Page 37 of A Light So Blinding
Her hand twitched. She wanted to offer him comfort, and her offending fingers desperately wished to settle on his bunched shoulders and ease some of the tension there. But she did not. Instead she said, “It seems you were trained well. You kept me safe.”
Bjorn glanced up at her, his mouth slightly open in shock and his brows raised. It looked like he wanted to say something to her, and she wondered what those words could be. Would he thank her for her kindness? Would he argue?
Instead, the thoughts cleared from his expressive features, and he replied, “The priestesses in my world see beyond what you or I can see. The future is theirs to wield as a weapon, and as such, they are the only ones who can sever the bond between us.”
“Are they in the same place as my Rose?”
“No. They do not choose to remain in Trollveggen with the others. They hear too many thoughts. The mountain is crowded with those who would ask their opinion, drain their magics, and they are...” He waved around the hut. “Solitary creatures.”
“Then where are they?”
“Beyond the mountain,” he replied. “Where I grew from boy to man.”
Beyond the mountain? She’d never thought of going that far. He’d talked about it, of course, but she hadn’t ever thought that this journey would bring her there.
“What happens if we don’t?” she asked.
“Then we are bound for life. Perhaps you will find another, but I...” A muscle on his jaw jumped. “I will endure without you.”
So there really wasn’t a choice. They had to take this detour, or they would be tangled together forever.
Fourteen
Bjorn
Bjorn argued until the wee hours of the morning. Astrid was bound and determined that they were not going to go anywhere but to see her sister first, and he kept pointing out that if they did that, they were stuck together.
A part of him whispered that it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Even if she left, he would still have the memory of her, the feeling that there had once been something bright in his life.
Bjorn knew a life without his bound mate would be torture. He’d seen a few males who had either lost their wives too early, or who had been denied after the binding. He knew their lives were less without those women. Their souls always searched for the one they were bound to, even if it was only to feel the brush of their magic for just the barest of seconds.
He didn’t necessarily want to live like that, but... being tied to a woman like her wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened.
Eventually, she fell asleep in the broken bed. He could still see the anger radiating through her body even at rest. Her fistsremained clenched. Her jaw worked continually. He was certain he’d get an earful about this again once she woke and her mind had had time to consider the options. Their problem was simple. They needed to find her sister to appease her guilt and heartbreak, but they also needed to take care of themselves.
He wondered if Astrid had ever done that. She seemed so firm that she needed to take care of everyone other than herself. Even in their escape, she’d wanted to bring Rabbit when that was the absolute worst thing they could have done.
She still hadn’t asked for food. And when his own stomach rumbled, he realized she’d be starving before they left. Too many days without food would leave her weak, and he needed her strong for this journey.
There was no safer place for her than this hut. He hoped she had enough foresight to stay inside as he slipped out into the night. Soon enough, the sun would rise, and he would miss his opportunity to find the warrens that used to be plentiful in this area. When he was a child, he’d hunted rabbits for Embla.
She’d been old then too, he mused as he crouched down on the ground and sought the signs he was expecting to see. Footprints, droppings that would lead him to where the rabbits would leave their homes soon enough to start the day.
He crouched near what he suspected was a warren. Bjorn was a silent, dark figure who never moved until he saw the barest hint of a whiskered nose that was just starting to come out of its home. This area of the woods had always been plentiful with their kind, although he felt bad taking them right out of their home.
He made quick work of it. And though he was saddened by the loss of life, a thrill ran through him. He hadn’t hunted like this in a long time. Not for death and destruction, but to stay alive.
Part of his mind whispered that he was dreaming. Soon enough, he would wake up in his cell and realize his mind had conjured up a grand story to escape the horror of what was being done to him there. He had only needed a break from what he knew would continue until the day he died.
But then Bjorn felt the breeze on him again. It played through his hair, greasy and lank now that he’d had yet to bathe for days on end. There was no reason for cleanliness in the cells. The worse he looked, the better the humans liked it. The guards didn’t torment him as much if he looked like he had been abused. All the trolls knew that.
But now, as he took in a deep breath of the forest surrounding him, he couldn’t smell the moss or the loam. All he could smell was the stink of his body and the sweat that still clung to him. Even the metallic aroma of blood still lingered on his body. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t been able to smell her reactions or her emotions. Sometimes he could.
He had been able to with Ragnar’s woman. Maia, he remembered. Her name was Maia, and she had been a flame in his darkness that had lit up his cell. She had been hope, and now he was seeing all of that come to fruition.
Both his dear friend and his wife would be disappointed to see that he had become such a monster. Bjorn took great care in cleaning the rabbit and then headed off to the stream he could hear nearby. At the very least, he could wash himself before he returned. There was plenty of time before Astrid would wake.
The stream quickly came into view. It was a bubbling, happy brook with water that didn’t rush too fast and stones that had been softened by years of the water’s travels. Hanging the rabbit up on a tree for safety, he stripped off the loincloth that had kept him barely hidden from the eyes of so many humans who’d been all too happy to peek at what he hid beneath.
