Page 112 of Rune

“I am your daughter,” I told them. They both relaxed. “But I am also a daughter of Asgard, and I’ve left some business unfinished there.”

Aegir would not be allowed to take away anything else from me. I would reclaim my place in Odin’s household, find Aegir, and throw him back into the sea.

I turned to step back into the house. As I did,Móðirgrabbed my hand. “Can you forgive us?” she whispered.

I squeezed. The answer came easily. “I can.” It wouldn’t come overnight, but I had no desire to lose any more family.

The door swung open, and I was surprised to find my sisters weren’t huddled against the window. Instead, they were at the grand table, lighting candles and serving a warm mug to someone who sat there. As he took it, he threw down his wool hood.

My feet stumbled. He turned.

“Ve?”

He stood hastily, and kept a distance from me. His presence took up the whole room, as his head neared the rafters above. Tova was now trying to usher the family back toward the hearth to give us space, and struggling to get the younger ones to move. Sigrid leaned against my sword like she was waiting to see if this handsome stranger was someone to be welcomed or to run through with the blade. Ve eyed her warily before looking at me.

“Rune.” He twisted the goblet a few times before passing it to me. “It’s good to see you safe.”

The obvious retort hung in the air between us. If he wanted me safe, he could have fought for me. Hurt from how he’d let me go still simmered inside. “Why are you here?”

“To beg for your hand back.”

That earned chatter from everyone in the family, and my cheeks heated. “Ve, these are my parents and sisters. You know Tova. Tova, you can fill them in while we have a moment.”

I finally got smart enough to grab a pair of leather boots before stepping back out into the cold and ushering Ve to follow.

The door clicked shut, and Ve waited instead of crossing the space between us. “I am so sorry,” he said. His hair was left loose in the way I liked it, framing the sharp lines of his face and matching the dark color of the wool over his broad shoulders. He wore two swords along his back, and boots tied halfway up his calves. He was soaking in the sight of me just as I was of him. “I should have jumped in that arena as soon as Odin ordered you to fight Tova and gotten you out.”

“We managed,” I said, as if I hadn’t been hurt by that very thing for days. “If I wasn’t good enough for you then, why are you here now?”

He risked a step. “You are,” he replied. “I don’t care you are mortal, but it shook me, and I didn’t know what to do. I regretted it the moment you escaped through the vent. While you ran, I held the others back so they wouldn’t follow, and I shielded you while you were at the caves.”

I knew I’d sensed him when I was there. “But you didn’t come.” It wasn’t a question. It was a bitter truth.

He ran his hand through his hair and took another step. “I didn’t know what to think.” He was almost close enough to touch, and gods knew, I wanted to touch him. “I wanted a long life with you, but I’ll take as many decades as you’ll give me, if you’ll still have me.”

I was the one to take the next few steps. “You’d grow bored of me,” I told him. “When I age and you remain a perfect god. You’d tire of my company.”

He was already shaking his head. “I will never.” He wore a sly smile, and the next step was his. “You are not a girl who could bore me.” His finger came to slip through my hair, caressing my cheek. “Rune, I love you, and I will love you forever.”

Ve was impossible to stay mad at. I knew when I first pressed that dagger to his neck and looked into those eyes, he’d have a hold on me for life. To hear he would love me as a mortal meant the world to me. I was good enough for him just as I was, not because I was a goddess.

Though I suspected he’d be pleased to hear my lifetime would be as long as his.

I collected his hands in mine, kissing them. “Aegir informed me I wasn’t a goddess a few days before the final fight,” I told him. “I wasn’t trying to keep that from you, I simply didn’t know how to say it. Or perhaps, I was scared to lose you.”

He grinned, and the tension between us was gone. “I’m a difficult god to lose.”

“I hope never to try again. But I can’t be mad when I wasn’t being fully honest.”

He neared further. “Still, I was stupid not to chase after you.”

“I can think of an easy way to repay that,” I told him, and I took the final steps to hover my lips close to his. “No matter what mistakes you or I make, I will always choose a life with you,” I told him.

Before he could reply, I pressed my finger to his lips—the one that I’d just cut. The one that still bled.

He raised a brow.

“A long life.”

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