The king had to die. There was no other option. He’d been behind the attack that led to Axel’s death. Was responsible for Axel having been drugged that night. Even if I spared the rest of the Saxons, the gods would never be satisfied while that man lived.
It was more important than ever that I find a way to release my berserker. If there even was a way to release her.
“Was everything you told Bastian last night the truth?” Eleanor spoke so softly, it was barely more than a whisper.
I was too angry to deal with this. “You’d do better not to remind me of what you heard.”
She took a deep breath and raised her chin, steeling herself. “All the same. If it was true, I may have…misjudged you. It seems your choices were…complicated. And not always your own.”
I blinked in surprise, completely at a loss for words. “Trust me, you didn’t.”
She sniffed, fighting the tears that were about to pour from her eyes. “I just…miss my brother.”
Oh gods, she was spilling her feelings everywhere! I didn’t have the wherewithal to appropriately manage this.
I patted her on the head gently. “I miss mine too. I share your loss, and I’m sorry for my part in it.”
Now it was her turn to blink in surprise like she’d never expected an apology. I’d never expected to offer her one, but I felt…kinship with this woman that came with an unfamiliar desire to trust her.
Layla was my only real friend besides my brothers, but it was too weird being friends with my brother’s mate sometimes. I’d never missed having friends, but in this lonely place, I was less inclined to push Eleanor away.
The feeling of wrongness struck again, and I wanted nothing more than to talk to my brothers. Were they okay? Was this feeling somehow related to Thorin’s attempts to retrieve Layla?
Or was the threat here?
I needed to properly find out what my physical limitations were when the stakes were low rather than wait for a fight that mattered. I’d been so slow, I hadn’t caught the arrow before it pierced my chest. Fighting Bastian had released some tension, but at no point in that match had I believed he was trying to kill me.
The idea of sparring with him again shouldn’t have made my thighs clench with want, but I found myself picturing things that would horrify the proper lady behind me. Hel, they might horrify Bastian, but that didn’t stop me from wanting them.
“Bastian and I were betrothed…” Eleanor said softly. “Promised to each other as children.”
“Then I did you a favor by coming here and freeing you from that obligation. You shouldn’t have to marry someone your father chose for you as a child. Someone who left you here and only came back under duress.”
“He had every reason to leave, but I waited for him, praying for another chance.”
Her voice broke on the last word, and I looked back out the window before I had to witness her eyes fill with tears. Whatever she felt for him wasn’t my concern.
Out in the sparring ring, Bastian fought Arnulf. It wasn’t obvious he was holding back, but I’d fought him, and this wasn’t what he was capable of. He was going easy so he didn’t humiliate Arnulf, and his fucking softness would get the young soldier killed. Enemies wouldn’t hold back like that, and Arnulf would learn only by being shown how much better his opponents could be. Nothing made you train harder like getting your ass handed to you in the ring.
When Arnulf dropped his guard and Bastian didn’t lunge, I snorted in irritation.
“Something bothering you, Highness?” She’d managed to compose herself again.
A sudden flash from the maze just up the hill from the training ground caught my eye, like sunlight had reflected off polished metal. I hadn’t seen anyone in the vicinity of it the whole time I’d been looking out the window, but now, as I watched, I caught the briefest glimpse of a Viking head between two rows of hedges before he vanished again, only to reemerge above one of the hedges. A man with a dark Viking braid and the sides of his head shaved waved at me twice, then dropped again.
Talon.
Thorin would still be hunting Layla, and if it were him, he could’ve used his berserker powers to speak into my mind and alert me of his presence. Talon didn’t have that power, but he might be here to give me news or out of some misguided desire to render aid. I could dismantle the Saxon kingdom without his help, and I was going to flay him alive if he’d left Ocracoke undefended simply to help me.
He better have a good reason for being in that maze.
Could I go in there without drawing the attention of every man training? The entrance to the maze faced the training grounds, and if I scaled inside from another angle, someone in the castle would see me. If I simply wandered in alone, they’d send someone to see what I was doing. Saxon women never seemed to be alone.
I also couldn’t leave Eleanor by herself again now that we didn’t know what the king was doing.
“Walk with me,” I said to Eleanor. I’d meant for it to come out as a polite question in their delicate-lady voice, but I had instead barked it at her like a seasoned commander rallying virgin troops in their first battle.
She flinched and cowered away from me.
