“I…” I wiped the back of my hand over my forehead. “We can pick any karl standing before us. That is the only rule.”
It looked like a smile tugged at King Gustief’s lips, but I must have imagined it because his face returned to his harsh expression the next moment. “The gods will decide,” the king declared. “Let him try, and if the gods agree, it shall be so.”
“No,” Darcke barked. “I do not accept.”
“You do not have that say,” Gustief snapped. “She is an heir—a jarl.Youare a karl. She decides.”
“I am awarrior,” Darcke snarled, his accent stronger than ever. “I am not in her service.”
“If the gods agree, you are.” Gustief turned from the foreign warrior. “Your men will hold you to it.”
Darcke’s laugh was too sharp—too arrogant—grating against the silence with a confidence that made my blood run cold. “They will do no such thing.”
“They report tome,” the king growled, and magic lashed the air until everyone stepped back from the king apart from Darcke, who stood defiantly in place.
“Darcke,” Torden pleaded quietly. “Enough.”
“No,” Darcke said. “It’s not fucking enough.” He spun to me, his laughter poisonous. “I guess I mistook your stupidity for weakness. I won’t be making that mistake again.”
“Darcke,” the king warned. “Go to your heir now.”
“Don’t make us do this.” Borje slapped a large hand against Darcke’s back. “Don’t make us hurt you.”
None of them looked my way, but I felt their hostility in the raised shoulders and taut necks. The muscle in Darcke’s jaw worked hard, but finally he snapped his lips shut and stormed up to the fire.
His unforgiving eyes flew my way. “What are you waiting for,heir?”
I almost shrugged until the warning in his coiled body made me think better of it.
“If you’re forcing me to do this, you will be the one to make me bleed,” Darcke said. “Your gods should see what you are doing. If they fucking dare watch.”
I didn’t doubt for a moment that they were watching—I just didn’t know if they were preparing their blades for my neck or pulling up a chair to the saga, to the fucking chaos that was my life.
“Come on then,” Darcke taunted. “Come try make me your second.”
The hostility rolling off him and everyone around me should have made me cower, but I forced my head to remain raised as I breached the distance between us. I blocked the insults hammering against my ears, ignored the smirks and the calls for the gods to judge me.
As I passed Torden and the other three warriors, Torden reached out for me.
“Here,” he whispered as he pressed a beautiful dagger into my hands, one with a hilt that glittered like the sky above us, shining like polished snow and reflecting the red and green lights that still burned bright.
I didn’t dare thank him—didn’t trust my voice to hold—so I only gave him a quick look. Whatever he saw in my face made him turn away, and so did the other warriors when I continued walking the few steps it took me to get to Darcke’s side.
My hand didn’t shake when Darcke stretched out his arm.His skin was blazing hot when I placed his hand in mine, and his vicious expression deepened at the flinch running through me. Still, I kept his eyes as I dragged the blade across his palm, waiting until two drops dripped onto the logs stoking the fire.
Nothing happened. Seconds dragged on so agonizing slowly that I felt every heartbeat pounding inside my chest. My pulse thrummed when voices dared to speak again, and I jumped backward when Darcke’s eyes flashed, his hands twitching to his axes.
But as his wolfish smile returned, the sky shattered, and the world was drowned in a haunting, ethereal pink that swiftly overtook the green and the red before merging with it—dancing, almost—as if it had always belonged.
“Which god is that?” someone shouted.
“What is that color?”
“That’s not Odin, or Thor, or Frigg, or Tyr.”
Darcke only stared at me as the waves whirled across the sky.
“What have you done?” he whispered furiously. “What did you do?”
