Chapter Ten
–Torsten–
IHAD LONG imagined what it would feel like finally being with the woman of my dreams, yet I had no idea how powerful an experience it would be. How much pleasure I would find in her arms, whether deep inside her or not.
Katana drove my inner beast and me wild with desire, from her delicate, perfectly proportioned body to the way she moved.
I couldn’t get enough of her soft, supple skin or hear enough of her groans and cries of pleasure.
I especially relished the way her sweet scent deepened as our passion grew, and she touched me in all the ways that pleased me most.
Finally sinking deep inside her tight sheath had nearly made me let go too soon because she felt so good, but I managed to hold on for her. It might have only been by a thread, but I held on until her lust spiked, and I caught a whole new scent that made stopping next to impossible.
I tried, though.
I really did.
Yet in the end, she took me over the edge with her, and while I knew how unwise it was while she was in heat, nothing had ever felt so blasted good as the moment I truly, in every way possible, claimed her.
Now, after having finally gotten her to eat, she’d been sleeping peacefully in my bed most of the night, cuddled beneath my furs, while I sat nearby with a blade in hand, keeping a close eye on our surroundings.
Sleep was not an option for me until she was safely with Marjorie and Blaze, somewhere beyond the in-between Keep we were caught in.
Truth be told, I don’t think I would have been able to sleep anyway, at least not beside her, without wanting to take her again and again.
To feel every little sensation she could inflict on me.
Katana's every touch seemed designed for me in ways no other woman had, just as my touch had the same effect on her.
Craving her sweet flesh again aside, and possibly planting my seed if I hadn’t already, my mind kept going back to how we were somehow tethered to our enemy.
Not just that, but where the darkness might have originated from, assuming it possessed first King Haldor, then his brother Skarde.
To the best of my knowledge, I had only been subjected to it once when defending Marjorie and Blaze in the Forest of Memories.
Could it have made some kind of connection with me then? And through me, Katana? Granted, it all happened fast, but as far as I recalled, Grant Hamilton, a ghostly wizard, blocked the darkness before I faced off with it. And even then, it went on to possess Skarde in the end.
“Don’t go near it,” Katana murmured in her sleep as if she was somehow part of that moment with me. Distress furrowed her brow, sweat pearled on her forehead, and she grew more restless. “Please listen to me, Torsten.”
Worried about her, I set aside my blade and tried to rouse her before she grew too agitated.
“No.” Still sound asleep, she gripped my arm tightly, shook her head, trembling all over, her expression terrified. “Torsten, don’t do it. You must listen to me. Something isn’t right about it.”
“Katana, wake up,” I exclaimed. “’Tis alright, mate. You’re here, safe with me.”
“There’s nothing safe about it,” she exclaimed, only growing more horrified. Though her dragon eyes shot open and she gazed at something only she could see, I knew she still slept or was in some sort of trance when she roared, “Please stop, Torsten!”
Vividly remembering those words, I blinked and shook my head, trying to understand, only to feel my dark side roaring to the surface. That’s when I understood he had experienced this moment with her, even if only in a dream.
And he had done something very bad.
I knew it like I knew how to breathe. Like I knew how to spread my wings and fly.
“No,” I ground out, for the first time ever finding the strength to block him from resurfacing without summoning divine magic. “This is not your time.”
While tempted to understand what he had done, I refused to engage him because that’s just what he would need to find a way to sidle by me.
“Be gone,” I roared into my mind, relieved when I heard him curse and sink back inside me, blocked for now so I could focus on rousing Katana, who, fortunately enough, snapped out of her dream seconds later.
“’Tis alright, my mate,” I repeated in a soothing voice, stroking her hair. Anything I could do to calm her. “’Twas just a nightmare.”
“It was,” she agreed shakily, her voice hoarse.
She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as if trying to gather herself before looking at me.
“Something bad happened, Torsten. Your darker half wouldn’t listen to me.
I remember now.” She swallowed heavily and blinked back tears. “He just wouldn’t listen.”
“Take a moment and drink some water,” I said gently, chanting a cup of cold water into my hand and bringing it to her mouth when I realized she was trembling too hard to hold it. “’Twill help.”
