Fall (The Ragnarok Prophesies) (16 page)

“When Orion’s body washed to shore, Diana was devastated. Even though he was mortal, she loved him. Unable to bear seeing him laid to rest, hidden from the world, she took him up and placed him amongst the stars where he would forevermore be remembered.”

If Dace had to die, I wanted him to rest among the stars, a hero like Orion. I tried to open my mouth to tell him that, to tell him I loved him, but I couldn’t.

“I love you, Arionna,” Dace whispered to me, laying me on my bed. “Forever.”

I fought to hold on to him, to keep him with me.

“Sleep, beautiful.”

He untangled my arms from around his neck and kissed my curled fists. The stubble on his cheeks scratched against my knuckles before he pulled away again. Before I could miss him, he lifted me gently from the bed, then stripped my coat and boots from my body. When he pulled the covers back, I sank into the bed. He sank with me, drawing me up against his chest.

I drifted….

The dream began in the same place it always started, deep in the bowels of the Earth. Rocks shot up into the shadowy cavern, seemingly without end.

I sought the chain, twisting around and through the largest of those boulders on instinct. As always, my gaze threatened to gloss right over the thin chain, but I knew exactly where to find it now. I searched the length of it, checking for broken links.

There were none.

A snarl drew my attention away from
Gleipnir
.

My heart hammered.

I turned, trying to brace myself for the sight of Fenrir. My hands shook when my gaze skipped over the river of foam surrounding his prison and landed on him.

He fought against his captivity, jerking his head back and forth as if he could shatter the bond with brute force alone. The magical chain groaned and screeched, but it held him securely, refusing to break until the magic woven into it failed. Until Sköll and Hati fulfilled their part of the prophecy.

Fenrir’s nostrils flared when he caught my scent.

I bit my lip to keep from crying out.

I stopped moving, even stopped breathing though I knew it wouldn’t make a difference.

Fenrir turned his head in my direction, his hateful gaze settling on me. His upper lip curled into that familiar snarl, the one that made my insides constrict with fear. My mind screamed silent warnings at me, demanding I flee this place and not look back, but I couldn’t leave. I was rooted to the spot, Fenrir’s glare holding me in thrall.

He growled, and the Earth shook below my feet. Pebbles glanced off my skin, stinging like bees everywhere they struck.

I waited for him to leap at me like he did every time I came here, but he didn’t.

The rage in his gaze changed, morphing as always into recognition. Something darker flickered in those yellow irises this time, something evil.

The demonic animal stepped aside.

Ice sprouted in my veins when I saw what I’d missed before.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head, trying to deny the sight before me. “No.”

Dace stood beside Fenrir, a chain wound around his neck, binding him to the rock. The lights in his emerald eyes were wild, as savage and inhuman as Fenrir’s. He looked possessed, fighting against his chain with his lip curled in a soundless snarl. Blood dripped from wounds beneath the chain, trickling down his torso until it covered him in bright red streaks.

I cried out at the sight of him like this, so full of hatred, so possessed.

He looked at me as my cries bounced around us, looked through me. Nothing of the Dace I knew remained in his eyes. They were empty pits, unrecognizable and unrecognizing.

He lifted his head and screamed….

Between one heartbeat and the next, the scene spun. A new nightmare rose up like a mountain around me, ripping away Dace and Fenrir’s prison. But where Dace was future, or my nightmare version of it, this was past.

The dream was no less terrifying for it.

I ran through the woods behind my father’s house. Shrill, inhuman screams clashed with roaring howls behind me. They drowned out the terrified sobs ripping from my throat and drove me blindly forward. Blood trickled down my side.

I stumbled and fell.

I tried to scramble to my feet, panting from my mad flight and the overwhelming fear coursing through me. I lurched forward, grasping for something to keep me upright as I tried to find my center of balance.

A shadow moved, so much denser than the shadows surrounding me.

Yellow eyes met mine. White teeth flashed.

Hati.

I backed away from the massive wolf, too terrified to breathe, and tripped again.

Hati paced toward me, hunting me like a cat stalks a mouse. His yellow-eyed gaze lowered.

Run! You’ve got to run.

