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Natasha
TAPPING HER FOOT, SHE looked around, her irritation growing.
“Where the hell are you, Rane?” she growled.
It wasn’t like the dragon shifter to be late. Sure, he’d apologized for being late on the first date, but truthfully he’d still been slightly early. Since that day though, he’d been no less than ten minutes early to their wall duties.
Despite the battle with the gremlins two days earlier, she was getting tired of the little charade of wall patrols that was supposed to help her get closer to him.
Or are you tired of remembering the way he tasted, and how his arm felt when it held you tight?
Then there was that too. Was she really tired of it though? Or tired of the implications from her response?
“Furies save me, please show up already,” she moaned, throwing her hands up in the air.
Not that I feel like walking the wall already. But at least with him here, it’s more bearable. His presence isn’t entirely unlikeable.
Natasha’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at her inner thoughts. Did she just say she enjoyed hanging out with him? Was she looking forward to being around Rane? Was that why she was so upset he was late?
The whirlwind of thoughts left her flustered and without a response she liked. Natasha paced over to the edge of the wall and looked out, trying to decipher her thoughts, and failing miserably. They were too much a jumble of unsorted emotions and half-formed opinions on everything. She couldn’t pull a single well-formed thought from it, which just led her to grow even more frustrated with herself.
“Everything okay?”
Natasha whirled, leveling a finger. “Where have you been?” she snapped, venting her inner frustrations on Rane as he stood at the top of the stairs.
“Uhhh, hi,” he said, nodding his head in greeting, though he wisely remained where he was and did not approach. “Good morning to you too.”
“You’re late, Rane. Not just a minute or so either. A solid twenty minutes past the start time. Where have you been?”
“I’m really sorry about that,” he said. “I just lost track of time, was caught up in other things, you know how it is,” he said with a smile, trying to brush it off. “I’ll be extra early tomorrow, I promise.”
Natasha nearly scoffed aloud at his obvious and blatant false excuse.
No, not false. He’s not lying about losing track of time. He’s just avoiding giving detail, that’s what he’s doing. Purposefully trying to act like he wasn’t doing much. Yet he was clearly up to something...
This was it, she realized with a jolt, feeling like she’d been struck by his lightning. Whatever it was that Loiner thought the dragons were up to, that was where Rane had been. It had to be. He was busy with something he didn’t want her to know about. The famously open Rane, who hadn’t a secret to hide, was now keeping something from her!
Steadying herself, trying not to let her emotions betray her, Natasha nodded slowly. “See that you are, Rane.”
Letting him breathe a sigh of relief, thinking that it had gone past her unnoticed. Natasha had her first bit of evidence, the first sign that perhaps Loiner was right, that the dragons were planning something. She didn’t dare ask him what it was, though, not yet. The trust between them that she would need simply didn’t exist yet.
But it could.
She strode forward, beckoning for him to join her as they set off along the wall. Both of them kept their wits about each other. There was no snowstorm this day, and she could quite easily see far out onto the icy tundra. Nothing would sneak up on the witches today, but that didn’t mean everyone wasn’t on edge, ready for the next attack.
“Does Winterspell get attacked often?” Rane asked as they walked, his head looking around, obviously noticing the heightened sense of alert of the novices they passed.
“Once, maybe twice a month, something comes at the walls,” she told him. “When a breach occurs nearby, they usually hone in on us, sensing our power. Attacks like yesterday are much more infrequent. Every couple of years we get hit hard.”
Rane was silent for a moment, pausing to look over the edge of the wall out to the snow-covered landscape beyond as it sloped gently downward to the base of the mountain.
“Has there been worse?” he asked, pushing off from the battlement.
“Yes,” she said, noticing as they resumed walking the rampart that he was now between her and the edge. Putting himself between her and any enemies that might surprise them.
Now, was that intentional, I wonder, or just a product of him stopping?
“Twice, in my time here, we’ve been hit the same or harder. Once was another horde of gremlins. We lost two novices that day before we could drive them back. I was in a tower.”
Looking up, she watched his face react to that, noting the dismay at her mention of losing two others. He’d reacted much the same the other day over the dead novice. Like he cared about them, about their wellbeing.
“What about the other time?”
“The other time...that was the worst in thirty years, I’ve been told. I was just a young novice, third year, walking the walls when it hit us.” She shuddered at the memory.
“It?” Rane asked, picking up on her word choice.
“A demon,” she said heavily. “Straight from the lower planes of the abyss. The barriers were especially weak that year. We were extra busy. Somehow, one made it through, but he must have miscalculated. They never emerge near Winterspell. They know better.”
