Page 89 of Blood Beneath the Snow

“No mask,” I interrupted. “No death. Just…this.” I tightened my hold on his hands.

Søren leaned in to press his lips to mine, hard. “Maybe one day all of this will end and we can have that.”

I smiled sadly. “It’s nice to pretend.”

The next week passed ina blur.

The topic of my Lurae wasn’t brought up again. We returned to our normal routine of training and sparring, with additional time spent learning to throw the daggers the Hellbringer had given me. He said it was better to walk into the arena with both a close-range and a long-range weapon, to be safe. I agreed. During the days, I trained alone while he put on the mask and continued whatever missions the queen sent him on before he returned in the evenings to teach me.

Søren had shown even more trust in me by presenting me with the key to the prison door. “In case you want to hike to the hot springs or train outside while I’m gone,” he’d explained, running a hand sheepishly over the hair on the back of his head. “You haven’t been a true prisoner for a while, but, honestly, if you tried to escape, you’d die in the snow long before you made it—”

I cut him off when I wrapped my arms so tightly around his middle that he couldn’t breathe.

Seeing the sun every day cheered me up significantly, though the Hellbringer had asked me to make sure I was inside with the door locked in the evenings, when Mira arrived to transport him back. “No one can know,” he’d said. “This thing between us…if the queen found out, she would use it against us both. And I don’t want that.”

My hands clenched in anger, my nails biting into my palms at the thought. Søren wasafraidof the queen. He’d never admit it, but the way she coerced him, held the knowledge of his sister’s safety and whereabouts from him in case he protested an order…it made me furious. And yet there was nothing I could do about it, especially if I was plotting to win the Trials so I could enter into a treaty with her.

One step at a time,I told myself.Maybe when everything has settled you can free him from her hold.

To Søren, I’d simply said, “Of course. I understand.”

Whatever remaining time we had left was spent talking, laughing, and kissing. We hadn’t gone further, despite ending up in compromising positions several times. I’d stopped us on multiple occasions, afraid we would break an unspoken pact of keeping enough distance to not betoohurt when the time came to part ways.

Part of me didn’t care, though.

One morning Søren declared he didn’t have duties from the queen, and we were heading out to train in the snow. Eager to put the skills I was honing to use, I readily agreed.

Three hours in, my ankles were killing me. We were still in the same sparring session that we first started, our skills so evenly matched now, it was difficult to determine a winner.

Søren made a swipe at me with his sword, but I saw it coming and parried in time. Then I lunged at him, aiming for his leg. He blocked it, but I shifted my weight and leveled a kick to his ribs.

As he moved to slice my face, I brought my blade up to deflect his. We were inches from each other, and he pushed against my defensive position with all his might. My hands trembled under the pressure. I gritted my teeth and swung my leg upward, aiming for his crotch.

He leapt back and I pulled a dagger from a sheath on my arm, throwing it straight at him with my non-dominant hand. It spun end over end, and he stepped to the side to avoid it. But the distraction was enough. I had him pinned in the same moment.

I stopped the blade right before it sliced his throat.

Breathing hard, we stared at each other. A triumphant smile lit my face. I had beaten the Hellbringer in battle.

“You’re ready,” he declared. “You are ready to win the Bloodshed Trials.”

We relaxed in the silence,on our backs in the snow. Søren had laid our cloaks down for us to rest on. He’d shot and cooked a deer for our midday meal, and for once he wasn’t pushing me to keep training, keep practicing. Instead, we were sharing stories of our youths, my head nestled on his chest.

It was blissful. Peaceful.

Only for a moment, though.

He inhaled deeply. “I’ll be taking you back tomorrow.”

I sat up. “Tomorrow?”

His expression was grave. “The Trials…they’re in four days. We have to make sure you are able to depart the front and go back to the city with your family.”

I swallowed, refusing to let him know how the tender spot beneath my rib cage ached. “I lost track of the time.”

Four days until my life changed irreparably. Until my fate was decided.

Until Bhorglid’s future was set in stone.

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