Lydia
Despite the humid air, I am absolutely freezing. I simply cannot stop shivering, no matter what I do. Even clutched tight to Deus as he flies us back to the cabin, his heat does nothing for me.
My legs are like jelly as he puts me down. I’m unable to let him go, even though I’m shaking back and forward, my teeth chattering.
“Come.” Deus lifts me up once more and strides through to the sleeping area, where he walks down into the pit. “Let me. You have had a shock.” He lifts one of the cushions and pulls out a silvery blanket, which gets wrapped around my body. “You need my heat.”
“I’d rather you didn’t burn me like the tree thing,” I manage to say through a clenched, chattering jaw.
“No need for such a show,” Deus says, lifting a lip to reveal a fang.
In that weird twisting way of the Sarkarnii, he transforms into his dragon. I have a flicker of primeval fear for a brief second until he walks around the sides of the pit, tramping like a cat before he settles down around me.
“My Lydia,” he rumbles. “Take from me what you need.” He curls his tail around me, and I slide into the crease between his abdomen and the huge appendage.
It is incredibly warm. He is incredibly warm. I am still shivering, but as the minutes pass, I’m beginning to feel less like I’m close to death and more like I’m in the middle of a marshmallow which is being gently toasted.
“Better?” Deus asks.
“Better,” I respond.
“I have not been able to shift into my Sarkarnii form until tonight,” he says quietly. “I do not remember the last time I was Sarkarnii.”
“So when you were on the second continent?”
“I got there using a flyer I stole from my brother. It crashed on landing. Initially the females caught me, but then their leader decided she didn’t want me, and I was able to escape,” Deus says. “But not leave, neither the area where I crashed nor the continent itself.”
“But Dalox discovered a way, a flyer which was capable of the distance.”
“He did. I wasn’t…able to take on the females on my own,” Deus says, not looking at me. “And not being able to shift meant if I got injured, I would have been more vulnerable.”
With a sigh, he returns to his more humanoid form.
“It would seem I cannot hold my shift for long,” he adds.
“Long enough.” I pull the blanket closer around me, although while I’m not curled in his tail anymore, I am instead pressed against his abdomen, and his arm is around my shoulder.
“I did not mean to upset you…before,” Deus says. “Is that why you ran?”
I shake my head. “I’ve been through…a lot. I wasn’t sure what to think or what to do. It wasn’t you.” I look up at him, seeing his jaw clenched. “I promise it wasn’t anything you did.”
I put my hand on his chest. Deus is still incredibly warm, and his scales are silky smooth, glittering under my fingers. He looks down at where I touch him.
“You did a good job on my shed,” he rumbles.
I laugh a little. “Hardly. I just did what you told me to do.”
“You did me a kindness, my ember, one you did not need to do, not when I had you as my captive.”
“And I’m not your captive now.”
He moves his arm from my shoulder. “You are free to go.”
“What? With all the killer plants out there?” I mock gasp at him. “You’d send me out into the night?”
The growl he releases could probably register on the Richter scale.
“I would never.” He sucks in a breath before releasing a stream of smoke. “Never hurt you.”
“I know.” I bunch up my hand and flatten it again.
“Good. Because Dante and Darax’s warriors came for you and I…sent them away.”
I deeply suspect the words sent them away are doing some heavy lifting in this context.
“Will they come back?”
“Most probably.”
“Deus.” I look up into his face. The muscle in his jaw has stopped jumping, and there is a calmness to his eyes which I haven’t seen before.
“Yes, little ember.”
“Why did you bring me here?”
He doesn’t say anything for a long time, so long I think he isn’t going to answer.
“I don’t know.” His voice cracks slightly. “Your scent…” He stops, blinks, as if resetting his brain. “You were…” Deus turns his face down to me. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this, Lydia,” he rasps hesitantly. “I believe I rut for you.”