“He was going to come back for meafter he killed mybrother? What is wrong with you people!” I didn’t care how high pitched my voice went.
I couldn’t fucking believe this. They’d all known. Every adult around me had known.
Darcke had known.
Memories from my entire life slammed into me. Viljan. Darcke. My father. Everything I thought I’d done, someone else had already dictated. No wonder I often wanted to sail away and leave everything and everyone behind.
I fucking should have.
“We couldn’t win without you.” Darcke’s face was gray, his gaze somewhere behind me, as if he couldn’t stand to see me like this. “You can claim more than one rune—more than one throne.”
“Look at me,” I hissed. “You at least owe me that. Look at me, youcoward.”
“Elvara!” Ivren called behind me, and I spun to my friend.
He’d tried to protect me the whole time.
He’d known something was off with Darcke. He’d warned me.
As I met Ivren’s blue eyes, the world started spinning again. It was as if Darcke’s words had triggered something, because the chiefs and their men started sprinting.
And they were all coming for me this time.
Forty-Nine
“Protect her!” Gustief screamed as I fumbled for my sword.
When Darcke got hold of the blade and offered it to me, I took it so fast the sharp edge cut his palm, but I didn’t care as I whirled to the wall of attackers. The heirs and the warriors turned toward the west, where every chief and iron-bound was coming from.
My hands trembled as I got into position. We didn’t even have half the people.
“Guess you didn’t think this through,” I said through my teeth.
“We did,” Darcke replied calmly.
“We didn’t plan on surviving.” The king gave me a sad smile. “We only planned for you to.”
“What about the bond?” I snarled.
Fuck, they were so close now. The footsteps of the Vikings made the ground beneath my feet vibrate, and I could smell the determination on the wind, lusting for my head. My mother took down one of the king’s men, her war-painted face glistening with his blood coating her skin.
“Do you still feel Darcke?” the king asked.
My chest thumped, my blood roaring through me, making my skin cold and clammy.
Because no. No, I didn’t.
I saw the sorrow in his gaze, but it felt like a language I’d forgotten how to speak. Nothing white-hot roiled within me. No fury or pain or lust. There was nothing. An empty sea where the waves had long since died out.
“The shaman knew you’d kill him,” Gustief said, an ember of pity in his tone that could only come from what he saw on my face. “We all saw what you felt for… we all knew you’d do it. Your heart is warm enough. So he tied the bond to his life, and when he went…”
“So did the bond,” Darcke finished.
I was so furiously, ragingly angry with him, but it still felt like a piece of my soul was missing. Like a part of myself had been ripped from me, forever changing who I was.
There was a lot of that going around lately.
“Good,” I hissed, forcing every letter to emphasize my wrath. “Because I don’t want anything more to fucking do with you.”
