Chapter 25 #2
“Hm.” I dipped my finger in the water again, disappointed there were no fish to see here. “I’m still not sure how the whole seeker thing works.”
“Me either,” he admitted. “I don’t think we are alone in that.”
“Does your coven?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t want to give them false hope.”
“Oh.”
We sat in silence for a few moments, and I spent the time running my fingers through the cool grass, it was strangely comfortable between us, even though it was silent. Something I relished, having grown up with Collum who was filling the silence with her voice unless she was asleep.
“Leif?” I asked, slicing the silence at last.
“Hm?”
I debated how to word what I wanted so he wouldn’t take it the wrong way. “Do you think Hansen will ever find me books to read?”
He seemed to mull it over for a beat. “I’m not sure.”
That’s exactly what I was afraid of. “What happens to me then? I just have to stay trapped here for the rest of my life?”
“No.” He shifted into a sitting position, reaching for my hands. “That won’t happen. I won’t let it.”
His large hands gripped mine and warmth spread up my arms into my shoulders. That was exactly what I had been hoping he would say. “So, you will help me escape then?”
“Absolutely,” he promised, moving my shoulders so I was leaning into him. “I can’t do it now as Hansen will be too suspicious. But if he doesn’t have something for you soon, I will help you escape, I promise.”
I frowned. “When is ‘soon’?” While I liked the way his chest felt behind my back, his warmth seeping through the back of one of the dresses I had been provided, I didn’t like the vagueness of the word soon. Too much of my life up to this point had been vague.
“I’m not sure, my heart. But I promise, I won’t let this go on too long, okay?”
My ears caught on the nickname. “Did you just call me your heart?”
I couldn’t see his expression in this position, but I swore I could feel his heart rate increase. “I did. Is that all right with you?”
I nodded, warmth spreading through my body for a second time. I think I quite liked having a nickname. “I like it. I’ve never had a nickname before,” I confessed, pressing my hands to my cheeks, which were probably pink.
“Well, you’ve never had a weighted before either.” He placed a soft kiss in my hair and I couldn’t help but smile as I closed my eyes and leaned further into his hold.
It was one of the best and most peaceful afternoons I had ever experienced.
I should have known it was too good to last though, because shortly after Leif returned me to my room that afternoon, I was summoned before Hansen.
It was a different guard than the one Leif was friends with—who had stood by my door all afternoon—and when I asked the purpose of the summons, he just shrugged and said, “To read.”
So, Hansen had acquired the books anyway. Without Leif’s help.
“Ah, Runa. We meet again.” Hansen’s back was to me.
The table which had once taken up a large portion of the center of the room was pushed to one side, small cushions resting on the stones.
Even though this wasn’t Ralheim, and it wasn’t Adis standing with my back to me, it was too familiar.
Panic flooded my veins, my throat felt like it was closing.
I must have appeared normal though, because when Hansen spun around, he said nothing, a book with gold lettering clutched in his hands.
He pushed the book into my grasp, and though it looked similar to the one I had read to Adis, I knew the minute the black leather-bound cover touched my skin that this was not the same at all. Something devious whispered in my ears, and shivers slid down my spine. My hands shook.
“What are you waiting for? Read!” Hansen commanded, his back once again facing me.
Though I wasn’t kneeling, or being threatened, I felt more in danger than I ever had in Adis’s presence. I needed to know. “Sir, do you know what power this book holds?”
He glanced toward a man who stood in the corner of the room, one who looked vaguely familiar—perhaps from my midnight kidnapping. The man shook his head.
Hansen’s gaze returned to mine, his head tilting ever so slightly to the left. “Does it matter?”
I peered down at the book, inspecting the outside, wishing there was something to indicate the spell which lay inside.
“N-no, sir,” I stuttered, “But this book . . . something doesn’t feel right.
I am afraid this may be . . . something dark.
” There was a hissing sound in my ear, and I stretched my hand back out to him. “I don’t think I should read this.”
“Interesting.” He took the book back from me without question, inspecting the spine for himself. He flipped through the pages. “Nothing seems amiss as far as I can see.”
I was struggling to connect the feeling I experienced as I held the book with the one he professed in contrary, but even just looking at the book made me feel something wasn’t right about the magic trapped in its pages.
“It doesn’t matter, though.” His words caused my heart to drop into my stomach, especially as he held the book back out to me.
“You will read this, as that is what you are here to do. Otherwise, you will find yourself in my dungeons and still be forced to read to me when you finally come to your senses.”
I gulped. I wasn’t scared of the dungeons.
After all, I had pretty much lived in them before, when I had read for Adis.
But unlike last time, I had something that incentivized me to stay on Hansen’s good side, because I doubted Leif would be able to sneak me out of the dungeon to go back to that beautiful lake.
He also wouldn’t be able to visit me either.
Therefore, I made one of the hardest decisions yet, and I accepted the book back from his outstretched hand. Even though the whispers immediately started again and I felt an unnatural chill flowing through the room, I opened the book.
And I began to read.