“You cannot expect me to hold you in such high regard. To beowned by you. And then to hunt me down and defile me as a mere stranger. Concealing your identity, leaving me terrified of the man behind the mask.”
She straightens her back, lifting her chin. “I did everything to remain loyal to you last night. Your actions broke me. I did not think you could anymore, seeing as you have done a wonderful job of shattering my world since capturing me from the Arena.”
She inhales to steady herself. “How could I have lived knowing the man behind the skull mask was anyone other than you, Sigvid?”
He drags a hand through his chestnut braid. “I would never allow anything to happen to you. Everything you encounter is in my control. I know your location at all times. If someone had tried to come for you last night, I would have ripped his fucking head off with my bare hands.”
“But didIknow you were in the mask?” She shrieks, spraying his face with her exacerbated spittle, feeling the emotions of the previous night boil over. “You often forget that I am not a toy for you to use! I am a person, Sigvid! And dammit, my emotions matter!”
His face softens further. He raises his hands as if he will grab her shoulders but thinks better of it. “You are a person, but you are my person. No one else’s. Avina, you matter more to me than anything or anyone on this godsforsaken land.” His stroking of his braid turns more feverish.
Is he flustered?
“There is… a part of me that believed you would… enjoy the chase.” He is now almost pacing across the room.
“But it does not alter the uncertainty that it might not have been you.”
“My beautiful little Queen,” he ceases his movements and turns the full force of his attention on her. Sigvid grips her upper arms and leans down so they are at eye level. “I am so incredibly sorry for putting you through that horror. I should have thought about what it would do to you.”
She blinks and notices a pain reflected in his eyes.
Sigvid Thordsson feels guilty for harming her.
And he actually apologized.
She has a sneaky suspicion that this is a rare event, perhaps unique.
Before she can accept his apology, he grabs her behind and pulls her close to his hard chest. His hand tangles through her curls and tugs her head back before shoving his tongue down her throat.
November 28th, Year 100, 9th Era
Blackwood Inn, Salt Province
Blackwood’s central room’s floor-to-ceiling windows frame Sigvid’s warrior build against the thick blackwood forest. Stretching far and wide at his back are the woodlands Avina had fled in last night.
Her desires have changed so drastically that she wonders what will happen when the time arises for her to walk away from him after the Solstice.
I know I set that looming deadline over us.
The more important question is if shewantsto leave him. Numbness fills her gut at the mere notion of returning to Scarwood or the Sapphire Palace.
Life with Sigvid is more than violent sex. Before him, she had lived in an existence where no one considered her thoughts. He sees her for everything she is and embraces her for what she is not.
His hands alternate their frantic stroking between his auburn hair and beard. “You made her bed?”
“Yes.” She sighs, having already assuaged him of this worry several times.
“And Thora scrubbed the floors?”
She collapses into one of the leather-bound chairs around the hearth with a huff. “We both completed the tasks you dictated to us yesterday afternoon, as I told you before. You forget that I also grew up with Frida’s criticalness.”
The woman could sniff out a lie like a hound. She has a keen eye and didn’t suffer any bullshit.
He pauses to gape at her. “When was the last time you spoke with my mother?”
She has to think for a moment. They had communicated via letter, but she has not physically seen or talked with the dowager Salt Queen in over three winters. “Probably before my engagement to Rendel and Thord’s passing.”
He chuckles darkly. “Mother comforts herself with wine now. It’s like tossing an armful of leaves onto a fire. It’s going to keep burning, just brighter and more crackly.”
