Page 56 of A Light So Blinding
Astrid tried to keep her breathing regulated until they made it to his mother’s home. Ylva’s house was apparently a cottage just like the others, although it seemed to have been in this grotto for much longer. The trees just beyond had dipped down, their leaves giving her home a rather lofted looking roof, even though Astrid could tell that wasn’t part of the home at all.
Rather than the prominent crystals that had so far decorated this place, Ylva’s home had gleaming stones laid beside the rock path. It was pretty. Sparkling. The mark of a woman who lived on her own and who enjoyed delicate things. Not entirely what Astrid had thought she would find in this place.
And still, her mind went right back to Bjorn losing himself when the crowd of people had approached him. She could see his emotions in streaks of color that rioted around him. For a moment, all she had seen was a cloud of red that created a haze between him and the others. She’d known he was angry, far more than she could ever have guessed he would be. Thensickly yellow beams had burst through the red. Shame, she had realized at the moment.
He didn’t want to be angry. He didn’t want to scare people. But he also needed time, and they weren’t respecting that.
Ten years of torment and fighting and anger had turned him into the man he was now. She feared most people here would want him to be the same person they remembered from the last time he had left. The carefree young man she had heard of, and the man he claimed to have been.
There wasn’t a hint of that person left in him. The hopeful young man who had left here carrying a warrior’s dream had been beaten into the blood and mud of the labyrinth and left there so this version of Bjorn could rise.
He stalked up to his mother’s house, red still bursting free from his skin every now and then. He jerked the door open and gestured for Astrid. “Inside, bright one.”
Even now, she didn’t think the anger was directed at her. He’d given her no reason to fear him, although she likely should. So she walked past him, but paused as his emotions reached out for her.
She didn’t know what they wanted. But they were actually reaching. She could almost see the fingers and claws attached to them, stretching out toward her.
What was she meant to do? She reached back. Astrid touched a finger to his anger, shocked as she registered the heat of it on her fingers. She’d never thought of emotions as touchable. But it was so very warm, and it wanted to yank on her hand. When she tugged back, it seemed to follow her, detaching from him for the briefest moment.
His hand wrapped around her wrist, his grip punishing. “I didn’t give you permission to take them from me, Astrid.”
She blinked, stunned out of her trance only to realize what she was doing. “I’m sorry, I didn’t... I didn’t realize what I was doing.”
“Give it back.”
Oh gods, the emotion was still clinging to her. She could feel it slithering up her arm and shoulder, trying to get closer to her skin. Somehow, she knew it wanted to find the coldest part of her body, to allow her to chill the anger that burned through it.
“I don’t know how,” she whispered, looking up at him and seeing anger for the first time. Not rage, not something that would distract him into becoming a berserker. It was actual anger toward her.
She’d done something wrong again, and this time she didn’t know what to do. She was so far out of her element here that it was hard to imagine what a priestess should do in this situation. Astrid knew how to control every aspect of her life and others when she was in a castle, but here? This was not something she knew how to manage.
Swallowing hard, she tried to tug her hand out of his grip. He didn’t let her.
Instead, he reeled her closer to him, his voice low and that rumbling tone making her heart race in her chest. “Just let it go, Astrid. It knows you want to help, and that is why it went to you. But those are not your feelings to take.”
“Icouldhelp you.”
“I did not ask to be helped.” Again, his hand tightened painfully on her wrist. She didn’t think he was intending to hurt her, but it did.
Astrid winced, unable to stop herself from making the expression. Almost immediately, he let her go. Bjorn took a staggering step backward, his eyes on her face and then down to the mark forming on her wrist.
More of the red pulsed again, and the one wrapped around her wrist jumped back onto him. She watched it strike his chest, and he staggered back another step like she’d struck him with it. He even rubbed the space where she’d seen it disappear into his flesh.
“I have to go,” he murmured, still rubbing that ache she knew was in his chest.
“Bjorn, I don’t know where I am. I need you to stay with me.”
“The memories...” He shook his head, and she knew she’d already lost him. “I’m sorry.”
Then, he was gone. Racing away from her and this house like he was on fire. The shape of him disappeared through the brambles near his mother’s home, leaving behind only a scrap of fabric and what looked like a smear of blood on the branches.
Her heart broke for him, but also, what was she supposed to do here? He’d brought her to this place with the expressed knowledge that these people could break her out of the binding and then they could find her sister. Now he’d left her here?
“That isn’t new,” his mother’s voice said from the shadows of her home. “He used to take off like that as a boy all the time, if you were wondering.”
Of course, his mother would be home. Why wouldn’t she be here to complicate matters even further?
“That sounds frustrating as a parent,” Astrid replied, heading into the home.
