Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
SIGRID
It was strange to enter the castle gates and find everything exactly how we’d left it. People carried on with their business like we weren’t about to rock the foundations of their society. I didn’t know whether to pity them or envy them.
I envied them their simple lives, lives they weren’t about to surrender in the name of justice.
I pitied them if they’d never experienced what I had. Much of my life had been filled with struggle and horrors, but the ache of terror in my chest was a testament to how much I had to live for.
I’d never been afraid to die before Bastian. But at least I’d gotten to know a love like this.
We shook hands with Elric in the courtyard, and Bastian pulled him in for an embrace. “Whatever happens, you set the kingdom to rights. You’re a good man, Elric. I’m glad you’ve found a good woman.”
We both hugged Eleanor. I stage whispered, “You say the word, and my brothers will take you to Ocracoke. Husband or no, he can’t keep you here if Talon and Thorin show up to set you free.”
Elric shook his head with a half smile, stroking a hand down Eleanor’s back, but she only laughed. “It won’t be necessary, but I’ll keep it in mind should he ever get ideas about what Saxon wives should and shouldn’t be allowed to do.”
A soldier came running across the courtyard, but he had a huge smile on his face. “Did you hear? The king of the Danes is dead! Killed by his own son!”
My father is dead.
Bastian put his arm around me, but I didn’t need comfort. Thorin and Layla were safe. The son of a bitch was dead. I could go to Valhalla knowing he couldn’t hurt anyone I loved ever again.
A weight lifted off my shoulders just as another settled in my heart. I had no more excuses. It was time.
I stopped Bastian just before the entrance to the throne room and kissed him for the last time. “I love you, my prince. I love you more than I thought it was possible to love another.”
“Don’t you dare say goodbye, Sigrid Thorvald. We’ll get through this,” he said gruffly. He thought we were only here to confront his father and take him for trial. But I had to finish this.
As soon as we stepped into the throne room, armed guards filed in from the door behind the throne, lining the walls on all sides of us.
“I see the traitors have returned,” the king drawled, sauntering towards us in a blue silk tunic.
“How can you even still use that word?” Bastian spat.
The king shrugged. “Think what you will, but know this about the bond between me and your wife. If I die, she dies too. So choose your next words carefully.”
Bastian reeled in shock, but I steadied him with a hand. “It’s okay. It has to happen.”
His eyes widened. “You knew? You were going to sacrifice yourself and not tell me?”
His betrayal tore open a rift in my heart, but it didn’t change anything.
He shook his head, looking angry now. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
The king flicked his fingers in a downward motion, and a guard shot his crossbow at Bastian, striking him in the thigh.
“No!” I stood between Bastian and the archer, but we were surrounded.
My slumbering berserker thrashed to life, snapping and snarling against the magical bond that still held her in place.
“If you want me to heal him, you’ll drop your weapons. And you, Princess, will come over here.” The king sounded calm, perfectly in control of the situation.
I dropped my sword, rapidly crossing the room to where he’d pointed, even though my instincts screamed at me to stay by Bastian’s side and protect him.
I was willing to die to avenge Axel. But I wasn’t willing to sacrifice Bastian.
“If you want me to heal him, you’re going to turn every last drop of that berserker power over to me. You’ll belong to me, opening up those reserves anytime I order it. Do you understand me, girl?”
I bared my teeth, near mindless with fury.
He sighed. “We’d better make sure you understand the stakes.”
Another bolt struck Bastian in the back with a sickening wet sound. Bastian wordlessly clutched at it, and a roar of anguished rage tore from my throat, but I couldn’t reach him before another bolt struck his shoulder.
My stoic, strong Saxon groaned in agony and dropped to his knees.
I…snapped. Parts of me shattered and crumbled to dust, all the ones that held me apart from the noble bastard who knelt in a pool of his own blood as another guard took aim.
The conflagration of rage that burned through me seemed to incinerate the bond that leashed my berserker, until she was free.
Another bond had burned the king’s away as it snapped into place.
Our mate bond.
I didn’t have time to adjust to the feeling of completeness and the sudden wave of fear I felt from every person in the room. My own fear was too strong for any of it to matter.
Fear of losing my fucking mate.
Because with my berserker unleashed, I knew with every frantic pump of my heart that Bastian was mine. Mine to protect. And he was struggling for breath on the stone floor.
Usually there was a gradual shift into going berserk, a slow surrender to the beast that prowled within me. This time we simply became one, both bent on destruction, both equally determined to save Bastian.
The guards who ran from the room managed to save themselves, but when the king tried to follow, I hunted him, reveling in the speed and strength that had returned through my berserker.
He surprised me by turning back with similar speed, harnessing some of the power he’d taken from me. He laughed, swinging a sword with such speed that it was hard to track his movements. He thought himself my equal.
I tilted my head, feeling more animal than human. My voice came out as a low snarl. “You’re strong, king. You might’ve been my match…if you hadn’t gone after my mate.”
I didn’t have time to savor the kill or draw it out.
Bastian was dying, and healing him was what mattered.
Killing this vermin was only to protect Bastian from ever being harmed by him again.
I snarled as I took the king’s head with my bare hands, not even waiting for him to crumple lifelessly to the ground before turning back to heal Bastian.
I slid to my knees beside him, not knowing if it was my own fear I was feeling or his.
“Don’t you dare die,” I growled, channeling as much power into him as I could while I yanked each bolt from his body.
I felt his every cry of pain like it was my own, but kept pouring power into him, surrendering all that I was to save him.
It wasn’t until I hazily heard him calling my name that I slowed the trickle of my powers and took stock.
“I’m healed, Sigrid. We’re safe. Don’t drain yourself anymore.”
I threw myself into his arms, knocking him to the floor again, but this time it didn’t matter.
He kissed me with abandon, stopping only to scold me. “You were going to leave me. Don’t you ever fucking do anything that stupid again. How did you break free of him?”
I held him tighter, like I couldn’t quite accept that we’d made it out alive. “You’re my mate, Bastian. I couldn’t leave you now if I wanted to. My heart, my soul, my everything are yours.”
A tear fell down his cheek. “As mine have always been yours.”
We stepped into the sunlight of the courtyard to find it filled with people. Elric and Eleanor were there with the wagonload of gold. And Rufus, the little scamp, must’ve snuck into the wagon because he stood there grinning.
For a brief instant, the people went silent, and Bastian’s expression turned wary.
They were all afraid of change and of me and of so many other things, it felt like they might drown me with their terror.
But I pulled my focus to the anchor of just Bastian, steady and true as always. He wasn’t afraid. He was full of hope.
I was so tired of fighting, but if this turned bad too, I’d do whatever it took to protect him.
But the people cheered. They threw their hands in the air and shouted their joy to the sky. They called my name and Bastian’s, hailing us as heroes, proclaiming him the rightful king.
We’d saved them from tyranny.
They…cheered.
No one had ever cheered at the sight of me before, not unless it was on a battlefield and they were relieved I was there to do the slaughter for them. This was women and children and regular people, filled with optimism for the future.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, but Bastian kissed them away, then kissed me properly. The people went wild, clapping and laughing with abandon.
We were free.
And we’d make sure the Saxon people were too.