Nineteen
Liam
We burst from the mouth of the cave and ran down the hill, towards the skirmish. My sword was already singing its deadly tune as I swung at the first combatant.
Beside me, Raina's small frame charged with the ferocity of her power and fury. One hand held her spear while the other conjured her magic.
Frost coalesced on her fingertips like tendrils of winter's breath, solidifying into jagged darts. Expertly, she launched the icy bolts, going for their eyes and throats.
"Keep close!" I yelled, though I knew it was more for my own reassurance than hers.
Raina’s magic grew more aggressive as it lashed out, relentless and beautiful, leaving a trail of blood and blinded fae.
Then, right as a huge male swung a blade at Mirrelle, Raina encased him in a block of solid ice.
Mirrelle laughed wickedly, then drove her sword into the object, shattering the frosty prison, along with the fae inside. It was a disturbing sight.
“Look what we did!” the blood fae celebrated. “Fucking brilliant!”
“I don’t have enough power to do that to all of them,” Raina warned.
“And that, Raina, is why we can’t have nice things. But I forgive you.”
Gunnar, who’d managed a laugh at Mirrelle’s antics, still fought like the tempest he was. His braids whipped around him as his axe cleaved through our adversaries, a wordless battle hymn etched upon his face.
Mirrelle was his shadow, darting and slicing through enemies with daggers that gleamed like quicksilver.
I locked eyes with Raina for a heartbeat, her violet gaze alight with the thrill of battle. It was that same look she'd had several times during those damned bride trials, fierce and unyielding, even as I lashed out at her with ugly words.
The recollection rubbed, but now was not the time. Another wave of attackers came speeding at us.
Just how many of these bastards were there?
“Watch my six!" I called out, feeling the rush of adrenaline coursing through me as I launched forward.
I could feel her just behind me. A fresh wave of ice surged around us, encasing our enemies' feet, slowing them just enough for my sword to do its grim work.
She was smart, beautiful, and ruthless. I loved it.
I randomly caught glimpses of her in our twisting and turning.
Strands of white whipped around her face, framing the concentration etched on her fair features. Each flick of her wrist sent another volley of icy death towards our foes, and I couldn't help but admire the deadly dance of her frost magic.
Then I noticed she was no longer holding her spear. She’d sheathed it. To better wield her powers? She only had so much ice to give.
“Raina, draw your—”
"Watch out!" Gunnar roared, as he dispatched another would-be attacker looming too close.
A swift turn and the interloper fell, my thanks lost in a grunt as I engaged the next challenger. A blast of frost flew past my midsection, too close for comfort.
"Try not to freeze my nuts off, flower," I said. “We’ll need them for playtime later.”
She spared me a glance, her lips twitching in a semblance of a smile before her expression hardened once more. My frost nymph went right back to shooting her frozen shards.
And right then, in the middle of it all, I realized I was in way deeper than I’d ever thought possible. So deep I would never come out.
Seeing Raina there, amidst the death and destruction we had wrought, I questioned our plan.
The wards were unyielding—our enemies' fates sealed within the confines of battle. They could not flee. Not all of them had figured it out yet. When they did, they would get desperate.
An animal backed into a corner could not be reasoned with. And that was a dangerous thing to contend with.
The air pressed down, heavy with the scent of dark magic.
“Liam, the witch is inside the wards,” Raina panted.
“I know.” Not only that, but the Anuban was weaving a spell.
In a moment's breath, a shadow detached from the melee, a figure charging towards me with lethal intent. My muscles tensed to react, but then, out of the corner of my eye, came another.
Then a third. Then more.
Suddenly we were the focal point, the fighters falling under the witch’s incantation, bearing down on us and ignoring the other berserkers still cutting them down.
“First team, find the witch!” my father bellowed. “Second team, get to Raina!”
I spun to deal with the closest, pulling my short sword and using my less dominant hand to deal with the other.
"Liam!”
I glanced over at Gunnar’s urgent yell.
Like I was watching the scene play out in slow motion, I saw Raina dispatch two attackers as something dark flew through the air directly on course for my chest. She shifted and threw up a wall of ice.
The projectile came through, like the barrier wasn’t even there. Raina, already sprinting towards me, jumped.
“Raina! No!” My warning came too late.
My brain rejected it all. The gruesome skewering sound. Her body folded over as her feet stumbled backwards until she crashed into me, the impact sending a jolt through me fiercer than any spell.
