Shadowburn (2)

Chapter 45

Sunlight streamed through the canopy above, creating a collage of yellow and orange and green--a haze which surrounded Thorn's consciousness. He was very warm.

And very content.

So content that it took him several minutes of awareness--raising the rather important question of why he was unaware in the first place--to realize that there was a woman tucked into the crook of his arm, curled into his chest.

His eyes found her--and then, once lowered from the canopy, the rest of the area.

Which was utterly destroyed. Grass was burned, trees were scorched and blackened, and the river--about ten feet from where they were lying--looked as if it had lost about half its water content overnight.

Steam and smoke drifted around them, mixed with the scent of blood.

And that horrific scene didn't even begin to compete with the wasteland that was Caelei's body.

Thorn sat up so fast he was a blur, already cursing himself up one side and down the other. How stupid had he been last night? How had he let himself lose control like that?

Talon, he'd hurt her. Was she even alive?

He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer, but he couldn't very well not check, so he leaned down and put his ear near her mouth, hoping to hear breathing.

He released an explosive sigh of relief when his fear was proven wrong. She was just asleep.

Thorn leaned back against the tree--the very burnt tree--and rubbed his temples. It was a miracle that Sin wasn't hanging around threatening him with her obsidian sword.

Actually, he very much wanted to know where by the Echo she was. She'd promised him years ago--the first and last time this had happened, blast him--that she wouldn't let it happen again. So where, exactly, had she been?

The more important question was whether or not Caelei was going to be okay, and how much she'd hate him when she woke up.

Thorn slammed his head against the scorched tree, causing bits of oxidized bark and ash to fall into his hair and scatter across the ground. He couldn't believe he'd let himself lose control. Why did it matter if she'd said she could handle it?

Talon, no one could handle it. No one should have to handle it, that's why he'd always kept such a tight reign on his Cinder side. Why he'd always avoided situations exactly like this one.

Apparently--as usual, it seemed--the little nymph was the exception.

Thorn didn't know what he'd been thinking--well, obviously he hadn't been thinking--or where he'd been planning to go with this. He'd known he would hurt her.

He should have left. Why hadn't he left?

Talon, Sin was going to kill him when she found out. He half wanted her to. And Caelei, blast, what was Caelei going to do? He had no idea. The thought was both frightening and wearisome and... something else.

Would she even wake up? He really wanted her to wake up. Even if it meant she'd look at him with anger--or worse, fear and disgust.

Her not waking up... Thorn didn't want to think about that. Didn't want to analyze the reasons behind his pounding heart. Didn't want to wonder why it even mattered at all.

He caught movement from the corner of his eye and looked down at Caelei again--blast, there was a lot of blood...--to see her stretching. Rather lazily, really--as if she hadn't yet noticed the countless bruises and bite marks marring her skin.