Page 21 of Heart of Fire
These newcomers, these challengers, would find no entry to his lair. He’d sealed it with his power when he left, and there were few still left on this earth who could cut through hismagic.
They would know that, which made him wonder just why they werehere.
What mad scheme did Amadea plotnow?
* * *
“You think he won’t return,”Freyja said, as Rurik stared after Haakon. She’d heard their argument, and a part of her knew Rurik’s focus on her hadshifted.
Lanterns filled the night, and Haakon’s men tried to hitch his supply wagon to the horses. They’d thrown a tarpaulin over the ballista, but the rain was coming down in steady sheetsnow.
“Fool.” Or at least that was what she thought Rurik murmured. The wind snatched the word from his mouth as he turned back towardher.
“Why did you warn him?” Freyja asked, wiping the hair from her damp cheeks. She didn’t wish to see that ballista make its way inland. “He’ll kill one of them with that ballista, and I thought you were on thedreki’sside?”
Rurik glanced toward the south darkly. “I have no wish to see that machine pierce anydreki’shide. But I think without it Haakon will be little more than a delicious morsel to thosedreki,and that I do not wish for. There is a debt to be repaid there, and his goldendrekiwill pay it when he findsher.”
“Her?”
Rurik looked at her sharply. “Krafla’sdrekidid not take his wife. There is only one other who wears golden scales, and I think Haakon’s fate leads him toward her.” He shrugged, and she couldn’t help noticing the way his shirt clung wetly to him. “I believe they are... destined to meetagain.”
Freyja watched Haakon as he vanished at the edge of the town. “So, you save his death foranother?”
“What makes you think death is hisfate?”
Freyja frowned. “You’re playing word games withme.”
“Perhaps. You seem awfully insistent upon the factdrekieathumans.”
“Unlike others,” she snorted, “I do not fall for those foolish romantic stories people like totell.”
“No?” A faint smile touched his lips. “Did yourdrekieat you all up, Freyja? Or did it leave you alone? You still haven’t told me the story of yourmeeting.”
Freyja frowned, and wrapped her arms around her. “It ate myram. Perhaps its belly was full when I sawit?”
She almost imagined Rurik growled under his breath. “You eat lamb, do you not? Perhaps thedrekilikes lamb too? That does not mean it eats people. There are treaties in place to help promote peace between both species. I think the last thing it would do is break the treaty. Besides,” he looked thoughtful, “those foolish, romantic stories had to come fromsomewhere.”
She threw her hands up in disgust. Virgin tributes, and happily-ever-afters.... They belonged in fairy tales, and nothing else. “You’re as bad as my mother. She too dreamed of forbidden romances. Ofdrekiwalking among us in human form, and seducing stupidgirls.”
That faint smiled deepened. “Who says they donot?”
“Have you seen one? Has anyone? Not in recent times, if ever. Even though they can change shape, there is always a touch of thedrekistill in them. They say their eyes remain lizard-like in appearance, and the sight of the holy cross reveals their trueform.”
“And when they say this, are they speaking ofdrekior of your devil?” he mused. “It sounds like someone shapedthoseparticularstories.”
Of all the....“You are a very frustratingman.”
“I would like to believe. That is all. One day I think you will meet adrekiin mortal flesh, and then you will believe too. We all need a little bit of romance in our lives. A little bit of magic. You shouldn’t trust all of the stories, but you should believe some, Freyja. After all, you’ve met Krafla’sdreki. And he is clearly interested in you, if nothing else, from the sounds of yourstory.”
Freyja snorted, and gathered a handful of her skirts as she headed for the inn. “You’re as big a fool as Haakon is. And I’m going in to bed. This is quite too much excitement for me for one night.Goodnight.”
“Freyja—”
She turned, wind whipping her skirts past her and blowing his hair back off that clean, masculine face. For a second she thought he was about to plunge them straight back into that reckless, passionate moment they’d shared in the stables. A moment when something inside her—something she’d never even encountered before—overruled logic and sense, letting the storm erupt within. Freyja’s heart skipped abeat.
“Would you like to break your fast with me?” he asked,instead.
Freyja hesitated. A part of her still felt that foolish, breathless moment in the stables, and the roughness of his hands on her skin. Heat flooded her cheeks. This man was dangerous. “I’m sorry, but I intend an early start. I need to get home and see to myfather.”
