17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
Against all odds, as if Freya had been watching over her, Brun was happy.
Her mate was sharpening his blade before the fire and love and contentment flooded her veins.
She admired the way the flames gilt the sharp planes of his face and the whiskered outline of his jaw, and limned his bare torso in soft golden light.
“I can feel you smiling, Valkyrie.”
“’Tis not a bad thing.”
He chuckled softly. “Aye. ’Tis far better than the scowls I endured when first we wed.”
“Though our union was not of my making, I have come to accept it,” she told him, her chin tilting defiantly.
He carefully set aside the weapon and rose to his feet, lowering to a crouch before her.
Her face heated when he cupped her cheeks in his calloused palms, his gaze alight with both amusement and hunger.
“This union was always of my making, but I didn’t expect what now lies between us. On this eve of battle, this union is one I desire above all others. If we are defeated tomorrow, mate, it will be have been my honor to fight by your side.”
Something cracked in her chest as Brun sank to her knees and knelt in the damp grass. She laid a hand on his wrist, suddenly aware that this might be all they were given.
Brun had been fighting her feelings for this complex man since the moment they’d met.
Every touch, every whispered endearment, every evidence he’d shown her that he was proud to be her mate, had chipped away at her defenses.
They finally crumbled to dust as she leaned forward and laid her head on his chest. “If we die tomorrow, I do so with no regrets.”
“You once told me nothing would clip your wings,” he said as he traced a line beneath her jaw with the pad of his thumb, pausing to brush over the claiming scar.
“My wings are still intact, Barbarian. For the first time in my life, I can spread them and fly as close to the sun as I wish.”
“If I set you free, would you return to me of your own free will?”
Brun slung her arms around his neck and burrowed into his chest. She breathed in the scent of iron, ocean and woodsmoke emanating from the crevice between his jaw and shoulder and sighed in contentment. “I would return,” she reassured him.
“Because you have reconciled yourself to our union?”
She shook her head. “It isn’t reconciliation, or resignation to my fate.
The each uisge have given me a home and a place to belong.
You have given me the freedom to become a part of something, secure in the knowledge that I will be accepted for both my strength and my fragility.
Before, only the waves brought me freedom. ”
When he slid his arms around her body and hoisted her into the air, she laughed.
She was tall and strong and intimidating, and had never felt cherished or protected by anyone.
Until now. This fearsome, otherwordly each uisge king with his sparkling blue eyes and insufferable teasing made her feel all those things and more. Cherished. Protected. Loved.
His affection for her was so ever present she felt it in the marrow of her bones, and she knew he had grown as attached as she.
"Let us celebrate what we will build together when we have defeated our enemy," he said as he pressed a hot kiss to her forehead.
"Yes," she answered, and let him carry her to the tent pitched just beyond the firelight.
Something woke her in the dead of night, long after she lay sated from a bout of vigorous lovemaking.
The leaves rustled ominously, and a soft glow approached their berth.
Brun carefully lifted the edge of the blanket and Tor's arm from her waist and retrieved the dagger she'd placed beneath her pillow.
"You need no weapon against me, Daughter. And it would do you no good if you did," someone said with a tinkle of laughter.
Brun didn't recognize the bearer of the voice, and her mother was in Valhalla. "I am no one's daughter," she snarled.
"You are mine, just as your mother was," the figure said as it stepped into view.
Brun fell to her knees. "Forgive my impudence, Goddess."
"There is no need for apologies, Daughter. I have come to tell you I am pleased with the way you have embraced your path. Even now, it bears fruit, and soon your womb will swell with child. You have many battles ahead, and you will need to cling to the joy you've found in this union."
Brun laid a hand over her stomach. "I'm to bear a child?"
"You're to bear children, Brunhild FreydisDottir. Cherish them and make them strong enough to withstand the storms that are coming."
"Will we defeat the kraken?"
The goddess shook her head. "The outcome of the battle isn't clear to me. I have seen that his kingdom will be much weakened and the each uisge will thrive. That is all I've been shown. "
"Weakened means vulnerable."
"Indeed it does, and I expect you to take full advantage of it. Now, rise so I may give you my blessing."
Brun rose on shaky legs and turned her hands palms up. The goddess withdrew a blade of light and laid it across them, briefly singeing Brun's flesh with the rune of Tiwaz for victory.
