Page 5 of Rune

I sighed, and offered my hand back for him to trace his finger along the line, ignoring the shivers than ran up my spine at the delicate touch. Until a few weeks ago, I’d never been touched like that. “That one is a mystery to me as well,” I said, eyeing the two-inch scar, thin as a threadof silk, etched into my skin. “Perhaps I fought a wolf as a baby and got away with only that scar.”

He chuckled. “That wouldn’t surprise me. The first time I met you, you were training in the fields, and I was certain you were a goddess descended from above.”

I bit my tongue. “I remember that day.”

It wasn’t me he’d watched train. It was Tova.

But we looked so similar back then, he hadn’t known the difference. I’d come upon him as he watched her, and his face was in such awe I couldn’t look away. He’d carried a stack of logs, but dropped them at his feet to better watch, and his mouth hung open in utter amazement.

His expression was so pure, I’d fallen in love that day. I fell in love with him as he fell in love with her.

But he loved me now, I reminded myself. It doesn’t matter who he saw that day. I turned my attention back to him.

“How’d this happen?” I asked, thumbing bubbled skin near his ankle.

This was the game we played, trying to memorize every detail of each other as quickly as we could, making up for the years we’d spent around each other but never speaking. It was a game I’d happily play my entire life.

“That is less savage than I care to admit. I drew too close to the fire when boiling water, and it scorched the skin. I ran all the way to the fjord to cool my ankle in the sea instead of using the water from inside the hut, simply because it’s the idea I had first.”

That didn’t surprise me. Trig was, above all else, impulsive. He’d always been the first one to run through training simulations, always thefirst to speak and quickest to throw himself into the next adventure…and the next girl.

I tightened my grip on his hand. I’d waited my entire life to be the next girl he ran after. Trig shifted so I leaned against his back, with the fire at our side and the mouth of the cave before us, giving us the perfect view of the rippling waves hitting the shore down below. He sighed so contently, I had trouble believing he could be this relaxed with any of his other girls.

“Tova and I will approach yourfaðirin a few weeks to seek our shields,” I told him. It was customary in our clan to fight the chieftain for our shields. No one expected us to beat him, especially not when no grown man could even beat him, but how well we fared in that fight determined whether he granted us our shield and allowed us on raids or if we had to wait another year.

I felt his body stiffen beside me. I shifted. “You believe I’ll get my shield, right?”

“I think there is no shame in getting it at eighteen.”

His words felt like betrayal, and I fought to not let them hurt me. “I will get it at seventeen.”

He softened as he ran a hand through his hair to see me better. “I know you will.” Something in his voice shifted. He recollected my hands and pulled them onto his lap, taking his time to run his touch up and down my arms. “I don’t doubt your will, Rune. You’re strong enough to earn it, and then you’ll go on the first raid you can, because that’s who you are. But then your breathing will act up, and you’ll be left in a fight, struggling to breathe, and I might not be there to watch your back. I can’t—” He shut his eyes. “I don’t want to lose you.”

The hurt I’d felt a moment before thawed into a warm pulse beneath my skin. I let his hand wander an aimless path down my back,each touch setting my skin on fire. “You are not going to lose me,” I said. “My breathing gets stronger each year.”

That part was true. I had no doubt in five years, I’d be able to fight just as easily as anyone else.

From down the mountainside came the call from a horn. The clan would be lining up to spar together in an arena as a tribute of their talent to honor the gods. We needed to return soon if we wanted our absence to go unnoticed.

“Talk to yourfaðirabout me,” I said. “Remind him how devoted I am to the clan. He’ll give me my shield, and perhaps his blessing as well.”

Trig set his head on my shoulder again, speaking softly. “I will. Actually, I overheard him speaking to mymóðirabout marriage last night.”

My body froze. The rattle of wind through hollow branches and the clang of swords faded, even the snap of the fire at our side disappeared until all that remained was the echo of that word in my head.Marriage.

My voice trembled. “So he already approves?”

“He hasn’t spoken to me directly about it yet, but I expect he will soon.”

I chewed on my lower lip.

“Don’t worry about it.” He tilted my chin toward him. “I choose who and when I marry. It’ll be my decision, not his.”

I tried to ease back against him, but my body remained stiff. I focused on the touch of his hand against my waist and the feel of his heart beating against his chest until my worries faded.

“I have a plan,” he said, his words a gentle rustle in my ear. A strand of his twisted blond hair brushed against my cheek, contrasting the dark waves of my own. “I will go speak to the seer about our future.”

I shivered. It was a dire day when my fate rested on the words of the seer. The man stalked through the town like a bringer of death, seeing fit to deliver messages from the gods and read dice though he had no eyes to see them with. I didn’t care for the sunken pits where they should be, nor for the way he never had anything to say to me when I came.It’s not for me to say,he would tell me. But I was resilient back then, and eager to hear from the gods. I’d go back to him the next season to ask again, forcing myself to enter into the dark folds of his home just to hear a blessing from Asgard, but he’d turn me away with the same short answer.

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