Raye scoffed into the darkness, and rubbed a shaky hand at her hot face. Fighting to drag it all up again, the book, the mushroom garden, the woman in the portrait,leaving his own mate and son to be starved…
“Youareangry with Kalfr,” she insisted, her voice cracking. “Aren’t you? You want to get back at him, teach him a lesson, maybe? By taking me away from him? Taking… takingSvein?”
Her voice was rising again — how had she not suspected this, how had she not guessed? But behind her, Gaelfr let out another harsh breath, almost a growl. “No, woman,” he snapped. “You are yet Kalfr’s mate, and Svein is his son. I have no right to take either of you from him. Just as he” — his voice deepened — “has no right to speak upon what I do withyou.”
It sounded… possessive, proprietary, as if maybe what they’d just done hadn’t been only about Kalfr, after all. And it shouldn’t matter, it didn’t, but Raye’s alarm still faltered, flattened, her body slightly sagging back into Gaelfr’s bulk behind her.
“But… youarestill angry with him, though,” she said, not quite a question. “Angry that he broke his vows to you, and abandoned the future you wanted for both of you. And then found someone else, and started a whole new life, without you.”
Gaelfr twitched behind her, and exhaled into her hair. “Ach, and are you not angry, also?” he countered. “Kalfr ought to be here with you and our son. He ought to be feeding you and guarding you and tending you. And if he had such a great need to forego all he cared for, and to bed that clawed new harpy, andabandon his duty to guard you and care for you — then he ought to have sent for me to come to you in his stead. This is what our vows demand. This is what anástvinurdoes!”
His anger burned through the air, vibrated through his body against Raye’s back. And though she should have argued it — should have reminded him that she’d been the one to bar Kalfr from their lives — she could only keep blinking toward the wall. If this was all true, then whyhadn’tKalfr sent for Gaelfr? Why hadn’t he fought harder for her, for Svein? Had it only been her threats? Had she made him hate her that much? Would he hate her even more now?
“What do you think Kalfr will say?” Raye asked, into the silence. “Or do? When he comes back?”
There was another beat of silence behind her, and then Gaelfr’s arm settled over her again, warm and heavy and familiar. As if it was an answer of its own. A promise that he would protect her, even from Kalfr…
“He will fulfill his duty to you,” Gaelfr said, a low menacing threat. “Or else, he will pay.”
15
That night, Raye dreamed of Kalfr.
She dreamed of him laughing, his head tipped back, his dark eyes alight. She dreamed of him speaking, his voice low and velvety in the darkness, telling her of his goddess, his people’s tales, all the places he’d seen. And she dreamed of him gasping over her, murmuring heated praises into her ears, as his lithe body arched and shuddered over her, pouring her full of pleasure and relief.
And then… she dreamed of Kalfr growling at her. Shouting at her. Pleading with her. Gripping his curved sword so tightly his knuckles went pale.Please, Raye. Svein is yet my son. I only seek to care for him, and keep you both safe. I am sorry I kept the truth from you. I will do all within my power to regain your trust. I will spurn my bond with Gaelfr, and I will never touch him thus again, without your leave. I swear this, upon the goddess. Please.
Raye awoke with a start, the sweat hot on her face, the dread creeping in her chest. While Kalfr’s voice kept echoing, jangling through her thoughts.
I will spurn my bond with Gaelfr, and I will never touch him thus again, without your leave. I swear this, upon the goddess.
Kalfr had — said that. He’d really said all that, back before she’d made that threat to take Svein away. Hadn’t he? And she hadn’t listened. She’d scarcely heard any of it, through her fury and her crushing sickening fear.
But that vow he’d made, when he’d sworn never to touch Gaelfr again. Had Kalfr… kept that vow? And had Gaelfr known about it? Had that been part of why Gaelfr had stayed away, all this time? Or why Kalfr hadn’t sent for him to come back, even if his own vows had supposedly demanded it?
Raye glanced sideways in the early morning light, toward where Gaelfr was still in the bed beside her. His eyes were already open, and his brow slowly furrowed as he studied her, his nostrils flaring. Like he could still smell that memory of Kalfr upon her, dark and bitter and incriminating. Especially since nowshewas the one who’d touched Gaelfr. She was the one who’d let him kneel over her face, and bury himself in her throat.
Raye suddenly couldn’t bear to meet his eyes, and she shoved down to the bottom of the bed and stumbled out of it without touching him. “Just need — the outhouse,” she said thickly. “Back in a moment.”
Gaelfr didn’t make any effort to stop her, which presumably meant he didn’t scent any danger outside, and once Raye had shut herself into the small outhouse, she buried her face in her hands, and took deep, gulping breaths. It didn’t matter. Whatever this had been between her and Gaelfr, these past few days, it meant nothing.
She couldn’t trust him. He was still dangerous. He was still planning to leave, as soon as Kalfr returned.I should never be so cruel. Worse than you…
And Raye was only doing this for Svein. She needed to feed Svein, protect him, keep him safe from those awful men. And that was all.
She spent far longer in the outhouse than she should have, but when she finally strode back to the cottage, her head was high, her breaths shallow but steady. She didn’t care. Shedidn’t.
Until she stepped inside, and found… chaos.
Svein was wide awake, gleefully running around the room, strewing clothes in his wake. While Gaelfr bustled about between the table and the bed, surrounded by goods and textiles, because he was…packing. Yes, he was packing, wrapping various items into makeshift sacks made of rope and furs, and those wereRaye’sfurs, and —
“What the hell, Gaelfr?” Raye demanded, her voice ringing through the room. “What are youdoing?”
Svein briefly stopped running to dart a worried look over his shoulder, while Gaelfr turned to face her, his brows raised. “I am packing your goods,” he said. “We are leaving here today.”
Raye gaped at him, and then down at the piles of items before him: food, utensils, the woodcutting axe, the meagre remnants of Raye’s clothes, even her ruined bloodstained dress. “What do you mean, we’re leaving?” she shot back. “Now?Why?!”
Gaelfr’s expression didn’t even flicker as he turned to continue his packing, wrapping up plates in one of Raye’s clean dresses. “You were threatened by armed men yesterday,” he replied, his voice flat. “It is no longer safe here. Instead of waiting here for Kalfr, we will go to meet him, and find a safer place to stay.”
