Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Rose
Down, down, down they fell.
They dropped into the fissure, disappearing with the rest of the water that poured from the falls into the very heart of the mountain.
The weightless feeling quickly changed, however.
She wasn't just falling now. She was tumbling.
Her shoulder hit rocks, her hip slammed against jutting edges that dug at her skin and tore at the clothing she wore.
Rose let out a little yelp when her back struck against something particularly unyielding and then. .. Then he was there.
Gunnar somehow changed the direction of his fall. He moved so that he could grab onto her, wrap her up in his arms, and take all the pain for her. No matter how many times she felt his body jolt, or the icy splashes of water that doused both of them, he kept her safe.
She stayed as still as she could while the elements tried to rip her out of his arms. He became a shield for her against the world, and as they fell, she realized that was what he had always been.
A shield. A safe haven where she could duck behind his presence and heal.
Maybe she'd been healing this whole time.
Even though she'd been hiding in that other realm, she'd still been healing enough for her to.
.. to... She wasn't sure yet. But as they struck a new layer of water with a hard thud that knocked the wind out of both of them, she realized that she wasn't the same terrified woman she had been.
At some point, since coming to Trollveggen, she had pieced herself back together.
Or at the very least, she'd found all her pieces. Just like Gunnar had said. Now she had to figure out what to do with all of them.
The hard landing tossed her out of his arms. She could feel his claws digging into the fabric of her shirt, trying to keep her with him even as gravity worked against them both. But then her shirt ripped and she uncontrollably careened away from him.
Rose let out a little whimper when her back hit a wall. They were in a pool of water, but this one wasn't rushing like before. It was a sluggish, slow stream that meandered into the darkness, rising only to her thighs when she stood.
"Gunnar?" she asked, making sure he could at least hear her. "Still alive?"
A groan was her answer, and then she heard him sloshing somewhere in the distance. "Where are you, woman?"
"Not too far." At least she didn't think she was.
He sounded like he was speaking right into her ear, but he had been farther away than that, she was certain. Something about this cavern amplified voices, sending them in directions she knew they weren't coming from.
With another grunt in the distance, suddenly light bloomed. Rose hadn't thought it was possible this deep in the mountain, but there it was.
Bright green light came from what looked like a giant flower bud in his hand. It was still closed up, the outside texture almost like paper as Gunnar held it high. He looked soaked right to the bone. She was too.
But there was something very intriguing about the way his hair had slicked back, revealing all those interesting peaks and hollows that she'd always liked.
He was so handsome. His whole form had clearly been kissed by the gods.
Square jaw, proud nose, a forehead that was both stern and somehow kind.
She had never seen a man who looked like him before.
Even now, living with trolls, she had never seen one who was as easy to look at as this man.
His shirt clung to his chest, revealing endless miles of muscle. He was so strong. Of course, all of his kind were. She'd yet to meet a troll who wasn't more powerful than even the strongest of humans. But this man wore muscles with a tempered edge. He was... Gunnar. Her Gunnar.
"What were you thinking?" he growled as he stalked toward her. "You could have gotten us both killed! Or worse, we could have been injured down here and died slowly."
"We are both still alive."
"By the luck of the gods themselves! Damn it, woman!
If you had just stepped away from the edge of that cliff when I told you to, we wouldn't be in this position.
You were reckless. Without reason. You have to listen to people when they are trying to keep you safe, Rose.
You cannot keep taking your life into your own hands and assuming that you aren't going to die! One of these times, you won’t make it. "
His chest was heaving up and down with his anger, clearly barely able to hold it together. He had never yelled at her like this.
But he was right. She had scared him, scared both of them, and now that they’d survived the fall, there was nothing else she wanted to do but look at him.
He was alive.
He had kept her safe.
Just like always. Gunnar had always been the person to keep her safe, even when he hadn't known who she was.
He'd found her in that labyrinth and worked for nearly a year to piece her back together because at the end of the day that was all he wanted.
He wanted her to be whole and happy and living a life that she was proud of.
Gunnar was one of the rare men in this world who didn't see her as a prop, a tool, or a doll. He saw her as Rose, and that was more than she could ever ask for.
