Chapter 2
Two
Hanna
“You’re maddening,” I told Kaelan, breathless from both his kiss and from trying to come to terms with his acceptance.
His thumb traced over my fingers, which were bare, without any ring to mark Dare’s claim. “But I’m yours. That’s what matters, isn’t it?” He glanced at Dare. “We’re both yours. And you’re ours.”
Satisfaction rippled through me, and I smiled even as I whispered, “I hate you.”
“I know that too.” Kaelan pulled me closer until I could feel the cool hardness of his powerfully muscled body, smell the wintery, clean scent of him, even here, back in summer.
He lifted my hand, rubbing his finger over my his ring that I wore and then over my bare fingers.
“Where is Dare’s ring? Are you hiding that from me too? ”
“We don’t have rings,” Dare admitted.
“Sloppy,” Kaelan chided him. “I didn’t hesitate to put a ring on her finger.”
“A haunted ring,” I reminded him.
“A strange ring for a strange woman,” he said unapologetically. “It suits you.”
“Just to review,” I said, “you’re not angry.”
“But you are full of mockery,” Dare muttered, as if he were genuinely distressed now about the matter of the ring.
Kaelan’s smile returned, sharp and pleased.
“I’m not angry. If anything, I’m impressed.
It takes remarkable courage to marry the woman you love when you know she’s already bound to another man, and your future king at that.
” He looked back at me. “And it takes remarkable trust for her to say yes anyway.”
“It was strategic,” I said.
“Strategy, of course.” Kaelan nodded. “You’re just making wise, strategic choices. That’s why you look at Dare like you look at me and Thorne.”
Thorne. Thorne was silent, which wasn’t rare for him. He’d been forgotten during this exchange—since we knew he wouldn’t murder us—and I turned to look for him.
Thorne stood by the fireplace. Its glow cast scattered light across his face, half turned from us, and I couldn’t read what he thought. I’d felt happy and giddy, but now my heart twisted.
My first impulse was to let the subject go until I could speak to Thorne alone.
But we were going to be four, I hoped.
“Thorne—” I began quietly.
Kaelan’s gaze slipped between the two of us, icy blue cutting through all the lies as always.
“I’m not angry, but he is,” he noted. “How unusual.”
“I’m not angry.” Thorne turned from the fireplace, his eyes dark. “Congratulations on your wedding.”
He extended his hand to Dare.
“Thank you,” Dare answered, though he looked as troubled as I felt.
Thorne grunted in response, which I took to mean you’re welcome or possibly you’re an idiot, but I’m glad you’re happy.
I tucked my hair back behind my ears, feeling unsettled. I wanted all three of these men, and I wanted them to be happy. To feel my love.
“We should correct your negligence if you are going to be worthy of Hanna,” Kaelan said to Dare.
Dare glared at him. “I cannot believe I am binding myself to you forever when I bind myself to her.”
“You are, aren’t you?” Kaelan mused, clapping his hand on his shoulder to steer Dare out of the room. “Let’s go find a ring.”
“We’re in the summer palace,” I reminded them. “We’re in the middle of no—”
The door shut behind them.
“Well, they’re resourceful,” I muttered. “They’ll figure something out, I guess.”
And really, Kaelan had just been trying to leave Thorne and me alone in privacy.
“Did you guess?” I asked, my voice coming out uncertain.
“I knew something changed between the two of you, and I’m glad.” He didn’t sound glad.
“Thorne.” I put my hand on his bicep, turning him toward me. He was massive compared to me, but he let me pull him around to face me. “Please talk to me.”
His dark eyes prowled mine. “I’m not ready.”
I frowned up at him. “Not ready to talk to me?”
“Not ready to discuss my feelings about your marriage to my two closest friends. Is there something else you want from me?”
He was studying me, and I studied him back. His curt answers had left me with a flash of anger, but now it softened.
