Chapter Four #2
“And I’m grateful to you, Frey, for getting my friend here safely,” Katana said after she pulled away and turned my sister’s way, surprising us when she bowed from the waist and lowered her head in a show of respect.
“From one warrior to another, I thank you, Frey, daughter of Zane and Savannah. You have my deepest apologies for wielding a blade against you and your brother.” She paused, as if debating whether to say more, before opting for honesty.
“No matter his personality at the time.”
Though Frey seemed serious as she assessed Katana, I knew she appreciated the gesture.
Yet why play a part that didn’t come naturally to her?
Typically, she tended to be more forthright and friendly, to the point of saying too much, when she would do best to refrain.
So, I couldn’t help but wonder whether her reserved behavior, albeit temporary, had to do with Taro.
“Ah, so you have met both sides of Torsten,” Frey deduced, looking at me with relief, no doubt glad to see this side of me again. “But of course you have, and quickly at that.”
“Ja,” I agreed, sheathing my blades. “She has the same surprising talents as Marjorie when it comes to me.”
“Does she then?” she asked Katana, looking her way only to realize she hadn’t raised her head yet. I could only assume she had seen this same behavior from Taro because she seemed to know what to say. “I accept your thanks for keeping Taro safe, Katana.”
Having been acknowledged, Katana finally answered Frey's question.
“Yes, it seems I can draw forth your brother’s better half, so to speak.
” She met Frey’s gaze, forthright in a way that surprised both my sister and me, and not necessarily in a good way, either.
“Though I would be remiss to call one side better than the other, given his other half kept me safe, as you kept Taro safe. Protected me when we faced off against the enemy himself.”
The fact she knew Frey had kept Taro safe at some point told me that, frustratingly enough, she was speaking telepathically with him without me knowing. The bigger concern, however, was her defending my darker half, and I could tell by Frey’s troubled expression she felt the same way.
“Yet he took you without your consent,” I reminded Katana, determined to keep her from falling victim to my other half’s untrustworthy allure. “And he put you in danger he might not have been able to protect you from had he not managed to evade Skarde so swiftly.”
“True,” she conceded, shrugging, determined it seemed to protect my other half.
“But in his defense, he had no way of knowing Skarde would be waiting for us or that we would end up outside of the Realm, a place he thought would be safe for me. Likely even safer than if I had remained in the twenty-first century and Skarde somehow tracked me there. That would have put not only me but my friends in danger.”
While I didn’t want to admit it, she wasn’t entirely wrong in her line of thinking, given the unfortunate draw her and Skarde seemed to have to one another.
“What draw?” Frey exclaimed aloud, catching my thoughts. She frowned at Katana. “You’re drawn to the enemy?” Her eyes narrowed. “How drawn exactly?”
“I second that,” Taro said, frowning as well.
“Too drawn,” I grunted, displeased all the way around at this juncture. “She desires him as she desires my darker half, which would align with Marjorie’s claim that I, Skarde, and Katana are somehow connected.”
“Marjorie saw the crown on Skarde's head, too?” Katana exclaimed, clearly catching more of my thoughts, the closer our inner beasts got. Her eyebrows edged together in concern when she looked at me, yet her voice remained level enough despite her distress. “What does she think that means?”
This was the part I particularly disliked, as it made it harder than ever to know how to handle the enemy.
“At the time she saw it, she thought it meant if Skarde died, we would die as well,” I revealed. “That a tether held us three together.”
“A tether,” Katana murmured, as if something about me saying that made sense to her. “That’s why you were in the castle.” She shook her head slowly, as if trying to remember forgotten memories, or perhaps visions as she called them. “But not before that, I don’t think.”
“What do you mean by the castle?” Frey asked.
“She means the Keep,” I revealed. “’Twas me sending her a warning to remain where she was until I came to her.” I shook my head, hoping I was right. “I don't believe Skarde was truly at the Keep but an illusion created by our shared connection.”
“He might have been an illusion to you, but he was very real to me,” Katana said softly. Though she kept her emotions from her face, I could feel them roiling inside her.
“Just as it seems my brother has been real to you for some time,” Frey commented, eyeing me with disbelief. “How did I not know about this? Feel it within your inner beast? None of us did, it seems.” Her eyebrows swept up. “And why not tell us about it, given many of our kin are time travelers?”
“Because they were but fleeting, rare dreams over the years,” I returned, careful with my words lest I wound Katana when that was the last thing I wanted to do, but it was best she understood my reasoning.
“And truth told, I wanted her nowhere near my darker half until I figured out how to repress him for good. ’Twould be no life for a woman from the twenty-first century otherwise. ”
“Yet our father and his father before him suffered the same affliction and found a semblance of peace from it when they came together with their fated mates,” Frey reminded him, looking at me with confusion.
“Did it not occur to you that the same might happen for you, too? That you might have found some relief at last from your darker half?”
“I didn’t know what to think,” I said, even though I did, but it wasn’t a conversation for right now.
Not when we needed to figure out what to do next, and I said as much.
“Whilst the initial plan was to bring Katana to the Realm to keep her safe, she worries about giving Skarde access, given the connection they share.”
“That all three of us share,” Katana corrected, looking at me. “Which means both of us might be giving him access.”
“So where do we go?” Taro asked, stepping closer to Katana, almost as if he meant to protect her from me if need be, and while I didn’t like it, he could not be entirely blamed, given my other half.
“Better still, where did you come from?” I asked Frey, but not before shooting Taro a warning look that he’d best not step any closer to Katana.
I might not be my darker counterpart, but I suspected I could be just as vicious when it came to protecting my mate.
I looked in the direction from which they had come.
“The same root we arrived at, I assume?”
“Root?” Frey tilted her head in question. “What root? When I sensed you in this direction, we entered the only way we could.”
That, as it turned out, was more than a little surprising and dispelled the idea that we were anywhere normal in the least.