Chapter 33 #2
As she grew more comfortable, Aevar drew her in deeper.
When he let go so she could try it on her own, she treaded water for a few glorious moments before she sank.
Her head dipped toward the water, and panic spiked.
She reached out blindly. His arms wrapped around her, lifting her above the water.
She clung to him as he drew her back into a shallower area of the pond.
Her heart thudded in her ears, but his voice was close and calm. “I told you I wouldn’t let you drown.”
Eadlyn released a breathless laugh, the burst of fear draining, and she tilted her head back to look up at him.
Immediately, she found herself held by his eyes.
Something unspoken passed between them. Something deeper than teasing, and his gaze softened.
He bent, and his lips touched hers. The kiss began slow and gentle as the water around them.
But it deepened, like a current pulling her under, steady and consuming and yet safe.
While she had feared drowning, she did not fear this.
His strong arms pulled her closer, and she let herself sink further into his embrace, everything else fading.
A sudden flurry of birds took flight, their wings slicing through the quiet. Eadlyn gasped and pulled back, her pulse skipping. On the far side of the pond, the horses stamped, their ears perked and alert. Memories of the attack leapt into Eadlyn’s mind.
Aevar’s face shifted, calm vanishing. Gripping her arm, he guided her to shore.
As soon as they reached the horses, he yanked out his sword and pushed her behind him.
For a long moment they stood in tense silence, Eadlyn’s breaths coming rapidly.
She tried to slow them down, but the fear only grew.
All was silent, yet the horses did not relax, and neither did Aevar.
Finally, he called out, “Show yourself!”
The silence stretched like a taut bowstring. Eadlyn’s skin prickled, every nerve alert. Was it Kalgorans? A bear?
The brush rustled, and a rider emerged.
Oda.
Relief hit Eadlyn first, followed by a hot flush of humiliation. She crossed her arms over her shift, the fabric soaked and clinging. Aevar’s sword did not lower.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
Oda didn’t answer, her attention lingering on Eadlyn with open disdain.
“Were you spying on us?”
She gave a derisive snort. “You don’t own the forest. I can ride where I please.”
He pointed the sword at her. The sharpness of his voice revealed barely contained fury. “Leave. Now.”
Her lip curled, but after a tense beat, she turned her horse and disappeared into the trees. The silence she left in her wake was deafening.
Eadlyn exhaled a shaky breath and wrapped her arms tighter around herself, the wet fabric chilly against her skin and leaving her feeling exposed.
Not because of Aevar, but she prickled with the uncomfortable sensation of more eyes watching them.
Surely Oda was the only one around, but now every bush and shadow seemed to hide onlookers.
Aevar turned to her, his jaw clenched. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know she was out here.”
She nodded, trying to calm her breathing.
He seemed to sense her discomfort, and the regret increased. “Let’s go back to the village.”
They dressed and mounted their horses. Neither spoke much on the way back. The ride was different from earlier, shadowed with unease and watchfulness. At the longhouse, they dismounted.
“I’ll take care of Hiroc for you.” Aevar took the horse’s reins but did not walk away. Instead, he searched her face. “Are you all right?”
Eadlyn drew a deep breath. Though her emotions had settled, discomfort still lingered. “Yes, it was just…a lot. First thinking we were in danger, and then her. Watching us.”
Her skin crawled to think of Oda creeping in the bushes, especially in a moment that had been more intimate than any she and Aevar had shared previously. What if they’d never realized she was there? It felt like a violation.
Anger still simmered in his expression. “It won’t happen again.”
Eadlyn wasn’t sure what he planned to do and didn’t ask, but she didn’t want their time together today to end on such a note.
She reached for his hand, hoping to reclaim what had been stolen from them.
“The pond and waterfall were beautiful. I loved being out there with you. I hope we can go again sometime.”
This pulled a warm smile to his face. “We will.”
Aevar strode away from the stable, leaving the horses with Edgar.
Anger burned in his gut like hot coals that refused to go out.
He thought about stopping by the training field and working off the fury on a target or a man with a blade, but no.
This wasn’t something to be hammered out with a sword.
This had to be dealt with. Now. He would not be looking over his shoulder and eyeing the shadows every time he left the longhouse with Eadlyn. Nor would he have it for her.
Halfway through the village, Kian called to him.
“So, did you take her to the waterfall?”
His friend shot him a sly look. Everyone had been teasing him about it as soon as he’d mentioned taking her out for a ride. The waterfall was all but sacred to the couples of the village.
But the grin vanished as soon as Kian saw his face. “What happened?”
Aevar gritted his teeth. “We caught Oda spying on us. I doubt it’s the first time.”
She had to have been watching and following them to know they’d gone for a ride.
