Page 64 of Heart of Fire
The bastard had used Haakon and his men to test Rurik, but why? Why not face him? He remembered battles between them as youths, where they’d tested their strengths against each other. Battles he’d won every singletime.
There was a reason he’d been his father’s heir. A reason his uncle and mother plotted for his exile, rather than outright killing him. If Stellan or any of his sons had challenged Rurik, then there was a possibility he would have defeatedthem.
“Are you frightened to confront me?”he whispered, sending the thought-thread lancing through the skies as he searched for hiscousin.
Magnus’s awareness linked with his, the otherdreki’sfury searing his mind.“Frightened?”Magnus spat.“How dareyou?”
“What else am I to think, when you hide behind the plots of punyhumans?”
Days ago, he’d refused to offer challenge to Magnus, his pride standing between him and the thought of openly acknowledging Magnus was ranked above him. But that was before he’d come to realize what Freyja meant to him. There was no moving forward until he defeated thisthreat.
“I offer challenge,”he called, feeling the heat of his cousin's surprise.“You and me. No mercy. Let us settle this once and forall.”
Magnus couldchoosenot toaccept.
“Unless you are wary of battling me?”Rurik added.“I always won, did Inot?”
There was a long moment of silence. He almost didn’t think his cousin wouldaccept.
“That was a long time ago. Come and fight, you filthy cur. I am not frightened of you.”Magnus’s thought-thread linked with his, and for a second Rurik saw more than Magnus expected him to. Always a problem when twodrekilinked. Magnus swiftly hid his thoughts, but there was enough there to cause Rurik tofalter.
Magnus did not intend for this to be a fairfight.
“One hour,”Rurik whispered, knowing he would be facing twodreki, and not one. Sympathy for Andri’s dilemma stirred through him, even as a hint of doubt assailedhim.
Could he defeat both of them? Knowing he would not—could not—harm the cousin heloved?
Magnus faded from his consciousness. And Rurik was left standing there, gripped byindecision.
What if he did not win? He was relying on Andri’s honor to stay out of this, even though he knew some hidden pressure forced the youth to join Magnus in thisplot.
If he didn’t win, then what did that mean forFreyja?
She had not accepted him, notcompletely.
And he wanted so much more from her than merely a conquest, but how could he tell her that? He did not have thetime.
Except... there was one last gift he could giveher.
One last way to prove his intentions toward her were serious, and one way he could offer her protection, if Magnus defeatedhim.
Rurik slowly turned and looked at thehouse.
* * *
“You... you get out of here!”Freyja’s father snapped as Rurik entered, maneuvering with wicked speed around the dining table. “Benedikt told me what you are, and what you intend with my daughter! You leave her alone, you foul beast!” He snatched up a cross and started praying in Latin. “Our father who art inHeaven....”
Rurik’s temper flared. He had no time for this. “Did Benedikt also mention precisely what he’s threatened her with over the past few years? The coin he’s offered for her if she allowed herself to become his mistress? Or the threats he made when she wouldnot?”
The prayer faded as Einar gasped. “What?”
It dampened Rurik’s temper to a smoldering coal, but the heat remained. Freyja had refused to allow her father to share her burden out of some misguided attempt to protect him, but in doing so, she’d not allowedhimto protect his daughter. “Your precious Benedikt threatened to name her a witch if she’d not lie with him. Who do you think tied your daughter to a stake and offered her up to me? Who do you think has been stealing your sheep over the years, and whispering in local villagers’ ears so they would not buy your daughter’s barley when she tried to trade it? I have been talking to many of the locals. Some spit on your daughter’s name for dealing with the devil—which you and I both know she has not done—but others admit they were afraid Benedikt would turn his wrath on them if they traded with Freyja, or tried to help her. She’s slowly starving because of Benedikt, and you cannot see it. He wanted to cut off all of her resources so the only person she could turn to was him, when she was finally desperate enough. That is the snake whose words you listento.”
His words took all the wind out of Einar’s sails. The old man slumped against the table, his mouth agape in shock. “She never said aword.”
“Knowing Freyja as you do, did you think that shewould?”
“But he... he said you had takenher.”
