Chapter 50
Fifty
My legs dangled from the cliff over the waterfall.
I stretched my hands over my head, letting out a breathless laugh when drops of water played over my skin, dancing over my face and neck as they whispered of every place they’d ever visited, most of which I’d never heard of before.
My weak smile fractured in the churning water. I closed my eyes when the sight reminded me too much of that final day on Oenskan, and replayed the past few days instead.
When we’d returned from the Great Halls, after each heir had earned their rune—even Ivren, who’d somehow survived long enough for the gods to heal him—the Hird had gone quiet.
None of us heirs had known what to do. Everyone but Rakkel and Vero had been made chief without a heartbeat’s notice, before the first lecture of the academy had even begun.
In the end, Rakkel’s mother, Guner, and the queen started making decisions.
They’d included us heirs in all of them, especially me, as I was somehow successor not only to Oenskan but to the throne of Skagerik. And Darcke’s nation, should I want.
It was decided that Torden, Borje, and one other warrior would step in as interim chiefs while Ivren, Geord, and I trained our four years at the academy.
Torden had already been sent to Oenskan at my wish, and from the letter I received from my sisters, people were shaken, but things were already starting to fall into place—especially with my new runes, my magic, flooding the village.
Other surviving warriors were to lead the rest of the summer trials, where the initiates would be sorted into each of the five sections, led by me, Ivren, Vero, Rakkel, and Geord, before the fall.
Guner had ordered us five to rest up for a few weeks because while we might have quelled one threat, all the years King Gustief was bespelled had their consequences, and the king’s second believed it was about to get worse before it got better.
I felt Darcke’s soul in the water before he sat down next to me. His thigh was hot against mine, and I let a stream of water rush over my palm, seeping between my fingers to cool me down.
“Are you leaving?” I asked as the sun set behind the mountain before us.
There was a moment’s pause.
“Not unless you want me to,” Darcke replied.
The sound of water hitting the surface surrounded us. When my heartbeat picked up speed, so did the waterfall, violently winding its way down into the lake.
“I’m sure there is some use for you here,” I said.
We hadn’t talked since that day. I hadn’t felt his emotions, and he thankfully hadn’t felt mine—hadn’t felt me crying myself to sleep each night on Envis, hadn’t heard me whisper his name in the dark when I couldn’t stand the loneliness, hadn’t seen me break again and again, only to put myself together when the sun came up.
Last night my tears had dried, and while sitting next to him was agony, it was agony I could live with.
“And what about you?” Darcke asked with barely held back frustration.
“What about me?” I pulled a drop from the waterfall, admiring how the sun hit it, making it seem like it was filled with the rainbow of aurora that haunted my dreams at night and my memories during the day.
“Do you have any use for me? You didn’t choose another second.”
I couldn’t look at him. “I’m not sure yet.”
Vero had chosen a second for herself, and since my bond with Darcke was broken, Guner had offered me the opportunity to do so as well if I wished. After hours walking through the woods, I declined. I hadn’t decided what that meant, but my decision gave me peace for now.
His axes clattered as he shifted on the cliff. The sharp edges stuck up above his shoulders, and the bit reflected the pale sun when he fully turned to me, emotions I’d been able to read like I now could the ocean flitting over his face.
Darcke wanted to ask more questions.
He wanted to demand things from me.
He wanted to yell at me.
He wanted to touch me and shake me and kiss me.
In case I don’t get a second chance.
That’s what he’d said last time our lips had clashed with starving, frantic need. I closed my eyes for a second when the feeling returned like it had never gone away. I understood everything he’d warned me of so much better now. He’d told me in his own way to stay away—he’d told me he’d hurt me.
I opened my eyes again.
The hurt in me was mirrored a thousandfold in his reflection in the waterfall playing beneath our feet.
But to my surprise, he only nodded at my uncertainty. We remained quiet as darkness fell, as stars began glittering across the sky. It wasn’t until a howl echoed in the distance, one that made my lips twitch, that Darcke spoke again.
“What happens now?” he asked.
I turned his way once more. His dark eyes made me as breathless as that day on his ship, but I pretended they didn’t as I shrugged. “Now, I guess we go into the academy.”