Page 45 of Heart of Fire
She accepted that. Simply began to pack away the remains of their picnic. This wasn’t what he’d intended when he set it out, the afternoon suddenly souring. And yet, he almost felt as though this was what he needed to broach the walls that guarded herheart.
“I am exiled from my clan,” he admitted gently. “If I returned, my uncle would try to killme.”
Those witchy eyes locked on him with a dangerous intensity. “Why would he want youdead?”
Old wounds ached in his heart. “Stellan is my mother’s brother. When my father died, Stellan took his place as...” How to say this? “...head of the clan. I believe... I believe he had something to do with my father’s death, with my mother’shelp.”
“You didn’t fighthim?”
Rurik felt his face shutter. “I was exiled, instead. Blamed for the murder of myfather.”
Freyja’s mouth fell open. “But—”
“I didn’t do it, Freyja. I loved my father. But I was the first on the scene, I found his heart pierced with a blade of pure iron. There was blood on my hands. And... a witness who claimed I did it. A witness whom no onedisputed.”
“Who?”
His heart sank like a stone in water. That betrayal was one he could never forgive. “Mymother.”
She reached out to stroke his face. “Why would she do that to her ownson?”
Rurik pressed into the touch, capturing her hand in his and holding it there. The fury of thedrekiwithin him melted at her touch. Only she could tame it. “She wanted power, most likely. She controls Stellan, and he comes from the same clan she did. She has never controlled me. You cannot think of her as you think of your own mother. She birthed the three of us into the world; Árdís, Marduk, and me. But she had not the raising of us. We were marks on a contract to her. A fulfillment of the oath she gave my father and his clan when she married him. A duty. It was my father who loved us and rearedus.”
And his heart ached in his chest at the mere thought his own people could consider him the hand that murdered hisfather.
“I’m sorry,”Freyja whispered on a thought-thread she didn’t even know shesent.
And he could not link back with her, not when she thought he was merelyhuman.
Rurik looked down, into her eyes. “I accepted the exile so my brother and sister would not be drawn into a war. They weren’t ready. Neither was I, to speak the truth. But this is not the first time my mother and uncle have tried to see me dead.” He squeezed her hand. “It is the first time, however, that I have something more to lose than merely my life. My family are... a proud people. They would not accept you, nor any consummation betweenus.”
Freyja drew her knees up to her chest, resting her chin upon them. “You miss your brother andsister?”
“Fiercely.”
“Not so small a dream,” Freyja whispered, as if cognizant of the turmoil withinhim.
“No.” He met those beautiful eyes, aware the ground beneath them both had shifted, and he suddenly understood her own quiet yearning. “Not so small adream.”
There was a long moment of silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts. He ached to know hers. Instead, he lifted a hand and brushed the backs of his fingers down her palecheek.
Freyja tilted into the touch, her lashes shuttering her eyes, and her lips slightly parted. In this moment she was without fear or thought, existing only tofeel.
And he thought he should kiss her again. The sudden urge to do so left him floundering as he realized this urge had little to do with pressing her against the ground and plundering her sweet mouth, or even body. It wanted nothing more than to taste her mouth, to share in her moment of peace, of acceptance. He wanted to kiss her for the sake of the kiss itself, and because she... she meant something tohim.
Rurik drew back. What was this? He didn’t know what precisely he felt, but he knew it wasdifferent.
There was no endless curiosity in this feeling. No desire to claim, or plunder. Merely...tenderness?
Freyja looked up. And the moment passed, and suddenly he became aware he was staring at her as if she’d stolen his heart from his chest when he wasn’t looking, and he didn’t quite know what to do with thatfact.
“The day is wasting,” he said abruptly, drawing away from her. “If you want some time to yourself, then now is the time to steal it. I have promised you an afternoon’s labor, so use my time wisely. We’re donehere.”
* * *
We’re done here.
The thought plagued her as she tried toread.
