Page 30 of Thorulf
“What is it?” His alarmed gaze shot to her. “I felt your distress. Your fear.” Worried, he scanned the cave. “Is the enemy here? Mórrígan?”
“No.” It wasn’t easy, but she shook off the sentiment she’d just felt and waved him off. “You can go now. You didn’t feel my emotions, but my little dragon’s, so no need to stick around.” She gestured at the cave. “As you can see, no one’s here. Especially not your evil girlfriend.”
His concerned gaze never left her as he sheathed his blade. Frustratingly enough, he saw far more than she would have liked. He was inside her mind to a degree she supposed made more sense now after what she’d just seen.
“We were close,” he murmured. As though he saw them clearly, his gaze drifted to where the little dragons had been moments before. “We were...great friends.”
“Yeah, obviously.” She looked skyward, determined to act nonchalant rather than show him how profoundly she’d been affected by the scene. How much he had meant to her right from the start. “The question is, why aren’t either of us remembering it until now? What happened in between?”
Because a great deal must have happened, from them getting older to Thorulf cheating on her.
She startled at the blatant thought but kept it from her face. He didn’t need to know how much he’d hurt her.
“Why not?” He approached almost as carefully as his little dragon had moments before. Where his younger self was curious, this version clearly didn’t want to scare her off. “Why not keep showing me your anger, Jade? Because it sounds like you have every right to feel it.”
“Oh, I do,” she grumbled, wishing to hell she remembered more about what had happened in his lair with the purple dragon. Why he’d turned from her. Worse yet, why he hadwantedto.Desiredto. Because it stung like hell. “But me getting mopey over it with you,” she gestured between them, “leaning on your shoulder to help me figure out the grand mystery of your asshole-hood?” She shook her head. “Not gonna happen. Not how this is gonna go.”
“But maybe it needs to,” he countered, finally making it far enough that he could sit beside her but not that close. “How else are we going to figure this out?”
“Figurewhatout?” She frowned. Though tempted to return to the men who made him jealous, she held her ground. Mostly because she was no coward and something about running right now felt like that. “We’ve got little to go on other than that, as was proven today, you’ve got a thing for that purple...” She clenched her teeth and shook her head, ready to call her nemesis too many nasty words to count. “You still do, Thorulf. I saw it in the Keep’s courtyard clear as day when she flew over. Everyone did.”
“I showed no emotion,” he replied softly. His dark, prompting gaze never left her. “You and you alone felt it, Jade. You felt it because—”
“No.” She notched her chin and shook her head again, willing away the recent touching memory of their little dragons. The bond they clearly had.Stillhad. “Everyone witnessed it,” she stated firmly. “It was all over your face.”
“No.” He clenched his fist as though he longed to use his hand. Longed to close the distance and touch her. “Nobody but you knew how she...it, affected me. How the enemy lured me.” His steady, pained gaze never left her face. “And itwasa sense of being lured. Of being pulled against my will toward something I didn’t want.”
“Yet you did,” she spat, speaking before thinking. “You wanted her every bit as much as you ever wanted me.”
“No,” he ground out. “I did not.”
He sounded so convinced when he truly had no clue. Didn’t remember any more than she did.
Or so he claimed.
“But you did,” she ground right back. Enough with this. Enough with trying to make sense of anything when she had seen the proof only hours before.
To hell with it being cowardly, she was fed up and needed to get away from him. So she headed for the exit, only for him to catch up and block it. His gaze had turned hard. Different in a way she couldn’t quite pinpoint. Gone was the gentle, curious Thorulf from moments before. Rather, he seemed to struggle with his emotions in a way that would frighten most.
“Think this through,” he managed through clenched teeth. He pled with his eyes. “Why would I turn from you, Jade? Why when we so clearly cherished each other?” Struggling, not quite himself, she swore he fought a smirk. “Unless...” His jaw tightened, and he shook his head as though trying to shake off something. As if he fought what he said next. “Why would I unless she was irresistible?” His smirk blossomed into an almost reverent look. “Unless you had done something to deserve it and she was so beautiful, I could only ever—”
She didn’t stick around for the rest of his confession but shoved past him and headed back the way she’d come. The further away she got, the better, no matter how painful every step. And they were. Each and every one. While a part of her knew she should look closer at that, the hurt from his betrayal was too strong.
“Don’t you wonder about that?” Trinity said out of nowhere. “I mean seriously, sis, he’s clearly broken and could use fixing.”
Had she heard correctly? Because her sister had sounded like she was right here. She stopped short. “Trinity?”
“Where is she?” came Vicar’s voice so close she jumped. “Where is the sister who tries to control me?”
She thought at first he snuck up on her but realized she was nearly back to the main cave. Loki was right behind him.
“I don’t know.” She looked around and called out for her sister but knew she wasn’t there. “But shewashere. Right here. Not telepathically either.” She shook her head. “Then she was gone just as quickly.”
“How interesting.” Loki grinned as though he sensed a whole new enticing dynamic to their story. “Howveryinteresting!”
“Notinteresting,” Thorulf growled, grabbing her hand in passing. She meant to pull away, repulsed, but instead, allowed it. Felt anchored in a way she couldn’t explain when he led her to a grouping of rocks in front of the fire and urged her to sit beside him. When she finally got her wits about her and refused, his conflicted gaze pled with her and his dragon eyes erupted. “Something is tampering with me. Surely you saw that back there.”
Hell, what was this hold he had on her? Because it weakened her typical steadfast resolve. When she didn't want to do something, she didn't do it. Simple as that. Especially, God forbid, if she were ever put in a position where someone she cared about cheated on her. But that would have required far too much attachment first. That blasphemous, risky emotion,love.