Chapter 2
D?RR
Iswept my queen against me, folding my wings around her as the other Blood leaped ahead to help protect access to our queen’s rooms. Lokken planted his palms on the door and effortlessly shoved it shut, giving it a quick coat of ice to increase its hold.
“I thought this fucking place was safe,” Myrk growled, gnashing his obsidian teeth.
“It is,” Clara insisted, though her eyes were tight.
“Though it’s only as secure as humans can make it until our queen has the chance to make the blood circle around the nest.” To the person on the phone, she asked, “Can you tell if he’s human or not?
” She paused, listening, and then looked at me.
“Not human. Could he perhaps be Blood, Your Majesty?”
“Oh. I didn’t even think to check with everything that’s going on,” Helayna replied. “Another one? Surely not.”
“It was a very strong Call, my queen,” Lokken said. “I would have heard it in Svalbard.”
Clara punched a button on the phone. “Say again, Pàtair?”
“He’s very adamant that he must enter,” a man said. “Shoved the front door aside like it was nothing, so he did. Though he took care not to actually hurt anyone.”
Despite the thick door, distant thumps echoed into the chamber, announcing the intruder’s approach. The door quivered faintly as if he pounded on it with all his strength, but it did hold.
:Do you want to see this man to decide what manner of Blood he may be?: I asked her. :Or would you rather I loose Myrk and Svar on him?:
She laughed softly, relaxed in my arms, which told me before her words that this man meant her no harm. :He came straight to me, so he must be Blood. Though at some point, I would love to see your dark alfar shapes in action.:
“Let him enter,” I said aloud.
Myrk and Svar backed up closer to our queen, swords and axe at the ready, teeth and talons bared.
The human consiliarius stayed at the door with the phone in her hand, though I didn’t know what she could do if the new man harbored any ill will.
Lokken checked back over his shoulder, his gaze flickering over the Blood arranged to our queen’s defense.
Then he met my gaze, waiting until I gave him a nod.
He seized the massive door and slung it back against the wall, making it ring like a massive gong, while he braced himself for attack.
As I watched, his shoulders grew wider, taller, his body thickening.
Ice spread on the floor around him, and Clara’s breath clouded the cold air.
His skin lightened to a crystalline glittery blue-white ice.
“Declare your House and intent, stranger.”
“Wow. Okay, yeah. Uh, hello, giant frosty man.” The man spoke quickly, his words jumbling together in his enthusiasm. Bushy black hair streaked with shots of white sprouted around his face and head, and he wore a thick coat made from some kind of animal fur. “I’m Gunnarr of House Friia.”
Clara gave the man a skeptical look. “F?royar, or the Faroe Islands, Your Majesty.”
“Yes!” He clapped his hands, grinning, and looked about the room.
“I heard your Call, Your Majesty, and I came as quickly as possible, though it might not seem like it. I left Svín as soon as I heard your voice in my head. So loud it was like, wow, I gotta go right now, you know? But all I had was a canoe. So I started paddling as fast as I could, and I felt you coming closer, but then you sailed right past way faster than I could keep up. I followed as quickly as I could though it does look like I’m rather late to join the party.
Is there going to be dinner served? Your Majesty? ”
Clara’s frown of doubt turned to an amused smirk as the man rattled off the explanation. He wandered about the room, exclaiming and still talking, presumably looking for our queen, but also completely distracted by everything he saw.
:I’m not going to say anything,: Helayna whispered in my head, her laughter like soft raindrops in our bond. :I want to see if he’ll dare approach you to find me.:
“Whoa, what are you?” He asked Myrk, completely unfazed by the clash of obsidian teeth a mere hair’s breadth from his face. “So cool! Can you fly? I bet you can. Those wings are sick.”
Myrk hissed, but it was Svar who said, “We’re not sick.”
“Oh, totally, sick is like wow, that’s cool, you know? Am I too late to join the Call?” He clutched his head a moment and then gave himself a shake. “Nope, I still hear it, Your Majesty.”
“I have never in my three-hundred-thirty-seven years ever heard someone talk so much,” Lokken said as the man continued walking back and forth. “I bet if you shut up for five seconds you may finally find her, and she’ll tell you her name.”
“I can try, though I’ve always been a talker.
” The stranger grinned at Lokken and then me, shrugging.
“You must be the alpha, right? You remind me of a cartoon I used to watch when I was younger. I may even forget and call you Goliath. I’m your man when it comes to pop culture.
Music, movies, television shows, you name it, I know it. ”
I had no idea what any of those things were, so I glowered at him silently, waiting for him to act as a proper Blood.
That thought stopped me cold. What was a “proper” Blood? Certainly not a dark alfar. We hadn’t even been able to give her blood.
“Besides,” the man continued. “I don’t need you to tell me she’s all wrapped up in the biggest thing in the room.
I’m not good at these kinds of things, Your Majesty.
Forgive me for being an idiot who can’t shut up to save his life.
If you want me to kneel or swear an oath or whatever, please just come right out and tell me.
I’ll do it, without hesitation. I just don’t know what to do for any formal events. ”
Without her request, I slowly allowed my wings to slide back behind me, though I still loomed over her, ready to gut the man if he even so much as thought about lifting a finger against her.
“I’m Helayna Ironheart.”
The man’s mouth sagged open a moment, his eyes lighting up at the sight of our queen. Then he gulped and turned beet red. “Oh, goddess.”
