Thirty-One
“Soyoudecided to help us?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if I was more surprised we were alive or that we were alive because Ottoh Briggen, of all heirs, had saved us.
“He saw you speaking to your mom.” Vero, Ottoh’s twin, limped up to us, placing a hand on the mare Darcke hopped off. “And we knowallabout disappointed moms, don’t we, brother?”
Ottoh shot a warning look at his sister before that grin spread across his face once more. “It’s far too fun to watch all the others hate you. It keeps time passing, so I decided to keep you around a little bit longer.”
I shook my head. “Well, th?—”
“Don’t thank him,” Darcke snarled. “He doesn’t deserve it.”
“I did save your lives, warrior,” Ottoh replied. “I’d say a thank-you is warranted.”
A warning in Darcke’s face made me stiffen. “See it as payback for what you did to her the first day.”
Ottoh rolled his eyes. “I’m honestly surprisedyouhaven’t killed her yet. We all know how much you hate her.”
Vero grimaced in the lethal silence that followed. “Well, this was nice and all…”
“You can let her go now,” Darcke said far too softly, ignoring the twin.
Only then did I realize Ottoh’s hands rested on my thighs.
As I shook them off, Ottoh laughed. “Look at that. Do you care for her?”
“I’m her second. I’m supposed to keep her alive.” Darcke didn’t meet my eyes as he stalked over and dragged me off the heir’s horse. “It doesn’t matter whether I hate her or not.”
I winced, silently cursing myself immediately after. For a second, Darcke stiffened. Then he pulled me to him, boring his eyes into mine until it felt like there was only us left in the entire world.
I raised my hand when a violent tide of emotions washed over me. “I know. I know. You’re going to yell at me for almost killing you.”
“No,” Darcke replied. “I’m going to yell at you for almost killingyourself. You are supposed to be an heir—a leader. You cannot put yourself at risk like that! You need to be selfish! You need to be willing to sacrificeothers, not yourself.”
“That’s not how it works!” I couldn’t stand how my voice trembled, but I couldn’t stop either. “If you felt an ounce of the honor it is to be a second, you’d realize that. I’m supposed to die for my people! I’m supposed to sacrifice myself.”
One of his hands came around my neck.
“No, Elvara.” His eyes flitted between mine.
We both tensed when the bond surged with something that felt like the deadly fever that had gone through my village when I was a child—hot and trembling and so incredibly dangerous—as he spoke my name for the first time.
“No,” he said again. His eyes lifted for a second, and his forehead creased—a jarring uncertainty hitting me—before he dragged us away from the Briggen twins. Darcke didn’t stop until we were out of earshot, although the Briggens’ gazes still burned curiously over us.
“This honor you speak of,” Darcke whispered, a viciousedge to his words. “How can you not see it’s just another way for your gods to control you? They tempt you with Valhalla so that you will overpower any people who do not obey them. They offer you runes, but only the ones they’re willing to give out—and only if they think you’ve earned them.”
“Enough.” I placed a hand on his chest, ignoring how it heaved as intensely as my own did. “You cannot speak like this. I will not allow it.”
His brows flew up. “You will notallowit?”
I tilted my face back in defiance. “I won’t.”
The hand Darcke had kept around the back of my neck moved, his fingers wrapping around my lifted chin. “Are you trying to tell me what to do?” he asked as he stepped closer until he towered over me.
Everything within me was set alight. I wasn’t sure exactly what emotions spun between us: a mixture of hatred and fear and anger and the adrenaline-fueled excitement that came with surviving another moment we shouldn’t have.
“No,” I responded heatedly. “Iamtelling you what to do.”
The air around us pulsated with nervous energy, and when I wetted my lips, Darcke’s eyes flew down before slowly lifting back to my own. His grip on my chin tightened, and my toes curled in my boots when the intensity with which he glared at me trickled over my skin.
