Page 82 of Captured in Love
Nora
“What are you—?”Isak stops himself, throws a glance over his shoulder, and steps forward.
I back away on instinct and watch in confusion as he closes the door behind him so we’re both caught out in the rain.
“Hey,” I say weakly, lifting my hand in greeting.
Isak’s gaze rakes over me from head to foot. “What happened to you?” He reaches as if to touch my face, then clenches his hand into a fist and lets it fall to his side. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Like I don’t know that. I’m a full-blood witch in a sea dragon village. If I wasn’t completely desperate, I wouldn’t have come here.
I try to speak, but my throat is too tight, too raw from all the crying. I haven’t slept since I left Levi and Raphaël in that parking lot, and I’m cold. So godsdamned cold.
Isak peers into my face. “Hey. Are you all right? Where are Levi and Raphaël?”
He glances around as if he expects them to pop up from behind the bushes that line the driveway.
I shake my head and do my best to keep the tears at bay.
Isak’s frown deepens. “Are they hurt? Do you need help?”
“No,” I croak. “I mean, yes. I need help. But they’re fine. I just…left.”
“You left.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “You voluntarily left them and came to find me?”
I shiver in my soaked clothes. My teeth have stopped chattering more than an hour ago, after I left behind the last human town and started the long hike toward the beacon spell I’d put on Isak’s back. The thought of him being at the end of that trek was the only thing that kept me going through the gloomy rain.
Now his expression tells me I miscalculated this badly.
I shouldn’t have come here.
“I had nowhere else to go,” I whisper. “I just… Can I please stay for the night? I’ll leave in the morning. I just need a place to crash.” I stop myself at his wary, pained expression. “Or not. I just thought… Never mind.”
I turn to leave. I’ll have to find somewhere else to stay, to weather out this storm. If I could make it back to the human town—I don’t remember its incomprehensible name—maybe I could get a room somewhere, then continue to Reykjavik tomorrow.
But the thought of walking all the way back through this frigid rain has me sagging against the corner of Isak’s house. I’ll rest for a moment. Just to breathe through the fresh wave of pain that Isak’s rejection brought on top of everything that has happened in the past forty-eight hours.
A strong hand closes around my upper arm, and I find myself being towed back toward the front door. Isak doesn’t say a word, just hauls me with him, and I’m too limp and tired to protest. I have no idea what he intends to do with me, but if it gets me out of the cold and the rain, I don’t even care what happens.
He pushes the door open and guides me into a narrow entryway. Isak shuts the door behind us, then puts his hands on my shoulders and looks down into my eyes.
“Stay here,” he orders. “Don’t move until I come to get you.” Then he disappears through the other door that must lead to the main part of the house.
O-kay?I don’t understand what this is about. Maybe he doesn’t want me tracking rainwater and dirt all over his carpet? I carefully place my wet backpack on the floor and take off my jacket. It’s supposed to be wind- and water-proof, but I guess even the best equipment fails after prolonged exposure to the elements. I try not to drip water everywhere as I hang it on one of the metal hooks mounted on the wall.
That’s when I notice two small raincoats hanging beside some larger garments.
My sluggish brain takes a moment to process the new information. I pinch one sleeve between my fingers and stretch out the lavender raincoat, revealing the image of Anna fromFrozen. The other raincoat, pale blue in color, is predictably stamped with Elsa’s image.
What—?
Raised voices from the other side of the door capture my attention. A woman is yelling something in Icelandic, then Isak’s deep voice replies, his tone sharp.
Fuck. What have I just walked into?
Then the pieces suddenly fall together. The woman. The children’s clothes. The fact that Isak tried to hide me from view when he first saw me.
He’s got afamily.
