Chapter 130 The Bonding Ceremony
Elara's POV
"I might die during the ceremony?" I stared at Ravenna's warning. "People's bodies reject the dragon magic and tear apart?"
"Ravenna's trying to scare us," Drakon said, but I heard the worry in his voice. "We can postpone. Wait a year. Do more research."
"No." I crumpled the letter. "Fear is exactly what she wants. Besides, I've faced death a dozen times already. What's one more?"
"This is different," Drakon insisted. "This is agony if it goes wrong. Your body literally ripping apart from the inside."
"Then we make sure it doesn't go wrong." I tried to sound braver than I felt. "Your mother said all dragon mates undergo this ceremony. Surely some survive or no one would do it."
"Some survive," the Dragon Queen confirmed when we asked her. "But Ravenna's not entirely wrong. The ceremony is dangerous. About one in ten don't survive. Their human bodies can't handle the transformation."
"One in ten?" Drakon went pale. "Mother, you didn't mention that part!"
"Because I didn't want to scare Elara unnecessarily." She looked at me seriously. "But you deserve the truth. The ceremony will be painful. It might fail. Are you absolutely certain you want to proceed?"
I looked at Drakon. Saw the fear in his eyes. The love. The desperate hope that I'd say no.
"I'm certain," I said firmly. "We've come too far to let fear stop us now."
The ceremony began at midnight under the blood moon. Every dragon in the kingdom gathered over a hundred, filling the sky with their magnificent forms.
I stood in the center of their circle, feeling very small and very human.
"Elara Moonstone," the eldest dragon intoned. "You seek to bond permanently with Drakon Nightfire. To become his mate in the ancient ways. To carry the mark of dragons for all your days. Do you understand the risks?"
"I do."
"Do you understand the pain?"
"I do."
"Do you understand that this is forever? That there is no reversing this choice?"
"I understand." My voice didn't shake. "And I choose it anyway. Because I love him. Because we're stronger together. Because I want to be his in every way possible."
"Then let the ceremony begin."
Dragons breathed fire simultaneously, creating a ring of flames around me. The heat was intense but not burning. Yet.
"Drakon, share your essence with your mate."
Drakon shifted to full dragon form and breathed directly onto me. His fire felt different, not destructive, but transformative. It seeped into my skin, into my bones, into the very core of me.
Pain hit like lightning. I screamed as dragon magic burned through my human body. My bones felt like they were breaking and reforming. My skin was on fire.
"Fight through it!" The Dragon Queen shouted. "Don't let the pain win!"
But it was so intense. So overwhelming. I collapsed, convulsing.
Through the agony, I felt Drakon through our mating bond. His fear. His grief. His desperate plea for me to survive.
That gave me strength. I wouldn't die. Not when he needed me. Not when we'd come so far.
I pushed back against the pain. Accepted it. Let it transform me instead of destroy me.
My back burned worst of all. Something was growing. Pushing out through my skin.
Wings.
Small dragon wings erupted from my shoulder blades. My eyes changed, gaining the golden glow of dragons. Scales appeared along my arms, just a few, beautiful and silver.
The pain faded. The transformation completed.
I stood, gasping. Still mostly human. But changed. Enhanced. Part dragon now.
"The mark has been accepted!" The eldest dragon announced. "Elara Moonstone is recognized as true dragon mate! Bonded for life in all ways!"
Every dragon roared in celebration. The sound shook the heavens.
Drakon shifted back and pulled me into his arms. "You did it. You're alive. You're perfect."
I touched my new wings experimentally. They were real. Part of me. "Can I fly now?"
"With practice." He laughed through tears. "My brave, impossible mate."
The celebration lasted until dawn. Dragons welcomed me as one of their own. I'd gone from commoner to queen to dragon mate. What an impossible journey.
But that morning, the celebration ended abruptly.
"Your Majesties!" A healer ran into the throne room, face pale with panic. "Something's wrong! People are getting sick! Hundreds of them! And it's spreading fast!"
"What kind of sickness?" Drakon demanded.
"We don't know! It's not like anything we've seen! They develop fever, then weakness, then..." She swallowed hard. "Then they stop breathing. We've lost thirty people already. And the number's growing every hour."
"Plague," the Dragon Queen said grimly. "The kingdom is facing a plague. And we have no idea how to stop it."
We ran to the healing wards. Found them overflowing with sick people. Young and old, human and magical, all suffering the same symptoms.
"How did this start?" I asked, examining patients.
"We don't know. It appeared simultaneously in six different cities. Like it was... coordinated."
My blood ran cold. "This isn't natural. Someone released this deliberately."
A dying man grabbed my arm. "The water," he gasped. "Something... wrong with... the water..."
He died before he could say more.
"Test all the water supplies!" I ordered. "Every well, every stream, every source!"
The results came back hours later. Confirming our worst fears.
Someone had poisoned every major water source in the kingdom. Not with ordinary poison, but with a magical plague that spread through contact.
And it was designed specifically to be incurable by normal healing magic.
"Who did this?" Drakon roared.
We found a message carved into the main well's stone:
"Congratulations on your bonding ceremony. Here's my wedding gift, a plague that will kill your entire kingdom within a week. Unless you give me what I want. The crystal. Your life, Elara. Surrender yourself and I'll provide the cure. Refuse and watch everyone die slowly. You have three days to decide. - Ravenna"
I stared at the message. Touched my new dragon wings. Felt the bond with Drakon stronger than ever.
And realized that to save everyone, I might have to break that bond by dying.
Three days. I had three days to choose between my life and my kingdom's survival.