Chapter 40 Ginger
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. He seemed perfectly content there. Happy, even, to be lying in the mud with his friends.
Ridiculous creature.
I loved him so much it hurt.
His quiet snores harmonized with the churning of the river and the slowing patter of rain falling from the branches of the trees.
A cat found us first.
Not just one—but a few of them.
Led by the grouchy black cat that I was going to start calling Chicken just to be spiteful, a small swarm of them swept from the border of the forest, sniffing us curiously. Grey, orange, white, a few tabbies. One even gently pawed at my shoulder.
Shade stiffened, only slightly. I wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t examining his face so intensely.
One of the cats meowed. And then they were gone for a bit.
Voices broke the silence next. Murmurs first, unclear. But then louder. Closer.
“Where are we going, Sookie? You know I don’t like being in the woods when it’s muddy.” Fiella, I noted distantly.
As well as Redd and Kizzi.
“What are you talking about? It’s just fine.” Tandor, too, apparently.
Somebody screamed. Another folk shouted.
It was chaotic, really.
Shade sighed deeply, and then he pulled himself upright. He slipped a hand under the back of my neck and sat me up with him.
Brambleby scurried off to happily greet his friends.
“Woah! Ginger!” Tandor shouted.
Somehow, he was faster even than the vampires, and he got to me first. He tucked his hands under my armpits and hoisted me to my feet.
Then, he whirled and cocked his arm back, prepared to punch the god square in the face.
“Tandor! Stop!” I said, my voice feeling weirdly strained. I darted forward and grabbed Tandor’s arm before he could swing.
He stared at me, bewildered. “What did he do to you, Ginny? I’ll pummel him!”
I yanked on him harder, lowering his arm to his side. He hardly resisted, more confused than anything. “Don’t,” I begged.
“What’s going on, Ginny? Why are you covered in mud?
” Kizzi drifted beside me, reaching out to smooth the hair back from my face and then cringing when her fingers ended up filthy.
She looked around for something to wipe them off with, but everything was muddy.
With a shrug, she smeared them on her flowy skirt.
“Brambleby…” I started, but then trailed off. The words wouldn’t form.
Redd bent down and retrieved Bram from where he was rolling around in a mud pile with Ember. He examined him, holding the dragon as far as possible from his face to get every angle. “He looks fine to me,” the vampire stated before patting him twice on the top of the head and setting him back down.
Bram didn’t resist for a single moment. He did look fine, really. Maybe only a little bummed that he lost his moth. The near drowning hadn’t traumatized him nearly as much as it had me.
Fiella joined Kizzi by my side. She wasn’t as subtle, stepping very obviously between Shade and I and scanning me with her eyes. She shot the god a glare and a flash of her fangs before she returned her gaze to mine. “Why are you by the river? Something about Bram?”
Yes. Yes, thank the fates she was understanding. “He wouldn’t come home.”
She nodded. Her eyes were wide and understanding. “You went searching? You found him here?” She was a dragon mother herself—she knew how it went.
“Yes.” The word came out hoarse and broken. Horror still flooded my gut when I thought about it—how terrible everything could have been.
If Shade hadn’t shown up right when I needed him.
I leaned around Fiella, desperate to meet his gaze, but she stepped aside to stay in my path. Her brows furrowed. “And then what happened?”
Shade tried to explain for me. “If I might—”
“Oh, shut the fuck up, Shade,” Fiella groaned. “I asked Ginger.”
Surprisingly, Shade didn’t argue.
“Go ahead, honey,” Kizzi urged.
I took a deep breath. It hurt when it slid down my throat. “He fell in.” My voice cracked and trembled.
And then the waterworks started again.
Tears streamed down my cheeks and clogged my throat, and horrible sobs squeezed my chest. I doubled over.
Arms wrapped around me, but they didn’t feel like shadows, and that only made me cry harder.
My friends whisked me away, leaving Shade on the bank of the river.
“Why was he by the water?” Fiella asked.
I tapped my fingers on the hot mug of tea in my grasp. It was comforting, but I still felt cold.
I feared I would never feel warm again.
“During a storm, at that,” Redd murmured. He held his own cup of tea, but he didn’t drink it.
“He was chasing a stupid moth.”
Kizzi choked. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You’re joking,” Fiella added.
Four pairs of eyes turned toward my small fireplace, where three dragons were snoring quietly.
The cottage felt full to bursting.
“I wish I was joking.”
“A moth,” Tandor echoed. He sounded more understanding than the others, which was to be expected. The huge orc loved all living critters, it wasn’t a stretch for him to love bugs, too.
“A moth.”
“And he fell in?” Kizzi prompted.
I shrugged. I took a long sip of tea to chase away the chill spreading outward from my spine. “He did. I didn’t see it happen, but I found him there.”
“Gods,” Redd murmured. “Poor little beast.”
