“Set me down,” I demanded.
“That would be a no,” Darcke growled back.
“I said. Set me down.”
Darcke only shifted me, cradling me so that I could meet his eyes. “Fight me.”
I crossed my arms.
His laughter was a lethal promise. “I thought as much.”
I remained quiet as he stalked through the woods, trying to read whether he was planning on killing me. But it wasn’t anger that drove his long strides. It was determination. And an insane dose of stubbornness—one I shared.
Darcke set me down only as we returned to the small glen we’d woken in after the bonding, where the waterfall rushed beside us and a thick tree line kept us out of sight.
Placing a hand on my hip, I waved my other hand at him. “Now what?”
He smirked. “Now we stay here until you fight me. I don’t care if I must live here until the next trial.”
Twenty-Seven
He was serious. The sun had set and risen again, and Darcke had remained in the spot he’d taken up after challenging me last night. He sat against a tree, his long legs folded leisurely before him, his head resting against the trunk, and kept his eyes closed, his chest moving steadily.
I got up on stiff legs from my position against a trunk on the other side of the small glen. Darcke popped open an eye, but when he realized I was only headed to the small stream trickling into the larger one, leading to the waterfall, he closed it again.
I sighed as I washed my hands in the cool water, using some to splash on my face and pulling at the neck of my tunic to dab some water on the top of my chest. The temperatures had risen overnight, and a humidity that wasn’t common here in the north seeped into my leathers, making my skin sticky and my mood irritable. I was tempted to try to sneak around him and head to the spot I’d taken up in the trees close to the Hird, but as I took one step in that direction, the warrior shifted.
“I can feel what you’re trying to do, and I’ll only carry you back,” Darcke warned.
Another low sound of annoyance wove up my throat, and myfootsteps were heavy as I returned to the glen, walking back and forth while twisting my hands.
Darcke stretched his hands over his head, his eyes opening.
Unlike me, he looked more rested than I’d ever seen him, the bluish hint that usually accentuated his tattoos having faded slightly. “There is an easy solution to your rage. Fight me.”
“I don’t want to,” I replied as I walked up to the waterfall, watching the water race violently into the vast lake.
“You want to.” Darcke laughed quietly. “You want to very much. You’re just holding back for a reason I can’t yet understand. But don’t worry. I’ll catch on quickly.”
The predatory sound of a golden eagle whistled through the air, and a flock of birds took flight from a tree in the glen, shooting toward the sky before diving, following the steep drop of water until their wings leveled them and they flew for the mountains ahead. I kept my focus on their beating wings when Darcke came to my side.
“Wishing to fly isn’t the Viking way,” he said. “Unless it’s atop tall waves, of course.”
“Do you ever want to leave everything behind?” I blurted out. “Find someplace new? Somewhere far away from everything where you can start over?”
Darcke blew a breath out of his nose. “The way your clan is conquering the world, there aren’t many of those places left.”
True. We’d never claimed so many nations as under King Gustief’s rule, or so violently forced them under our crown and our gods. Previous generations of kings had favored trade and exploration, and Gustief had started out that way as well. But over the past decade the king had become greedy—had started asking more of his chiefs until they spent most of the time out at sea and in battle, quelling any enemies that might try to stand against us.
“You don’t agree with Gustief’s ways?”
My stomach roiled. “I didn’t say that.”
“But you feelconflicted,” Darcke said.
“No,” I rushed out. “That’s not true. I am eager to start. I only need to survive the academy first.”
“Pity.” Darcke brushed something off his trousers.
