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“You trusted her,” he said. “I’m the one who told you she was trustworthy. It isn’t the same as it was with Meg. You followed your sister that day knowing things might not turn out the way you hoped, but not wanting to lose the opportunity to reconnect with her. You went with Corbi because you had faith in her and her loyalty. You aren’t the only one she fooled. Loni was lied to as well.”
Hunter glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. “That sounds like you understand.”
“I do.” If there was anyone to blame here, it was Corbi, not the Huntsman. Even if this was the second occasion he’d willingly walked out of Club Cherry with a woman.
“So…you’re not mad?”
Odin grunted just as the elevator dinged and came to a stop, opening on their floor. “Oh no, Little Whisper. I’m downright furious. But not about that.”
He yanked Hunter out and into the hall, practically storming toward their bedroom. That urge to get him somewhere secluded and away from the rest of the world was back tenfold, and he feared he wouldn’t be able to breathe or think clearly until he made that happen. With Isa dead, his remaining followers would either flee, kneel, or fight one last time in the name of their fallen leader.
Those last lingering fights weren’t a concern overall and would be easily quelled, but Odin would prefer if the two of them stayed out of it.
“What then?” Hunter asked, stepping beneath the threshold first when Odin waved him inside. When he was in the bedroom he turned, waiting for an answer.
Odin closed and locked the door, letting out a long exhale as his nerves finally seemed to settle some. It wasn’t all magically better, but he at least felt like the worst was over and he could finally let down his guard and begin to process everything. Like, for instance…
He was already glaring when he finally spun around to face Hunter. “What the hell were you thinking back there?”
Hunter frowned. “Are you referring to my shooting Frost? I’m sorry, did you want to be the one to do it? Did I ruin your big, ten-year revenge plan that badly?”
“Don’t be sarcastic, Huntsman, I’m not in a joking mood.”
“I just murdered a guy in cold blood,” he snapped. “Neither am I.”
“You risked your life is what you did,” Odin countered. “What if you hadn’t been able to tap into my power and light that guy on fire?”
“I knew I could,” he said. “I waited for you to keep Isa distracted while I built it up inside myself. I grew up around Shouts, remember? I know how you guys operate. That was how I was able to tap into it so easily the first time. When we were kids I asked you what it felt like when you summoned fire.”
It’d been a fleeting conversation in the middle of one of his father’s pretentious parties. Odin had completely forgotten about it until now.
“It’s not like it was my first time either,” Hunter continued. “And if I didn’t do something soon, we were both going to be screwed. I knew the second Isa tried to insinuate I was useless because I was Whisper, and therefore less than a Shout, that he didn’t know tapping into your power was something I was capable of.”
“He’d never been all that interested in learning about Whispers.” Though, neither had Odin or Wren, for that matter. The three of them had been so certain they’d never come across one in their lifetimes, as well as confident that even if they somehow miraculously did, as rulers of Sanctum, they’d be able to gather information then.
It was something Odin had been slowly but surely doing, but up until now, having to do so in secrecy had made it difficult. He hadn’t gotten very far, and of the two of them, Hunter very clearly knew more than he.
Isa had still believed the only way to claim a Whisper was by viciously biting them. Of course he hadn’t realized there was more to the connection between a bonded pair than simply bloodletting, pain, and abuse.
Still…
“What if you’d been wrong?”
Hunter rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t. Clearly.”
“Huntsman.”
“I did what I had to do,” he insisted. “And look, we survived, didn’t we?”
All at once the anger drained away and Odin wrapped his arms around him, holding him close as he buried his face against the curve of his neck and breathed him deep.
“Admit it,” Hunter spoke after giving him a minute, “you’re a little cross you wasted all these years planning when in the end it was actually pretty easy to take him out.”
He snorted. “Isa never would have let his guard down if things hadn’t played out exactly as they had. We got lucky, nothing more and nothing less. Same way we got lucky that day I rescued you from him. If he hadn’t been so mystified by the fact you’re a Whisper, and if I hadn’t gotten the jump on him while he was distracted—”
“And if it hadn’t been set in that tiny room with stone walls that hold heat, and you hadn’t killed your father and inked his ashes first, and if I hadn’t then made a sound that prevented you from ending Isa then and there, blah, blah, blah.” Hunter pulled back and gave him a stern look. “You don’t believe in luck, remember? Here are the facts, Snow, so listen closely. You’re mated to a Whisper who doesn’t like to cower and is prideful to the point of it almost being detrimental to his well-being. I’m never going to be the person standing on the sidelines, twiddling my thumbs, hoping you can win a fight without me.
“If I’m there, I’m jumping in. If I see you in danger, I’m going to do something about it. And if there’s ever a time like there was tonight, where you’re backed into a corner and about to literally lay down your life for mine, I’m sure as hell not going to let you take the fall alone.”
