Chapter 39 #2
Helka’s all-knowing stare made me want to sink deeper into my chair.
“You’ve sensed it, Sylvanna. For years you’ve known it was inside you, you just never knew what to call it.
The mating bond is a living thing. It wants.
It needs. It yearns. And no matter how hard the kings and queens tried to extinguish it from existence, it’s never stopped trying to break free of the chains. ”
I swallowed thickly, my throat dry, my stomach sinking like a lead ball.
“And in her arrogance,” Helka continued, “when the Frost Queen poisoned the Winterbloom trees, she never considered what else her venom might unthread. Not just the shields, and not only the spell that held the Helvaktír at bay. But the gruesome spells that smothered the shifters’ magic, that silenced the mating bonds—including the one between you and the Frost Prince. ”
My entire body turned to stone. I couldn’t even blink.
“Is it that crazy to believe, after everything you’ve witnessed?”
I shot off my chair, my feet carving paths on the floorboards as I paced.
“A sacred mating bond? That’s…not possible,” I whispered.
“I love him, yes, but we are from different worlds. He is heir to a kingdom. Betrothed to a princess. The future king of Skadgard. I cannot be his mate. A union like ours could shatter the realm. The queen would disown him. She’d… we’d…”
“Tell me, child, when was the first time you met your prince?”
The air left my lungs, and I paused, my eyes snapping to the witch. “When I was seven. A wisp led me through the queen’s maze, straight to him.” The memory struck me with sudden force, my chest tightening. My breath trembled. “It…wasn’t just a wisp, was it?”
Her lips curved faintly, as if she’d been waiting all this time to reveal a secret she’d kept too long. “Selvarg meddled that day, child. She would not risk leaving such a meeting to chance.”
I shook my head, struggling against the weight of her words. “But why? Why would our bond be so important that the moon goddess herself would intervene?”
“Because your bond is not only about love; it is about unity. The courts divided what was whole, bound what was free, silenced what was holy. Selvarg does not wish for her children to remain in chains. Through you, she weaves a chance to bring the shifters and the royal courts together again.”
My heart thudded wildly.
“But,” Helka added, her tone dropping low, “prophecy is a slippery thing. I’ve seen your futures, Sylvanna. The Son of Ice is not the only thread tied to you. There is another fate, another pull at your core.”
Ice spread through me, heavy and crushing. “What do you mean?”
“The gods still grant their children the gift of free will, deary. But know this: the choice you make tomorrow will fork the road ahead.”
Her words lingered in the cabin like smoke thick with ash, clinging to my lungs, suffocating me.
Frost scaled down my spine, and I sank back into my chair, heart pounding as though it could hear the unspoken words in her voice.
I opened my mouth, determined to demand more, to pry the truth from her riddles, but Jack’s voice broke the silence, a fevered moan carrying from his chamber.
My name clung to each of his breaths as he stirred awake.
“Go to him,” she said. “He needs you, and I’ve said everything I needed to say. The rest”—her voice fell to a whisper that chilled my soul—“the rest belongs to the gods.”
As I rushed into his room, Jack shot upright on the bed, my name ripping from his throat in a hoarse cry. He staggered to his feet, swaying, one hand catching on the bedpost as the other fumbled along the wall. His gaze churned, haunted, as though he was clawing his way out of some abyss.
“Jack—”
The moment his eyes found mine, it was like a dam broke.
His chest heaved, his face crumpled, and he lurched forward on unsteady legs.
He collided into me, arms crushing me to his chest, his face burying into the crook of my neck.
“Gods…you’re alive. You’re alive.” His voice cracked, trembling against my skin.
I wrapped my arms around his sweat-slicked back, steadying his weight as his knees nearly buckled beneath him. “You had a dream, Jack. Just a dream.”
His hands fisted in the back of my gown, shaking, refusing to let go. “It felt real,” he rasped, breath hot against my throat. “I saw you fall. I saw the light leave your eyes. It was like the world split open.”
I cupped his face, forcing him to look at me, to see. “I’m right here. You didn’t lose me.”
His gaze softened, though it still carried that haunted edge, as though part of him remained trapped in that nightmare. I guided him back toward the bed, and he stumbled but let me ease him down, his fingers never loosening from mine.
