Page 65 of Alien Viking's Passion

“The frosty prince,”Aretha made up,

“His Marks made new

Said to his love

My passion isyou.”

Craxon kissed her, letting her feel his passion all the way through her body. “And you always will be.”

EPILOGUE

- Aretha -

“... and then he jumped up on the pier, ran along it, and I haven’t seen him since.”

All the girls were there, sitting on the lawn furniture and dangling their legs. Aretha and Craxon had arrived that morning, and now she’d just spent most of the afternoon telling the girls about Kofraks, the wedding, and everything else. Her mouth was dry from talking, and she finished her horn of myod.

“Weirdest porcupine I’ve ever heard of,” Chen said. “He must be pretty smart, right?”

Sonic had stayed in the Eira Einherja for weeks until Aretha and Craxon had sailed it back to Hjalmarheim on their honeymoon. They’d fed him nuts and berries, and when they finally reached Bragr’s earldom again, he’d run away and vanished into the woods.

“Oh, definitely really smart,” she said. “At least as smart as a really bright dog.”

“If he hadn’t broken you out of that box, that draugr dude would have held you in his tentacles and there would have been no way for you to use your sword,” Rafaela summed up. “He saved the day. But so did you all.”

“I can’t believe Craxon took that blue lightning voluntarily,” Josie said with a shudder. “It’s the most terrible thing I’ve ever experienced, and so say every warrior and shieldmaiden. Most of them would rather die than go through it again. I think I would, too.”

“That’s what love is,” Chen said, her gaze following a Viking warrior walking past. “And these guys aren’t joking when it comes tothat.”

“So they don’t have any spaceships that work, either?” Chloe asked. “What about other countries? Other kingdoms or whatever. Can it be only these ones?”

“The Ragnhildros longships are as broken as all the others,” Aretha said. “But if we can figure out how to fix one, we can probably fix all of them. Wasn’t there someone who might be able to, Josie?”

“There’s supposed to be a guy. Bragr is trying to find him, but he’s not in his house. They think he’s in thevilmarksomewhere.”

“The wilderness,” Rafaela pondered. “Not a place anyone would want to stay for a long time. But they’ve been looking for him for weeks.”

“The wilderness is dangerous,” Chen said. “Especially during this Big Shine weirdness. They keep seeing vettir and trolls on this side. Still up in the mountains, but on the wrong side. So I guess that mysterious repairman might be dead.”

“Then we’ll have to wait for the end of this bullshit Shine and hope it didn’t burn those ships out for good,” Chloe seethed. “I’m aboutfuckingdone with this place. They’re using tech they have no idea what to do with. And when it breaks, they run around in circles like a bunch of clueless chimps.”

Aretha didn’t let the blonde beauty’s words get to her. “They could do with some science, sure. But we know about science. Maybe it’s time we helped. What do you say, Josie?”

Josie adjusted her dress. “Oh, we’ve all been thinking about it. But the alien tech behind those ships is really advanced. But you mean hands-on testing and such? Maybe take one of those keels and open it?”

“We’d just take a shortship, those flying sleds,” Aretha suggested. “So if we break it, which is pretty much a certainty, they won’t be that mad. The tech has to be very similar, right?”

“Probably,” Celeste said. “Opening it should be the last resort, though. I mean, imagine someone wanting to know how a nuclear submarine works and then opening the reactor like a tin can. That would kill them.”

“Anyway,” Josie said into a thoughtful silence, “those fruits you brought back are promising, Aretha. They’re not quite tomatoes, but close enough to maybe use.”

“They’re not acidic enough,” Rafaela said. “The bolognese sauce gets pretty sweet, but I can live with that.”

“Rafa and I have tried a few times,” Chen revealed. “Something goes wrong every time, but any day now we’ll serve up some kind of pasta. Maybe not bolognese, though. I’ll get someone to build us a pizza oven, too. We just have to teach these people to make cheese.”

“We’ll be starting a chain of restaurants,” Rafaela thought aloud. “They don’t have a single fast food outlet! In all the country! It’s a scandal.”

“Good idea,” Aretha laughed. Everything made her laugh these days. “I will start one too, and we can compete.”

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