real. Thanatos loomed over her, his enormous body covering her, his face close to hers. His lips pulled taut, a sheen of sweat on his brow as he grimaced, and his eyes were bright blue fire.
What was he doing?
A thought of what he might be intending to do to her exploded in her mind, shaking her.
Fear shot through her and she panicked, shoved her palms to his shoulders and pushed against him, and stopped abruptly when he grunted and blood slid over his left shoulder, a single rivulet of it that beaded by his collarbone and dripped onto her chest, soaking into her top. She stared at the blood as it trickled and spilled, her eyes widening in horror.
Her gaze leaped to his.
Pain shone in his eyes, strain written in every tight line of his face.
“What happened?” she breathed shakily, the fear that had subsided a little quick to rise again as she thought of an answer to that question. They were being attacked. Some terrible beast was attacking them and had hurt Thanatos.
He gritted, “You happened.”
Her eyes widened further. She had happened? She didn’t understand.
“Push back the forest, Calindria,” he snarled and loosed another pained grunt. “It is still trying to kill me.”
Forest? Her eyes darted to her right and she gasped as rather than the log she had pulled into the clearing, she saw twisted sharp brambles and thorns over a foot long right beside her. Her stomach turned, acid bubbling in it as she looked above her, beyond Thanatos, and saw more of those long thick needles crowding the air there, and realised with horror that when she had pushed Thanatos, thinking he meant to do something awful to her, she had shoved him onto one of those sharp spikes.
“Oh gods,” she whispered, panic reigniting in her. “I’m doing this?”
He nodded, his face grim as his left shoulder dropped lower and the rivulet of blood that trailed over it ran faster, splashing onto her chest.
She sucked in a breath as her gaze leaped around. Her brow furrowed as she looked at the spiky black forest that enclosed them on all sides and was getting closer and closer. How was she meant to stop it? The panic mounting inside her reached a crescendo, blurred her thoughts and hurled them together, had her unable to think of a solution.
“Just breathe, Calindria,” Thanatos murmured, and she wasn’t sure how he could be so calm and gentle with her when she was hurting him.
In danger of killing him.
The thought of that happening had the panic suddenly flowing out of her on one breath and calm rushing in to clear her mind on the next.
She closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of the forest and Thanatos to stop it from panicking her again, and breathed, seeking calm and focus. This was her power, and that meant she could control it, just as Thanatos believed.
She reached out with her senses and gasped as she felt the forest, as she felt every branch and thorn as if they were part of her. She focused on the area above them, breathing steadily, mentally commanding it to withdraw. Nothing happened. Thanatos grunted again and her face screwed up, the fear returning as she felt the splash of his blood onto her skin.
Calindria shut it down.
Because something dawned on her.
The forest was responding to her fear.
She curled her fingers into fists, clenched and released them, and blew out her breath. Sought calm. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t. Nothing here would hurt her. It still didn’t work, so she tried something else. She opened her eyes and stared into Thanatos’s, lost herself in that bewitching blue fire that shimmered in his irises as he gazed down at her. She focused on how close he was to her, the weight of his body against hers not crushing, or frightening, but… almost delicious.
His face softened as he caged her, as she continued to stare deep into his eyes, as she relaxed beneath him, grateful for his protection and his sacrifice.
She was safe here.
Safe in his arms, held close to him like this.
She didn’t fear this male, this god of death. She lifted her hands, squeezing them between their bodies, and raised them. Thanatos frowned and darted his head to his left, glared at her hands as she brought them to his face. When she cupped his cheeks, he looked at her, his eyes widening.
There wasn’t only pain in them now, or surprise. There was the barest trace of fear,