The (Not) Satisfied Dragon - Colette Rhodes Page 0,20
I nodded, not entirely sure what to say after that unexpected moment of intimacy. Maybe I didn’t need to overthink it. Or I could go to sleep and dream about the collection of sweet moments I was building up forever.
✽✽✽
“What is this?” Odessa asked, face scrunched up with revulsion as she took me in. Reuel was holding me up by the back of my nightgown, my feet dangling off the ground.
“A gift for you, beloved,” Reuel purred, tossing me onto the ground at her feet. The stone floor of the entryway jarred my knees and wrists, but I barely noticed it. My family was dead — all of them. We’d gone to bed like any other night, our mother had told us a story. Alathea had fussed, someone had come in to settle her. Now they were all gone.
“You brought a little girl covered in vomit, how generous,” Odessa said drily, her lip peeled back as she looked down at me. “I thought you were going to clear the mountain. Don’t tell me she looked up at you with her big eyes and you went soft on her.”
Reuel snorted. “I’ll kill her right here in front of you, if you need me to prove something. I thought she could be useful to you around the den, now our girls are mated.”
“And when this one reaches her emergence?”
“She won’t be around that long,” Reuel laughed.
“Shira!” Oren's panicked voice cut through the nightmare. I sat up with a bolt of panic, smashing my head into Oren's closer-than-expected face.
“Sorry!” I gasped, clutching my aching forehead with one hand and reaching for Oren with the other.
“S'okay,” he replied thickly, making me cringe. I'd probably got him square in the nose. “Can I sit?” he asked, patting the edge of the bed.
“Of course,” I murmured, shuffling further into the center of the bed to give him room.
This was the first time Oren and I had been alone together since the night before I ran away. Since I kissed him. What was expected in this situation? Were we supposed to talk about it? Not talk about it?
The mattress sunk under Oren's weight and his fingers brushed against mine on top of the sheets, but I didn't pull my hand away. I'd always found Oren's quiet presence comforting. He was steady, constant. If I fell apart, I could rely on him to keep it together for both of us until I'd found my feet again.
“You had a nightmare.”
There was no judgment in his tone. Oren always said just as much as he needed to, and nothing more.
“Yes,” I sighed, frustration replacing the lingering fear the nightmare had left behind.
Oren's fingers brushed more deliberately against mine and I slid my hand forward, linking them together. It couldn't be any worse than biting him, which I distinctly remembered doing during my emergence.
Oren said nothing, but his thumb moved in slow circles over the back of my hand, and it gave me the courage to continue.
“I guess I thought they'd go away. I know I'll always have those memories, but I thought maybe they'd stop haunting me now the threat is gone.”
“They're not a weakness.”
“Aren't they? It sure seems weak to wake up screaming in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, afraid of ghosts,” I muttered. I wanted to overcome this. To not let it have a hold on me for the rest of my life.
“And yet, every morning you wake up and persevere. You wielded those memories like a weapon and got your revenge against all odds and everyone's wishes. Your darkness is a strength not a weakness, little rebel.”
My throat constricted with emotion, and I didn't have the first idea on how to respond to that sweet pronouncement.
“Do you want to sleep in the bed?” I asked, suddenly shy.
Oren grunted his assent, having reached his spoken word quota for the night. I pulled the sheet back, and he slipped in next to me, scooting close enough for our arms to press against each other. The warmth of his body and the steady sound of his breathing settled me faster than any cup of tea ever could. I slept dreamlessly for the rest of the night.
✽✽✽
I’d spent most of the day hiding in the bedroom. Pacing, Ezra-style.
I felt reasonably energetic for the first time in days. My head was clear, my body didn't ache, and that meant I didn't have any distractions. No excuse to put off the reckoning I needed to have with myself.