Page 4 of Storm of Desire
"Fucking cows," he muttered, staring into the skies and laughing humorlessly."I was hunting these cows."He should have known the truth the moment he mether.
Why else would she have been naked in astorm?
Why else would she have been endlessly curious about the customs of his hearth and home, as if she'd never lived thembefore?
For a man who'd lived all his life among myth and legend, it had been remarkably easy to haul the wool over hiseyes.
Anger brewed. Seven years spent believing his wife was either killed or kidnapped by adrekiwho rode one of these storms, only to discover his wifewasthe actualdreki, had left him bitter andhollow.
It was time for areckoning.
"Are you certain kidnapping your wife is the best way to go about this?" Tormund muttered, leaning against the wall beside him. "Bjorn might have a point about a dragon princess not appreciating being manhandled likethat."
"Dreki," Haakon corrected absently. "They don't like to be calleddragon."
Tormund gave him a strange look. "Either way, I would prefer to dine on the pig on the spit out back tonight. Notbethe oneroasting."
"Rurik said fewdrekiown the gift to actually breatheflame."
"Aye, and Rurik's her brother. Where do you think his loyaltieslie?"
Haakon glanced toward the flicker of lightning through the window, before slinging back the rest of his ale. "He wouldn't have told me the truth about her if he intended me to die at her hand. He's... an admirable creature. He believes in debts of honor andfate."
He'd have never believed those words would come from his mouth before he set foot on theseshores.
"Let us hope his sister believes in honortoo."
Haakon's smile felt tight. "I wouldn't trust her sense of decency. She's already proven she has no compunctions with deceit, but I have means to counteract her powers, if it comes down toit."
The heavy weight of the gold cuff in his pocket seemed towarm.
Tormund stared at him. "I hope you know what you're doing. She was yourwife—"
"She was a lying, conniving creature with a heart of ice," he correctedcoldly.
"Still...." Tormund hesitated, but Haakon paid him littleattention.
He'd spent months learning the difference between a regular storm and adrekistorm. This was it. Shehadto be here in Reykjavik somewhere. He was weary with waiting, but without magic he couldn't get into thedrekicourt beneath the volcano of Hekla, according to the exileddrekiprince, Rurik. He'd needed her to come for him, and he'd baited the trap appropriately. "Do you have any better ideas? Preferably ones without that flowernonsense?"
After all, he wasn't here to win his wife back, or to woo her, or whatever other nonsense the men werediscussing.
He was here foranswers.
Tormund winced. "Kidnapping it isthen."
* * *
There werefew things that gave Árdís pleasure these days, but the promise of an emerald necklace the likes of which she'd never seen before cameclose.
Gliding above the storm, she turned in slow barrel rolls, exulting in the wind beneath her wings. Reykjavik sprawled beneath her, the very sign of its humanity calling to her as she began herdive.
The storm lashed out as she pulled out of the dive and alighted upon a rocky crag overlooking the town. Lightning flashed as Árdís threw her wings out, a shimmer of power spilling through her. Heat washed through her veins. And then she was squatting on bare feet, her hands held aloft as she transformed to her mortalform.
Instantly fat raindrops splashed her bare skin. It always felt so strange to shift forms. Thedrekiwas mighty and impervious, gilded by scales of gold that protected her from danger, but also from so much raw sensation. In herdrekiform she heard each groan of the earth, and the whisper of winds through the skies in a way her mortal ear could not perceive, and yet to be human connected her to the world in ways she'd never been able to imagine before her firstshift.
She'd felt hands on her skin in this form. Lips trailing down her neck. The weight of her husband pressing her down into their mattress as he made love to her for the firsttime.
And the utter destruction of a heart she'd brokenherself.