I knew I needed to listen to that voice, but I couldn’t move.

I opened my mouth to scream.

Hati leapt, flinging me backward into a tree stump. He dug his claws into me, pinning me to the ground, and tore into my side with his teeth. But, when I looked up this time, it wasn’t Hati killing me.

It was Dace….

My cries still echoed in the darkness around me when I jerked awake. I sobbed, trying to scramble into a sitting position in the dark room. I couldn’t sit up and couldn’t see.

“Arionna, it’s okay. You’re okay. I’m here.” Arms wrapped around me, pulling me into familiar warmth and strength.

Dace.

I burrowed into his arms, sobbing. “I’m s-s-sorry.”

“Shh.” He dragged me closer, crooning to me. His voice was thick and dark, his arms tense. His emotions lapped at me. Anger, heartbreak. Sorrow. Pain.

He saw what I did, felt what I did.

I couldn’t let him turn into that monster. I couldn’t.

I swallowed, trying to beat back fear.

“Want to talk about it?” he asked.

“It was just a dream,” I lied. I tried to smile in the darkness, but it wobbled on my face and fell. I didn’t have the heart to try again, not with my nightmares so close.

He tightened his hold when I trembled again, but didn’t push me to talk.

The clock on my desk ticked away the seconds. Neither of us spoke.

I lifted one hand and rested it against his jaw, still trying to force the nightmares away. Dace wouldn’t end up like Fenrir or Hati. He wouldn’t.

My trembling slowed but didn’t stop. I burrowed further into Dace, trying to bury myself in him. He held me tightly, his body a warm weight next to mine. His breath came evenly. Mine shook as it rattled from my chest.

My nightmare version of him refused to go away. It hovered behind my eyes, shaking me to the core. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t force it away. The rage in his eyes, the hatred….

I love you,
Dace whispered. He pressed his face into my palm, the faint stubble on his chin scratching at my wrist.

“Kiss me,” I pleaded with him. My heart thumped unevenly.

He hesitated, his body stilling beneath mine.

For one long heartbeat, I thought he would deny me.

I held my breath.

He nipped at my wrist with his teeth. “You taste good,” he said then, rolling us until he hovered over me.

A shaky sigh fell from my lips. The nightmare version of Dace began to blur.

“Do I?” I leaned forward, flicking my tongue across his jaw. The taste of his skin on my tongue was as distinct and familiar as his scent. Spicy like cinnamon, sweet like apples and sugar. Warm and clean. I pressed myself against him again, trying to borrow some of his heat. “So do you.”

He dipped his head down, nuzzling at my neck. “You smell good too,” he said as he kissed and then bit a line down the soft skin of my neck. “Like flowers.”

“What kind?”

“Wildflowers.” He nuzzled his face into my throat. “And orchids. Definitely orchids.” His lips brushed across my cheek, seeking my mouth.

I turned my face to meet his.

“I love you,” he said as his lips came down over mine, parting them.

“Dace,” I whispered against his mouth.

His hands slid down my body. I plunged mine into his hair, holding him to me.

“Please,” I begged.

My body melted beneath his, sinking into the mattress, drawing him down with me.

The entire world spun away as his tongue swept into my mouth.

I groaned and clasped my hands behind his neck, pulling him closer as he kissed me, really kissed me, for the first time in weeks. Heat washed through me like a living thing, wiping away the horrible images from my dreams, and leaving nothing but Dace,
my
Dace, in their place.

I thought he would stop kissing me then, that he would pull away like usual, but he didn’t.

He shifted above me, changing the angle of his kiss, deepening it. Little jolts of sensation danced inside me like shadow puppets gliding across the walls. They spun, dipped, and twirled, growing each time he moved his hands across my body.

I arched into him, moaning as he traced patterns across my undamaged side with his fingers. He tugged my sweater up so he could freely explore my bare skin. The flames inside me blazed to infernos. Bright, liquid fire flowed like lava through me with each press of his palm to my skin, with each stroke of his fingertips across my stomach.

A thousand thoughts moved along our bond, each promise sealed with another kiss, another caress. With the searing heat of Dace’s soul touching mine. Of him responding to me with a desperation that had as much to do with unmet need as it did with fear.

