Page 43 of The Ruler
“I’m here,” he groaned.
“Then show it to me.” I pushed at him again. “Stop pretending to be the sleeping-fucking-beauty. No more hiding away in your bed. I need you to run this country with me.”
His head fell, and the pain from seeing my strong brother with his shoulders sunken, humiliated and broken like this, made me want to fucking roar out in despair.
“I need you, Magni,” I pleaded and my nose twitched with emotions. “I fucking need you, brother.” My voice broke as I spilled the last words and pulled our foreheads together. I didn’t care that his breath was bad from hours of sleep or that he was naked. Magni had seen me at my worst and stood by me when our father almost broke me as a child. He had been by my side through the hell of being trained to be a ruthless ruler and if not for him, I probably would have lost my mind.
“Come back to me,” I repeated in a gruff whisper.
His chest heaved and a throaty sound of heartbreaking grief erupted from him.
“Remember when you took on that scumbag Neil who tried to stab me in the back?” I said, my voice thick with emotions. “Magni…” I squeezed the back of his head, still standing forehead to forehead. “You fucking saved my life, man, do you remember? Come back to me.”
His hand lifted to grab my shoulder and his moist eyes finally met mine. “I remember and I’m still here.”
“Good.” There was so much I wanted to say, but relief had my throat burning with unshed tears and we were men, not wusses, so for a while we just stood there, breathing heavily and holding onto each other.
“I want to help,” he finally said, and the little spark in his eyes gave me hope that he could pull through.
“Then get ready, we’re flying to the east coast to go troll hunting. They have a really ugly one called Edward that I’m eager to kill.”
“When do we leave?” he asked and we pulled apart, straightening up.
“Tomorrow morning, so no more drinking. I need you with a sharp mind, and there are things we need to discuss and strategies that we need to finalize.”
“Give me an hour and I’ll meet you in your office.”
“Thank you,” I said. “And for god’s sake, brush your teeth, man, I think something died in your mouth or something.”
It shouldn’t have surprised me when Magni quickly wrapped his arm around my neck and opened his mouth to breathe heavily into my face.
“You fucking moron.” I grinned and twisted his nipple to make him release me. Yeah, my brother was back and I loved it.
For days I’d been feeling stuck and now that I was getting ready to face my enemies, energy boosted me to run down the stairs and straight off to find Pearl in my room.
“I’ve decided it’s time to get out of the house,” I exclaimed.
Pearl looked up from her book and instead of being happy about the news her face fell. “So who will be my new protector then?”
I moved closer to her and sat on the edge of the table in front of her, curiosity gnawing at me. “Would you like a new protector?”
“Could it be Archer?” she asked and it made me pull in air slowly, expanding my nostrils while thinning my lips.
“Archer has a job,” I snorted.
“So do you. That’s why you don’t want me as yourburdenanymore.”
I stiffened, suspicion tingling at the back of my neck.
“My burden?” I asked. I had used that word when I spoke to Boulder. Had he ratted me out? No, probably just confided in Christina thinking he could trust her. Fucking fool.
“That’s what I am to you, isn’t it? A burden?” Pearl asked and when I didn’t answer she carried on. “What happened to keeping it real? Weren’t you the one to say that you value honesty over politeness?”
“You’re not getting Archer as your protector, but if you’re so into him I can arrange a tournament and you can marry him.”
“No,” she exclaimed in a high-pitched voice. “I’m not marrying anyone.”
I don’t know what I would have done if she had agreed. Probably thrown things around and punched Archer black and blue.
