of her. He was familiar with some of the mortal fairy tales, and she looked like Sleeping Beauty with her golden hair fanned across the black dirt and the way she was on her back, and the dangerous woods that protected her, closed in to form a barrier between her and the world.
The brambles and spikes on the trees began to close in on her, tugging a frown from him and propelling him into action. Maybe she was both the wicked witch and the princess from that tale.
He rounded the fire and sank to his knees beside her, seized her shoulders and shook her as gently as he could manage. “Wake, Calindria.”
She didn’t.
She lashed out at him, her cry as she arched off the ground shredding his soul, and he held her more tightly, flicking a glance at the trees. The thorns lengthened, becoming black spears that were dangerously close to her now. What if she couldn’t control this power either?
A chill skated down his spine.
What if she wasn’t doing this?
He looked at her again, and then back at the forest that was encroaching faster and faster the more desperate she became, the fiercer she fought him. No. She was doing this, but she wasn’t aware of it. She was panicking in her nightmare, afraid and desperate to protect herself, and her power was responding to the threat as if it were real.
“Calindria.” He shook her harder, regretting it when her panic only increased and the trees groaned and creaked as they grew faster in response. “Wake now.”
He put effort into those words, sure they would rouse her. She kicked at him, her face screwing up, a desperate gasp escaping her lips as she blindly slapped at him, as she kneed and wrestled with him.
He loosened his grip, afraid it was only making her worse, that he was somehow influencing her nightmare. She calmed a little, but the trees didn’t stop growing. He pushed to his feet and drew his sword, slashed at them, severing branches and growling when new spikes formed from the blunt ends, only making things worse.
“Wake,” he barked down at her.
Desperately hacked at the trees that were getting too close to her, were within only five feet of her now, and showed no sign of stopping.
He cursed. For every limb he cut, two new ones grew. There had to be a way to stop this. There had to be a way to wake her. Why wasn’t she responding to his command? Had he been wrong and he didn’t have power over her?
He lunged for her and grabbed her, his eyes darting around to find an avenue of escape. When he pulled on her arm, intending to lift her into his and carry her, black roots burst from the ground and snaked around her waist, holding her down.
“Dammit, Calindria, I mean you no harm!” He eyed the roots as they banded around her, each as thick as his forearm. He couldn’t cut her out of them with his sword, not without risking striking her or, worse, causing the root to grow barbs as the branches did whenever he severed them.
He looked at the trees, only four feet from her now. Growled when one jabbed him in his back. Waking her was the only option.
Thanatos took a deep breath and covered her with his body, furling his wings in a way that offered some protection to them both. He tried not to think about the fact she was beneath him, that her legs brushed his with each desperate kick she made, or how her breasts pressed to his bare chest as she arched towards him. He planted his elbows above her shoulders and sank down onto them, covered the top of her head with his arms and tucked her to his chest to protect her.
Cried out as the first of the long thorns pierced his flesh, puncturing his left shin. Another stabbed him through his right wing, jabbing deep into his side, the feel of it slowly sliding into him turning his stomach.
They weren’t going to stop.
He had to do something or they would hurt her too. The thought of them doing such a thing ripped a feral growl from him, had cold fire blazing through him.
Thanatos eased back so he could see her face.
Bellowed.
“Wake!”
Chapter 10
Calindria woke with a start, her skin chilled by the sweat that slicked it, her heart racing as she leaped from a nightmare that had seemed so real, to one that definitely was