THE PRIESTESS'S WORTHLESS HUSBAND IS A DRAGON

CHAPTER 5: CURSED BRIDE PART 2

Ethan stood slowly. His body protested every movement, the whip marks pulling against his skin, but he stepped closer. Two feet away. One foot.

The True Dragon Spirit exploded inside his skull like a siren going off in an empty cathedral.

"HOLY MOTHER OF EVERY DRAGON THAT EVER LIVED." The Spirit's voice cracked with something Ethan had never heard in it before. Shock. Raw, unfiltered shock. "Kid. KID. Stop. Don't move. Do you feel that? Do you feel what's coming off her body right now?"

Ethan felt it. Something warm, not like heat from a fire, more like standing in sunlight that somehow reached his bones.

It radiated from Serena's sleeping body and pressed against his skin and sank through his muscles and settled into the deepest parts of him.

The hollow in his chest, the gutted space where his Bloodline Core had been ripped out, began to burn.

Not with pain. With something else. Something that felt like the first breath of air after being held underwater.

"She's a True Phoenix Body." The Spirit's voice had lost every trace of humor. Every drop of sarcasm. What was left was pure awe. Pure reverence. Like a man standing before something sacred. "Kid, the last True Phoenix died four hundred years ago. I watched her die. I held the host who loved her while he screamed. And here is another one lying in a bed two feet in front of you, and she is your wife."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you just won the lottery, got struck by lightning, and found a winning scratch ticket in the same breath. The True Dragon and the True Phoenix are cosmic counterparts. Two halves of one whole. Her energy can neutralize the Resentful Dragon Force that's been eating you alive since they ripped your Core out. And your energy can purge whatever is keeping her trapped in that coma."

Ethan looked down at Serena's face. Her eyelashes rested against her cheeks like tiny shadows. Her chest rose and fell so slowly it was almost invisible.

"How?"

The Spirit paused. Then, in the most casual tone imaginable: "Well, the simplest way is to sleep with her."

"WHAT?" Ethan's whole body jerked backward, his face burning red from his neck to the tips of his ears.

"Dragon and Phoenix energies merge most completely through physical union. It's biology, kid. Cosmic biology, but still biology. Her True Phoenix Body is pure, untouched. Virgin. When a True Dragon and True Phoenix consummate, the energy transfer is absolute. It would cure you both in one night."

"She's unconscious! I'm not going to..." Ethan's voice came out strangled, his fists clenched at his sides, every muscle in his body rigid with refusal.

"Relax, relax. I said it was the simplest way. Not the only way. There's a slower method. I can teach you to channel Dragon Force through your hands and draw the poison out manually. It'll take time, and it won't be as effective, but it'll work."

Ethan let out a long breath that drained the tension from his shoulders. "Then teach me."

"Fine. Killjoy." The Spirit sounded genuinely disappointed. "Sit beside her and put your hand on her wrist. I'll guide the energy."

Ethan sat on the edge of the bed carefully, making sure not to disturb the sheets or the wires connected to the monitors. He reached down and gently took Serena's hand.

Her fingers were cool and soft, and the moment his skin touched hers, the warmth he had been feeling doubled.

Then tripled. His bones hummed. A low vibration spread from his hand up through his arm and into his chest. The veins on his hand began to glow faintly gold, thin lines of light tracing the paths of his blood like someone had poured liquid sunlight into his body.

"Good. Now breathe slowly and let me push the Dragon Force through your palm into her body. I need to find what's keeping her under."

Ethan breathed. In and out. Slow and steady. He felt energy flowing out of him through his hand and into Serena. It was strange, warm and tingling, like his blood was running in the wrong direction. The golden glow pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.

For several minutes, the Spirit was silent. Completely silent. Ethan sat still and felt the energy moving through him, out of him, into the woman lying beside him who he had married an hour ago and whose voice he had never heard.

Then the Spirit spoke, and its voice was different. Cold. Angry. The kind of anger that doesn't shout but whispers because shouting would not be enough.

"Other Shore Flower venom. Someone poisoned this girl. It's dissolved into her blood and nervous system. Invisible to every medical instrument on this planet. No doctor would ever find it. No healer would ever detect it. Whoever did this wanted her dead, but slow enough that it looked natural. Like she was just fading away."

Ethan's hand tightened around Serena's fingers. He looked at her face, at the peaceful expression that suddenly didn't look peaceful anymore. It looked trapped.

"Can you fix it?"

"I can start. But kid, listen to me carefully." The Spirit's tone shifted into something Ethan hadn't heard before. A warning. Real and heavy. "The Dragon Phoenix pull is real. The longer you touch her, the stronger it gets. Your body is a True Dragon Body. Hers is a True Phoenix Body. We're talking about forces that predate human civilization. Forces that existed before the first kingdom was built, before the first bloodline was awakened. At some point tonight, you are going to lose control. I'm not saying this to be funny. I'm warning you. If you stay in contact with her for too long, your conscious mind is going to take a back seat and the dragon in you is going to drive."

Ethan looked at Serena's sleeping face. Her red hair against the white pillow. The slow rise and fall of her chest. The faint golden glow where his hand held hers.

"Then I'll pull away before that happens."

"You can try." The Spirit did not sound convinced. "Just remember I warned you."