Page 29 of Master of Storms
Solveig glanced down at her gaping shirt, her jaw dropping open.
“A button for a button, my dear.” He spread his arms wide. “Though if you want more of mine, then all you have to do is ask.”
Fury overrode her. Their rapiers clashed again and again. He had strength on his side—and reach—but she was faster.
It was somewhat disconcerting to realize he was almost her equal.
Almost.
“What’s wrong?” Marduk’s smile made her want to kick his teeth in as they broke apart for a brief moment. “Were you not expecting me to match you?”
“I will admit I’m a little surprised, considering you look like a silk handkerchief. Pretty, but ultimately useless.”
Marduk threw back his head and laughed, andugh, there was herdrekiagain, screeching inside her. “There wasn’t a great deal to do in my court while I was growing up. One of the swordmasters took pity on me, and offered to teach me how to duel. And I had visions of being some dashing pirate somewhere.” He waved the tip of his sword in a low zigzag. “Yourself?”
A pirate?
What was wrong with him?
“I wanted to protect my sisters,” she told him coldly. “And my people. In my court, princes and princesses are expected to serve their clan. We don’t run off to have selfish little adventures.”
His smile flattened. “Well, they did say you’re an ice princess.”
She almost lowered her sword. “What?”
“I was warned, most desperately, not to provoke you.”
“Well, you didn’t succeed,” she snarled, lunging forward.
“Who said I intended to listen? I told you, I like adventure,” he countered, and her rapier slid down his until they were practically entwined. His voice came in a rough-edged whisper, taut with smoky enjoyment. “What are you going to do now that this selfish little princeling has your measure?”
Solveig drove her knee into his thigh.
Marduk staggered back with a wince, their blades disengaging. “Storm’steeth.” He shot her a murderous look as he hobbled to the side. “That was unkind.”
Solveig prowled the top of the tower. “What are you talking about? I missed.”
Another wince. “Well, they were right. You are ruthless.”
They.
She refused to let it bother her that the loyal members of her court might be sowing disparaging seeds about her to his ears. She didn’t care what they said about her. She’d decided—at the age of fourteen—that she was going to create her own destiny, and those who disapproved could see their wings clipped.
But it rankled that no matter her accomplishments—how much she did for her clan—she was “cold” and “untouchable” and an “ice princess” simply because she didn’t roll over and bat her eyelashes at some male.
She knew exactly who he was talking about too. The older males in the clan. The ones who resented the way she’d taken over the warband at the young age of twenty.
He wanted her to be ruthless?
So be it.
Solveig drove forward like murder in black leather. She hammered him until he was forced into a retreat. Marduk’s eyes widened as if he sensed the change in her demeanor.
He shoved her back with brute strength, the muscle in his shoulders flexing beneath his shirt. The dangerous flash of his smile distracted her, and then he was lunging forward, forcing her to leap back as his rapier whistled through the air where her abdomen had just been.
Solveig landed like a cat, her eyes narrowing as he examined the point of his rapier as if he’d proven his point.
And a third button slowly rattled edge-over-edge on the ground beside her.