"Raina!" I screamed, my voice raw.
Her small frame had taken the blow meant for me, a blow that should have never reached her. They needed her alive. They were here to take her, not to kill her.
No, this was not happening. I lowered her to the ground, looking for the weapon but I only found an oily stain covering the wound in her chest. A wound that wasn’t bleeding.
Dread latched onto my heart with icy fingers. Her eyes were open, lifeless, staring up at nothing.
My shaking fingers felt around for a pulse.
Nothing.
I put my face close to hers, praying to feel her breath.
Nothing.
Nothing but ice cold lips already turned blue.
The beast inside me rose, demanding control. For the first time ever, I didn’t have the strength–or the will–to stop it.
My muscles expanded, clothing tightened, stitching popped at the seams. A bigger, badder, crazed version of myself arose.
The world blurred into a palette of rage and blood. A guttural roar ripped from my throat, matching the anguish that had taken root in my chest.
My grief morphed into a force of nature, a berserker's wrath that I had kept chained within, now unleashed. Instead of pushing me out completely, the beast left me with some semblance of awareness, just enough to let me know we were ending those who dared to harm what was ours.
My sword swung with savage abandon, each stroke cleaving through armor and flesh as if they were nothing but shadows. Enemies fell left and right, their faces indistinct, their cries unregistered.
I was no longer Liam, the Drótinn’s son, King Nox’s head guard; I was a storm, an oncoming tornado, indiscriminate and unstoppable.
It wasn’t enough. My beast howled for more.
Each death felt like a hollow victory, their defeat doing nothing to fill the void that Raina's fall had left inside me.
Shouts and cries rose and fell, but I paid no heed. Fae kept coming at me. I kept slicing.
"LIAM! STOP!" The voice knocked up against the red haze.
My movements didn’t halt. Now my opponents were running from me. I’d chase them down and feast on their corpses!
"LIAM! I WILL FUCKING STAB YOU IF YOU DON’T STOP!"
The command was punctuated by the sharp sting of a blade across my back. Yowling, I spun, reaching to grab the assailant.
“Put me down, asshole!”
My fingers dug into the torso I was holding and shook it.
“Do not kill your brother, Liam! Raina will be super pissed at you!”
This time the haze let the message through. Confusion. What …
A sharp sting landed across my face and I growled, dropping the body in my clutches.
I blinked, the red overlay in my vision thinning just enough to see the concern on my brother’s face.
Gunnar stood there, his hazel eyes wide with alarm. His handprint burned on my cheek, a brand of shameful clarity.
"Raina needs you," he panted, holding his ribs.
I didn’t understand. Raina was gone.
Gunnar's hand landed on my shoulder. The unexpected depth in his hazel eyes, usually so full of judgment, pierced through the last of the fog.
“She’s alive.”
I jerked, looking for her, only to realize I was standing over top of her body.
“You wouldn’t let anyone near her,” Mirrelle explained, circling us protectively, keeping an eye on the fighting still going on.
"Go. Get her to the healers," Gunnar urged, voice thick with an emotion I couldn't recall hearing from him before.
I nodded, barely registering my own movements as I stooped to gather Raina's slight form into my arms. The chill of her skin hastened my movements.
"Stay with me, Raina," I murmured, more a command than a plea.
I couldn’t open a portal here, not with the changes to the wards, so I took off running, mindful of every inch of her body and keeping her safe.
My boots slipped on the blood-slickened ground, but I kept my footing.
"Out of the way!" I barked at anyone who dared cross my path.
Friend or foe, it didn't matter. They were obstacles. I ducked under a wild swing, twisted past a thrusting spear, as I ran with grim determination.
"Almost there," I promised.
An explosion rocked the ground, and I shielded her body with mine, refusing to let even a stray pebble harm her further. Someone needed to kill that fucking witch.
“Liam! This way!” my father yelled.
He’d created a path into the forest, a battalion of berserkers at his back. As I ran through, they closed in ranks, their bodies a living barrier against danger.
"You should be able to portal now," Brahm reminded me.
We’d added extra wards to surround the area of the woods where all the stokrans had been built. Safely inside, I could travel by portal.
Nodding grimly, I waved a hand and stepped into the shimmering tear in the fabric of space. I took us straight into an empty room in the infirmary.
"Thora! Loten!" I called out, laying Raina down as if she were made of the most fragile glass.
