Page 126 of A Light So Blinding
Bjorn tightened his arm around her shoulder, looking down at her with a fondness that made her heart sing with joy.
“Happy?” he asked, low and quiet so no one would hear the question but her.
“Blissful,” she replied, before kissing him in front of everyone.
If the trolls cheered, well... they were right to do so.
Epilogue
Epilogue
Gunnar had started to develop a sixth sense about where Rose was. Maybe that was because he constantly had to chase her down. Every time she drifted into that made-up world of hers, she wandered. It could be in the middle of the night, sometimes in the middle of a party, but he had gotten pretty used to it.
Right now, he was in the middle of a meeting with King Egil. Most of the marriageable men were here, and he frankly wasn’t interested in whatever the king was going to say. He hadn’t been this morning when he rolled out of bed, and he sure wasn’t now.
Egil was talking, and Gunnar was worried about what Rose was doing. He could feel that she was wandering. Somehow, he always knew. Maybe it was because he’d become so familiar with her, but heknewwhen she went on her walks.
“There are more marriageable women here than ever before, and you lot don’t have the faintest idea how to woo them,” the king said, his tone disgusted. “We are going to be hosting the bridal games again. It has been nearly a hundred years sincewe’ve had enough people to do it. But we are finally going to host them.”
One of the women next to him piped up, “What about us? Is this just for the men?”
“There have been plenty of human men arriving with the women as well. There are countless of them, and they are all with varying degrees of power.” The king stared pointedly at her. “Did you believe I would leave you out of this? Children are good for all of us. Power built into the troll kingdom benefits the whole. You and your sisters will compete alongside our men.”
Gunnar could feel the swell of happiness from the women around him. They’d been awfully frustrated lately. More troll men had their eyes on human women than they did on troll women, and even he had noticed how difficult that was for them.
But the human women, especially the priestesses, were shiny and new. They were pretty bright things who wandered through the streets with a sense of awe that made even him look at his kingdom with fresh eyes. Their newness would wear off, though. He was certain of that.
Crossing his arms over his chest, he tried to focus on what the king said. “The bridal games will consist of many competitions to show how strong you are. That will be physically, mentally, and magically. Of course, the human women and men will choose who they are interested in. I don’t think it’s likely that the humans will compete with you, but stranger things have happened lately. You don’t all have to compete for anyone’s attention. It is a true bridal game, not just for our newcomers.”
Interesting, but he did not care. Rose was wandering farther and farther from him as they spoke. He had left her in the hall outside, so what had set her off this time?
He lifted his hand, waiting for the king to look at him.
“And if we are not interested in competing?”
“All of you are competing.”
“I already have a human I’m interested in.” He had no shame in announcing it. Most here knew already, considering how often he and Rose were tied together.
But the king did not care. “Everyone will compete,” he repeated. “Even you, Gunnar. You are one of my best fighters. I will not lose you to someone who is uninterested. You will at least have to participate and try.”
“I have no interest in trying.”
“Then I have no interest in funding any of your adventures.” The king cut straight to the heart of what Gunnar was best at. He scouted for them, but also researched many plants, animals, and enjoyed being outside of Trollveggen. If the king was going to limit that, or deny him entirely…
Shit. Well. He supposed he was competing then.
Gunnar nodded, but he didn’t have to be happy about it. He’d go through the motions, pretend that he was even invested enough to be there, and then he would return to figuring out his way underneath Rose’s shield. The woman had proven to be impossibly difficult thus far, but he enjoyed a challenge.
He waited until the first moment he could slip out and then ran out of the room. A few trolls were waiting for him, already pointing in the direction that Rose had headed off. Most of them were used to her behaviors, but really the woman needed to stop doing this and just tell him what was upsetting her.
He worried when she wandered. She was going to hurt herself one of these days because he couldn’t tie her to him.
Although now that he was thinking about it, it wasn’t a terrible idea. If they were literally tied together, then she couldn’t get too far without him knowing where she was. And then maybe people would leave him alone in these bridal trials. They would see that he wasn’t interested in anyone but her, and they would then turn their attention to other trolls.
That would work. He’d have to get her to agree to it. Which would be easy. It was Rose. The woman didn’t know how to say no, and even though he was trying very hard to anticipate what she wouldn’t like, at the very least he could take advantage of this.
He was doing it for her own good, after all.
