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His gaze hardened. “Continue to betray our folk, and I’ll have no choice but to keep you numb.”
Skadi’s grin was cruel, frightening. Empty. “Then we agree—I would rather remain heartless than feel the repulsion of calling you husband.”
Without warning, Skadi flung her arms. Mists met fire when Arion swung back.
“You are breaking our agreement,” Arion said, a threat in his tone.
“You are the one who fractured it by this torture.Tortureof an innocent, Arion. This is not the way to your birthright.”
“What do you know of birthrights?” Arion struck again.
Singed skin broke from Skadi’s sleeve. She cried out and doubled over, still entwined in dark salt and mist. When her chin tilted, the gleam in her eyes was something rotten—hate and bloodlust—a look that did not belong on features as hers.
“Skadi,” Arion hissed, cutting her name in half. “Don’t. Step out of the dark, you’ve wallowed too long in your tantrum.”
“I thought you just said I ought to remain numb. Isn’t this what you wanted? A complacent, unbothered wife?”
More than ribbons of mist, a burst of darkness, a cloud, a creature, erupted over her figure, splaying like dark wings around the room. Arion shielded his face. Larsson and Fione ducked beneath the table. Even the few elven guards bracketed against the wall.
Whatever power rolled in the mist, when it touched me, it did nothing fearsome. An embrace, cold and shocking. Then it was gone. A dark shadow of a creature, spilling from the doorway, the windows, the floorboards.
When it was over, I raised my head, breathless.
Nothing was terribly out of place. Only a faint hint of brine in the air. But Skadi had grown still and stoic. The light in her eyes was gone.
Elven guards seized her arms at the command of Arion. Only callous apathy masked her pleasant features when they led her away. She offered not a single glance over her shoulder, as though nothing bothered her in the least.
“What are the consequences of that outburst?” Larsson shoved against the table, rattling the goblets.
Arion wiped sweat off his brow. “I don’t know. But she won’t be trouble any longer. She’s lost to it for now.”
“Keep her that way,” Larsson hissed.
“Do not think I plan to fail here, cousin,” Arion bit back.
With a grunt, Larsson shouted at the last remaining guard to return me to my chamber. Numb, in pain, I went without struggle.
Like Skadi, I did not look back.
Alone,when the moon was high, I pressed my forehead against the cool window. A new shift had been placed on the bed by the time we’d returned to the room. I’d promptly changed, desperate to hide away the truth of what happened.
My palm massaged the place over my heart, a constant burn that hadn’t faded. The way Larsson spoke, it was as though he’d expected some resentment for Erik to fill the hole.
There was only a suffocating sort of longing.
One I was certain would fracture whatever was left of my heart and soon take me to the hall of the gods. Then, there was a new pain for a woman I hardly knew. Skadi. There’d been action in her cloak of mist, a plan she’d risked to enact.
I could not help but think it was for my benefit.
Now, by the stony look on her face, it had harmed her. My soul ached for her. Whatever the mists had done, Skadi was truly a prisoner now.
The air was colder, and a smoky flavor hung low and heavy, like the first frosts were approaching. Through the haze, winged insects flitted around night blooms outside the window. Flashes of gold coursed over their iridescent wings. Sun wings. I traced the flight pattern of one, two, watching as they bounced about the glass, as though summoning me,trustingme.
All I had were Skadi’s words, vague and indirect, but there was a burning within me, one that had me convinced the magic in the soil of Natthaven would shield me if I could break free of these walls.
Stars brightened the Ever Sea in the distance, open and endless.Home.
Without warning, a wet sob slid from my chest. I held my fist in front of my mouth to muffle the sounds and slid down the wall until my knees were hugged to my chest.
