Max stared at the sky, his dark eyes searching the expanse as if he were searching for an answer to his dilemma, and maybe he was. He wanted Heather so much that he hurt all over. He could not seem to think or even breathe now that she was gone, but he also could not go to her.

She did not want him. If she had, she would have stayed. She did not want to live in his world and had made no secret of that fact, and there was no way he could live in hers. He could not lose his dragon heart and be human; he was too needed in his world, and he loved his world too much.

But did he love it enough to lose her?

Did he want to be a dragon more than he wanted to be the man who loved her, and the man who would spend his life with her?

If he stayed a dragon, he knew how that would end. She would age, and he would not. She would grow older and weaker and frail, and no matter how much he loved her, he would not be able to stop that from happening to her.

He would lose her.

What then? Would he choose the dragon fire that his father had chosen?

That was a hard death, but death was nothing but a doorway, according to the legends—and really, what good was a life without love?

He took a few deep breaths, trying to seek out a solution that would help him to ease the heartache.

None of his thoughts on what would happen if they could be together mattered at all anyway—because she did not want to stay with him and had not stayed even when she had had the chance.

For a human to stay in Dragon World, they had to want to. That was the law. Humans had to want it, to ask for it, and to stay of their own free will without any coercion. They, he, could not ask her to stay because to do so would be to break that law.

Blake spoke from behind him. “You look like hell.”

“I feel like it too.” He slapped a hand down on the back of his neck. “You hear anything from the Orcs?”

Blake moved to stand beside him. The wind coming off the sky whipped over them. Blake leaned into the wall and said, “Don’t you want to know if she said anything?”

Max eyed him. “You mean, did she say anything about me?”

Blake sighed. “I know we don’t always get along, but I’ve seen you get hurt before. Leria did a real dance across your back in fact. I get that. But what I don’t get is how you could have just let her go.”

Max glowered. “It seems to me that you had something going with that crazy friend of hers and did nothing to stop her from leaving either.”

Blake said, “She’s her own person.”

“I’d say Heather is too.”

“Yes, but you don’t actually need children. I do, and Christy has some sort of thing against them. Said she’s sure she would rather die than have kids, in fact. And she would also much rather die than marry me, not that I proposed since, you know, she’s really sort of…I don’t know with her. Half the time I’m afraid she is going to kill me and the other half of the time I’m afraid she might just decide not to. She’s got me all screwed up. I never met anyone like her, and dammit…yeah. I want her. But we’re not talking about me and Christy. We’re talking about you and Heather.”

Max shook his head, “No, we aren’t.”

“The hell we’re not. What’s wrong with you?”

“She did not want to stay. If she had, she would have. Besides, you know the law about humans. They have to want to stay. We can’t make them. We can’t ask them to stay either because doing so might influence them to stay when their hearts are not really in it.”

“Oh, screw the law.” Blake raked his hands through his hair. “I do mean screw it.”

Max felt exasperation start. “You are a ruler…”

“So are you. I get why the law, especially that one, has to stand, but maybe that law doesn’t take into account that sometimes humans, especially human women, need something besides a prayer that they’ll stay. Maybe they need to be told they are wanted, and that that someone wants them to stay.”

“Are you talking to me or about yourself?”

“I already told you why Christy won’t work for me and me for her. We’re way too different, and if I don’t have a child, my side of this line is dead. I can’t do that. I can’t let my clan die out.”

Max looked down at his feet. “No, I guess you can’t.”

Blake looked up at the sky. The portal pulsed and shone. Here only hours had passed since she’d gone, but in her time days, and maybe even weeks or months, depending on how the time stream was flowing would have passed. Was she over him already? Was she back in her life and happy?

He turned away from the sight of that portal’s shimmer. There was no way he could go to her. She didn’t want him. He wanted her; God, he wanted her. But she was free to choose, and she had made her choice. That choice had not been him. That choice she had made had been for her world, for the life she had there.

Blake said, “You know, I never thought I’d say this but, cuz, you’re a coward.”

Blake had the good sense to walk away before Max could toss him off the roof. Max stood there, his eyes going back to the portal and his heart breaking as he wished that he could have asked her to stay, to be his without breaking that law. That she would have asked him to be hers: to join her in that world.

Max let out a roar of pain and changed, his wings spreading out widely around him.

Flight: he needed flight. It was the only space he could breathe in at the moment. Flight was the only way to release his agony, and so he soared upward, his black wings beating at the skies and his heart glowing ruby red beneath the scales that covered his chest.