Chapter 33 #2
My heart hammered so hard against my rib cage it felt like everyone else should be able to hear it, and Darcke’s chin brushed my shoulder as he leaned in to whisper, “Breathe.”
“See… I know the bonding has happened, but Chief Sweengard and I are worried about our daughter.”
The king gave me a once-over that had my hands tremble. “You do not trust your heir?”
“We trust her,” Seindra said, the small smile on her face more chilling than the tree that had tried to crush us last night. “It’s your warrior we do not trust.”
A darkness crossed the king’s face. “Are you implying I cannot control my men?”
“No,” she rushed out. “But he is a foreigner, and he doesn’t understand our clan’s ways.” She turned to us, pretending to wear a worried expression. “I’ve understood he…” She lowered her voice into a whisper. “Cares for her more than he should.”
It went quiet. The breeze coming in from the Northern Sea pounded against our ears, accompanied by the familiar sound of waves crashing against cliffs, crafting a song of threat and malice.
I cursed violently in my mind when Darcke flew back a step, his boots drumming against the cliffs and drawing every pair of eyes his way.
“Isn’t that what you meant, Viljan?” Seindra asked innocently.
My former guard stood frozen, and my limbs locked as well when his wide eyes found mine.
“He took two daggers for her,” she pushed.
“Doesn’t that imply that their bond is already fracturing?
” Her hands brushed my arm as if in support, and I couldn’t even recoil.
“Fritiof told me this has happened before—a second falling for their heir—and that the gods granted the heir a new second as long as the first was sacrificed in their honor.”
I didn’t know blood could run so cold, but mine was ice as it churned through my body.
I didn’t dare turn to Darcke, but I could feel his fury tinging the air—taste the blood he couldn’t stop thinking about spilling.
“Do you have proof?” the king asked quietly.
“Of course she doesn’t—” Darcke spun the king’s way, but I was able to grab his fist before he lunged at the hand the monarch raised.
“Stop,” I hissed, before trying to level my voice as I addressed the king. “I assure you nothing like that has happened.”
Yet. My teeth ground hard as the thought wrangled itself through my mind.
Darcke went so still my lungs refused me air. I fought for my life not to allow a blush to creep up my cheeks. I was too aware of him—too affected by him—and as I tried to casually shift my weight, the movement became clumsy, my foot slipping on the cliff.
He didn’t steady me this time, leaving my back cold and unprotected.
Guner cleared his throat. “Other seconds were injured, too, Seindra. This is a dangerous accusation.”
“I just…” Seindra’s eyes dipped. “I have no proof but a mother’s intuition.”
She was truly a master at acting.
I guess she would have to be, having pretended I was her daughter for twenty-two years.
She was worried, but not for me.
Folding my arms around myself, I took a deep breath.
“I realize choosing Darcke was unconventional, and it was not what had been agreed with my father. Of course my mother worries.” Bile went up and down my throat as I took her hand in mine.
“I promise nothing of the kind has happened, nor will it happen. I wanted Darcke for his skill in battle, which has already proved useful. Nothing more.”
The king harrumphed as he stared from me to Seindra to Darcke behind us.
The shaman placed a hand on his shoulder. “We cannot have an heir and a second with a romantic entanglement. The gods would not look favorably upon us if we allow it.”
“He knows that,” Guner snapped.
My brows furrowed at the king’s second’s tone, but I remained quiet, my pulse racing beneath my skin.
As something in the air shifted, the mist whirling up toward the sky like smoke from a chimney, the king shook his head.
“This bores me.” He turned to me and Darcke, his commanding voice making my knees wobble.
“You will not dishonor our clan. If I hear or see as much as one thing suggesting either of you is violating the bond, a dishonorable death awaits. I don’t care if you’re a commander or an heir. ”
He turned to Seindra, erasing the smirk on her face.
“And you. The gods allowed your daughter to choose him as her second, so unless you have something more tangible than a chief’s wife’s gut feeling, you will not waste my time again.
You might not be part of the Hird, Seindra Sweengard, but I am still your king.
” He spun so that his heavy fur cape flew out behind him, nearly smacking into the shaman’s face.
“Will these ships ever arrive?” Guner asked the shaman as the latter righted his long silk robe.
Sharpness still filled the king’s second’s words, and the shaman’s face twisted before he mumbled something I couldn’t make out and spun toward the sea.
