Chapter Three #2
“Interesting,” he murmured as we kept walking.
“As for the crown's presence in general, according to Marjorie, ‘tis where the Viking blade went to evade the darkness after it saw through Marjorie and Blaze’s part of the prophecy.” He absently touched his tattoo, as if trying to piece it together even as he explained it. “Or mayhap it’s been hiding behind my tattoo, since it appeared when the blade vanished.”
“So does that mean one day you’ll be king?” I asked.
“I couldn’t say, nor could Blaze and Marjorie,” Torsten said.
“Whilst my darker half would likely claim that he, we, should become king, as ‘twas our right, ‘tis not something I have ever craved.” He shrugged. “Besides, based on Marjorie’s claim that the Viking sword wouldn’t just hide within a crown but also within an axe and a shield, I suspect ‘twill not be me but one of my brothers, given the ethereal axe has already appeared on Drakkar and the shield on Ragnar.”
“So, the blade is hiding in three places at once?”
“Mayhap.”
“How does that whittle down who the king will ultimately be?”
“I have no idea other than ‘twill very likely have to do with who ultimately defeats the darkness.”
“Right,” I murmured, a shiver running through me along with a surge of unwelcome desire at the memory of the stranger awaiting us when we traveled back in time.
Though I was upside down on Torsten’s shoulder, I caught enough of him to see he was attractive in a dark, ominous way, even if he was not as handsome as Torsten.
“The man who was waiting for us by the waterfall back there.”
“Ja,” he confirmed. “Skarde.” He appeared unsettled when he glanced at me.
“Though ‘twas my darker side with you earlier, I still recall your draw to him.” As if catching the scent of an arousal I didn't want to feel for the bad guy, he inhaled sharply, much like his other half had when he’d held me against him, and scowled. “You desire him even now.”
“No,” I lied, frustrated by my response, given how terrified I had been of the monster at my back in my vision. Skarde, so it seemed. “He frightened me.”
“At least at one point in time,” he realized, stopping short again and looking at me. His eyes flared golden with his inner beast, seeming to see right through me. “Whilst I understand ‘tis a lot to ask, ‘twould be best if you do not lie to me.”
I shook my head. “I wasn’t lying.”
His eyebrows shot up. “You were, and you know it, just as my inner dragon knows it.”
He wasn’t wrong to ask it of me, considering I wanted honesty between us to begin with. Still, this was awkward.
“Are you sure you want the truth?” I gestured between us. “Considering you claim our dragons are bonding, so you'll know everything I'm not saying soon enough anyway?”
“I do.”
“Then yes,” I admitted. “Skarde terrified me in the vision I had before you arrived, yet I was still drawn to him. Then, by the waterfall, maybe even a little more than that.” I shook my head, desperate to shake off the feeling.
“I wish I could say otherwise. I really do. But it’s as if he has some kind of power over me that makes me feel things I don’t want to feel. ”
At least not with him.
“And my other half?” he wondered, surprising me with that question, still eyeing me with an unsettled look. “Did he make you feel things you didn’t want to feel? Did he frighten you at any point?”
While tempted to evade the question, if not outright lie again, something told me he would know the truth anyway, whether our inner beasts had bonded all the way yet or not. That this version of him had perhaps even caught everything already, despite being repressed before.
“Yes, your darker side frightened me, but in a way, I liked it,” I confessed softly, not entirely sure what I meant, only that it was true. I had been drawn to the danger. To his dominance. “I was just as drawn to him as I was to Skarde, if not more so.”
He eyed me for a long moment before shaking his head once and walking on. “’Tis unwise to feel too strongly about my darker half. He will only take advantage of it, as he will likely consider it a weakness.”
“And do you consider it a weakness?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“No,” he replied, sending an unexpected surge of warmth through me when he glanced my way again. “I would consider it an honor. Something to be cherished.”
He meant it. I could see it in his eyes. And it made my heart flutter in a way it never had before. Something I never would have expected a medieval Viking dragon to evoke, yet there it was as our gazes met briefly before he looked ahead again.
“So you really don’t know where we are?” I said, ready to change the subject.
“No.” He frowned again and shook his head.
“Whilst I should know if we’re in the Realm, I can’t sense it.
‘Tis—” his gaze swept over what little sky we could see— “strange to say the least, given the Yggdrasil in your era should have brought us back to safety, yet I fear it didn’t, considering Skarde was awaiting us and he can’t get past the dome protecting the Realm. ”
“What of those closest to you?” I wondered, sensing that dragons in this day and age possessed the same telepathic bond with loved ones as those from the twenty-first century. “Can you connect with them?”
“No, and ‘tis unnerving,” he replied. “Even with distance betwixt us, this has never happened before.”
“If the bad guy knew precisely where we would end up,” I said, hopeful, “maybe your family will, too?”
“’Twould be a reasonable conclusion, but if we can’t even speak telepathically and since I cannot sense them in my mind, ‘tis likely they do not.” He glanced at me again, and the corners of his mouth tugged downward.
“As to Skarde, I fear ‘tis just as Marjorie claimed. You, me, and the enemy are somehow connected. Tied together in a way that doesn’t bode well.”
“Yet he didn’t follow us here,” I pointed out, glancing back uneasily. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Which means he probably can’t travel through a Yggdrasil,” he said. “And that means the great golden Yggdrasil at the heart of the Realm, or Realm of Fire as ‘tis called within the prophecy, is very likely in control of what’s happening right now.”
What he wasn’t saying but I felt, or perhaps caught in his thoughts, was that Skarde might very well be tapping into the tree’s protection through me, given he was there, waiting by an ash, when we arrived.
“Do you really think he’s somehow gaining access to the Realm through me?” I said aloud, not feeling surprised this time by what I sensed from him.
“I think ‘tis possible,” he granted, pointing at his tattoo. “Mayhap access to me as well and what he believes I possess.”
While all of this might be overwhelming, if not terrifying, given the era I was in, no version of me would put people in danger who didn’t deserve it, especially Marjorie.
“If what you suspect is true, then we need to do whatever it takes to steer clear of the Realm until we know for sure I’m not giving Skarde access to it.
” I glanced his way, trying to remain courageous, no matter how daunting it would be on my own here.
“Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to go our separate ways for a while, too, if it means he could harm you and somehow get a hold of the crown. ”
“That will not be happening,” he said, his voice rough. He stopped again, looked straight into my eyes, and made himself clear in a way I never could have anticipated.