Fuse, page 9
She used his weight as an anchor then pulled herself up. The pain was excruciating, but she refused to admit it. His afflictions were far worse than hers, so she had no right to complain. If he was able to continue, so was she. “Then let’s head out.”
“You’re doing alright back there?” Flare glanced over his shoulder.
“I’m fine.” She breathed hard and gripped her side when it throbbed. Scaling hills and valleys was uncomfortable on her entire body, but particularly her torso. The weight of her pack wasn’t helping either.
“You don’t sound fine.” Effortlessly, he hiked up ahead. If she didn’t know he was injured, she wouldn’t have figured it out.
“Well, I am.”
“Want me to carry you?”
Over her dead body. “No.”
“Then pick up the pace.”
She kicked it into gear and moved faster, ignoring the pain shooting up and down her body. Mind over matter. That’s what she had to keep telling herself. She was the reason the affliction had come to pass, so she had no one to blame but herself.
She caught up to him and kept up the same pace.
He eyed her up and down, making sure she could really handle the trek. “If you need help, just let me know.”
“I don’t need any help.” And if she did, she would take that secret to the grave.
“Good. You look heavy.”
“Excuse me?” She turned her fiery eyes on him, ready to smack him upside the head.
He smiled like he enjoyed her anger. “I was referring to your pack. But it’s nice to know you’re just as vain as I am.” He laughed and kept walking.
“I prefer you as a dragon.”
“Why? I’m the same person.”
“Not really. You talk a lot more.”
“Annoying, isn’t it?” He surveyed their landscape, his eyes constantly searching for enemies.
“What’s your name?” Flare must belong to the dragon, so the man had to have a different name.
“Flare. Or is your memory that terrible?”
“You can’t have the same name.” He must have been a different man before he fused with the dragon. At least, that’s what she knew about the history of the dragons and humans.
“Flare is fine. Two names can get confusing.”
Anger bubbled underneath the surface then spilled over like a boiling pot. “Why won’t you just tell me?”
“I don’t want to.”
“You save my life, but you still don’t trust me?”
“You didn’t tell me about Dorian, so why should I tell you anything?” He turned his terrifying blue eyes on her. They were unmistakably hostile. “I may owe you my life, but that debt was repaid when I went into that town and risked my neck to save yours. We’re officially even.”
“I didn’t realize we were keeping score.” She turned vicious instantly, probably because her wound still hurt, and she had a blinding headache.
“Just don’t ask me questions I don’t feel like answering. If there’s something I want you to know, I’ll tell you.”
“I’ve told you stuff about me.”
“Like what?” He pulled out his canteen and took a drink.
“My village. My family. My beliefs. Maybe that doesn’t seem like much to you, but that’s everything to me.”
He sighed then stowed away his canteen. “I don’t do well with emotions, so…don’t do the girlie thing.”
“Girlie thing?”
“Where we insist on exchanging feelings and emotions…crap like that. We’re on a mission, and we have to complete it. Let’s just focus on that.”
He irritated her more than anyone else in her life, including Seth. “I feel sorry for you.”
“Sorry? Why?”
“You’re closed off and won’t let anyone in. Clearly, I’m harmless, but you keep me at arm’s length. Why?”
“I guess I just don’t trust people.”
“Well, I’m not people. I’m different.”
“Yes. You’re stubborn, arrogant, and you talk too much. You’re very different.”
She stomped her foot in protest. “What happened to confiding things to me? You agreed to that then completely changed your mind.”
“I never agreed to reveal my true nature to you. I was forced to by your childish behavior. If you hadn’t gotten into trouble, I never would have been compelled to change form and rescue you. You coerced my hand when I wasn’t ready to reveal my cards. I’m ticked off, Cora. If you don’t like the way I use my tongue, you shouldn’t talk to me.”
“Maybe I won’t.”
He moved quicker and put a few feet between them. “That works for me.”
After two days of nonstop travel, Cora could barely hold on. She was falling asleep while walking. Her vision was growing blurry. Sometimes, she wasn’t even sure what she was seeing. She didn’t want to admit she needed to rest, but if she didn’t stop soon, she would collapse. “Flare.”
They hadn’t spoken in two days, and the silence was tenser than the ruthless conversation. “What?”
“I need a break…” She sat down on a rock and bowed her head, ashamed she had to hold him back.
“I was wondering when you would tire out.”
“What?”
“I was curious to know how far I could push you. Honestly, I’m a little impressed.” He squatted down in front of her then lifted up her shirt to examine her wound. “It looks good. No infection.”
“Wait…you were testing me?”
“Yes. And you passed.” He waggled his eyebrows then stood up again. “There’s a cove close by. Get cleaned up and get some sleep. I’ll keep watch.”
The mention of the river brought back the memory of when she bathed in front of him. He stared at her without blinking before he eventually looked away. Now, she understood his reaction.
And she was mortified.
She automatically covered her face in embarrassment. Her cheeks reddened, and her head started to pound.
