Chapter 23
SHAW
We don’t move till I hear the door to the cabin close, too far away for mortal ears to hear. She locks it like a good girl, and I take a heavy breath.
“How are you here?”
Vidarr loosens his shoulders and walks through the trees till our bodies collide, and snow puffs out from our cold clothes. My heart twists as he throws his arms around me in an embrace.
“Nice trick with the amulet and your blood. She opened the channel in between realms, so for a brief moment, I could find a way in.” His short words cover his emotions. I squeeze his bicep, making sure he’s real and not an illusion.
“Can you take us home?” I ask, and his vibrant eyes darken.
“She has the bow. Not you. So sadly, no,” he replies, and I sigh.
This was what I was afraid of. “One more thing. You have less than two months to finish the chain,” he spits out nonchalantly.
Walking through the trees, I grind my jaw to avoid looking at Vidarr.
Now that he’s here, it feels like no time at all has passed, but I am different then how he saw me last.
“And if she won’t?” I ask, thinking about Rasha’s crimson hair falling over her smooth shoulders.
“She will. I’ve been watching her since she left the shrine,” Vidarr says. I shoot him a glare. Rasha and I were fooling around together in the sled with no cover. He chuckles, patting me on the back with the same boyish smile he’s always had, no matter how many lifetimes we’ve lived.
“I didn’t stick around to listen to her call your pretty name. But it was nice to know all your talents haven’t left since your exile,” Vidarr teases. I have half a mind to wrestle him over the fucking cliff.
“How’s Vali?” I ask about his twin and my youngest brother.
“He needs you. We all do. He just won’t admit it,” he explains, and I am crestfallen. We meander away from the path, winding through the snow covered trees. Everywhere Vidarr steps, animals stop to watch him. It’s not everyday that someone from beyond the Vanheim walks in the Sacred Forest.
“I am sorry, Vidarr.” My voice is rough with regret.
“That is nice to hear.”
“You can give me all the shit you want. I didn’t handle anything the way I should have. But Rasha is young. She has no idea what is in store for her. Is there a way for me to sever the bond and let her live out her life once I return home?”
Vidarr clasps his hands behind his back, his long, black seal coat billowing behind him and says, “She belongs with you. I was here the first time you traveled to this realm with a partner, and I didn’t feel the same way I do now when I watch her.”
“If you keep talking about watching her, we are going to do more than stroll through the forest.”
“I’d love to stay and rile you up for old times sake, but I cannot keep this form for too long.”
“If she uses the bow, will you be able to track her?” My concern for Rasha’s safety is reaching a new height, but it won’t hurt to have Vidarr keeping an eye out for Harald.
“I’ll do what I can if it gets out of hand.
But Shaw…” He stops and blocks my path back to the cabin.
Staring my little brother down makes me feel gutted.
I should be giving him advice, I should be keeping an eye out, and I shouldn’t need his help.
Vidarr waits till I am ready to listen and says, “You cannot tell her the truth about the ritual, or the ritual won’t work. You know that, don’t you?”
“That doesn’t seem fair.” I walk around him, wondering if he’d want to meet her.
“You forfeited fair when you lost your seat. This is the test you agreed to. And if it doesn’t work, the vultures are already circling.”
His coded words boil my blood. In the grand scheme of things, I have never been counted out completely.
“So because I have come out of hiding and it wasn’t me who procured the bow, our line is in jeopardy?”
“You were supposed to retrieve the bow. Skadi died on your watch. Now, your eternal life being bound to that chain, that’s another story.”
“You don’t have to remind me.”
“I do because you failed once. For fuck’s sake, Shaw, don’t fail us now,” he bites with a harsh tone, sending a flurry of snow over us from the skies.
“Vidarr,” I call his name as I would have in our realm, and he straightens, pushing back his shoulders and leveling a respectful stare.
“What else can I tell you?” he asks.
“Tell me everything you can in the time you have left. Tell me about our sister and our mother.” I lean my back against a large tree, folding my arms over my chest, and wait.
His cheeks rise as he smiles like the stately man he is and regales me with details of our home.
