Page 159 of Dragon 7

Oh, fuck.

Smoke unraveled from his scales, spilling behind him in long ribbons that dissolved before touching the floor. Every movement bent the air around him, making the fluorescent lights pulse more and the IV lines sway as though the room itself was struggling to exist beneath his presence.

Goryū stopped inches from me. Heat rolled from him.

His nostrils flared.

Once.

Twice.

He drew in one slow breath, and that inhale wrapped around me, lifting loose strands of my hair from my shoulders. Smoke circled my wrists, my waist, my face, as though the dragon wasn't merely smelling me. . .he was remembering me. His whiskers drifted toward me, brushing lightly over my cheek. It was so faint I wasn’t sure if I felt him or I simply imagined it.

Then. . .the impossible happened. He lowered that colossal head down to the floor and closed his eyes. His horns dipped toward the floor until his forehead rested just inches from my feet.

The space shivered.

I widened my eyes. “W-what is he doing?”

“He’s bowing to you and saying thank you.”

My heart cracked and warmed at the same time.

Kenji frowned. “Goryū, rest.”

Monitors rattled.

The windows hummed.

I didn’t think Goryū wanted to rest at all.

Kenji sighed. “Please.”

And little by little, the dragon-shadow began to faint, unthread, and unbraid as those wispy coils drew backward into Kenji’s body.

Goryū folded in on himself. His gold eyes went last.

Then the room lost half its air.

Just in case, I braced myself for a vision of Kenji’s memory. Every time my sight had reached for a person since the ritual, the vision came without asking. Kiko's face had opened for me like a book with the spine already broken. My gaze on Yoichi, Deja, the doctor, and others.

But visions hadn’t come in a while, and when I looked at Kenji nothing came again.

My stomach twisted.

Is it gone? Did the power run out? Or was it built only for the war?

I searched harder. I let my eyes rest on the shape of Kenji’s shoulders, the line of his jaw, the pulse under the skin of his throat.

Still, nothing came.

Or is it him?

Maybe this bond stopped the possibility.

Or perhaps, I’d truly exhausted it for tonight.

I raised my eyebrows. "When Goryū spoke to you earlier. . .what did he say?"