Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Bright light fluttered over my eyelids, and I pried them open to a wide, empty beach where white sand was spread out in each direction, the cerulean sea lapping its shore with soft waves.
Summer sun beat down on my skin, and droplets of sweat ran from my temple down my cheek and neck when I pushed myself up.
The smell of salt and wood and flowers filled my nose, and my lips pulled into a smile when one beautiful white fox chased another across the beach, sprinting into the lush woods that stood tall where sand met forest bed.
A groan that didn’t match the calm, gentle nature of wherever I was ripped through the whirling breeze. I spun to find Darcke lying on his back, his eyelids crushed shut and face contorted as if in pain.
Dropping to my knees beside him, I asked, “Are you hurt?”
I searched him for injuries but found none. He didn’t respond, only let out that sound again—a muted cry of fury and despair.
“Darcke!” I shook him. “You need to tell me if you’re hurt.”
“Go away,” he hissed as his features twisted further. “Leave.”
“What’s happened?” I couldn’t remember anything after the shaman’s chanting, but I felt fine—there were no injuries covering my body, apart from the ones I’d caused when Geord and the others tried to come after me.
“I said go,” he replied through clenched teeth.
“I don’t think that’s an option.” I searched the area around us, but apart from the sound of birds’ wings, animal paws crunching leaves, and the wind whistling, it appeared we were alone here.
Something shiny caught my eye. I twisted my body to find one of the chalices the shaman had placed before us burrowed down in the sand. There was a liquid inside, entirely clear, as if it was only water.
As I reached for it, something made the hair on my arms rise, and I closed my hand in the air before touching the gilded object. I tried again, but as soon as I came within an inch of the chalice, my arm jerked back.
“Weird,” I mumbled.
“This has to be wrong,” Darcke said to himself. “This is wrong.”
“What is wrong?” I turned to him again as the sand beneath us shifted at how fiercely his muscles coiled and uncoiled, his body tensing before me like an arrow strung up on a bow.
“This! Everything,” he snarled, before his voice changed and he started speaking in his own language, the words knitting together as if he were singing.
His eyes remained shut as sentences spilled from his lips, wrapping around us until they almost mimicked the way the shaman’s chanting had taken over the night.
When his forehead creased, his teeth grinding together, I reached out to touch his face.
Perhaps he had a fever?
Right before my fingers brushed his skin, his hand fisted around my jacket, and the air was forced out of my lungs as he slammed me into the ground, him straddling me, eyes wild as he pressed me down in the sand.
“How did we get here?” Darcke snarled as he leaned in.
My mouth opened and closed a few times as I tried to catch my breath, and my eyes glossed as my body fought for survival.
“What did you do?” Darcke pulled at my jacket until my back lifted off the ground, and I finally gulped down some air when his face hovered only an inch from mine.
“I didn’t do anything,” I replied. “I don’t even know where we are.”
He twisted the fabric, turning my head toward the forest, where birdsong whispered through the trees. “That mountain there? That’s my home. That was my village. How did you know? No one fucking knows.”
I blinked a few times. “There… there is no mountain there. Only forest.”
“Stop lying to me!” Darcke slammed his other hand into the sand. “How did you know? Tell me!”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!” I screamed as the fabric dug into my neck, making it hard to breathe again. “We’re on a beach, not by a mountain.”
Darcke stared at me for a moment. “You actually think we’re on a beach?”
I filled my hand with sand and threw it at his face. “Feel that?”
His laugh was abrupt. “Yes. That’s snow.”
“What?” I threw more sand at him. “It’s sand!”
“That’s enough.” He gripped my wrist. “It’s fucking cold.”
“Are you serious?”
“Are you?” he challenged.
I was so confused. It didn’t look like he was lying. I’d never seen this cold warrior so ruffled. And why would he lie about seeing his home?
“This isn’t real,” Darcke said. “This is… a dream?”
“A nightmare, really,” I mumbled.
“What did you say?” Darcke stilled above me, his hands pressing my wrists down in the sand.
“Nothing.” One of his brows arched, and I rolled my eyes. “My dreams don’t usually contain an angry man straddling me while trying to convince me the beautiful beach I’m on is a cold mountain.”
Darcke’s gaze broke from mine as he swept it across the area around us.
“Then what do your dreams contain?” he asked distractedly, and there was a note of vulnerability in his tone that made me swallow the sharp retort on my tongue.
He felt my pause because he snapped his head back my way, and when our eyes collided, he stilled for a second before finally releasing me.
