Blood of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles #4)

by Robin Hobb

‘We will still die together.’ With a shaking hand, she reached for the teapot. ‘Will you have a last cup of tea with me?’ He turned his gaze on her. An odd calmness was welling up in him. ‘I would rather have a kiss. My first and last, I think.’ ‘Your first kiss?’ He laughed shakily. ‘My circumstances have not lent themselves to the giving or receiving of kisses.’ She blinked and the tears spilled faster. ‘For me, also.’ She leaned a little closer to him and then stopped. He looked at her. She had closed her eyes. Her hair was sleek, her skin like cream, her lips pink. Her first kiss would come from a scaled dragon-man. He leaned in and found her mouth with his. He kissed her softly, unsure of how it was done, expecting her to pull away in revulsion. Instead, when he leaned back, she was smiling through her tears. ‘To be touched by a man, with gentleness,’ she said, as if that wonder were so great, it dispelled the circling dragons.