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It had taught me to do much of the same. Never one to show much emotion, even to Freya, I nodded hello to her and her new husband and ordered my men to help Soren’s crew see to the ships. As the darkened clouds continued to gather and the sea had begun to toss, another storm brewed, so it was best to make haste. I said so, too, ready to assist them when Tove stopped me after Freya murmured something to her.

“Soren and Freya have requested a private audience with me, Knud,” she said softly, her expression troubled when moments before she’d appeared so happy. “And I would have you there, as I sense our Wyrd unfolding, and you are my second-in-command.” When her eyes met mine, they were a touch wary, if not sad, if I wasn’t mistaken. “And still my friend, I hope?”

“Always,” I assured just as softly, hardly imagining it otherwise. She was my other half in ways she might not realize, but I knew. However strange a certainty, I had known for years.

I would not be whole without her.

“You need never doubt that, Tove.” I looked at her with reassurance, not missing the flash of relief in her eyes. “No matter what happens in life, that is a certainty.”

“Good,” she replied, a slight shake to her voice, as if she struggled with emotions she refused to show others. She cleared her throat and nodded once. “Then let us face whatever comes next together, just as we always have.”

So, we did, only to soon discover our Wyrd fate had come for us in ways I had prayed it would not.

Chapter Five

Tove

Just as I had begun to suspect since Knud and I had spoken last night, our Wyrd was indeed coming for us both. How else could it be when we sat alone with Soren and Freya in my cottage, and they confirmed my speculations?

The King of the Isles had requested that I join him.

“He apparently asked it of the King of Norway when he traveled to those parts after the death of our king’s father, Hákon.” Troubled and with good reason, Freya looked at me. “Of you and me both, it seems.”

“Hell,” I cursed under my breath, taking a swig of ale and meeting her frown. “Requesting my presence is one thing.” I shook my head. “Both of us, quite another.”

“Ja.” Freya sipped her ale as well, more observant years ago than I had realized. “Requesting you for a possible marital tie in the future is to be expected. Yet requesting me, too, bodes ill. It means he intends to use us against Astrid, given Scotland’s King Alexander undoubtedly means to go to battle with him.”

“And I believe Astrid already knows that,” I said softly, revealing what she’d said to me via the flames yesterday about war coming betwixt us.

“I think she knows, too,” Freya agreed, revealing that Astrid had sent her a similar message. “Which means the King of the Isles is not wrong in his actions but thinks strategically and with good reason.”

“Without doubt,” I said, overly aware of Knud’s brooding silence by my side as last night’s conversation seemed to be coming to fruition. Sadly, I suspected the peace we’d so recently found together at the shore would soon become a battle again because I would order him to stay here, whether he liked it or not.

I still couldn’t believe he had confessed to loving me. While I’d felt the most incredible sense of elation when he first said it, a crushing weight of despair had swiftly come on its heels. A terrible anguish that gave way to frustration if not outright anger.

How could he tell me such now when there was nothing that I could do about it? When he knew I would honor Father’s wishes just as devoutly as he intended to? And why not tell me years ago?

Damn him and this whole situation.

Now we would be going forward with this lingering betwixt us when we could never act on it. Linger, as I married, and mayhap he did too someday.

Though I would like to think our feelings for each other might fade as we learned to love another, I knew better in the deepest parts of my soul. My heart. In every piece of me. These feelings would have still existed had he said nothing, but they would have been more manageable. I might have been able to pretend I had imagined the intense feelings between us. That they had never existed, so nothing would have come of it.

Now I would do no such thing.

Now I knew they were real and tangible, mere feet from me, if I but tossed my father’s wishes to the wind. If I did what I truly wanted to do for the first time in my life. Yet I would loathe myself and be no true leader to my people, and Knud knew that, which had made the moment even more infuriating.

Even so, despite spending the day inwardly fuming at him, the moment Freya told me we four needed to speak alone and that dire things hovered on our horizon, all I’d wanted to do was have Knud by my side. To know he would remain my dependable, steadfast friend, and so he had, and now here we were.

“There is more,” Freya went on, drawing me back to the conversation. She looked from Knud to me. “The King of the Isle has requested that Father’s second-in-command come as well. Rumors of Knud’s great feats and how he protected Father from a polar bear have traveled across the seas. Therefore, he feels Knud would be a much-needed boon against the might of King Alexander’s army.”

“No,” I said firmly, shaking my head even as Knud nodded, agreeing to the request. “Knud will be needed here to lead our people in my absence.”

“Our Dahl tribe intends to send additional men to assist whoever you choose to leave in charge.” Soren handed me a scroll with what almost appeared empathy in his blue-gray eyes. “As the King of Norway, who, as you know, reigns over the lesser King of the Isles, must be heeded.”

Taking in the royal seal, I unrolled it and read, feeling the nuances of fate at my doorstep, forcing my hand in ways that only deepened my frown.

“What does it say?” Knud asked.