Page 110 of Ironling
Fearghas shrugged. “Doesn’t do anything to deny the truth.”
“And neither does fearmongering,” she spat back.
“Fates, Edda,” Caitlín croaked, clutching at her mate’s tunic, “what have we done? Why did we come here?”
Edda made soothing noises to reassure her mate as the apprentices looked on with worry from where they manned the bellows. Fearghas took a loud sip from his cup.
“Lady Aislinn will—”
“Spare us, halfling. No one doubts your…loyalty.”
The fire in Hakon’s belly burned hotter than the forge as he glared at the head blacksmith. Red rimmed his vision, and his beast snarled in his mind, howling for retribution for the disrespect.
“When this is said and done, all will remember who was loyal and who was not,” Hakon growled.
“You threatening my position?”
“I don’t need to. I do your work already.”
Fearghas’s face above his expansive beard reddened, a vein popping along his bare scalp. “Where’s your lady now, halfling? She hasn’t visited the smithy in an awfully long time.”
Nostrils flaring, Hakon’s muscles bunched. The festering sore inside him throbbed with the direct hit, and his pride stung to see the smug knowing in Fearghas’s eyes.
It was only the click Edda made with her tongue, an orcish noise of disapproval, that stopped Hakon from hurling himself across the smithy at the stupid, hateful human.
Gritting his tusks, Hakon flung the mangled cup into the open forge fire and stalked out into the rain.
He was almost immediately soaked as he walked blindly into the courtyard. Droplets sizzled and steamed against his overheated skin. Rain splattered against him, drenching his hair and tunic and pooling in his pockets.
Hakon didn’t know where he went, only that he walked. The rain bit at his exposed skin, but he hardly felt it. He only noticed how cold his hands had become when a warm nose pressed into his palm.
He looked down to see Wülf trotting alongside him.
His room would smell of wet dog for days, but he was glad of the company.
Together, they walked aimlessly through the deafening rain.
Although her eyes stung with tiredness, Aislinn headed for the guest wing of apartments rather than trudging to her own. Sorcha had insisted that Aislinn come to the rooms she and Orekshared before turning in. With how much Sorcha and Orek did for her, she couldn’t say no. And, amidst the anxious drudgery that filled her days, there were worse ways to end the evening.
At the door, one of her guards knocked before opening it for Aislinn.
“Would you like us inside with you, my lady?” asked the other.
“I’ll be perfectly fine. Thank you.” She offered him a sleepy smile before entering the small solar.
Inside sat Sorcha and two halflings. All of them stood upon her entrance as the door clicked shut behind her.
Aislinn’s heart wentpitter-patterwhen Hakon grinned shyly at her. “Hullo, Aislinn.”
“Hakon…”
“I wish it was more, but we thought you both deserved an hour,” said Sorcha.
She looked at her friend in shock. Sorcha threw her a saucy wink before taking her mate by the hand and leading him into the adjoining bedroom. That door shut softly behind them, closing Aislinn and Hakon in together, alone.
Aislinn stood rooted to the spot, overwhelmed to finally be in the same room as her blacksmith. She wondered if he was angry or frustrated with her and whether this had been his idea. She wanted to know how he was and what he did to fill his days and if he missed her as desperately as she did him.
None of that made it past her lips.
