. The same song.

Drogon knocked on the system in his consciousness.

"If I—in a human way—to her, will the blood bond have any negative reactions?"

The system popped up a window. Rarely, it was not a warning. The font was white.

"The union between core mates will strengthen the blood bond link. After the link is strengthened, the cooldown for fatal damage transfer will change from a permanent single refresh to once per year. The link precision will also improve—both parties can perceive the other's general direction of thought, not just emotions and heart rate."

A pause. Then a line of extremely small text popped up.

"Blessings to you both."

"...This system finally said something human."

He lowered his head and kissed the golden mark on her chest. The moment his lips touched it, the golden patterns on the mark flared brightly, reflecting onto his lips through her skin.

Her body curled slightly in his palms. She let out a very soft whimper that had been suppressed for too long.

The time that followed could not be precisely cut into storyboard frames.

The light of the dragon-glass lamp cast two intertwined shadows on the wall. One slender. The other, even in human form, still maintained the fluid musculature of a dragon—shoulders, spine, waistline, every ripple of muscle was like carved obsidian.

Her silver-gold hair was spread across the stone pillow, each breath mixed with the temperature of his Dragon Breath from beneath his reverse scales. His body temperature was higher than hers, and the edges of his scales were slightly prickly. She did not pull away.

He tried to control his strength. Every inch of movement was cautious.

But a dragon body with 1,600 bloodline points—even in human form with 80% of total attributes—was still far beyond what a human female could bear. The stone bed emitted a dull friction sound beneath them. The obsidian slab did not move, but the bedding was wrinkled.

She felt his restraint. The muscles on his arms were taut like a fully drawn bowstring. Sweat slid down from his temples and dripped onto her collarbone.

She extended her legs and wrapped them around his waist. Her ankles hooked onto the scales on his lower back. The scales scraped against her skin, leaving faint red marks. She didn't care. An unadorned message came through the blood bond. Not words. It was a thought, crashing directly into his consciousness—

"Don't hold back. I can take it."

The dull gold in his vertical pupils exploded. He no longer restrained himself.

The dragon-glass lamp trembled on its base. The stone bed and the obsidian floor emitted a dull friction sound—it was not the legs of the bed moving, but the entire bed sliding across the stone floor.

Her fingers embedded into the gaps between the scales on his shoulders, her nails turning white. Her suppressed whimpers turned into intermittent cries, and the cries turned into silent gasps. Her lips moved, but no sound could come from her throat.

When she was pressed against his chest for the last time, what she felt was the echo of his dragon heart within her—through the blood bond, through their flesh, through every possible way.

The two heartbeats in her chest peaked simultaneously. Then her violet eyes slowly closed. Her body went limp in his arms. Physiological tears still hung on her eyelashes. Her breathing gradually steadied.

Drogon looked down at Daenerys, who had already fallen into a deep sleep in his arms. Her cheek was pressed against his scales. Her breathing was steady. The tears on her eyelashes had not yet dried, shimmering under the dragon-glass light. He extended a finger and lightly touched her cheek. She unconsciously rubbed against his palm. The corners of her mouth moved slightly. It looked like a smile.

"...She is asleep. I... am not finished yet."