Page 61 of Thorulf
Her eyes widened a little but not too much. As though the idea made her hopeful, but she didn’t want to show too much excitement. “You do?”
“I do.” Evil nodded. “It’s a very welcoming place.” He gave her a look that an adolescent female would just eat up. “And you are very beautiful and kind, so there will be no hesitation.” He glanced at the gates of the Fortress with exasperation before his gaze returned to her with reassurance. “You will walk in proudly by my side and realize you belong and are always welcome.”
“I wasneverthat naive,” Jade said bluntly. She shook her head and frowned.“Never.”
Yet even as she denied it, she remembered how she’d felt at that moment. How much she had started to feel like she was letting Thorulf down daily. After all, if she were truly good enough to be meant for him, going to his home wouldn’t be a problem. Whatever blocked her would open wide and welcome her as much as Thorulf had.
“Whether you were that naïve or not,” Thorulf said softly, sighing as young Jade joined the young black dragon and headed down the shore, “Evil picked the perfect opportunity to lure you in.”
“Lure me into what?” she exclaimed, still feeling guilty when she had no solid memory of what she’d done. “You don’t know that I was lured.” She strode back into the village, frustrated by her ignorance. Angry, yet again, at all that had been taken from her. Fromthem.“As far as we know, I went for a walk with him, and that was it.”
“Was it, though?” Thorulf caught up with her, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her back until she had no choice but to look at him. To face this. “All this time, you’ve thought I betrayedyou,yet you clearly betrayedme.”
“DidI?” She narrowed her eyes, as jealous of the purple female dragon as she’d ever been. Large, heavy raindrops hit them as another storm bubbled overhead. “Sure, I seemed to have walked off into the sunset with Thorulf wannabe, but that doesn’t prove anything.” Just like Maya feared, all her pent-up negativity was screaming to the surface. She jabbed a finger at his chest. “You, however, have lusted after that purple bitch since the beginning. Every time she’s around, you’re like a pup after a toy you can’t have!” Suddenly so mad she couldn’t see straight, she pointed at the sky. “Well, go get her! Best of luck to you!” She yanked her hand free, patted her chest, then stormed off, throwing over her shoulder, “Because you sure ashellaren’t having this again!”
“Hell if I’mnot,” he growled before she found herself flung over a strong, broad shoulder yet again.
Only this time, she wasn’t feeling quite so patient.
Having soaked up everyone else’s negative crap for far too long, plus all she was dealing with here had pushed her to the limit.
She was outraged and long overdue for release.
Jade didn’t care how many curious people came out of their cottages to see what was going on, she used every self-defense move she could think of on Thorulf. It didn’t matter that he’d just saved her sister and suffered the wrath of pure Evil. All she saw was red. All she saw was him with that blasted purple dragon again.
So she did whatever inflicted the most pain.
“Damn woman,” he roared when she kneed him in the chest and punched him in the back.
“Damn man,” she roared right back when he fell to a knee and slammed her to the ground while protecting her fall with magic.
“Stop,” he ground out, pinning her arms beside her head. Rain fell harder. Their audience grew. His eyes sparked with furious green Celtic magic as he came nearly nose to nose with her. “Stop and be reasonable.Think, Jade. Thinkclearly. Evil’s obviously trying to manipulate—”
That’s all he got out before she kept his goods intact, pushed past his magic with her own, and kneed him in an especially sensitive area on his upper thigh. Admirably enough, though he winced in pain, he held his ground, so she came up hard with the other knee and got him on the other side.
“We’re not talking about Evil right now,” she bit out when, this time, he roared in pain. “We’re talking aboutbetrayal!”
She wasn’t sure what she was angrier about when she squirmed out from beneath him and bolted. Him betraying her or the other way around. The thought she might have done it first because she wasthatstupid sickened her.
Unfortunately, she didn’t slow him down long because seconds later, she had to throw magic over her shoulder at him. Magic, as it turned out, that was Celtic. Either Thor had helped resurrect it, or she’d done it on her own, but her godliness was finally kicking in, and it felt outstanding. Like diving into a clover patch.
It didn't slow Thorulf down much, though.
If anything, rather than deter him, it drove him on.
So much so, to hell with trying to keep their inner Celt at bay for the sake of the villagers. They threw their blossoming godliness at each other the whole damn way. That being straight out the back gate if she had her way. Regrettably, Thorulf, dodging a healthy amount of green clover-colored energy balls that feltfantasticwhipping off her hand, managed to catch her first.
“Brute,” she screeched when he grabbed hold of her. He miraculously protected himself from flailing limbs and magical outbursts until she somehow landed face-first in a fur-covered bed inside his lodge. “Enemy!”
Naturally, her last-ditch appeal to villagers to help her fell on deaf ears. Some chuckled. Others feared.Alldecided to steer clear of the drama.
Thorulf came over the back of her, pinned her hands on either side of her head, and seethed in her ear. “You’ll see my people turn on me then? You’ll have them think me the enemy even though you know I’m not?”
“DoI?” she growled, caught somewhere between knowing she had gone overboard and still being furious. At her. Him. How thoroughly they had been fooled. “For all I know, this is all some kind of show.”
It hurt to say it, but what if? What if she had lost him years ago? What if hewasin league with the enemy? Worse yet, Evil or not, that she had lost his heart to the darkness that had divided them? Because what said he hadn’t? She ran pretty dark herself, so she understood the allure.
“You know me, Jade,” he growled back, his mouth so close to her ear, she felt the warmth of his breath. For that matter, she felt his searing heat from head to toe. His heavy weight covering her. The solid, protective strength of his body.