Fates, if only it ever felt likejustthat.
Another crash shook the room. My body reacted before my mind caught up. I bolted from the bed, straight into him. He caught me, his arms folding around me, iron doors slamming shut on the world.
He smelled amazing. His arms felt even better. I focused on the thud of his heartbeat against my cheek, and the sound of the storm faded.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered. “I swear it, Isi. I’ve got you.”
I clutched his tunic with shaking fingers, my face pressed into his chest. I hated how much I trembled, how small I felt.
“Ihatestorms,” I gasped between ragged breaths. “The lightning?—”
His hand moved in slow circles over my back. “You’re safe. I promise.”
He guided us backward until we reached the bed. The mattress dipped beneath his weight as he drew me down beside him, one arm still around me, tucking me against his side. His warmth bled through my nightdress, his breathing steady near my temple.
Outside, the wind howled. Lightning split the sky again, and I flinched hard. His grip tightened.
“Hey,” he said, his lips near my ear. “Look at me.”
I did. Barely.
He brushed my wet hair back, tucking a strand behind my ear with so much tenderness that something inside me cracked. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” The word came out small but certain.
“Good. Then listen, and I’ll tell you something to make the thunder jealous.”
That earned a startled laugh from me. He smiled and began to speak in a low, storyteller voice.
“Long ago, a foolish hero thought he could defeat a thunderdragon who lived at the top of the highest mountain peak. He climbed through storms and lightning, all bravado and arrogance, because he believed the beast was terrorizing his people. When he reached her cave and stepped inside, he raised his sword?—”
Lightning struck again. I buried my face in his chest.
“—and the thunderdragon looked at him and laughed.‘Why do you come to kill me, little man?’ she asked. And the hero said, ‘Because you frighten my village with your noise and flashes of light.’”
Trew’s fingers threaded through mine. “But she told him she only roared when she was lonely, and the sky answered her grief. So the hero lowered his sword. ‘Then I’ll stay until you aren’t lonely anymore.’ And he did. The thunder still rolled, but she no longer roared to break the world, only to remind it she was alive.”
His thumb brushed the back of my hand. “So when you hear thunder, Isi, it’s not meant to hurt you. It’s just the dragon reminding the world she’s still here.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “That’s a ridiculous story.”
He grinned against my hair. “All the best ones are.”
I tilted my head enough to look up at him. “And what became of the hero?”
“Oh, he was doomed from the start.” His eyes gleamed in the low light. “He fell in love with the thunderdragon, of course.”
I snorted softly. “How very predictable of him.”
He lifted a brow. “Predictable for falling in love with a creature powerful enough to tear him apart?”
“Yes, exactly that.”
The humor in his expression softened into something that saw straight through me. “Then perhaps you know how the dragon felttoo.”
I couldn’t answer. Not with words. But I leaned closer, resting my forehead against his collarbone. I let the steady beat of his heart drown out the next roll of thunder.
He held me tighter. The tension in my shoulders began to ease, until my breathing matched his. When another flash lit the window, I didn’t jump. His hand traced lazy lines along my arm, reminding me he was here with me.
