Page 130 of Master of Storms
She’d barely been able to see for her tears. “No, no. Please, no.”
“I’m… dying….” Her mother’s fingers caught her own. “Do this. Kill… him. Kill him for me….”
And she—who had spent so many years obeying that voice—twisted the knife.
“Be brave, Solveig,” she whispered now to Marduk. “I knew what those words meant. I pushed myself to my feet and dragged myself toward where he lay screaming. The loss of a true mate is a crippling blow, but death is slow and languishing. Sometimes, it can take many years. And I didn’t want it to take many years. I wanted it tohurt.”
And so she had made it hurt.
The memories of Fornax’s screams were the only things that stayed the nightmares.
And then she’d crawled to her sister and wrapped both arms around her, hauling the sobbing Siv against her chest. “Don’t look.” Somehow the words escaped her raw throat. “Don’t look. He’s gone. He’s gone. We’re safe.”
“Sweet goddess,” Marduk whispered, stroking the air off her forehead. “Solveig, I’m so sorry.”
Solveig blinked back into the present, stiffening at the sensation of a warm hand splayed across the small of her back. She released a shuddering breath. She could never forget it. And maybe that was for the best, for there was a lesson there. One that remained vital.
Turning, she locked eyes with Marduk, trying to make him understand. “I will never be owned by anyone. Not like that.” Shaking off his hand, she pushed herself to her feet in the bath, water sluicing down her body. “Maybe there is some small part of me that yearns to be whole. But even if I were to find such a bond, I could never accept it. I swore on her body that I wouldneverlet a male own me like that.”
Marduk offered her a towel, his eyes filled with sympathy. Wrapping the soft fabric around her, he gently lifted her out of the bath. “What he did was a corruption of the mating bond—”
“I don’t care.”
And Marduk said nothing, though she saw the rebellion in his eyes.
25
“You seem… content,” Árdís murmured as she fluffed Solveig’s pillows.
Solveig shot her a look. “Content?”
A little smile danced over the princess’s lips. “You and my brother are no longer fighting.”
“Oh, believe me, we’re still fighting.”
Though she wasn’t certain if “fighting” was the right word.
Marduk hadn’t said a damned thing in response to her insistence that she’d never accept a mating bond.
He’d been avoiding her this morning too, she suspected.
The whole thing made her skin itch on the inside. She should have been pleased he’d accepted her choice.
But a part of her wanted the fight. She wanted him to return volley.
She wanted him to… what? Demand that she accept him? Force the issue? Insist?
It made no sense, and she’d spent all night tossing and turning, listening to him breathe quietly and knowing he wasn’t getting any sleep either.
“True.” There was a devilish look in the other princess’s eyes. “But I think the difference lies in the way you reconcile, does it not?”
“It’s a temporary alliance. Nothing more. You don’t have to do this.”
Árdís laughed under her breath as she helped Solveig to sit up. “Yes, I do. I’m the only one allowed in here. Marduk won’t let anyone else broach these chambers. It’s almost… territorial.”
Solveig glared at the wall.
The problem was that hewasn’tacting territorial at all.