“What…what happened?” he asked, eyes dazed as he looked around. “Where are we?”
“You truly don’t remember?” I brushed damp hair from his brow.
“You were shot with a volgrath arrow poisoned with Umbrawort. You almost died, Jack. Thankfully, the wisp led us here. To a healer. You’re going to be okay.
You just need to rest, regain your strength.
We’ll talk about everything in the morning. ”
He shook his head faintly, his chest rising too fast, his hand tightening around mine like he was clinging to a rope over a chasm.
“I don’t want to close my eyes again. Not if it takes me back there.
Even one second in that place, thinking you were gone…
It felt like my soul was ripped from my chest. I can’t, Syl.
I won’t be able to survive another nightmare like that. ”
My throat caught. I couldn’t bear the hollow despair in his voice. Pressing my forehead to his, I said. “You don’t need to be afraid. I’ll stay. I’ll lie with you all night. I won’t leave your side, not for a breath, not for a heartbeat. I swear it.”
Something in him broke at my promise, and his body loosened as though a weight had been lifted. He laid down on the bed, and I slid in beside him. His arm wrapped instinctively around me, pulling me close until my fingers curled against his chest, until our breaths were one.
Eyes closed, he whispered, “We need to get back home, Syl. Something evil is coming. I can feel it in my blood. An ancient malice stirs in the shadows. I need to warn my mother. We need to…”
I traced my fingers over the strong line of his brow, the curve of his lips, the pointed tip of his ear.
Jack shivered beneath my touch. “At first light, we’ll gather Draum and ride for Isenheim.
I promise. We will warn them—your mother, the court—of the dissenters, of the creatures we saw in the woods.
But right now, you need rest. Please. Let tomorrow carry our burdens. Tonight, you heal.”
He nodded faintly, a breath shuttering loose from his chest. His hand tightened against my waist as though he feared I might vanish into smoke.
I gazed at him, my chest caving. The sight of him still trembling from that nightmare tore me apart.
My eyes fell to his lips, parted slightly with each shaky breath.
The ache in me was too much, the bond clawing at my ribs, demanding.
Before I could stop myself, I leaned in and pressed my mouth to his.
It was meant to be sweet, a balm, but the instant my lips brushed his, his breath hitched sharply.
His lips parted, deepening the kiss, his tongue brushing mine, hunger flaring between us like a towering pyre.
Heat roared through me, answering the fire that rose from him.
His hand fisted the back of my gown, pulling me closer, his need spilling through the bond so palpable it set my skin alight.
“Gods, Syl. You’ve no idea how badly I want you. How much I need you, elskan.” His breaths grew into ragged moans that licked at every inch of my body. “I don’t care what happened in those woods tonight, or that I almost died…that…”
“Hush, Jack. We don’t have to do this tonight.”
His blue eyes burned with an icy flame that threatened to devour me. “I’m done wasting time. I need to feel you. All of you. I need to know you’re mine.”
Every word he spoke echoed what my heart was bleeding to scream out loud.
But there were still too many unspoken truths between us.
“I want this, too. I want you more than I can bear, but not like this. Not when you’re still half-dreaming, fevered.
Not when I don’t even know if you’re fully aware of what’s happening to us. ”
His chest rose and fell like he’d just fought a battle. His storm-bright eyes darkened with longing and disappointment. “Syl…”
I cupped his cheek, smoothing the sweat dampening his temple, pressing my forehead to his once more. “There will be time to explore this, I swear it. But tonight…I just need you to hold me. That’s all I want.”
His arm tightened around me, lips brushing my hair as he exhaled a shaky breath. “Whatever you need from me, elskan.”
The bond still clawed inside me, restless, unrelenting. Now that I knew what it was, it hurt worse to deny it. But I couldn’t give in—not yet. I wanted to make sure Jack knew, with his whole heart, that what bound us wasn’t just love, but fate spun by a goddess.
I needed him lucid, whole.
I curled against him, my hand on his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart under my palm. His breathing slowed, matching mine, until the rhythm wrapped me in calm.
Tomorrow, the world outside could fall to ruin. Ancient shadows could rise, and wars could burn. But tonight, in this narrow bed, in the circle of his arms, I allowed myself the peace of his heartbeat to steady mine.
.