“My curse,” I repeated, revelling in the way it tumbled out of my mouth so easily. “My curse.”
I pranced from one end of the mine to the other, tossing faded sunstones into the air. “My curse, my curse, my curse!”
Tormund laughed and chased after me. He caught me by the middle and tugged me into his chest, his shadows whorling around me in victorious laps. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
“I can go outside,” I said breathlessly.
“You can go outside,” he said, beaming.
But then my happiness dimmed. “I meant what I said. I want to stay here. This place is home, and I don’t need to see the world beyond any longer.”
“I know.” He dropped a kiss on my nose. “That’s why it’s worked. You’ve accepted your lot. You’ve embraced it. And now, Astrid Balstad, you get to see the sun.”
25
ASTRID
“Later,” I told him, begrudgingly extracting myself from his embrace. “Right now, there are moss cakes to bake.”
He grunted and watched me with tormented eyes as I fussed with the mine carts, hooking each of them together with metal chains. By the time I was through, he still hadn’t moved from his spot.
“You know, it’s ironic,” he said, his voice deep and dark. “I want nothing more than to take you aboveground right now so we can pack a picnic and watch the sunset together. I want to show you exactly how amazing I think you are. But the reason I feel that way is because youaren’tgoing to do that with me right now. You’re not choosing yourself. You’re choosing your people. And that’s what makes me want you so badly.”
I flushed, all the way from my cheeks to the growing ache in my core. Every time he complimented me, it felt like the first time. “Just hold on to that thought, because your plan sounds very nice to me.”
“We can even take some of your moss cakes, since you like them so much,” he said with a grin.
“You can admit you like them. I won’t tell anyone.”
“They are luminescent,” he said. “No one in their right mind would like one of those things.”
“Good thing you’re not in your right mind.” I giggled. “You walked straight into that, you have to admit.”
“Hmm. Proud of that one, are you?”
“Very.”
“You’re lucky you’re cute.”
Giggling again, I moved to the front mine cart and grabbed the yokes. “How cute, exactly?”
“So cute I could ravish you and never tire of it.” As if to punctuate his statement, he leaned in, dragged his teeth across my neck, and nipped my skin. A moan curled from the depths of my throat, and the temptation to drag him into the mine cart was so overwhelming I nearly gave in and did it.
“Later,” I said, more to myself than to him. And as we began our trek down the mines, I envisioned exactly what later might feel like.
When we reached the hole in the tunnel floor, I realized how badly my plan had, erm,holesin it, so to speak. We’d had to drag the carts behind us after a while since the tracks didn’t lead here. Sweat dampened my forehead, and my muscles ached from use, but we’d made it by taking turns. Dragging five connected carts across an uneven stone ground was no easy feat, but it wasn’t an impossible one.
But getting them from here to the bottom of the cavern below most definitely was.
“We need to use the ropes and make a pulley system.” I tugged a curved metal piece from my pack and showed it to Tormund. “It’ll take a while, but it will get everything down there safely.”
Tormund grinned at me. “Smart woman.”
“I’d like to say it was my idea, but it wasn’t. We use pulley systems like this all the time in the mines to—”
“Astrid,” Tormund said. “You’re doing it again. You don’t need to downplay your smarts or your talents around me.”
My chest lifted, then I nodded. “Right. Thank you, then.”
