Page 55 of Marked By the Dark Lord
The door shattered, revealing the first challenger to come for her, his eyes alight with golden hunger.
They could come for her, but they would never get her. She might be scared of me, but I would show her that she had no reason to fear. Not anymore.
And that started by protecting her.
With a mighty roar, I charged Gunnar, the living embodiment of a bloodthirsty Viking. The giant bear of a man, nearly as tall as I, was perhaps larger, given his muscles were swathed in a layer of fat, all of which were covered by animal skins draped over his body.
The demi-god swung a short-handled axe at me, matching my bellow with his own. I slapped the flat of the blade away and ducked inside his reach, lowering my shoulder and delivering it into his midsection.
Priority number one: get him away from Mila.
We crashed through the door, destroying it beyond repair, and Gunnar’s back slammed into the stone wall of the hallway, whipsawing his head back against the rock. It rebounded with a sickening thud, but the pain and splitting of skin only further enraged the Viking warrior.
That was the problem with those types. They were battle-crazed, and pain wouldn’t stop them or even slow them down. I was fairly certain Gunnar didn’t evenfeelpain.
“Your claim is weak,” he spat, shoving me away with a mighty bounce of his chest, creating a gap. “I will take the woman and show her what a true man is like. She will lay before me and experience proper treatment.”
A red hue descended over my vision at the thought of Mila lying beneath Gunnar, exposed, vulnerable, being taken against her will.
His axe sliced in, but I again batted it aside, growling thunderously as I charged at him with abandon.
But Gunnar wasn’t as dumb as he acted. The taunt had been testing my defenses, and it had worked, finding a weak spot. Enraged, I had charged in blind to his other hand, which whipped around, bringing a stout but sturdy war hammer into play by connecting the flat side with my skull.
The lights went out briefly as more stars than I could count blinded me, sending me to my knees, where a beefy kick to the midsection tossed me down the hall. I rolled, hair whipping around, until I came to a halt, staring at the ceiling.
“You have grown weak,Korr’ok.”
My blood stilled as he used my true name.
“Yes, that’s right. I know who you are,” Gunnar drawled. “Third son. Outcast.Failure.”
I snorted, getting to my feet and setting my shoulders as Gunnar clomped down the hallway toward me. Everything seemed to slow, turning his approach from a balanced warlike stance to a clumsy, plodding trot. Behind him, Mila’s head appeared in the hallway, concern dotting her features as her jaw tightened in dismay. She must have seen the blood dripping from my temple where Gunnar’s hammer had opened a gouge.
“You think, by divulging that information, you have an advantage,” I said, the hallway taking on a red hue, but that time for an entirely different reason. “That you somehow one-upped me. But you’re wrong, Gunnar. So very,verywrong.”
“And how is that?” the Viking demi-god chortled, whirling his axe around casually. “I am going to kick your Faerie ass and take the woman, and everyone will know about it. You’re screwed.”
“No,” I said, inhaling and then exhaling. “You’re wrong.”
“I am?” he said with a mighty snort that befitted his stature. “How?”
“Because now I amfree.”
Red lightning cracked from my hand, shooting out and catching Gunnar in his prodigious gut. The impact tossed the Viking down the hallway, leaving fur and skin behind him in a streak, even as he cradled the blackened and charred skin from where my blow had impacted. Mila ducked out of the way as he flailed past.
I snarled and stomped past him, pausing in front of my door.
“I’ll be right with you,” I said, leaning in and kissing her. Hard.
She inhaled sharply, body stiff, before melting into me, her hands coming to grab my jaw—and pulling away, slick with blood.
“Sorry,” I said, meeting her eyes.
“It’s fine. Go kick his ass,” she said, swallowing nervously, suddenly unsure of what she had just done.
I nodded once sharply, and turned away. There would be time to unpack her look. Later. First, I had to finish dealing with Gunnar.
“Ha. Ha, ha, ha!” the brute chuckled, getting to his feet with surprising agility. “Not bad, Korr’ok. Not bad at all, for a washed-uphas-been. He said you might do something like that, though.”
