Page 88 of A Witch and Her Dragon
“Come on. The storm is near.”
I’m still trembling. I try to push to my feet, but my knees shake, struggling to hold my weight.
But Raelan’s arms are there, one under my knees and one cradling my back, and I twist into his chest, relishing his warmth and the firmness of his body. And it makes me feel safe, secure. Like there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.
He carries me across the dark clearing, the dried autumn grasses whispering around his legs. The cottage is encircledby a low garden fence, but the gate is standing open, and he walks right through, like he knows this place.
At the door, he shifts my weight so he can use one hand to grasp the door handle. The door swings open with a small squeak of complaint. Raelan steps through, then pushes the door closed with one foot.
And as soon as we’re inside, the rain starts. It’s not one of those slow autumn storms; it’s as if a dam has opened, and all the water comes rushing out at once.
“Can you stand?” Raelan asks. Inside, it’s even darker, and I can only barely trace the shape of his face in the blackness.
“I . . .” I sniffle. “I think so.”
He lowers me slowly to the floor, and I let out a small breath when the cold wood under my bare feet sends a tingle up my legs. But my knees hold steady. I release my hold on Raelan with some hesitance, already feeling colder without him against me.
“This way,” he says, his fingers sliding down my arm until his hand grasps mine. “Watch your step.” He leads me through the dark. I can’t make out what the shapes are in the room we enter, but he helps guide me onto a couch, and I immediately relax into its embrace, my cloak still wrapped about me. “I’ll be back. Just a moment.”
His feet pad across the room, then up a set of stairs I didn’t even see. I stare into the darkness, listening to the rain on the roof and Raelan’s subtle movements upstairs.
Yes, he must know this place. It seems he’s familiar with it, even in the deep dark.
He returns to me a minute later, and I’m still sitting on the couch when he lights a fire in the hearth. The sudden brightness makes me squint. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. And when they do, my gaze goes to Raelan.
He pushes to his feet, then turns to face me. He’s wearing a baggy tunic and trousers—certainly fetched from upstairs—and his feet and throat are bare.
No chain.
For a moment, we regard each other. Something like timidity curls through my veins.
“Are you okay?” Raelan asks, his voice barely audible over the pounding of rain and the low hiss and crackle of the fire in the hearth as it climbs hungrily across the split logs Raelan stacked there.
I nod once, reaching up to swipe any remaining tears from my cheeks. “Sorry,” I whisper. “I just...” Brow furrowing, I shift my gaze to the flames. “I think I finally understand you. At least better than I did before. And I’m sorry for all of it.”
Raelan lets out a gentle sigh. Slowly, he crosses the room toward me, and my heart thrums as he sinks onto the couch beside me. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“But Ido,” I say, voice finally finding some strength. “That”—I gesture vaguely toward the sky—“wasamazing, Raelan. It was... the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever felt.” My skin prickles with the memory of the star-filled sky, the quiet to be found so far above the earth. “That’s where you belong. You deserve to be free.”
Raelan is searching my face, and he lets out a gentle chuckle before glancing away. “You don’t think I’m free?”
I shake my head vehemently. “No. That chain, the magic that binds you...” I recall the shackles that were placed about my wrists, the frustration and anger that arose when I realized I couldn’t access my magic. “It’s not fair. It’s notright.”
Raelan lifts his shoulders in a small shrug. “It’s what I must do.”
“To keep from hurting others, you mean?”
He nods once, the firelight illuminating his face as he stares into the flames.
“I want to help you. I don’t want you to have to live in chains anymore.” The thought of having to wear those magic-dampening shackles day in and day out makes me queasy.
His eyes cut to me. “How? I know of no such magic.”
Biting my lip, I shake my head. “I don’t know yet. But that’s my promise to you. I’ll figure something out. We’ll figure it out... together.”
Raelan regards me through dark eyes. A bolt of lightning offers brief bright illumination. But I don’t look about the room; I look only at Raelan.
“I was so worried,” he says at long last. “When I learned you’d been taken, I—” He flexes his jaw and shakes his head. “I wanted to kill them all.”