Flare seemed to know what she was thinking. “For what it’s worth, I liked what I saw.” He winked before he walked into the trees.
“Kill. Me. Now.”
Flare kept his back to her as she bathed in the river. She cleaned the cut and washed away the dried blood. Surprisingly, there was already a scab where the open wound had once been.
The potion worked.
She washed her hair and removed all the grime she’d gathered over the past few days. After she cleaned herself, she felt a million times better. She was still exhausted, but sleep would be much better now that she was refreshed.
She left the water and dried off before she changed. Flare kept his back to her the entire time and never turned around. He didn’t say a word either, letting her have her privacy and her silence. “I’m done.” She pulled her hair over one shoulder and braided it. She didn’t have time to do her hair like she normally would, and she didn’t have a mirror.
“Get some sleep.” He rose from the rock he was sitting on then ventured to the water’s edge.
“Do you need help with your wounds?” She knew he must have one on his upper back where his broken wing would be located. She was still annoyed with him, but she offered her help anyway.
“I got it.” He threw aside a pack he must have acquired in Polox then pulled off his shirt.
“Uh, what are you doing?” She was caught off guard by his nakedness. She’d never seen a shirtless man in her entire life. His chest was hard with strong pectoral muscles, and his waist was thin with chiseled lines of strength. His arms could pull a tree right out of the ground. She kept staring and wished she would stop.
“What? I need to bathe too.”
“Well, I’ll turn around. You just need to give me some warning.” She quickly stepped away and stared at her pack, unable to forget the image that would be ingrained in her mind forever.
“I’m not shy.” His clothes hit the sand of the shore before he walked into the water. “And I thought it would be fair since I’ve seen you.”
She pulled out her blanket and lay on the hard ground. “I’ll pass.” She faced the opposite way so he wouldn’t be in her line of sight before she closed her eyes. Her mind was fatigued from the lack of sleep. She assumed she would fall asleep instantly, but now she was thinking about the lines of Flare’s body. Is that what all men looked like? Were they all that strong? That powerful? Or was that the dragon’s doing?
After a few minutes of pondering, her mind swept her off into a deep sleep. Her dreams took her to a faraway place. She rode the back of a red dragon with her blade buckled to her hip. She defeated the armies of High Castle and rescued the dragons in captivity. And then suddenly, a pair of pitch-black eyes stared into hers. Unblinking and unchanging, they didn’t look away. Whether they belonged to a friend or foe, she didn’t know.
But she knew she was scared.
Ten
When Flare shook her awake, it seemed like only five minutes had passed.
“Lemme sleep…” She pushed him off and kept her eyes closed.
“I’ve already let you sleep for too long. Now, get up.” He shook her again. “Don’t make me ask you twice.”
She opened her eyes and forced herself to sit up. When she looked around, the sun was still high in the sky. She’d been asleep for nearly twenty-four hours, but it still didn’t feel like enough. “I can’t believe I’m still exhausted.”
“It’s only been an hour.” Flare grabbed her pack and stuffed the blanket inside. “I’d be surprised if you were rejuvenated.”
“It’s only been an hour?” She rubbed her temple and recognized the distant migraine she’d had for nearly a day. “Are you a maniac? Let me sleep.”
“Sorry, Cora. I can’t.” He pulled her to her feet then placed the pack in her arms. “We’ve got to keep moving. I only let you sleep because I knew your body would shut down if I didn’t.”
“Ugh…” She didn’t mean to be a poor sport, but she’d reached her limit. Perhaps she wasn’t as strong as she once thought. All those afternoons in the fields and the shop were nothing compared to this.
“We’ll get plenty of sleep eventually. But for now, we need to keep moving.” Flare shouldered his pack then took off at a quick pace. He didn’t seem tired at all, even though he hadn’t slept. Being fused with a dragon must have its perks.
“So, how does it work? Who’s in charge? You or the dragon?” He probably wouldn’t answer her questions because he was so secretive, but she thought she would give it a try.
“It depends on who’s dominant. Right now, I am. So, I’m making most of the calls.”
“Because you’re in human form?”
“Yes.”
“When I was talking to you as a dragon, who was I talking to exactly?”
“Both of us.” Flare pulled back a branch in the way of their path so she could get through.
“At the same time?”
“Yes.”
That made sense. Cora thought she noticed an anomaly when he spoke. Sometimes it seemed like there were two different people in Flare’s head. “To whom am I talking now?”
“Me—the man. The dragon is sleeping at the moment.”
“How does his body…fit inside you?”
“I don’t have the answer to that.” His sword hung at his hip and shook as he walked. “We both exist at the same time—just in different forms.”
“When do you decide to be a dragon?”
“It doesn’t matter when. We can change back and forth as often as we wish.”
“Wow…” She couldn’t wrap her head around that. “You speak to each other all the time?”
“Pretty much.”
“But…don’t you get tired of each other?”
“We can disconnect when we need to.”
