Chapter 18
Eighteen
Bjorn
Home.
He hadn’t allowed himself to think about this place in years.
It had always been a place where he had been safe, understood, and felt accepted.
He had used his magic here. He had proven to himself time and time again that he didn’t have to be Dag’s son if he didn’t want to be.
Until that had been taken away from him too.
The memories that erupted through him the moment he stepped foot here were enough to make him dizzy.
Bjorn had forgotten all the places that he’d run as a child.
He’d forgotten about the emerald hills that made his soul sing, and the wild animals that weren’t nearly as afraid of trolls as they should’ve been.
He’d forgotten what it was like to be tied to the land so closely that he could feel the ground breathing beneath him. What a beautiful thing it was to feel that way.
Taking a deep breath of the fresh air, he made it down the mountain and stood with his feet in the soft waving grass that reached up to his thighs. This was where he was always meant to be. This was where his soul could find some semblance of peace.
“You grew up here?” Astrid asked.
“Yes. This is home to many trolls who do not wish to live in the mountain.” Bjorn took the straps off his shoulders, helping her down onto the ground. “You may walk here. We are not in any rush.”
“We are in a rush, though. The sooner I can get to my sister, the better.” Astrid peered up at him, her eyes narrowed in what might be confusion.
He just grinned. “The trolls here are nomadic. They traverse the fields as the food shifts and changes. There is no set place to find the people we are looking for. Trust me, bright one. They will find us.”
All they had to do was wait. The smoke breathers would be the first ones to know that someone had entered their home.
And most likely, they would be the ones to send others to find them.
But he wouldn’t be surprised if a few bone readers had also read the bones and knew exactly where they would be, and when would be the best time to find them.
They’d likely send a blood witch to bring them to the famed Grotto.
Blood witches were better at sniffing out others than the rest of them. Something about knowing how to find people by their scent alone. He’d forgotten a lot of it in the time since he’d been gone.
Astrid wandered through the grass that was over her hips, running her fingers along the tops of the greenery. “How long will that take?”
“There is no way to know.”
“Shouldn’t we stay put then?” she asked as he headed off into the fields.
“They’ll find us either way. I say we keep exploring, and then I can show you more of the land beyond the mountain.” He grinned at her. “Or did you not want to see more of this place?”
Bjorn could see the curiosity vibrating through her body. She desperately wanted to adventure, but there was still a sense of decorum and reason that held her back. He wanted her to explore, just for a moment. He wanted her to be free to love this land as much as he did.
There was beauty in that. He needed her to see it.
As they walked through the field, he pointed out all the places that he now remembered. “Over there is where I first rode a horse. It did not like me riding it.”
“Did it not?”
“No,” he replied with a chuckle. “It bucked me off instantly, and then I learned what it was like to kiss the ground. I have not ridden a horse since.”
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a troll riding a horse.” Astrid walked beside him with all the grace of a woman used to people looking at her. Priestesses glided as they walked, he decided, and she certainly was.
Much later, he brought her to a stream where she could wash and relax for a little while.
He knew she had to be feeling rather horrid after their journey, but she didn’t complain.
Instead, she had endured all that he had thrown at her with grace and poise.
He was thankful for that kindness, considering how horrible he felt for not providing well enough for her.
“I will leave you here to wash,” he said. “I’ll be back in a while, but you... take your time.”
She turned to look at him, standing beside the area of the stream he had deemed safe.
There were plenty of large flat stones where she could lie out in the sun if she wished.
It was also a good place to dry her clothes.
There were still bloodstains on the white shirt that weren’t likely to come out, but hopefully she could at least turn them into a pink streak rather than the brownish smear they were right now.
The stream was fast moving here, but shallow. He could see that the speed had made the stones less slippery than other places, so he wouldn’t have to worry about her falling while he was gone.
She was safe here. But it looked like she was going to ask him if that was true or not.
So he interrupted her before she could even ask the question. “No one will bother you here. Humans never come to this side of the mountain, and you deserve some time to clean yourself. You do not strike me as a woman used to traveling like this.”
He was rewarded with her cheeks turning that bright, pretty pink. “Was it so easy to tell?”
“Very, Priestess.”
With a soft smile, he left her in the stream.
But he couldn’t make himself go very far.
Bjorn had thought he would explore the area a bit.
Maybe seek a place to hunt and gather them some food for the evening.
He’d thought his own people would find them sooner, but perhaps they were giving them time alone.
For all his mother and her people knew, he was here with his mate. They likely thought he and Astrid would want to be alone for a while before they were forced to meet his family.
He should head out. He should go farther and farther from her, if only to get some clarity, but instead he found himself downstream from where she was. Not because he wanted to sneak a peek at her. He wasn’t that far gone into his own madness.
But because if he laid out on his belly on the warm stones, he could smell her on the water.
Her soft scent eased his mind and filled the small pool he was suspended over like a perfume in the air.
And yes, he could see the dirty water, the blood that swirled in the eddies before disappearing again.
No one else would have noticed it maybe, but he did.
It eased his soul knowing that he had provided her time to be clean.
He gave her until the sun was far behind the peak of the horizon. He allowed the evening to barrel toward them before he joined her at the water’s edge. Bjorn, at the very least, made sure to hunt down some food for her. Arriving empty handed would have been foolish of him.
She was dressed again, seated on the ground with her arms wrapped around her knees.
For the first time, he saw her as herself and not the priestess.
He’d been holding her on a pedestal this whole time, seeing her as a being who was so revered and talented that he shouldn’t see her as anything but.
Except now he could tell that she was so much more than that.
