Page 123 of Storm of Desire
"Go," he said, tipping his head to the sky. "Fly."
She turned and looked at him, pure joy filling her expression, and then with a sharp flap of her wings, she snatched at her travel bag and launched herself into thesky.
Haakon stared after her, his head tiltedback.
Árdís roared her happiness into the world, swooping around the roof of the small cottage. Haakon followed, his bare feet crushing the grass, and his heart strangely lifted. He laughed as she soared over the barn, sending the herd of sheep bleating in a madpanic.
A door banged open, and then Rurik joined him, his face tilted up. "You let hergo."
A soft ache in his chest made him smile, a little sadly. "She was never mine to keep." She belonged there in the skies, and if she chose to stay with him, then so beit.
A sideways glance. "Perhaps. Nowwhat?"
Rurik's steady gaze heldweight.
"Now we kill adrekiqueen," Haakon replied, releasing a slow breath. He met the otherdreki'seyes. "She thinks she's safe here. That your presence will drive off any who seek to take her. But I don't think your mother's going to just brush off her hands and claimdefeat."
"No." Rurik's gaze shuttered. "Árdís doesn't realize, but her coming here is a slap in my mother's face. She's effectively thrown down a gauntlet. They'll come for her. It's just a matter oftime."
"I have a plan." He'd spent the entire journey from Akureyri to Rurik's territory thinking of ways to defeat the seemingly invincibledrekiqueen. For he would not see Árdís's newfound freedom and happiness socompromised.
"I have a feeling Árdís isn't going to like it, isshe?"
"No." He smiled grimly. "Because, for it to succeed, I have to get close to your mother. Close enough for her to be able to killme."
Chapter 22
Rurik foundher on the edge of his volcano. She'd erupted into flight, unable to bear her mortal skin for another second longer. Haakon had merely waved her off, and then Árdís had soared into the skies, pure delight streaming through her as she spread herwings.
Her brother had followed, and though she knew it was because he feared intruders, it was so nice to fly with himagain.
He'd been the one who'd first pushed her into the skies as akit.
"I'm faster than you are,"she laughed, linking withhim.
"I didn't know it was arace."
Arrogantdrekimale. Árdís took a half-hearted swipe at his ribs. Then she summoned her power and let it flow over her, melding back into human shape. Wind caressed her skin, and her hair whipped around her as she found herself on bare feet. Árdís stared at her hands. The shift came so easily now. She'd never take it for granted again. Tugging her dress from her travel bag, she slipped it on. "No sign of them. Notyet."
Rurik dressed swiftly. "They'recoming."
Shesighed.
"Something you want to talk about?" he asked, towering overher.
Her sense of connection to the world had muted with the shift, but the exchange was the depth of her emotions. Árdís stared sightlessly over the landscape. "I don'tknow."
"Not the queen," he pointed out. "Or you would have spoken about it in front of theothers."
No. This was personal. Árdís stared out over the landscape. His volcano was beautiful. Smoking fumaroles dotted the landscape and she'd seen a crystalline lake tucked within thecaldera.
Her hand pressed to her chest. "I miss myring."
"Your wedding ring?" His eyessharpened.
She'd told him everything that morning, after herbath.
"Yes." Árdís bit her lip. "I feel incomplete somehow. I could be lying there in Haakon's arms, and it feels like mydrekiwants to push beyond my skin. I'm so... angry. And I have these violent urges whenever I think of mother." She looked up into his eyes. "It’s all I can do not to storm back home and challenge her. She threatened him. Shethreatenedhim."
