“Careful what you wish for, Princess.”
“I would love to see you try.” She taunts his uncompromising resolve before turning into his chest, placing her flour-covered hands on his tunic.
One heartbeat.
Two heartbeats.
Three heartbeats.
He spins her back around, gripping her curls, forcing her to bend over the table. Her squeals are lightning flooding to his cock. “I expect you to open your mouth and those luscious lips to utter the words ‘yes, Jarl Calder.’”
Before he can consider any other action with the Princess, frost crystallizes across the wooden grains of the table. He releases his hold on her in a breath, stepping away as hisseidrice overtakes the surface.
“Why is it cold in here?” Eivor bounds inside with Serk closebehind. “I can see my breath, see!” She exhales rapidly, and sure enough, her breath mists around her tiny face.
Calder glowers accusatorily at his palms.
What is happening? Have I lost command of myseidr?
“Must have been the gods summoning you home to help cook.” Aura teases, bopping a dollop of dough mix onto Eivor’s nose.
The little girl giggles while she and Serk continue his recipe—the Princess peers at Calder with a mixture of frustration and heady longing.
After they eat, Aura ushers Eivor out front of the home to spar. Calder leans against the front door frame while Serk lounges in a chair on the front porch.
“She is a wild spirit.” Serk nods to Aura, who instructs the young girl on how to block. Gone is the anger and drive to prove herself. She is happy and carefree, unfettered from the burden that he knows rests on her shoulders.
If only she knew what hunts her.
“Yes, she is.” He lights his pipe. “Are you a warrior?”
Serk lifts his lousy leg so it stretches out. “I sought to follow my old man and become a Drengr. Except I had an accident before I could train and messed up my leg. Now, I tend the homestead and care for Eivor since our mother has passed on to the Depths.”
Serk tilts his head with a warm smile as Aura tickles Eivor, who swats her with a wooden sword. “She supported me through a rough patch. I’ll never forget it. Another sister.”
Calder clenches his teeth as he follows Serk’s kind gaze to the Princess.
He has spent every spare moment watching her from a distance. The vicious way she plays and loses at chess, or her sweetness with theLord Commander’s many creatures. Even assisting her parents with anything they could ask.
This Serk, a simple Salt farmer with a good heart, is an excellent option for a partner for her. Yet, why does that thought devastate him? She invokes a feral yearning for him to be her sole protection.
Suddenly, the gruesome image from twenty winters ago of Sigvid disemboweling a Drengr who threatened Queen Avina reminds him of how profoundly forbidden Aura is to him.
She stumbles into the creek, and the water seeps into her gown. The sunlight peeking through the trees gives a faint glimmer to the water droplets frozen on her face, so full of life.
She has me hanging by a thread as she unravels me ever so slowly. I find myself twisting around her as I threaten to shatter my precious control with a hunger to give her everything.
If I cannot rein in my depravity, she will be the end of me.
7
CALDER
August 5th, Year 21, 10th Era
Toftlund City, Treland
“Idisagree, my good Jarl. Astrian Steel is a far superior metal than any obsidian you will find. Legend states the gods forge their weapons from it.” Edmund muses while he inspects the chess game between them, which heavily favors the Gothi.