She was small, sitting by the water, a bright light in the midst of green and emerald. A small chip of gold hidden in a stream that had caught his eye, glinting in the sun. So pretty, and yet so small.
The world seemed too big with her in it. And he wasn’t all that certain he liked that.
Bjorn sat down beside her without saying a word, handing her the water sprouts and apples he’d found nearby. “They will keep you going until we find the rest of my people.”
“Thank you, Bjorn. You’re very good at caring for me.” He could see a spark of something in her gaze when she said it. Something that looked a bit like regret, or perhaps... something else. He couldn’t quite tell.
“What is it?” he asked, curious.
“What do you mean?”
“You did not like saying that I was good at caring for you. I want to know why.”
“Oh.” Again, pink returned to her cheeks. “It’s just... I don’t feel like I’ve done that much for you in return.”
“You got me out of the labyrinth.”
She sighed. “I did, but that was more for me than it was for you. Your people made it very clear that I needed to free you to see my sister again. I wasn’t doing it for you, although perhaps I should have.
That makes me feel guilty. Even though I have nothing to feel guilty about.
My head doesn’t feel like it’s been put on correctly.
You’ve been going out of your way to make sure I’m well fed and safe and that this journey is as manageable as possible for me, and I’ve just been entirely useless. ”
That wouldn’t do. She hadn’t been useless, she’d been... been...
No, he wouldn’t allow her to think that this hadn’t been a mutual experience. He couldn’t. “Even without you saving my life, the bond between us has rules. Mostly for me, of course. You wouldn’t know what it means, but I need to be a good mate.”
“You need to be?”
How did he explain this? “A troll wife is honored. I have not been an honorable man for a very long time, and I wish to be. This is a good way to prove to myself that I can still be honorable, even this new version of me.”
She finished up her apple, seeming to think about his words before she asked, “What is a troll wife?”
“Being a troll wife is not just being the wife of a troll. They are worshipped by their partner. Loved beyond reckoning, and treated like the treasures they are. Troll wives are protected not just by their husbands, but by everyone who comes in contact with them. They are worthy of that protection.” He stood, dusting off his pants before reaching out a hand for her to take.
“Come with me. I want to show you something.”
She took his hand and allowed him to pull her to standing. “What if she doesn’t need protecting?”
“It’s not because we think they cannot protect themselves.
A troll husband is well aware of his wife’s talents.
It’s that she doesn’t deserve to hold that all on her own.
His role is to make her life easier, to take the burden off her shoulders where he can.
It’s not about solving her problems. It’s about being there with her. ”
They were words he’d heard his entire life. Words that he had heeded, and he’d prayed that someday he would put them into practice with a wife of his own.
He guided her away from the stream, under the branches until they came to a small glade. The stream ran through this area of the forest, but only lightly. It was a thin, winding snake, surrounded by thick bushes that likely hid what he was hoping for.
Crouching down, he pulled her to a log and set her on it. “Stay here.”
“What are you doing, Bjorn?”
He didn’t answer her. A bone deep need had begun deep in his body. It had started from the first moment he’d seen her and then gotten stronger every moment until this point.
He headed off into the bushes, following the need inside of him that said he had a job to do. Until he realized what it was.
His magic had woken. Finally. After all this time, when he’d thought it had abandoned him to his rage, it was back.
The bushes hid a surprise that he now knew was perfect for Astrid.
He reached into the branches, gently cajoling the tiny creatures into his palm.
Holding his mouth over his cupped hands, he whispered a request to them.
And though they didn’t know the language, his magic made it known what he wanted.
“I don’t like spiders,” she said as he approached. “If you hand me a spider, Bjorn, I will start screaming.”
“They aren’t spiders.”
“They?” she repeated, her tone growing more and more frightened.
But then he opened his palms, and all the fireflies lit up.
Each of the glowing creatures flew toward her, landing on her hair and around her shoulders, some even along her wrist like a bracelet.
She was covered with sparkling creatures, all of them blinking on and off in hues of gold and light green.
“I have failed you as a troll husband,” he said.
“The first thing I was meant to do is cover you in gems. You should be dripping in jewelry by now, but I have none to give you. I don’t even have my own jewels in my ears.
Trolls wear their piercings as marks of honor.
We earn them through honorable deeds. And you should be covered in them for what you have done. ”
“I haven’t done anything, Bjorn. Not really.”
“You saved me. That is more than I could ever have asked for.” And yet.
.. the fireflies burst into flight, all of them heading back to the bush where he had gotten them.
His eyes tracked them, looking away from her blinding beauty.
“But you are not mine. I have struggled with that. I do not know how to be a good troll husband to one who is only with me temporarily.”
“You’ve been keeping me alive. It’s more than I could have asked for.”
“I should do more,” he murmured. “I could, if you were mine.”
But she wasn’t. He wouldn’t even dream that she could become his, because it would only end in heartbreak. They were here to sever the bond. She’d saved him. He would bring her to her sister.
That was where their story ended.
He moved to give her space, but paused as her tiny hand grabbed onto his.
“Your magic is with animals?” she asked, her voice quiet and introspective.
“Yes. I had forgotten. It was dormant in the cells, but there weren’t animals there either. So perhaps that was all it was. I thought it had abandoned me.”
“You become more and more interesting every day, Bjorn.” She used her grip on his hand to pull herself upright. “I’m lucky to have met you. I didn’t know what an adventure this would be, or how hard it would be to sleep on the ground, but... I am glad I’m here. I don’t regret this.”
His heart beat a little harder in his chest. Ducking lower, he told himself it was just to catch a small bit of her scent, not because he thought for the briefest of seconds that he might kiss her. “I am glad it has not been all bad, Priestess.”