Page 20 of Master of Storms
She couldn’t return to her home.
She’d sworn an oath to the goddess that she wouldn’t return until she’d killed Marduk. Maybe she could reach her father via a psychic link in order to warn him, but the distance was great and the odds improbable. There was an entire sea between them and water often disrupted magic.
TheZiniking would have a means to contact her father. She could warn him then. And then she would be perfectly placed to assist in this little elvish plot.
Vengeance could wait.
“Fine. We’ll return to your court. I want these bastards dead.”
“I thought you might see it that way.”
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Marduk, but don’t get comfortable. The second these elves are buried in the ground, I’m going to try to kill you again.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else.” He suddenly flashed a smile at her—a perfect blinding smile that almost made her breath catch. “But be careful, Solveig. There’s more than one way to win a war. And now I know you’re out there and you want my heart, I’m going to be on my guard. One way or another, this needs to end. One of us needs to surrender.”
“You think it’s going to be me?”
“You did save my life. I don’t think you hate me as much as you claim to.”
You son of a bitch—
“I didn’t like the odds. And I wasn’t going to let that prick steal my kill.”
Marduk laughed as his fingers dropped to the buttons on the trousers he’d stolen. She could sense his magic swelling within him as he prepared to shift. “Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart. And do try not to stare too much.”
Solveig growled and turned around as she started tugging at her own shirt. “I’m going to kill you slowly. So slowly you beg me for mercy. They will write sagas about the painful death I envision.”
“All these dirty promises…. You know what I think? One of is going to beg for mercy… But it won’t be me.”
Solveig fought the urge to scream.
4
“Elves?” Rurik demanded the second Marduk pushed through the double doors leading to his brother’s antechambers. “In my lands? Are you sure?”
Marduk sighed as he approached his brother. He’d contacted Rurik the second he and Solveig were free of their pursuit. Rurik sat at the head of a round table surrounded by at least twelve other chairs. Ten of them were filled with members of theZinicourt.
“Yes, brother. I’m sure. They made my skin creep.”
“That’s not all they made you do,” said a voice behind him.
Heads turned.
Solveig sauntered into the room like a queen without her crown. The cloak he’d found for her was spattered with mud, and her hair looked like a wild tangle that had been through a storm, but she moved as if she intend to kick Rurik off his throne and claim it herself.
Despite her borrowed clothes.
Marduk suddenly realized his brother had never actually met the princess. Rurik had been exiled to the north long before she’d flown into Marduk’s life and set his fate spinning wildly off course.
This was going to be so much fun.
“Your brother was two seconds away from kissing the elf’s boot,” Solveig purred. “If we weren’t in such dire straits, I may have paused to enjoy the idea of seeing him so humbled.”
“And… you are?”
It was a challenge, for Rurik knew exactly who was standing in his council chambers.
“Oh, did I not mention my companion?” Marduk couldn’t keep the grin off his face as Solveig took a seat in the chair he held out for her.
