Saga’s feet froze in place, her vision twinning at what she saw. “What?—”
In the middle of the room, a man was strung to a beam, arms spread wide,feet bound. Hair an unkempt brown, twin Urkan braids adorned his beard, and a large bear tattoo stretched across his chest.
“Magnus?” Saga placed a bracing hand on the wall.
His head lifted, cold, dead eyes meeting her own. “Kunta,” seethed Magnus. “Traitor.”
In two loping steps, Rurik was at Magnus, striking him across the face. “Magnus, Magnus. Have we not already learned this lesson? You must use manners. Is no way to speak to a lady.”
Magnus spat blood onto the floor. “She’s no lady. She’s a loathsome pet. A useless ornament.” His eyes were a thousand knives dragging across Saga’s flesh. “Should have been executed.”
“Your ears are broken, are they, Magnus?” The Heart Eater’s head snapped to the side as Rurik struck him again, harder.
Flinching, Saga stepped back, taking slow breaths.
Rurik grabbed Magnus’s beard, tugging until their faces were inches apart. “You and Lady Saga are no longer betrothed. Understand?” Magnus glared at him but made no move to respond. “Need I fetch Rov, Magnus? Is magnificent with the blade. Knows where to cut to make your screams loudest.”
The older man’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Rurik. “Is what I thought. Now tell me you understand—you will never touch her again.”
Magnus merely grunted, but that seemed acknowledgment enough for Rurik. Turning to Saga, a smile stretched wide, but it was too sharp—too fierce. “You like my surprise?”
“What—” she spluttered. “I—you—you’re mad! You stopped in the midst of the explosion to steal Magnus?”
Rurik’s eyebrows raised, those green eyes flaring brighter. “Ah, my dear Winterwing. Magnus was stolen long before that. Was, how do you say…priority.”
Disbelief flooded her. “I don’t want this?—”
A shadow crossed Rurik’s face as he stepped toward her. “Look at your hands, Saga,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. “Remember how much you endured. Here you can pay back what he did. And no one will ever know it.” Drawing a dagger, he held the hilt for Saga to take.
Saga stared at the dagger, vision tunneling as she pondered the idea. But then the voice whispering to her in Askaborg’s great hall slid through her mind.
We can make them pay.
“I’m not a monster!” she exclaimed. “I’m not like that.”You are, came the thought, floating through her mind. She’d wanted Signe dead. Hadyearned for her pain. And Yrsa’s blood was now on her hands. But Saga shook those thoughts loose, focusing on Rurik.
“We each have a monster in us, Saga,” he said darkly. “Is healthy to exercise it.” Saga blinked at Rurik, trying to understand.
Magnus chuckled. “A skald’s tale in the flesh,” he muttered. “The Beast of Zagadka and the little pet princess?—”
Rurik leaped at Magnus, driving his fist into the man’s jaw. But it was too late to drive the words from Saga’s mind.
“Beast,” she repeated, staring at Rurik’s broad back. The Beast of Zagadka—heir of the high prince. “You’re sorely mistaken, Magnus.” But she heard the doubt in her own voice—felt the shiver roll down her spine.
“Ask him,” challenged Magnus.
Rurik turned slowly, the muscles in his jaw held tight.
“Is it true?” she asked, her voice just above a whisper. A low buzzing began in her ears.
Rurik swallowed. “It was plan to tell you?—”
“You’re the heir?”
It could not be. And yet, it made sense—why the Druzhina always deferred to him; the way he was used to getting what he wanted. The way he’d been so eager to hear Saga’s thoughts on the Beast of Zagadka.
The high prince has forbidden his heir to come. Is not good man for…diplomacy, Rurik had told her. Now Saga sagged against the wall, the room warping before her as she tried to understand.
Magnus’s laugh lanced through her skull. “That’s not all, Pet. Not even close.”