Maybe it was the insanity of almost dying. Maybe it was the realization that they were both alive and that she wasn't as broken as she thought. Whatever madness it was, it had her moving through the water toward him. Sloshing as the eddies broke against her thighs and created foam around her hips.
He eyed her with suspicion in his gaze because clearly she was up to something. He could see it. She could feel it.
But he did nothing when she headed right up to him and started scolding him back. "I don't like being ordered around anymore. I don't have any interest in you telling me what to do or what is healthy for me. I am my own person."
"You are going to get yourself killed."
"So what?"
"So what?" he barked. "I have not dedicated the past year of my life to watching over you only for you to kill yourself!"
"If it's what I want, then that's what I'm going to do."
"I will not lose you, Rose."
She was so close to him now that she could see the emotion in his eyes. The loss, the fear, the regret. "Why not?"
The question seemed to stagger him. As if the mere thought that she couldn't understand why he would be heartbroken at the thought of losing her made his head spin.
Gunnar paused, staring into her eyes with that green light lifted over his head. They stood just an arm's length apart in a calm pool of water in a cavern that was just big enough for them to stand in.
And he replied, "You are far too precious to me to lose, Rose."
Whatever piece of her that had broken from years of misuse fit right back into the place it always should have been. She didn't think. She didn't breathe. She just stepped forward and pressed her hands to his cheeks. Rose drew his face down to hers and pressed a kiss to his lips.
Years upon years of experience hadn't ever prepared her for this. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d willingly kissed someone.
Maybe she had when she’d been a teenager, sneaking off with boys in a way that had been far too dangerous for her to do at that age.
But she didn't have those memories anymore.
All she had were the memories of torment and torture, and none of those men had kissed her.
They hadn't wanted to.
All they’d seen when they’d looked at her was a toy to be used, abused, and then used again. So for her to have this moment, she was a little lost.
She didn't know how to kiss. She didn't know how to make this moment more special than it already was. And part of her was still waiting to flinch, waiting for all those memories to come back up. The moment she thought about them, they swelled in her mind.
But then Gunnar placed his hand on the back of her head, gentle, always so gentle, and he kissed her back.
She felt his lips move against hers, a fierce press that wasn't meant to be scary but was meant as a moment between the two of them. A single, sweet kiss, a sealing of realization that they both had feelings for each other that were complicated and messy and perhaps not entirely healthy yet.
Neither of them could deny those feelings anymore, though.
They'd been burning with them for ages, and Rose wasn't even sure when they had started to blossom inside of her. She couldn't pinpoint a particular moment, but easily thought of hundreds. Like how he made sure she’d had her favorite spoon in the beginning because others had triggered her mind for some strange reason. When he had fluffed her pillow nearly every night because it had hurt her neck. How he’d brought her flowers every day in the beginning because he’d said everyone needed flowers to feel better.
Hundreds of little moments. Hundreds of times when he had helped her find all her pieces all without her ever knowing.
He drew back, his lips still clinging to hers for a moment before he pressed his forehead against hers. "I don't want to push you."
"You aren't."
"You have a history that cannot be forgotten, Rose. You'll have to take the lead on this."
"I did," she reminded him. "I kissed you."
A little chuckle escaped his lips. "Yes, I suppose you did. Foolish woman. You should never have given me this hope."
Hope.
He’d said a kiss from her had given him hope, and that made her feel lighter than the wisps that danced around their heads. Wisps that illuminated the entire cavern.
She tilted her head back with a gasp, staring around them at all the tiny balls of light dancing along the ceiling and around their shoulders. "Wisps!" she gasped.
Gunnar let the green light in his hands drop and then grinned at her. "They usually show up when there's light somewhere. I thought this might summon them."
But now he was illuminated, and he was just so handsome.
It was strange to look at a man and think anything other than disgust. Overwhelming, almost. The darkness pressed in on her, but she could look at him and ground herself.
Gunnar, very much not a man who would hurt her.
He was the person who had taken care of her.
And just like that, the darkness started to leave. Just a bit. Not entirely, and not enough that she would think for even a second that it was gone forever. All it did was allow her to breathe for a few more moments and look into his eyes.
Gunnar held out his hand for her to take. "Come on, fair lady. We have to find a way out of here."
Just like always, he kept her safe.
So she took his hand and walked into the shadows with him as an army of wisps trailed along behind them.