His massive body drops like a felled tree. One wing folds in. His limbs shudder. Fire flickers, then dies.
And then the shrinking begins. The slow collapse inward. Muscle, scale, bone, folding down into a man.
I break into a sprint, heading toward him unsure of what to do. Even if I got to him in time, he’d crush me on impact.
He hits the ground several feet in front of me.
Fear pierces through me as I run to him. "Talon!"
When the smoke clears, he’s human again.
Naked. Bleeding.
I fall to my knees, not caring about the pain. My hands hover over him. Frustration roars in me that I can’t touch him. I can’t feel if he’s okay.
The half of his body covered in black scales no longer glows with orange fissures. They are dull, dark, drained. Black and lifeless, like spent coal. He bleeds heavily from where the scale has been flayed from his ribs.
He lies there in the alley, broken and burned out.
“Aura,” he gasps, lifting his head, eyes fluttering.
Whipping off my cloak, I ball it up and gingerly slide it under his head. My hands still itch to touch him, to hold him.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” I can’t tell if my cheeks are wet from the slow, lazy drizzle of rain or from my own tears. Seeing him hurt feels like someone has ripped out my guts and I can’t stand it.
“Shhh,” he soothes, despite being a broken mess. “It’s just a flesh wound. Don’t worry, princess.”
“Don’t worry.Don’t worry?If it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t have been out here. This wouldn’t have...” My words die in my throat as my senses connect to the nerve endings in my hands. They continue to hover uselessly over his body, but I realize the usual heat isn’t pulsating off him.
My heart catches in my throat.
The foreboding orange fissures between his scales aren’t there.
I hold my breath as my fingers move of their own accord.
Panic flares in Talon’s tired eyes as he realizes what I'm about to do.
“Aura, no,” he barks.
But I don’t hesitate. I slide a hand over his jaw, cupping it.
There is the scratch of his dark scruff raking over my soft fingertips. There is the firm, too warm skin that wraps around his jawline that I feel my way along, tracing the square bones there. There is the softness of his lower lip as I brush my thumb over it.
But there is no scalding.
There is no pain.
Just...Talon.
A half-hiccup, half-sob rocks my body as my other hand reaches for him, and I frame his face.
Fear and wonder battle in his dark gaze.
I stare at him in wonder. “You burned off so much energy, you’re...”
“Cool,” he finishes.
It’s true. My hand is warmer than his flesh even as I shiver in the cold pelt of rain.
