“What?” Her face is ghastly white.
“Or with Joanna. You don’t want your future intertwined with mine.”
“But Aslaug showed me the tomb. I didn’t meet you by accident,” Rasha says with newly developed panic. “The pull to you is so strong I can’t stand it.” Her confession comes like an arrow through the heart.
I want to kiss her and tell her I can fix this, but I don’t think I can without giving up my only chance at going back. Harald is making his way around the room. He’ll be here soon to read his own future with the Maiden of Yule that he has been promised.
“Rasha, the bow is only going to bring you pain.” Her eyes flare in sudden understanding. She pulls away, which guts me, but she needs to let it go.
“So it is down there, and you lied. We told each other we’d be honest.”
I sit, pulling her back onto the bench with me. “We cannot have this fight here.”
She’s like an animal in heat, caught between wanting to give in to me and fighting the overwhelming feeling to run into the forest where she’ll never be found. Her strong shoulders are stiff with anger against mine, even though her hips fit nicely in my hand.
“Roll them for me.” Rasha carefully picks the runes out of the mess and drops them into the cup she drank from.
“That’s not a good idea,” I reply, looking over her head to where Harald is one long table away from us.
“Roll mine or the ritual isn’t complete.” She is stubborn if nothing else.
“Where are all those pointy knives you carry, so I know where to block from?” I ask, and she grips my thigh for a change. Her nails pressing through my pants let my blood loose, and my cock grows hard. We sit closer, her back almost against my chest, and my arms could easily be around her body.
Covering the cup with my hand, I lean my leg against hers in ameager form of support and methodically shake the cup. The bones touch my skin, bringing long forgotten power to my physical form, and I can feel thousands of years of life moving inside the cup.
Taking in a heavy breath, I release my hand and hear the hollow bones rattle against the wooden table. We stay quiet, reading the runes that have made an unusual pattern in the already used trenches of blood and milk.
“I think that is for the Immortal Realm. And these are flipped over, which is bad,” she says immediately, flipping the last so we can see. “This one is for…”
“That is a deer,” Harald says, his shadow overtaking us. Rasha gets up as quickly as he appears, and the space around me runs cold. “Shaw, what is your future?” he asks, and I stand to meet him, height for height.
“He’s going to die,” Rasha cuts in, and I half choke. Picking up the runes, I nod in agreement, unsure of what he did or didn’t see. Rasha finds a bowl of fresh water, and I drop all the runes in to clean them before stuffing them in my pouch.
“I am sorry to hear that old friend. We all must leave this world eventually,” Harald says. With him renouncing our ways, it is nice to hear some concern. He wraps his burly arm around her, pulling her to him like he owns her.
“Shall we do yours?” Rasha asks him.
“I don’t want to know my future. I’d rather have a dance,” Harald announces, and I sit like the wind has been knocked from my lungs. The Seidr still flows through me, buzzing through the room with the ringing of bells from other families learning their futures. Puffs of smoke from men who care not for enlightenment curl around the tables and wood columns. What I need is fresh, cold air and to walk away from her, but the last rune is seared in my mind. One she didn’t see.
13
RASHA
“Iwould love to dance,” I say to Harald. I don’t want to dance at all. I want to argue with Shaw until he tells me the truth about the tomb or until I kiss him to satisfy my curiosity.
“Your demeanor has changed, Rasha. Did seeing my commitment at the forge bring you happiness?” He slides his hands around my waist. I let him lead us into the middle of the Hall near the biggest of three burning fires to keep us warm.
“I don’t like how you govern, but I did appreciate your offering.” I step away from him so we form the beginning of two lines. Joanna and Katrine come to fill in the places next to me, and a group of men, including Bjorn, take up the spaces on Harald’s side.
“You’ll learn, like the rest of my clan. They are prospering because I know what is best. I have brought more coin to our mountains than any other Jarl. You should be impressed,” Harald boasts and waves his hand for the music to start.
In the corner of my vision, I see Shaw take up a place at the end of the line. A glance to my right shows Joanna matches me with a bloodied chin and a weary stare, but Katrine, who somehow managed to keep her face clean, looks ethereal.
“Your future?” Joanna asks as we turn around each other, my palm to the back of her hand, then we switch to turn the other way.
“Confusing. Yours?” I mutter.
Joanna halts a beat before picking up her dress at the knees to kick her foot out opposite mine.
