Chapter Eight
–Torsten–
WHILE PART OF me wanted to follow Katana and my darker side into the chamber at the top of the Keep reserved for the rightful Liege, I knew it would be one step too far.
More so, I didn’t want to hold what was happening against Katana, because she didn’t deserve it.
“I’m not sure where we go next, but ‘twill not be that way,” I finally said after she was truthful about what was about to happen between her and my darker side. A level of intimacy I was sure she and I had never experienced, despite how much I’d longed for it.
“Why?” I asked, keeping her hand in mine as we headed back down the stairs, since we had nowhere else to go. “If we are to deal in honesty, I want to know what made you lie with him and not me?”
“Because I wanted to, and badly at that,” she replied, remaining painfully honest. “But more specifically, because he wanted to as well...finally.”
When she trailed off, I looked at her in question. “Finally, what?”
“He finally stopped denying me,” she confessed, just as surprised as I was when she stopped and looked at me.
“I’m not sure how many dreams you and I shared over the years, but I suspect this side of you chose not to sleep with me.
” Her hand fluttered to her chest, and her eyes welled with emotion as she realized why.
“You didn’t want it to be like that, caught in a dream. ”
She shook her head and swallowed hard, understanding my reasoning just as I did at that moment.
“Nor did I want to risk my darker half connecting with you across time somehow,” I realized. “The sole reason I never sought you out to begin with.”
“And I thank you for that,” she said softly, resting her hand on my chest, looking at me with her heart in her eyes.
“That was incredibly selfless, Torsten, and speaks to your kind heart.” Standing on her tiptoes, she pulled my lips down to hers and kissed me gently, almost lovingly, before she met my eyes again.
“Thank you for protecting me the best way you knew how.”
“Always,” I murmured, yet wondered...had I known my darker half would end up taking advantage of what I’d forfeited, would I have done things differently and lain with her, after all?
No, I knew with certainty. Never. Instead, I would have found a way to warn her, and everyone else close to me, about what my darker half was up to.
I was about to continue speaking when a glimmer of light below caught my attention.
“What was that?” Katana wondered, seeing it too.
“I have no idea.” Not sensing anything dire, but rather the opposite, I slid my hand into hers again, and we started heading in its general direction. “Whatever it was, it felt...safe.”
“Just like your darker half assured you something would keep me safe when we first came this way,” she said. “Then made a point, perhaps, of showing us by letting us see that memory.”
“Or,” I countered, unconvinced my darker half would ever be that thoughtful, however oddly he went about it, “he simply put you right where he wanted you, hoping you would be impressed by his fighting abilities, and his dragon.”
“Which are also your dragon and your fighting abilities,” she reminded softly. “All part of the same man, though some parts are more difficult to navigate than others.”
Yet again, it felt like she defended my darker half, but there was little I could do but keep warning her to be careful, even as I saw another side of him, me, I hadn’t expected, albeit sparingly, thus far.
Surely that was my personality, the real me, affecting him somehow, because I didn’t want to lose her, even in dreams. The part of me that wasn’t made up of his darkness and untrustworthy intentions.
“It’s another door,” she exclaimed as we drew closer. “There’s light beneath it, as if something’s glowing brightly from the other side.”
She was right, and it felt welcoming and protective.
Enough so I didn’t hesitate to lead her that way and open the door, surprised by what we found on the other side. It looked nearly the same as my actual chamber inside the Keep, minus the mystical waver in the air.
“This is it, isn’t it?” she marveled softly, without me saying a word.
Awed, she took in the spacious, cave-like chamber, with an opening large enough for my dragon to fit through.
Her gaze drifted to the golden glow of the great Yggdrasil towering above the Keep outside, bathing the room in soft, warm, welcoming light.
Yet rather than gawk at the tree as most would, she blinked back tears and looked at me.
“This is your chamber at the Keep, isn’t it? And this is my very first time here?”
“It is,” I confirmed, only now recalling that I’d never brought her here, even in a dream, for fear of my darker side locking onto her.
Yet I couldn’t help but wonder now if I might have been wrong in refraining, given the things I never knew happened between them.
“At least with me. I couldn’t say if my darker half brought you here.
