Page 18 of A Darkness So Sweet

She planned out her argument while she waited for the troll to enter the tent. If they remained married, then she could just ask him to sign over everything to her. Her father’s business would remain safe. Why would a troll have any reason to take that from her? And even if he wanted her to pay him a small sum every year, she could do that. After all, everyone would know that she was the one who worked on the royal wedding.

Clearly, they had intended the princess to marry this troll. She’d been in a wedding dress, after all. Or had all of that been a ruse? Perhaps they were intelligent enough to seek out one of the few people in the kingdom with no family, no friends, and who wouldn’t be missed. Then they’d lured her to the castle, popped her in a wedding dress, threatened to kill her, and voila. The princess was free.

Her plan wouldn’t work if the entire kingdom knew what happened. If this was the plan the whole time, then she was certain the king would insist that everyone knew.

People would know she was married to a troll, and they wouldn’t want to work with her. So she’d have to fake his death. Or perhaps try to swing it that they’d gotten a divorce. Which also wouldn’t work, because if they had gotten a divorce, then he would have the rights to her business. Not her.

Damn it. Was there no way out of this?

The flap covering the tent’s opening swung open, revealing a small glimpse of the outside world. As she’d suspected, a fire now burned in front of the entrance. The golden light burnished the muscles of his thighs, outlining his massive form as he bent low to enter. He was a god straight out of a fairytale. A massive warlord come to claim his prize.

Gulping, Maia shrank a bit on her perch. She’d never felt smaller than she did in this instance. His shirt was too big. The trunk made her feel like a child sitting here with her feet swinging, and now he was staring at her with those strange eyes. He looked back at the entrance for one moment, and she swore she saw his eyes glow like a cat’s did in the dark.

But then the flap swung closed, and she was stuck in this tiny tent with him.

“Troll wife,” he said, his voice a command that could not be denied. “Why are you sitting in the dark?”

“There are no candles,” she replied. Even if there were candles, she had no flint or match to light them.

He reached above her head toward a metal contraption hanging from the ceiling. With a slight twist of his fingers, fire bloomed within it.

Her jaw dropped open as she stared at the small metal cage now illuminating the space. There was a heavier metal bottom, filled with some kind of fuel she could only imagine, and now a tiny flame merrily dancing and filling the room with golden light.

“I’ve never...” She cleared her throat. “I’ve never seen such a thing.”

He grunted before walking to the back of the tent. “I’m not surprised.”

Maia narrowed her eyes at the man who was now her husband, watching as he slapped at the furs in the back. She thought she could hear him grumbling about how Gunnar never set the bed up correctly, but surely that wasn’t the bed he expected her to sleep in?

“You don’t think very highly of my kind, do you?” she mused, not realizing the words were out until they hung before the two of them.

“It’s hard to think well of a species who are so beneath me,” he replied, before gesturing toward the bed. “You can go to sleep now.”

“I’d like to talk, if that’s a possibility.”

“It is not.” He crossed his arms over that massive chest and glared down his nose at her. He really was an imposing figure, but he hadn’t hurt her yet.

So Maia took a deep breath. “I think there’s been some misunderstanding between the two of us. And I would like to rectify that before we go any farther.”

He just watched her beneath those hooded lids in a way that made her feel so small and so insignificant. But he wasn’t arguing with her, so there was that much, at least.

“It’s just...” How was she going to say this without him killing her? “I think it’s a situation of wrong place, wrong time. I’m not supposed to be here.”

That apathetic expression disappeared from his features. Instead, she could easily read something akin to hatred on his face now. “I know very well what your kind is like. I know the lies to expect from you, and the way you will try to twist the truth. I have seen what your people are capable of, fire hair.”

“That’s not what I’m saying?—”

Suddenly, he was right in front of her. Looming in the dark and so big, her tongue tied in her mouth. It was hard to think when there was a massive creature bent down and bracing his arms on either side of her. “Silence, troll wife.”

But she couldn’t stop her tongue now that it had started. “Why do you call me that?”

“It’s what you are.”

“It feels like you’re trying to erase who I am. You haven’t even asked for my name.”

He seemed to freeze. Those dark eyes reflected a strange glow as the light from the metal contraption reflected in his gaze. “You already told Gunnar your name.”

“But you have never asked me for it.”

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