29. Verity
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Verity
H e pulls me into his arms, and I can’t believe it’s him.
I’m struggling to hold on to consciousness, but desperate to know if this is real or just another dream.
I look up into his face, dark with ash and dirt. His cheek is bleeding and looks burnt with agony. I touch my fingers against it, and he winces.
“Sorry.” I whisper. And he laughs.
“What’s so funny?” I whisper, my throat aches.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. ” He says his voice tight with regret and shame.
I scrunch my eyes. “Why? You came to save me.”
“I did this, Verity. I set the building on fire. I put your life at risk.”
My chest is aching. My lungs hurt. My eyes are burning, and every part of my body is in excruciating pain.
But I smile as I close my eyes again.
“Why are you smiling?” his voice sounds far away.
“You burned the world down for me.” I whisper. And the world sinks away from me. But I know I’m in his arms, so I don’t care. I don’t care about anything but him. He’s here.
He burned the world down for me.
I feel him lift my body, limp and heavy, into his arms.
“I’m going to get us out of here, vixen.” His voice touches the edges of my dream.
I’m being carried on the shoulders of a massive beast. He keeps talking to me, but I don’t understand the soothing words that are coming from his lips. It’s garbled and makes little sense. I struggle to hear over the loud rumble growling in the distance. Something dangerous is following us. Something big is creeping towards us and I’m terrified, but the beast is gripping me.
He jogs, and my body jolts against his broad shoulders, his arm wrapped over my back to keep me from falling off.
Sometimes when I try to take a breath into my lungs, it tastes of thick ash and I cough.
The beast pauses. Talking to me again.
I wish I knew what he was saying.
His words have the power to enchant me and transport me to a world of magic and wonder.
I open my eyes and flames above my head lick down towards my face.
I cry out in fright and Rufino digs his fingers into my side.
“It’s ok, Verity. We’re on the fourth floor now. We’re so close to the ground. We’re almost out of here.”
“Rufino.” I gasp, my words huff from my chest when he moves, and I get shifted against his shoulder. He is carrying me fireman style, slung over his shoulder, shifting on his back.
I groan. Breathing hurts.
I close my eyes and feel my head dropping.
My arms go limp and my body slumps down.
The beast shouts when a massive dragon leaps from behind a rock and blasts a tongue of fire towards us. He ducks and rolls and I fall from his shoulders. The dragon rears up, screeching a high-pitched whine and then a low rumble of anger.
This is what we were running from - and now it’s found us.
We are going to die.
“Ugh.” Rufino grunts as he lifts me back up and onto his shoulders.
To our left a room is blazing and the door from that room is lying splintered and covered in flames just in front of us.
“Ruf—” I try to say his name, but I can’t. A coughing fit steals my breath away and I fight for air as he jogs towards the stairwell.
“Three more floors, my love. We are almost there. We are almost safe.” He says, straining and sounding like he’s in pain as well.
“Ruf—”
My eyes burn and my head drops.
The dragon is right behind us, slinking over the ground, slithering and creeping and following everywhere we go.
Tears are streaming down my cheeks.
I don’t want to die like this.
I don’t want to die at all.
How can I help the beast? He is in pain and I want to help him somehow. But when I try to move but my body isn’t working. My legs are too heavy, weighed down like iron, my arms are limp and useless. I can’t even reach up to grip against the beast’s shoulder.
My heart aches for him.
This monster carrying me.
This terrifying creature that would strike fear into the heart of any person who looked upon him. But my heart is with him. He owns me. He has me. I belong to him and no one else.
Nothing can pull us apart. Not even the dragon lurking close on our heels.
A loud crash vibrates into my dream and snaps me awake.
I cry out fear. “ The dragon.”
Behind me the roof caves in and a dark flames spike through the air.
The smoke has turned black and I can’t see in front of us.
“Hold on, my love.” He screams over the roar of fire and the sounds of the building caving in around us. “I can see the exit. It’s blocked but I’ll find a way. Just hold on.”
I dig my fingers into his back. Attempting to hold on to him, my hands fail me, and my mind falters once more.
The dragon is snapping at my feet. His massive reptilian jaws and opening and closing with a force that sends a shockwave pushing past me. I scream and the sound vibrates against the beast’s back.
He speaks to me. Reassurance. Soothing calm.
I still can’t understand him.
He runs and jumps, and I am pushed and shaken and jolted and in so much pain I don’t know if I can last much longer.
But in front of us I see a wall of ice.
Crystal clear. Bright.
I know that if we reach that wall we will be ok.
The dragon’s fire can’t break through the ice.
“Run.” I scream. As the dragon leaps towards us and his teeth cut across my leg. “Run. Please, run.” I beg.
The beast pushes with everything he has inside him. His fingers grip me it feels like his hands will tear my skin away.
He runs.
He runs like the rushing water of a tidal wave, shoving things out of his path and leaping over long rips in the earth’s surface. He jumps over rocks and fallen trees. He runs to save us.
