Chapter 31
Thirty-One
“So you decided to help us?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if I was more surprised we were alive or that we were alive because Ottoh Briggen, of all heirs, had saved us.
“He saw you speaking to your mom.” Vero, Ottoh’s twin, limped up to us, placing a hand on the mare Darcke hopped off. “And we know all about disappointed moms, don’t we, brother?”
Ottoh shot a warning look at his sister before that grin spread across his face once more. “It’s far too fun to watch all the others hate you. It keeps time passing, so I decided to keep you around a little bit longer.”
I shook my head. “Well, th—”
“Don’t thank him,” Darcke snarled. “He doesn’t deserve it.”
“I did save your lives, warrior,” Ottoh replied. “I’d say a thank-you is warranted.”
A warning in Darcke’s face made me stiffen. “See it as payback for what you did to her the first day.”
Ottoh rolled his eyes. “I’m honestly surprised you haven’t killed her yet. We all know how much you hate her.”
Vero grimaced in the lethal silence that followed. “Well, this was nice and all…”
“You can let her go now,” Darcke said far too softly, ignoring the twin.
Only then did I realize Ottoh’s hands rested on my thighs.
As I shook them off, Ottoh laughed. “Look at that. Do you care for her?”
“I’m her second. I’m supposed to keep her alive.” Darcke didn’t meet my eyes as he stalked over and dragged me off the heir’s horse. “It doesn’t matter whether I hate her or not.”
I winced, silently cursing myself immediately after. For a second, Darcke stiffened. Then he pulled me to him, boring his eyes into mine until it felt like there was only us left in the entire world.
I raised my hand when a violent tide of emotions washed over me. “I know. I know. You’re going to yell at me for almost killing you.”
“No,” Darcke replied. “I’m going to yell at you for almost killing yourself. You are supposed to be an heir—a leader. You cannot put yourself at risk like that! You need to be selfish! You need to be willing to sacrifice others, not yourself.”
“That’s not how it works!” I couldn’t stand how my voice trembled, but I couldn’t stop either. “If you felt an ounce of the honor it is to be a second, you’d realize that. I’m supposed to die for my people! I’m supposed to sacrifice myself.”
One of his hands came around my neck.
“No, Elvara.” His eyes flitted between mine.
We both tensed when the bond surged with something that felt like the deadly fever that had gone through my village when I was a child—hot and trembling and so incredibly dangerous—as he spoke my name for the first time.
“No,” he said again. His eyes lifted for a second, and his forehead creased—a jarring uncertainty hitting me—before he dragged us away from the Briggen twins. Darcke didn’t stop until we were out of earshot, although the Briggens’ gazes still burned curiously over us.
“This honor you speak of,” Darcke whispered, a vicious edge to his words.
“How can you not see it’s just another way for your gods to control you?
They tempt you with Valhalla so that you will overpower any people who do not obey them.
They offer you runes, but only the ones they’re willing to give out—and only if they think you’ve earned them. ”
“Enough.” I placed a hand on his chest, ignoring how it heaved as intensely as my own did. “You cannot speak like this. I will not allow it.”
His brows flew up. “You will not allow it?”
I tilted my face back in defiance. “I won’t.”
The hand Darcke had kept around the back of my neck moved, his fingers wrapping around my lifted chin. “Are you trying to tell me what to do?” he asked as he stepped closer until he towered over me.
Everything within me was set alight. I wasn’t sure exactly what emotions spun between us: a mixture of hatred and fear and anger and the adrenaline-fueled excitement that came with surviving another moment we shouldn’t have.
“No,” I responded heatedly. “I am telling you what to do.”
The air around us pulsated with nervous energy, and when I wetted my lips, Darcke’s eyes flew down before slowly lifting back to my own. His grip on my chin tightened, and my toes curled in my boots when the intensity with which he glared at me trickled over my skin.
“I see,” the warrior said. “And how do you plan to enforce that?”
His velvet voice wrapped around the bond and snaked its way right into my stomach, flipping it so violently I swayed into his chest. Darcke’s other hand came around my back to steady me, and the pressure of it made me jump.
There was a challenge in the way he held me—as if he dared me to push him off. But not a single part of me wanted to. His eyes darkened when I leaned into his hands instead, when I didn’t shy away from his fingers splaying across my skin.
“You were going to let me die to keep your secrets,” Darcke whispered.
I had no idea why it suddenly sounded so fucking hot.
“I was,” I replied, my breath sticking in my throat when his nose brushed mine.
“No amount of threats to your life could make you tell me, is that right?”
