Chapter Two

jorn KNEW TWO things upon waking that morning. First? If he could crawl back into the nightmare he'd just suffered and destroy anything that meant to harm Rune, he would. Second?

She needed him and needed him now.

When he felt that way, as he had occasionally over the years, he flew to her, closing the distance between them as fast as possible. He tried not to panic when he landed in her cave, a place few dragons dared tread, and shifted to his human form. When he found her alive and untouched, with the last remnants of Demon Fire dew burning off her, he breathed a sigh of relief.

In truth, it had taken everything in him not to scoop her up in his wings and keep her close and safe, given she'd just been taken from him in a nightmare, but he fought the urge. However, he could not fight the anger, fury, and fear he'd felt as he shifted into his human form and forced himself to sit across the fire from her when that was the last thing he wanted to do.

She spoke, but it was difficult to focus on her words because his heart hammered so loudly. Hard to focus beyond the terror he'd felt when he thought she had been ripped from him eternally.

"I did not die in front of you, jorn," she said, or so he thought. "You died in front of me. You ran toward the fiery remnants of a lightning strike, thinking I was harmed, but it was not me. It was you."

Yet it hadn't been him. He saw the strike and knew the tree was going up in flames, but that was nothing compared to the flames that would come from her.

Flames followed by darkness that would take her away from him.

"So you were there," he half exclaimed, half growled when she admitted she had the same nightmare at the same time. Determined to let her nowhere near their dream again and desperate to pull her close despite long vowing to keep his distance, he started her way. At least he tried before a little black dragon swirled over the flames between them, creating a fiery circle in the air before it bounced off the rock wall nearby, yelped in pain, and then vanished into the layer of mystical fog that frequented the floor there.

"jorn," Rune cried, leaping after it only for him to catch her first.

"No, Rune." Before she could fall to her knees and seek out what had to have been a mirage of him when he was younger, he pulled her into his arms and held her close for the first time in years.

Held her close as a man rather than as a child.

"No," he murmured firmly in her ear, resting her cheek against his chest when she struggled. "I'm gone now, and I won't lose you for hours, if not eternally, to the mythical fog."

Only she understood its ethereal dimensions, so he would be unable to bring her back if she searched its magical realm endlessly for a ghost that was no longer there.

"But you're not gone," she whispered, her voice raspy with emotion. She inhaled choppily, as if she'd not only been crying but wanted to breathe in his scent. "You're right here, my friend."

"I am." He stroked her hair, trying to calm her despite feeling more and more tense. "And I always will be. You have my word."

"I know," Rune murmured. She inhaled deeply again and pressed her cheek closer against his chest in a way that made it clear she fought her feelings for him every bit as much as he fought his for her.

They had always loved each other, but at some point, their love had morphed into something deeper and unspoken. A craving that made being around her the past few years both essential and difficult. She consumed his every waking thought and often followed him into his dreams.

Now, she had followed him into a nightmare that chilled him to the bone.

He inhaled just as deeply as Rune, pulling in the sweet scent of her long, silky ebony locks. She had always been by far the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, with large, dark, thickly lashed, luminous eyes and stunning near-ethereal features.

"We have to follow it, jorn." She lifted her gaze to his face. "We have to follow your little dragon because it's trying to show us something." Her eyes narrowed as she felt things only she could feel. "Perhaps even remind us of something...at last."

By at last, she referred to what they knew was coming but didn't know how it would take shape. For years, she'd known the destinies of several of their friends, including Ulrik himself, were tied to the future and twenty-first-century women. She had even set things in motion in ways only her inner goddess understood, let fate come what may. Or at least that's how she phrased it. While vagueness like that would have, and had , upset their friends in more recent years, it didn't bother him.

He understood she was special and loved her all the more for it.

"We can't follow anything yet." He sighed and pulled away before the intense arousal he'd been fighting became obvious, fully aware it was probably already too late for that. "Remember Ulrik will be coronated King of the Fortress today, in preparation for soon becoming high king of the region."

"Of course," she said softly.

He knew Rune was tempted to wring her hands as she sometimes did when nervous but caught herself. Instead, she chanted under her breath and smoothed her hands down a simple dark brown linen dress, freeing it of wrinkles. Based on the cauldron hanging over the fire as she tried to figure out one potion or another, he suspected she'd fallen asleep in said dress last night. Rather than fidget, she stood up straighter, sure to appear unsettled, like her mother had taught her, and smoothed her expression like a proper head seer.

