Page 114 of A Darkness So Sweet

“She had mentioned that they’d given her to a troll, but that he wasn’t cruel like the others. She wasn’t sure how to act around him, because she was waiting for him to attack her like all the others. He never did.”

“Gunnar knows better.” Ragnar started off in another direction, but she knew already that he was taking her home.

Soon enough, they would need to go to the king. But the trolls all deserved a few moments of peace before they had to relive what had happened to them.

They strode through the forest, the brilliant blue leaves filling her gaze with otherworldly beauty. A reminder that they were, without a doubt, here. Home. Not in that place that had made them fight for their lives.

She wished she could heal the mental pain all the trolls carried. Or perhaps, she wished that she could bring them to the troll wives glen and allow them all to no longer carry those memories. At least for a little while.

For now, though, she allowed herself to be selfish. She tucked her head against Ragnar’s shoulder and breathed him in.

When he took a turn away from their house, she hesitated before asking, “Where are we going, Ragnar?”

“We’re getting clean. Washing away all that was done to us.”

Maia hadn’t the faintest idea what that meant, but she had learned to trust the way of the trolls. If this was what he deemed necessary, then she would go along with it. Even if her eyes were drooping and exhaustion rode her shoulders in a mantle of weight that pressed her down into his body. Perhaps she dozed, because the next moment when she was truly aware, they were in a different cave.

Rather than the wide open expanse she was used to in the main area of Trollveggen, this one was an actual cave. There were stones above their head only a few feet higher than Ragnar’s head. He had to duck beneath a few stalactites as they went farther into the cave. She could smell the strange, musty scent of the wet stones, but there was also a slightly sulfuric scent mixed in with that.

The sound of voices soon filled the air. Hushed sounds and quiet reassurances that were murmured in the deepest of voices.

Maia turned in his arms, trying to find the source of those sounds. Hot springs dotted the cave. Each pool had a different shape, depth, and a different amount of coiling steam, which made her think they were all a different heat as well. There were already multiple trolls in each one. Some of them were the trolls who had been in the labyrinth with her. Others were trolls that she recognized from the surrounding town.

Already she felt herself cringe. But she had suffered alongside many of the other trolls here. So maybe, just maybe, she deserved to find peace in the hot springs just as much as they did.

Ragnar didn’t hesitate. He walked over to one of the pools far in the back. No one was in this one yet, and perhaps the others knew to give both Maia and Ragnar a little space.

He got onto his knees before her, his hands braced against her hips. For a few moments, he just looked at her, those dark eyes seeing so much. All the way through her soul and into the fear that still lingered there.

She remained frozen as he lifted a clawed hand and gently brushed the back of one over the peak of her cheekbone. She could still smell the metallic scent of blood underneath them. He was still splattered in blood from so many humans he had killed. “We are not there any longer,” he murmured. “We are home.”

Maia didn’t know if he was saying that for himself or for her. Perhaps it was for both of them.

Tears pricked her eyes. She desperately needed that to be true. She needed to know that they were safe, and they were home, and that nothing was going to change that. No matter what, she was safe here. With him.

Squeezing her eyes shut, tears dripped down her cheeks, and she nodded. “We’re home.”

“We’re safe.”

Why did repeating those words feel so hard? They stuck in her throat like they didn’t want to come out. But she forced them to come out. Just to hear herself say them. “We’re safe.”

“Good. Now trust me just a little more, fire hair. Let me take care of you.”

She kept her eyes shut as he reached for the braided shoulders of her dress. Carefully, in front of all the other trolls, he drew the dress off her body. Shame burned in her chest. She didn’t want to show them all the bruises that were there. She didn’t want them to see the hours of torment that she’d put her body through as she’d tried to break down the door with her shoulder that was still slightly numb. Abrasions on her knees and palms still stung from where she’d launched herself over the edge of the stands and landed hard on the bloodied dirt in the labyrinth.

There was no sound, though. No murmurs of pity or disgusted noises as the trolls stared at her. So she blinked her eyes open, telling herself that she was still that brave woman who had braved an unknown troll to get them all out.

When she opened her eyes to look around, resolving herself to fiercely staring back, she found that not a single troll was looking at her. They were all in little family units, some of them just friends who were gathered around those that had returned with her and Ragnar. Each troll who had survived that place was surrounded by loved ones.

Ragnar stripped as well, and she had to force herself to look at his chest and not everything else he revealed.

Somehow, her husband knew what she was doing. He chuckled, a bright grin flashing at her as though he knew her struggles.

“Come, wife,” he said, holding out his head. “The waters are enchanted.”

“What do you mean by that?”

But she took his hand without hesitation. Because he had never harmed her. Not even when he hadn’t liked her.

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