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Yet I had somehow found a way to walk back into my cottage, shut the door, and force myself to stay right where I was. Forced myself to go to bed despite not being able to sleep. All I could do was envision him in Signe’s arms until I finally gave up and stepped outside in the morning, somewhat surprised to find him stepping out of his cottage at the same time. Could that mean he hadn’t spent the night in her arms? Hardly. He’d likely made his way back in the early hours to be ready for our journey today.

“Whatever the tension betwixt you two, I don’t think it derived from all that lies ahead,” Freya said, pulling me back to the here and now, still eyeing me in that all-knowing way. “But at what has lain betwixt you for longer than I ever realized. And mayhap you felt that more than ever when watching him dancing with Signe last night.”

“’Twas far more than that in the end,” I muttered before I could stop myself, downing the rest of my ale, refusing to dwell a moment longer on it. Heading for the door, I gave her little choice but to follow. “I would like to see these carvings for myself, sister.”

Although Freya left the conversation alone, I could tell by the way she glanced at me as we headed for her lodge that she had more thoughts on the matter but chose to keep silent for the moment, and I was glad for it.

Unfortunately, given I was trying to set aside my jealousy and frustration with Knud, the moment we entered her lodge and I saw him sitting by the fire with Soren, all my inner angst churned anew. Even so, he was my second-in-command and had protected my niece and me today, so I acted cordially, as any chieftain would and should.

“I have told Tove about the carving,” Freya said in greeting. “And she wishes to see it before we head to the great lodge to enjoy a farewell feast.”

“Of course,” Soren said as he and Knud stood. “I have shown it to Knud, but ’tis worth seeing again together lest Tove have added insight.”

“And what is your insight about it thus far?” I asked Knud, without needing to see his troubled expression, to feel how much it had already affected him. It was in the way he seemed uneasy in his skin, where typically he was the opposite, unaffected and confident in most things, believing all could be dealt with.

“’Tis not for me to say,” Knud responded, the look in his eyes different when his gaze connected with mine. “Other than that, it feels…” He struggled to find the right words. “Familiar somehow beyond the obvious.”

More curious than ever, given few things rattled him, I urged Freya to show me and followed her out the back to a towering tree full of lush green leaves that did, in fact, have a mystical feel about it.

“’Tis right there.” She pointed at a location near the base of the tree, despite there being no need.

I had already been compelled to look in that direction.

So compelled I drifted that way and crouched in front of it, feeling the same strange sense of familiarity I suspected Knud had felt.

“’Tis as if it calls to me,” I whispered, running my fingers over the small carvings. As Freya said, they appeared to have been there for decades, weather-worn and etched in time. “As if he calls to me…”

“Who calls to you?” Knud grunted, his voice gruff with emotion, undoubtedly not liking the idea of any man but him calling to me. “Who is he that—”

Though he kept talking, his words seemed far away, caught on the wind, and I found myself falling back. Lying on the ground staring up. Past the swaying leaves to the skies above. To dark seas full of storms and lashing water. To heavy swells and swaying ships.

Then I saw a distant shore.

A distant face wearing a crown, beckoning me to him.

A light on the shores of great change and new beginnings. Of the past and future rolling in like a tidal wave before gently washing ashore. A great love born of the crown…or because of the crown. I couldn’t quite tell.

“My great love,” I whispered, certain of it. I reached out for the crown, only for it to fall away, replaced by a blurry vision of Knud scowling down at me, his worried expression catching me off guard.

Why did he look so concerned? Where was I?

“You are right here, sister,” Freya said gently, wrapping her fingers with mine, snapping me to awareness where I rested in Knud’s arms on the ground beneath the tree.

Confused, I tried to get my bearings. Those who had been here before remained. I looked between the three of them. “What happened?”

“You passed out after touching the carvings,” Freya said softly, offering me some well water in a wooden cup. “Drink, sister, then we will try to make sense of things.”

Recognizing that my inner seer had been at work and thirsty indeed, I drank and did my best not to be affected by being so close to Knud. By feeling him against me. Beneath me. All around me in a whole new way I couldn’t put words to, only that he was.

“Tell me,” I said after drinking my fill. When I went to remove myself from Knud’s lap, he shook his head and kept me right where I was.

“Nay, Tove, not yet,” he rumbled, tightening his hold on me. “Give yourself a moment.”

“I’m fine,” I assured, yet knew, given the weakness coursing through me, I wasn’t. Not yet. And that told me I had tapped into my gift far more than usual.

“You are not fine,” Freya said sternly, behaving more like the elder sister now, her steady gaze unbending. “Caught within your inner seer, you were lost to us for nearly an hour. Lost somewhere in the future and mayhap even in the past.”

“What do you mean?” I looked between the three of them. “What did I say? What did I see both ahead and behind me?”