Page 13 of A Drop of Venom

TEROLON

I woke from a contented sleep to convulsive movement and the heart-rending sound of a whimper.

Illuminated by the faint light of a single dimmed lantern, my beautiful Hazel lay in my coils just as she had when we went to sleep. But now, only a few hours later, she’d drawn her slim knees up to her chest, her face was buried against my body, and she trembled almost violently. Her worn nightgown had bunched up around her thighs from her restlessness. The scent of her tears seared me.

My need to comfort and protect my mate clashed with a surge of rage against the cause of her fear and pain. My fangs ached to bite and avenge her suffering, whatever or whoever might have caused it.

“No,” she moaned. Her hands twitched and flailed, and one little bare foot kicked out as if she were trying to fight or run.

Carefully, I gathered her in my arms and lay on my back with my torso raised slightly so she could huddle against my chest. As she whimpered, I drew her gown back down to cover her legs and caressed her back.

“Shh, shelshi,” I murmured, my lips against her soft hair. “You’re safe. No one can harm you now.”

Her fingers curled against my chest as if seeking an anchor, or reassurance. “Terolon?” she whispered.

“Yes, I’m here.” I covered one of her hands with mine and pressed it to my chest above my hearts so she could feel them beating. “You’re safe. Whatever plagued your dreams, it can’t touch you now—I swear it.”

Hazel let out a shaky breath, pressed her nose to my chest, and inhaled. Did my natural scents provide comfort like her sweetness soothed and settled me? I hoped so.

We lay quietly for a long time while her heart rate and breathing slowed. Her fingertips continued to curl against my scales in an erratic rhythm as I rubbed her back with gentle circular motions and wrapped a single coil around her middle, the way I’d seen others of my kind calm their distressed mates.

“I don’t know how long it will take for me to really feel safe,” she said eventually, her voice soft. “It’s not that I don’t believe you when you say others can’t find us here, but I don’t know if there’s ever been a time I’ve truly felt safe. Maybe when I was very little, before I had any magic, but those memories are faint.” Her free hand squeezed into a fist, her nails digging into her palm. “Even here with you, I can’t quite persuade myself to feel secure.”

“I understand,” I said. “I hope security and peace will come with time. I can’t promise no danger will ever find us, but it would have to be something mighty indeed to get past my wards and walls and me to reach you.” I undulated my body gently so she felt the size and power of my coils around her. “I can’t guard your dreams,” I murmured into her hair, “but I can guard you.”

She chuckled. “And a fearsome guard you are.” She caressed my scales, which made the tip of my tail vibrate and sent a pleasant thrumming sensation through my entire body. “I’m considerably less intimidating.”

“But still fierce.” I tipped her chin up so I could gaze into her eyes. “When I found you, I knew you’d fought back and wounded your attacker. I saw your strength as well as your beauty. Those who underestimate you do so at their own peril, as the male who mistreated you discovered.”

“Only one of us ended up in that ravine,” she pointed out. “Lord Vedast rode away with his friends while I lay unconscious at the mercy of anything or anyone who wandered by.”

“But you didn’t remain there,” I reminded her. “You weren’t defeated—not at all. You emerged from that confrontation stronger than before. The woman who stood before me in our garden this afternoon and declared she wouldn’t accept shame or condemnation anymore for her gifts is not the woman who fell into the ravine.” I tucked loose hair behind her ear. She leaned into my touch and closed her eyes as I caressed her cheek with my thumb. “I wish you could see yourself as I see you. You’re magnificent.”

Her lips twitched. “Such flattery.”

“I speak only truth to you.” I drew her against my chest again and wrapped her in my arms as well as my coils. “Tell me about your dreams, shelshi. What distresses you tonight?”

Her soft exhale traveled over my scales like a caress. “I don’t want to trouble you.”

“It troubles me far more not to know,” I countered. “I don’t wish for you to have to keep such things inside when I am here to listen. Some burdens are not meant to be shouldered alone. If you needed to shift a heavy stone, wouldn’t you ask for my help to move it?”

“Perhaps,” she said with a sigh. “I see what you’re doing, you know.”

“What am I doing?”

“Being exceedingly reasonable so I can’t argue.” She huffed. “Fine.”

I rubbed her back again as she gathered her thoughts.

“My parents both passed away about eighteen lunars ago,” Hazel said finally.

“I am very sorry,” I murmured. “The sleeping sickness?”

“Yes.” She kissed my chest—a tiny press of her lips that made my hearts lose their rhythm for a moment. “It swept through our village just like all the others. I was sick too, but I recovered fairly quickly. They didn’t.”

Her tone was surprisingly matter-of-fact. Certainly her mother’s ill treatment must have made their relationship difficult, but that didn’t mean their loss hadn’t hurt her deeply. More likely she was simply used to hiding her true feelings.

“I planned to keep our market stall where we sold vegetables and continue to take in sewing to pay the rent on our home until I found somewhere new to live, but the landlord turned me out,” Hazel continued. “I had nowhere else to go, so when three of my cousins offered to let me stay with them in return for housekeeping, I accepted the offer. They’re brothers, and their mother was my mother’s sister.” Her shoulders sagged. “The moment I arrived at their home near Arnard, though, I became their live-in servant. They were very demanding, and sometimes they were cruel.”