Page 156 of North Is the Night
I take a hesitant step forward. “I knew it was you,” I whisper. “In the woods... I knew. But I couldn’t dare hope—” My words catch in my throat, and I close the space between us, burying my face in her shoulder.
“Oh, thank the gods,” she says on a breath, her arms wrapping around me. “Thank you, All-Mother.”
I let go of all grief and fear and cling to her. I breathe her in. She smells strange, like cardamom and wood smoke, nothing like my Siiri. And yet I feel her beneath my hands and know who she is. I don’t know how she did it, but she’s here.
Siiri pulls away first, her lips brushing over my brow. “Come, we have to go. They’ll soon have this entire realm out looking for me.”
“Why?”
“I’ve felled five dead and counting. And the death gods don’t take kindly to intruders. They really don’t take kindly to thieves.”
“You’re here to steal something?”
“Yes,” she replies with a soft laugh. “You. Now, come on.”
Siiri is here, and she’s come to steal me away back to the land of the living. Fresh tears fill my eyes as I look down at her outstretched hand. Things are so complicated now. How will I ever explain what happened? Would Siiri still extend that hand to me if she knew the truth? If she knew the risk she was taking?
“Aina, come,” she says again. “We haven’t time to delay.”
“I have to tell you something.”
“You can tell me later.” Dropping her hand, she unslings her bow from her shoulder. “Come on. This way. Quietly now.”
“Siiri,” I hiss at her retreating form.
She turns.
“I’m married,” I whisper, letting my truth free.
“What?”
“The death god... I married him. I married Tuoni. There were reasons for it, I swear it. And I’d do it again,” I admit, raising my chin. “But things are complicated now.”
“So, we uncomplicate them,” she says, crossing back over to my side. “He doesn’t get to keep you like some prize. Return home with me now, and all can be as it was—”
“Nothing can ever be as it was.”
She steps back, eyes narrowing as she searches my face. A tense moment stretches between us. “There’s more. Say it all.”
“I’m pregnant.”
My words pierce through her thick armor. Siiri is always so easy to read—her grief, her frustration. “Are you telling me you mean to stay here?”
“I’m telling you that he will not let me go easily.” I reach for her. “I can explain—”
“Don’t touch me.” She swats my hand away. “You have no idea what I’ve done. What I’mstilldoing—the sacrifices I’ve made, the scars I’ve earned, the people I’vekilled—all to find my way to you. To rescue you—”
“And what do you think I’ve suffered?” I say, my own resentment rising. “I killed someone too, Siiri. I have scars now too. I outfoxed the Witch Queen of Tuonela. I stole her crown. I fought a kalman väki with my bare hands. I’ve done everything I can to survive. I married Tuoni to protectyou, to protect our families, to protect countless other women from falling prey to the death gods’ schemes. And he’s not all bad,” I admit. “He’s nothing like the stories, Siiri. He’s kind and good, and he loves me.”
“And you mean to stay,” she whispers, her heart breaking in the tone of her voice. “You mean to stay here and be Queen of the Dead. No more sunrises for Aina Taavintyttär. You mean to stay and raise a death god’s babe in a cradle of bones?”
“I mean to protect you fromme,” I press. “Siiri, you must go. Now. If you are caught trying to help me escape, I doubt I’ll be able to save you. And I will not watch you die. I will suffer any other pain or torture they can devise, but not that. Never that—”
“I’m not leaving without you.”
“I’ll find my own way,” I assure her. Reaching out, I take her hand. “Tuoni has already promised to release me after the child is born. I just need time to help him see reason. I need him to see that our son must come with me when I go.”
Her eyes go wide. “Your son? How can you already know what the child will be?”
