Gone?” Cao stuck out his arm and twisted to examine his skin. Damn, Ling was right. The dark bands he’d worn for centuries were gone. Not faded, not dulled. Gone.

“What does this mean?” Those silver eyes of hers blinked at him in confusion.

“Saving you.” He mulled it over in his mind. “Da Xia and M, they’d hinted being your guardian would bring me atonement, but…” In awe, he tossed his head. “When I sacrificed my immortality for your freedom, the Jade Emperor forgave my sins.” A wry chuckle escaped him. “I’m cleansed now.”

“Oh, Cao.” Tears pooled in her eyes and cascaded down her cheeks as she blinked.

“No, don’t cry, love.” He swept aside her tears, lowering his face to hers. “I might have freed you, but you’re the one who saved me. There’s nothing about this I regret, and I don’t want you to, either.” He slanted his mouth over hers, his fingers tangling in her hair, and kissed the air from her lungs. Being mortal sucked balls, but that wasn’t going to stop Cao from being with Ling. Even if it was for the last time. Though winded from having his soul stripped, he summoned the last of his strength and kissed her like there was no tomorrow. There might not be.

“Please, Cao.” She pulled back again, tears slipping from her eyes. “Let’s figure this out. There has to be a solution.”

He brushed aside one trailing tear from her cheek and smiled ruefully. “This time, I don’t think there is. I’m okay with that. I need you to be, too. Please, Ling. For the first time in centuries, every second has meaning. Every heartbeat. Every breath. I want them to belong to you.”

She sucked in a quivering breath, though he witnessed the tears forming in her shining eyes.

“I’ve had you ripped from my arms so many times, I just need you to be mine, now.” He eased forward again and claimed her soft lips, drowning in the sweet sound of her mewls.

“I’m yours, Cao, and I always will be.” She nipped at his lips, tipping backward, and dragging him on top of her.

Her incredibly hot, beautiful body surrendered beneath him, her legs parting, her fingers spreading through his hair, as she urged him on.

A low growl rumbled in his throat and he trailed his fingers from her neck, down over the full orbs of her breasts, sliding between their bodies to cup her sex through her jeans. Ling moaned and arched her back, while he unbuttoned her jeans and teased down the zipper, then tugged off her pants, tossing them aside. “No panties, huh. Naughty girl.” He admired the smooth, silky flesh he’d uncovered. Practically begging me to lick her.

Unable to deny the urge, he dipped his head and flicked out his tongue, laving her softness. She tasted so damn good, he wasn’t sure he could stop.

Then again, his balls were so tight, the one thing better than sucking her would be watching his cum burst all over her.

Hell, yeah.

Cao rose long enough to strip off his jeans. His cock throbbing in aching demand, he seized her hips, shifted to position himself at her entrance, and plunged inside.

Fuuuccckkk.

His eyes rolled back in his head, his body happy to die like this.

But hell, he wanted more first.

Her tight pussy sucked him right in, clamping hard around him. He pulled her ass right up into his lap, getting as deep as possible. Then he slanted forward, bracing his hands on either side of her head, extending his body atop hers, and stared into the endless depths of her eyes. They were connected, him as far inside her as he could get, and she, commanding his soul.

“I love you, Ling,” he purred, pressing a kiss to her lips.

She fluttered her lashes and murmured, “I love you, too.”

He couldn’t control the demanding roll of his hips as he pounded into her. Hard. Unrelenting. Possessing. He slammed his body against hers, grunting, rocking, taking and cherishing.

She was right. They still had a future together.

Because, dammit, he refused to give this up. He’d finally found his reason for living and she was everything.

He bent his head to hers, grabbed her hands to grip them at the sides of her head, and emptied himself inside her.

Taking what was his.

Sealing their futures. Together.

Whether they had one year or a thousand together.

He was going to fight for every second.

With her.

* * *

After Cao had made fierce love to Ling, he’d collapsed beside her, his weakened body even more spent. His arm wrapped around her, he drifted off into a deep sleep, his respirations uneven and shallow. She curled against him, afraid to close her eyes, afraid he wouldn’t open his again.

