Page 19 of Storm of Desire
Sirius.
Haakon paused there. His hand slid through her hair, and then she was kissing him once more, unable to resist, even as her heart broke into a thousand morepieces.
Haakon let her go, his fingers snagging in her hair. He teased the ends of one small strand of it between thumb and forefinger, and then slowly lookedup.
"If you can forget me," he whispered, "then there is nothing more between us. I won't wait for you, Árdís. Not this time. I gave you everything, and you left me behind. You broke me, and you never once lookedback."
Sirius would find her at any moment... but her hand captured his, her throat suddenly dry. "What are yousaying?"
"My ship leaves in three days. I'm sailing home. Forever. Unless you give me a reason tostay."
Hope crested and broke within her chest. None of her reasons had changed. She loved him, and the only way to save his life was to make sure he never walked back into hers. She tried to memorize his face, knowing it would haunt her dreams for the rest of herlife.
"There is no reason," she forced herself to say. "I cannot give you what you want. Only your freedom. We are done here. I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance to say goodbye. I'm sorry I dragged you through all these years. I should have released youproperly."
His thumb stroked the fleshy pad of her palm. "Freedom? How am I ever free ofyou?"
"You could remarry. The name I gave you was false. The marriage isn't legallybinding."
"Unlike others, when I give my word, I mean it." He gave her an odd look. "It seems your understanding of the word—and its customs—has improved over theyears."
Árdís bit her lip. "Go. Go and... have children. Create a life for yourself and growold."
His nostrils flared. "You don't meanthat."
"I do. Find someone else...."To marry. The words caught on her tongue and stuck there, for it wasn't the truth of her heart and herdrekisoul knew it. "Be happy," she said instead, for she could mean thosewords.
He stared into her eyes, and she thought he was going to argue further. A fist hammered on the door behind her. Árdísflinched.
"Three days," he said softly. "If you're not there by dawn when we sail, then I'll forget you. I swear Iwill."
And then Haakon vanished through the window, turning to stride along thegable.
Just as the door burst open behindher.
4
You havethe storm in your veins, and fire in your heart.You are a princess of the Zini court.You can faceher.
Árdís took a deep breath, and slammed both hands flat against the golden doors leading from her private chambers into the royal wing, pushing them open. She'd dallied long enough, and her mother wouldn't be pleased to find her summons gone unanswered, but the events in Reykjavik had raised conflict in herheart.
She felt restless.Cagey.
A violent spirit gowned in goldsilk.
It didn't help that the queen had called an audience before the entire court, and nobody seemed to know what it wasabout.
The rough-edged corridor Árdís stalked along looked like it had been carved straight out of basalt. The floor gleamed like a mirror, polished by the Chaos magic that had created the court. Located in the heart of the volcano Hekla, the court was a world outside of the natural one, a bubble in time and space created by Chaos magic, where thedrekiof theZiniclancongregated.
Most of them had their own volcanoes and territories in the country. Her own was a small mountain in the south, where heat leaked from fumaroles, and she could lounge and listen to the hypnotic groan of the earth. But the court was where the clan gathered, and where those who had no territories of their own resided. It was enormous, a space that shouldn't have fit within the volcano—and didn't. Chaos bubbles existed in a side world of theirown.
But despite the size, it was tradition thatdrekiwould walk these halls in mortal form, and Árdís breathed a sigh of relief, for she didn't know how she'd explain the episode with thebracelet.
It had been all she could do to talk Sirius into allowing her to use the portal the servants used to travel back to Hekla, and even then his blue eyes had narrowed withsuspicion.
Árdís strode toward the enormous throne room in the heart of the court, her golden skirts twitching about her ankles.I'll forget you. I swear I will. The words hammered in time to the sound of her racingheart.
Stop it, she told herself.It's over. It'sdone.
