Chapter 10 Halvar
Halvar
Later that day, several hours after another training session with Freija, I raked my hands through my wet hair, sending water droplets across the floor of my bathing chamber, before striding back into my room.
I grabbed a clean black shirt and trousers, throwing them both on, and rolled my sleeves to my elbows.
For some reason, King Erik and Queen Astrid requesting that their daughter find a partner irked me.
Seemed to me she wasn’t interested. She also appeared to follow every single one of their requests as if they were orders from a general.
And, while yes, they were the reigning monarchs, did Freija not know that she didn’t need to do any of that if she didn’t truly want to?
Curiosity humming in my veins, I left my quarters and made my way through the winding tunnels to the princess.
Soldiers nodded as I passed, while residents of the mountain watched me with fear in their eyes—darting back into shops and homes.
Some might find the behavior unsettling, but I’d grown accustomed to it over the centuries. It kept people out of my way too.
After a few minutes, I reached my destination and knocked on Freija’s door.
“Come in!”
I pushed open the thick, wooden door and found her sitting on the edge of her four-poster bed, brushing her long auburn hair. Her eyes brightened a touch as I closed the door behind me.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’m here to let you know that a night guard will be assigned to your door. Should there be anything amiss during the night, he can assist you or fetch me.”
“Excellent,” she replied. “Is that all?”
“I also wanted to discuss your security should you bring in any of the suitors your mother mentioned.”
She grimaced and scrunched her nose.
“None of them to your liking?” I asked, even though I shouldn’t have. I should stand outside and only ever come in here when needed or for brief discussions about her security. But here I was, a moth drawn to a flickering candle that would burn me if I dared touch her.
Those unusual eyes darted to the table, and her delicate shoulders rose and fell as she tossed the hairbrush behind her onto the bed.
Crossing the room in five broad strides, I reached the round table tucked in the far corner beside her bookshelves. I toyed with the stack of parchment, swirls of ink scrawled across the pages. “Are these the men?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“You haven’t looked?” I asked and peered over at her.
She shook her head.
“May I?”
“Be my guest. Perhaps you can find me the right man. One my parents would approve of too.”
“I imagine these would all meet your parents’ approval or they wouldn’t have suggested them in the first place.
” I knew what King Erik was like. He may have been a quiet man, but he was cunning and stealthy.
All plans and ideas were well-researched and thought through.
A hunger for knowledge drove him—a trait his eldest daughter had apparently inherited based on the number of books lining her shelves.
“You have a point,” she replied. “I should have thought of that.”
“Tired?”
“Well, someone trained me hard today.”
“That wasn’t hard.”
A trilling laugh danced over to me. “You’re lying.”
It was my turn to shake my head. I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’ll show you hard at our training session tomorrow.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion, princess.”
Her eyes flared and something in my chest warmed at the sight. “You believe you can command me, soldier?”
Hmm. I hadn’t been called that in a very long time, apart from when she’d done it earlier today. If she wasn’t the crown princess, I’d tell her exactly where she could shove that moniker, but as it was…
“I will do whatever is necessary to ensure your safety.”
Her tongue swept out and brushed across her bottom lip. A tantalizing sight.
“Get me that training schedule and I’ll do what I can.” She nodded to the table. “Now, why don’t we focus on these candidates mother left for me, instead?”
I’d rather skewer my own head on a pike. But if it helped me get to know her better and assess the potential threats entering the mountain then it might be useful. “If that’s what you want.”
She rolled her eyes and glided across the room, reaching for a glass decanter on the bookshelf. The amber liquid inside sloshed around as she grabbed two etched glasses.
“Is it what I want to do? No. Is it what I need to do? Yes, unfortunately.” She dropped into one of the four wooden chairs dotted around the table. “For security purposes, I’d think it would be important for you, my bodyguard, to assess the candidates too.”
“Yes, for security purposes,” I mumbled, knowing full well that it was going to be more horrific than fist fighting a drunk Viking.
