Page 109 of A Darkness So Sweet

Swallowing hard, she reached for the cup in his hands. But instead of grabbing it, she touched the gnarled claws that tipped his fingers. They were curled in toward his palms. Sharp-tipped and cracked on almost every single one, they looked painful.

His hand trembled under her touch, but he remained where he was. Painfully crouched there, his bad thigh already shaking, but allowing her to touch his sharpened nails like this was normal like heshouldexpect her to do this.

“My heart bleeds for you,” she whispered. “You should never have been here this long, warrior.”

“I was taken many years ago. This is my life now.”

“It’s not your life. You don’t have to stay here any longer than we let you. The trolls have come to take you away.”

He looked up at her, his dark hair falling in front of his features as though he wished to obscure what he looked like. “I wouldn’t know how to live outside of this place, troll wife. It has been too long, and I have been too damaged.”

Yet again, her heart squeezed. The things that had been done to this man, to all the people here... they were wrong. So incredibly wrong.

Maia hesitated. She reached for his face and cupped his jaw in both of her hands. This man had seen too much pain and torment and deserved a soft touch. She tilted his face up to look at her, smoothing his hair away from his features so he could see her well.

“What is your name?” she asked.

“Bjorn,” he replied. “Although I did not remember it until Ragnar reminded me of a life before this.”

She knew that name. Ragnar had told her stories about him in the dead of night, but he’d thought that this friend was dead, not that he was just missing.

“I’m sorry they let you stay here this long,” she said quietly. “But if they had known you were alive, they would have fought until their very last breath to get you back. I hope you know that, Bjorn.”

She could see the pain in him. The ache that he wanted to believe her words but also was terrified to believe them.

“I have kept myself alive for many years on the anger at my own people for dooming me to this fate,” he growled. “You’re asking me to let go of the very thing that kept me alive.”

“I am. Because it is not the truth that’s keeping you fighting. If you wish to fight, if you wish to help us, then you can. But if you have given up all hope for your people, then I understand that as well. You are a good man, Bjorn. Or you once were. Whatever you have done to stay alive does not make you any less of a good man.”

His dark eyes stared up into hers and she saw something break. Some bitter part of him that had remained just so that he would continue fighting shattered at her words.

“I have been here for many years. There are few ways out of this place without being caught. I have found... one way.” He straightened, but then placed the cup in her hands. “It will not be easy, but it is a way out.”

“You know how to escape?”

“I know how to get some people out while one person remains behind. It was my idea to leave myself, but...” He took a deep breath. “If what you say is true, then that means the trolls will come back for me. They will know that I am here and help will eventually come.”

Oh no.

No, she couldn’t ask him to do this.

She stood, the cup shaking in her hands. “This was your escape, you mean?”

“I have been planning it for many years. Just waiting for the right moment.”

She took another step closer. “I can’t ask you to give up your freedom for everyone else here. You know that. You’ve been here for far too long, and asking you to do that…”

“You can ask it. Because you are a troll wife and if anyone can ask me to do so, it is you.” He nodded toward the cup in her hands. “Drink. You will need your strength.”

“Where did you even get water?”

He nodded toward the wall. “We are near water, but not enough that it flows freely. I gather it for days and then have a single cup to drink.”

She stared down at the water he had given her. His single cup of water. She had no idea what it was like to not drink for days, but she knew she wouldn’t survive it. She took one mouthful of blissfully cold water before holding it out to him.

Bjorn shook his head. “Drink it all.”

“I can’t do that. When was the last time you drank?”

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