Screw this. “I’m not giving up on you. On us.” Ling shuffled out from under him and blasted into her dragon form. She focused on the man she loved and plucked him from the ground, depositing him on her back.

“Hold on, Cao.” She gritted her teeth and prepared to charge the tunnel. “I’m getting us out of here.”

“What about me?” Seral’s voice called to her from the next chamber.

Right. He hadn’t listened in, had he?

“Umm…” She bit her lip in indecision.

“What’s wrong?” Cao groaned, shifting on her back to sit upright, his hands sliding through her plumage.

“This is going to sound crazy, but there’s kind of someone here.”

“Kind of? Who the hell is it?” Cao hopped off her back and narrowed his eyes.

“Well…” She sucked in a deep breath. “He’s a friend of my mother’s, and he’s sort of, um, dead.”

“Here I thought she couldn’t get any more insane.” Cao folded his arms. “How do you know this?”

This was the part that would get her admitted. “He talks to me. Or, at least, I hope he does.”

“Show me.” Cao tilted his head toward the chamber.

After hesitating, she treaded forward, straight to the open suitcase containing Seral’s skeleton. “Cao, meet Seral. Seral, this is Cao.” Weirdest introduction ever.

Cao glanced from the skeleton to her. “Is something supposed to happen?”

Crap. “You don’t hear anything?”

Slowly, he shook his head. “Only you and me here, love.”

“I swear, he’s real. Even if you can’t hear him, you have to trust me. He told me things I couldn’t otherwise know.”

“Like what?” Cao kept a straight face, but concern crinkled the corners of his eyes.

He thinks I’m insane like my mother. Ling steeled her resolve. But I’m not crazy. “His name, for one. The truth about Han and Tasi. How my grandfather and Han manipulated Tasi into a trade she couldn’t refuse, and then spent centuries hiding from. This place isn’t my grandfather’s prison. It’s my mother’s sanctuary.”

Cao whistled low, studying the skeleton. “Tasi told me the same thing.”

“She did?” Hope she wasn’t insane sailed inside her. “That she stayed away to protect me?” At his nod, she smiled, but then frowned. “Now, she’s stuck with Han again. It’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not.” Cao squeezed her hand. “Han might be keeping her prisoner, but we’ll free her. I promise.”

She beamed at him, at this man who followed her into the darkness and stood firm at her side through everything. “That’s exactly what I’d hoped you’d say.”

* * *

Though he might not buy into it, Cao sensed Ling believed in Seral, and if she did, he was going to do his damnedest to give her what she desired.

Besides, Tasi being with Han hadn’t sat right with him. The princess should be in control of her own fate.

Ling closed Seral’s bones inside the suitcase and handed it to him. He slung the luggage on top of her back and climbed aboard.

With his help guiding the path, they departed the cavern and shot straight upward through the ocean to the surface. Ling zoomed into the sky, flapping her wings hard and slinging water everywhere. He clung on tight, head bowed against the harsh breeze.

It didn’t take long for her to reach Han’s island. After she landed, he leapt off and made for the pathway, suitcase in hand and Ling in human form on his heels. “He’s not going to be happy to see us.”

“Good. Let’s keep it like that.” She marched onward through the open manor doors. He led the way down the corridor to Tasi’s chamber. His soft rap at the door received no answer. Ling didn’t wait for him to knock again, shoving open the door and storming into the room. It was empty, but the garden doors were wide open.

He followed as Ling stepped through them and approached her mother, who was seated at the bench. Had she even moved?

“Mother?” Ling called, padding around the side of the bench to face Tasi.

“Ling?” Joy buzzed through Tasi’s exclamation. “My daughter. My beloved one. You’re here.” Her voice stiffened. “Why are you here?”

“It’s okay, now.” Ling kneeled in front of her mother and clasped her hand. “Cao made a deal with Ao Guang. He can’t hurt me. I’m safe.”

“Oh, my darling.” Tasi’s shoulders shook with a sob. “Forgive me for everything I have done.”