My core clenched when his hand slipped around my neck again, his fingers brushing the back of it and his thumb ghosting over my jaw. His eyes widened as he watched my reaction, and I wasn’t sure which of us sent more of that heat across the bond.
“That’s right,” I whispered.
“I see,” he said once more.
A whisper of a smile touched his lips, a trickle of pride running up my spine, and his thumb caressed my jawline again—so gently I could almost tell myself I’d imagined it.
I leaned into him a little bit more. Darcke remained still this time. Waiting. Watching. As if he wanted me to decide.
My teeth sank into my bottom lip, and his eyes drew down again. I would go through what we’d just done again—over and over and over—to feel that appreciation warm my chest. His grip remained firm, but he didn’t move. I tilted my head to show that I was okay with it—that I wanted it.
His lips twitched, but when a branch snapped, something hesitant pricked my scalp.
The outside world rushed in, and the adrenaline that had made me feel like I was weightless—as if I floated in one of those heated pools Darcke had showed me—vanished like snow on the first day of spring.
I need you to swear that no such connection has ever happened, and will ever happen, between you.
I blinked.
What this was? What I was feeling now, even if it was only after nearly dying?
It couldn’t happen.
I stepped back, and Darcke let me.
“Are you guys done?” Ottoh called.
“Yes,” I called back.
Darcke and I pretended not to hear how my voice shook.
“We should get going,” I said.
“We should.”
“I…” I swallowed. “I am s—”
“I swear if you fucking apologize, I will kill you,” Darcke growled before overtaking me and approaching the other heir.
“We took bets on you either fucking or killing each other.” Vero came to my side, looking too disappointed for someone with an eye swollen shut, a bandaged arm, and bruises coloring every inch of skin I could see through her leathers.
“What did you bet?” I mumbled distractedly as Darcke and Ottoh argued over whether we should join forces or not. As if that were Darcke’s decision.
“Fucking.” Vero elbowed me. “But I didn’t say when, and I have a feeling I’ll win this one.”
“You know it’s not allowed, right,” I replied, turning away from the men with my cheeks burning.
“Heirs are not allowed to fall in love with their seconds.” Vero mock-fanned herself with her hand. “Hate-fucking your lethal and weirdly hot second, on the other hand, I think is all good.”
I shot her an amused look. “Weirdly hot?”
“I mean, look at him.” She waved his way. “Tall, built like he could carry two longships under his arms, that hair that looks like it would be perfect to weave your hands into…”
“You sure you’re not the one who wants to fuck him?” I asked.
The muscles playing beneath Darcke’s leathers coiled when he felt the pang of childish jealousy shooting through me. I whirled again, grinding my teeth so hard a headache started at the back of my neck.
“And earn the wrath of a Sweengard?” Vero laughed. “No, thanks.” She jerked her head his way again. “Stop wasting your time. I’m sure your parents are like my own and have several potential husbands lined up for you that would benefit your fylki. Men like him are for having fun before that.”
Darcke’s spine locked so abruptly my fingers curled.
A golden glow flashed in the distance, and a second after, the ground rumbled.
When the girl lost her balance, yelping in pain, I caught her arm.
“Thanks,” she mumbled. “I didn’t see those bastards coming last night. So fucking stupid, since we have this trial and the steel one coming up.”
I was about to respond when the world went dark.
“Vero! What just happened?” Ottoh screamed.
“I’m getting really fucking tired of this forest,” Darcke muttered.
“We’re over here!” Vero called into the darkness. “Let’s stay by the horses,” she added as I held on to her arm. “I’m no good if we need to get away from something quickly.”
“Vero!” Ottoh shouted again.
“Over here!” his twin called back.
“Strange,” Ottoh said. “They weren’t that far away.”
“What?” Vero’s hand found mine as she started to approach their voices. “I said, over here!”
“I can feel her,” Darcke said. “Heir, stop playing and come out.”
“We’re right here,” I replied. “No need to yell.”
“Vero! It’s not fucking funny,” Ottoh barked, but there was fear trickling into his voice.
“I don’t think they can hear us,” Vero said.
“I’d say that’s pretty obvious.” Apprehension crackled over my skin. “Let’s try to find them.”
“Ottoh! Can you call out again?” Vero shouted.
I nudged my shoulder to hers. “Didn’t we just agree that they can’t hear us?”
“Right.” Her hand tightened around my wrist. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“Heir,” Darcke called, his voice lowering into his dangerously calm one. “I can feel you.”
I tried to make myself relax—let him feel that I wasn’t worried—but that proved impossible when Ottoh’s cry splintered the darkness. “No! Vero!”
A thud followed, and Darcke hissed, “Get up!”
“No!” Ottoh cried again.