31. The Nightmare Prince
Chapter 31
I lifted one of the books from the trunk Raum and Lynx stole from Skadi the day of our arrival.
A night of nightmares, recovering from fevers, and a hunt through a storm put us days behind. There was a bit of guilt from watching Skadi re-read tomes or wander about the royal study looking for anything more entertaining than alver lines and mesmer histories.
I inspected one of the colorful elven books, red leather with gold lettering and pastel paintings inside. “She brought more of these tales than she did gowns.”
“I respect that,” Sander said, adding a bit of white stain to a chip in one of the shelves.
The corner of my mouth twitched, recalling how long I listened to the gentle whisper of her voice while she read of the elven king and the fair maiden bride. A tale of cruel hearts being soothed by the goodness of love.
In the end, the maiden gave her life for her king before her own people could destroy him. Lost in grief, he offered his heartsblood to the land and from the soil sprouted a tree with golden leaves, the shade of his lover’s hair.
An everlasting symbol of the woman he loved, the king was buried under its leaves when he went to find her in the Otherworld.
Skadi had hugged the book to her breast when she finished the story last night, a whimsical smile on her face. I was captivated in her passion, but had no retort other than she read me a damn tragedy and I wanted the ending changed.
“It is about true love,” she said. “The tree roots ran so deep in his kingdom, it would never fall, and they lived together in the gods’ hall.”
I kissed the tip of her nose. “I would’ve preferred she tell her people to go to the hells instead of being a martyr, that’s all I’m saying.”
Skadi had rolled her eyes and nestled against my chest. “Maybe she should’ve, but it was still a declaration of her love, you snob.”
Von cursed, tripping over a stack of books, and drew me back to the present moment. “Remind me again why you had me drag half of Nik’s library here?”
“First, Nik has a ridiculously expansive library and won’t miss them. Second, she didn’t bring enough to fill the shelves. Thought maybe she’d like to read a few more fae tales from the dregs.”
Von said nothing, simply pinched his mouth tight and shared a stupidly sly look with Sander.
“What?” I offered a narrow gaze. “You think she’ll despise it, don’t you? Gods, I ought to have thought of something more tangible. Bloodsinger gives Liv jewelry. Daj gives Maj notes.” I slumped in a chair, tossing the book back into the pile. “My gift is a mountain of fables.”
Sander and Von didn’t return to their secret glances. The bastards merely burst out in laughter, like I’d told some grand jest I didn’t even know.
Damn sods.
Another hand cuffed the back of my head.
“Godsdammit, does everyone in this kingdom strike the royals?” I spun around as two men brought in another trunk. “Isak. I expected it of Fiske, but not you.”
“You’ll survive. This is h-heavy, m-m-my sobbing p-prince.” Isak’s red hair was braided and smoothed tonight, not the typical mess from his cowl.
Fiske peered over the top of the trunk, his dark eyes pinned on me. “We’ll just drop it here.”
Sander protested, insisting it could damage the books, and joined in lowering it to the wide, blue rug.
“Good man.” I pressed a hand on Fiske’s muscular back. “This is the last one?”
“Yes.” He stretched one arm across his chest. “And a certain elven princess has been asking around for a certain prince.”
“You told her I’d be along shortly, right?” Sander said without a pause.
“She would never seek you out over me.” I palmed his face and shoved him to the side, stomach in knots. “Let’s get these put up, and I guess we’ll see if I know what the hells I’m doing.”
“This is a good move, Jo.” Von added two books to the shelf.
“Stop worrying, you sod.” Sander shot me a glare. “You’re quivering more than Mira when she’s overly excited about something.”
I shook out my hands. “You’re right. This is fine. It will be fine.”
This would be a disaster.
The lot of us huddled around the closed door, silent gazes on the delicate blossoms Frigg’s mother painted on the frame.
“It’s good, right?” I rested my hands on my hips.
“Gods.” Von peeled away from the group. “Come on. Let’s see if Jonas can find his balls to go show his bride what he’s done.”
Once the others left the corridor, Sander came to my side. “You’re welcome for what I did.”
“What?”
“Had I not sacrificed myself upon her sword, risked my very life, you might never have found love. I hope you name your first child after me.”
I laughed, but sobered quickly. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Sander.”
“Keep not knowing then; it seems to be working.”
“How is it even possible to feel so differently after so short a time?”
“Because you have found a woman who burned through those shields you like to keep with your companions. She was not even trying. That is how you know—at least I think so—it is a bond worth keeping.”
“Jonas?” Skadi’s voice echoed up the stairwell. “Are you up there? Von told me to find you.”
