Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
RAGNAR
Today was the day. The last day where he might be able to wriggle out of this. They traveled closer and closer to the blood witch, the one who would see into their future and deliver them news of their children. She would mingle their magic, and that would bind them until the end of time. All he had to do was make it to this point, and then, maybe, all his questions would be answered.
He’d successfully avoided his human for multiple days now. Nearly a week of travel and he’d slept in Gunnar’s tent. The other trolls were starting to wonder why his mate was so unworthy of their healer, but he’d never paid mind to gossip.
The more he could hold himself back from her, the better. Ragnar barely even looked at her when he stopped in front of their tent to pick her up and run. It didn’t matter what she looked like. It didn’t matter now if she was even clean. All he could think was that if he could just hold off until the blood witch, then everything would be easier.
He didn’t want to get to know her. The less he knew her, the easier it would be for him to let her go.
He’d denied her this long. The blood witch would know. She would sense that they were not a good match and that their children would suffer because of it.
Stopping in front of their tent, he took a deep breath and steadied himself. Just one day with her alone. One day where he couldn’t distract himself by talking to the other trolls or pretending to be out of breath while he ran. This was easy enough.
But then Maia walked out of the tent as though she knew he was waiting and all the breath in his lungs rushed out.
The piercings in her ears. He had known they’d done it, but he hadn’t expected her to be so lovely wearing them. The gold sat on her skin better than anything he would have chosen for a troll wife. They were delicate and thin wired, not so flashy that they were the first thing anyone saw, but still lovely all the same. When she moved, her red hair tangled around them, leaving little sparks of gold in the strands.
He suddenly had a vision of what he would make her. Golden clasps for her hair. He’d braid it into intricate weavings and then seal those braids with golden caps. She was a woman made for gold. Perhaps he would inlay rubies in a necklace as well, because those would look so pretty sitting against that graceful throat, bouncing against her pulse.
And then he scowled at his own thoughts. He would not decorate her with anything at all. She was a human, and he did not want a human for his troll wife. He never had. He would not bend now simply because she hadn’t complained at all during this journey.
“Come,” he said, holding out his hand for her to take. “We see the blood witch today.”
“Who is that?”
He just impatiently thrust his hand toward her, waiting until she would wrap her arms around his neck and they could be off. Usually she was quick to jump when he ordered her, but this time, she did not. Instead, she sidestepped his hand and wrapped her arms around herself.
“I’d prefer to walk if it’s not far,” she said.
She didn’t meet his eyes when she said it, but it was the first time she’d ever asked him for anything. Progress. He wanted her to tell him when she needed something, even if he wasn’t going to keep her. He shouldn’t.
But he still found himself nodding. “We can walk.”
No , he did not want to walk! He didn’t want to give her a chance to start talking to him because that was the very last thing he should be doing. She was the enemy. A creature of terrifying abilities to do more damage than he could ever dream up. She and her kind were the monsters in this realm, not his.
Yet he walked with her. He guided her away from the camp until it was just them. There was only the sound of their footsteps in the forest as they meandered away from the others. The companionable silence was well enough for him. It wouldn’t convince him to change his mind, but then she started talking and he just... listened.
“The forest always frightened me when I was young. People told stories about all the terrible things that lurked in the dark and all the awful ways we would die if we went beyond the treeline.” He watched her press her fingers to the bark of an old tree, using it to help her over a fallen log. “But I don’t think the forest is so scary now.”
“There are beasts in these woods that are dangerous. Dire wolves, stone bears, even the Weavers, which are similar to large spiders, but they can speak.” Ragnar shrugged. “Those stories were likely told to keep you safe.”
“I suppose so. But I wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn that it isn’t all bad. I think my life is better for having known that not everything in these woods is terrifying.”
He hated that he liked what she said. Ragnar had been the one to show her there was more to this world than just what she had seen through her human eyes. He was the one who had given her the gift of the forest’s beauty.
Damn it, he had other things to do here. Like keep himself held away from her so the blood witch would change her mind.
He told himself to say something, anything, that would make her angry at him. There were words that could fly between them, and keep her at arm’s length. That was all it would take. A single sentence that would fill her with rage or fear of him.
“The blood witch can determine if we are not compatible,” he said, clearing his throat at the sheer wrongness of saying that. “She is the final test before you become my bonded mate.”
Maia staggered. He grabbed her elbow, certain she had tripped. But there didn’t appear to be anything that she’d caught her foot on.
Quickly she stammered, “What do you mean, the final test?”
“There are many seers for us to meet with before we can truly become mates.”
“But we’re married?”
He didn’t see how this was any reason for her to look so surprised. “In your human ways, yes. We are.”
Her mouth opened, closed, mimicked being a fish for a few moments before she gasped, “But we said vows before a priest. Nothing can change that.”
“In the human kingdom we are married. Not yet in mine.” He released her and shook off the sensation of her on his hand. No matter how many times he touched her, she lingered on his skin. Everywhere burned whenever he touched her. The heated sensation was distracting.
He continued forward, listening to her follow him after a bit of time. He knew it would take her a while to say anything, so he indulged himself in enjoying a sunny day in the forest. Ragnar focused on the beauty of the leaves, how pretty the song of the birds was, but then it grew too much.
Finally he turned around, crossed his arms over his barreled chest, and asked the question that had been burning in him for ages now. “Why do you not argue with me?”
She froze like he was a hunter who had come across a deer. Her eyes widened, her limbs tensed as though preparing to flee, but she didn’t. She stood there and said, “Do you want me to argue with you?”
He blew out a frustrated breath. “I want you to say what you’re thinking. I do not enjoy that you play coy and pretend to be some weak little thing. There is fire in you. A fight. It lives in all things just as the dragons of old breathed fire. You hold yourself back, and I do not understand why.”
