“Astrid, keep looking at me. The dragon is awake now.”
My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. “Oh.”
“We might want to back away.” His voice was shockingly calm, though his jaw clenched from the tension. Tormund held up his hand and flicked his fingers behind him. My mouth went dry. He wanted me to go first.
“Is she looking in our direction?” I whispered, trying to remain as still as possible. If she hadn’t spotted us yet, I didn’t want to help her find us.
A grim smile spread across Tormund’s face. “You might say that.”
Bloomin’ fates. Shoulders tensing, I swung my gaze toward the dragon. She’d unfurled from her perch on the top of the gold coin mountain, her nostrils flared. Two ember eyes started right at me and Tormund. Fire licked her bared teeth, sharper than any blade I’d ever seen.
Terror tumbled through my churning stomach. “Uh oh.”
“Go, Astrid. If you’re quick, you can get out of here alive,” he said, his mouth barely moving.
“You know, she can probably hear what you’re saying just fine,” I said. “No need to mumble anymore.”
As if in answer to my statement, the dragon lifted her head from the gold and swung her snout in our direction. Flames licked the coins surrounding her talons, and the stench of char flared through the cavern, consuming us whole.
20
TORMUND
When the dragon breathed its fire, I threw myself in front of Astrid. I spread my arms wide and flung out my shadows, bracing myself for the pain of flesh melting from my bones. Heat stormed toward me and curled against my face, but then the cool touch of my shadows shoved it away.
My shoulder hit the coins hard. The clatter of my teeth rang through my skull, nearly drowning out Astrid’s cry of alarm. My stomach dropped. The distinct lack of furious pain told me I’d survived just fine. Which meant I’d failed. I hadn’t been fast enough to stop the flames from claiming Astrid.
Gods, I have to get her out of here.
I rolled over and leapt to my feet, my heart thundering so hard I could barely breathe. Astrid stood just behind me with a shaking hand pressed to her mouth. Her face was stark white, but she wasfine. But fear painted every feature.
Her knees buckled. I shot out an arm, catching her waist just before she fell.
“Whoa, there,” I said, tucking my other arm beneath her legs and hauling her up against my chest. Her eyes had slid shut, but she was still breathing.
“I’m fine,” she said in barely a whisper. “I just got light-headed is all.”
Still, worry wormed its way through my gut, and all I could think of was a dumb joke. “Keep this up, and I’ll lose count of how many times my handsome charm has made you faint.”
She let out a breathy chuckle. “There’s that ego. I was starting to miss it.”
Something unsettling tightened in my stomach, and I had to admit that Astrid Balstad had well and truly gotten under my skin. I’d been desperate to kiss her earlier, landing us both in a heap of trouble.
I could not get involved with her more than I already had. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her, and I would. Nothing good could come from this. I had to stop seeing her.
But I would get her back home safely first.
I held her tighter against my chest. “You’re all right? None of the fire got you?”
She cracked open her eyes. “She didn’t actually breathe any on us.”
I glanced over my shoulder. The dragon had returned to her perch, talons curled protectively around a trunk that held a dizzying amount of chocolate bars. “Right. Well, it looked like she was going to.”
Astrid grinned up at me, the corners of her eyes crinkling. “You leapt in front of me, Tormund.”
Clearing my throat, I shifted on my feet. “I fell.”
“No, you jumped in front of me to take the brunt of the fire,” she said insistently. “You tried to save my life.”
