Page 76 of Ties of Starlight

Nyrunn’s magic responded instinctively and he could feel it grow stronger like it had during the Heava Dance.

Nyrunn blinked. “Is that it?”

Idonea looked up. “It’ll increase as we go down, like Agnarr and Gytha’s did.”

Nyrunn looked over his shoulder. “In the interest of both of our safety, what’s the best way to do this?”

She pulled back and said, “In the past, it’s usually just been slinging me over his shoulder.”

“That sounds like a horrible idea. Do you think you can hold onto me while I climb?”

Idonea stared at him before blinking and nodding. “Yes. I can… I’ve never been given an option before.”

Oh, when Nyrunn got his hands on that cad…

“Well, you are today. Hop on,” Nyrunn said, turning and kneeling on the ground so she could climb onto his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he pulled her legs up to his waist where she wrapped them around tightly, securing herself. He stood back up and looked up at her from the corner of his eye. “Are you ready?”

“This ritual is my least favorite,” Idonea muttered. “I know Agnarr and Gytha’s magic requires us to, but that doesn’t make it any less ridiculous we have to follow in their literal footsteps.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. But between us, it’s my least favorite too.”

With that, Nyrunn brought them up to the edge and began the perilous descent back down. Thankfully the climb up had been straightforward with a clear path of handholds and footholds, so now the trick was navigating that path backwards with the added weight of a full-grown person.

Idonea clung tightly to him, but even though her life was entirely in his hands, he could feel her steady heartbeat and a strange serenity from her side of the bond. He was the one entirely anxious about the whole thing.

He was constantly looking down at the ground and crowd below, trying to find his handholds and footholds. But despite his gripping, he could tell it was working. The magic swelled with each foot he climbed.

He was halfway down, panting once more and he muttered, “Why didn’t Agnarr just walk down with Gytha?”

“It would have been too easy,” Idonea replied, and he had to pause to laugh, clutching the rock wall.

Was she not terrified he’d slip and kill them both? Or did she not care if he did?

No. He wouldn’t go down that road again. She’d madeherself clear after she’d been stabbed that hadn’t been her desire. She wanted to finish the rituals for their people just as much, if not more, than he did.

Could it really be she trusted him that much?

Maybe it was time he trusted her back.

“The last time I climbed anything like this was when I was a captain.” Nyrunn found another grip, testing their weight before committing to it. “Since my father passed and I became king, my days have been full of meetings and reports and signing documents and orders. Actually, come to think of it, this might be the first time I’ve left Novum since my father’s death.”

“Do you miss it? Being a captain?”

“Sometimes, absolutely, other times not so much. Things… Things were very different when my father was alive.”

“Do you miss him?”

“Honestly?” Nyrunn whispered, pausing to look over his shoulder. “Probably not as much as I should.”

Idonea’s grip shifted. “He had quite a reputation already in my last life, even more so in this one. Was it… true?”

Nyrunn kept climbing down, heart pounding louder. He never spoke about his family with anyone, especially not his father.

“Parts of it, yes. It was… Complex is an understatement. It’s hard to know for certain, but in some ways, I believe he was worse about his expectations while also still being lenient with me because I was his only heir. He didn’t have a choice. However, he had other leverage.”

Nyrunn bit his tongue, holding back that one of his greatest fears had been his father discovering his affection for Idonea and using her against him, or worse, eliminatingher entirely. She wasn’t ready to hear it, and he wasn’t doing this just to earn points with her.

“I’m sorry.”

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