Her brown eyes meet mine. “I trust you.”
The way she looks at me…
It sends a jolt through me, but not in a good way. Not in the way it felt when I saw her on the couch. When I realized how much I missed her in the few days that I was away.
I’ve done it. I know I have. My father told me to make Sophie fall for me, and I’ve done it. It’s clear from her expression, the way she looks at me. How much she cares.
But I’m not giving myself a highfive for this.
Because now Sophie has become someone I can’t hurt. Someone whoIcare about. And that’s the last thing I wanted.
Am I falling for her, too?
That was never part of the instructions. There was no mention of me developing feelings for Sophie in all of this, probably because my father never thinks about my heart.
But I’m thinking about it now. I’ve been thinking about it a lot.
“Are we friends, Sophie?” I ask in a quiet voice.
“I like to think so.”
I nod. “Good.” I continue to work on her arch, knowing that she’s watching me. “Good.”
27
Sophie
“Iwanttoseethedungeons,” Ashton announces the next day. “You’re pretty good with your crutches. Think you can make it?”
“Hasn’t Gunnar ever taken you down there?”
He shakes his head. “There’s always something else we’re doing. I kept asking because it’s a castle with dungeons. Who gets to see that?”
“There’s really not much down there,” I tell him. “A few cells, but this was a Viking castle. I don’t think they had much of a need to lock people up.”
“Why, what did they do to prisoners?”
I lift my shoulders. “When I was a kid, and we’d go down there, Odin would always tell us stuff about the Vikings, but I never really paid attention,” I admit. “I know I should have, because Odin knows a lot about Vikings. It’s sort of his thing.”
“I wouldn’t have listened,” Ashton scoffs. “History isn’t my thing.”
“And wandering around in the dark is?”
“Yeah. You scared?”
“Of course not.” I don’t know where the bravado comes from because no, I am not fond of the dark. And back then, I neverlistened to Odin because I was too concerned with staying as close as possible to Spencer—who wanted to be as close as possible to Lyra—or Stella, who was too busy trying to be brave in front of Gunnar to pay attention to a scared little sister.
“I think Gunnar is scared to go down there,” he decides.
“He did like Stella to hold his hand, but I’m not sure if he was scared or he just wanted to hold her hand.”
Ashton’s grin is just a little bit wicked. “I needed to know that information.”
“I really don’t think you did.”
“Oh, I do. It’s Gunnar. I always try to find out some little tidbit when I come here that I can hold over his head. It’s my lot in life. To make my friends’ lives miserable.”
“That doesn’t sound like a good friend.”