Kian’s brows furrowed. “Are you going to talk to her?”
Aevar nodded sharply as Kian fell into step beside him. They said nothing more as they marched toward Oda’s house.
Her horse stood out front when they arrived. Good. That meant he didn’t have to hunt her down elsewhere.
“Oda!” He did not keep the ice from his voice.
A moment later, she stepped outside, chin high with the same defiance she’d worn back at the waterfall.
Always her face was unpleasant. He didn’t remember a time she’d ever smiled, at least not with any true joy or kindness.
She and Thora had always been opposites in that way, just like their mothers.
Perhaps because Oda’s mother had been a thrall, though that had never affected Oda’s standing.
Aevar closed the distance in a few long strides. “Have you been spying on us?”
She remained stubbornly silent. He took a step closer, his shadow falling over her. He wasn’t in the habit of intimidating women, but Oda was different. She’d pushed this too far.
She didn’t cower, but her gaze faltered. Though she still refused to respond, her silence was answer enough. When she did speak, her voice was low and biting. “I’m not the one embarrassing myself all over the forest.”
He almost laughed. “No, you’re the one hiding in the bushes like a coward.”
She bristled, jaw taut.
Aevar shook his head in frustration. “Why can’t you leave it alone? What could you hope to gain?”
Now she looked up, eyes blazing. “Because I know you deserve more than some little foreign princess foisted on you, but you’re too blinded to see it. She doesn’t belong here.”
This again. Aevar was tired of it. “She belongs with me. I chose her.”
“You chose wrong.”
His temper flared white-hot. “I would choose her again a hundred times over.”
Oda scoffed.
He balled his fists. If she had been a man, he’d have broken her nose by now. “Why can’t you accept my choices? You act like Thora—and now Eadlyn—stole something from you.”
Her eyes flashed with dangerous intensity. “Thora did steal you from me.”
Aevar blinked, stunned for half a breath. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you remember all the time we spent together? Sparring and fishing and wandering the woods?”
He frowned. Of course he remembered. Oda had been around—loud, relentless, always tagging along. But that was her choice. He’d tolerated her. Nothing more.
“Oda, we were children. I loved Thora. I always did. It was never you.”
Something on her face cracked. For a moment, Aevar thought there were tears in her eyes. He wasn’t sure if it was grief or humiliation, but she blinked and they were gone, buried under the ice she wore like armor.
Still not convinced she accepted the truth even now, he lowered his voice, deadly serious. “This ends here. Spy on us again or go anywhere near Eadlyn, and I will have you banished from Fjellheim.”
Her brows shot up. “You’d banish me from my home?”
“I will do whatever I must to protect my wife.”
Eadlyn sat beside Aevar at the table, the comfort of the evening meal and the laughter of family weaving together.
The weight of the day—of that moment in the woods and eyes watching when they shouldn’t have faded as the hours passed.
It helped to know Aevar had taken action.
Firm action. The kind that made her feel safe like she never had before her life here.
What lingered in her mind now were the moments before Oda’s intrusion and what might have been if they’d not been interrupted.
She caught herself blushing and ducked her head.
However, the move must have drawn Aevar’s attention because he looked over at her.
His brows wrinkled in question, but she just smiled, leaning into his shoulder.
Later, after a few rounds of tafl and a round of goodnights, the family retired to their rooms. The longhouse settled into its nighttime hush, and Eadlyn and Aevar moved through their evening routine with the same practiced rhythm they’d adopted months ago.
She was once more in the bed while he’d returned to sleeping on the floor, but it hadn’t felt right since he’d been ill.
She hadn’t admitted it to anyone, but she missed sleeping beside him.
As she changed into her sleep shift, she glanced over her shoulder to where he prepared for bed and caught sight of his healing scar again.
She paused. She didn’t see the wound; she saw the man who had shielded her with his own body during danger.
Who had clung to life while she prayed at his side.
Who had fought the pain and grief of his past to give her a place in his heart.
Who had come to mean everything. The realization hit her now with such incredible force and clarity it knocked the air from her lungs.
She loved him.
Not just as the man she now trusted or as the husband she had vowed to honor. But deeply. Fiercely.
She took a step toward him. “Aevar.”
He turned to her and stilled. She held his gaze with purpose, her heart beating against her ribs as if trying to proclaim her thoughts faster than she could put them into words.
“I love you.” The declaration broke from her chest. “I will choose to love you for the rest of our lives. Not because of the alliance, or because it’s expected.
I want to be your wife and for you to be my husband for no other reason than that we love each other.
I want to live out every word of the vows we both took until death do—”
His lips against hers cut off her words, and he kissed her like he’d been waiting his entire life for this moment. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him back, sensing a shift in their relationship that would begin the rest of their lives together.