“I know, sweets,” he told me.
“You came to me,” I breathed. “I prayed you would.” I pulled my face out of his neck, his head came up and I smiled a tremulous smile into his beautiful face. “I prayed you’d crash into me, but, honey, I didn’t mean it literally.”
A slow smile spread across his face and then he snatched me back into his arms. I shoved my face back into his neck and took him in with all my senses, opening them so I could suck everything I could from him.
Which was why I immediately felt it when his body went solid.
“Fuckin’ hell,” Noc muttered.
Uh-oh.
“By the gods, tell me you jest, Cora,” Tor stated.
Uh-oh!
I pulled my face from his neck and looked up at him. He was looking down but beyond me. I followed his gaze and saw Noc standing in the drizzling rain with his arms crossed on his chest, his feet planted wide looking a lot like Tor. Well, just like him, actually.
Oh shit.
“Uh…” I started and stopped when I felt the heat of Tor’s gaze so I looked back at him.
“You were with this man.”
“Tor, honey –”
“Jesus, Cora, babe, f**k me. You weren’t lying,” I heard Noc say, his voice heavy with shocked surprise and Tor’s eyes narrowed.
“Cora babe?” he asked.
“Tor –”
“I thought I told you that you were not to be in the presence of this man.”
“You did, but –”
“It appears to me, my sweet, that you’re in the presence of this man.”
“I am, but, you see, he was –”
“I was in my world, searching high and low for magic which would bring me back to you, and you were carrying on with this man,” he ground out.
Now hang on a second.
My back went straight and I pulled away as best I could (seeing as we were on Salem), snapping, “I was not carrying on with Noc! He was –”
“You were in his transport with him,” Tor interrupted me to point out.
“He was taking me to Clarabelle to find you, you jerk!” I shouted, Tor’s head jolted and I smacked his bicep before continuing. “A Clarabelle who Harold, Marlene, Phoebe, Brianna, Dad, Mom and half of Seattle have been looking high and low for but Noc found for me in, like, ten minutes. So you should be thanking him because we were on our way to her so I could get back to you before you came tearing through the sky on your mighty beast!” At my mention of him, Salem threw his head back and whinnied, alerting me to his presence and when he did, I instantly twisted and bent to pat his neck and coo, “Heya Salem, missed you, boy.”
He snorted, shook his head and stamped a foot.
“Thank you for coming to get me.” I kept cooing and stroking.
Salem let out a soft, sweet whinny and I knew what that meant.
“I love you too, buddy,” I whispered.
“This is not unusual,” Tor announced. “Our souls are torn asunder, I move heaven and earth, tearing my kingdom apart to find magic that will bring me back to her, she spends approximately five minutes greeting me then she fawns over my horse.” I twisted back to look at him to see he was addressing Noc. “It vexes me,” he stated and his eyes cut to mine when he concluded, “Greatly.”