40. Interpretations and Confessions #2
“I don’t mind.” Halla rested against Larissa’s shoulder. “I saw Pappa and Mamma and Onkel Tucker again. There were all these threads that connected us together. They were happy; it was like a dream.” Her voice wavered. “But they didn’t know you, Lara. It was like you’d never existed.”
Larissa squeezed her sister’s hand as the happiness in her voice trailed in sorrow. “It’s okay. I’m glad you got to see them again. What was your part of the prophecy?”
“ Keeper of stories, peering through facades. Past, present, and future, the speaker of the gods. The Norn only record, the Norn only see. Recorders, Gifters, and Augurs are all they shall be .” Halla made a face. “I’m not really sure what it means.”
Larissa sighed. “It means the Norn aren’t going to help us.
Not entirely surprising, considering what they told me.
From within, comes destruction of peace.
Chaos will reign and harmony will cease.
Only the third of the Perlian line, at the cost of a life, can change Fate’s design.
Where one is killed, another takes its place.
Sharing the cost, which all kingdoms must face. ”
Five pairs of eyes locked on Larissa’s face. Heat crept up her cheeks at their sudden scrutiny. “Vereandi said my mother only knew the first half about the third of the Perlian line. Guess it makes sense why she was so worried it could mean me.”
“ Could be you?” Darien choked out. “There’s no one else it could be. What does it mean, the cost of a life? Whose life?”
Larissa shrugged, as if the thought hadn’t plagued her. “I don’t know.”
“Sharing the cost, which all kingdoms must face,” Masai murmured almost to himself.
“Something you want to share with the rest of us?” Anara asked.
“The Norn sent us all dreams. The Norn pushed us together, forced us all to travel to them so that we could each receive a part of the prophecy. What if that means that Princess Lovisa isn’t the only key to overthrowing Shiko’s reign? What is the cost that all kingdoms must face?”
“ Larissa ,” Anara corrected. “But not bad, soft-hands. Kai, what did the Norn tell you?”
With his head bowed forward, his black hair covered his eyes, Kai’s hands fidgeted together in his lap. “I can’t say.”
“Can’t say?” Anara’s eyes narrowed. “Or won’t?”
“Can’t.” Kai looked up, his eyes rebuffing Anara’s accusing stare. “I didn’t pass my test. The Norn wouldn’t tell me the prophecy.”
Shock reverberated through the group. Halla was the first to recover. “It wasn’t your fault, Kai. There must have been something wrong with your test.”
“They really didn’t say anything? No hint at all?” Darien pushed.
Kai turned toward Darien, his expression torn. “I’m sorry. The goddess wouldn’t even look at me. I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do.”
“Well, this just got harder,” Masai muttered.
Darien laughed, without amusement or joy. “It gets worse.” He took a long breath but couldn’t hide his shaking hands. “ Second-born King, usurper of the throne. Hel’s cold fingers welcome his bloodline home .”
A gasp fluttered through Larissa’s lips.
“And you think it means you?” Anara asked, her mind racing behind the look in her eyes.
“Even if it doesn’t, she seemed to reference my entire bloodline.” Darien lifted his shoulders. “But ‘second-born usurper’ sure sounds like me.”
Larissa scanned Darien’s body in fear of finding some mortal wound she had not seen before.
But Darien was healthy, his breathing came easily, and his skin was flushed from the heat of the fire.
His hair grew in thick waves, and even his beard was coming in more than before, though it clung to his cheeks in a shallow shadow.
“Prophecies never mean just one thing,” Larissa argued.
“Did the Norn say when?” Anara asked, her voice clinical.
Darien shook his head. “No.”
“Well there you have it. The Norn love open-ended prophecies.” Anara relaxed. “I mean, technically, we’re all dying every day.” She wiggled her fingers at Halla, casting shadows across the group. “Hel’s fingers wait for us all.”
Halla choked out a giggle, but her eyes remained on Darien. Even Kai looked at him with apprehension.
“Anara’s right.” Darien rose to his feet, cracking his knuckles. “Hel’s going to have to wait a bit longer before she gets the pleasure of my company.”
“Where are you going?” Masai asked.
“Someone should check on Calder.”
“I’ll come too.” Larissa jumped in her rush to not be left behind.
Helga wasn’t far. Though the campfire was hidden by the thick trees, Larissa could still hear the muted conversation coming from the camp.
Darien waited for her on the other side of Helga where privacy could be found.
He looked up at what little of the night sky glimmered through the trees.
There was something about the way the moonlight caressed his hair that summoned the longing she’d tried so desperately to ignore.
“Calder’s still out,” he said.
Larissa nodded, forgetting he couldn’t see her. She cleared her throat. “We should have two people with him all the time. He can’t persuade more than one person at the same time.”
“He might be able to. I don’t know. There’s a lot I don’t know about him anymore.”
“Darien”—Larissa inched closer, her fingers brushing against his hand—“talk to me.”