When Brun winced at the pain, Freya lightly danced over the marks. They faded into Brun's skin and the throbbing pain faded into a dull ache.
"I will follow you faithfully all my life, and teach my children to honor you as well," Brun said as she fell to one knee and bowed her head.
"I expect nothing less," the goddess said with another tinkle of laughter before she disappeared again.
Brun stared at the space where she'd been, musing if it had all been a dream. The marks had faded from view and there was nothing to confirm her slumber hadn't spun a tale to bring her comfort.
Their lovemaking on the eve of this battle that would decide the fate of the each uisge kingdom had been defiant.
They stood side by side at the head of their army, hands entangled and hearts beating in unison with excitement and dread.
Brun could feel the flutter of Tor’s pulse in his wrist, and hers leapt in response.
When the kraken horde rushed into the valley like the tide over sand, she almost reared back. Their contorted visages and monstrous screams must have affected the soldiers behind them, because Tor raised a closed fist above his head and snarled, “Hold fast.”
Brun sensed the legion behind them shifting their weight restlessly from foot to foot, and heard the occasional impatient thump of a spear on the rocky ground.
“Hold,” Tor repeated as their tentacled foes moved closer, scrambling over the rocks that lay in their path. Their faces contorted as they screamed and she resisted the urge to clap her hands over her ears to ward against their paralyzing battle cry.
A steady hum rose behind her, like the sound of bees among blossoms, like the sound of the beating, inexorable heart of the ocean.
The hum became a triumphant, lyrical crescendo that drowned out the kraken war cry and Brun was filled with a sense of calm even as the adrenaline rushed through her veins.
She proudly watched as her mate grimly carved a path through the enemy army, his sword like a scythe. She carved her own path, her axes nothing more than a blur as she cleaved tentacled heads from shoulders and gutted the snarling sea wolf mercenaries.
Toran had nearly reached the imperious leader, who’d remained detached from the fray instead of joining it, when the kraken leapt off the rock and charged. The charge caught Tor unaware, and the kraken was able to pin him to the ground. She propelled herself forward, her heart in her throat.
Just as Nidhogg snarled something into Tor’s face, and dipped one of his tentacles toward him with menacing intent, Brun landed at its feet.
It didn’t glance in her direction, consumed by its pursuit of Tor, and Brun crouched while its attention was diverted, thrusting her skeggox into its side.
The ax head slid cleanly through flesh and bone, and sliced the torso in half.
The monster’s roar of anger was cut short as the severed sections fell to the blood-soaked ground.
The tentacles wavered for a moment, as if they were rebelling against death, and finally lay still.
Tor rose to his feet and cupped her face in his broad palms. “You saved my life. Again. The third time."
Brun kissed him, mindless of the blood and mud spattered over them both, or the sounds of battle that dwindled around them as the kraken army realized its leader had fallen. “No, mate, you saved mine,” she said as she bit his bottom lip.
She gripped his wrist and lowered it to her still flat stomach. “Freyja came to me last night and told me your seed has taken root and I will soon bear you a son.”
He closed his eyes, his face full of reverence, and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I’ve known you were my true mate since our binding ceremony, but feared you would run rather than accept our bond.”
“I will run nowhere but into your arms, and together we will deal with my father’s betrayal.”
"You would fight for my cause against those you've known all your life?"
"Aye, husband. For they have given me not even a fraction of your compassion. You take me as I am, thorns and all. You care for me even when I want nothing more than to deny what lies between us and push you away."
"The prophecy rings true, Fireheart. You have saved me and this kingdom with your courage, and I will never forget it. You are my true mate in every sense of the word."
Just like the kiss they'd shared on the edges of the razed village, this one consumed them both.
When they finally let go to draw in breath, she grasped his wrist and laid his palm against her stomach. "The seer told me my womb would quicken with your seed, and even now an each uisge prince or princess grows here."
He closed his eyes and dropped his forehead to hers. "There is no greater gift than knowing the love I bear for you has borne fruit."
"The love you bear for me?" She hadn't dared hope the nebulous feelings she harbored were returned.
He cupped her cheek and tilted her face toward his. "Aye. From the first moment you challenged me on the decks of your ship. My heart is wholly yours, my fierce Valkyrie warrior."