Straight towards the wall of ice.
Bright and blue and safe.
As we get closer, I look up and see that it isn’t ice as all but a shimmering silver liquid. It glitters and pulses like water.
He doesn’t slow down, and I squeeze my eyes shut, not knowing what will happen when he crashes into it. Not knowing if I’m right. If that is what will save us. Or if it’s just a trick. A trap. Another way to die.
As the glittering liquid wall slams into us an icy coldness coats my skin and the contrast of it, compared to the dragons flames, is so painful that again I find I can’t breathe.
The shift in temperate is like a blade across my skin.
I’m drowning in silver snow. It floods into my lungs and I can’t stop coughing.
Gasping and choking as spears cut the inside of my lungs.
I feel my body being lifted of the beasts shoulders and laid down onto the cold, damp ground.
“Verity - “
I know that name.
“Verity.”
It’s my name.
I blink my eyes open and my vision is too blurry to make out where I am. Cold, crisp air pours into my lungs.
“Verity, can you hear me?” Rufino’s voice pulls me from my dreams again.
“I - “ I choke.
“Oh thank fuck. Oh my fuck - “ he mutters. Pulling me up against his chest. “I thought I lost you.” He growls against my ear.
I reach up and rub my eyes, blinking again and again until the tears and gone.
Fresh, chilly night air is touching my skin.
It hurts.
My skin is too sensitive, and my lungs are filled with needles.
“I - I’m alive - “ I mutter.
He laughs. “You’re alive.”
Above us something explodes, and he grunts in fright.
“We’re still too close. My car is just around the corner.” He mutters, sliding his arm around my back and lifting me against his chest he runs.
I cry out in pain as his movements shoot through me.
“Hold on, my love.”
Looking back, I see the building fall.
The top floors caving in, level by level, a loud rumbling, crumbling monster.
“A dragon.” I whisper.
As it collapses sparks and flames glitter into the dark night and thick streams of black smoke pour into the sky.
“It’s a dragon.” I mumble again and then collapse against him.
I feel the darkness more than I can see it.
In fact, I can’t see anything.
I can’t even see my hand when I hold it right in front of my face.
“Where am I?” I mutter and my voice doesn’t seem to go anywhere. It’s as though the darkness absorbs the sound as soon as it leaves my lips.
The ground beneath my feet vibrates and I crouch low to steady myself.
I wish I could see.
I wish I knew what was happening.
It sounds like an engine. Like I’m inside something, growling and rumbling as it carries me towards the unknown.
I spin in a circle, remembering the dragon, searching for it in a moment of fear. However, there is nothing.
The dragon is lost somewhere behind us.
I was with someone.
The beast.
“Beast?” I scream as loud as I can. But once more, the blackness swallows the sound. Muffled and lost and unheard.
I feel his hand on my thigh, squeezing gently.
“We’re almost at the hospital, little vixen. You’re so strong. Keep fighting.”
A loud screech of car tires skid against the tarred road as he takes a corner at incredible speed. My body rolls to the left and he grabs me, pulling me back into my seat.
I want to tell him everything in my heart.
I want to tell him how I feel.
But I can’t speak. My throat is too tight, too dry.
My eyes are too heavy. Burning from dry air and smoke.
I sigh, and even that grates against the burnt skin of my larynx, aching.
Closing my eyes I feel my body slump forwards. I can’t even hold myself up.
My flops down onto something hard. I blink up into bright, glaring white lights. “Where - “ I mutter. Then swallow away the pain.
“Hello, sweetie, my name is Lisa, I’m a nurse. You’re at the Swan Hospital. Can you tell me your name?”
“Rufino - “ I mutter again.
“Is that the man who brought you in?”
“Ruf—” his face appears above me. We are moving fast down a long white passage. People are shouting and calling out distinct orders.
“I’m right there, my love. I’m here. You’re safe.”
I close my eyes and the weight of my head becomes too much to bare. It lulls to the side, my cheek pressing against something soft.
“She’s losing consciousness again. We need to hurry.”
“Is she going to be ok?”
“Sir, please, you need to step back and let us do our jobs.”
A loud beeping piercings through the darkness of my mind.
I’m sitting on the ground. It’s soft beneath me but I still can’t see anything. I can’t say anything because it falls to nothing when it leaves my lips.
And my throat aches.
No one can hear me, and no one knows I’m here.
Maybe they do. Maybe they’re searching for me, but they are just as lost as I am.
I gave up walking because I don’t know if I’m getting anywhere.
So now I’m just waiting.
I sigh. A blunt sound. Muffled.
I wish he was with me.
If he was here, I wouldn’t be so alone and empty.
He promised to burn the world down for me.
He promised to tear it apart if he ever lost me.
My heart pulls tight in my chest.
“Rufino.” I say, soundless and silent. “My Viking.”