Page 44 of A Darkness So Sweet

Catching up to her before she noticed he’d stopped, Ragnar placed a hand on her shoulder and steered her in the direction of his home. They were close now, and nerves churned in his belly. What would she think of it? He was certain it wasn’t the same as her home. Humans lived in squalor, it always seemed.

There were very few human and troll pairings. None that he remembered from his generation, and those who had come earlier, were usually noble. The people like him, the ones who lived in the base of the city and who had fought tooth and nail to get out of the ancient animalistic bloodlines, were not usually paired with willing human participants. His great grandmother had been human—he knew that. Her elven bloodline had fueled the many pairings that had led to his own powerful magic.

But he was still more animal than he was human. He was still too big, his ears too long, his stripes too visible.

Finally, they reached his small street. Wisps hung above them in the air, many of them clustering in the doorways to light up the homes of people who hadn’t returned yet. They would leave once the owners were back.

His own door had a symbol of bear on it. His father had been the one with a bloodline of such a creature, and that was why both he and Gunnar were so massive. But alongside the bear was the faintest hint of claw marks.

His mother’s tiger. The reason why he had his stripes.

Ragnar ran his own claws down the mark. It was something he’d done since he was a child, keeping his mother’s legacy alive as long as he could. Then he turned to look at Maia, feeling the earrings in his pocket dig into his thigh as he did so.

“This is your home now,” he said gravely, watching her features for any sign of remorse.

ChapterEighteen

MAIA

Maia wasn’t certain now what she’d expected Trollveggen to be, but it wasn’t this. A hollow mountain, with clouds in the sky and stars on the ceiling. This was a different world and she couldn’t stop herself from wandering around with her mouth hanging open like an absolute fool.

But she didn’t care what anyone thought of her. Her mind had no room for those thoughts when she was just drinking in all the differences that she had never expected to find. This place was beyond beautiful. It was like a fairytale, or some myth that had appeared out of the pages of a book. She’d never thought she would ever see a place like this.

Which made it hard to really focus on the reasons she should have been terrified. There were trolls everywhere. But, while she was aware of them, they were so much taller than her it was easy to just wander among them without being noticed herself. Some of them had surely stared at her, of course, but she’d been more focused on observing the very world that unfolded at her feet.

Now she was staring at a massive door that was far larger than she was. The handle for it came up to her chest, and she’d have to reach high to even use it. Strange, to think that she was going to have to reach up to open a door.

“My new home,” she murmured, before nodding her head. “I’ve only lived in one place my entire life—the house my father bought from my grandfather. It has been in my family for generations.”

“That’s the same as this house. Every time it changes clan hands, it receives a new carving. That’s why you see the bear and the tiger claws.” He reached for the handle, and Maia noticed he hesitated as well. Maybe he was just as nervous as she was.

Even though it made her feel a little odd, she put her hand on top of his. “I’m sure I’ll love it,” she said. “It’s a home. And while it might be unfamiliar right now, maybe someday I’ll think of it as mine.”

A shadow passed in front of his eyes and she wondered if that had been the wrong thing to say. She wasn’t very good at reading this man. Normally, she was very good at knowing what was going through someone’s head. It had been a great skill to have when working with her floral customers, but unfortunately she hadn’t managed to transfer that ability to her marriage yet.

Ragnar opened the door and thrust her into the house without any preamble, as if he still didn’t know how to manage his strength around her. Stumbling in, Maia blinked her eyes as wisps flared to life. They were in a small parlor, she realized. Yet again, her mind had run ahead of her. She’d thought they were going into a cave. Of course, that was the reasonable thought. They were in a mountain, after all.

But this room was very clearly a parlor. Yes, the walls were made out of stone. Yet someone had carved small bricks so it looked like it wasn’t stone at all. There were even carved windows. Sills with beautiful arches that led only to a shallow recess. But there were balls of wisps there to make it almost look like there was sunlight on the other side. A very thick carpet made her feet entirely silent as she stepped a bit more into the room. There was a large stone mantle to her right, carved with the images of foxes chasing each other, and thick embroidered chairs that surrounded it. It was a cozy space, filled with blue light that made everything look a little less vivid than she thought it might be in the sun.

Awkwardly, Ragnar stepped around her and gestured for her to continue down a hall. “The wisps will light themselves as you pass them.”

“Oh.”

She wasn’t sure how to feel about the wisps. How did they know she was coming? Did they have eyes? Were they actually looking for her or did they just react to movement? Or wind?

But as she walked down the hallway, she found herself captivated by so much else. The walls here were carved, too. She paused, staring up at a bear that was so realistic she could see the individual hairs on its form. It became a story as she drifted forward. The bear left fur in the mud, and out of which a troll crawled. It was massive, with fur on its shoulders and large fangs. The terrifying creature then met another troll, who took his hand and led him into a cave.

She stopped next to a depiction of troll children, tracing her fingers over the chubby cheeks of the first one. “You and Gunnar?”

“No, my family has always had two boys.” He shrugged. “It is the way of my family line. We’ve always sought out troll wives, rather than needing to find them husbands.”

She felt some of the blood drain from her face. Two boys? It was already hard enough to think about this as a marriage, let alone knowing that she was likely to have two babies.

Babies. She’d never even considered it, at least not yet. She had so much she wanted to do before she had children, even though she knew there was limited time for her to create those children.

Ragnar nudged her. “The kitchen is over here.”

He pushed open a stone wall that she now realized was a door. It had rectangular carvings around it, so she should have assumed it opened. The stone was so well oiled that it was almost soundless as it glided over the floor and revealed a room beyond. There was a large table in the center, with plenty of cabinets made out of a pale blonde wood. A strange metal contraption curved out of one of them, but she only spared that a few moments of mind before she noticed the massive stove.

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