Page 44 of Storm of Desire
Árdís cleared her throat. "I was actually hoping... for a little more help thanthat."
He looked at herincredulously.
"You want me to take youthere?"
"Just as far as the svartálfar. It would be a few days’ journey. That's all. I know it's out of your way, but I don't have a great many options at this point in time. If I couldfly...."
But shecouldn't.
Because ofhim.
He'd made so many mistakes in the past year, consumed by his quest for revenge upon the dragon he'd thought had stolen her. He was still making those mistakes, driven by hurt and pain. The gaping hollowness within himyawned.
"I know I ask for too much," she whispered. "But you don't understand. This is not just me asking for help." Árdís glanced toward the stranger who'd almost made it to their side. "Marek is one of the court. They sentenced him to death. If you won't help me, then perhaps.... Would you consider helpinghim?"
The stranger looked like he'd been beaten within an inch of his life, and a bandage covered most of his forehead. Haakon recognized fever when he saw it in a man's eyes, but he also saw the sort of look a man gave when he worshipped awoman.
One of the court? Was thatallhe was toÁrdís?
Every muscle in his body locked tight. She couldn't be asking this of him. Couldshe?
"Who ishe?"
"A servant," she replied, without a hint of anything more in her voice. "He is loyal to my brother and will pay the price for it, if I do not help himescape."
Relief. Sweet relief. For whatever this Marek felt for her, it was clearly unreturned. But how easily had jealousystirred?
"This will only end in tragedy," he said, half to himself. A reminder, to steel hisnerves.
"It doesn't have to," Árdísmurmured.
He'd be better off cutting her from hislife.
He'd gotten what he wanted; not answers, not truly, but a chance to stare into her deceitful eyes and tell her how hefelt.
It wasn't anywhere near enough to slake hispain.
But....
"You still wantme."
For a second he'd believed, truly believed, there was something left between them. And maybe that was another question he needed to answer, before he could bury her in hisheart.
Perhaps Tormund had the right of it when he'd suggested Haakon had asked the wrongquestions.
She'd married him because she hadn't truly understood what he'd meant when he asked for her hand, but why had she lefthim?
"We'll destroy each other," he said, though it was more a recitation of facts. "And I don't know how much of myself I haveleft."
He hadn't realized, until her face fell, how much hope there'd been in her expression. "Isee."
No, you don't,he wanted toscream.
He'd dragged himself out of the depths of a never-ending tankard of ale. He'd burned for one purpose only in the last seven years: to find his wife and rescue her. To save her. To hold her in his arms one moretime.
The truth of her deception had shattered him like a cheap vase, and he felt as though he might have glued the pieces together again, but the fracture lines still showed. All it would take would be one more blow and he'd fragment into a millionpieces.
And this time, there would be no more putting himself backtogether.
