Page 74 of Storm of Fury
Haakon looked up at where his manacles were bolted to the wall. He flexed the muscles in his biceps, straining valiantly. Nothing happened.
“These manacles were built fordreki,mortal,” Marduk called. “You won’t be able to break them.”
“I don’t intend to break them.” Haakon gave Tormund a look he knew far too well.
“Oh, no.” He shook his head. “Whatever thought just crossed your mind, I want no part of it. I know that look. I’m going to hate this plan.”
“You’re going to hate this plan,” Haakon confirmed. “But we’ll be free.”
“The last time I followed one of your harebrained plans, I ended up with honey in my beard and a bear on my ass.”
“She was a friendly bear,” Haakon protested.
“That’s because she thought I was amalebear.”
“Getting us out of these chains isn’t the difficult part,” Haakon replied in a soothing voice. “It’s getting the key that requires a little bit of… negotiating.”
“What key?”
Haakon twisted his body and looked down at his hips. “While the pair of you were trying to fight your way out of Solveig’s ambush, I was being friendly with Bryn.”
“Beingwhat? You’re married!”
And she’s mine.
“Not that kind of friendly.” Haakon arched an icy brow. “I stole her key. I thought it might be required at a later point.”
“Thekey?” The breath went out of him.
Haakon nodded.
“What key?” Marduk looked confused. “And what bear?”
“A key that can open any lock in the world.” Tormund’s mind raced. “Then what’s the problem?”
“It’s in my pocket.” Haakon gave a wiggle of his hips, and then rattled his hands. “My back pocket.”
Tormund looked up at Haakon’s bound hands. Then down at his cousin’s leather clad ass.
“So we have a magical key that can unlock any fucking lock in the world, but we can’t get it?” he growled.
“I can’t get it,” Haakon pointed out. “But you can.”
“How the fuck am I going to get the key?” Even as he said the words, he was shaking his head.Oh, no. Hell, no.
Haakon curled his body in half, wrapping one ankle around the manacles above him, his ass swaying in the air. “Use your teeth.”
* * *
“We never speak of this again,”Tormund said, prowling through the depths of the underground cells.
“Agreed.” Haakon surged ahead of him, a set of manacles wrapped around his fist as a weapon.
“I mean…, you have to be wearing the tightest pair of trousers you own.”
“I gave my bigger pair to Sirius. And I thought we weren’t speaking of this?”
Tormund spat on the floor. “When we return to Iceland, I am done with this. I am done with you! Why am I always the one who ends up neck deep in horseshit?”