Half of the time, it’s hard to listen because my soul aches at the nostalgia, pulling me closer to my brother.
When he’s done, he takes to the skies as a magnificent eagle, soaring high into the storm clouds and back into the Vanheim.
Welcoming the shift in the air, I feel the breeze as it turns harsh and unrelenting.
Snow quickly falls in wet flakes, coating my tunic and face, but I don’t move faster.
The afternoon is swallowed by bleak clouds and dropping temperatures.
Vidarr’s parting gift to halt Harald’s progress and give Rasha more time to learn to use the bow.
Aslaug darts through the trees, almost invisible with her sleek silver and tan coat against the snow. To the naked eye, no one would see her coming. As I trudge back through the forest, the snow gives even my eyes a challenge. I hear Aslaug again, but I don’t see her.
My ankles are swept out from under me, and I turn as I fall, hitting the ground with a cleaving thud.
Ready to swing a punch, I figure it’s Vidarr who can’t resist a moment to knock me on my ass, but red hair flashes over my face.
Rasha slams the solid handle of an axe into my chest and throws her legs over my hips.
“You have a brother, and he wants what exactly?” she demands over the howling wind. My hands instantly grip her thighs.
“He wants me to come home.” I try to keep my blood frozen in my veins, but my cock awakens.
“Tell me the fucking truth, or I’ll leave with the chain and bow,” she threatens, and I don’t blame her.
“I haven’t seen Vidarr in many, many years. When you retrieved the bow, it sent a signal to him.”
“A signal from where? You promised no one could find me here.” She pushes the handle higher into my neck till I feel the razor-sharp edge of the axe.
My hand roves up her back to the braid she must have secured while she nervously waited.
Her clothes are splotched with wet snow, and I can see the shimmering chain hanging around her neck.
“From the Immortal Realm,” I tell her, and she lets up. Wiping her nose on her sleeve, she looks at me with those bright blue eyes that look like pieces of sea ice. She parts her red lips to huff a breath and slams the long axe handle into my collarbones.
“What the fuck am I supposed to believe? That you are not mortal?” she growls.
She’s too alluring, and I buck my hips to disorient her, tossing her to the side.
Before she’s able to use her blunt weapon, I grab her arms and pin them above her head.
She pulls her legs up and tries to kick me, but my hips over her waist are far too heavy for her to wiggle free from.
“Does it matter if I am?” Seeing Vidarr left me raw. Now my emotions are spilling out. “I am going to teach you to use the bow. We are going to protect the reindeer from Harald.”
She wiggles underneath me, slower, more deliberately, and her hands relax open, letting the axe roll away into the snow.
“And the chain?” Rasha’s eyes flick up to mine as her legs widen to encompass my body.
The snow is melting around us, and the fresh falling snow is kept out of our circle.
She’s radiating heat beneath me, and although I’d like to take credit for her arousal, I can’t deny the amulet sitting between her breasts, thrumming happily at our bond.
“The chain is yours to finish,” I softly reply and push my knees into the cold mud to stand. Holding a hand out, I pull her up and into my chest.
“You promised we’d start at the beginning, so maybe it’s time to tell me why you’re here, away from your family?” Her face is one hot breath away from my lips.
“Because Skadi’s death is on me. This exile is my punishment.” The snow falling around us sizzles into tiny curls of smoke when it touches our clothes. I can’t stop myself. I slip my hand into the opening of her tunic to cover the amulet and her chest with my hand.
For a moment, I feel the world stop moving and the snow cease to fall. Her heartbeat quickens like a racing rabbit through a summer field. She’s undeniably worthy of this task. I just need to show her.
Rasha stares at me and then around us, taking in the prism we are creating from the heat rolling off our skin and the snow stuck in a lethargy of time.
She covers my hand with her own, which opens the tiny bit of magic inside the amulet even more.
The axe in the snow vibrates off the ground, and I open my other hand to catch it before it knocks into us.
“I don’t know what to say,” she murmurs, leaning into the crook of my neck. My devious mind wants to slip my hand over a few inches to cup her breast, but I don’t dare break the concentration of magic while she’s getting used to it.
