“Rasha.” He sits up, taking the chain from my lap, and reaches for our clothes.
“You told me how special these caves are. How connected the water is to the Vanheim. And the chain.” I hear the pleading in my own voice. Crawling over to him, I brace his shoulders with my waterlogged hands, and he holds my hips. “I am sick of waiting for my fate to happen to me. I want to make my own choice.”
He holds my stare. “I thought I gave you a choice tonight. Back in the sled?”
“You have always given me a choice. And being with you is what I want.”
“The ore in your pocket will make the last link. Connecting the chain will bring you to a place where I cannot cloud your judgement, Rasha.” He winds the chain around my wrist. I succumb to how fucking elated I feel around him as he takes my face in his hands, and we dissolve into needy kisses.
“I am not going anywhere if that’s what you're afraid of. Hundreds of years have passed since I have truly been with a woman. Forgive my patience,” he murmurs against my lips, which quells my rising panic for tonight.
We lay together for a long time, letting our bodies air dry while the stars change over the ceiling of the cave. Shaw takes the ore out and holds it to the tiny streams of moonlight, showing off the beautiful yellow and milky silver.
In between glances and soft touches, we make a bed with therolled up blankets and piles of clothes. Settling next to him, I clutch onto the feeling he’s evoked in me. We will finish the chain and rescue the reindeer from Harald’s grasp so my clan can live in freedom in the mountains. But behind the optimism I see in my relationship with Shaw, there are moments with Harald that wear on me. Harald has pledged to the King, and King’s don’t forget who owes them.
Conjuring an arrow with Skadi’s bow when I faced Fenrir was one thing, but doing it to stop Harald will be more important than our relationship in the coming month. Spring will begin, and the thaw will make the pass easier for everyone to travel.
“You’ve grown quiet?” Shaw stretches out next to me on the cave floor.
“I was thinking about Harald and the King. Will the King come for my people regardless of my ability to wield the bow?”
Shaw tucks me into his chest, kissing the top of my head as if he alone can protect me from the world we have run from. “A part of me wishes to meet the King, but it has been my experience that men who rule through control don’t take kindly to other men telling them what to do. I fear any meeting will result in bloodshed.”.
Dipping my chin into his chest to look at him, I say, “If it comes to that, I want to be there. I could hold a seat on his stupid Harald’s or my brother’s council to stand up for the women.”
“I’ll clear your path,” he murmurs. We keep talking about the reindeer and the stars until he falls asleep. Sleep doesn’t come for me though. The shimmering lights weaving around the corners of the cave walls hold my curiosity.
28
SHAW
Ahot nose presses into my face, urging me to rise.
“You’re going to wake Rasha,” I murmur to Aslaug who is determined to wake me. Throwing my arm around the sturdy cat, I try to wrestle her into my chest, but her claws poke into my skin. I open my eyes. Black wings rustle over us through the cave as Aslaug nips me with her teeth.
“Get up, brother. She’s gone.” Vidarr’s voice bolts me awake. “Put on your fucking pants.” He tosses me my clothes as black eagle feathers float down into the hot pools next to me. Reaching through the blanket, I can’t feel Rasha’s tender body.
“Where did she go?” My stomach clenches like I am going to be sick. Getting to my feet, I force my legs into pants and call my magic to the surface of my skin. It’s easier now that the ritual has begun.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t watching, but I felt the Vanheim open,” Vidarr spits out. His anger wafts through his coat.
“What!” My scream shakes the cave and makes the water slosh over the edges of the pools. Aslaug is pawing through Rasha’s things. Bending down, I shake out the clothes she left, and the amulet falls to the rough stone floor.
“Where is the chain?” Vidarr asks, helping me sort through our things and stuffing them into her bag.
“She has it. I wound it around her wrist as we fell asleep,” I explain, my voice dropping to a whisper as the gravity of what I’ve done sets in. “She opened the mountain and found ore so her naive magic will have left a trail.”
“Let’s try before it dims or the channel closes and she’s trapped,” Vidarr’s voice is full of panic as he opens his hands slowly like he did in the cabin. Together we illuminate the runes in the cave.
“I didn’t feel her wake.” I trace the trail she left through the mountain with Vidarr behind me, keeping his flow of magic pouring through me for support. “Who wants to see me fail?”
“Vali temporarily assumed your position when you were exiled. Deals were made so our bloodline could stay in power.”
Whirling around, I take out my fucking frustrations on my brother by cutting him off. “What kind of deals?”
Pushing gently against me with his shoulder so he doesn’t break the magic, he says, “The mortals need a King. Without the god of the forest, our worlds are collapsing into chaos. So Vali reached out to an impressionable, rich mortal.”
“For fuck’s sake!” I slam my hands on the cave wall by Vidarr’s ears, making rocks rain down from the ceiling. “You should have told me.”
