Chapter 28
Drak
My wife stared up at me, her thoughts brimming with desire that I didn’t want to stop listening to.
The kiss left us both wanting more, but giving in and absorbing Lux’s lust would pull me under her spell, leaving me weak to her needs and unable to focus on reaching Yggdrasil.
Kayn moved with the precision of a predator, and though we had no idea what he planned, I knew it wouldn’t be good.
I tore myself away, extending my heightened senses beyond the ruins to catch the vibrations of Silver’s coming army. If the sounds were any indication, she was closing in on us.
“You need to rest.” I refused to look at Lux as I said it, because sensing her desire and feeling her gaze on me was already too much. I balled my hands into fists and pressed the tips of my fangs into my bottom lip, but the sharp prick did nothing to stop my cock from stiffening.
“Right.” Her voice was a desperate pant. Fuck, it took everything within me not to spin around, wrap her legs around my hips, and take her right here.
“Silver has crossed back over the border of the wasteland,” I said, keeping my eyes trained on the cracked earth.
The sight of the dry, bloodstained ground helped my cock finally get the message, but when a little gasp escaped her, I cursed under my breath.
“We’re still a day or two ahead, assuming Axel’s estimate of her army’s speed is right.
So you will rest.” And we were safe from Kayn because even he wasn’t stupid and reckless enough to come near us again. I’d behead him, no holding back.
“Fine,” she agreed, “but not for long.”
I glanced over my shoulder without letting my gaze meet hers. Swallowing hard, I added, “I’ll wake you soon.”
Her fingers brushed the back of my arm, and though fabric separated my skin from her touch, my muscles went taut.
I ground my jaw and pulled away, scrubbing my hand over my beard.
Finally, her scent of warm honeyed wine faded with the sound of her footsteps, and my body relaxed, though it took my damn cock a couple of extra minutes.
I lifted my head to stare at the altar. If only she could remember our vows there, maybe everything would be different, though I couldn’t see how it would change our plans.
Those memories had ruined my plan to lure Silver, and because of that distraction, Lux and I had missed our chance to work together and capture her.
Of course, we hadn’t expected Kayn to fall so easily under Silver’s compulsion. He was the oldest vampire we knew and the only other one marked by Yggdrasil, placed by the first witch’s power. Lux couldn’t destroy him before, too torn by her emotions then, but things were different now.
I spread my palm against the altar, feeling the cool ridges of the wood against my skin. “Please remember, Lux,” I breathed. “Myrah.”
Hel, even Kayn had admitted she was Myrah, but Odin was too damn loud for her to accept it.
The gods ignored her plea not to split us up in the afterlife, so she created Kayn out of desperation, and of course he allowed it.
I was gone, and he would have done anything to please her—to win her heart—after failing the first time he tried to take her from me.
My fingers dug into the wood, scratching the altar like an animal tearing at its prey. I remembered him standing beside me at our wedding as more of that night came back in flashes. He had pretended to honor his best friend’s marriage. “You were there, you bastard.”
He showed up at our wedding after boldly approaching Myrah the night before and claiming she belonged with him.
Rage coursed through my black-stained veins. Fuck the Exile. He had always moved in secret, and I still let him into this temple after he betrayed me. I had held a soft spot for far too long for the boy I once called my best friend.
I turned my back on the altar and stormed out of the ruined temple. The wasteland offered no fresh air, but I marched on without stopping, heading straight to Myrah’s old home.
I wanted to remember everything he said that night because I didn’t yet have Odin’s foresight to know what Kayn would do.
Maybe, like Lux thought she could predict Silver’s next moves by understanding her, I could guess at whatever reckless shit Kayn would try after Lux finally rejected him.
But to do that, I had to recall Kayn’s reaction the last time she had rejected him in our former life, to glimpse how he might behave now.
Old Skaldir was falling apart around me; the walls of Myrah’s old house shattered and strewn across the floor.
