Page 77 of Thorulf

Chapter Twenty-Nine

WHERE MOMENTS BEFOREthey had watched a memory of Raven lobbing fiery arrows now it was young Jade throwing whatever she could find at Thorulf. They were the age they’d been when they fought over Thorulf spending the night with the purple dragon.

“I hoped maybe I was wrong,” Jade roared. “That maybe you were just saying it to get back at me, but no.” Furious, she wiped away a tear and whipped a rock at him. “She confirmed it. She told me you two intended to mate.”

“So did the black dragon,” he roared right back, dodging the rock, equally furious. “He confirmed everything!”

“Oh, hell,” Jade whispered, feeling her other self’s fury. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry or hurt.”

“Me neither.” Sensing danger looming closer, Thorulf kept his hand on the hilt of Loki’s Dagger. “We were completely fooled.” He shook his head. “Because I never lay with the enemy and definitely didn’t want to mate with her.”

“Same here.” Sensing danger as well, she pulled a blade free. “Evil really did a number on us, didn’t it?”

Point in fact, when her younger self declared she was leaving him. That she would never return.

“Then go,” young Thorulf fumed, raking a hand through his hair. “Go be with him!”

“I will!”

“Good!”

“Good!”

“And never come back,” Thorulf shot. “You’re not welcome.”

“That stung,” Jade muttered. She narrowed her eyes as something occurred to her. Became clearer.

“And you’re not welcome where I’m going,” her younger self spat. “Never, do you understand? If you ever seek me out, I’ll shun you. Hate you. Make your life miserable.”

Which, as it happened, she did when he sought her out in the future.

“My Celtic magic’s at work in this,” she murmured. “I can feel it.”

“I feel it as well,” he agreed.

“You have no idea how much I hoped you’d stop me,” she said softly. “That you wouldn’t let me go that easily.”