Chapter 15 #2
“The recording of Myrah’s saga.”
Confusion twisted her mouth until she finally nodded. But it was half-hearted. “Right.” Distracted now, her gaze dropped to the mask in my hand. She slipped it from my hold and turned it over, examining the carved clay. “This will protect us in the wasteland?”
I sighed. “It should. The clouds there formed into thick particles. Breathing them or getting them in your eyes burns and blinds you .”
“You don’t need to breathe. Will your mask cover your mouth too?”
“It’s a habit I can’t break now. So yes, we will both cover our faces unless we’re inside the safety of a tent.
” She hummed in understanding, brushing her fingers across the mask’s smooth clay forehead.
Taking her chin between my thumb and forefinger, I tipped her head back to guide her gaze to me.
“What was it you were saying about Brynhild’s recording? ”
Her eyelashes fluttered for a moment until she blinked fully. As if that’d cleared her mind, she nodded. “Yeah, um, Brynhild wrote about that. Whatever you said.”
I took the mask and set it on the table so that I could slip my hand into hers. “Come,” I said. “Let’s look at the record again.”
“What about in the gods’ domain?” She asked, blinking up at me. For whatever reason, the gods were distracting her from thinking about that journal. “Across the threshold closer to Yggdrasil, will we still need to wear the masks?”
“Not you,” I said. “For me, it will protect my flesh from the sunlight. But for you, I suppose you’ll thrive being so close to their power. The veil between Asgard and Earth is thin there.”
She nodded slowly, taking this in. “And how will you feed when we’re traveling?”
It was a good question, even if I was far more curious about what she was about to say regarding my memories and the histories.
This wasn’t like Lux. Surely, if the gods allowed her space to think and be herself, she’d be obsessing over the sagas and stories of our ancestors rather than concerned with my access to blood.
“Axel has fashioned leather pouches full of offered blood. If I drink from them regularly and keep them close to my body with the glass cap tight, the warmth circulates and keeps the blood fresh.”
“Blood bags?” She grimaced. Yeah, I guess that sounded pretty sick to her, but it worked, and her frown quickly flipped. Her eyebrows ticked up. A sparkle brightened her midnight eyes. “Do you think Silver’s vampires will use something like it?”
“Yes, Axel got the idea from the spies we have watching them. They use the blood bags because vessels cannot always keep up when vampires move from place to place.”
“We can use that against them.” Lux spoke while staring blankly out the window. “Drain their blood, fight them sooner if we find them.”
“Maybe,” I said, sucking in a breath. “But fighting them when we’re at our strongest and they’re at their weakest in the gods’ domain is our best chance. The gods will make sure any vampires near Yggdrasil suffer. Odin has a lot more control there.”
Concern flashed in her gaze as she flicked it back to me. “But you’ll be weak too.”
“I’ll be ready for it. I’ll be able to track them by sound more easily than her vampires can track us.
An army will make a lot more noise than we will.
And with any luck, we’ll arrive long before they do.
I’ll have time to become a god and gain some foresight, and you’ll thrive so close to Asgard.
Once they’re all dead, we can end this madness by burning Yggdrasil to the ground. ”
“No way. I will not disrespect the gods like that.”
“It’s the only way. We have to stop their influence over your mind if you ever want to be free again.
” She jerked her head to the side, her chest heaving rapidly.
It was the first hint that she truly realized she was trapped.
My tone softened. “You will have already killed most of Silver’s army, so you won’t need the powers.
Whatever vampires remain, I can deal with them. I’ll be a god, Lux, in this realm.”
“Then, as a god, you can convince the other gods to retract from my mind if they have not already. Once the vampires are dead, I trust they’ll let my mind rest.”
“Then your trust is misplaced,” I said. Fury twisted her stunning features into abrupt angles. When rage burned in her veins, she looked too much like her sister. Before the gods reminded her to hate me, I changed the subject. “Show me more from Brynhild’s records.”
With our hands still intertwined, she led me out of the study, another flash of Thor’s fury flooding the room behind us. The door fell shut behind us, sealing away all sight of the gods’s storm. As we snaked through the castle’s corridors, only the rumble of thunder could reach us now.
A draft of icy air unfurled around us, and Lux pulled closer to me.
With her free hand, she clutched the cloak tighter at her chest, burying her breasts beneath the wolf’s skin.
She was always so cold, and I wished we could spend our nights lying side by side so that I could keep her warm after a fresh feeding.
I opened the library door and motioned for Lux to go in first. Without hesitation, she darted straight for Brynhild’s journal.
“I remember what we were talking about now,” she said, her voice lighter but shaken with the chill.
Tugging the journal off the shelf, she flipped it open in her palms, and I slanted my head to see the pages over her shoulder.
She craned her neck to look up at me. “You saw Myrah crawling to her lover.”
“No, Lux. I saw you as you were crawling to me.”
Silence fell between us as she gazed at me. The emotion swimming in her eyes was one I couldn’t name. Did she understand what this meant?
