Chapter Five #2
Torsten cursed under his breath when he caught what had happened via our growing bond, then cursed again when he seemed to realize what else was happening simultaneously, but it was too late to stop him.
His darker side had taken advantage of my memory and resurfaced.
“Would you have called it sinister or traumatic, though, I wonder?” Torsten said, thinking nothing of trailing his fingers down my jaw and along the side of my neck, far bolder than his other half.
His touch not only sent ripples of awareness through me but caused an ill-timed ache between my thighs, which he seemed well aware of based on the confident, knowing look in his eyes.
“Mayhap ‘twas more impactful than anything, ja?”
That moment had been many things from wondrous to memorable to something I’d definitely wanted to repeat, but I wasn’t about to tell this version of him that. As to impactful? Most certainly.
“Stop, stranger,” Torsten ground out, his eyes never leaving mine as he put up a hand to still Taro when he unsheathed his blade.
He shook his head. “I have no intention of harming my mate.” His gaze lingered possessively on my face for a moment longer before he narrowed his eyes at Taro, the threat in his voice unmistakable.
“She is mine to look after. Come any closer from now on, and I will cut you down before you take another step.”
“Taro can come as close as he likes,” I made clear, stepping away from Torsten despite how much my body longed to remain close. I positioned myself between him and Taro, rested my hand on my sheathed blade, and narrowed my eyes. “And I do not belong to any man. Period.”
“Are you so sure, mate?” Backing down faster than I thought he might, Torsten shot Taro one last warning glare and eyed me with cocky amusement.
“I will allow this insolence for now, as you have yet to remember all the dreams we shared and the pleasurable things I did to you. Things I will do again and again until you remember with vivid clarity how very much you do belong to me, Katana.” The corner of his mouth hitched higher, and he winked.
“After all, you said so yourself when you cried out in—”
“Enough, brother,” Frey cut in, handling this side of him with admirable finesse.
She gestured at our surroundings, clearly trying to keep him focused on what mattered most. “You can work out whatever this is betwixt you and Katana later. Right now, we need to figure out where we are and, better still, whether the enemy might be tracking us, ja?”
“He is,” Torsten said, alarming us even as his amused, flirtatious gaze remained on me, his arrogant confidence knowing no bounds. “And I say let him.” Relish lit his eyes when he finally looked Frey’s way. “Let him so I might slay him myself and prove to all I am the rightful ruler of the Keep.”
“Let him?” Taro ground out, his patience wearing thin. “Really? Aren’t you supposed to be keeping Katana safe and away from him?”
He didn’t cower in fear before Torsten but held his ground with his blade in hand. Then again, Taro had never been a coward, so it didn’t surprise me.
“Now that I have a better sense of where we are, I am ready to face him,” Torsten made clear, his tone not quite as venomous now. If anything, he seemed to be assessing Taro in a new light, as if sizing up a potential warrior who might bow to his eventual leadership.
“So where are we then?” I asked, in no mood to see them fight if it came to that. Rather, I was curious to hear Torsten’s answer, given his confidence.
“’Tis the Keep,” he replied, surprising us all, considering we weren’t standing in a structure of any sort. “And Skarde wants in so he can infiltrate and infect the Realm from the inside out.”
“This is not the Keep, brother,” Frey exclaimed, worried when she looked at Torsten, clearly concerned about his mental state in more ways than one. “’Tis capable of many things, but not this.”
“You know better than to believe that.” Gesturing for us to follow, Torsten headed into the woodland, as if he knew precisely where he was going.
“Infused with the power of the gods, the Keep can become whatever it needs to be to protect its people.” Though he didn’t glance back to see if we were behind him, I knew he was aware of my every movement and wouldn’t hesitate to toss me over his shoulder again if I didn’t follow.
“And it is protecting its people at this very moment, even if it means luring the beast to its door.”
“So we’re not traveling via the Ygdrasill’s after all?
” I asked, following him because my inner beast would have it no other way.
She would pursue her mate no matter his personality, whether I liked it or not.
Whether Taro liked it or not, which from all the grumbling I heard, as he caught up with me, he most certainly did not.
“I said not near my mate, stranger,” Torsten ground out, spinning and lunging at Taro so fast Frey and I drew our blades. Unfortunately, we weren’t fast enough, and within a heartbeat, the men had daggers at each other’s throats, glaring at one another in a way that made me go rigid with fear.
They continued staring each other down, sizing the other up, ignoring our pleas urging them to stop, until Torsten ground out, “I will not tell you again, stranger. Keep your distance from my mate.” Before Taro could reply with something I sensed would be an outright refusal if it meant keeping me safe, Torsten pulled away, nodded once at Taro in approval, then spun on his heel and kept striding through the woodland.
“You are fast, warrior, and will make a fine addition to my army someday soon.”
When Taro frowned at me and shook his head, I shrugged and kept following Torsten, growing surer by the moment that he was onto something, though I couldn’t say what it was, since we clearly weren’t in a castle.
Frey caught up with him faster than we did and fell in beside him, trying to make sense of his actions telepathically, thinking they were having a private conversation, but I caught every word.
“If by some stretch you’re right about this, brother,” she said, “you would be luring Skarde back to our people. ‘Tis far too risky given we cannot even make contact to warn them.”
“I am right.” He took a sharp left, ducked into a low entrance carved into a large boulder, and followed a path that ran alongside the rock until he entered a tunnel that seemed to vanish beneath the forest. “I can feel it as only the rightful ruler of the Keep can.”
Created by time and water runoff, the area we traveled through was slightly warmer than the air above and smelled of pungent forest mixed with musky cave. Had it not been for our dragon sight, it would have been impossible to see where we were going.
“Blaze is the rightful ruler and no other,” Frey reminded Torsten. “As it should be until he deems otherwise.”
“You mean until the gods deem otherwise,” he returned, making me flinch as I saw the silvery crown with dark sparks briefly flicker on his head before vanishing. “And no one else, given they created the Realm and the great Yggdrasil that oversees all.”
If I knew nothing else from bonding with Torsten’s dragon and our growing connection, it was that his other side would not agree at all. He considered Blaze his closest friend and the rightful ruler of the Keep until Blaze stepped aside. Not if he was usurped.
Yet I couldn’t help but wonder, with what happened next, if the darker side of Torsten was indeed connected to the Keep in ways that deemed him its likely ruler after all.