Kalfr didn’t deny it, and his breath exhaled, his eyes slowly closing. Saying… yes. Yes. He had.
And it shouldn’t have hurt like that. Shouldn’t have swarmed such dizzying misery through Raye’s head, her heart. She’d banished Kalfr from her life years ago. He’d had every right to touch whomever he’d pleased. She wasn’t supposed to care…
But she did, and her one bizarre, disorienting consolation was Gaelfr. Gaelfr, crumpling up the portrait, and hurling it across the room. So he could lunge his big body at Kalfr, grab him roughly by the shoulders, look him in the eyes…
“Now tell me,” he snarled. “Where is she?”
20
Gaelfr’s question reverberated through the air, heavy with rage, and with bitter, thwarted envy.
Gaelfr was…jealous.
And however Raye felt about Gaelfr, in this instant, the odd swoop in her gut felt… relieved. Grateful. That Gaelfr was saying this, barging his way through it, even if it was wrong. Even if he had no right, either.
“Tell me, Kalfr,” he demanded, as he gave a hard shake to Kalfr’s shoulders. “Who was this woman! And why did you betray us with her?!”
Betray…us. Raye’s gut dipped again, because was Gaelfr includingherin that? But yes, his furious eyes flicked toward her, brief but purposeful, before glaring back at Kalfr’s face.
“Tell me!” he roared, loud enough that Raye flinched. “Where is this woman? And did you granthera son, also?!”
Oh, gods. Raye had fully missed that implication, that possibility — but now that it was here, flashing before her eyes, it felt even more horrifying than the rest. Had Kalfr given that woman ason? Did Svein have a sibling? And — the horror flared higher —Gaelfrwould therefore see that son as his own, too. Hewould need to go to this woman, and offer his care to her and her son, just like he had with Raye.
And wasthatwhy Gaelfr had been so adamant about coming here, and seeing Kalfr? To find this other woman, and make sureherson was being cared for? To make sure her son had a father, too?
Raye’s stomach roiled, hard enough that bile surged into her throat, and she choked it back, dragged for air. While her wide eyes frantically searched Kalfr’s face, what would he say, was there another son…
“No,” Kalfr said, and the word was a stark, sweeping relief, staggering Raye against the wall behind her. “There is no son. And she is… gone.”
Gone. Raye sagged heavier against the wall, and Gaelfr’s shoulders sagged too. “Gone where?” he demanded. “And you aresureof this, about the son?”
Kalfr nodded, and rubbed his hand against his eyes. “I am sure,” he said. “Our healer stoppered my seed, so I could not beget a son with her. And as far as I know, for now” — he took a dragging breath — “she has gone north. Back to her home.”
Raye let out a slow exhale, the relief deepening through her chest, but Gaelfr frowned at Kalfr, a growl burning from his throat. “So why,” he hissed, “did you do this with her? Why did you break your vow to me, yetagain?”
Kalfr blinked at Gaelfr, and wrenched backwards, out of his grip. “Youleft, Gael,” he hissed back. “Youbroke your vow tome. You have no right to demand this of me! Most of all whenyounow reek of —”
He snapped his mouth shut, but his narrow eyes flicked toward — Raye. Meaning that Gaelfr now reeked ofher. And as Kalfr’s glinting eyes held hers, it was as though he could see the visions of it, marching behind Raye’s eyes. Gaelfr crouchedupside-down over her, feasting between her legs, feeding himself down her throat…
Raye’s face swarmed with heat, and she forced her eyes away from him, back to Gaelfr. Who was growling again, rounding on Kalfr again, his fists raised. “Youfailed to care for your mate,” he snarled. “And thus, it fell to me to come to her, and care for her in your stead!”
Kalfr scoffed, and raised his fists, too. “Ach, and this must have been such a hardship for you, Gael,” he spat back. “You have been home for what, three days? Did not waste any time, did you?”
Gaelfr’s growl rose to a roar, and in a flash of movement, he hurled himself at Kalfr again. Too fast for Kalfr to dodge this time, and Gaelfr’s huge body hurled him back onto the stone floor beneath them, slightly shaking the room beneath Raye’s feet.
“I kept my vows to you for all these summers,” Gaelfr rasped, as Kalfr twisted and kicked beneath him. “And so did your mate! And you abandoned her, you ploughed this new reeking woman, without me, again!”
Kalfr kicked up again, striking at Gaelfr with knees and elbows, but Gaelfr shoved his heavier weight down against him, and gripped firmly at his throat. “And then,” he added, harder, “you did not even send for me, and allow me to keep my own vows to care for our kin, in your stead! So no, I did not waste any time” — his other fist drew back, hung menacingly in the air over Kalfr’s face — “for you were gone, and our woman and son needed me! They neededyou, and you werenot there!”
His fist kept hanging there, about to strike down, to smash Kalfr straight in the face — and there was something in the way Kalfr stared up at it. Something blank in his eyes, something empty, something glazed and lifeless. And he just kept lookingat it, not moving, not fighting — until a single drop of water streaked from his eye toward the floor.
“Then do it, Gael,” he whispered, so quiet Raye almost couldn’t hear it. “Finish it.”
Gaelfr blinked, twitched, while Kalfr drew in a ragged breath, and another tear streaked from his eye. “It is what I deserve,” he breathed, his voice cracking. “What the goddess would wish, after all my failings. You will well care for Svein, ach? And tell him — tell him —”
His face crumpled, his eyes squeezing shut, and oh, gods, he was weeping. Lying there beneath Gaelfr and weeping with great, anguished sobs, as though his entire world had broken, and crushed him whole beneath it.
Raye’s own eyes were stinging, her breath quaking in her throat. No.No. This wasn’t right. Kalfr wasn’t supposed to look like that, to weep like that. He wasn’t supposed to want to leave them again,forever. No. She couldn’t bear it. Shecouldn’t.
