CASIMIRA
dragon-shifting daughter of ashhal and ryatah
She does not know why she had been so afraid of this at first—of letting herself just be here with him. Two sets of twins, and several years of him showing her that he was not leaving and still she had been unable to bridge that small gap that remained between them. She had left it there as if that might save her from falling apart should he change his mind and decide to leave—as if it would ever be possible for her to turn and run back down the path that had led her to him in the first place. As if she would ever be able to go backwards and simply unlove him because he was gone.
Love didn’t work that way, she already knew that.
The path behind her did not exist anymore, a piece of it crumbling to dust with every day that passes and her heart only loves him more. There was nowhere for her to go except forward, and she was still too afraid to take that last step.
She knows, though, that if he ever decided to leave that space she kept between them was not going to save her; it was not going to keep her from feeling the devastating loss of him being gone.
Badden leaving had fractured her, but Savior leaving would be her undoing.
She exhales another trembling breath against his chest, and inside her own, her heart is swelling and twisting with the various emotions trying to overwhelm her: sorrow because of her mother, excitement at their new venture, and of course that all-consuming love that she didn’t want to fight anymore. “I love you, too,” she says into his skin, letting the last of her tension slip away with the words. She finds herself smiling despite everything else, pulling back just enough to brush her lips against his cheek and say softly, “You did turn out to be my savior.” And she was grateful that when he had found her that snowy day in the meadow she had followed the sparks she felt when she met him, and had not let her fear destroy this before it could ever begin.
@savior