Chapter 28

"Before we go in there, I need to tell you about my curse," Tormund said, steering me toward the pond. I sat on the flat rock once again and pulled my knees to my chest, waiting for his story.

He sighed before he began, pain evident in his eyes. "Just like you, I had this curse all my life. And like you, I felt the repercussions of it fairly young." Wincing, he glanced away. "I didn't know how to control my powers for a long time, and I was just a kid. You know how kids are. Wild and unfettered. Emotions are big."

I nodded. Yulla's children were boisterous, to say the least. They were an explosion of happiness and noise, or sadness and noise. So much life they had. I could only imagine how hard they'd find controlling a power like the one Tormund had been cursed with.

"I was at my aunt's one day, and she tried giving me some peas with dinner. I didn't much like peas." His mouth set into a grim line. "You can imagine where I'm going with this. My youthful anger exploded out of me. Rocks fell. My aunt survived, but she was badly wounded. Ever since, I knew I had to hold myself back. That's how I ended up training the way I have. I learned to use my power, but never more than what I could control. And I spent all my time in the mines. I forced myself to hide away from everyone, digging for gold without tools and carts and all the rest of it…"

"Tormund." I pressed my hand against the top of his. "You know that wasn't your fault."

He lifted his pained eyes to meet mine. "I know that. At least now I do. I blamed myself for a very long time, and I've been terrified of doing it again—that or something far, far worse. And I nearly did."

"Except you did control it," I argued. "That's the only way the rocks would have fallen the way they did. We were right beside that pond. After the rocks fell, I was still by the pond. You were all the way over there, surrounded by all the rubble. That's not how rocks fall, Tormund, and you know it."

He squeezed my hand. "I do know it. And I also know it was my love for you that cut through all the curse's bullshit and made sure I protected you from harm."

I sucked in a breath, my heart surging forward. He'd said it so casually, like it was just another word and not something as big as love. Like he didn't mean it the way I thought he had. But as his steady eyes gazed into mine, he nodded, a confirmation that what he'd spoken was true.

He loved me—really loved me. It seemed impossible, this amazing, powerful, wicked demon who had swept into my life at exactly the right time and had showed me just how powerful I was myself.

My breath rattled in my lungs. I threw myself at him, wound my arms around his neck, and kissed him with a ferocious need building between my thighs. He clutched me against him, his mouth hot against mine. I didn't know how much time passed before we came up for air.

Pincers clicked on stone.

"Oh." Tormund laughed and slid his gaze toward the arena of spiders crowding around us. "We appear to have an audience."

"Well, I did promise them some moss cakes."

"Yes, I heard," he said, shaking his head. "Mind explaining how we're going to do that?"

"There are going to be a lot of promises involved. And a lot of baking," I admitted.

"Good thing you like baking, eh?"

"Not as much as I like you," I said.

A grin curled his lips. "That might be the cheesiest thing I've ever heard you say."

"You liked it, though, didn't you?" I asked, elbowing him in the side.

"I liked it enough that I'm now imagining all the things I want to do to you to see which one you like most," he said, his voice dropping to a near-growl.

Heat pulsed between my thighs. And without Tormund's shadows curling around me, I knew that every ounce of desire I felt was real and had nothing to do with his allure. Smiling, I hopped off the stone.

"Spiders and dragons and moss cakes first," I told him. "Sex later. Deal?"

"I'd rather it be sex now and sex later, but I'll take what I can get." He winked and wrapped his arm around my waist. And together, we left his rocky prison behind so that we could bribe a dragon.

It turned out spiders were excellent at squeezing through tight spaces. They helped us move all the supplies out of the carts and onto the base of the dragon's gold coin mountain. As expected, she'd returned from her adventures and curled peacefully at the summit of her treasure. There appeared to be more gold coins than before, as well as a healthy amount of sunstones and a few other gems that oozed magic. Some of the sunstones still glowed, though most had run out of light, like the others.

"Hello," I called out, striding up the shimmering mountain. "You look like a dragon in need of some cake."

The dragon rose her head from the treasure and huffed. Gold rained down, a waterfall of clinking coins. Her eyes narrowed on us, but she made no move to attack. I took that as a positive development.

"Listen, you clearly like pretty things. So do dwarves." I shook my head. Wrong start. "Truth is, we like pretty things, like the sunstones, because we need them to survive down here in The Deep. They have the power to give us light and heat. Only problem is, someone accidentally traded away the source of that power. We need it back. But to get it back, we need to something to trade."

The dragon huffed again, but her tail had begun to twitch against the gold. She clearly saw where we were going with this.

"You have quite a lot of treasure, most of which I'm guessing came from an emerald stone. Am I right?"

A moment passed without answer, then she nodded.

"Good. That's great."

"Is it great, though?" Tormund murmured in a low voice from beside me.

"Well, it means the magic is spent, right? That gemstone is now a bunch of gold. But we were hoping we could borrow some of that gold—whoa!" I stumbled back as the dragon's head soared toward me.

Tormund grabbed my arm and threw me behind him. He bent his knees and raised his fists, clearly planning to fight dragonfire with his bare hands. Fondness bloomed in my gut, despite the fear raging inside me.

"Stay back," he warned the dragon.

The dragon's head swooped closer, but then careened to the side. She poked her snout against the beet sugar bags and sniffed. A smile crept across my face.

"Ah, you've discovered our offering. In exchange for some of your treasure, we'll give you some moss cakes. We'll have to bake them here, of course, since all our heat is gone in Steingard. I figured we could use your flames?" Some scrabbling sounded behind me. "Oh, and I'm afraid we'll have to share some with these spiders here."

The dragon narrowed her eyes.

"If you like them, I will promise to bring you more," I said quickly. "A steady supply. For years to come. All I need is…five mine carts' worth of gold."

"And that gem, please?" Tormund pointed to a gem the color of diamonds, though there was something distinctly not-diamond about it. I cocked my head at him in question. He swallowed thickly. "That magic you feel coming off that stone? It's the same kind that caused Tahir's illness. I think it might be able to undo it, too."

My heart surged, and I turned back to the dragon. "Did you hear that? Tahir is a dragon, like you, and he would love to meet you and your siblings. But he can't, because he's trapped in another mountain. That gem right there? It might be able to set him free. And you get some moss cakes!"

I clasped my hands in front of me and fell silent, as much as I itched to ramble on, ticking off all the amazing facts about moss cakes. They were extremely high in various minerals that were important to a healthy body. Some of our dwarven scholars had done tests over the years. Those who regularly consumed moss cakes lived longer lives. Their wounds healed faster. They had more color in their cheeks, despite spending most of their hours underground. Despite being a dessert, moss cakes were delightfully healthy.

But I doubted the dragon wanted to know any of this. So I merely said, "They're very delicious. Right, Tormund."

I stabbed my elbow into his side, and he coughed. I could have sworn his eyes watered as he muttered, "Delicious."

The dragon snorted into our faces, and the rush of her breath sent my hair streaming behind me. With the stench of her fire flooding my senses, I watched her shift back onto her haunches, nod once, then poke the sugar bags with her talon.

I could have cheered. In fact, I almost collapsed from the sheer relief of it all. My ridiculous plan had worked.

The dragon wanted some bloomin' moss cakes.