I’d never heard anything of the sort. Of course, that didn’t mean it never happened. Still, if this was Ivar’s wife or sister, I didn’t much trust a word she said.
“We’re sober, he and I.” I motioned to Ragnar. “And we just want some pie.”
She squinted at us. “Well then. You’ve come to the right place, I suppose. What kind of pie do you fancy?”
“Ale pie,” said Ragnar. “If you have it. Otherwise…mushroom and leek are always nice.”
“We’ve got plenty of ale pie here.” She stepped back and motioned us through the door.
Sucking in a breath, I nodded at Ragnar and shuffled into the building. Once inside, the door slammed behind us, as if sucked closed by the wind. A single dimly lit taproom of sorts took up most of the home. A ladder propped against the wall led to what I assumed was a bedroom. There were only four square tables with two chairs each, and barrels were stacked up along the back wall, nearly hidden in the shadows. I drifted toward them until the woman’s harsh voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Pick the table closest to the fire, eh? It’s cold out there,” she said.
Biting the insides of my cheeks, I did what she asked. Ragnar pulled out a chair and thundered down beside me, the weight of him making the chair creak.
“Good. Sit tight. I’ll be right back with your pie.”
17
LILIA
As soon as she’d scurried out the back door, I leapt to my feet and ran over to the corner with the kegs. Ragnar stayed right where he was, as if he didn’t dare make any sudden movement for fear of conjuring the woman again.
“Those aren’t the barrels, Lil,” he said.
My heart pulsed.Lil. Not Lilia, or darling. Lil. Something about that nickname felt intimate coming from him. Which was ridiculous.Iwas being ridiculous. We were in the lair of the potential enemy, and all I could focus on was my name on Ragnar’s tongue.
Ragnar’s. Tongue.
Flustered, I patted the side of my tunic and tried to ignore the heat of his eyes on my back, but that was nigh impossible. There was nowhere else for him to look but at me, not in this strange taproom. Outside, we’d had the wide expanse of the world all around us, but in here, the walls were far too close.
“You just going to keep standing there?” he asked.
I blinked. What had he said?Oh.The barrels.
Now that I was a few steps closer, I could see what he meant. These barrels were coated in a thick layer of dust, and the boards were warped and cracking apart. If there’d been any liquid inside, it would have dribbled out a long time ago.
“How could you tell from so far away?” I asked, keeping my back turned toward him so that I had a little longer to gather control over my thoughts.
“I let my power through a notch. It helps me see better in the dark.” He patted the seat beside him. “Better come back now. I have a feeling pie man’s wife will be none too pleased if she catches you poking around in here.”
Straightening my shoulders, I pasted on a blank face and returned to the table. I avoided meeting Ragnar’s gaze. “Well, we have to start somewhere.”
“That’s why we’re eating the pie. You with your expert palate will tell us if they used your ale to bake it.”
I cracked a grin. “The taste completely changes when you cook it, especially when you put it in a pie. You really have no idea when it comes to beer, do you? If you hadn’t tried to steal my business out from under me, I might think it was cute.”
“I’m cute, eh? Go on.”
Blushing, I cleared my throat. “I said Iwouldhave thought that, if you weren’t running a rival tavern. But you are, so I don’t.”
“Except I’m not doing that anymore, now am I?”
At that, I finally met his gaze, and I swore I felt the fire in it burn through me. “I thought we came here to get our kegs back.”
“Yourkegs,” he said quietly. “If we want to save Yule, we shouldn’t be serving anyone mine. I know how terrible it tastes. Also, it’s probably spoiled by now.”
“But what about the debt your brother owed?”
