Chapter 3 #2
“And why Axel?” I asked. As one of the few humans who knew Drak was a vampire and still trusted him, Axel intrigued me, now that I knew of him and that he had always been a fixture hidden in the halls of Mara’s Keep.
But when he wasn’t busy guarding the castle, I was busy killing a vampire, resting, or reading the sagas.
“Because he’s my sparring partner. Even if he isn’t a vampire, he’ll put up a good fight.”
“My strength only flourishes when I’m battling a vampire.”
“Exactly. You must learn to fight the humans Silver has recruited too. No doubt she’ll drag them into this war.
” My throat tightened. I couldn’t fight humans without tiring.
This weakness within my heart was only quieted when a vampire attacked and Odin’s strength flowed through me.
Drak took a seat beside me, his elbow perched against the triangular tower of his leg while he tucked his other leg beneath it.
Resting his head against his fist, he scanned me.
“Don’t look so worried. I’ll fight her army too, and I’ll fucking gut any humans who come near you. This is just a precaution.”
With his free hand, he fiddled with the bronze chain draped around his neck.
I eyed the chain as I spoke. “What’s the point of training me if you want me to marry you and destroy my powers?”
“I suggested a fake marriage this time.”
“I don’t believe you’d let it be fake,” I said.
“All this, and you still don’t believe me? I never lied to you, and I never will.”
“No,” I laughed. “You were just willing to kill me instead.” Of course he didn’t need to lie to the person he was going to put underground. The dead don’t tell secrets.
“I told you that was a show for Astrid,” he said, tone firm. “She wanted to push us to the point that I’d kill you. I had to let her believe she’d won so she wouldn’t do anything drastic.”
“And yet, she still did the most drastic thing she could think of.” A wry smile shot to my lips, knowing I’d bested him.
When he hadn’t killed me as Astrid had hoped, Astrid released Silver at our wedding, and everything went to shit.
But the Blood Council fell apart, and their plan to enact the Age of Exploration and send witches to sea was stopped.
That was a victory, at least. And I supposed Drak had kept his word.
He made no attempt to kill me before or during the wedding.
Instead, he warned me to run from my sister’s wrath.
I couldn’t deny that he was almost trustworthy.
A strange sadness swam in his eyes, sparking a prick in my chest.
I peeled my lips apart, dropping my eyes to the book in my lap. “Tell me about Yggdrasil. I should prepare for the Gods’ domain as well as I prepare to fight.”
His throat bobbed with a hard swallow. “If you could stay here where it’s safe—”
“Hel no. I’m not letting you go become a God with some other witch while I protect your ugly castle.”
He slapped his palm to his chest as if I’d just stabbed him. “You wound me, Skald.”
“Skald?” I snapped.
Shaking his head, he lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know, it just felt right to call you that. You’re obsessed with these poems and histories just like a skald, a storyteller.”
“I’m obsessed with the truth,” I corrected, though my voice softened. This was the first time he’d called me something other than his wife or a killer. Skald. Even thinking of this nickname on his lips did odd things to my pulse.
My tired mind drifted, and I almost gave in to the temptation of imagining a life with someone who always speaks the truth. A life I’d never known.
I eyed him as we fell into a comfortable silence.
Skald…
A skald was what I would have become if I wasn’t a witch and a huntress. I wanted to document histories, preserving my loved ones’ memories through time, even as mere farmers and fishers.
Drak’s voice was muted as he spoke up, unaware of where my mind had gone.
I blinked and tried to focus on his answer.
“The Gods’ domain is…” he laughed without joy.
“Terrible for me. I’ve only been there once, when I tried to find it.
But when I hung from the tree last time, the only wisdom I received was what I already knew. ”
“And what was that?”
“That to become a God, you must kill a God.”
“That’s what was terrible about it?” I asked. “That you learned nothing new?”
He laughed again but with a hint of sadness.
“No. It was terrible because I suffered. There’s a distinct threshold of sunlight between the wasteland and the center of the nine realms where the Gods’ power can reach.
They used it to get me to leave, but I believe since I did not have a witch with me to summon one of them for me to kill, their attention on me was lackluster at best. I wasn’t much of a threat, and I still felt their punishments. ”
“So you came back to Mara to collect witches.” I echoed what I remembered of his plan when he first became obsessed with claiming me as his wife.
He didn’t confirm this. Instead, his attention had fallen to my lap, where my fingers gripped the journal. Gently, he slid the book from my grasp and dropped it on the stone floor beyond the fur rug.
When he took my hands into his, I pulled back, but his hold only tightened. Too tired to resist again, I relented and let his large fingers bury my hands. The smell of him, spruce wood and fresh snow, filled my nose as he spoke. “You’re fucking freezing.”
“And you must have just fed,” I said, noting his warmth.
“Good thing I did. As I said, you should be in bed after that fight.”
“I’m fine.” Besides, he shouldn’t be touching me. Not after I’d chosen Kayn. Yet, I hesitated to pull my hands free, having been warmed by him. That was all this touching was—warmth for my body and nothing else.
“Your hands are not even ghostly anymore. They’re as blue as those damn royal robes Axel keeps trying to get me to wear.” Amusement mingled with worry in his voice. A shiver rippled through me but not from the cold.
After a moment of cupping my hands, he pulled me against his broad chest. The warmth of his body seeped into mine. I hated it felt so damn good to lean into him, and that I wanted to curl up and fall asleep right here in his arms.
The wind howled beyond the window, and a strange shape in the stained glass caught my eye.
Its design mirrored the Y of the silver tree pendant I always carried.
My mouth fell open as I stared. I hadn’t noticed this shape until I was in Drak’s arms, staring up at the tiny window, and rubbing my thumb against the Y Tree hanging from my throat.
I looked up at him. As pretty as the window’s art was, I couldn’t let him lure me in with fake romanticism. Even if he was the first to call me Skald.
Skald.
Fuck, I liked that too much. I was so weak right now, relishing in his warmth, and desperate for touch that wasn’t a battle. Wanting company after my sister betrayed me and ripped Kayn, Stasia, and my mother away.
“What did you really come here for?” I whispered as sleep beckoned me. For now, just for right now, when I desperately needed rest and healing, I’d allow him to hold me. Tomorrow would come, and I’d be training to kill all the creatures like him again, and killing him eventually too.
His chuckle was a low vibration against my ear.
“When I said you were wrong, I was referring to what you said about the servants building this place.” I tried to lift my head to look at him, but his palm fell heavy on my hairline.
He rubbed softly at my head, brushing back the hair that had escaped my braid, and petting me slowly as he explained.
“I built these shelves, Skald, and I came here to measure them to match my next project.”
Don’t let the nickname sway you.
“Don’t even let him touch you.” Odin agreed with my thoughts. A bolt of lightning shot through my skull, matching a flash that brightened the sky outside. “He’s tainted. A monster.”
So am I.
That had to be what drew me to Drak. Why I came here, not just for his help, but back into his arms when I shouldn’t have…
“You’re my huntress and my weapon. Get up and kill him now before I—” Odin’s voice grew angrier. I knew I should listen, but exhaustion drained me, and his words slipped from my grasp. Even as he screamed, each shout tugged at me, and I couldn’t understand a thing.
My eyelids grew heavier, and the hum of Drak’s breath against my ear pulled me under even faster. Everything about this was wrong, but in his arms, I was welcomed into the darkness.