At least she’d brought alcohol.
I settled in one of the chairs across from her, and she poured out two heavy glasses of liquor, the smoky and sweet smell filling the space between us.
She proffered the tot of whiskey and I took it, our fingers brushing.
A zap of warmth flared where we connected, and I pulled the glass to my lips as quickly as possible.
She retracted her hand, a faint blush sweeping across her cheeks.
Seemed like I made the princess a tad nervous. Part of me didn’t care, but the other part took great satisfaction that I could ruffle the great Crown Princess Freija.
“Let us begin then,” she said and took a sip of her drink.
A comfortable silence settled over us. The first couple pages were thrown aside by Freija with grumbles of “incompetent fool.” I didn’t bother looking at those. Two more were set aside as optional. I grabbed the first page, my eyes landing on the name and brief details of the man.
Gunnar Bertelson
Blond hair
Blue eyes
200 years old
Enjoys marksmanship, snow, and walks through the woods
They weren’t bad traits, but could the man be any blander?
Favorite food is bread
I rolled my eyes. Apparently, he could.
Gunnar got shoved into my own maybe pile and I picked up the next one.
Torbj?rn Odinson
Black hair
Blue eyes
289 years old
Enjoys sword-smithing and time outside the mountain
Spent time serving overseas—
Absolutely fucking not. I crunched up the page and threw it over my shoulder.
Freija peered over her own piece of paper. “Not acceptable?”
I grunted.
“Serving overseas” was code among soldiers for sell-sword and raider. I’d wager my best axe he was a brute looking for nothing more than an unsanctioned fight and somewhere to stick his cock.
I moved on to the stack of papers Freija had yet to consider. Taking the top one, I clenched my jaw and started reading.
Hans Fredrickson
Brown hair
Brown eyes
232 years old
Enjoys reading, mathematics, and cooking.
This one seemed harmless and had one hobby in common with Freija. That would at least spark some conversation.
“What about this one?” I handed her the paper.
“Hans?” she said, an incredulous tone in her voice as she took the parchment. “He was terrified of foxes growing up.”
“Foxes?”
She nodded, the light catching in a swoop of auburn hair, giving it a bronze-like luster that matched one of the hues in her eyes. “He had a bad experience with an arctic fox once. It bit his ankle.”
“And you hold someone’s fears against them?”
She reared back. “I would never. Fears can be armor or an injury. We all have them, whether we want to acknowledge that fact or not.”
“What are you afraid of?” I asked.
Her gaze flicked to me, her long lashes shielding her. “That’s a rather bold question.”
“It’s good for me to know. As your guard.”
“You have a point.” She shoved Hans into the acceptable pile. “Other than severe illness that may not be healed by a healer’s magic, I’m not fond of spiders.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “Spiders? That’s all?”
She shrugged and leaned back in her chair, our suitor assessment forgotten. Her foot brushed against mine before retreating like she’d been stung, and a flush of pink swept across her cheeks. Something warmed in my chest at the sight, and I stifled a smirk.
Taking another sip from her drink, she asked, “What do you fear?”
“Nothing.”
“Everyone fears something.”
I rested one hand on the table and my forearm on top of the chair beside me. “I am what most beings fear.”
She shuddered, and I bit back a smile. I loved the way people shrank away from me when I entered a room like I might sever their head from their necks for looking at me. Freija had too, but she always took another look. As if her curiosity couldn’t stop her.
“You must fear something,” she said. “The downfall of the mountain? Your soldiers being slaughtered on the battlefield? Death?”
“I’ll fear death when the ancestors finally call me home. Until then…” I raised a lone finger. “There is one person, aside from your father, who might be able to best me.”
Her eyes widened and she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table between us and planting her chin in her hands. “Do tell.”
I shouldn’t tell her my weaknesses, but something about her made me want to spill my darkest secrets while wrestling her fears into submission.
“Veigar.”
Another shudder ripped through her. “I should have guessed. The Fire Fae king scares everyone.”