At her touch, he turned, but his gaze couldn’t quite meet hers. “About what?”
“About your prophecy. You don’t think it’s some time far off in the future, do you?”
“I think there’s too much to live for to die soon, but there was something else in my vision.” He sighed. “Skuld marked me with the rune of death.”
“Dar, look at me.” Whether it was the tone of her voice or the use of his nickname, Darien’s eyes finally found Larissa’s. The intensity stirring behind the sea blue eyes was enough for Larissa to momentarily lose track of her thoughts. Focusing, she pushed. “Maybe you shouldn’t go to Safír.”
“What?” Darien stepped back, letting Larissa’s hand fall. “I have to go.”
“No, you don’t.” Larissa fought to keep her voice even. “Not if it will mean your death.”
“Would you have not gone to Perle?”
She couldn’t answer, and he knew it.
“Lara, my people need me. You made me see that. I can’t be selfish, or else—” Darien’s voice cut off, his eyes flashing toward Helga’s truck bed.
“Or else, what? What else did you see in your vision?”
Darien’s hands clenched at his sides. “ My coronation day. My father was proud. He’s never looked at me like that, like I was Aeron.
But Aeron was there too, and he wasn’t Calder, he was himself again, but he didn’t want the crown.
He said I would make a better King. You were there too, but I knew that if I accepted the throne, it would mean losing you. ”
Larissa's heart stuttered.
“You walked away,” Darien’s voice cracked. “I went after you, just for a minute. Just to stop you, but by the time I turned back, Calder had taken the throne. My people were slaves under the draugrs , and you were still gone.”
“That’s not going to happen. I won’t make you choose, Darien.” Larissa forced her voice to keep from shaking. That was what she’d been telling him all along. Their people had to come first, and yet that knowledge didn’t stop her heart from strangling itself in her chest.
“Stop, that’s not what I mean.” A dark curl fell in Darien’s face as he leaned toward her. Anger colored his voice as his hands grasped her shoulders. “I don’t regret choosing you. I know I should, but I don’t.”
Her tongue stumbled to catch up with her heart. “What about your people?”
“I can choose them, too. I can be what they need me to be, but that won’t change the way I feel about you, the way that I’ve always felt about you.
Kings and Queens, Larissa, how can I make you understand?
” He let her go, his hands running through his hair.
“Nothing can change that. I know you said no distractions, and I get that the Norn are trying to show me the consequences, but there has to be a way for us to be together.”
Larissa’s battered heart thumped, urging her tongue to finally unravel the truth it’d held for too long. What if Darien was right? She was so sick and tired of having to pretend that she didn’t love him.
He moved closer, his eyes boring into her own. “I don’t believe in a world where we aren’t meant to be.”
Even as she wished for the world he imagined, the darkest part of her mind showed her the image from her vision with Torsten’s blood on her hands and whispered, But would he want you if he knew the truth of what you might become?
“Maybe that world is a better place,” Larissa whispered.
Darien moved closer. “There is no better place than where you are.”
“You don’t know what I’m capable of.” Larissa’s words came out as a whimper.
“The Norn showed me a vision of what happens after we defeat Shiko. I made myself an Empress. I took your crown, and Anara’s, and Masai’s.
I stopped the violence by killing anyone who stood in my way.
I even imprisoned you and Anara and Halla.
I became her , Darien. I became Shiko because I thought I knew what was best.”
Darien cupped her face, the warmth of his palms spreading into her icy cheeks. “That won’t happen.”
“I started a war that will kill thousands. There is blood on my hands.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “I would do it again to save you. Vereandi said my vision showed my greatest fears and greatest desires. What if this is really what I desire?”
He pulled her face closer. “Lara, listen to me. You are not Shiko. You envisioned a world where you kept everyone you love safe, but the Norn twisted that to test you. All the stories say that prophecies have more than one meaning. So do visions. I am not going to die, and you are not going to turn into Shiko.”
Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “How do you know?”
“Because I know you .” He wiped the tear that escaped, erasing its existence as he kissed her forehead. He breathed into her hair. “Besides, only the good die young, not the good-looking.”
Larissa laughed, melting at his touch and curling herself against his chest. “That’s the problem. You are good.”
“Not when I’d let the world burn for you,” Darien murmured.
She squeezed his jacket. “You shouldn’t say that.”
“We’ll figure it out, Lov,” he whispered into her hair. “Together.”
Larissa had tried to keep her distance, and what good had it done?
She was no less in love with him than she’d been fifty years ago.
She pulled back, though only enough to tilt her head up to his, and ran her hand along the stubble on his cheeks.
She could feel his quickening pulse as her fingers trailed to his neck.
He was right. They would find a way to save their people and have each other. She would fight for the world that Darien believed in. She raised her head to his.
“Selfish as always,” came the voice from Helga’s bed.
Larissa froze. Darien’s body stiffened beneath her hands.
Calder was awake.