Page 74 of Rune

My cheeks flamed. “Trig is betrothed to my sister. Happily,” I added.

“Yet that does not change what I saw.”

“I carry no torch for Trig,” I told her fervently. “Those feelings are gone.”

She drew a slender finger across her lip, taking me in. Then, in a soft, thoughtful voice, she diverted the topic. “Tell me, what are mothers like where you are from? Would yours fight a bear for you? Would she take on the seas to save you from drowning?”

I gave no response.

“I don’t know whatmóðirs are like in Danmark, but in Asgard, we protect our children fiercely,” she said. “Ve has never fallen in love, yet he meets you and is ready to marry you a few days later. Forgive me for the doubt, but it strikes me as odd.”

Unease coiled within me. She’d call us out as liars. She’d stop us from getting home.

She circled me like a lion while I stood like a warrior waiting for the enemy to strike. Her husband had already lashed out at me. I would not be struck twice. “In your entire time in Asgard, you have made noeffort to get to know his family or to seek him out at his home. Instead your focus has been on your sister and on this mortal boy.”

The picture Ase painted was not inaccurate. From the outside, I appeared uncaring. Even at our engagement party, I left early without meeting hismóðir—a fact I regretted now.

She wasn’t done. “Am I mistaken?” She drew back. “Say the word, and I will ring the wedding bells myself. Give me a reason to celebrate and I shall lift my glass. But if you aim to betray my son, my anger will be unmatched.”

“You are mistaken,” I replied, facing her squarely. “I cannot speak to his affection for me, but I plan to marry your son.”

Her head tilted. As her mouth pressed tight, she studied me again, this time narrowing in on my eyes. I stood strong.

“I want to marry him,” I said again, letting her hear the sincerity that I faked. “I love Ve, and I want a life with him. He will not be hurt by me.”

The corner of her lip twisted up.

“Is that what you needed to hear? I love his drive, his passion, and the way he cares for his friends. I love that he’s fierce enough to fight and soft enough to paint. And I love the way he says my name.” I was laying it on thick, but I needed to convince her.

From her expression, I had. “It was,” she replied slowly. “Hmm. You really love him.”

My gaze dropped at last. It was frightening how close to the truth that was becoming.

She tenderly lifted my chin with her fingers. Her eyes were as warm as Ve’s, and they softened at last. Her parting words were a whisper. “Perhaps it is not my son’s heart that will get broken.”

I didn’t care for the implication that mine would be. She left, strolling back toward the arena where several horses still waited. I watched her go the entire way, wondering how much of what I’d just said was a lie, and how much was true.

Every part of me wanted to pull my heart back and lock it in a box so it didn’t get broken like it had with Trig. I felt like I was still putting the pieces back together after he’d hurt it, and I didn’t have the ability to love as fully as I should. But somehow, I had managed to put my heart out there again.

Those might not be the right words for it. I wasn’t certain I’d put my heart out there so much as it had thr itself out there on its own. And it had no intention of pulling back.

There was a harrowing thought, one that terrified me as much as it thrilled me. But for Ve, I would take the heartbreak. I’d take the risk, because he was worth the reward.

If this was all to end in flames, I wanted to feel every moment of the burn.

TwEnty-FOur

WHEN I RETURNED to Hitta Haven, I found Ve there, his back to me, head tilted up as he gazed over the home. My heart thundered faster. “I’ll give you one guess who I just spoke with,” I called out.

He turned, and it wasn’t Ve at all.

The god before me had the same dark hair as Ve, but his eyes were smaller like beads and his lips thinner. He had generous cheekbones and a flattering, narrow frame, and a way of standing like he owned the space around him.

Recognition slammed into me.

“Aegir.”

Aegir grinned, and it was just as I’d imagined it to be when I gazed upon his driftwood altar.

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