“Yes,” I said. “I want you to know…I see how you’ve watched over me from the very first moment we met. I want you to know that I love you. And I want you to know that I intend to marry you if you’ll have me.”
His tense, hard-angled face softened.
“Will you, Thorne?” I asked. “Will you marry me?”
“Of course.” His thumb brushed my cheek tenderly as he cupped my face.
“Marrying Kaelan was his command,” I reminded him gently, placing my hand over his. “Marrying Dare was his ruse.”
“And marrying me?” he asked.
“Marrying you will be my happy ending,” I said. “My coming home.”
To the Ice Kingdom, where I belonged.
Thorne’s lips brushed mine, warm and gentle, carrying heat through every part of my body. The kiss was soft, but it carried the weight of everything he wasn’t saying. His breath mingled with mine, steady and controlled, though tension hummed beneath his skin.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, fingers curling into his hair, and kissed him back. His hands slid to my waist, thumbs pressing in slightly as if to anchor himself.
The kiss deepened just a fraction, enough to steal my breath, enough to make my chest ache. For a moment, there was nothing else—no danger, no past, no future—just the warmth of his hard-muscled body and the quiet certainty of being held.
And then the goddess’s voice rose like a murmur in the back of my mind.
You are awfully needy for a fire-breathing dragon queen, aren’t you?
I jolted away from Thorne, feeling as if I’d been exposed.
Thorne looked down at me, his gaze troubled. “What’s wrong?”
“The goddess.”
Have you decided yet if you’re going to cast me away immediately or keep me around to help you win your war? Her voice was barbed.
“I need to talk to my sister.” My hand dropped to Thorne’s, gripping his hand in mine.
“Is that a good idea?” he asked cautiously. Then, as if answering his own question, he added, “The queen and her men already know.”
“The goddess’s power was pretty thoroughly displayed.” I was honestly surprised that I’d had this time to rest with my men at all.
After my sister’s experiences fighting a god, they’d want to pull the goddess out from under my skin immediately.
I’m so much more than a splinter, little queen, the goddess promised me.
“Do you think they’ll let you leave?” Thorne asked.
“That’s not their choice.” Irritation flared through me.
Thorne squeezed my hand before he added pointedly, “Or Kaelan’s.”
The ground seemed to shift beneath my feet.
What had Kaelan said just recently? You know I’d lock you in a tower to keep you safe if I could.
For the first time since Kaelan and Honor met, they might find themselves agreeing. I had to get rid of the goddess before she became an excuse for Kaelan to leave me behind, safe with my sister, while he went to war.
“I need her gone now,” I told Thorne.
He nodded. “How?”
The response is just like Thorne. He’s always ready for whatever I need.
“She was imprisoned in the statue,” I said. Looking inward, I asked, “What is it you want from me? Are you willing to go?”
Go where, little queen? Her voice curled around me like her shadows, dark and overwhelming. I’ve no temple to which to return…not that I wish to. It’s an empty temple, and your life is so very full.
When I met Thorne’s gaze, his dark eyes, in that beautifully chiseled face, reflected my fear.
I didn’t have to speak the words out loud.
“Perhaps your sister and her men can help,” he said.
“Let’s try this on our own first.” I’d rather not run to them, confessing I need help. “There’s an old temple. We can go out there.”
Another rotted temple. How welcoming. What gratitude that I helped you defeat Baelur…and I could help you defeat Edric.
You could return to the Isle knowing Edric will be crushed beneath your feet without any of these men of yours dying.
Before I could respond, images flashed into my mind, sharp and powerful.
Thorne’s hand wrenched from mine as he fell, then he lay on the ground still, his eyes staring heavenward.
Dare’s green eyes were empty, his soft lips parted for a breath he’d never draw.
Kaelan’s face was splattered with blood, his own and others’, above a ripped-open throat.
“Hanna.” Thorne’s arm was around me, steadying me.
