Page 62 of A Darkness So Sweet

Now that was just ridiculous. People needed help, and many of the trolls had been kind to her thus far. Certainly, there were a few who were still wary of her presence, but for the most part, they had at least tried to accept that she was here.

She rolled her eyes at his antics. “Ragnar, that is ridiculous. I’m happy to help where I can. You brought me here. I want to make this place a home if I can.”

“And that is worth praising.” He leaned down, pressed his lips against her forehead, and gave her the slightest kiss.

It was strange to feel those smooth tusks pressed against her skin. Maybe she’d never get over the strangeness of it. But with his kiss, she felt like she’d done something right. Like she had proven herself worthy to be here.

After all, she was a troll wife now. Not human, and certainly not troll. But there had to be a happy medium somewhere in the middle of both.

Maia was a survivor. And someday, she would prove to them all that she could live here.

Ragnar pulled her bodice back up and then smoothed her skirts down her legs. “I’m off to wash. You keep baking, fire hair. Let’s hope your bread doesn’t taste like ash.”

“Why would it—” The scent of smoke hit her nose. “Damn it! You could have warned me it was burning!”

He laughed as he disappeared down the hall, but the sound of his happiness filled her with hope. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be here after all.

ChapterTwenty-Six

RAGNAR

“Something has to be done!” The massive troll general slammed his fist down on the table, and the sound of it echoed throughout the room. Gorm had been a general for many years now, and he was one of the greatest of their fighters. His already reddish skin was burnished with anger as he stared at the rest of the trolls around the table. “We cannot allow them to kill our people without retribution. This was an act of war.”

Gunnar pinched his nose where he was slumped beside Ragnar. The two of them were very uninterested in accusations and ridiculous attempts at fear mongering. The entire war room had been filled with blustering and anger, but no actual solutions.

They’d been stuck in here for hours on end. The king even looked exhausted. All of their colors were getting a little too vivid, and everyone with an ounce of animal blood in them was foaming at the mouth. Ragnar had seen far too many of the trolls around the table wiping their tusks free from the frothy substance, a dead giveaway that too many of them wanted to fight.

If they weren’t released soon, they would all fly at each other’s throats.

Ragnar leaned forward, trying to keep his voice calm and sound of reason. “We hunted down the band of humans who attacked us. They all suffered before they died. That has to be enough of a warning sent to the humans that we will retaliate if they continue to collapse our tunnels.”

“Humans are stupid,” Gorm spat. “They do not know their own limitations. They fight us as though they believe they can win, and as such, that means they will not stop.”

Bodil, another war general who had spent her entire life fighting humans, leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “That is the truth. We’ve already heard rumblings that the humans are going to attack again. My scouts have seen many of them crawling like ants over our mountain. They seek a way in.”

His brother heaved a long sigh. “And if they do manage to get in, they’ll be lost in the dark. It would take them months to find a way into our city, and even if they did, there would be so few of them that we could pick them off one by one.”

Silence rang after that. They all knew it to be true. Their mountain was a labyrinth to anyone who didn’t know their way around it. The trolls had built it that way on purpose. Just in case the odd human found themselves wandering into their home. Ragnar had found many bodies in the dark winding tunnels, usually as dried out husks because even the trolls hadn’t noticed them until it was long past the time they’d first entered the mountain.

But then Gorm shook his head. “We cannot risk it. If they send too many people, then they’ll be able to find us. What would we do if a human discovered one of our children before we found them? You know the little ones play in the streams at the edge of the forest. If they’re found by a human first, what do you think their kind will do? Should we teach our children to be afraid in their own home?”

They all froze as their king cleared his throat. King Egil’s claws scratched the table, leaving deep grooves as he thought. The others remained silent, so they did not disturb the king’s thoughts. After all, he had protected them all for many years now.

“We could easily set a rule for trolls to kill any human on sight,” the king mused.

Ragnar reacted like he’d been struck by lightning. “My wife is human. You cannot ask our trolls to do that. There are many who have yet to know her.”

Gunnar was quick to add, “If we wish to continue strengthening our bloodline, we have to allow more human troll wives. They should be comfortable here, as we all know, unwilling brides dilute the bloodline they carry. Magic is earned in childbirth and must be freely given.”

It was a sobering reminder of their follies. Humans with elven bloodlines had always been part of dragging the trolls out of the mud and filth they had once lived in. Their people had stolen women for their bloodlines, and none of them had been willing.

For the time being, his own wife wasn’t kicking, screaming, or begging him to take her to her human home. He wished to keep her like that for as long as possible, because he wasn’t certain his heart could take it. She was so sweet when she was trying to be happy. He could easily see how other women could do the same. Perhaps they had just been taking the wrong human women.

But then Bodil chuckled, her dark laugh filling the room with promise. “Then keep your wife inside, Ragnar. Tell her to be a good little pet until this all blows over.”

“That could be years.”

“Yes, it could be. But she’ll be fine in the dark for that long. And if she isn’t?” Bodil lifted her hands in the air. “I heard she wasn’t a good match, anyway. I thought we were going to get the healer of the ages when you were paired with the princess, but instead, all we got was the same healer and a useless worm who can make plants grow if she asks nicely.”

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