She was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.
And she was alive.
I smiled at her.
She smiled back, a tentative, broken thing.
“The beast?” I asked, remembering his struggle. The poor guy must be exhausted.
She lifted a shaking hand and pointed.
The green dragon was sprawled flat in a pile of mud a few safe feet away, almost below the cover of trees.
His maw was clamped shut.
I lifted my head to get a better look. “You said he’s alright? Why isn’t he making any sound?”
She huffed out a tremulous laugh. “He’s alright. Just strange, sometimes.”
Brambleby finally opened his mouth, and a small moth fluttered free. It was brown, about the size of a silver coin.
Disbelief unhinged my jaw.
The dragon had fallen into the water, not fleeing from a predator, but because he had wanted to catch a moth.
Ginger burst into fresh tears.
“I can’t swim,” she sobbed.
I rested a trembling hand on her cheek and swept away her tears before the rain could take them. “Neither can I. It’s okay. We’re okay. Brambleby is okay.”
CHAPTER 40
Ginger
It felt like hours later by the time someone finally found us.
Cold, shivering, soaked in rain and lying in a puddle of mud—Shade and I simply stared at each other.
I didn’t want to break the heavy silence, and apparently, neither did he.
I wanted to share his air, pull the breath from his lungs directly into mine.
I wanted to scoot closer, to burrow into his warmth.
But I remained still, the only contact between us his hand resting on my cheek.
The tears had long since stopped falling, and my eyes felt sore and swollen. The rain, too, dwindled to nothing.
And still, he stared.
His eyes roamed over my face as though caressing my skin—gentle and sure. He absorbed my details carefully.
At some point, after loudly mourning the escape of his beloved captured moth, Brambleby curled up in the mud between our bodies, pressed to both of our stomachs. Heseemed perfectly content there. Happy, even, to be lying in the mud with his friends.
Ridiculous creature.
I loved him so much it hurt.
