Thorne (Random Romance) by Charlotte McConaghy Page B

the same time.
    A soft, high voice, counting quickly. It was Penn, panicked and desperate. He counted to block out the fear. Counted every time he felt uncomfortable or nervous. And as he counted now, the sound of those numbers reached something inside Thorne and he blinked. Stopped squeezing my neck.
    The counting continued and I saw him come back.
    Red seeped away and became glorious blue; the violence in his hand grew tender.
    ‘I’m here,’ he whispered, voice scraping. ‘I’m here.’
    Thorne
    Shattered bones and torn muscles. Thoughts too fleeting to hold onto. A whirlwind of movement around me, of screams and shouts and the overwhelming scent of blood, but within it all, one thing that was still.
    Her. Bright yellow eyes. Red welts around a long, slim neck. She led me through the chaos and up into a darkened room. I felt myself sink onto a bed and seep away.
    Finn
    I watched Thorne nose-dive onto the bed and pass out completely. My heart was hammering in my chest from the skin to skin. I couldn’t believe what I’dfelt in his heart – it was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. The kind of creature that was as far from human as I could imagine. Who was this man? Obviously the unease Jonah and I had both been feeling since meeting Thorne was because of his berserker blood, which we could have had no way to recognise, never having come into contact with one before.
    Age-old enemies, warders and berserkers. It struck me as I watched him sleep that I‘d acquired more excitement than I’d bargained for when bringing the northern giant along. A slow smile curled my lips. Carefully I reached my bare hand out, daring myself to touch his arm. With astonishment, I saw that my fingers trembled ever so slightly as they drew closer –
    ‘Finn,’ Jonah snapped, and I jerked away.
    We had rented two rooms and my brother hauled me into the second, where waited Penn, looking agitated.
    ‘Jone, I need to –’
    ‘Hush, Inney.’ He paced and we watched him like school children. ‘This will keep happening,’ he declared, as if it was a decision. ‘We should leave him to find his own path to Sancia.’
    My mouth fell open. ‘You’re joking.’
    ‘Do I sound like I’m joking?’
    ‘You want us to leave a prince alone in a tavern after he’s been attacked?’
    ‘I don’t think he needs help protecting himself!’ Jonah snapped. ‘Am I the only one who witnessed that?’
    ‘I will stay with him,’ a soft voice said from the door. We all turned to see the snow creature with her red, red eyes. Her skin was such a pale shade that it was almost translucent – I could see the faint lines of blue veins from here, like feather-thin cracks in marble. The white hair hung cut straight over her eyes – eyes dusted with lashes of whitest white.
    I sensed something in my brother and glanced at him to see that he wore an expression unlike any I’d witnessed on him before. I braced myself, terror striking. This was it then. He was going to bond, and leave me.
    We were all expecting it, the three of us. But when she met his eyes for the first time, hers stayed bloody and his were the deep blue of an ocean floor.
    A breath left me, one of extreme relief. I wasn’t ready to let Jonah go, nowhere near ready. He was mine.
    ‘Who are you?’ I asked her.
    ‘My name is Isadora.’
    I crossed to shake her small, delicate hand and within that touch I felt an endless, glass-like sphere of water, so calm it belied reason. I stared at her, lost within the sensation of it, utterly enthralled by her. No one was naturally this calm.
    She withdrew her hand and I regretted the absence of it immediately. Swallowing, I muttered, ‘Thank you for what you did.’
    Isadora tilted her head, eyes searching me and deciding on something, though I knew not what. She turned without a word.
    ‘Wait. I have no idea who you are.’
    ‘I’m the reason you’re still alive.’
    ‘Penn is the reason I’m still alive.’
    The girl gave me