Page 100 of Storm of Fury
Marduk’s lips thinned as he glanced down at Solveig, and he stepped forward, lowering his face toward hers dutifully—
She stopped him with a firm palm to the chest. “This nonsense is done.”
“To the feasting hall,” the king roared and captured Solveig’s other hand, before bending down and whispering something sharply in her ear.
Her face paled with fury, but she ceased trying to tear the cords from her wrist and accepted the fact that she was bound to Marduk’s side, until they—
“Oh, gods.” Tormund winced. “The mating bed. She’s going to murder him.”
“Go talk to Bryn,” Haakon told him. “I’ll stand guard over our precious prince while they feast.”
Drekistreamed through the doors someone had opened at the end of the room. Flowers were flung from baskets, and some poordrekitried to lift Solveig into the air to carry her alongside Marduk. One glare was enough to disabuse him of this notion, and he tucked tail and ran as Solveig walked beside her husband, who was being carried by severaldreki.
It looked ridiculous.
It also looked planned. There were garlands everywhere upon second look.
“King Harald plays a deep game,” he muttered under his breath, as he swam through the crowd. That smug old bastard had looked him in the eye the other day, nodded sincerely, and then went and plotted a mating ceremony.
Ahead of him, a red head appeared.
Bryn pushed her way through the crowd, looking far prettier than she had any right to. His heart squeezed in his chest. She’d fit in his arms like she’d been made to fill them, and then she’dleft.
“I thought you’d be halfway to Oslo by now,” he told her curtly.
Bryn snatched at his wrist. “I need to talk to you.”
“Now?” He used his broad body to shield them from the room as his voice dropped. “There was plenty of time for talking before you stole from my bed.”
“Not about us, you idiot,” she hissed, shooting a look over his shoulder.
His gut dropped. Of course not. What had he been thinking? This was not a woman given to her emotions. “About what then?”
“Princess Solveig paid me for my role in this entire affair, but she also offered me another job. She wanted me to help prevent Marduk from taking her as a mate. At any cost.”
The words cut through the throb of anger that smoldered within him. “You think she expected this?”
“I don’t know what happened between them all those years ago, but yes, I think—despite her protests—that she feared this. And after I refused her….”
“She’s not the sort ofdrekito have only one escape plan in motion.” No. Solveig was her father’s warlord. She thought in circles. She prepared foranypossibility.
“Precisely.”
Their eyes met.
“She’s going to kill the prince,” he said.
He’d only been joking when he said it earlier.
Bryn wore a grim expression. “I think she’s going to try.”
* * *
The second the bedchambers closed,Solveig turned on him with a hiss. "You ruinous, wretched beast!" Clawing fingers came for his face.
Marduk was ready for her.
Capturing her wrists,he avoided the snap of her elbow and managed to twist under the blow. Hauling her back against his chest, he tried to restrain the rage. It was like riding the winds of a hurricane.