Sander left with a cheeky kind of grin, his muffled voice followed in the stairwell, likely as he passed her. My heart swelled when she came into sight.
Gods, she was beautiful.
Since the burrow, we’d spent little time away from each other. Once, I imagined spending my days with one woman would grow tiresome and aggravating.
I now woke each day with her as my first thought.
The piercings she kept in her ears always gleamed like crystals in the light, and the silver rings on her fingers did the same. She had her hair pulled high today, like on the sparring field, but her flowing dress revealed more of her shoulders, some of the coils of her secret ink spilled from the sides.
Skadi looked to the tall, arched ceilings, the stained images on the windows. “What is this corridor?”
I blew out a long breath. “It was empty, but it isn’t now.”
Gods, I sounded like a fool.
One of her brows lifted. “All right. Why so skittish?”
“I’m absolutely not skittish.”
“Like a frightened pup.”
I took hold of her hand and smashed her against me. “You could’ve at least called me a frightened wolf or something fearsome.” At the door, I hesitated. “I need you to know, I stole from you.”
“What?”
“It was for good reason.” I nudged the door open, drawing us into the open room. “You did not lose your endless trunks of books, Fire.”
Skadi’s eyes popped. Slowly she unlaced her fingers with mine and took cautious steps into the open space. Once an old study, the room had been neglected over the turns.
Shelves had been refastened to walls, the broken stones in the old inglenook replaced. New draperies sewn by Inge were in Natthaven blue and silver. Images of Klockglas flowers and ravens lined the molding at the top of the walls, the only symbols of unity between worlds. The rest of the hanging tapestries were commissioned with the help of Dorsan’s knowledge of popular elven symbols—stars and moons, blades and dark mountains.
Books were orderly along the shelves. Some with spines facing out, others on their sides in stacks. Fur lined chairs surrounded a low, blackwood table with imported elven wine in a carafe.
The chandelier was the most challenging. I didn’t want the bulky wrought iron like most of the palace. I wanted something more Skadi—like starlight. Glass and crystal glistened in the beams of sunlight through the windows, painting the rugs in prisms of color.
I thought it turned out as well as it could’ve, but she wasn’t saying anything.
I cleared my throat. “Niklas worked with Dorsan to make the incense smell a little like Natthaven.” Silence. “Look, I am sorry for keeping your books from you, I realize now, I could’ve built all this without the actual books. I just thought in a strange place you might want a spot of your own that reminded you of home, but if?—”
I coughed when a force struck me in the chest.
Skadi clung to me, shoulders trembling. For a moment, I didn’t know what to do with my hands, hovering them to my sides. After a pause, I held the back of her head and wrapped the other arm around her waist.
“Fire.” I whispered against her ear. “You have me standing on knives here. Do you hate it or is this?—”
“I love it, you fool.” She tilted her chin, laughing, but tears rimmed her eyes. “This is where you’ve been going? This is what you were doing that night I . . . shouted at you. But you kept working on it, even after.”
I brushed away a tear with my thumb. “I did not want to be a husband with conditions. I’d be a rather ignorant sod if I did not take into account that your life had been completely upended that night. You had no reason to trust me, no reason to think I cared at all.”
She swallowed and turned back into the room, taking it in. “But why do all this? I feel rather undeserving of it.”
I pinched some of her wavy hair between my fingers. “I disagree. You never left my side during the mesmer fever, and you did not need to do that. You’ve made a guild of thieves that helped raise me love you better. You dance on tavern tables, how many princesses can say that?”
She snorted, but faced me after a moment. Her palms trapped the sides of my face. “Thank you, I am at a loss for words. No one has ever done something like this for me.”
Whatever retort I planned to make hinting that there were no husbands like me was drowned when she kissed me.
We stumbled against the doorframe. Her lips parted, her tongue brushed mine. I tugged on her hair, tilting her face for the angle I desired most. Fingers curled around my tunic as though she might want to tear it down the middle.
In a frenzy of breaths, I spun her around, pressing her back to the wall. Skadi let out a heated moan when I took hold of one of her legs and wrapped it around my waist, arching my hips against her core.
“Jonas.” Skadi breathed against my lips.
“Fire?”
“I don’t want you to have another lover.”
Did she still believe such a thing? “Woman, I have no one?—”
“I meant this.” She pressed a kiss to my palm, smirking. “You said it would be your only lover until I gave the word.”
Skadi took my hand, placing it under the hem of her gown on the heat of her bare thigh. I let out a rough breath when she guided my hand higher and higher, toward her center.
She dragged her teeth along my ear, drawing the lobe between her lips for a breath, then whispered, “I’m giving the word.”