Page 22 of Thorulf
Chapter Eight
THORULF SUFFERED Amix of emotions when he joined everyone outside and spied what had all the males so riled up. Trepidation, tension, guilt, and anger followed swiftly by a nauseating longing.
“Are youkiddingme?” Jade growled when a purple female dragon vanished on the horizon.
“No, no, little dragon.” Loki scooped an arm around her waist and pulled her back against him when she started for the gate. “No shifting and going after her. Now isn’t the time.” He eyed the horizon with dark relish. “Not quite yet. Not until I have her where I want her.”
“Who is she?” Thorulf couldn’t stop his dragon eyes from flaring, nor could he stop the strange pull the purple dragon had on him. A call that both intrigued and angered his inner dragon. “Is she Mórrígan or Carman?”
“I don’t know.” Though Loki murmured in Jade’s ear, Thorulf heard it clearly within her mind. “You must bide your time, little one. Strike when the time’s right or do not strike at all.” Loki’s dark, eager gaze returned to the horizon before he looked up and inhaled deeply as though smelling the air the imposter had left behind. “She’s all enemy, though.” Fire flared in his eyes. A cunning grin curled his mouth. “Sweet,sweet,Celtic enemy.”
“Why not pursue her then?” Vicar gazed with equal relish at the horizon. His skin sheened dark with his inner beast. With the taste of potential battle. He nodded with pride at Jade. “Why not let her spread her wings and have her revenge now?”
“Because now is just what that purple dragon wants,” Destiny informed, shooting Vicar a warning look that he not rile up the crowd. She went to Jade, took her shoulders, met her eyes, and all but reiterated what Loki had just said. “You must see that, Jade. You must see that the enemy’s trying to goad you into acting impulsively. Now, more than ever, it’s time to listen to Thor. You need to head to Thorulf’s cave. See what you discover there. Then, and only then, understanding exactly who that purple dragon is and her role in yours and Thorulf’s lives, do you act.”
“Ja,” Loki agreed, amping up Thorulf’s tension, or perhaps jealousy when he murmured in Jade’s ear again for no other reason than the intimacy of it. “We will go together and defeat her as a team. I will stand by your side every step of the way.” He inhaled the scent of her skin when it sheened green, and her dragon eyes flared. “We will catch she who thought to kill you, and we will inflict our punishment.”
“Get your hands off her,” Thorulf growled before he could stop himself. It was unwise to speak to Loki this way, but something about Jade’s dragon surfacing, about seeing the sheen of her scales glimmer through her soft skin while Loki touched her, made it impossible to keep quiet.
And it only got worse.
Thorulf's vision sheened red, then strangely, green. Fire burned beneath his skin in a way it never had before. “Take your hands off her, or nobody will be going near my lair.Especiallynot you, god.”
He felt more than saw Dagr and Leviathan shift closer to protect him against the god’s upcoming wrath. Anger he welcomed if it got the meddlesome deity away from Jade. Because Lokiwasmeddlesome and manipulative, causing trouble where it didn’t need to be. Not yet.
Thorulf fully expected Loki to say something along the lines of, ‘you dare speak to me that way!’ then strike him down where he stood, but he did no such thing. Instead, interest flared in his eyes when he looked Thorulf’s way. Blatant approval.
“Ah, there it is,” Loki praised, that same sly grin on his face. “I’ll admit I was beginning to wonder if you had it in you, Thorulf.” He finally, at last, stepped away from Jade. “It seems, like my lovely Revna implied, you are full of surprises.”
He wasn’t sure what Loki meant until Jade looked Thorulf’s way. Until, for a brief moment, he saw himself through her eyes. Or, more specifically, a part of him he had given up hope of harnessing correctly.
He wasn’t looking back at her through his usual dark dragon eyes but brilliant green ones. More than that, his own unique godly power was clearly visible, seen in the pulsing aura around him. Green with black shadows, like an Irish twilight simmering in mystery. It wasn’t dark magic, but it wasn’t light either. Somewhere in between. Something made of the ancient Celtic magic he’d inherited from his ancestors.
There was no missing the unrest that stirred in many at seeing his inner Celt so clearly. Not when it was enemy magic derived of a homeland not their own. Thankfully, despite Thorulf’s threat to Loki moments before, the god was determined that they see him and his magic for all its potential. To welcome this side of him.
“Justlookwhat you have now,” he declared to everyone, rallying them to see what he saw. “You have an ally, one of your own, with the secrets and power of our enemy at his disposal.” His gaze swept over the lot of them. The corner of his mouth shot up. Dark cunning lit his eyes. “And he is only just beginning to embrace his powers.” His eyes rounded in wonder. He made speculations he couldn’t possibly prove. “Can you imagine what it will be to know what our enemy is thinking before they act? To have an insider who will soon know their weaknesses? Their every vulnerability?”