Page 10 of Vicar
Chapter Five
“LOKI THINKS I mighthave passed through more than one world before I was born,” Trinity exclaimed when she telepathically caught the conversation she’d left behind. Grateful for the distance she and Tor were putting between them and everyone else, she stuck close to him as he showed her around the Alfheim cave. “How is that even possible?”
Despite Raven’s terror of Tor, Trinity felt at ease with him. More comfortable with him than the others. Thorulf seemed fine, but Loki, Vicar, and even, regrettably, her own sister, not so much. She loved Jade, but she was too blunt and thought nothing of talking about sex. Something shesowasn’t about to do in a room full of Viking men.
“If I’ve learned nothing else in all this, it’s that anything is possible.” Tor pointed out how the water running down one wall shimmered a thousand different colors. “It would make sense you might have been subjected to more than one world before being born on Midgard. Especially Alfheim, given how comfortable you are in this cave.” He smiled when she crouched beside a pond glittering the same colors as the waterfall and ran her hand through the icy water. “Point, in fact, no dragon would attempt that. Yet you’re not suffering any negative effects from it, are you?”
“No, not at all.” She closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief when warmth spread up her arm, and she relaxed. “I feel more balanced than ever. Completely at ease.”
Grateful, she smiled in return, comfortable being honest with him. “Thanks for getting me out of there. It was getting a little intense.”
Tor nodded. “It was.” He considered her, clearly debating how much he wanted to say before continuing. “But not as intense as it could have gotten, and I wonder at that.”
“You mean you wonder at Vicar’s behavior,” Trinity guessed. She stood and dried her hand on her sweatshirt. “Because he’s not usually this calm.”
“No.” His wise gaze remained on her. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
While she was by no means ready to admit as much to everyone else, something about Tor kept her honest. “I have a better sense of Vicar than I should, considering we’ve only just met.” She reflected on the memory they had just witnessed. “Or so I thought.” She sighed. “Either way, I feel connected to him in ways I shouldn’t. Connected in ways that make no sense...but do.”
“You’re referring to your more dominant side, I assume?” They continued further into the cave. “A side you didn’t know you had until recently?” He arched a brow at her. “A side more suitable to Vicar’s Múspellsheimr half?”
“Maybe.” Trinity winced. “Not sure I’d call it suitable, but an accident waiting to happen.” She shook her head. “Because there’s no way that whatever’s buried inside me will back down from him.” This time she outright cringed, just imagining it. “She’ll die before she lets him control her or tell her what to do.”
“Yet you’re not all that worried about dying,” he contemplated. “Are you?” Remarkably observant, he tilted his head in question. “You’re more worried about what this other side of you is capable of. What kind of damage she could do to your sisters...what kind of harm she could do to Vicar.”
“Yes,” she admitted, not liking any of it. Not the demon she felt brewing inside her or that she worried about harming a perfect stranger almost more than she did her own sisters. “What do you make of it?”
“That good and bad war inside you every bit as much as they do Vicar,” he replied. “Two sides of the same coin. Sides that I suspect only your inner dragons understand. Two halves that unquestionably bind you.” He gestured back the way they had come. “And we just caught a glimpse of it in the memory back there.”
“Hard to imagine,” she murmured. “Split personalities or not, we couldn’t be more different in real life.”
She might be overly attracted to Vicar, but the buck stopped there. He was, in every sense of the word, terrifying. Despite how rational his Sigdir half came across, she could still feel his Múspellsheimr side simmering beneath the surface. A wild, cutthroat beast willing to do anything to get what he wanted.
“Real life?” Tor chuckled, showing her various nooks and crannies in the magical cave. “And what is real life? The time you spent in the future where you clearly forgot your past? Time that couldn’t have truly molded you into the dragon you’re supposed to be? Not when you’d already connected with your mate here.”
“Mymate?” She shook her head. “Sorry, but I’m not nearly there when it comes to Vicar.” It might be forward, but it was the truth. “If anything, you seem more my sort.”