” I glanced uneasily at my sizeable, fur-covered bed, trying not to envision the two of them on it. “Only you would know that.”
“I’m almost certain he didn’t.” Her gaze flickered from the bed to my face, as if she were making sure she didn’t recognize it. “I don’t think he ever really thought of this chamber as his, given his lofty goals and where we just were.”
“No doubt you’re right,” I said dryly, going to close the door behind me only to find it had vanished, leaving us trapped, given something told me we wouldn't be able to fly through the other opening.
When I saw the uneasy glance Katana shot at the area where the door had been, I redirected her attention.
“Come sit and eat with me.” I gave her a reassuring look, grateful when I could chant a fire into the small pit near the phantom exit. “There are worse places the Keep could force us to remain.” I did my best to summon a small smile. “Such as amid a recent battle scene.”
“True,” she conceded, managing a small smile in return. “And I have wanted to see this room for some time, whether I remembered wanting to or not.”
“Because you longed to be intimate?” I wondered, encouraging her to sit in a wooden chair before the fire, where she could enjoy the view. The sun was setting, filling the sky with vivid shades of orange against distant, turbulent, black-bellied clouds.
The air was especially chilly, so I draped another one of my fur cloaks over her shoulders and conjured up some meats, cheese, and bread with churned butter, along with drinks, including ale for me and mead for her, recalling her aversion to ale.
“Maybe I wanted to see this chamber because a part of me wanted to be intimate eventually,” she admitted, answering my question as I sat beside her.
“But mostly I wanted to see what you considered your space in this castle.” She tilted her head at me.
“Because you don’t have a lair, right? Not like most dragons in this era? ”
“I don’t,” I confirmed, liking the way she filled my chamber with something it had been lacking before.
How her sweet scent subtly permeated the air around me.
“Not these days, anyway. I did before Blaze came, but once his trials began and I saw how difficult the dragons were making things for him because of how different he is, I decided ‘twas best to remain close.”
“Right,” she murmured, learning much about my life as our dragons' bonded. “He’s the first of his kind. Not just a dragon shifter but a wolf shifter.”
“Ja,” I confirmed. “So ‘twas not easy on him.”
“And you related to that,” she said softly, giving me a knowing look. “Because you were different too.”
“I did,” I admitted. “He needed someone to stand by him, so I thought nothing of it.”
“Even as you had no choice but to battle him for his position.”
“Even,” I said, remembering the moment as if it were yesterday. “So I can say without hesitation, Blaze earned his position.” I shook my head. “I’ve never come across another who can battle so well.”
“How will that work anyway? One of you replacing him?” she wondered, sipping her mead, a curious light in her eyes. “If Blaze has already established himself as the strongest dragon and fought you and your kin, wouldn’t that rule all of you out?”
“’Twould seem so, wouldn't it?” I shook my head again, not understanding the dynamics of how this would work any better than she did.
“I couldn’t say, other than the prophecy will reveal all in the end, so long as the darkness doesn't get a hold of the blade...or crown at the moment, or so it seems, given Skarde’s pursuit of us rather than the others.
” Sipping my ale, I couldn’t help but eye her with amusement.
“I forgot how many questions you ask, Katana. ‘Tis good. Yours is a curious nature.”
“Mine is a journalist's nature,” she countered, seeming to think it over as she gazed out at the incoming storm.
“Or at least it was... still is...” She shook her head and looked at me again.
“Yet all of that seems so far away right now. As if it were another life. Another story...” Her eyes seemed to glaze over, as though she were suddenly somewhere else. “A myth all along.”
“What do you mean?” Alarmed, I rested my hand on her arm, concerned for her, yet at the same time sensing I had witnessed her do something like this before in a dream. “Katana, are you alright?”
She blinked, and her eyes cleared as if she’d been in some sort of trance.
Her gaze met mine again. “I am. It was just...” She seemed to consider how to phrase it.
“A vision, I suppose, or at least that’s what Marjorie calls them.
All four of us have been known to have them a time or two over the years.
As you know, I had one about you and Skarde before traveling back in time, but lately they’ve been more about a myth... and a story I’ve been trying to write.”
“What is this story about?” I sipped my ale and ate a piece of meat, encouraging her to do the same. “Or should I say myth?”