Page 34 of Master of Storms
“If you hold my pillow to ransom, I may have to come marauding to get it back.”
She swiftly lobbed it back at him. “For the sake of peace between our courts. I’d hate to break my word and murder you.”
“You’re so predictable,” he laughed, as he hauled his pillow back under his head and then rolled onto his side to stare at her.
There was something intensely unsettling about the look he bestowed upon her.
He’d been easier to manipulate ten years ago. A golden lion of a youth who’d been quick to smile, easy to laugh, and brash with the confidence of the truly beautiful.
There was a weight around his eyes now that stole her breath. Watchful. More thoughtful. Eyes full of questions he kept to himself, and she wished she knew the answers he was silently supplying himself with.
“Go to sleep, Marduk. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.”
“You can try. But I daresay you’ll bide your time.” He stretched and yawned. “And I’m a little defensive when I sleep. If you come near me, sweetheart, you’d best be prepared to end up beneath me.”
“You keep saying ‘beneath me,’” she shot back. “Is that what makes you hard, Marduk? The idea of me on my back under you, begging for mercy—"
“Fuck.” He shifted again. “I was almost…. You did that on purpose.”
She gave an evil laugh.
“I swear you were put on this world to torture me.”
“Oh, Marduk.” She rolled her eyes. “I haven’t even started.”
“Two can play that game,” he warned.
“Yes, but you can’t touch unless I allow it.” Delight filled her. “Do you know, this proclamation of your brother’s actually works in my favor. I was going to make your punishment swift, but deathistoo kind. This suits me so much better. We have days ahead of us.Weeks. And I’m going to remind you hourly of what you can’t have. I’m going to haunt your dreams, Marduk. I’m going to get in your head and twist you around my little finger. I’m going to have you on your knees before me.”
And then she threw her head back and laughed.
Marduk growled under his breath.Frustration, thy name isdreki.It was almost enough to put a permanent smile on her lips.
“Can I ask you a question?” he finally asked.
“You can always ask. Whether I answer or not….”
“What will you do once Rurik ends our mating contract?”
Stillness slid through her. Without his heart, she couldn’t return home. And the rashness of her pledge to the goddess was beginning to impinge upon her. She’d been so angry—irrationally angry—and now she would suffer the consequences of that.
The loss of everything she loved.
Unless she killed him.
And if she killed him, then she risked starting a war.
Anger will be your undoing, my love, her mother’s voice whispered in her memories.
Solveig closed her eyes. “I will protect my court.”From afar, if necessary. “I will protect my sisters and see they live a happy life. I will murder my enemies and drink wine from their skulls….”
He laughed under his breath. “A worthy ambition. I was almost starting to think you weren’t a heartless monster until you mentioned that.”
Heartless.
Worse had been said about her, but the word struck her like an arrow sinking home. And she didn’t know why. She’d spent years building that reputation, so why did it sting when it came from his lips?
“May I askyoua question?”