Myrk let out a rumbling laugh that cut through the lingering tension in the room. “I had the same reaction when I saw her.”
Gunnarr reached up to swipe the cloth he wore off his head, twisting it restlessly in his hands.
“Your Majesty, forgive my foolish tongue and ignorant ways. I’m so sorry I barged into your house like this without any kind of notice or warning.
I just heard your voice in my head, and I had to come.
Now. Immediately. I couldn’t think of anything else.
What can I do for you? What do you need? ”
I didn’t need to see her face to know that her eyes gleamed with all the light of this world.
“You.”
The man blinked, giving me a pleading look as if I could decipher the simple word for him. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I don’t understand.”
She stepped closer to him and held out her hand. “I need you.”
HELAYNA
The poor man looked befuddled as I neared him. Clearly, he wasn’t used to dealing with queens or Blood, but that could be an advantage for us. My dark alfar were unlike other queens’ Blood, and I preferred it that way.
With his furs, thick beard, and wild hair standing on end, he looked like the trapper with a dogsled I’d expected to see when Lokken walked out of the blizzard. “Did you really start paddling across the ocean in a canoe?”
Grinning, he nodded sheepishly. “Stupid, I know, but yes. Yes, I did. I couldn’t think with your voice pounding in my head. That was the quickest way I could get off the island and start after you. Our islands only have one airport, not that I have a passport anyway.”
His brown eyes warmed me like a hug. I closed my fingers over his hands restlessly tearing at his hat. He stilled immediately, eyes locked to mine.
I tipped my head slightly, turning my attention inward to the wellspring of Hel’s power that flowed through me.
Waters bubbled up inside me, eager to be used.
I didn’t sense any warning from the goddess at all.
Where Lokken had been a frosty blue ice, I sensed something more like fur with Gunnarr, though what manner of beast, I wasn’t sure yet.
Lifting his hand toward my mouth, I hesitated when he made a choked sound, lifting my gaze to his. “Oh. Should I have asked first?”
“No, not at all, Your Majesty,” he babbled. “Goddess, I’m an idiot. I’m sorry. Do as you will. I just always thought queens preferred their Bloods’ throats…?”
I huffed out a laugh. “I do. But yours is rather covered up at the moment.”
His eyes flared wide, and then he started to jerk and shrug out of the heavy fur coat.
Myrk shared a disgusted look with Svar. :Another reason not to wear human clothing.:
Gunnarr’s coat dropped to the floor. Underneath, he wore a red-and-black plaid long-sleeved shirt. It was already open at the throat, but evidently not open enough. He ripped the shirt open to his waist, sending buttons flying.
His upper body was broad with a deep, barreled chest and muscular arms. Thick chest hair tickled my face as I leaned closer to inhale his scent. His hands came up toward me, but floated around my head like restless, frantic birds, not sure where to land, or if his touch would be welcome.
“I never thought this would happen to me,” he whispered reverently.
“A queen of my very own. Impossible. Queens don’t Call men like me.
I’m not a trained warrior, or educated, or eloquent.
I don’t have much to offer. Even my House is practically non-existent, our queen’s line nearly gone. I’ve got nothing to offer you, but—”
“Gunnarr,” I interrupted, rubbing my nose faintly back and forth against his skin.
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
He reminded me of a giant bear. Furry on the outside, maybe even soft and cuddly. With the kind of strength that could rip off the head of his prey without even thinking about it.
“Please, just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it. I swear it. Goddess—”
“Shut up,” my other four Blood growled in unison, making me smile against his skin.
I sank my fangs into his throat and filled my mouth with his blood.
Thick fur against the bitter cold, with the kind of muscled strength and determination that would send a polar bear swimming across the ocean.
His beast rippled inside him, exploding outward with the same eager haste as the man, desperate to be of use.
Lifting my head, I gazed up—way up—at a giant polar bear reared up on its hind legs.
Giant black paws clawed at the air as he let out a triumphant roar.
Then he wrapped those powerful legs around me and squeezed me tightly against his chest. Enveloping me in luxurious white fur, thick with the salty tang of the ocean.
Myrk snorted. “Let’s hope he doesn’t come so quickly in your bed, my queen.”
In Gunnarr’s fledgling bond, I sensed bashful exuberance, as if he was a little embarrassed at how quickly he’d embraced his beast, but also too delighted to care.
I lifted my wrist to his mouth. “I’d give you my throat, but in this form, I think my wrist might be easier for you.
I trust you, but I’d rather not have my head in your mouth. ”
Indeed, he carefully wrapped those crushing jaws around my entire forearm, though he bit down with delicate care.
“At least in this form, he’s forced to stop talking,” Lokken said.
:Not for long,: Gunnarr said in my head. :This is incredible, Your Majesty. You are incredible. I can’t possibly thank you enough.:
:Thank you for answering my Call.:
His rough tongue licked over my skin and then he released my wrist. Backing up, he dropped to all fours, though I could still lean my head against his massive shoulder and hug his neck. I stroked my fingers through his fur, marveling at how soft he was.
:What’s for dinner?:
At least I’d never have to worry about my dark alfar starving because they weren’t familiar with human food. Laughing, I lifted my head and found Clara. “He wants to know what’s for dinner.”
Her mouth quirked and she lifted the phone back to ear. “We have a plus-one for dinner, Pàtair, and by the looks of him, I sure hope you cooked enough for an army.”