“For good reason.” The man was behind several volcanic eruptions over the past few centuries and could summon creatures formed of fire, not to mention control lava.
He was a lethal being. One that lived thousands of kilometers away in the middle of the North Atlantic, protecting an isle of flames and caring for the tectonic plates as the ancestors had tasked the Fire Fae with.
Freija cleared her throat and swiped her pointer finger across the table as if checking for dust. “Is there anything else you need to know as my guard?”
There wasn’t really anything of utmost importance, and I should be keeping my distance, but…
I couldn’t help myself. Curiosity had me in her clutches, and I wanted to know more about Freija.
Learn what made those smiles appear. What kept her up at night.
What soap she used in that damn bath of hers that still plagued my dreams. “What’s your favorite book? ”
“That’s what you want to know? Didn’t you already examine my bookshelf the other night?”
I hadn’t really been paying attention to the books. I’d been watching her naked form out of the corner of my eye, desperately wondering what lay beneath the waterline—even if I could never touch it for myself.
“I did,” I replied. “But which one is your favorite?”
She brushed aside an errant strand of hair, tucking it behind her ear. “I like my encyclopedias, especially the ones about botany.”
“Plants?”
Her head bobbed and she pointed to a moss-filled terrarium on her dressing table beside the dust-covered tiara. “I like studying them. Even have a garden on top of the mountain.”
“A garden?” A location outside the safety of the mountain. I’d need to do a full security assessment. “Where exactly?”
“A patch above the tree line along a cliff edge, slightly east of the main entrance to the mountain.”
“Do you go there alone?”
“Yes, but it’s safe.”
That was debatable. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
A fine eyebrow quirked up in challenge across the table. “Will you now?”
Did she just mimic the words I said to her yesterday in training? Turned out the Crown Princess had a cheeky sense of humor. Interesting.
“Yes,” I replied. “How many know of this garden?”
“Not many. My parents. Sister. Princess Ragnhild. A few guards too, I guess.”
Secrets had legs. It would only take one of those guards talking, or Princess Nora letting something slip in a drunken stupor in the Alps, and Freija’s life would be in jeopardy.
I’d need to increase protective measures wherever this garden was.
Leaning forward, I grabbed the decanter and poured myself another drink.
“You will take me to your garden tomorrow.”
She tilted her head to one side like she didn’t want to take orders from me.
I sighed and relented. I needed to know where that garden was so I could implement security measures as fast as possible. “Please, show me to the garden tomorrow?”
A slow grin curved those plump lips. “Much better.”
Oh, she was very naughty, toying with me like that.
“You’ll come to find, princess, that this process”—I tilted the rim of my glass toward her and then me—“will be far smoother if you adhere to my requests.”
“And you, soldier, will fare far better if you learn how to ask nicely.”
I squashed my smile and took a long sip of my drink, my insides warming more from her challenge than the burning liquor.
This woman was dangerous. Too dangerous.
My chest tightened, my pulse hammering while my skin prickled under her gaze.
I shouldn’t be feeling this way for her.
Couldn’t allow it. I had to get out of here before I did something I’d regret.
I downed the rest of my drink and shoved out of my seat.
Freija’s face scrunched like she didn’t understand what was happening.
“I’ll be sure to temper my requests around you,” I said as I crossed to the exit.
“Really?”
“No.”
She scoffed before I added, “I will see you tomorrow.”
With that, I stomped into the hallway and shut the door behind me.
The soldier I’d requested pushed off the wall to my left and gave me a salute. “Sir.”
With a quick glance at Freija’s door, I focused my attention on him. “No one touches her. No one gets past you. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And if you fail”—I took a step closer, looming over the paling man—“I will personally carve you in half from head to cock.”
His throat bobbed, and I didn’t waste any more time with him, striding down the tunnels back to my own chambers for the night.
It was my job to protect her, but the more I got to know the woman, the stronger that need grew. However much I tried to suppress it.
The princess was far more dangerous than her delicate frame suggested.