Page 119 of Storm of Desire
"Freyja," Rurik called, dragging his shirt over his broad shoulders. "We have aguest."
"Coming!"
The woman who stepped through the kitchen door wore a blonde braid tucked over her shoulder. One of her eyes was green, and the other brown. Árdís blinked, but then the other woman wassmiling.
"Welcome," Freyja said, crossing to take her by the forearms. "Rurik said you've had a long journey. I've put a lamb on to roast, and dinner should be ready within the hour. I'm sure you'refamished."
"Starving," she admitted, her head turning between the pair of them. "How didyou—?"
"Freyja is my twin flame," Rurik said, his eyes warm as he looked at his mate. "She knows everything Iknow."
His twinflame.
"Oh, I'm so happy for you." She sounded anything but. "No, truly, Iam."
Freyja exchanged a glance with him. "Perhaps you'd care for a bath? I have freshsoap."
A bath. Her eyes glazed over. She and Haakon had been making do with streams and cold water, but she was desperate to soak herself in hot water. She missed the thermal springs near her volcano. "Please. That would be lovely." She shot her brother a look. "I though you said she was horriblyfierce?"
Rurik's grin turned wolflike. "She tried to stick me with asword."
"That was one time," Freyja protested, her cheeks flushing. "Andyou'dstolen my ram. You atehim."
"I bought you another," he replied. "I didn't want to see youstarve."
"Rurik said you can manipulate storms, and the earth itself." Árdíscouldn't stop looking between the two of them. There was a camaraderie there that warmed her. "Is she partdrekling,Rurik?"
Her brother's lips thinned. "She is something. We're not entirely certain what. There might bedrekiblood in her bloodlines somewhere, though I suspect there's something else aswell."
"The queen won't like that,"she whispered, mind-to-mind withhim.
"Well, the queen is not here," Freyja said, proving just how closely linked they were. "Come, I'll show you to the bathing chambers. Rurik found an enormous copper tub somewhere in Europe and brought it back for me. I've filled it already, so I merely need to heat thewater."
"Heat thewater?"
Freyja captured her hand with a bland smile. Heat radiated through her palms. "Oh." She followed Freyja up the staircase. "You don't have to wait upon me. If you just show me where it is, Ican...."
Sit in coldwater.
It wasn't as though she could heat the damned thing herself, curse this wretchedmanacle.
* * *
Haakon groundhis teeth as he waded into the shallows of the river, the biting cold coming directly from some distant glacier. Not for him the hot bath, or scented soap. He sighed, and made do with his own. It was good to feel clean, and the water ate away at the numbness insidehim.
Árdís was safely arrived in her brother's territory, where her mother could not get toher.
He'd done what he'd set out toachieve.
Just one morething....
Ducking under the surface of the river, he shot back up with a startled gasp, flipping his hair back. The shock of it stirred him. Little pinpricks of sensation prickled all over his skin. Along with the sensation he was beingwatched.
He knew, even before heturned.
Árdís rested on the bank, her knees tucked up in front of her and her chin resting upon them. She'd given up even pretending to be human at this point, her eyes flaring gold with thedrekiwithin. She wore a skautbúningur of black wool, with golden embroidery down the center, and the color of the gown suited her. Freyja's, he suspected. Damp strands of hair tumbled down her back, and she tugged her brush from her travel bag, dragging it through the ends of her hair as she tilted her face to thesunlight.
Haakon waded to shore, scraping water off hisface.
