Page 78 of Heart of Fire
Damn him. Turmoil turned Rurik inside out. He needed Freyja. This was no simple choice his cousin asked of him, but... this was wrong. And he was the only one who might stand a chance at uniting his clan and casting out theusurpers.
“I need to speak to Freyja,” he said, because this was not a choice he could make alone. “And maybe you’re wrong.... I don’t think she’s entirely human.” Some part of his subconscious had been dwelling upon what he’d seen when she confronted Magnus. “I knew she could shift the earth and touch the storm, but what she did during that fight was more than simply open herself to the elements. She controlled them. She more than matched adreki, especially one of Magnus’spower.”
“Onlydrekicontrol the elements,” Andri said softly. “She’s notdreki.”
Did they? There was one other, but he’d barely seen fragments of that myth long ago in his youth, and he’d not studied enough to remember what it was. More a glancing recollection. ButDaughter of the Storm. He’d heard that name before. Somewhere. “She might have somedrekiblood within her,” he argued, though he wasn’t entirely convinced. “In the Dark Ages, when our numbers were dwindling, somedrekitook humans formates.”
“And when it became clear the progeny of such couplings could not fully control the powers they’d been gifted from theirdrekiside, the clans set to hunting down their descendants and killing them,” Andri said incredulously. “That’s why it’sforbidden.”
“Maybe they didn’t find all of them,” Rurik countered. “Maybe some of them could learn to control theirmagic?”
“And maybe her powers will spiral out ofcontrol—”
“If anyone thinks to move against her, then they will deal with me,” he snapped. That was one decision that could be easily made. “Stay here, and wait for me. I will speak to her.” He turned toleave.
“Rurik!”
He shot his cousin one moreglance.
“Even if she isn’t entirely human, you still can’t have her. You’re of the First Bloodline. Your children would lose the gift of fire, and nodrekiwould follow you. It’s forbidden. It’s been that way since the courts firstformed.”
“She is my twin flame,” he said gently, seeing the boy flinch. “The other half of my soul. And I cannot walk away from her.” His heart grew heavy. “I will think on what you have told me about the court. Don’t make any rash decisions. I will need you if I decide to face yourfather.”
* * *
There weredebts to be paid before he could seek out hismate.
Rurik stopped in the village, following the scent of his old enemy—the man who’d saved his and Freyja’s lives. Haakon could finally add adrekito his dragon-killing tally, and Rurik hoped none of Stellan’s men ever discovered how their leader haddied.
Haakon jerked upright as Rurik’s hand clasped over his shoulder. He’d been slumped over the table in the taproom, staring so intently at nothing he hadn’t even heard Rurikenter.
“You again,” Haakon slurred, and then wiped a tired hand over hisface.
“Me,” Rurik said, surveying the room. Only one of Haakon’s men lingered there, keeping careful watch over his leader, and sharpening his blade. “Out.”
The man arched a brow, and looked to Haakon. “Go,” Haakon said, slinging his leg over the bench so he straddled it. “He’s not here to kill me,Gunnar.”
Gunnar hauled his enormous bulk to his feet and left—but not after shooting Rurik one last threateningglance.
“You survived,” Haakon said, the second the door shut behind hisman.
“It would take a great deal more than my cousin’s assault to kill me—so don’t go getting anyideas.”
“What do you want?” the mangrowled.
Rurik stared down at his nemesis. There were a pair of coins in his hand, and he turned them over and under his fingers, moving with dexterous grace. They reminded him of what he owed this man. He bared his teeth. “Every move you have made since you arrived has been against me, but you also saved Freyja’s life. I owe you nothing, for we are even now. But another of my kind does, another of my... line. Anddrekialways pay theirdebts.”
While Haakon might have hurt Freyja, he had done so for a reason, and that reason was a lie. How many other innocents had been swept up in thismess?
“You hunt thedrekiwho took your wife,” Rurik said, and Haakon sat up straighter. “This truth will cost you,” hewarned.
“Then I’ll pay it. What do you want?” The man stood, yellow bruises splayed all up his face, as though he’d gotten in some fight. “I have gold! Ihave—”
“It will gain me nothing,” Rurik interrupted, holding his hand up in the air. “But it will costyou. Cost you the depths of the lie you have been telling yourself ever since your wifevanished.”
“Curse you!” Haakon suddenly roared. “Do not toy with me!” He kicked over a chair, then turned and upended the bench. “Tell me where sheis!”
As the other man subsided into a pulsing heap of fury, Rurik closed his fist around the coins, his choice made. “There is only one goldendrekibeside myself,” he said. “Her name is Árdís, and she is my younger sister. She resides in thedrekicourt belowHekla.”
