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Damien
This is it. Your last chance. Don’t screw it up now. Take it; you might not get another one, and you don’t want to live with that regret. Tell her!
Steeling himself, he glanced down at Anna who was still watching her other witches as they returned to their quarters to prepare for battle.
“Do you need to get anything?” he asked.
Anna shook her head. “No. I have everything I need right here.”
He wondered if she meant more than just the staff in her left hand. Could she mean...?
You’ll never know if you don’t ask!
Fine. He was going to do it.
Damien leaned down to her. “Can I talk to you?”
She nodded, turning to face him. “Yeah of course. What is it?”
Shaking his head, he jerked it off to the side, away from his fellow storm dragons.
“Alone?”
Frowning, Anna nodded and followed him as he walked away from the cluster of buildings a little, past even where his brothers could listen in. He didn’t think they would purposefully eavesdrop, but it was hard not to hear things sometimes when they were said in range of your hearing.
“What’s up?” Anna asked when he abruptly stopped and faced her. “Is something wrong?”
“What? No, no nothing’s wrong,’ he said, not wanting her to get that impression. “In fact, the opposite.”
I think.
“What are you talking about, Damien?” Her fingers gripped the staff tighter.
“Um.” He was choking. Freezing in the moment, the words he wanted to say failing him.
“Thank you for coming, and bringing the others,” he said lamely.
Anna frowned, her eyebrows knitting together over those beautifully dark eyes that seemed to draw him in every time he looked into them. “That’s what you wanted to say to me in private?”
“No,” he admitted. “Not at all.”
“What’s up then? Is there something you haven’t told me?” She looked worried still.
“Anna, there’s something I want you to know. Before we leave.”
Her eyes opened. “Oh. Ohh.”
She seemed to be catching on to what he was doing now. At least, what Damien hoped he was going to do. So far, his nerves were failing him at every turn. It was one thing to stare down certain death and give it the finger, but telling someone how he felt about them? That was freaking hard.
“I don’t understand this,” he said, the words coming slowly. “I’m still confused by it all. I’ve cared for people in the past. I’ve had relationships, ups and downs. Good times and bad. Like anyone. But...” he smiled at her, feeling his heart fill to bursting as she smiled back, the joy on her face unlike anything he’d ever seen in a woman before. “But with you, it’s different.”
Anna nodded. “I think I understand. There is something here,” she said.
Damien’s eyes widened. “Yes. Not just feelings. Not just emotions.”
“Something tangible,” Anna said forcefully, clenching her free hand into a fist. “Like I can feel it. Touch.”
“But I can’t see it,” he continued. “Some sort of...of...like...link, between us.”
“A bond.”
Damien straightened, eyes looking into the distance for a moment. “Exactly like a bond. Yes. That’s it. I feel like we’re bonded, like something, somewhere, has decided that the two of us, we’re meant to be together. More so than either of us would ever feel with anyone else. Ever. When I’m around you I feel—”
“Stronger. Not just physically,” Anna said excitedly, shaking her staff. “When I cast that spell, Damien, I was thinking of you. Of all the things I would miss out on with you. My inspiration, the thing that granted me the power, it was you. I could feel it. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
He shook his head, not believing any of it. “But what is it?”
Anna faltered. “Well I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”
“Me neither,” he confessed. “My people talk about feelings, about emotions, but nothing like this.”
“We use it in our books, in stories, but everyone knows it’s not actually serious. That people are just with someone right. But this goes beyond that,” Anna said, her voice trailing off. “But what does it become?”
Damien shook his head. “I have no idea about that, but there is one thing I know. One thing that I have to tell you.”
“What?”
“I love you, Anna Sturgis. That much is clear to me. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, I am thoroughly, completely and totally, unashamedly, unabashedly, one hundred percent, with my whole, entire body, fully and utterly—”
“I love you too, Damien,” she interrupted, grinning from ear to ear as his rambling died away. “You have everything I have to give and will always have it.”
He kissed her there, uncaring of what the others would say, not bothering to pay any attention. This woman was his, his soulmate, the other half of his being, and nothing any of the witches could say would take that away from him.
“I feel so much better having finally said that,” he confessed. “It’s been on my mind since...”
“Since the barn?” Anna supplied with a teasing smile. “And here I thought you wanted me just for my ass.”
Damien grinned wickedly. “Oh, I intend on having your ass, as you say, but I want the whole thing.”
There was a noise behind him. Damien froze.
Anna blushed, looking around his shoulder and then leaning back. She pointed, her face completely red in the midday light.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw Genna and the other witches had approached and were standing no more than a few feet away.
“Ew,” Genna said bluntly. “Wow.”
Before Damien could reply, Anna stepped up next to him. “Right. And if Altair over there threw you over his shoulder and took you inside, you would object so much,” she said. “Don’t forget, I know your secrets. You think Altair is just so cute. You were gushing over him the first day the dragons arrived, going on and on about how hot he was.” Anna giggled. “So, don’t tell me you don’t understand.”
“Um. Anna.”
She turned to look at him. “Yes?”
It was Damien’s turn to point to his left.
Altair and Rane were standing just out of her periphery, having come closer once the witches were ready.
“Uhh,” Anna said uncomfortably, realizing that they must have heard what she’d been saying.
“Thanks a lot,” Genna hissed, turning away to hide her embarrassment.
Damien held up a hand to silence his fellow storm dragon as Altair opened his mouth to speak. Shaking his head, he hushed him, recognizing that now was probably not the time for this.
“Is everyone ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” Jane said, taking control of the witches while Anna returned to Damien’s side. “But where are we going? They didn’t leave much of a trace as to their whereabouts.”
Damien smiled tightly. “There’s a few things about them that we learned during our fight. Most of it bad, but a bit of it helpful.”
“Like what?” Anna asked for everyone.
“They use their powers to hide their presence,” he explained.
“We noticed,” Anna said. “That’s how they got away. The ice dragon hid them.”
“Exactly. It hid them from our eyes down here. But any snow that the ice dragon creates will melt away after it passes. And any snow that it moves to cover itself, will leave marks elsewhere.”
“But we can’t see anything,” Jenna said. “It just looks like they dove into a snowbank and disappeared.”
“From down here,” Damien said. “Because that’s where they’re trying to obscure our vision from. But they don’t think like we do. Their concept of things looking ‘natural’ is not the same. If we take to the skies, we’ll see their trail as clear as daylight. Trust me.”
The witches looked to each other, and then shrugged, almost as one calling upon the air to form their normal steeds.
Damien shook his head. “No. Not this time.”
Anna and the others faltered. “What? How do you expect us to get there then?”
He grinned. “In style.”