Mist twirled toward the blue sky, painting everything around us in white, and that sound—the one that wasn’t Viking or animal—became stronger with every quiet second, layering around us like a blanket of whispers and dripping echoes.
“Any moment now,” he mumbled. “Any moment.”
“Entertainment is over,” Darcke snarled when the heirs and their seconds continued to stare at us, horror in some of their faces. “Unless you’re up for a challenge, of course. I’ve rested, and I haven’t spilled enough blood these past weeks.”
I was about to turn to him when the bond flickered with rejection.
Stay the fuck away from me rang in Darcke’s mind, as loud as the steps my second took toward the stone stairs leading down to the beach where the king’s ship floated.
As I stopped my spin, Geord gave me a smile that made me want to turn my head over my shoulder to make sure no one was coming after me. My neck twitched, and the new heir smirked before following Darcke toward the foggy beach.
“You should go, Seindra,” Guner said. “Unless you believe there is something else your heir cannot handle?”
My mother pursed her lips.
“Great. You can join the court and the Solsken chief.” Guner waited until Seindra gave me a look of pure poison as she retreated to the top of the cliff where they would watch us greet our ships, before waving for me, Ivren, Rakkel, and Ottoh. “What are you waiting for?”
A pale Rakkel pulled at Stefen. “Nothing. We’ll… we’ll wait at the beach.”
She truly didn’t look well. I’d thought so before the bonding, but now she looked almost sickly. Perhaps her trial had been as hard as ours were.
Ottoh made to follow when he stiffened, turning to Guner. “I was with them out there.”
My soul went still, my heart stopping.
“Yes?” Guner said, his body twisted but face turned my way.
“Darcke was the perfect second. He would have given his life for her, which is the only thing an heir can demand.”
There was a moment’s hesitation before Guner dipped his chin. “I’ll be sure to keep the king informed.”
I struggled not to gape when Ottoh followed the female heir. He’d done nothing but live up to his vicious reputation until last night, but now he’d lied for me? He’d seen the tension between Darcke and me. There was no way he could have missed it.
Ivren and Viljan were waiting for me, but as I approached them, Guner raised a hand. “You’re staying back.”
“I—”
“That wasn’t a question, heir.”
“We’ll wait at the top of the stairs.” Ivren looked like he wanted to step in, his hands twitching toward the empty scabbard by his waist, but when I shook my head, his fingers curled, and he took Viljan with him so Guner and I were left alone.
I wanted nothing more than to snarl at the king’s second, but I made myself keep my mouth shut and eyes ahead. Everything I did now would be watched—scrutinized. As if I didn’t have enough problems.
When everyone else was out of earshot, Guner came up and gripped my chin, forcing it down several inches. “You better watch that face, heir. Your emotions are too easy to read.”
Read this, I wanted to say, but instead I offered him a wide smile.
“I said watch it,” Guner hissed as he stepped even closer, until I could smell the ale on his breath. “You’ve made enough enemies here that you should sleep with one eye open and your ship’s brow always up.”
“Was that all?” I said, eager to leave him behind. Eager to leave all this behind and get on a ship and sail for the horizon and then a bit farther.
His chest rumbled. “You took the king’s pet.
You better be really fucking careful, because the king might have found it entertaining at the time, but he is known to change his mind.
Who do you think will be at risk then? The heir everyone hates, or the warrior that won every battle the king has ordered? ”
I ignored him as I started walking toward Ivren and Viljan, but as I felt his eyes burning over my back, I let out a shallow breath, trying to quell the trembling in my arms and legs.
“Are you all right?” Ivren asked.
“Fine,” I got out. “All good.”
“You know… you don’t always have to be strong,” Ivren said, his voice lowering. “That was… hard to watch.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Yes, she does.”
Viljan spoke at the same time I did.
I averted my eyes when his lips lifted into a crooked smile, clenching my jaw when his merry expression faded with the salty breeze wrapping around us as we descended the stairs. Viljan might not have given my mother the idea of me and Darcke on purpose, but he’d still lied to me my entire life.
“I do,” I said again. “I must be strong. I have no other choice. I have to ensure no one mistakes my bond with Darcke for something it isn’t, while dealing with everything else.
” Bitterness seeped into my tone. “I wish our enemies attacking was the only thing I had to care about. At least no one would think I was about to fall in love with them.”