Page 9 of A Darkness So Sweet

The human king had his arm behind his daughter with a smile on his face that didn’t reach his eyes. “It is an honor to meet the troll worthy of my daughter.”

Ragnar tilted his head to the side, knowing the sconces on the walls would gild his sharpened tusks. “Is it?”

Again that veil annoyingly shuddered. Had he said something wrong? Somehow, he felt like he was making all of this worse. But that wasn’t entirely his fault. The two of them had to marry each other, and she was a human woman who knew nothing about his people. Of course she would think him blunt and callous.

Gunnar nudged him from behind. And that was another sign that he was being too gruff, but he didn’t even know this woman’s name. So he ground his teeth together and bit out, “Princess, it is a rare treat for one such as me to be before one such as you.”

The veil stilled. There was no sound at all now. Not even the sound of her panting.

The calls for his troll wife died down, and there was sudden silence. Just him, staring down at this woman in white with her face hidden from him. What did she look like beneath? He hadn’t been at the meeting between kings, nor had anyone even offered to tell him about her appearance.

He hoped her hair was at least dark. If she had black or perhaps even deep brown hair, he could suffer through this. At least then, if he turned her around, he could pretend she was a troll.

The king lifted one of his hands and raised his voice. “The trolls have arrived! From this day forward, with a marriage to my daughter, our kingdoms will be united. No more fighting. No more war. Together, we will walk into a new era.”

A pretty speech, but not one that Ragnar readily believed. None of the trolls did. This was a bid to perhaps see if the humans could keep their word. Did the trolls believe it was the end of fighting with them? Certainly not.

The king moved behind his daughter and another man stepped up. This one wore a long black robe with a stiff white collar around his neck. The man looked at Ragnar’s bare chest and gulped.

“We are gathered here today to witness a ceremony of binding. Together, these two individuals will walk into the future, hand in hand, soul with soul.” On and on he droned more useless words about giving and taking in life. Yet, he was right. A relationship was a give and take, but in his case... well, it would mostly be take.

He turned toward the woman beside him instead of the priest. She kept her gaze firmly on the floor, which he found to be rather odd. There was much to look at beyond the pattern on the floor.

Ragnar was a troll standing beside her, and she wasn’t even curious about him. He’d at least expected her gaze on his claws that flexed at his sides repeatedly with stress. He wanted this all to be over with, and he’d never been particularly good at hiding how he felt. But no, she didn’t look at his claws or his bared skin, or even the tattoos visible on his massive thighs.

She was covered far more than he was, and he found himself ready to see what she looked like.

Gunnar leaned over beside him, lips nearly touching his ear. “Do you think she’s hideous?”

“What?” he hissed.

“Is that why they covered her face?”

By all the gods, he hoped not. “She’s half elf.”

Elves were beautiful creatures. They were lithe and cunning, but they were mostly known for their stunning beauty that nearly blinded anyone who looked at them. A princess with such high elven blood content would be just as beautiful as a natural born elf.

Right?

But then he found himself staring at the veil and trying to see beneath it. Was that a pretty, sharp nose? Or was it the blunted end of a snout?

The priest continued on until suddenly everyone was staring at him. Silence rang through the room yet again, and he realized he hadn’t been listening to a word the man had said. He looked over at his brother, who was trying hard not to laugh.

“The priest asked you to kiss your troll wife,” he said in the black tongue.

Kiss her?

He felt all the color drain from his cheeks. That was the very last thing he wanted to do. He didn’t want to kiss the creature before him, no matter what she looked like. Besides, he was quite certain she was repulsive, and that was why the king was so ready to give her away.

Even the king seemed to hesitate. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“Your highness, it is tradition,” the priest blustered.

But it was the little princess in front of him who answered for all of them. He was surprised to hear her voice at all. The raspy tones didn’t fit the elven bloodline, which should have made her voice sound like the tinkling of bells.

“It’s fine,” she breathed. “I’ll do it.”

As if it was something she had to endure. At least they both shared the same mindset.

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