Chapter 6 #2
She blinked up at me; the book fallen open in her hands.
Tendrils of soft, burnt redwood curled around her heart-shaped face.
For all the huntress that she was, and for all that she’d endured—the lies she had to tell, the heart that often failed her, the nerves that plagued her thoughts, now the gods writhing in her head—Lux looked hopeful, gentle, even knowing she had a weapon strapped to her thigh that could turn monsters like me to ash at the flick of her wrist.
“Maybe Silver’s powers come from Loki only,” I said, though I didn’t completely believe it. All the gods, especially Odin, were as selfish as Silver. They likely all had a hand in her twisted mind.
I gritted my teeth and spoke through my rough voice. “I don’t know that you’ll understand Silver by learning about Myrah.”
She nodded, hope deflating from her eyes. “You’re probably right. It doesn’t make sense that she’d kill witches if she was connected to the gods.”
“But she is connected to the gods. We know that based on her magic.” I said it even though I didn’t want to keep talking. That pain was sharper than anything I had felt since before becoming a vampire, and I needed to lie down.
“But it’s different, the same as the magic that I only got when I passed the gods’ trials. Not like other witches’ magic. That’s why I thought she could be Myrah. Something is different about her.”
“That’s because she’s not truly a witch. She inherited Myrah’s learned magic. She has the touch of a Valkyrie, control of those on the edge of life and death.”
Lux nodded as she pulled her braid to the front of her shoulder and toyed with it. “A Valkyrie…I should study Odin’s maidens.”
I strode toward her again. Crouching, I eased the book from her lap. “You won’t change Silver. I’ve known her my entire life, Lux.”
“You kept her caged,” she said with a frown.
It was so damn obvious how badly Lux wanted to call Silver her sister again.
The guilt and shame tormented her, but it was her love for Silver that clearly hurt the worst. As much as I hated to see her sad, fierce loyalty and stubborn love looked so fucking beautiful on Lux.
Silver didn’t deserve a lick of it.
“The former king did,” I said. “And yes, I did too, but only because she was trying to use me, just like she’s using her army now.” Recognition flickered in Lux’s eyes. “Change that drastic is unlikely. I still want revenge on the gods. She still wants revenge on the people of Vylheim.”
“Are you saying you’re like my sister?” Concern was clear in her frown.
“Didn’t you once call me your enemy?” I hated to say it, but it was the truth, and if nothing else, I always swore to speak the truth to Lux.
“And now I don’t.”
My muscles went rigid. She didn’t hate me? “But I didn’t change. You've just got to know me. Your sister won’t change either. She’s only become more steeped in hatred.”
“And I want to get to know her.”
“You know her. She ransacked Skaldir, and she’s killing witches.
Fuck, she kidnapped her own mother, Lux.
” Pain deepened the lines around her pursed lips, and my heart lurched as hurt flickered in her black eyes.
The truth. I had to stick to the truth no matter how painful it was.
“She wants to see you dead, and I won’t let that happen.
I won’t let her hurt either of us.” I took her hands in mine.
Sitting here, on my knees in front of Lux, the woman I was to marry tomorrow—pretend to marry—I almost thought of myself as a husband.
A human again. A simple man with a simple goal to be with this creature who fascinated me for reasons beyond my understanding.
“It’ll be easy to take her down if she believes you’ve given yourself to me. ”
Damn if I didn’t want it to be true. Fuck. This hurt almost as much as the phantom axe.
What was wrong with me? Lux wasn’t supposed to be my endgame.
As much as I was drawn to her, I had bigger plans.
When Silver turned me, I forged a path of vengeance against the gods.
I built my entire reign as a vampire king into a stepping stone to godhood so that we could take control of our own lives.
So that nobody would ever have to suffer as my mother had.
So that these damn storms, the curse on the wasteland, and every other selfish choice the gods made could never affect us again.
I once fantasized about Vylheim becoming mine. Now I fantasized about Lux becoming mine.
“Take her down?” she repeated. “I will not kill her unless I have to. You know that, right?”
“We can take her captive and figure it out from there.” I couldn’t disagree with Lux right now.
It felt an impossible feat. “Trust me when I say this marriage will bring her here, but we have to sell it. When we walk out of those doors tonight, Lux, you are in love with me. And I—” Something lodged in my throat.
But it wasn’t an axe this time. “I’m in love with you. Understood?”
“Right,” she said. “I’m yours.” She repeated the phrase I’d told her when I proposed to her the first time—the moment that only heightened my pull toward her.
I had to remind myself that this was all a ruse. I never lied to her, but she’d lied to me plenty, and now we were going to lie to the entire kingdom.
She wasn’t mine.
That was obvious when she dropped my hands and brushed past me, leaving stones, books, and scrolls scattered across the rug. After she disappeared into the hollow hallway, I crouched and scooped up the book. Flipping through it, I scanned the pages until a line near the end caught my eye.
She is the blood. He is the rune.
Rune.