Page 70 of Shade of Ruin

~Sidon the Strong, A History of Magic and Dragons

I wake up screamingas fear clutches my chest. I have no memory of the nightmare, but everything inside me begs to find the trees and hide there. Don’t touch the ground. My fingers itch for my spear, and I make sure that my mother’s ring is still firmly on my finger.

I toss and turn, something thick weighing my body down. A trap. A net.

“Maeve!” a familiar voice shouts at me. “Maeve! What’s wrong?”

I try to dig out from the weight on my body, but I can’t. I’m twisted up in it, trapped like an animal. Then powerful handsgrip my wrists, and I scream again. Pure terror fills me. I’m caught, and someone is going to hurt me. To kill me.

But then I see him. Cole. He’s climbed on top of me. His shirt is off, upper body covered in bandages that I put there. His hair’s mussed, and there’s still sleep in his eyes, but the fierceness of battle is there, too.

“Maeve,” he says, pinning my arms to the bed on either side of me as he straddles my waist. “You’re okay. It was a nightmare.”

My breath’s coming out panting, but when I look up at him, I can feel my chest rising and falling slower. Almost like he’s willing it to calm down. Like my body is his to control.

And maybe it is. “It’s okay,” he repeats. “You’re safe.”

Words I can’t remember ever hearing. Words that I doubt will ever be true. But it’s enough to snap me out of the terror. I give him a nervous nod. It’s only then that I realize what had happened. The blanket is pressed tight over my legs, a knot of fabric that I’ve caused from tossing and turning for who knows how long.

“I…” I don’t know what to say. I’ve had nightmares my entire life, and no one’s ever woken me up from one, much less like this. Embarrassment would have crept into me, turning my cheeks a rosy pink, but Cole’s calm mind brushes against mine and keeps me from feeling anything else.

“That must have been a terrible one,” he says softly before releasing me. “Do you want to talk about it?” He’s sitting back on his legs, his weight resting on my thighs, and a shiver runs down my spine as I think about just how inappropriate I would have found this specific situation any other time in my life.

Especially since I’m completely naked. Last night, he’d needed my warmth. I pull the blanket up to cover my breasts, but I’m not ashamed. Memories of the way he’d hurt for me last night flash through me. He’d been in so much pain. So much misery.All to protect me. He may say that he’d have been hurt like that regardless, but I don’t believe him.

My modesty is a small price to pay to give him any comfort after that.

My heart is still racing, though. Cole’s weight on me and the look in his eyes has me wondering if there are shadows trailing from my fingertips, but I can’t look away from him. “No. I don’t remember any of my nightmares,” I say softly.

He puts his hands on his thighs and grins. “You did an incredible job with the medicine last night. Want to help me take off these bandages?”

I frown. Those burns were so bad last night. “To re-apply the medicine?”

He shakes his head and rolls off me. “No, I need to let it breathe. It’ll still be tender for a day or so, but bandages won’t be of any help at this point.”

That’s insane. “One night to heal those burns?”

“It normally takes at least two, but then again, I’ve never slept so good after being punished by my father. I don’t know what you did, but I feel far better than I’d expected.”

He reaches down to one of the knotted bandages and quickly unties it. He winces just a little as he tries to unwrap it, so I sit up and scoot toward him, doing my best to keep the sheet over my breasts. “Just give it to me. You’re going to hurt yourself trying to undo them.”

Cole grins but doesn’t argue when I take the linen strip from him. When I get the first bit off, I think I’m going to be sick. The bandages are soaked with the evidence of his injuries, but I keep unraveling them. He says that they’re mostly healed, and I’m sure he’s able to tell at this point in his life. It’s definitely not his first time being “punished” by his father.

As if what he endured last night could be considered punishment.

The entire process makes me forget about my nightmare and the fact that I’m naked under the sheet as I try my best to find skin under the bandages, desperately needing to know if he’s as hurt as he was last night. The linen is sticky, blood and fluid from his burns coating the bandages, but Cole doesn’t seem to hurt like I’d expect.

Then I see it. The skin that was covered by the bandage. Last night it had been black. Crispy, peeling flesh that reminded me of a chicken that had been on the spit for too long. Now… soft, pink skin covers his chest; no sign of the gruesome wounds he’d had last night. The bandages come off faster now that I’m not worried that I’m interrupting their healing.

Inch by inch, I see more and more healthy, new skin. Not a single scar on his chest. When I move to his back, it’s scarred, but they’re the same scars that he’s had for so many years. The same marks his father had left on him while he was a child.

“All healed up?” Cole asks, a smile crossing those beautiful lips. I nod to him, and he chuckles. “If my father knew that I’d heal in just a single night by actually sleeping, he’d be furious. This is supposed to remind me for days that I need to do as he says. That’s why he burns me instead of whipping me. He actively uses his power and makes himself slightly weaker so that the wounds will last, even with that medicine. Wasteful.”

His smile reaches those eyes, and I can feel the heat rippling around him at his excitement. At any moment, the entire space could erupt with flames purely because of his emotions, but he keeps themjustleashed enough, and all I see are those heat waves rolling off him.

My mouth’s dry, like all the liquid in my body was taken away, as I did everything I could all night not to cry for him. Not last night nor this morning, but now, when I know that he’s okay, I can’t feel those things. Like the emotions have been wrung out of me and there are no more tears left to cry.

“How’d you keep from telling him it’s all a lie?” I whisper. “I saw those wounds, Cole. Ifeltthe first times he hurt you. How could you stand it?”

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