Was she supposed to know the meaning of that term? “What does disconnect mean?”
“We close off from each other.” Flare seemed to be in a better mood now than he had been a few hours ago. Maybe he did doze for a few minutes. “Right now, I’m disconnected from him. He isn’t witness to this conversation.”
“Why do you disconnect?”
“We need our privacy. Sometimes you just want to be alone, you know?”
“To go to the bathroom?” You would need privacy for that.
He chuckled. “Not really for that. He and I have never struggled with that type of intimacy.”
“Then what do you need privacy for?”
A smug grin appeared on his face. “You really can’t figure it out?”
Figure out what? “Sorry, I’ve never fused with a dragon before. Or did I not mention that?”
“I don’t think that’s the problem. Your ignorance is the culprit.”
Again with the insults. “Do you enjoy picking on me?”
“Actually, I do.”
“I hope that wears off soon.”
“Doubtful.” He stopped when he reached a large rock then licked his finger before he held it in the air. He was feeling for the wind. Suddenly, he changed course and headed to the left.
Cora followed him without asking any questions. “So, are you going to answer me?”
“I guess I’ll have to spell it out for you. When I’m with a woman, I don’t want him there. And when he’s doing his thing, I don’t want to be there. Make sense now?”
The thought hadn’t crossed her mind. She was grateful he was ahead of her so he couldn’t see the redness of her cheeks. “Gotcha.”
“It’s a nice setup.”
“Do you guys ever fight?”
“We argue like everyone else.”
She couldn’t imagine being with the same person constantly. She’d never been close enough to anyone to want that kind of intimacy. “Do you enjoy being together?”
His voice came out quiet, sounding sincere for the first time since she met him. “Yes. My dragon is my closest friend. Without him, I would be lost.”
His words touched her heart. “That’s sweet.”
“I guess.”
“How long have you been fused?”
Flare let the silence linger.
She realized the error of her question. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to figure out your age, honestly.”
“I believe you.”
“Do you guys sleep at the same time?”
“Most of the time. Right now, he’s sleeping because he’s exhausted. He’s been running around with you for weeks without much rest.”
“I miss him.” The dragon was aggressive like the man but not in the same way. He was gentler.
“He’s definitely the better being of the two of us,” he said with a chuckle. “You interest him.”
“I interest him?”
“Yes. He likes the fact that you’re small but strong. And he says you’re the bravest woman he’s ever come across. That’s saying something since Flare has been around much longer than I have.”
“Aw…that’s sweet.”
“So, at least one of us likes you.”
She grabbed a stick from the ground and threw it at the back of his head.
It bounced off his skull, and he rubbed the spot without breaking his stride. “Real mature.”
“You provoked me.”
“Well, you’re going to have to learn to ignore it.” He stopped walking and looked up at the sky, seeing where the sun was positioned. “We’re making good time.” He marched forward again, keeping the same pace.
She thought about the way Flare took down all of those guards single-handedly. She hadn’t seen combat like that in her life, but she knew Flare was particularly skilled with the sword. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
“Training. Experience.”
“That was vague.”
He chuckled. “It’s true. I was trained in the sword, and I got better with time. Practice makes perfect, right?”
“But you’re really good. Like, really.”
He glanced over his shoulder and gave her a cold look. “I would be flattered if you’d worded it better than that.”
“Just take the compliment, and don’t be an ass about it.”
He faced forward. “Don’t throw another stick at me.”
“I can’t promise anything.” With a swordsman like Flare, she could learn a lot from him. If he took her under his wing, he could forge her into the finest human weapon. “So…will you teach me?” She didn’t want to ask him for anything, not when he would hold it over her head. But she was more desperate to learn than not to ask at all.
“Are you asking me to teach you?” He didn’t look back at her as he spoke.
“Yes.” Her red blade hung at her hip, feeling weightless. “Please…”
A quiet chuckle escaped from his lips. “I’ll teach you—when you’re better. For what it’s worth, you did a decent job with those guards. I was surprised you weren’t already dead by the time I got there.”
She wanted to make a smartass comment back, but she decided to accept the compliment instead. “Thank you.”
“See? I’m a nice guy—when you don’t annoy me.”
Another smartass comment came to mind, but she swallowed it back too. “I guess you are.”
Eleven
The traveling companions kept their hoods up as they entered the gate. The guards glanced them over but didn’t consider either one to be suspicious. They passed through without any trouble.
Once they were away from the gate, Cora pulled her hood down. “Looks like Solstice doesn’t know what happened in Polox.”
“Let’s hope it stays that way. I killed all the guards who saw your face, but that may not be enough.”
“The owner of the potion shop saw me.”
He clenched his jaw in irritation. “Great. Mathilda never forgets a face.”
“Mathilda?”
“That’s her name. She’s a witch.”
“A witch? I didn’t know they were real.”
“She doesn’t advertise it.” He scanned the crowd and made sure no one was paying too much attention to them. “If people found out, they would burn her alive.”