She swallowed hard, her throat bobbing with the emotion. “Most people don’t want to fight.”
“Troll wives do. You dishonor me by not speaking your mind.”
He watched as she blinked and then drew her body in on herself. But she didn’t quite curve like normal. Instead, she took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. “When I was growing up, I was told the sound of a woman speaking was grating on the nerves of men. My opinions did not matter. My knowledge about any subject also did not matter. I was to be silent, seen but not heard. That’s how I was raised.”
It made sense. But what didn’t make sense was why she still clung to those flawed teachings. “You are free from such expectations. You are now a troll wife. Act like one.”
He turned to go, assuming this conversation was over, but then heard her bitter laugh. He turned again, his brow arched in surprise.
Maia stood there in the glen, her arms raised as if in shock. “You think that’s it? You just say I don’t have to be like that anymore and an entire lifetime of discipline will disappear?”
“Yes. I gave you permission to let those memories go.”
“That’s not how it works!” It was the loudest he’d ever heard her.
Maia’s eyes widened as she registered her own volume. But this was what he had wanted. This was the person he thought might live inside of her. It was the same woman whose eyes had glittered with rage at their wedding.
He took a step closer to her, everything in him insistent that he push. “It sounds to me as if you are clinging to these old ideals. You are the one who wishes to be silent and meek.”
“That is not who I am.”
“You could’ve fooled me. Since the first moment I met you, you have been silent. Quiet. Lingering in the shadows like a mouse, flinching at every loud noise. You are nothing like a troll wife should be.”
He could see the red gathering at the base of her neck, slowly moving up her throat as massive emotions filtered through her body. And still, her voice was only mildly loud when she replied, “I do not cling to anything, troll! I’ve lived my entire life under a certain set of circumstances that kept me safe. I made my own rules, and they got me to where I am now.”
“Those rules bind you. You created your own chains and your own prison. This is foolish human nature and why you will never be worthy.” He walked ever closer to her, close enough to touch her if he lifted his arm.
She glared up at him. “It’s not a prison if it keeps me safe!”
“A prison is four walls from which you do not allow yourself to leave. You stare out at the world beyond, and you wish to live in it. You’ve told me so. The forest scared you? Everything seems to scare you, fire hair.”
“Don’t call me that.”
He arched a brow, making all of this worse. “I’ll call you whatever I want. Human scum. Weak woman. Fire hair, troll wife—I’ll call you whatever I want because you don’t fight back.”
“Enough.” That red had reached her face now. Tomato red cheeks matched her hair. If she had been a troll, she would have smacked him already.
“It will never be enough. I will torment you for the rest of your life because you do not have a single bone in your body worthy of me .”
And just like that, she exploded.
Both of her hands came down on his chest and shoved with surprising strength. She even pushed him back an entire step with the force of her anger. “Worthy of you? I know nothing of this world you brought me into. I’m not even supposed to be here! You don’t listen to me, you don’t do anything right according to the other trolls I’ve spoken with!” she seethed. “You dress me in rags and someone else had to pierce my ears and give me jewelry from her own husband! Nothing about you makes me wish I was worthy of your attention. You’ve wasted both of our times and I hope to all the gods in the sky and everyone who can hear me that the blood witch finds us incompatible, you absolute beast!”
Ragnar stared at her, watching as her chest rose and fell with the power of rage that coursed through her veins. She glared at him, bright red and angry. Her nostrils flared and her eyes were so green that he swore he could see the forest in them. Her hands curled into fists, perhaps ready to punch him if he pushed back at her in the slightest.
Instead, he raised his hands and nodded. “For a moment, I believed perhaps you had a spine after all. More of that, fire hair, and you’ll do just fine.”
She somehow turned even more red. “Excuse me?”
“You show your true strength when you’re angry. Such is power. When you let that fuel you, you can see more than what you did when you were trying to hide. I didn’t realize you were disappointed in my treatment of you.”
“How could I not be?” Maia burst out, shouting it into the forest.
And still, he grinned even wider. “I didn’t think you cared how I treated you.”
“You were the one who said you would never be my husband on our wedding day.” She turned her nose up at him and sniffed. “I’m just informing you that you were right.”
He wanted to kiss her. He’d wipe that snotty expression off her face and bring her down onto the bed of leaves at her feet. He’d ravage her right here in the forest until she screamed so loud the other trolls would hear her. All just to wipe that smug expression off her face. But she wouldn’t welcome that. Not when she was so angry at him.
Instead, he gestured for her to follow him. “The blood witch will determine if you are right.”
“I’ll make sure she sees reason,” Maia snapped before stomping in front of him.
He walked behind her, only giving her directions when she started going the wrong way. And what a view. He’d never noticed how round her hips were beneath that shirt, nor had he noticed how her bottom swayed with every step. It was quite the sight. Almost enough to make him like her.
But then the blood witch’s hovel appeared out of the trees. Her kind always lived in earthbound homes. This hut had sunk into the forest floor. It looked like a hill covered in fallen branches, earth, and moss. Hard to notice at all, unless one knew what they were looking for.
“There,” he said, pointing at the door that was barely a door. “We’re going in there.”
The worn wood, half rotten, swung open on its own. The smell of mildew and mushrooms filled the air as smoke poured out of the room beyond.
Maia gulped, her throat working to swallow her fear. But she didn’t cower like he’d expected. Instead, she just gave him a determined nod. “Looks inviting.”
Ragnar chuckled and followed her into the shadows. He’d known it was a bad idea to be alone with her. But now that he’d discovered her ire, he found he rather liked her.