Tears pooled in Ling’s eyes. “There’s nothing to forgive. I’m so happy to finally meet you.”

“Someone else is here.” Cao cleared his throat and hefted the suitcase, tapping the side of it.

“Right.” Ling hopped to her feet and snatched the suitcase from him, unzipping it on the ground in front of her mother. “Seral helped me. He told me everything.”

“Seral?” Tasi’s voice bounced with excitement.

Ling lifted open the suitcase’s lid. Instead of a pile of bones, a white mist rose from within it, condensing in thick swirls at her side.

What the fuck?

Cao braced to fight whatever the hell had just escaped, but Tasi was already on her feet, shoving him aside. The mist solidified into the figure of a man in his prime, dressed in a simple black robe. His striking features seemed awfully familiar, though Cao couldn’t pinpoint who he resembled.

“Oh, Seral, my love,” Tasi intoned. “You’re here at last.”

* * *

Whoa. Seral was real. That was some bizarre magic. Ling gaped along with Cao, while her mother and Seral got…reacquainted.

Smacking desperate kisses at each other.

Awkward.

“You said he was a skeleton,” Cao whispered at her side.

“He was,” she grated from between clenched teeth. Seral was taller than she’d been expecting. And far more handsome. He almost resembled… But that couldn’t be, right?

“Hey,” Ling called, louder, hoping to break up their intimately roving hands and get them to answer her myriad questions.

Tasi cleared her throat and regarded them. “Forgive us. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt Seral’s touch.”

Seeing their reunion, everything came together. Why Seral followed Tasi to the prison. Why he stayed by her side, even as a skeleton.

They loved each other. It was kind of cute. And sweet.

Cao shifted his feet. “What about Han?”

“I’m never going to belong to that man.” Tasi curled her lip. “He can try to keep me here all he likes. I won’t stay. Not now that my Seral is freed.”

“You’re back again, heh?” Han bellowed from the doorway.

Ling whipped her stare from him to Cao. “What do we do?”

He tossed his head. “This isn’t our fight. Besides, Tasi can handle her own.”

True. Now that Ling wasn’t a pawn to be used between them, Tasi was free to put Han in his place. Dragon style.

Tasi erupted into her Qinglong form, large silvery blue scales glinting in the sunlight. She lowered her head and hissed, “Don’t you dare harm him again.”

Right, because Han had killed Seral. Well, sort of.

Han crossed his arms and glared. “How is he even alive?”

Tasi bared her fangs. “Dragons know things even immortals could never begin to conceive.”

Awesome. Excitement bubbled inside Ling. She longed to learn those things, too. After her mother and father hashed things out, she could have some dragon lessons. Make up for lost time.

“I can handle him this time.” At her side, Seral rolled his shoulders, and then burst into a massive brown dragon. Interlocking plates of segmented armor formed like scales across his body, ending in a long, multi-spiked tail.

Dilong?

Holy crap.

“Seral, are you…Taelen’s father?” She shook her head, shock coursing through her. The only thing forbidden about Tasi and Seral’s love affair had been their different breeds.

“You’ve met my son, your brother?” Seral angled his lionesque head toward her, a smile baring his teeth. “How lovely.”

“Yes, I have. Ao Guang imprisoned him, but we escaped together and now, he’s safe in the Den of Dragons.”

Han’s scrutiny passed to Cao. “You helped them do this?” He sneered. “To think I ever considered you my brother.”

“Hey mate.” Cao held up his hands, shaking his head. “You screwed everything up, but you have a chance to make amends. To make things right with Tasi and Seral. To be a better father to your daughter. Immortals are supposed to live to a higher code, Han. Now, you get a second chance to do that.”

“With that ungrateful offspring?” He slanted his gaze to Ling and snorted.

“Ungrateful?” Ling seethed and Cao had to hold her back. Not to keep her safe. “You left me for a piece of fruit, you asshole! You left me to die.”

“Fruit? Die?” Han scoffed. “Is that what you believed? No, Princess. I brought you a Peach of Immortality. I wanted you to live. Sorry it took me so damned long to acquire it.”