Chapter 28
28
FRIDA
I nearly fell to my knees, and the gasp that scraped its way from my throat left me breathless. Horror writhed in my stomach like a mass of snakes. All I could think was that I’d doomed them all. The guild had come here looking for me. No wait, that’s not right. They thought I was dead, so they must have come looking for Rune. Did they think he’d had something to do with it?
“Hey, love.” Helga was by my side in an instant. Gently, she took my arm and held me still. I realized I was shaking.
I shook my head wordlessly.
“Everything’s going to be all right,” she said with a calm certainty that defied logic. How could everything be all right?
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to her. “I’ve brought this on all of you.”
“Don’t be silly.” She tightened her hold on my arm. “You’re one of us now, and we’re right here beside you, no matter what happens next. You hear me?”
I didn’t deserve her loyalty, but I nodded all the same. That was when I noticed all the other gathered villagers had wandered over, standing in a line by my side. Arvid nodded at me. So did Mellor and Lilia. They were all here. I felt bolstered by their support.
Rune exchanged a few quiet words with the minstrel, then came to stand beside me, too.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Did Erik come?”
“You’re about to see,” he said quietly.
As if on cue, two figures appeared in the distance, striding purposefully down the center of the village road. I sucked in a sharp breath. The taller figure wore mottled gray leathers that amplified his powerful frame, and his chestnut hair hung loose around his broad shoulders. Beside him, the shorter figure was a near copy. The only difference was, he wore black leathers and had my slighter frame.
It was them . A piece of me I’d never been able to forget.
Tears filled my eyes, and I took off toward them, my boots pounding the dirt road. Rune called out after me, but I couldn’t stop now. Not when my father and brother were here , against all odds.
I knew the moment Logi spotted me. His eyes caught mine, and every muscle in his body tensed. Abruptly, he stopped. My father saw me a second later. He, too, slowed to a halt in the middle of the road. His hands fisted beside him.
At the horror-stricken looks on both their faces, I stopped running. They gazed at me across the village, and when I tried to find my voice, it abandoned me.
Eventually, my father cleared his throat, his expression still full of torment. “So it’s true.”
“What?” I didn’t understand. What was true?
“You look good, Fri,” my brother choked out. “You wear life in the wilderness well. You always have.”
I looked from my father to my brother and back again, confusion roiling through me. “What’s going on? How are you here? Didn’t you think…”
The sadness in my father’s eyes deepened. “Didn’t we believe you were dead? That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? For us to think we’d shipped you off to your end.”
A sharp pain lanced through me. “No, that’s not what I wanted.”
“You had the ship’s captain tell us just that,” he said.
Shame rushed through me, but it was muted by a sudden burst of anger. “What else could I have done? If you knew I’d stayed by choice, you would have…well, you would have shown up here, just like this! And you would have no hesitation to—” I stopped myself before I mentioned Rune, and I refused to let myself look over my shoulder at him. They might not have noticed him yet.
“We didn’t come here to kill the orc, Fri,” my brother said, holding up his hands to show he had no weapons. No swords, no daggers, nothing. “If we did, we wouldn’t be standing on this island right now. The magic would have stopped us from coming ashore.”
That much was true. So then why were they here?
“We came here for you,” my father said. “After Louisa told Erik your story, she saw how torn apart I was and later came to me privately. She wanted me to know the truth about what happened to you.” He shook his head. “I didn’t know Erik’s true reasons for sending you to the island. I had my suspicions, of course. But I didn’t know who Rune was or his history with the guild. Well, I did, but he went by another name back then.”
“Wait, what?” I whispered, my heart pounding.
Heavy footsteps sounded behind me, and when I turned toward them, I found Rune, his large frame casting an intimidating shadow across the road. His narrowed eyes were locked on my father’s face. “Bjarki Runarsson. I took my father’s name when I left that life behind.”
Surprise flickered through me, but it only lasted for a moment. His name change made sense. I’d always wondered how I’d never heard of him before. Bjarki, though, I’d heard his name so many times. A deserter, Erik had always called him. Someone who’d turned his back on the guild. But somehow, this revelation made me love Rune even more.
“Hello, Bjarki,” my father said, folding his arms. “I must say, it’s a surprise to see you after all these years.”
“Hmm. Seeing as you came to the island knowing full well I was here, I’d hardly call it a surprise.”
“You fled the guild.”
“I did. Killing people for coin didn’t suit me.”
I stepped in front of Rune. “Leave him be. He’s just trying to live his life out here, and he’s done nothing to harm the guild.”
“No?” My father’s brow arched. “Then why is my daughter still here with him? Asking traders to make up stories about her death? Did he put you up to this, Frida? To get back at the guild?”
“No,” I whispered fiercely. “I did it because I love him, Father.”
His hand fell to his side, his eyes widening.
A rustling sounded beside my father, and I turned to find Logi walking toward me with a broad smile on his face. He flung his arms wide, then collided into me with a bear hug. A strangled noise popped from my throat as he lifted me from the ground, squeezing me in that rough brotherly way of his.
“I’m so happy we found you, Fri,” he said. “And that you’re happy and in love. I’m so sorry I ever asked you to join the guild. I knew it wasn’t right for you all along.”
The scent of brine swept over me from where it had clung to his skin and clothes during the long ship ride from the mainland. To come for me. To see me once more after thinking I was gone. Affection welled inside me, and I squeezed him back. I’d never dreamed that either of them cared this much. It had never even occurred to me that they might come looking. When I imagined the guild hunting me down, it had always been by the command of Erik. So that he could take me out.
But they’d come.
I looked over Logi’s shoulder at my father. He stared disapprovingly at Rune, his arms folded over his broad chest. As if sensing my shift in attention, Logi lowered me back to the ground.
I crossed to my father and took his hands in mine. “I’m sorry I told Louisa to lie to you, but you have to understand. I was trying to protect this place from the guild. Besides…” I took a deep breath to lend me strength. “I realized the guild isn’t for me. I don’t want to be an assassin. I don’t have the heart for it and never have.”
He searched my eyes, the muscles around his mouth tightening. “You could have come home and told me all this. There was no need to hide from me, Frida.”
“You’re not the one I was afraid of.”
My father clenched his jaw, then swore. “Erik’s a bastard. When we discovered he’d sent you off on his own personal vendetta, the guild had a vote. He’s out.”
“What?” My eyes widened. “You kicked him out of the guild?”
“That’s right. And now I’ve taken over.” He motioned at his mottled gray leathers—the leathers of the guild’s leader. I’d noticed them before, but I hadn’t acknowledged what it meant.
“Which means things are changing,” Logi said. “No more vows. No more cutting people out.”
My father nodded. “I made a mistake all those years ago in not coming for you, Frida. I won’t make that mistake again. You’re my daughter, and I want to be a part of your life. It’s what your mother would have wanted, too. So if that means you live here, and we visit from time to time, so be it. And you’re always welcome back, if you ever want to visit us.”
“You too, Rune,” Logi said, grinning.
“Wait, do you truly mean that?” I looked from my father to my brother, hope blooming. “We can still see each other, even if I’m not joining the guild?”
“Of course, Fri. We just want you to be happy,” said Logi.
My father gripped my shoulder. “Losing you once is my biggest regret. I won’t lose you again.”