I nodded solemnly. “He couldn’t fly, all soaked and in the water like that.”
“How did he get out?”
My breath hitched. I cleared my throat against the tightening. “Well, actually—”
“You can’t swim, boss, so I bet he climbed out, huh?” Tandor interrupted.
“That’s just it. I—”
“Ginny, you can’t swim?” Fiella asked, shocked.
“No, but—”
“You really should learn. That’s not safe,” Kizzi agreed.
Redd nodded solemnly.
“I can’t swim either,” Tandor added. “Orcs don’t float. We sink like rocks. It’s really a problem when—”
“Let me explain!” I snapped.
The room settled into tense silence.
A rustle from the corner told me the dragons were stirring, but I ignored them.
I took a deep, calming breath.
“Sorry,” Tandor said quietly.
“I couldn’t find him for dinner,” I started, leaning back and settling my mug of tea on my thigh.
“A storm was rolling in, but he didn’t come when I called.
So, I looked for him. They wander, you know,” I flapped my hand while the others nodded.
“But he wasn’t in any of his normal spots.
I followed this cat. I’m going to call him Chicken. He’s an asshole, really.”
Fiella looked like she wanted to interrupt, but Redd placed a solid hand on her knee to keep her quiet.
“He led me to the edge of the forest, where the Barren Lands meet the river. I’m sure you know that part already. But that’s when I saw him.”
“In the water?”
I swallowed. “Yes. Clinging to a log. Fates, it was awful. I yanked off my cloak, preparing to jump in, and then…” I struggled to describe the sensation—I hardly understood it myself. “Shadows stopped me.”
Shock crossed the expression of my friends’ faces. “Shadows?” Kizzi asked.
“Like iron. Unbreakable. I screamed, I fought, but that stubborn, idiotic…” I shook my head to clear it. “He jumped in instead.”
“Shade?” Fiella asked, disbelieving.
“The god?” Kizzi echoed.
“Fucking fates,” Tandor whispered.
“I know!” I agreed. “He jumped right in.”
“He swam out to rescue Brambleby?” Kizzi asked, as if her ears were playing tricks on her.
I thought about the way Shade had battled the water—beating it with his limbs rather than letting it carry him. The way he thrashed and flailed. The way the water dragged him under.
He couldn’t swim, either.
Tears pricked the back of my eyes.
“Something like that. He jumped into the river. He got Bram out.”
The tension in the cottage was so thick it was almost tangible.
“Well, I’ll be,” Tandor said, stupefied. “That doesn’t sound like him.”
“It was,” I insisted. “He scooped Bram right out.”
“And he held you back with his shadows?” Kizzi asked.
“He did.”
“Maybe he’s not so rotten after all. I told you guys,” Fiella mumbled into her mug.
“He’s not,” I agreed. I thought about the way he risked his life to save mine. Saved my precious dragon. Lingered with me afterward, though he could have fled at any moment.
Could gods risk their lives? I wasn’t sure, but I appreciated the gesture regardless.
“And the King’s men are coming for him soon,” Redd said quietly.
My teeth clamped shut. I bounced my knee anxiously. “They are. And Tommins hasn’t heard anything.”
“You asked Tommins? Never mind, that’s not important,” Kizzi said hurriedly. “It’s out of our hands. We don’t need a god running around Moonvale. He still gives me the heebie jeebies.”
“We can’t defy the King’s orders,” Redd agreed good-naturedly.
I kept my mouth shut. The King hardly ever interfered with our lives. It felt useless for him to do so now.
Moonvale was fine. Moonvale had always been fine.
Was having a god around really so bad?
The urge to defend Shade boiled up my throat, prepared to spew out of my mouth, but I wasn’t sure how to organize my thoughts.
Sure, Shade wasn’t evil, like his reputation promised. Sure, he had saved Bram. But did that make him good? Did that make him kind?
He had also somehow disposed of Asher at the ball—I hadn’t forgotten that part.
And there was the whole “you’re my wife” nonsense, whatever that was.
I could agree that he was strange. He was off.
But was he dangerous?
He didn’t feel dangerous. At least not to me.
Abruptly, I stood. “You know what, I’m exhausted. I think I’m going to wash this mud off and go to bed.”
Really, I just wanted everyone else to leave so I could go and find Shade.
And do what? Ask him if he was evil? Not likely.
But what else could I do?
The others slowly rose, one at a time.
“Okay…”
“Sure, Ginny.”
“Whatever you need, boss.”
They scooped up their dragons and departed, leaving me with hugs and well wishes on their way.
After a few minutes, I glared at Bram threateningly.
He was yawning, hardly able to keep his eyes open.
I pointed at him anyway. “You, sir, are grounded. You will not leave this cottage. Do you understand me?”
Bram blinked twice, and then curled up and plopped his head on the ground with a sigh.
I nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
With one last glare in his direction, I donned a dry cloak and headed out into the night.