Chapter 12
Twelve
Dirk
Before I realized what I was doing, I was halfway through the cut. Against my better instincts, I followed the rich, sweet smell that could only belong to my mate. A scent only I could taste on the air. It was mine alone to savor and to cherish.
I drank greedily, knowing it was putting me on a path to ruin I couldn’t stop. One step and then another, each fresh breath bringing with it the unspoken hint of eternity that represented Ella.
I had to stop myself. I reached out, bracing both hands on the walls of the cut, stopping my legs. There was no eternity. The Great Abyss itself stood between us and forever. Having Ella for all time was not an option for me. No final journey into the west.
You chose a path that cannot lead there. That opportunity was forsaken many years ago …
Yet for all that, I couldn’t stop myself from moving closer. Like an orbmoth to the flame, a thundering need inside me was beating down everything else, driving me to Ella with the need to claim what was mine. One step. Then another. I was moving, and I couldn’t prevent it.
The world around me had grown bright silver, courtesy of my dragon as it rode me hard, eager to get to her, to be close to our mate. To feel her touch once more.
We emerged from the cut, my skin taut and covered in the outline of scales as they threatened to emerge, to cover me.
Stop it. You made this mistake once before with her. She doesn’t want you. You have to …
Mate.
The single word burst into my head like the crack of ice, nearly shattering my resistance. But I was no weakling. I was the Ice Prince, and I would not cave. Not this time. Digging my feet in, I forced myself to stop, and then, with even more effort, I reversed course.
Each step was brutal, but soon enough the cut was there, and I even made it several steps back inside. I was winning the battle. A few more, and I could turn and be gone at long last.
A pained cry pierced the night.
Ella!
I surged forward, slicing my arm open on the rock as I flung myself in the direction of the cry with all speed. Pain was nothing anymore. Banished to the back corner of my mind, I ran as fast as my body could carry me.
Something pulled on my side as I ran, but I pushed through it, ignoring it until the sensation faded. All I could think of was getting to Ella. Keeping the attackers off her until she could get to safety.
I burst into a clearing in the forest to find Ella standing there, facing me, backing away with her arms raised defensively.
“Are you okay?” I gasped, looking around frantically for whoever had hurt her.
But there was no one. Just Ella, alone and unharmed. There was no trouble, no brimstone and ash on the air to indicate a fire dragon. Just Ella, staring at me.
“I’m fine,” she said slowly, her eyebrows coming together. “Are you?”
“Huh?” The question didn’t make sense. She was the one who had cried out.
Ella pointed at my side. “You’re bleeding.”
I looked down. Sure enough, my shirt was soaked through with fresh blood.
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” I said, trying to shake it off. “Must have pulled it open when I heard you cry out. I thought you were in danger.”
Ella leaned to her right, looking past me, and then around the forest. “Were you spying on me? Why are you out here?”
I shook my head. “No. I thought you were in Anna’s room. I heard the voices in there. I came out here to …”
It all sounded stupid in my head now. I had come out here to run away, to give her space. But now, face to face with her, I couldn’t bring myself to admit it. So I just sort of let it drop at that.
That silence lingered. Ella looked away, shifting from one foot to the other. I coughed, wishing my side would stop hurting as the pain returned, now that I knew she wasn’t in any danger.
“Sorry,” Ella said eventually. “For making you hurt yourself, I mean.”
“It’s nothing,” I replied, wanting to be both right there with her and anywhere else at the exact same time.
“That’s twice now I’ve gotten you hurt,” she said.
Her face twisted with an unhappy grimace that I hated to see on her lovely features. I wished I was wittier, so I could say something to make her smile or maybe even laugh.
“I never thanked you,” she said, digging at the dirt with one foot. “For catching me.”
“And you’ll never have to,” I rumbled with a tiny smile, hoping to diffuse some of the tension. “Especially after what I did to you. You owe me nothing, Ella.”
I gestured at her side, meaning the mate marks I had seen when she fell from the sky. My mate marks.
I wasn’t sure what I’d hoped to accomplish by saying that, perhaps to try to help convince her I was actually apologetic, but I knew it had backfired when her face clouded over.
“No, actually, I think I do need to thank you,” she said with sudden stiffness. “I don’t want to owe you a thing, Dirk.”
I nodded. As usual, I was just making things worse.
Fool.
“I should go,” I said, hoping she would understand I was leaving for her sake. “Then you can get back to it. You don’t need me for it, but don’t get too worked up either. It’ll happen.”
Ella gave me a half-frown half odd-stare. “What will happen?”
“Your next shift.” I gestured at the clearing, which she was standing in the middle of. “That is what you’re out here trying to do. Right? Shift again? It’ll come in time. Just … stay on the ground this time. Okay? I’m not quite up to speed to be there just yet. As we can see.”
I pointed at my side with a smile, hoping she would at least laugh at my injury. It hadn’t taken me long to figure out that her cry was not one of pain but of frustration. She, as most shifters new to their dragon, was struggling with establishing the connection to her other half.
“Why would you have to be up to speed for that to matter?” Ella asked coolly.
That hurt. I knew what she was getting at. That she didn’t want my help.
“Listen,” I said as my dragon tried to push me across the clearing to wrap her up in my arms so we could settle the anger between us and move past it.
Which meant I needed to do the opposite and leave.
“I’m just saying you’re going to get it.
And you’re right. You won’t need me to save you this time when it does happen. ”
I nodded, hoping she would accept what I intended as a compliment to her abilities, and turned to leave the clearing.
I had limped three steps when her voice lashed out, stunning me with the wave of fury.
“Save me?”