Page 106 of Vow of the Undead
“Risk what?” I demanded.
“Losing you.”
My lips parted. This was the last response I expected. He didn’t know me, he didn’t care for me, heusedme and fucked with me, but that was where our connection ended. Or where it should have ended. My damn body still wanted him. The line between anger and this dizzying need to release the tension he’d built thinned. I forced the depraved thoughts to quiet.
“I’m nothing but a piece of the game to you,” I said.
“You’re the only one strong enough to believe in the Gods despite the executioners and you’ve yet to succumb to the Gods’ affairs.”
“Does this have to do with your revenge and freedom?”
“My revenge, yes, but everyone’s freedom.”
I brought the tip of the stake to the center of his chest. Even if he knew I wouldn’t kill him yet, I liked the position of power. “How?”
“When we’re married, I’ll tell you everything.” I closed my eyes, frustrated with his useless response, then, surprised to hear his voice again, I peeled them back open. “I’m not only speaking to you right now. I can’t trust that they aren’t listening.”
“They?” I breathed. Though I posed it as a question, I already knew. How did he know the Gods warred within me?
“Because you’re one of the few people brave enough to still believe in them despite the executioners, and you’re the only one to fight back, so of course they’d choose you.”
I released a string of curses under my breath. “You read my mind again.That’show you know about the Gods.”
“No, in your mind or not, a vampire could never hear the Gods. I hearyou, and only when you—” his lips bent into a wicked grin, the suggestion heating me from the inside out. The darkness within me beckoned for him, curling and twisting to reach for him. It wasn’t just my body that wanted him to touch me again, but my spirit, poisoned black with a corruption that found comfort in the familiar corruption within him.
I straightened, finally lowering the stake to my side. I refused to let go of it, but I no longer wielded it against him.
“I’ll marry you,” I whispered.
His sharp gaze pinned me. “What did you say?”
“Release the witches, risk this war you claim will happen, and give Vylheim the true history of their people. Let everyone remember the Gods, and I’ll marry you.” With Drak still as their king, he could release the truth and temper this war. We could not risk another wasteland, not with the winters growing harsher. As much as I just wanted freedom, I had to be smart about this.
I could be the queen at his side, giving the real history to the people of Vylheim.
Shaking his head, he let out a cruel laugh. “That’s not how this works. You will marry me because I told you to.”
“I thought I had to accept it?”
He breathed a curse. He hated not being in control. Maybe I knew him as well as he claimed to know me. “I will not release Ragna or any of my witches until they’ve summoned Odin.”
“What is your obsession with this summoning?”
“Is that understood?” He hardly let me finish speaking before barreling over my words with his own question.
I narrowed my eyes, keeping my chin lifted. I would not back down now, I’d already failed Odin. I’d already decided not to follow through with the single command he’d given me. Valhalla and Folkvangr were the dreams of a foolish girl. They were afterlives meant for someone better.
Could the Gods really fault me for wanting to save her? They knew who they’d chosen—a sick and twisted witch. Their choice was a gamble from the beginning and I had no doubt they were aware of it. Odin was aware of most things, especially when it came to witches.
Now it was either pass the trial given to me by the Allfather, or take what I wanted, and I was exactly selfish enough to take what I wanted.
“After we’ve tried summoning him then,” I said. “And it can’t take longer than a year from when we’re married.”
His fists flexed and released, flexed and released. He was fighting every instinct to demand control. I would not win him over by stripping him of it.
Maybe I could give him the illusion of control. Maybe that’d tip him over the edge. Maybe he’d agree to risk everything.
He’d asked for kisses in exchange for the answers he gave me, but it was obvious he was desperate for more.