Did I?
I couldn’t be a warrior reborn. According to all interpretations of the saga, a warrior would never choose to leave Valhalla. Once he was feasting at Odin’s table, he would hardly remember his lover.
Worlds apart, it would be her task to find him again.
But as certain as the records were, it didn’t feel right because it didn’t match what I had witnessed.
In the memory, I reached for her. Even with the spear in my hand, knowing I could die and be chosen for Valhalla, I had dropped it to reach for her, willingly giving up my passage.
Then the damn Valkyries chose me anyway.
I flexed my fist, remembering the smooth handle of the spear against the palm of my hand.
“What are you saying?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” It felt too insane to speak aloud. Like I was losing myself to the same madness that kept interrupting Lux’s thoughts. I scrubbed my palm over the back of my neck. “Maybe the memories were just memories of reading this interpretation.”
Her face fell. Had she wanted it to be true?
“What is it?” I asked.
“I’ve always thought you were the only man I’ve ever seen who resembled the warriors in the sagas.
Not just because of the way you look, but your balance of brutality and determination.
Your ability to be both fierce and caring at the same time.
I mean, you threatened to kill me only a day before you were going to allow me to kill you.
That courage, to do what you must, even if it is contradictory…
I’ve only ever seen that described in the stories of our ancestors.
Men in Skaldir, or here in Mara, aren’t like that.
So when you said you saw yourself in the saga.
” She shook her head. “I don’t know, it almost made sense.
” A little laugh escaped her, but I could have sworn tears filled her eyes.
“But I guess my thoughts are so scattered, what makes sense to me probably doesn’t to anyone else. ”
I cupped her chin and brought her face to mine. The scent of her, citrus and sage, beckoned me closer. I hovered my mouth over hers. “This makes sense to me, Lux.”
“What does?” she whispered.
“That we’re meant to be. That we’ve already been.” Because I loved her. I think I love you now.
“Myrah and…” her voice trailed away.
“Rune.”
Every muscle in my body screamed at me to scoop her into me. To taste her lips. This close, the aroma of her desire tinted her every breath, and I wanted to soak it in. I needed to touch every inch of her and watch the prickles alight over her skin with pleasure as I listened to her moans.
She pulled back, her lower lip curling inward. “It’s too insane. I don’t have Myrah’s powers. If—” she slapped the journal shut and gripped it so tightly her knuckles turned white. “If I’m Myrah, then I created vampires. I created Kayn. Wouldn’t he remember this? Wouldn’t he have told me?”
“I don’t know. He’s lied before.”
She released a curse with a breath. Her arms hung limp at her sides, defeated. “I can’t wrap my head around this.”
“But you want to,” I said. Or did I just want it to be true?
This was insane. She was right, but I didn’t know if I cared how insane it was.
If this story—this ancient saga—brought us closer together, I’d accept the insanity of it all, because she challenged me to be better, but more than that, she saw me.
She gave me a place in this world that wasn’t just the forgotten-boy-turned-vampire-king. Even Axel didn’t give me that.
I brushed the back of my knuckles along her chin and then cupped her jaw. Dipping my head to her, I beckoned her to me. All at once, she melted into me, her body molding to mine like the mask that’d been shaped for my face. Maybe we’d been together hundreds of years ago, maybe not.
But we fit together now.
Fuck, was I falling in love with my fake wife?
I pressed my mouth to hers, slowly, gently, and building to an all-consuming fire. Her lips parted, inviting me inside. Need tightened across my body. My cock grew stiff with the taste of her, and when she released a soft moan, I buried my fingers in her loose hair and kissed her harder.
Her moaning built with urgency. Hungry kisses told me she needed more.
I sure as Hel needed more.
Bending my knees, I cupped my hands around the back of her thighs, and she lifted herself with me, throwing her legs around my hips as I held her.
When she pulled back again, her lips were swollen and tinged red.
Breathless, she begged for more. “I need to feel you.” I pressed her against the wall between bookshelves, desperate with the need to grind myself against her.
But fabric still separated us, and it wasn’t enough for her. Not for either of us.
I slipped my fingers between her legs to catch the wetness dripping from her core. Carefully, I brushed my thumb over her most sensitive spot, sparking a gasp from her. I ate up every sound of her pleasure. Teasing, I pulled my finger back, then brushed over again and again.
“Please,” she breathed. “I need all of you.”
“Not yet. I’m playing with you.”
“Fuck you.” A frustrated laugh danced in her voice.
“Come for me, my wife.” She was teetering, not right on the edge yet, but slowly building with tension and greedy pleasure. I felt her need when I slipped my fingers inside her and her pussy clenched around them. “Then I will reward you.”
“Please.” Her begging didn’t stop. “Please, Rune.”
My heart stammered, but just like last time, Lux’s body kept me grounded. The strange, dreamlike memories couldn’t pull my mind away from her, even if she had spoken that magic, fucking word.