He had always liked that Rune let him see the real her. The less seductive, powerful demi-god seer side. Not to say he didn't find everything about her seductive, down to personality quirks she'd long struggled to overcome. Quirks she still showed him on occasion, like now, as she drifted to one of the larger exits, bit the corner of her lip nervously, and stared out over the sweeping melon-colored sunrise and glittering sea in the distance.

"Once today's celebrations are over, I will go anywhere with you, Rune," he vowed, joining her. "However discreetly."

Their time together had become more secretive than it had been when they were children. Back then, everyone laughed and played and got along. The growing sense of distrust between not just dragon kingdoms but seers had not existed.

"Our time together has become discreet of late, hasn't it?" Rune sighed and frowned at him. "This growing tension between everyone and increasing squabbling is unfortunate. It hasn't amounted to much yet, but I fear it will, and soon." She rolled her shoulders, trying to ease her distress. "There are dark days ahead, my friend. Truly dark days..."

"Then we will face them together," he assured her.

"However discreetly," she reminded wryly and looked to the sea once more as if perhaps she could see in the distant turbulent waves where their future might take them. Saw the waves of time in a way no one else could.

"However discreetly," he echoed, hating it as much as she did, but times were changing, and he suspected she'd long known that was going to happen.

"Yet we are not quite there yet, are we?" Her gaze drifted back to him. "We are all still one people until we are not?"

"We are." Needing to touch her again, he slipped his hand into hers and gestured at the food and drink she'd manifested by the fire. "So let us eat, my friend, and then make our way down to the festivities."

Despite their mutual nightmare and seeing his little ghostly dragon, a manifestation that made no sense, they were able to enjoy their time together. That tended to be the way with him and his closest friend, though. They might be vastly different creatures but they both possessed humanity and cared deeply about each other. So after they sat down, the weight that had descended lifted, and as always, they enjoyed each other's company.

"Aren't you curious where I think we should go?" Rune asked at one point in the conversation. "Where I think your younger self was trying to lead us?"

"No." jorn swallowed the last of his meat and shrugged. "I trust you will know where that is."

"You put a lot of faith in me when I have so little in myself right now," she said softly, nibbling on her bread. Honest with him in a way she would never be with another. After all, a head seer should be all-knowing. If they weren't, they certainly should not let others know. Rune did, though, and he prayed she always would. She deserved a good friend if that was all they were ever allowed to remain because she had so few. Whether seer or otherwise, people had trouble getting close to her emotionally because, so much of the time, she had to remain vague.

They did respect her, however, and that was of utmost importance.

"You are the only one I would ever put all my faith in, Rune." He reached across the small round table, took her hand again, and squeezed it, urging her to meet his eyes once more—to see not just his human but dragon halves—because both sides could only ever be honest with her. "We will figure this out, min lille elskling."

As he'd hoped, a small smile curled her mouth. "It has been a long time since you called me your little love." Her finely arched eyebrow swept up. "Is it so appropriate now, I wonder? We're not children anymore."

"No." He met her small smile. "But you are still smaller than me, and I still love you." When fear flashed in her eyes, he ignored his sinking heart and said what needed saying. "As my dearest friend, of course."

"Of course," she murmured. Her gaze lingered on his face in a way that renewed his hope that one day they might become more. "Because that is...what's best."

Not seeing it that way any more than he suspected she did, he offered a jerky nod of agreement and downed his water, hating every moment of the charade they were far too used to playing of late. They had become too practiced at pretending they didn't feel the simmering heat between them because it was for the best.

"Because it is," she whispered hoarsely, following his thoughts in the way of dragons even though she was no dragon. She squeezed his hand in return, closed her eyes, and pressed her forehead against it. "It has to be because I'm so afraid I am going to lose you. That..."

She trailed off when the flames in the rock-rimmed fire pit flared, and the same sizzling circle his little dragon had created appeared, only this time, ethereal standing stones stood within them. Though they only appeared for a moment, it was long enough for Rune to know what came next.

"After the festivities, we travel north." She gripped his hand for a moment longer as if she didn't want to let it go, and then rested it on the table as though she were letting it go forever. "And you might not much like where we go."