Page 79 of Rune

I tucked that away for later. Then continued. “It was hard to believe their words. I’m not certain when I did. Perhaps it was when I stepped into Odin’s home and saw the magnificence. Or spoke to the gods. Or maybe it took me all the way until you healed me for the first time, and I saw the power then.” I thought back to that day, when Ve had touched my cheek to heal the spot where hisfaðirhad cut me. I’d been nothing but confusion and anger back then.

“It must have been a lot to take in,” Ve said when I paused. “It was a lot for me too. I’d spent my life wondering about the girl I was betrothed to, finally accepting she was gone, just to hear she had shown up and I was to meet her that night. I almost didn’t show.”

He shifted, sitting up fully to retake my hands. Our legs were touching, and there was an intensity in his eye that made my mind spin. “When I heard you’d appeared, I thought you would be a chain that held me here and I’d never get my adventure. I’d never taste freedom. But then I saw you, head held high and a light in your eyes like they were made of burning amber, and a sense about you that while you were a stranger in our world, you could take any of us on if you wanted. I couldn’t breathe. All I could do was stare at you and know I was looking at my future. So I left, because for the first time, I had something worth staying for, and that scared me as much as it excited me.”

My throat grew tight, and I hung onto every word. He wasn’t finished.

“Then we finally meet, and you hold a dagger to my throat and threaten to kill me, and all I could think was how much I wanted to kiss you. You spoke of your upbringing and it killed me that you endured so much and I could do nothing about it. And you fight for your sister with your very life, because that is who you are. Every day I get to know you more and more, and yet I don’t think I’ll ever have enough.”

His words ignited something that set fire to my very bones.

I’d spent my life wanting Trig because I wanted someone who made me something. I didn’t want to face the world alone. But with Ve, I wantedhim. Nothing else. I’d take him if he was a poor farmer with only a patch of soil. I’d take him at his worst, or at his weakest, because he was all I needed. I would take every high and every low if I had him by my side.

“Rune,” he said, and I shivered at the sound of my real name on his tongue, “when we go to Earth, I want a life with you. I want this engagement to be real, and to take you as my wife. If you’ll have me, I want it all.”

The dizziness in my head returned, but this time, I didn’t mind. All the emotion inside burst until I was feeling a million things at once and all of them too great to put into words. Instead, I reached a hand to his neck and brought his lips to mine, and let him taste my answer. I felt him smile beneath me before he deepened the kiss. It was our first kiss of hundreds—thousands—however many made a lifetime.

“Did you still need to tell me something?” he asked, the words a whisper in my mouth.

I remembered my words to him before I blacked out last night. But that wasn’t what I wanted to think about right now. “No,” I whispered back, holding him closer so the kiss would never end.

We would face the problems of my mortality tomorrow. Today was about us.

TwEnty-sEvEn

THE SUN ROSE soon after, and Ve and I were both there to see it, hands deep in the soil, working the garden and speaking of what life would be like when we got to Earth.

“We’ll starve if you don’t stop pulling the plants out,” I said, snatching a root from him. “That’s not a weed.”

He laughed, which was concerning after I said we’d starve. “I can’t tell which is which.” He threw up his hands, effectively tossing dirt everywhere, and I ducked to avoid it.

“This one is beet root. It will keep us alive in Danmark. This,” I grabbed a scrappy knotted root that had taken me several minutes to untangle from the ground, “will kill the beet root, unless you pluck those out first. I’ll make you a picture guide if you need.”

Ve leaned back on his hand. “This isn’t my forte. How about while you garden, I paint pictures of how stunning you are?”

I dusted off my hands. “Can I eat the paintings?”

“I’d rather you not, but I suppose we all devour art in our own way.” He earned a smile at that. “I’ll fill our house with paintings,” he went on, coming closer. “Each one featuring you. There will be so many, that they are falling out the door. And when we aren’t painting, we will be hunting together, or training together, or exploring the world. We are going to see it all—every ocean, every valley, every mountain.” By the time he was done speaking, he was close enough that a tilt of his head brought his lips to mine, and all other words were lost.

He had lofty goals. But with him, it all felt possible.

“First we have to get to Danmark,” I said, pulling back. “All of us.”

At the mention of Tova, he sobered. “Tomorrow will be difficult. Today will be easier. At midday, Odin is throwing a feast to honor the remaining champions. All are invited. It’ll be another chance to see Tova before she fights.”

I’d take any chance to see her that I could get. But I frowned, wiping my hands on a rag. “Why am I just hearing of it?”

He brought his hands back to the soil, but my mind had already wandered from that. “In case your sister hadn’t made it this far. The feast is celebrating their victory over the ones who are dead, and I wouldn’t want you to endure that if she had fallen.”

“Can I train with her then?”

He shook his head. “I tried to figure out how, but there won’t be time. She’s likely already being prepared for the feast, and offered a bath and washed clothes.”

If she was getting new clothes, they’d find the weapons she’d stashed yesterday. Hopefully she’d already buried those beneath a slab of stone. I could picture her snarling as they coerced her wild hair into dainty locks, painted her lips scarlet, and convinced her into a dressworthy of a final night. For nine out of the ten remaining champions, that was what this was. A final night.

Tonight, they feast. Tomorrow, they fight.

“This is a custom I won’t mind us skipping every decade,” Ve said, pulling another beet free. I didn’t correct him. The grin on his face was so innocently proud of himself for helping me garden, I didn’t want to dampen his spirits. “But there are other festivals in Asgard I wouldn’t want to miss. Nights of dancing in the sea, feasts at sundown, galas beneath the stars. Those will be worth visiting for, when we are ready.”

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