“I’m not leaving,” I confirmed, then held up a finger. “But I’m going to need you to promise you’ll never make a decision about my life without my input again. No more entering me into competitions or asking witches to curse me. Next time there is any kind of problem, just…I don’t know,talkto me about it?”
Tears gushed down his face. He laughed, pulling me in close for a hug. “You are far too understanding, my love, but I will gladly accept your forgiveness.”
My stomach decided to respond by emitting a very obnoxious growl.
“Well, I will ask for one thing in return.” I pulled back and eyed his leather satchel. “You got any chocolate?”
His booming laugh warmed my soul, and that was when I knew everything would be all right. We’d get through this. It might take some time to forget what he’d done, but I could never hate him. Especially since he was pulling three bars of chocolate from his bag.
He handed me the lot of them. “Don’t tell anyone I gave you these. I might just have loads more where those came from.”
“Loadsmore?” I asked hopefully.
“Loads,” he confirmed. “How many do you want?”
I grinned. “All of them.”
30
ASTRID
As luck would have it, Rockheim met us halfway. They’d been on the return journey to their city when word reached them of our troubles. And contrary to what we’d assumed, they were more than happy to accept anything we offered as a trade.
“The contract is written in blood, so we have to take something for the trade,” the blonde dwarven woman said, her eyebrow piercing wobbling as she shuffled around the mine carts. “But you needn’t have gone to all this trouble. We would have taken some moss cakes.”
“Well, if you don’t want the gold…” Jostein tugged on the cart, but the Rockheim leader snapped out her hand and grabbed it.
She winked. “Didn’t say that. Just remember we’re your friendly neighbors next time, eh? We don’t want your villages to descend into eternal darkness any more than you do.”
Jostein actually blushed.
We made the swap, returned home, and embedded the Everstone in an indentation Jostein indicated. Turned out,it had been hidden inside a tunnel near the melted tracks Tormund and I had found. Jostein had blocked it off over a decade ago. He’d known it was there the whole time.
I chose to let it go. His plotting had caused me a lot of grief, but it had all worked out in the end. As soon as the Everstone took its rightful place, the amber glow returned to every sunstone scattered throughout the northern villages. Almost in an instant, everything was right again.
Thank the fates for moss cakes.
Tormund led me to the watchtower and told me to wait while he vanished through the door leading to the outside world. I bounced on my toes, an anxious thrumming in my chest. I’d meant every word I’d said when I’d accepted my future and my fate. I didn’t need to walk outside. I was content to never gaze at the sky or wander through fields of grass.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t excited now.
The door cracked open again, and light splashed onto the watchtower’s stone floor. Tormund motioned me forward, delight dancing in his midnight eyes.
“Really?” I swallowed.
“Come on,” he said gently. “You don’t need to be nervous.”
I wasn’tnervous, per se, but I’d built up this moment for so long that I was scared I might walk through that door and find the world was a muted gray, like all the stones. No more color. No more life. It’d all be gone.
“It’s a beautiful spring day,” Tormund said, waving me forward. “You can even see Rivelin’s dragons soaring throughthe clouds, including our friend, Hita. I can’t wait for Tahir to join them soon.”
That finally got my feet moving.
Tormund widened the door, revealing a world full of splendor. I stepped out into air warmer than I’d ever felt, even with the breeze rustling the bells in my hair. The sky above was an endless stretch of blue, only interrupted by a smattering of puffy white clouds and dragon wings. I dropped back my head and closed my eyes, sunlight caressing my skin.
Everything within me sighed.
Birds chirped in the distance. Wind swept across my sun-kissed cheeks. The scent of brine rushed in from the sea beyond, and there—I could hear the rush of waves. It was everything I’d dreamt of and more, and yet I did not regret my choice to stay inside the mountains.
