Page 13 of Rune

He did not.

A bitter silence followed. I gritted my teeth. When I spoke, it was in a low growl. “What did you just say to me?”

He licked his lips. “As my wife, Tova can grant you your shield. You need her.”

“Oh,” I said in mockery as if I hadn’t thought of that. I put a hand to my chest. “I feel so much better now. Truly, I hadn’t realized how thoughtful you could be.” I drove a finger into his chest. “You are not doing me a favor. You do not get to feel good about this.”

“I need to think of the clan. It’s my job as chieftain.”

“You aren’t even chieftain yet.”

“I might as well be.”

My emotions clouded my mind, and I drew my axe from its clip on my side. If being chieftain was so important to him, let him fight for it.

“In that case, I challenge you as chieftain.”

My chin lifted and our gazes met, colliding to snap against the tension in the air.

“Rune…” Trig withdrew, pushing his back against the pine branches that still held us close beneath their canopy, and the shadows cast a dark look over his face. Through them, his brows were set low and his mouth in a firm line. He looked like the statue of Odin set at the front of the sacred grounds—with a stone-cold expression and a glint in his eye—as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders and he was one breath away from cracking under it.

My traitorous heart softened.

I looked away. I always bent for others. Just this once, I wanted to live in this anger.

“I mean it.” I held my axe up between my two hands, turned, and hacked through two branches. I tossed one to him. “I challenge you to a duel, first one to relent loses. If I win, I become chieftain instead of you. If you win, I’ll leave the clan.”

“You don’t have to leave. Just come back home and we will figure this out.”

“You think you’ll beat me?” I hit my branch against his chest, shoving him into the open. The open air rushed into my lungs to clear my head, and I took in a whole gulp of it.

He followed me out from the canopy, holding his arms out. “I’m not fighting you.”

I shoved him again. Anger swirled in my chest, heating every inch of me. It used to be his touch that warmed me like this. Now my skin was on fire from the look of him, and it was a fire tinged with heartbreak. My words came hot and thick. “I challenge you. You have to fight.”

He dropped the branch. “I’m not fighting.”

I drove my branch into his foot. “Fight!”

“Rune, this is madness,” he said louder. I heard the frustration growing.

“Do you respect me so little that you won’t take my challenge seriously? Pick up the stick and fight me.” I swung my branch, slashing near his chest. The splintered end tore at his shirt and the fabric bloodied.

His expression darkened. So did his voice. “You cannot beat me. You know that.”

I swung again, and this time it knocked him from his feet.

He looked up with a glower, and I knew I’d won. He’d fight now.

Sure enough, Trig bent to grab his branch with two fists, and stood like a tower over me. “You’re going to regret this.”

“I’ll remember you fondly when I’m chieftain.”

He didn’t hold back. His first swing almost knocked me from my feet, the vibration of it running through my arms. I set my feet and braced better as I took the second swing. I didn’t swallow my emotions, but let myself feel every ounce of hurt as I shifted my entire weight forward to ram the branch against his. There was a crack. I thought from his branch and not mine. I hoped so.

He swung straight at me, giving me an easy place to block. But at the last moment he channeled his momentum down to tear the branch away from me. The bark clawed at the skin of my hands as it was rippedto the ground. In one piece, but not easy enough to grab before he swung again. His branch was already coming around.

I flew to the side, rolling out of the way. He was strong, but the one true advantage I had over Trig was speed. That’d be how I won.

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