Page 68 of Heart of Fire
She’d beenwrong.
He’d given her more than she could ever repay, and her words bit through her:Give me a gift beyond any worth, and I shall give you myheart.
This was that gift. One last attempt to prove his sincerity when she had doubted it. Freyja clapped a hand to her mouth. Her heart beat a little faster, a little louder, as the world swam around her, shifting on its axis of what she knew to be true and what she’d feared toaccept.
She’d not dared love him. Yet it had crept over her night by night, stealing through her intentions as if they were mist with every smile he gave her, every little argument, and every determined quirk of his brow when she refused to fall into place. She’d known it and worried over the sensation late at night. Locked it up tight within her so he could never know, as if that could somehow protecther.
And now it left her utterlybereft.
“Oh no,” Freyjawhispered.
Tears blurred her vision. He’d gone off to fight twodrekialone, believing she would refuse to let him court her. And he’d weakened himself, curse him, in healing her father so she would not bealone.
That thought, more than anything, sent steel straight down herspine.
“Rurik visited me and told me everything. About Benedikt and what he had threatened you with. About him tying you to a stake.” Her father’s lips thinned. “Freyja, why did you not tell me all your worries? You know I would have protectedyou.”
But howsprang to her tongue, where she managed to catch it in time. Her father had his pride. “Iknow.”
She needed to thank Rurik. She needed to... God. To apologize for all she’d said to him. To make it right. It seemed her father wasn’t the only one who had to account forpride.
“Freyja,” her father warned, seeing the look on her face and interpreting it correctly. “Where are you going? Rurik wanted you to be safe. He doesn’t want youinvolved.”
She did not argue, or shout her sudden fury to the world. Instead she fetched the kitchen knife from its block. An odd sense of calm descended over her. “And what abouthim?”
“He’s adreki,” her father said. “You cannot fight this battle forhim.”
“No,” she whispered, “but Icanstand at his side and give him a reason tofight.”
“Freyja!” Her father caught her arm as she moved to thedoor.
Freyja eased his grip from her arm. “No, Father. I know you want to protect me, but that time is done.” She hesitated. “And you should know I am quite capable of protecting myself, even againstdreki.”
For the first time she let the storm show in her eyes. Her father’s mouth parted, but no words came out. He’d always known she had power—how could you not, when your child tore the earth apart with a thought?—but he’d always pretended she wasn’t different. It had been her secret to keep for far too many years, something her mother warned her to hide, and her father pretended not tosee.
Freyja gently let his hand go. “I cannot deny what I am anymore, Father. And I know this upsets your beliefs, but there is something within me that is not human. And I don’t know what it is or where it came from, but I know my mother knew of it too. And I have to save the man Ilove.”
“Your mother’s powers are what stole her away,” her father whispered. “Please don’t ask this ofme.”
Freyja’s eyes narrowed. “What do youmean?”
“She never breathed a word of where she’d come from,” he admitted, “but she always feared certain things: circles of stone, or birch; All Hallow’s Eve. I don’t know why she entered that circle that last time, but when she came back, she was never the same. It killed her. They killedher.”
“They?”
Her father shook his head and made a sign of the cross, and she knew he would not speak ofit.
Freyja’s heart ached in her chest. “I love him,” she whispered. “He needs me. I know you’re frightened to lose me, but I promise I will come back. Would you have let her go, if you could have savedher?”
Her father’s hand curled into a gnarled fist. Then he finally broke down with a sob. “Besafe.”
“Always,” she said with a parting smile, and opened the door to step into herdestiny.
Outside in the yard, Haakon waited impatiently. Time was running out, but she’d needed to ensure her father was all right before she went intobattle.
“You want to make amends?” she asked himgrimly.
“Yes.”
