Page 109 of Storm of Desire
"You arenot fine," she suddenly screamed, and all of the men fellsilent.
Tormund helped her to her feet, tucking her under one massive arm. "Aye, lass. He'll live. I've seen him takeworse."
A storm of tears suddenly rolled over her. Árdís never cried. His stomach dropped. Haakon tried to sit up, and Bjorn helped him. "Árja...."
"I'm fine," she whispered, pushing away fromTormund.
Who opened his mouth to say something. Haakon shook his head sharply. Now was not thetime.
She dashed the tears from her face, shaking violently. Every move she made was stiff with a growing rage. Tears gleamed in her eyes, but there was a fierceness there he barely recognized, and her pupils were cat-slit, as though thedrekirose to the surface. "What did she say to you? Did she sayanything?"
"She said it would have been a kinddeath."
Árdís bared her teeth, as Tormund and the others reached down to help him to his feet. "That vindictive bitch. I swear to all the gods I will show her what an unkind deathmeans."
Finally ready tofight.
But for the first time, he had a true idea of just how powerful thedrekiqueenwas.
Chapter 19
Árdís pacedthe small cabin they shared, and if she'd been indrekiform, he would have sworn her tail lashed behindher.
He was practically swaddled in enough blankets to warm an army, and the tea warmed him from the inside. Every inch of him ached with tiredness, but a part of him didn't dare fall asleep again. He wanted to drag his wife into bed and hold her in his arms, but she was having none ofthat.
Rage burned withinher.
The clouds outside weren't quite a storm, but winds whipped them into large gusts, and though she wore the manacle, some part of her power must have been leeching through. If he wasn't so bone tired, and she angry, he might have kissedher.
He'd never seen her like this before, and it made his cockharden.
"She hasn't killed me yet," Haakon pointed out, his voice rasping from the pain. There'd been no more blood, but his chest still ached, and breathing washard.
The wrong thing tosay.
She spun on him, her amber eyes alight with fury. "That is not the point! She could! She could steal you away in the night, before I even knew she was there. She could burn your spirit to cold ash, and there would be nothing I could do about it. I would wake to a cold empty body beside me,and—"
The sound she made almost chokedhim.
"Árja!" He managed to stand and grabbed her wrists, and she pulled against him, as though she needed to lash out at something. Blankets fell away from him, except for the one he held around his waist with one hand. Anguish stole away some of her fierceness, and he realized how frightened she was. Crushing her against his chest, he cupped his hand over the base of her skull, and forced her into his arms. "Árja, just breathe. Listen to my heart. Calm yourself. She's not going to kill me." He didn't know why, but he was certain of the fact. "Or she would have done soalready."
If the queen had managed to curl her hand around his heart from such a distance, then she could have done it at any stage of the dream. No, this hadn't been intended to kill him. Not truly. This had been awarning.
A flex ofpower.
I can kill him whenever I want to, if you don't obeyme.
If she killed him, then Árdís had no reason toreturn.
But the threat ofit?
"You nearly threw yourself overboard," Árdís sobbed. "I almost slept throughit."
"You always were a sound sleeper." Haakon pressed a kiss to the top of herhead.
This fear of hers was overwhelming. But he finally understoodit.
Words couldn't offer the full extent of the danger. Neither Árdís's, nor Marek's. He'd held hope after his visit with Marek—the queen wasn't physically strong enough to stand against any challenges, and relied on her brother, Stellan, to protect her thusly, so it had seemedsimple.