“What is the last thing you remember?” Darcke asked, his voice regaining its usual edged depth.
“The shaman. You glaring at me.”
“I don’t glare,” Darcke replied with the exact glower I’d alluded to.
“I don’t think you have another look,” I said, earning an even more lethal stare.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“So fucking weird,” Darcke muttered as he rose. “Do you plan on staying there?”
“Yes,” I quipped. “Lying here while you block the sun sounds like the best option right now.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised there was another layer to his scowl.
“Do you ever laugh?” I asked as I also got to my feet, brushing sand off my leathers.
His smile could only be described as dangerous.
“When you’re not threatening to kill people, I mean?” I added.
“No.” Darcke turned on his heel but froze when he saw the chalice.
“So you see that, at least?” I gestured to it.
“It’s hard to miss a golden cup standing in the snow.”
I could barely imagine snow right now as the sun hammered across my skin, making sweat stream down my back. Using the back of my hand, I wiped at my forehead, but it did little to help. More beads built as soon as I got rid of the other ones.
“I couldn’t touch it,” I said. “It was like my body wouldn’t let me.”
Darcke narrowed his eyes.
“Do you think we should drink it?” I pulled at my jacket to try to get some air into it, but it was like the breeze had died down entirely. “It looks like water.”
“I wouldn’t mind something steaming hot right now,” Darcke said. “And water reveals the truth when asked.”
“Hot?” I laughed awkwardly, trying to ignore the last part of his sentence. “It looks perfectly cool to me.”
“Must be your fucking gods messing with our minds,” Darcke snapped.
Despite the heat, a cold knot formed in my stomach. “Don’t speak like that,” I warned.
“Why?”
“Because they’re watching us, and I’m sure they’re already sufficiently upset with me, so I don’t need to piss them off further.”
Darcke tilted his head. “Why would they be upset with you? I thought you were the perfect heir.”
My eyes widened. Fuck. Why did I say that?
“Never mind,” I said.
“No, I think I do mind.” Darcke took a step toward me. “If you’re going to tie me to you for the rest of your life, I should like to know why your gods are upset with you.”
“It’s nothing.” I retreated a step as the world became even hotter.
My leathers squeaked as my legs moved, chafing against my burning skin.
“Look at you.” Darcke’s eyes roved over me. “You’re scared.”
Sweat stung my eyes as I shook my head. “I’m not scared.”
“Yes, you are.” Darcke followed as I backed up. “Why?”
My jacket was beginning to feel suffocating, the leather painful as it wrapped around my arms and torso. As sand whirled around us, I wiped at my forehead once. Twice. After the fourth time, I groaned and started wriggling out of my jacket.
“I just… I don’t know if I’ve honored them enough lately.”
I had little hope that would be enough, and I was right.
As I dropped my jacket on the ground, Darcke came into my space once more, forcing me to tilt my head back so I could continue meeting his eyes. “Why?”
“I—”
Fuck, it was so hot. It was like the air was shrinking my clothing. My skin crawled beneath my trousers, and the tunic stuck to my skin no matter how many times I tried to free it from my body.
“Is it because of me?” Darcke leaned in. “Didn’t think it through when you chose me for your second?”
No, but not for the reasons he believed.
“Answer me,” Darcke rasped. “Because we can stop this now. If you regret it, we do not have to bond.”
No, we couldn’t stop this now. I didn’t have a choice. I had to see this through.
But I couldn’t breathe in these leathers. I scratched at my neck. My throat was closing up.
I needed to get out of these clothes.
Darcke stilled as I started unlacing my shoes. “What are you doing?”
“I can’t stand it,” I snarled.
I kicked off my boots.
“Stop undressing. It’s fucking freezing.”
My trousers went next.
“Stop it,” Darcke growled.
I was only in my tunic and undergarments, but it wasn’t enough. And I couldn’t take off the shirt.
“I need to go in the water.” I spun. My chest felt as if it were being lit on fire. “It’s too hot.”
“No! Don’t fucking go there!”
The wind caught Darcke’s voice as I began running to the sea.
It was so blue. The gentle waves looked so welcoming. The wetness touched my toes first, and for a second I reveled in the cool water caressing my ankles. Then I blinked, and the world shifted.
“What…” I widened my eyes as the bright beach was replaced by white snow.
A roaring wind slammed into me, filling my ears with its deafening howl. I spun, finding myself at the foot of the tallest mountain I’d ever seen. Snow covered the slopes, but my breath stuttered at the orange-and-red fire that devoured the village carved into it.