Page 63 of Heart of Fire
“I won’t kill you,” he said slowly. “I think you’re punishing yourself enough. Killing you would be tooeasy.”
“Did you know I see her every night in my dreams?” Haakon whispered, hauling himself slowly into a sitting position. “Every night since I’ve been here. Begging me to rescue her. And these cursed storms don't help. They only serve to remind me of the night I first met her, when she was lost in the rain outside myvillage.”
“I never had her,” Rurik pointed out, squatting in front of the man. They stared at each other, and he realized what he hadn’t seen before. This man was broken. And all it would take to drive him off the edge of the cliff would be a slightnudge.
After all, he wasn’t the only one who could enterdreams.
“The dreams started the night Magnus joined your party, didn’t they?” hemused.
Haakon flinched, then frowned. “Yes.”
Rurik reached out a hand and hauled the dragon hunter to his feet. “Your friends are not human, Haakon. Nor are they your friends. Magnus and Andri belong to thedrekicourt, and they’re here to kill me on their queen’s whim. You’re a tool to them, nothing else, and if you aren’t careful, then you’ll end up buried six feet under. Magnus is not the type ofdrekito care for human foibles, nor share any hint of sentiment, not like I do. I’m sure you’ve had doubts. I’m sure you tried to test them the same way you did me that night we dined, but flinching at the feel of iron is an old wives’ tale, nothing more. Magnus has been sending you thedreams.”
A new fury roused in Haakon’s eyes. “Why?”
“Because he wants me dead,” Rurik replied, turning for the door. “But he won’t confront me directly, not until he’s certain he can beat me. No doubt you’re a distraction, one meant to wear medown.”
Haakon followed him out onto the village green. “Then this was all a wild goosechase.”
Sympathy stirred through him.Don’t meddle.... “Maybe. Maybe not. You saw a goldendrekisteal your wife—or thought you did—and I am quite clearly a goldendreki, though I had nothing to do with what happened to your wife.” He paused. Árdís must have had her reasons. “But there is one truth I know, that you do not. Your wife is stillalive.”
“You said you didn’t take her.” Haakon’s face paled. “How do you knowthat?”
“I amdreki. You know I cannotlie.”
“Whereisshe?”
Rurik paused. He had little reason to give this man any hope, beyond a vague shared sentiment. He knew little of human emotion, but if that were Freyja.... There was nowhere on this earth she could be taken where he would not hunt forher.
Fool of adreki.He closed his eyes. He finally understood what was happening to him, and why he could not simply leave this quest to win her heart alone. Perhaps he and Haakon shared more than theyknew?
“I don’t think you’re ready to know the truth,” he said slowly, trying to sort through his thoughts of Freyja. “But you will be. Soon. And when you are,” he smiled, “come and findme.”
Spreading his arms, he felt them lengthen into wings as thedrekitook shape with a burst of volcanic heat. Haakon stumbled back, shielding his eyes and face from the wash of power thaterupted.
When it was done, Rurik smiled a particularlydrekismile.“Let us hope I am still alive to tell you the tale of your missingwife.”
Then he launched himself into theskies.
Sixteen
RURIK RETURNED TO the house.There was no sign of Freyja, though her scent lingered all over the place, ingrained in the homestead. A scent that filled his heart withjoy.
There was an olddrekitale that spoke ofkataru libbu, an alliance of the heart.Drekiwere the half-souled, and he’d always felt somehow incomplete. When the great goddess tore her soul to pieces to share it with her newdrekioffspring, she had left them vulnerable, always hungering for the other half of theirsoul.
A myth of thedrekicourt. Somedrekifound their other halves, the twin flame to their soul. Some did not. But all hungered for them. It was a concept beyond that of the mates they took, the lovers theyconsumed.
The second he saw Freyja, he’d known there was something different about her. He’d been unable to deny his yearning for her, and even now her distance from his side ached withinhim.
Was she the other half ofhim?
Was that why he was so helpless to walk away from her, so determined to claimher?
Some instinct stirred in his chest. He could not walk away from her. It would be like cutting out his heart.Freyja.Fierce, stubborn Freyja, who had brought him out into the light, brought him back to life. Without her, all he faced was an eternity ofhibernation.
Adrekibugled, somewhere far to the south of him, reminding him this was not the time for such speculation. His enemy was still out there,somewhere.
Rurik turned to face the brewing storm on the horizon, looking forMagnus.
