Page 83 of Captured in Love
He’s married, and this is his family’s home, and I just—
Oh gods.
I’ve been kissing a married man.
Bile rises in my throat, acrid and disgusting, and I nearly gag from the force of my discomfort. With frantic gestures, I yank my sodden jacket off the hook and shove my arms through the sleeves. Then I pick up my backpack and turn for the door.
I can’t stay here.
The door behind me flies open, and I swivel around, panic shooting through me.
A tall blonde woman stands in the doorway, her hands on her hips. Behind her, Isak holds a little girl on his hip, a beautiful blonde child with chubby cheeks and serious gray eyes, so like her mother’s. They’re a gorgeous family, and my heart breaks at the realization that I’m the other woman, the home-wrecker in this case.
Then anger surges through me—anger at Isak for doing this to his family, tome.
How fuckingdarehe?
I open my mouth to hurl an insult at him, but the woman steps forward and peers at me through narrowed eyes.
“So. This is the witch?” she says, her melodic accent doing little to mask the venom of her words.
Isak shoulders his way into the narrow space. “Tinna, meet Nora. Nora, this is my sister, Tinna, and her daughters, Klara and Dana.”
Hissister.
Oh. Right.
I straighten my spine and do my best to look fierce. Which is hard when I probably resemble a half-drowned rat at the moment. But if this is Isak’s sister, she must be another sea dragon. Dragoness? I have no idea what I’m dealing with here, but showing my weaknesses seems like a bad idea. Heat rises to my face, and I’m sure I’m blushing, both from the force of Tinna’s scrutiny and the realization that I was wrong about Isak. Again. It’s becoming a theme for me, and I don’t like it.
“Are you really a witch?” a quiet voice asks from the back of the group. “Can you do magic?”
Another girl appears from behind Isak’s bulk, a couple of years older than her sister. Her English is slightly stilted, but the fact that she knows it at all is enough to jerk me from the tense moment.
I glance down at the girl—anything to avoid a confrontation with her mother—and give her a quick smile. “Yes, I’m a witch.”
The girl gawps up at her sister, and they exchange a sort ofholy shitlook that’s definitely brimming with excitement, not fear. I guess their parents haven’t managed to instill the fear of witches into them yet.
“Can you do—?” the girl starts to say, but her mother interrupts her.
Tinna issues a command in Icelandic that has the girl sulking into the other room. Isak puts down the younger child, and she scampers after her big sister.
“Isak told me you saved his life,” Tinna says without preamble the moment the kids are gone.
I glance at Isak for confirmation, but his face gives nothing away.
I turn back to his sister. “Yes. And he saved mine. More than once.”
There’s also the fact that he smashed our boat’s propeller to pieces, but I don’t want to go into the details of our…relationship. Whatever is happening here, I don’t want to divulge more information than needed.
“Why are you here?” Tinna demands. “And how did you find the village?”
Ah.I fidget with the cuff of my jacket, then tell them the truth. “I…put a tracking spell on Isak.”
Thirty-Three
Nora
Tinna letsout a surprised gasp and turns to Isak as if to say,See! She’s dangerous!
