Page 70 of Thorulf
“I know,” she whispered, her voice hoarse, her gaze uncharacteristically fearful. “But what if—”
He put a finger to her lips and brought her hand to their newly formed tattoo. The one that reminded her there was nothing to be frightened of as long as they remembered what they had together. The love they’d shared before the enemy came between them.
“No what if’s, Jade,” he said softly. “Only this. Only our love.” He shook his head. “As long as we remember that, everything that doesn’t belong will grow weaker and fall away.”
Her worried gaze stayed with his for a long moment before it strengthened, and she nodded. “Everything else will grow weaker and fall away.”
“Ja?” he whispered.
“Ja.” She notched her chin and nodded once. “I’m ready.”
She was too. He could see it in her eyes. Feel it in her inner dragon. So they kept going, drawn back to their lodge where a telling memory was unfolding. One they knew was coming but was hard to watch.
They were in dragon form and older than when they’d first lain together.
“What did you do, Thorulf?” Jade’s young dragon stood by a tree she often visited when she wanted to be close to his lodge. She looked as terrified as her older self just had. “Why did you go off with her and not come back the whole night?” Her eyes brimmed with fiery tears. “I waited at the lair, then came here thinking maybe I’d find you.” She took a step back when he took a step forward. “But you weren’t here.” She shook her head. “For the first time ever, you were gone all night.”
“Hell, this hurts.” Feeling her other self’s emotions, Jade pressed a hand to her heart. “Ihurt.”
“Me too.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kept her close. “Like I’ve never hurt before...but I was angry too. So angry I wanted you to hurt as much as me.”
“I was...” young Thorulf said, clearly struggling with how to phrase things. In the end, he chose to be blunt. “I was with her, and can you blame me?”
Herbeing the purple dragon. He could feel it right down to his tail spikes.
“Blame you?” Fresh fire flared in young Jade’s eyes, putting her flaming tears to shame. “Of course, I can blame you when we were supposed to be in love! Be mated!”
“Ja, we were,” he roared, just as mad. Just as hurt. “But you took him first. You lay with another when you swore you would never. You swore it would only ever be me.” He narrowed his eyes and stood up fully, towering over her. “But you lied, so yes, I laid with her, and she was—”
Before he could get the words out, she revved up and rammed him again and again, clearly not concerned with their size differences. He, in turn, didn’t lash back but blocked her charges with his wings.
“I see some things never change,” Jade managed with a wobbly smile before she sighed. “I didn’t sleep with the black dragon.” He felt her certainty. Her stark relief. “I don’t know why you think I did, but I didn’t.”
“And I didn’t lie with the purple dragon,” he confessed. “At least not this time.”
“So you think you might have another time?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “It’s hard to sift through the emotions. What’s real and what’s not.”
Another memory drew their attention further down. Their dragons were pre-teens and still bickering. This time not out of passion but a lesson, it seemed.
“I’ve told you time and time again, Jade, you must learn to use your wings as a shield,” young Thorulf counseled, mimicking what he’d done in the memory before. He closed his wings around himself, then poked his head up and cocked it at her. “Do you see what I mean?”
“I suppose,” Jade said slowly, mulling it over. “But is that really the best way?”
Her emphasis on the word ‘really’ highlighted her doubt.
“Of course, it’s the best way.” He lowered his wings and frowned at her. “Our wings can protect us every bit as much as our scales. You should use them if—”
His eyes grew wide, and he trailed off when she flung herself against him and wrapped her wings around his body the best she could. Clearly unsure what to do, he lifted and lowered his wings a few times awkwardly.
“I remember that,” Jade whispered, biting her lower lip, emotional. “I remember how much I’d wanted to do it, and this was the perfect opportunity.”
“Yes, it was,” he murmured, remembering it just as clearly. How caught off guard his young dragon had been. How nervous yet pleased. This wasn’t like curling up together in their lair when they were little. This was something different. Something even better.
“I don’t know,” young Jade murmured against his chest, drawing them back to the tender scene. “I think doing this is a far more effective way to disarm the enemy, don’t you?”
“Ja,” his flustered young dragon said, tentative for a moment longer before he folded his wings around her and rested his cheek on her head. “Much more effective.”