My hands were shaking so fiercely that I feared I might shatter her myself. Her skin was ice. She ran cool, but the oily black substance had done more than damage flesh and bone.
Thora was the first to enter, Loten right on her heels.
"Move aside, Liam," Thora commanded, as she placed firm hands on my chest and pushed.
Her brother, Loten, who shared the same dark peach eyes, echoed the motion, adding, "Space, please. We have her now.”
"Her injuries are grave," I insisted, desperation edging my voice as I tried to convey the urgency.
"She took a blow … a hit of something aimed at me. A weapon but not. I think it dissolved into the wound.” I pointed at the oozing hole, bigger than my fist.
“This?” Thora’s dark eyebrows slanted, holding up a depressor with the dark goop dripping.
Loten huffed. “Dark practitioners on Ephandor’s soil? Unthinkable!”
“You know what it is?”
“Oh yes,” Loten nodded, moving over to a cabinet and grabbing a bowl and other supplies. “Nasty stuff.”
“Please, you must save her."
The twins, so different in looks, cocked their heads in the exact same manner. “We will,” they said in unison.
"Now, stand back and let us work," Loten said softly, but not unkindly.
I stepped further away, forced to surrender Raina to their capable hands, but my gaze never left her still figure. My heart screamed within its cage, a tormented beast clawing at the bars of helplessness.
With nothing to do but watch and worry, I took up a familiar station at the door. Nothing would get to her in here.
Thora and Loten worked in tandem, their hands a blur above Raina’s prone body, cleansing the sludge and weaving spells. Transfixed, I stood sentinel, waiting.
I shouldn’t have agreed. I should have stuck with my instincts, to force her to run. To hide.
I should've shielded her from that cursed weapon. Instead, she’d shielded me. Why? I didn’t feel worthy of the sacrifice, hadn’t earned such a thing from her.
"Oh, hello! Welcome back. We’ll give you two a few minutes then come back and get you cleaned up." At this point I wasn’t sure which twin was talking.
An anguished sound ripped from my throat as Raina’s eyes fluttered open, weak but aware. My pulse hammered in my ears.
"Liam?" she whispered.
"I’m here," I breathed out, falling to my knees beside her bed, gripping the edge until my knuckles turned white. "You can't do that again. Not ever again!"
Her gaze held mine. I wondered if she knew, as I did, the precarious ledge upon which we both stood.
“I’m done with this. With all of it. No more,” I asserted with such force Raina seemed to sink into her pillow a little further.
"As far as I’m concerned, you are my wife," I declared, the words spilling forth like an invocation, fierce and desperate and bordering on madness.
"Today. That’s it. Period. End of story." Yes, definitely madness. I didn’t give a shit.
Her eyes widened slightly. “You’re not making … any … sense,” she said as though the words cost her too much oxygen.
My heart was a wild drumbeat heralding a future. Our future.
“Rest.” I stood.
“Where … you going?”
“To get the Gothi. We’re getting married. Right now.”
“No.”
"You will be my wife. You’ll do as I say because I’m not waiting one more fucking second!" I shouted.
I was laying my soul bare before her in a plea wrapped as a command. The words echoed in the charged silence that followed, resonating with all the unspoken vows and shattered dreams that lay between us.
Raina's breath hitched, a fragile sound. Her chest rose and fell.
A flicker of something—pain, confusion—danced across her face.
“Liam, stop,” she pleaded.
"Do you love me?" My voice was barely above a whisper, the fierceness giving way to vulnerability. I was a soldier stripped of his armor, a male stripped of all pretenses.
Raina's lips parted, and for a heartbeat, time itself seemed to pause. Her answer, poised on the tip of her tongue, held the power to mend or to maul.
"Liam," She began, her voice steady, her eyes blazing. “I …” her head shook and I felt the weight of the universe crashing on top of me.
The ugly thing I’d allowed to grow, that I’d fed and nurtured and used to inflict damage, opened its mouth. “Then why did you fucking bother to save me?”
With perfect timing, the twins returned, immediately going back to work.
The world crashed back into motion. Raina was trying to talk but the ringing in my ears made it hard to hear. With my heart in one hand, and my pride in the other, I portaled back to where I’d last seen the Drótinn. I then proceeded to kill every fucking invader I could reach.
If I couldn’t keep her, I could at least keep her safe.