novelraw Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Do you mind if I ask you something?”
Torin tensed at the ominous echo in her voice. He thought she’d finally relaxed enough to sleep. The gentle rhythm of her breathing had been a steady whisper brushing across his skin. Staring up into the darkness, he tightened his arm around her and barely tickled his fingertips along her bare thigh. “What would ye ask me, Emma?”
“Your scars, the severe ones, was it a clan battle or something different—something from the other side?” Emma snuggled closer, making it increasingly difficult for him to think with her warm, firm breasts pressed against his side.
Thank the gods. The lass was only curious about the eternal reminders of his battles. Blowing out a relieved breath, Torin traced his fingers across the raised pattern of the widest scar running across the center of his chest. “A distant sister to the goddess needed my help destroying a deranged beast.” Torin flinched as the memory of the searing pain tingled across the taut raised line of flesh puckered across his skin.
Emma’s silence weighed heavily through the darkness. Torin sensed her mind whirring at lightning speed. Uneasiness writhed through his gut. By the holy goddess, what would the woman ask next?
“What kind of a deranged beast?”
As long as Emma concentrated on his battles as a guardian, her questions caused no pain. A growing furor of dread clamored louder in his mind. What if she asks about life as clan chieftain? Torin hugged her closer, snuffing out the voices of doubt with the touch of her velvet skin. “‘Twas a hybrid. An unholy mix of a sacred race and a mortal sorcerer from another world. The result was an amazingly powerful beast but he was insane and intent on destruction. The abomination escaped its mother and made its way through the gateway into our reality. The goddess needed my help capturing the beast so the mother could strike the killing blow.”
“The mother killed it?” Emma raised herself up on one elbow and peered down into his face. A shocked expression glimmered across her pale skin set aglow by the bit of moonlight streaming in the window.
Torin brushed the back of his fingers along the curve of her cheek, willing her to understand. “Aye, Emma. The mother had to kill the beast. The creature was part Draecna. They can only be slain by their own kind.”
“So the goddess sent you after a monster she knew you couldn’t kill?” The dark outline of Emma’s brows against the whiteness of her skin arched to her hairline. Fire flashed from her eyes, betraying the chaos of emotions whirling through her mind.
Her protective indignation warmed through him like a sweet, welcomed tonic. His heart melted at the shadows of concern dancing across her face. She cared for him. If he’d doubted she’d ever be willing to accept him, he didn’t doubt it anymore. “When the goddess calls ye to save the world, ye dinna have much of a choice.”
Emma poked a finger into the center of his chest. Her curls cascaded over one shoulder to tickle against his face. “But she pitted you against something she knew you couldn’t kill and from the looks of that scar, you almost lost your life.”
Torin laced his fingers through her hair while inhaling the glorious scent of her perfume. Damn. She smelled sweet as the freshest rain when it blew across a hillside overgrown with heather. Without thinking, he murmured against the silken tresses falling against his face. “I did die.”
“What?”
Perhaps he should have chosen better words. With a glance into her stricken gaze, Torin unwound his hand from her hair. Or perhaps he shouldha silenced her questions with a kiss. He swallowed hard with a stifled groan. Too late to silence her now.
Emma’s stare burned into him with unwavering stubbornness. “Well? Are you going to explain that little three word revelation or not?”
Taking a deep breath, Torin waved his hand toward the magical torch on the nightstand and released its golden glow. Emma squinted against the sudden light but didn’t back down from her perch over his chest.
“There is no’ that much to explain. When the Draecna hybrid slashed open my chest with his poisoned fore-claw and struck me with his venom, I died.” Torin waited, watching the reddened flush of anger creep its way up her delightful body and spread across her chest. A fair-skinned woman couldn’t hide her emotions and lore, she wore them well.
“Torin,” Emma warned through gritted teeth. “Stop dragging this story out.”
Torin chuckled, scooting up to a sitting position against the headboard and pulling her to his chest. “I died, Emma. But the goddess mended my body as best she could and ordered my soul returned. A stone guardian’s existence in this world doesna end until the goddess makes it so. Only then are we free to pass through the veil and move on to the next reality.”
Emma pushed away from his chest, sitting bolt upright in the center of the bed. God’s beard. But the very sight of her stole the wind from his lungs. Full rounded breasts jutted through golden red hair cascading across her shoulders. His groin ached, stirring to attention. He could never get enough of her.
