Frost Burn

Fire: Chapter 6

The din of the rain falling outside of the cave hadn’t let up at all in two hours. Thea and Fitzu tended the wounded as best they could, but they lost three more people while waiting for their magic to replenish or the rain to stop. Fitzu was the only magic user among them with any healing ability, but it was very minimal, and some of the injuries were fatal.

Thea sat on a rock in the farthest corner from the entrance of the cave with her elbows resting on her knees and her head bowed low between her shoulders. She’d never had a brush with death like that—not like that. Men and weapons and magic she could deal with, and had dealt with, but how did you fight nature that was trying to kill you? It was too big, and there was no weapon or magic that could kill it or even harm it. She was beginning to see what Darha was so afraid of and was beginning to feel afraid too. She couldn’t admit that here, though. She had to be strong for her men and the survivors right now. She could curl up with Coor later when they were alone and no one else would see her fall apart. Her husband was the only person to whom she ever showed her vulnerability. Even Darha had never seen Thea fall apart, and they’d known each other for twenty-three years.

Coor was always strong for Thea when she needed him to be, and Thea was strong for him when he was vulnerable, like the time Darha was eleven and became so deathly ill they didn’t know if she would make it. Coor, seventeen at the time, trembled and cried in Thea’s arms for six days until Darha’s condition improved. Thea had held Coor together then, and Coor had held Thea together numerous times since.

Thea sighed thinking about her husband. He was more than she ever deserved in this life. She’d been nothing but a wretch from the streets, orphaned and abandoned first by her father, and then her mother, by the time she was eight years old. Thea had scrounged and scratched out a living on the streets for two years before the King and Queen stumbled upon her and took her in as their own. Coor was twelve at the time; Darha was six and heir to the throne of the Fire Nation. Thea wondered for years what any of them wanted with her, but they treated her like family from the moment she arrived. Over time she came to love them with a fierceness she didn’t think a person could be capable of.

When she was twenty-two and learned that Coor had similar strong feelings for her, her entire world clicked into place. Everything made sense, right down to her parents abandoning her. Thanks to Coor, she was able to forgive them. Thea knew without any doubt, that if it hadn’t been for that event, she would never have known Coor or Darha, and none of her wonderful life since then would have happened.

“Thea!”

Thea’s head came up and she looked wide-eyed toward the opening to the cave.

“Thea!” It came again in the distance.

Panting, Thea was on her feet running towards the opening. “Coor!” She screamed.

“Thea!” He was closer.

“Coor!”

Before she even reached the entrance to the cave, Coor came whisking in. Seeing Thea, he threw his leather hood back and, with one step, closed the distance between them and gathered her up tightly in his arms. He kissed her neck, and cheek, and head multiple times without putting an inch of distance between them. He was covered from head to toe in leather pants, gloves, and a parka. The rainwater remaining on the leather made Thea shiver, but she didn’t care.

“You’re okay,” he breathed into her hair, kissing the side of her head. “You’re okay.” Coor put his hands on her cheeks and slightly pulled away so he could kiss her lips.

Thea let him kiss her for a long moment, but as badly as she wanted to stay in his arms, she gently pulled away from him. “We’ve got wounded.”