Dust hung heavy in the air, but in the spot where I had overheard Kayn’s pleas, everything snapped into focus.
I saw it all as if I were there again, fully Rune and feeling every desperate word as though it were my own.
Snow crunched under my boots, but the shouting inside Myrah’s home drowned my footsteps. I didn’t slow down until I heard it was my closest friend who was shouting.
“Kayn?” I whispered as I halted outside the door.
The small house of a retired fisherman stood with only thin, timber walls, old and creaking each time the icy wind blew through the village.
Disease ravaged Myrah’s father’s lungs, forcing him to quit fishing and not long after, he died, and we carried him miles and miles to the shore, to send him off to sea, Myrah having shot the flaming arrow that burned his body and fisherman’s boat.
“I deserve you,” Kayn said.
Like fuck he deserved her. What the Hel did that mean? I almost ripped the door from its hinges, but I forced myself to stay calm. Myrah preferred to stand on her own two feet, and Kayn was her friend as well, so I had to let her take control of the situation.
Myrah spoke firmly and with the steady strength of the queen I saw within her. “I’m not sure what you mean, Kayn, but you’re drunk and I don’t appreciate you coming to me the night before my wedding.”
“We belong together.”
“Explain yourself,” she said. That’s right, demand more of him.
One side of my mouth lifted in a crooked half-smile.
I couldn’t see inside, but I knew she stood with her arms crossed and her lips pursed, expecting to receive what she insisted upon.
She always pushed others to be as honest as possible, and that was exactly what I loved about her. She challenged me.
“You’re a fisherman’s daughter,” Kayn said. I scoffed at the exact time Myrah did, and I couldn’t help smirking again. “Neither of us is of high status here, M. We understand each other.”
“Because I didn’t bring back gold from my time across the sea?” she said. “Is that what this is about? You know that isn’t what our village invaded for, we were sending a message for the West Anglans to stay out of Vylheim.”
“And you almost died there. You almost didn’t come home to me.”
“You’re not my home.”
“I should be.”
“Rune and I went there together as warrior and shield-maiden. He’s my—”
“AND HE LET YOU FALL!”
“Exactly,” she hissed. “Rune lets me fight my own battles. He doesn’t tell me he deserves me either, or insist that I do what he wants—”
“M, please, I love you.”
“You love controlling me. But I won’t pity you anymore. If you show up to our wedding tomorrow, you will keep your mouth shut and respect my marriage.”
Damn right. Whatever Kayn described wasn’t love at all.
Somebody whimpered, and it better not have been her, or else this house was about to lose its door.
Finally, he spoke. “I’ll be there to remind you that you’re making a mistake.” I backed away from the door as his footsteps pounded toward me. The door slammed open, and he strode into the night, oblivious to me hidden in the shadows.
But Myrah’s eyes immediately landed on me. She eyed me with a knowing smile from her spot at the threshold. Kayn’s words could not extinguish her spark, showing her fire that would always blaze, for challenge, for story, and for me.
The rest of that night we discussed our village’s plan to invade West Anglor. Even in the shadow of what was coming, there was a warmth between us. We had always known battle would follow our wedding, and we wouldn’t have traded a single moment of it.
Except for Kayn’s presence.
I would have changed that. Even as the memory faded, I wished I could go back and erase him from our wedding. But that night taught me one thing: Kayn would return. I didn’t know how, because centuries of experience made him impossible to predict, but I had no doubt we would see him again.
And when we did, I’d make sure Lux was ready with a stake from Yggdrasil.
Hel, no wonder my attempts to force Lux into marriage had triggered her. Deep down, even if she didn’t remember, my need to control everything must have reminded her of Kayn. I had been unbearably and stupidly desperate.
It was time I learned from the Exile’s mistake. Everything from here on out had to be her choice. I’d give her the tools to fight the gods, and I’d give her the truth whenever she was willing to listen, but she was strong enough to fight the madness.
I had to believe this, or I was going to go mad myself.