Page 64 of Storm of Desire
"He doesn't like it when you speak to him like that." Árdís watched the horse's ears flicker back and forth, and stepped closer to rub her hand over his velvety muzzle, his whiskers pricklingher.
"He'll like it even less if I slide right off the other side when I try to mount." Haakon grunted under his breath, and dragged the girth tighter. "If we move too fast, we'll drawattention."
"And here I thought you just wanted to spend more time with me." She glanced at him from beneath herlashes.
Haakon paused, swiftly buckling the girth into place. His attention shifted toward her, his pale eyes narrowing in upon her with a tight focus that made her catch herbreath.
It felt as though the world around themvanished.
"I want my grandmother’s ring back," he finallysaid.
"And that's all youwant?"
His pupils dilated, and he took a jerky step toward her, before stopping. "No, that's not all I want. But it's all I'm going to get, so what is the point in pretendingotherwise?"
Árdís folded her arms over her chest, even as her sex clenched tight with need. Being with him for so many nights began to seem an agony of its own. Seeing his cold, closed-off face counterbalanced against the heat in his eyes had given her nothing but a restless sleep ever since they'd set off. "We don't have to be at odds. Lastnight—"
"Last night was a mistake, Árdís. I shouldn't have touched you like that." Haakon clenched his eyes shut, leaning against thesaddle.
"I didn'tmind."
"Why?" His lips pressed firmly together, stark, angry color flooding through his cheeks. "So we can pretend there's anything left between us? Why bother,Princess? It's only alie."
She felt sick to her stomach, hating the way his tongue caressed the word princess, as if to mockher.
"I want you safe," he said, turning to his saddlebags and the assorted weaponry he carried. "I want you to see your brother again. Then I owe you nothing else but agoodbye."
Árdís captured Sleipnir's muzzle between her hands again, trying to swallow down the choking fist of hurt in her throat. She'd broken the part of him she loved the best—the part that looked at her as if she'd set the very moon in the skies, the part that promised her forever and made her believeit.
And she couldn't even tell himwhy.
Somehow she forced herself to smile, though she didn't dare let Haakon see her eyes. They felt far too warm, and she blinked to clear them. "Let us be going then. The sooner we arrive, the sooner you can be rid ofme."
She simply didn't have the strength of will to continue the conversation. Turning around, she began helping Haakon to load up both horses, though Snorri, predictably, refused to allow her anywhere nearhim.
It wasn't until Haakon had mounted and reached down to offer her his hand that she realized perhaps her subterfuge hadn't goneunnoticed.
"I didn't mean it like that, Árdís," he murmured, helping her to swing up behind him. "I just meant, can there be anything left between us when all is said and done?Isthere anythingleft?"
Somehow she wrapped her cold arms around him. "No."
There was a moment where he might have said something else, but instead the words died on hislips.
Árdís looked up, into the hard line of his profile. Though he was in her arms, it felt as though the distance between them had never been greater. And she wanted to change that distance. She wanted to obliterate it. To tell him how she trulyfelt.
But that would only cost him his life. She couldn't beselfish.
It was better thisway.
"Perhaps we should be going?" she saidinstead.
* * *
"Twodreki,"Árdís pointed out, though evenhecould see faint hints of the secondone.
Haakon cursed, watching the skies from the overhang of a vast shelf of rock. They'd taken shelter beneath it the second Árdís noticed thedreki. "Why isn't it bloody raining? It rains nine days out of ten here. I had to clean mold off my riding leathers last week. But the second you decide to flee the royal court, we receive a blast of sunny, cleardays."
"It was raining the night I fled. I had to crawl up hills slick with mud. I, at least, am not cursing thesunlight."