“I’m all right.” I shook my head, trying to shake away the goddess’s tricks. “Showing me how you’ll hurt me doesn’t make you seem like a good guest to keep in my mind.”
Is that so? She seemed amused. I’m just showing you reality. Many people have a far more cruel and imaginative voice as a guest in their mind.
“That’s not reality. We can win without you.”
Perhaps.
That word—and all its implications—lingered in my mind, just as she intended, while I led Thorne through the summer castle down to the temple.
It once overlooked the sea, but a tangle of trees and bushes had blown up to block it now; still, we could hear the sea shattering on the rocks far below from where we stopped.
“I know some runes for fighting the control of another,” Thorne told me. “From trying to protect Kaelan from Edric.”
The memory of how Edric had invaded Kaelan’s mind rose, and I hesitated. “Do you think we should keep the goddess to defeat him?”
“Why would the goddess help us?” Thorne asked bluntly. “Why would we trust her?”
He’s so handsome but so cynical, isn’t he? Your interests are mine…as long as your body is my temple.
“Teach me the runes,” I said.
Together, the two of us marked the runes on the floor of the temple.
The temple was small, no larger than one of Honor’s pavilions in the garden for family dinners, with enough space for a table for twelve.
There was no altar, merely four marble beams holding up the steeply sloped ceiling, and we cleared sticks and debris from the floor in order to draw the runes, half with magic and half by clearing away the mud and dust that marked the floor.
“Do you think it’s strange how we left the gods behind us?” I mused.
Thorne snorted. “No. When have they ever helped us? They take more than they give.”
I served the women who worshipped me well. The goddess’s voice seems tinged with genuine hurt. My worshippers were forced to abandon me.
I wasn’t sure if that was true or merely what she needed to believe.
“She would be happy if she were worshipped again,” I told Thorne.
I am still needed.
“We’ll find someone to worship her then.” Thorne marked the last rune and stood, dusting his hands against his trousers.
I didn’t think it was that simple.
Thorne set the elaborate lamp he’d borrowed from Honor’s castle—well, stolen really—near the center of the temple.
You must be teasing me, the goddess said flatly.
“It’s just temporary. You’re right, you are still needed. We’ll find a place for you to be worshipped.”
Little queen, you are aware I am in your mind? You can’t lie to me.
“I’m not lying to you!”
Perhaps I was being excessively optimistic. But I wasn’t lying.
You are lying to me if you’re destroyed by Edric before you can find me a temple. I won’t leave your body.
I blew out a breath. We’ll see.
I knelt in front of the lamp and folded my hands in my lap. My spine was princess-straight, as always, even as dread settled over me.
Thorne spoke the words, and the runes ignited around me, blazing golden and bright amidst the grime covering the marble floor.
Pretty, the goddess observed dryly.
“My body is my own.” I set my hand on top of the lamp as I closed my mind, gathering her from every corner of my mind. Her shadows seemed to slip away, endless, like trying to capture water in your grip.
This is foolish. You cannot cut the ocean out of the wave.
“And you are not welcome in my mind.”
The world narrowed to nothing but Thorne’s hand falling on my shoulder—lending me his power, his magic—and my hand on the cool metal of the lamp. To nothing but the goddess, snarling insults at me as her shadows lashed through my mind, and my own power, wrestling her into the lamp.
Suddenly, she went silent.
For a second, we were victorious.
Then her power exploded out of the lamp. Out of me. Shadows swirled around us, erasing everything on the floor—the runes, the dirt—and my mouth filled with grit. Thorne’s body pressed over me, protecting me from the lashing shadows, from the sudden wind.
It all died.
Thorne and I were at the center of the temple, bent together against the wind. Or as if kneeling before the goddess.
As I raised my head, the temple was swept clean. Restored by the shadows. The pink and silver veins that run through the marble floor gleamed.
“I think we need the others,” Thorne admitted grimly.
“I’ll talk to my sister,” I said, and the grit was still on my tongue.