Page 33 of Vicar
Chapter Fifteen
WARMED BY THE sightof her and Vicar walking by as teenagers, so clearly in love, Trinity blinked away the darkness that had been surfacing and breathed a sigh of relief. Anyone else looking would see Vicar walking alone, but they saw Trinity too. Felt their intense emotions.
“Come.” Vicar pulled her after him when he knew she was all right. “Let’s follow them.”
They did, all the way to a snow-covered lodge she remembered well. She smiled at him. “This is yours!”
“I believe it was as muchoursas our lair and cave.” He grinned when his younger self sprinted ahead and opened the door for her. To any onlooker, he merely held it open long enough to shake off the snow.
When Trinity and Vicar slipped in after them, Trinity stopped short in awe. An inviting fire crackled on the hearth, and magical stars twinkled everywhere, flickering the color of whatever object they were closest to.
“You created them to look like the Alfheim cave,” Trinity said softly, moments before her teenage self said the same thing. “Because it was where I was most at peace.”
“You like it then?” teenage Vicar asked, hopeful. “Ja?”
“Yes.” Trinity looked at him with her heart in her eyes. “Thank you, Vicar.”
She was about to say more when he unsheathed his sword, fell to a knee in front of her, and gazed up at her.
“I’m mimicking what you told me modern-day men do,” Vicar revealed, as baffled by the scene as her.
“What’s that?” she barely managed, overcome with emotion.
There was no need to answer because their younger selves showed them.
“As you know, we don’t exchange rings here,” teenage Vicar began, his voice a little shaky. “But a sword from one family to another.” He laid the blade at her transparent feet. “So I ask you over my family’s blade, will you marry me, Trinity?” He pulled something shocking out of his pocket and laid it on the blade. “Will you, with a piece of Alfheim as our witness, become my wife and fated mate?”
“Oh,wow,” Trinity whispered, stunned. “Is that what I think it is?” She pulled the Alfheim pebble from her pocket and looked between the two rocks. “It is! They’re identical.”
“So the Alfheim cavemustbe our lair,” Vicar managed, his thoughts all over the place. She knew he had never wanted to marry, never mind mate or become fated mates, yet here was proof he once had. Proof that he’d wanted to bind himself to her life after life.
“And that stone is very much the one you hold now,” he went on. “Because Alfheim rock repels dragons, it took every ounce of magic I had to break it off the stone you first hid behind because I wanted you to always remember...”
“Remember what?” she whispered, wiping away a tear as the memory answered her question.
“The stone is so you always remember there’s no need to be afraid when you’re with me,” teenage Vicar said. “I will always protect you, Trinity, no matter Múspellsheimr’s influence over you or the monster seeking you out.”