Grateful, she took several sips and nodded. “It did, thank you.”
“Of course.” I wiped away a tear when it rolled down her cheek. “Why don’t we break our fast and talk about what happened?”
She nodded again and then dressed. Doing my best to keep my eyes averted, lest I be too tempted to take her again despite what had just happened, I waited until she joined me at the fire before looking her way again.
Last night’s storm had abated, and the sun rose, its first rays dusting us in cool violet.
“It happened here in the Keep,” she finally said softly, ignoring the bread with churned butter I had manifested, looking forward to when we could eat food from the kitchens or freshly hunted, as it typically ran more flavorful than anything I could magically produce. “I had just found...”
“Found what?” I prompted when she trailed off.
“This,” she whispered, shocking us both when an ethereal silver crown appeared in her hand. Her gaze flickered from me back to it. “Your crown.”
“Where?” I wondered, noting it appeared to be a replica of my tattoo.
“I’m not sure,” she murmured, her gaze growing different, almost trancelike again. This time she seemed more present than before, though, as she stood and drifted toward where the door had been, only for it to reappear. “I only recall where I went once I had it.”
When she headed out the door and picked up her pace, I was startled to realize this was the moment when I followed her through the Keep to Blaze’s chamber days before.
Or should I say, followed her in her dream from across time, it seemed.
“I need to go show him,” she said excitedly, clearly somewhere else in her mind when she darted up the stairs. “This must mean he was right. That he’s destined to rule the Realm and the Keep.”
Despite shaking my head because I knew she referred to my darker side, I followed her up the stairs, relieved we didn’t come across her and him lying together like we would have the night before if we’d chosen to enter the chamber at the top of the Keep.
Instead, we encountered something far worse.
A swelling darkness rose from the very spot where Marjorie had emerged when she nearly killed Blaze, but they weren't here, and this wasn't that moment...
at least not in reality. Here, however, caught between space, time, and some kind of sub-reality, my darker side faced off with it, ready to conquer it, despite having no idea what he went up against and in a dream, no less.
Then it all unraveled just like Katana’s nightmare.
Only this time, she watched without actively participating, much to my relief. The crown faded from her hand into the hand of her ghostly counterpart, who was so distraught I wanted to step into the dream and comfort her.
Predictably, not something my darker self seemed inclined to do.
“Please stop, Torsten!” she wailed as he confronted the darkness, but it was too late. He shifted into his, my, dragon just as Katana told him she had found his crown.
Rightfully so, that piqued my darker side's interest, and terrifyingly enough, the darkness flew straight at her, only for my dragon to try and block it. When he did, it blew straight through him and swamped Katana before the dream vanished.
“Oh my God,” she whispered from by my side, no longer in any sort of trance when she looked at me in alarm. “It touched us both in a dream.” She visibly shivered. “That can’t be good.”
“No,” I agreed, about to say more when our surroundings subtly shifted, and Marjorie and Blaze appeared sitting by a fire overlooking the ocean, seeming as startled to see us as we were to see them.
“Katana,” Marjorie exclaimed, standing a tad gingerly, given she'd so recently been injured. Her eyes rounded from me back to her friend. “Where did you two come from?”
“Right here,” I replied, nodding hello to them both, glad to see Marjorie doing relatively well after her encounter with Haldor and Skarde, however many days or even weeks ago, depending on how much time had passed here. “Within some type of alternate Keep.”
Blaze was able to feel out my dragon swiftly enough to know I told the truth, and we presented no threat.
“’Tis good to see you both safely returned, brother.
” He closed the distance between us, Marjorie by his side, and clasped my arm, hand to elbow, in greeting, his dragon eyes flaring as he telepathically gathered more. “It seems we have much to talk about.”
“We do,” Marjorie agreed, smiling and embracing Katana, yet all the while I knew they spoke telepathically so Marjorie could assure her worried friend that she was fine after her injury and healing well.
“But first, introductions,” Marjorie went on, pulling back and introducing Katana to Blaze.
“Kat, meet Blaze, my long-lost friend, fated mate, and Liege of the Keep.”