“Demons are smart?” Rane asked, surprised.
“Unnaturally so. After all, they’ve had tens of thousands of years to practice it.” She shook her head. “It emerged maybe a hundred feet from the wall. Twenty feet tall, four flaming horns jutting from its head. Three eyes and two hooved feet. And the sword. Its massive sword.”
She risked another look at Rane, wondering if he’d noticed all the times she’d watched him today. Did he care that she was constantly looking at him? That she couldn’t stop stealing glances? Did it matter? He’d kissed her, so obviously he thought she was attractive enough for that.
Stop it. No you don’t know that. He probably doesn’t. It was just adrenaline, from being in such heated battle. Nothing more. Don’t overreact. Besides, he’s a dragon! You can’t do that even if you wanted to.
“That sounds...scary,” Rane said.
“It charged the wall. I was off to its left. The alarm went up instantly. This close to Winterspell, the Coven felt its emergence, the press of its power. It was almost suffocating, Rane. You have no idea how strong those things are.” She looked out over the wall. Remembering. “One swing of its sword and a chunk of the wall just exploded. Stone. Mortar. Human flesh.”
Rane was silent, though his eyes watched her intently. She looked into his, entranced as always by the multi-color hue, so beautiful and yet unnatural all at once. A reminder that he was alien. Yet not. She didn’t understand it, none of them did, but he was certainly more than easy on the eyes. Much more.
“We tried to fight it off,” she said heavily. “But novices aren’t ready to fight that kind of power. Even now, as an upper level Initiate, a demon is beyond me. Thankfully, it wasn’t a demon lord, or we’d have lost even more. It was a hell of a battle. Three swipes of that horrible sword, lightning fast, and it was through the walls. I’ve never seen anything like it. Twenty seconds, maybe, from it emerging to breaking the walls.”
Rane whistled. “That is certainly some kind of power.”
“Witches hit it from everywhere once it came inside though,” she said, lips pulling back in a snarl as she recalled the vicious fight. The sword rose and fell, but more of us came forward.” She stared at him. “That’s what we train for, Rane. Moments like that. To protect humans from such terrors as they can’t believe.”
He nodded. “You won, obviously.”
“We did. We managed to delay it long enough for some Masters to arrive. They were containing it when Circe and the Coven came in and wiped the floor with it.”
The dragon shifter’s thick eyebrows flew up, then came together in thought. “Circe and the Coven are powerful then,” he observed.
“Yeah,” she said with a soft laugh. “You could say that.”
“I’ll do my best not to piss them off then,” he joked.
“Probably for the best. That’s the only time I’ve seen them truly unleash their powers. It was magnificent. I can only hope to be that strong one day,” she said.
Rane nodded. “I can only imagine.”
“Yeah.”
They both fell silent. Something had come over them there. Natasha could feel it. The revelations of her past, of some darker memories, and his sympathy.
Were they becoming friends? Was Loiner’s plan actually working?
“Rane,” she said, using the moment of seriousness to test the boundaries of this new...whatever it was. “Why were you late?” she asked, looking up at him, forcing him to make eye contact while he answered. “You’re never late.”
He shrugged casually. “I was doing something for Rokh that needed doing. I’d kind of put it off already, and so needed to make sure it got done.”
She nodded. Rokh was involved. Which meant all the dragons were involved with whatever it was they were plotting. Smart of them to try and play it off as nothing, to put her at ease by being so open and candid without actually giving up any information.
“What is it?” she asked.
Rane grew closed. “I can’t tell you,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry. But you’ll find out. Soon.”
Well if that’s not ominous I don’t know what is, she thought to herself. Was he trying to give her a warning with the last word? Telling her that maybe she should leave, before whatever it was kicked off?
If he is, that means he’s starting to feel friendly toward me as well. He doesn’t want me to get hurt from whatever the dragons are up to.
“I see,” she said, watching his face, but getting no reaction from the stern features.
“Yeah.” Rane looked uncomfortable, as if he’d already admitted more than he should.
“Well then, shall we continue on?” she suggested, pointing at the wall in front of them that waited to be patrolled.
“Sure,” the dragon shifter said with a smile.
They continued to walk along. Rane continued to walk between her and the edge.
And Natasha continued to steal looks at her guard partner, resolutely telling herself she was trying to pick up on anything that might give her insight into his plans.
She definitely was not doing it because she enjoyed looking at him.
Not at all.
