Touch of Flame

"What do you think?" Araminta asked her after helping her make her hair look nice.

Her golden hair fell in nice lush locks that made her look healthy and glowing. Araminta had also painted her cheeks and lips pink to match the blushing rose of her gown. She had picked out a top to cover the scars on her back, which was very considerate of her.

"It is beautiful. Thank you," Ravina smiled.

Araminta and Aaron had treated her nicely from the beginning. Without them, in her depressed state, she might have left this place or even the world long ago. Oh, she couldn\'t forget Chanan as well.

"I am glad you like it." She beamed. "I am also happy to have another human here. No matter what, you must have missed your people."

Well, there was always a comfort in knowing that someone like you was around.

"I hope we get more of your people here so we can all integrate and live side by side."

"I hope so too," Ravina said.

"Well then, I will leave you alone now and go get dressed as well."

Ravina nodded with a smile. "Thank you," she said again.

"Anytime." Araminta gave her a pat on the shoulder before leaving.

Once she left, Ravina looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a simple flushed pink skirt and top with matching jewelry. The color and her hair gave some life to her otherwise dead appearance since the attack. She had lost a lot of weight while she was bedridden and even in the period after when she couldn\'t eat. She looked like she had aged ten years.

Ravina shook her head. When did she ever care about what she looked like? She looked dead for as long as she could remember and had also been called a beauty for as long as she could remember.

Getting away from the dresser, she went to sit at the corner of her bed to put on her shoes. Ravina didn\'t like parties, festivals or any occasions that included social interaction, so she wasn\'t excited about this festival, especially with Ares around.

She wasn\'t really in the same situation as Malachi with Nazneen where she could say that this was far in the past. With her and Ares it was recent. Sometimes it felt like yesterday and other times much longer than it actually was.

Ravina dreaded but also looked forward to when she could finally speak with him. Malachi surprised her when he asked her if she needed to talk to him. She hadn\'t expected that from him with his previous behavior but with each time he was showing more consideration. She knew this wasn\'t easy for him at all, which made her appreciate him even more.

A knock on the door made her look up from her foot that she slipped into her shoe and turn to the door. Malachi stepped inside, draped in a white cloth that was held together with a thick golden belt at the waist. As usual on these occasions, his wrists were cuffed with thick golden bracelets and he wore a simple gold necklace. Those were the only things that covered his upper body.

His hair was like black silk around his beautiful face and his eyes were dark; almost black as they narrowed. His gaze swept over her as she stood up and she watched as the black turned into molten obsidian with flickers of amber as if they were burning. She knew that intense gaze. The gaze that was more beast than human, when in fact he looked nothing like a beast. He was a sight to see.

***

Malachi felt his throat turn dry. He had found Ravina beautiful in all the colors he had seen her in, but this one in particular took his breath away. Flushed pink. The color that signified life on the human skin made her glow with new life. It made her look vibrant. Lively and oh so lovely. She was indeed a blossom, just like she smelled and every color she wore reminded him of a certain flower. Now he was thinking of roses.

And those luxurious locks of golden hair... he had never seen such a beauty. He was speechless for a moment, feeling his senses being triggered. He was like the chained man in the cave again, all raging and wanting to give in to every part of his instinct. She must be close to her fertile days as well, he thought. He could feel the smell getting stronger.

Ravina raised a brow. "It is rude to stare unless you mean to compliment me," she teased.

"My apologies. I just became speechless at the sight of you." He used his gentlemanly voice as a way to tease her back while also complimenting her.

"Well, you got away smoothly with that one," she chuckled, eyeing him briefly. Not that he needed to see her gaze to know how she reacted to him. He could hear her heartbeat and sense her heat.

"I am a skilled man, My Lady. Shall we?" He extended his hand, and she took it with a smile.

Malachi put her arm through his and led her out the way he had seen human males act with their female. Ravina found it amusing, especially when he continued to speak like them.

"The weather is pleasant for a nice walk around the garden. Don\'t you think so, My Lady?"

She chuckled, leaning against his arm as they walked. "You are silly."

"What a lovely compliment. No one has ever made me feel that way. My mother always told me I should be more silly to find a suitable wife."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. She told me women like silly men. That is why it is taking me only two hundred years to find a wife."

Ravina chuckled. "You must trust your mother a lot to have followed her advice for so long."

"I don\'t. It just happens to be that it normally takes me at least two hundred years to find anything." His joke was true in a sense. It took him so long to find his breedmate, true inner peace, and happiness.

Ravina came as his enemy, and he needed to confront the enemy. He needed to confront his demons and walk through the darkness to walk out of it. Ravina wasn\'t only his breedmate. She wasn\'t only chosen through instinct, the smell that led him to the most compatible mate to reproduce the best offspring with. The instinct that drove him to want to mate and breed and protect the one that would carry his offspring.

But Malachi felt connected to her above all that. He felt like fate had led him to her and this was more than the dragon needing her. The man in him needed her as well.

Ravina continued to laugh at his silly impersonation of human males. She didn\'t find it offensive at all and he couldn\'t get enough of her laughter. Her face became even more flushed, and before they knew it, they had arrived at the festival.

Malachi just wished to take her back home and continue with their chatter instead of getting his mood spoiled by seeing Ares and Nazneen but that was inevitable. He could already spot them from far away and he wanted to spend some more time alone with Ravina so he led her the other way.