Page 47 of Hold my Reins

Was he making the most of what they had?

Or clinging too tight because he was afraid of losing him?

What if he walked away only for nothing to happen, and in ten years’ time, thoughts of what might have been became a bitter regret?

The more time they spent together, the less he wanted to leave. He was sliding down a gravel slope, hoping he wasn’t going to be a bleeding mess when he hit the bottom.

If there was a bottom.

That was the problem. He was tearing himself up with no promise of a happy ending or when any ending would arrive. It was the last year with his mother all over again. The weight of knowing Bothvar might turn up and ruin everything was too much.

If a friend told him about this problem, he’d be telling them to leave because it was going to end in disaster no matterwhat happened. Instead, he’d been talking to Thursten, behind Lynck’s back, about frost giants.

His thoughts churned and circled back on themselves.

He couldn’t sleep in Lynck’s bed and pretend that everything was fine until it fell apart. Waking up at two in the morning, worrying about what might happen when the frost giant came for his lover wasn’t living. But he couldn’t abandon Lynck to a sociopathic prick with an over-inflated ego.

He lay still, eyes closed, body tense, trying to go back to sleep. Maybe he was cold, or he just needed to feel Lynck against him. He rolled over, expecting to feel the heat of Lynck’s body, but the kelpie wasn’t in bed.

Rox sat up, running his hand over the sheets.

Lynck’s side of the bed was warm.

Had he gone to the bathroom?

Except the house was silent, and when Lynck moved around, his hooves tapped on the floor, even when he tried to be quiet. The sound had become strangely reassuring.

Rox slid out of bed and pulled on track pants and a hoodie.

Lynck’s clothes remained piled on the floor where they’d ended up last night. The wardrobe was closed, and no drawers hung open. He’d have heard if Lynck was dressing.

Shit.

Rox padded through the house.

In the kitchen was a large dark shadow holding an ax.

His heart stopped, and he froze like a rabbit, even though he stood in a patch of moonlight.

“I heard a door open,” Thursten said. “There’s no intruder.”

Rox released a shaky breath. “Lynck’s not in bed.”

Lynck had walked out the door and left.

Left him without saying a word. Or getting dressed…

No, he hadn’t left. He’d been summoned.

“Bothvar is here,” Rox whispered as if saying his name could summon the frost giant.

Thursten grunted. “He won’t come through the main portal guarded by the military. He’ll use the one in the forest, and that’s where Lynck will be going.”

“I need to stop him.” He needed shoes.

“And how are you going to stop a kelpie under the command of a frost giant?”

“I don’t know, but I need to do something. Where is the portal in the forest?”

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