“Help me get the cabin ready for the storm. We will have days to talk,” I answer. She pulls away and gasps as the snow gusts down from the sky after being held back for the five minutes we stood with one another.
Walking back to the cabin is a mess; the wind pushes ice-crusted branches from the trees, and the snow comes down so hard I am not sure Rasha can see a few feet in front of her.
Aslaug is there at her side, keeping her on the path, for which I am grateful.
Before long, we are laying dry hay for the goats and checking on the reindeer, who don’t seem to care one way or another about the weather.
Aslaug had left two fish nearly frozen at the door earlier, so first and foremost, I start a fire when we are inside for the night.
“Where do you fish?” Rasha sings to the cat, who’s rubbing her stretched out side on the carpet. Stocking the logs to keep the fire burning all night, I watch the two of them trying to communicate and chuckle under my breath.
“She probably scavenged them from an eagle,” I answer, and Aslaug sits up to purr at my assumption. “Don’t wait to get out of your wet clothes.”
Rasha looks me up and down, pressing her lips into a thin line, and walks away, closing the bedroom door. It’s for the best anyway. After wrestling in the snow and touching her beautifully soft skin, I know we definitely need space.
When she comes back, wearing a heavy wool sweater I made, I take my turn to change.
Sliding my wet trousers down, I know my cock is impossibly hard.
Even wrapping my cold hand against it does nothing to soften the ache.
Pressing it to the side, I pull fresh pants on and try to forget how much I want her.
Hunting is best when the animals come to you.
The lesson we are taught as children in the Vanheim reminds me of Vidarr and Vali enough to replace images of Rasha’s body in the sled.
When I come out, Rasha is sitting by the fire, examining the amulet resting in her palm as the silver chain dangles down her forearm.
“Do you still want to know why the chain is my penance, and how the bow being left here was my fault?” I take a seat close to her.
“What did you do?” she asks, and I rub my hands up the stubble shading my jaw.
“I took my position for granted, and she died.”
“I have a hard time believing that you would do such a thing.”
“Being young sometimes means being foolish and arrogant.” I stare into the fire to avoid her concerned glances.
“So the bow was left here for you to reclaim, but you couldn’t open the tomb? Because?” she continues, and I watch her slip each link through her delicate fingers and open the amulet to slide the ends out.
“Because some wounds are too great to heal. Maybe? Or maybe there is another lesson I have yet to learn from the fates?”
“Do you think the women will forgive me when they learn I am alive?” Connecting the fragments of our journeys.
“I think they will, and more so, they will look to you as their guide. Leaving a horde of angry men is going to be difficult for years to come,” I reply, remembering how determined Enora was to help me when Rasha was being sacrificed.
I do wonder if the women know Rasha made it out of the funeral longboat, and what has happened to Harald, but selfishly, I am enjoying Rasha all to myself.
“You bonded us, and you can break the bond?” she asks.
I think I’m going to be sick. “Rasha.” Fear hitches in my lungs as she passes the still-warm amulet to me.
“I don’t mean tonight. But if you decide you don’t want me forever bound to you, can you break the bond?”
Taking a deep breath, I reach over and trace up her arm to where she’s wrapped the chain –my life in links, around her wrist.
“If you want to go your own way when this is over, I won’t stop you. You’ll have everything you need to put an end to Harald’s reign,” I say slowly, which is at odds with how I feel. I want her to want me. I want to make her mine thought that isn’t how it works.
“Can you teach me how to forge the links, or do I have to figure that out all by myself?” She rolls those pretty blue eyes at me.
“I will teach you. We can also go into the caves under the mountain range. Maybe finding ore from inside the mountain will inspire you to make that arrow appear.”
Taking the amulet back from my outstretched palm, she asks, “When I do make it appear, will it give me the power I need?”
“That depends on how much power you think you carry inside you,” I explain, and she furrows her brow. Contemplating our conversation, she stares into the flames as they lap over the kettle. “I am glad you’re up for the challenge,” I tease and leave the coziness to prepare dinner.