“But you keep saying I’m a stone guardian. In fact, the spirit walk worked for me the other day and I finally figured out how to return fire when you decided to start lobbing sheep shit.”
Clenching his hands against the burning itch to touch her, Torin forced his gaze to her troubled eyes. “You are a stone guardian. And before ye ask, the answer is yes. The same rules apply to you.”
Emma backed away to the end of the bed and crossed her arms across her breasts. “So, you’re telling me I’m cursed to live forever? I’m going to have to watch my sister die?” Tears welled in her sad eyes. Great round drops spilled over and rolled down her flushed cheeks. “I don’t want to be a stone guardian, Torin. How could the goddess be so cruel? How can she expect someone to serve her if they’re cursed to watch everything they’ve ever loved die away and turn to dust?”
Torin’s heart lurched at the sight of her suffering. Her sorrow knifed through his chest. He had no words to console her against this truth. Their heritage was what it was. “We are no’ cursed to live forever, Emma. Ye must look at it as a gift. We’re merely trapped within this particular reality until the goddess sees fit to release our souls to move on. Think of the possibilities.”
“Well, it sucks!” Emma burst as she rose from the bed and scooped her robe up out of the chair. Yanking her arms through the fluffy, terry cloth sleeves, she jerked the belt tight around her waist. “I never asked for any of this crap. Tell the goddess I want to return this gift.”
With a worried glance at the moon peeping in the window, Torin raked both hands through his hair. “Our heritage is no’ something ye can refuse, Emma. We were born this way. Chosen by the Powers. We are who we are because the magic flows through our blood.” He hoped the goddess was busy somewhere else and wasn’t hovering anywhere near. Neither Cailleach na Mointeach nor her sister Brid appreciated an uncooperative guardian. He’d learned that lesson first hand when he’d tried to leave this plane without their permission. Glancing around at the odd contraptions scattered about the room, resentment filled his chest. That’s how he’d ended up in the chaos of this accursed place. If he’d listened to the Cailleach and tended to his clan, perhaps she wouldha allowed him to pass through the veil along with his chosen people long ago. Returning his gaze to Emma’s furious scowl, Torin’s heart lurched again. Aye, but ye wouldna have met your heart’s true mate if ye had no’ awakened to this time.
“I know ’tis not easy to accept, Emma. I understand your pain more than ye know.” Sliding across the bed, Torin tucked his plaid around his waist in one fluid move. There’d be no more loving tonight. That fact was evident. “But once ye embrace it and conquer the energies, the goodness ye manage far outweighs the bad.”
“What about the people I love? The one’s who’ll leave—who’ve left me behind?” Emma’s lower lip trembled as another tear rolled down one cheek and she dropped into the chair.
Her sorrow troubled him, settled over him like a cold, dark cloud. How could he help her accept her fate? He couldn’t tell her there’d be no misery. He wouldn’t offer her that lie. “I canna tell ye there will nay be times when your heart will truly break. But ye must ask yourself this simple question. If ye had no’ been born a stone guardian, would ye have been guaranteed a life filled with any less pain?”
Emma’s mouth tightened into a flat unhappy line as her gaze shifted to the floor. Pressing the back of her hands to her cheeks, she sniffed as she swiped away the tears. A faint no echoed from the depths of her wadded sleeves as she used them to dry her eyes.
Tensed with the uncertainty of what response he might get, Torin braced himself as he knelt at her feet. “But know this, Emma. I can always be at your side. We can survive our existence together and never experience loneliness again.”
Emma peeped from behind the fluffy white folds of her robe, her eyes still shimmering with unshed tears. With a shuddering sniff, she buried her face again and curled away from him, farther back into the chair. In a tiny voice, muffled by her arms, Emma released a heavy sigh. “I know, Torin.” She sniffed again. “You know how much I’ve come to care about you, but I can’t get past the idea of never seeing my sister again.” Emma cleared her throat and rubbed both eyes with the heels of her hands. “But I guess—at least there’s some consolation in knowing I don’t have to go through this alone.”
Torin swallowed hard and closed his eyes as he slumped to sit in the floor. Disappointment flooded through him at the wariness of her words. He didn’t want to be some consolation. He wanted to be her reason for breathing.