His kisses were bittersweet, and so, so good.

He growled my favorite growl. The one that told me he was as crazy for me as I was for him. The one that told me waiting was as hard for him as it was for me. The one that screamed I belonged to him and to Geri, and to them only. The one that whispered to me that everything would be okay. That, somehow, we would make it through this.

Dace stroked his hand along my hip, tugged me closer to his body. “You’re so beautiful,” he said against my mouth. His breath came in harsh pants, his body moving against mine with purpose and determination. He was a ball of sensation in my head, all lips and hands and teeth, and earthshaking need.

I nipped at his neck as he always did at mine. The way I felt when he did that to me was intense, as if he’d marked me in some wolfish way. I think that’s why he did it so often, to remind himself that I was there, that I chose him, or perhaps to remind me of the same.

Nipping at his skin was equally as intense. I wanted to leave my impression on him, burn it so deeply into his soul that he never forgot me and how much he meant to me. So he never forgot himself. I couldn’t get close enough to him, though. He couldn’t kiss me deeply enough.

Please, please, please
, I chanted to him, wriggling beneath him, pressing myself against him until no space at all remained between us. Until his body met mine everywhere, pushing me gently into the mattress below me.

He growled again, his lips reclaiming mine. They were less gentle against mine this time, wilder. I tangled my hands in his hair, holding him to me. He flexed his hold around my hip. My stomach flipped, bottomed out, and then flipped again.

This was my Dace, the one who wanted me so desperately he couldn’t keep his hands off me―and didn’t really want to anyway. This was the Dace I knew, the one I had to save.

“Dace.” His name was little more than a sigh. A prayer that he not stop this time. That he keep going, all the way, and burn away the cold spot of fear still clinging like a vine to my soul.

“No,” he groaned as soon as I demanded more. He stilled above me, stopped stroking his fingers along my hip. His kisses slowed. “Not yet.”

I tugged at his hair, a little punishment for denying me what I wanted. What I needed now more than ever. I needed him to let go. Of control, of fear, and of himself. Just let go for once and banish the pervasive chill already growing and contorting inside me again.

He rained kisses across my face, over my eyes, pleading with me silently for understanding.

I understood. Truly, I did. Hati had nearly torn me in two. A few more seconds, a scant inch or two to the left… I shuddered lightly in Dace’s arms and pushed the thought away. I loved him more than I’d ever loved anyone. Maybe I didn’t have a choice in that any more than he did, but that didn’t matter. Not really. I couldn’t fault him for feeling the same way or for wanting me healthy. I just couldn’t, even if I did want to cry over his refusal to go further when I needed him so much.

I released his hair after one last tug.

“You make me crazy,” I sighed, half frustration, half acceptance.

“Good.” His teeth flashed in the pale light. “I like it when you’re crazy.”

“Get off me,” I grumbled and lightly punched him in the ribs.

He fell back onto the bed and dragged me back into his arms. “You make me crazy too, you know.”

“Do I?” I wrinkled my nose, my heart pounding beneath my skin. I loved when he said things like that to me. “Maybe I should be sleeping alone, then.”

“Not a chance,” he said and brushed a kiss across my forehead before settling back against the headboard. He positioned me between his legs, my head on his chest. “I’m not leaving this bed until your dad kicks me out of it.”

“Fine with me.” I snuggled against him.

We lay in silence for a long moment.

“I’m sorry about today,” he said, brushing my hair back from my face.

“I know.”

The thought of losing you wrecks me.

Geri rumbled his agreement, the first I’d heard from him since before my argument with Dace out there on the quad.

“I know,” I answered. “But you have to face it, Dace.”

He blew out a breath, shifting against me. Tension rolled from him again. So did regret. “I know, but I can’t.”

An image of him chained beside Fenrir floated to the surface again. Was that how this ended for us, then? With Dace like that? Full of hate? A danger to everyone? Hurting himself? Hurting me? He didn’t want that any more than I did. I knew he didn’t.

“I can’t lose you.” He sounded so small, and so much more vulnerable than I was used to.

“Please let it go, Dace.”

A tear slipped down my cheek.