“Are you all right?” Morgan asked. “Miranda's husband swore up and down you were, and I saw you from a distance as we dealt with the rogue, but –“
“Fine, fine, I'm utterly fine, and you will be the first to know if I'm not, I promise.”
Morgan nodded, and she could feel him relax against her. Suddenly, it was as if whatever steel he had been using to get himself through the day gave out, and he fell back into the bed, taking her with him. She pressed her head against his heart, just listening to it beat for a moment.
“So it was a rogue after all,” she said, her voice as neutral as she could make it. “What happened?”
Morgan shook his head.
“We don't know. The moment we got him into his human form, he looked up at us and wanted to know what in the hell we were doing.”
“Really? He's pleading amnesia?” Harper had never thought that she was someone with a suspicious bent of mind, but apparently when Morgan was the one that was attacked, her faith in people went right out the window.
“Something like that. He claims he's from one of the clans up north on the border. I've never heard of them, but Cai has. He says he remembers falling from the sky. He remembers snow and ice, and then when he opened his eyes, the next thing he saw was us looking down at him like we wanted to kill him.”
“And you believe him?”
Morgan laughed at her frankly suspicious tone.
“You are feeling protective, my love.”
A part of Harper thrilled at being called Morgan's love, but she lifted her chin defiantly.
“He attacked you three times!”
Morgan shrugged.
“It's a thing that happens. And you didn't see the way he looked at us. He wasn't angry. He wasn't afraid. He was only curious why we were so tense, and then he asked us what we needed. He didn't act like a guilty man.”
Harper threw her hands up in the air.
“It's just unbelievable.”
“It sounds unbelievable, but…I do believe him. Strange things can happen to us when we're in our dragon forms. The way he looked at us was not the way that a guilty man looks at his persecutors. Cai has that big house up on the coast. He'll watch him and get to the bottom of this if anyone will.”
“It is now Cai's problem?” Harper guessed, and Morgan smiled, nuzzling the top of her head.
“It is. He likes being in charge. Tomorrow, when we've all rested, I'll go to him with the matter of my sunstone, and -”
“Why?”
Morgan frowned at her.
“I like to think you have been listening to me when I talk –“
Harper snorted and smacked his arm lightly before rolling up on her stomach to look at him.
“Look at yourself.”
When he raised a curious eyebrow at her, she shook her head.
“Pay attention, my love,” she said softly. “Be in your skin. Think about what you've done.”
“I protected my clan. I did as best I could.”
“You did. And you didn't collapse afterward. You didn't hit the ground as soon as the adrenaline let up.”
Morgan frowned at her, reaching up one hand to rub at his shoulder. Her heart ached for him, for how afraid he was to hope.
“It still aches.”
“You didn't collapse. You didn't fall unconscious. It's better.”
“It's better,” Morgan echoed, as if he were trying it out. “It…may be.”
Harper considered for a moment, and then she smiled.
“Hold me,” she whispered, and she put all the love and affection and adoration she felt for Morgan into her voice. As she suspected he would, he took her immediately into his arms, and then she laughed at the startled look on his face.
“See?”
“There's some pain, but far, far less than there should be,” Morgan said, and then he buried his face in her hair, dragging her close. She clung to him just as fiercely, unable to keep happy tears from pricking at the corners of her eyes.
“What have you done?” he asked, almost in awe, and she shook her head.
“I think Reese was right.”
“Why in the world would you bring up Reese at a time like this?”
“Because he said something about you and your dragon form. Use it or lose it.”
Morgan winced, but she cupped the side of his face in her hand, refusing to let him look away.
“And you stayed human for a long time. Because -”
“Because I was a coward,” Morgan said, and she shook her head.
“Like hell if I'm going to let that take root in your mind,” she said quietly. “Because you were worried. Because it hurt. Because I have to assume that there are just not that many opportunities to change into an enormous gorgeous dragon in the modern world.”
“More than you might think,” Morgan said with a frown.
He flexed his arm speculatively, and she could see what looked like a half-dozen conflicting emotions on his face.
“Would I have been fine this whole time if I had just forced myself back into my dragon form sooner?”
Harper could only shrug.
“I think that everyone who deals with this kind of stuff wonders what-if. I wonder that kind of stuff about my wrist all the time. In the end, you can only be glad that you are better than you were, that today is better than yesterday and hopefully that tomorrow is better still. Honestly, if you ask me, it was probably a mix of things. Your body hurts. Your mind told you it would hurt, and you believed it.”
“So stop believing my mind.”
Harper reached up to stroke a strand of dark hair back from his brow.
“Your mind's great. I love it just like I love your body and your heart.
