Dream-walking was both an exact science and a delicate approach. Jaxen had his faction’s priestess summoned with the intent of sending himself into Olivia’s dreams where he could plead with her face-to-face. At least by doing that, he’d given them both a chance.

Jaxen deeply inhaled the incense and let his mind fill with visions of Olivia. Her wild auburn curls fanning his pillow, her face alight with happiness and wonder. He even recalled the sound of his name on her lips as they’d made love. He felt his body lighten and then float.

After a few moments, he opened his eyes and studied his surroundings. He wasn’t surprised to find himself on an obstacle course designed for soldiers-in-training. However, instead of young men and women running the gauntlets, one lone figure struggled to beat each deterrent. She wore a heather gray sweat suit, her wild hair tamed in a ponytail and her face was red as blood. Her chest heaved heavily as she jumped one mud hole and then crashed to the ground to crawl under a low barb-wire fence.

“Olivia,” he called gently and stilled when she rose to face him. Her face was covered in smatterings of blood, sweat and - he imagined - tears. She pulled her sleeves upward and advanced on him with an angry glint in her eye.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded. “Isn’t it enough you’ve taken over my life, now you want my dreams as well?”

Jaxen reached out and took her hands in his, holding firm when she tried to pull away.

“If you don’t submit to what’s happening to you, you will die,” he stated matter-of-factly. “And if you die, I die.”

Her eyebrows drew together in confusion.

“Why would you die?” she asked, suddenly more emotional than he’d ever seen her. The woman from within broke through the tough, soldier exterior and he realized just how amazing she was. She was everything he’d ever wanted in his mate.

Perhaps he’d gone about this all wrong. Having the President merely order her to marry him might have been the fallacious approach after all.

“I bound my life essence to yours during our ceremony,” he explained softly and took another step closer to her. He offered her his open palm and smiled when she tentatively placed her own hand in his. “So, if you die, I will too.”

“Why?” she asked, her voice sounding small and broken. “Why would you do such a thing knowing I might not survive the mating? Is it a tradition, did you have to?”

“No,” Jax answered simply. “No, it’s not tradition, and no one forced me to. I wanted to.” He tugged her hand and brought her body against his, wrapping his arms around her waist. She placed her palms on his chest and pushed him back just far enough so that they could look into eat other’s eyes.

Why would such a magnificent being risk his life for a nobody like her? She’d fought all her life to be taken seriously, to be stronger, faster, smarter than all the boys. She’d never been dainty and feminine like most girls. She’d never fit in anywhere. But from the moment she met Jaxen, she felt like she’d finally found home. Of course the whole mating business had seemed like utter nonsense, but the more she’d listened to Samuel as he’d told of the dragons’ history, the more she allowed herself to embrace the strange, new world. Somewhere up her ancestral line a dragon had taken a human mate, creating a line of hybrids. So, she’d thought that maybe her life had a higher purpose after all. Maybe all her time in the military had served as training for her real destiny. It had certainly honed her into a lethal killing machine. But as she completed the mating ceremony and began her metamorphosis, she’d quickly realized she was nowhere near strong enough.

But now, in learning that if she succumbed to that black abyss of nothing, she’d also condemn Jaxen to the same fate, she knew she had to fight. She to fight harder and not just for her. She had to fight and save the man she’d fallen in love with.

Her mind made up, she tilted her head back and looked up at him.

“Tell me what I need to do,” she asked. “I’ll do it. I’ll do anything to keep you safe.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Jax’s body faded into empty air and Olivia found herself tumbling headfirst down a virtual rabbit hole. The world around her spun wildly, air kicking up in turbulent gusts. It was so strong it pulled her hair free of the ponytail, leaving the thick tresses to whip around face. Her insides ignited and pulled taunt. Her first instinct was to fight, but she forced herself to relax, both in body and mind.

The gale-force wind lifted her body off the ground, tossing it about like a limp rag doll and all the while Olivia let the wind do what it willed. The warmth within her spread from her core to encompass every particle of her being. When the scalding hotness reached her throat, she opened her mouth to scream and stared in shock as fire spewed forth instead.

She had breathed fire.

She only had a moment to revel in the surprise before the winding funnel sucked her inside and she surrendered to the darkness.