What if it was real?
She moved away from the water, toward the rocks. It wasn’t until he moaned, that she saw him. A shivering human form huddled near a sand-encrusted boulder.
But he wasn’t human, even if he looked like one. She recognized the golden hair that whipped in the wind. Conscious of her own nakedness, she crouched down a few feet from him. But she didn’t think he’d even noticed her lack of attire.
“Ash?”
He raised his head from his arms, and she gasped. His beautiful silver eyes had gone almost black. As if his inner despair had flooded his soul.
“Is that my name?” he whispered. Hardly more than a rasp.
Her heart twisted. He was so lost. Her instincts told her she had to reach him now, or he might never come back.
She dropped to her knees beside him. He flinched when she moved, but he shook so terribly he likely couldn’t stand even if he wanted to. Dani reached for him, laying a hand on his arm.
It was cold as ice. Like he was already dead. And unlike before, she experienced no warm flush of energy from him. Nothing at all.
What did that mean for his real body? Was he dying?
Dani pushed herself closer, leaning against his folded legs. He tried to shuffle away, mumbling, “No. Don’t.”
She understood. Completely. The no touch thing was deeply ingrained in her, too. But even his legs were ice cold. Almost blue. And where was the energy that was as much a part of a Dragon as their heartbeat?
Heartbeat. She took his wrist and searched. Nothing. He tried to pull it away, and she released it. Only to lean in and spread her fingers over his chest.
All she felt was chilled skin and bone. No reassuring pulse. No zing of Dragon energy. Nothing at all.
His eyes were completely black now, staring through, rather than at, her.
“Ash. Listen to me. That is your name.”
His lips moved, ever so slightly, as though tracing the word. But no sound emerged. His legs went limp in a sprawl, his arms dropping to the gravel as he slumped back against the rock.
And then he stopped shaking.
Her heart froze. She seized his face in both hands and leaned in to him.
“Ash. Don’t do this. Stay with me.”
His eyelids drooped. “Tired... so tired.”
She only heard him because her face was inches away from his own. He was dying. She was as certain of it as her own breath.
No. He couldn’t die. Tyrez and she were coming for him. Tears rolled down her face, bouncing off her breasts, her legs.
But what could she do?
A tear glimmered its way along her arm. She glanced down in time to see it solidify to crystal before it rolled to the gravel below.
Dragon tears. Crystal was the lifeblood of Dragons.
She let him go to search through the gravel, willing the tears to flow. She gathered all she could and brought the handful to Ash.
He slumped against the stone, eyes closed, unresponsive. His jaw was slack when she opened his mouth and fed the tears into it.
“Swallow, Ash. Just swallow.”
He didn’t open his eyes, but he swallowed. All too soon, she ran out of tears. Forcing herself to cry wasn’t something she was accustomed to doing. Exactly the opposite, in fact.
