FULL NOVELXO Den of Blades and Briars: Chapter 34
I’d gone mad. There was no other explanation. I’d lost my damn mind, and my new wife had gone off somewhere. She’d left me. That made more sense than what my head was trying to tell me.
I paced in the cottage for tolls.
That cursed raven, that thing, had stared at me after it had hidden Saga away. No, it had devoured her, that was what happened. I clutched the sides of my head. Eventually it flew away, and I’d slid back through the hole in the cottage, bewildered, and obstinate in refusing to admit what I’d seen.
When the first shy sliver of sunlight grayed the black night, the flutter of wings came through the hole. I stumbled back, hitting my legs on the corner of the bed. The raven, my raven, stared back at me for a few breaths. Its inky eyes took me in; it had finally come to destroy me.
But the raven didn’t fly for my throat, it didn’t transform into a phantom from the hells. The bird ruffled its feathers once, then the wings slid away into long, slender arms. Talons shaped into toes and limber legs. Feathers twisted and stretched into wild, dark tresses that fell over Saga’s narrow shoulders.
She stood ten paces from me, naked and smudged in dirt. Scars covered her legs, her belly, her breasts. Red welts reached around from her back to her ribs like a violent embrace. Her eyes carried with them a wildness, like rogue wind on the sea, swirling the clouds into a knot.
Saga tucked a lock of hair behind her head, then slowly reached for one of the furs over the bed. I jolted back.
She noticed and looked ashamed as she covered her skin with the fur.
“You . . .” I started, but I supposed I’d forgotten how to speak during the night.
“I was afraid to tell you, but I would’ve.” She tipped her chin and hurried toward the bath house door. In a matter of heartbeats, she was inside, the door slammed at her back.
Once more, I was left in harrowing silence.
Saga, my wife, was my raven.
I had choices: sit here and cower like a damn child. Be a man and speak with her. Or leave. Again, like a coward.
My rough palm rubbed the back of my neck as I slowly made my way to the bath house door. I thought to knock, then considered it didn’t matter. I would’ve gone inside even if she shouted at me to stay away.
There were questions that needed answers.
Saga’s back was to me. The bath basin was built into the ground like a natural pool, and the edges surrounded by painted stone with sharp corners, but the space was large enough to fit four men comfortably. Steam hovered over the surface of the water as if the bath were breathing new life to whomever took refuge there.
Saga slowly dragged a pearl of oakwood soap over her skin, scrubbing away the dirt from the night.
I halted at the edge. For the first time, I had a full glimpse of the pain carved into her back. Hate-filled lines snaked from her shoulders to her hips. Lash marks. Some threaded with stones, if I had to guess, to shred the skin better.
“Tell me who hurts you,” I said, voice low. “So that I may end them.”
Saga didn’t turn around but flinched slightly when my fingertips traced one of the long scars on the top half of her back.
“I hardly know how to explain it to you,” she whispered.
Truth be told, I didn’t know how to ask any of the dozen questions I had. I started with a declaration instead. “You saved me.”
Saga peeked over her shoulder, confused. “What?”
“In the East. With the sluagh. You saved me.”
With a scoff she turned away. “I pecked a few eyes, Ari, don’t—”
“And the burrow,” I interrupted. “Hodag’s burrow, where we found Sofia. You led us there. You saved us and Sofia.”
Her knees were folded against her chest, hiding the front of her body from me. Saga propped her elbows on her knees and dragged her hands over the sides of her head, slicking back her soapy, damp hair. She wasn’t looking at me.
“You led us away from the sluagh to save us.”
“I saw the burrow before the attack,” she admitted after a few breaths. “I knew you might get trapped, but the sluagh were closing in, and I didn’t know where else to go. I sensed glamour inside, but I didn’t know Sofia was in there. To get you free, I figured I’d barter with Hodag as soon as I could do it stealthily, but you freed yourselves.”
“You saved me,” I said again. I crouched at the edge of the bath. “But you saved two queens. You realize that don’t you? House Ferus and House Eriksson owe you everything, Saga.”
“Ari.” She buried her face in her hands. “Stop making it so grand. I could not simply watch you all be torn apart.”
“Then why did you fight with Astrid?”
Saga’s storm cloud eyes gleamed behind her fingers as she pulled her hands away. “I am bound to a tyrant.”
Her words settled like lead in my chest, hard, distinct, a new burden. “She has you compelled.”
“It is more complicated than all that.” Saga stared at the surface of the water.
“But you still saved me.”
Her voice was small, a whisper in a thunderstorm. “At times there are emotions stronger than the strongest compulsion.”
I leaned over, and cupped the back of her neck, pulling her face close to mine. A short gasp shot from her throat. “I need my mouth on you. Now.”
Saga’s shoulders sunk a bit, as though her body could not stay stiff now that tension had faded. She kissed me. Water dripped down my cheeks from her soaked palms. My tongue slid across the seam of her lips until she parted them and let me taste her.
With a tug from her, I went over the ledge of the bath, fully dressed. I didn’t care. Saga’s back hit one of the walls, I wrapped an arm around her waist, crushing her hips to mine.
“You’ve bleeding haunted me,” I whispered. She snickered, and I pulled back, mouth agape. “Hells, you damn woman. You were doing it on purpose.”
Saga grinned, and I could not recall when I’d seen anything more beautiful. Her head fell back, and she laughed, from the chest, from the belly. A true sound of contentment. Then, she pulled my mouth close to hers again. “I didn’t mean to at first, then I realized how frightened you were of a bird.”
“A raven! They bring omens, and I knew, I bleeding knew, this was no ordinary raven. The bravest warrior would have trembled.”
“Ah, husband, afraid your manhood is threatened?”
I grinned and dragged my teeth over her bottom lip. “A little. But if you keep my secret, I swear to you, I will make it worth your effort.”
My mouth went to her throat. My tongue licked the fragrant water off her neck. I kissed my way slowly down toward her collar, my hand following the opposite direction up the divots of her ribs.
“Ari,” Saga breathed near my ear. “There is . . . there is more to tell you, to explain.”
“I’m sure there is.” I pulled back for a moment and stripped my tunic over my head. “But I have to thank my wife for saving my life first.”
“I told you, it was—”
Saga’s voice choked off in a strangled gasp when my lips sealed around one of her nipples.
I flattened my tongue over the peak and sucked on her skin until she shuddered in my arms. She coiled her arms around my neck, holding me like she’d drown without me. Saga whimpered and arched her spine, a silent plea to take more of her.
I did.
My palm slid to the other breast. I palmed all of her, making certain to neglect nothing. She was a shape made for me. I traded places, drawing the other side into my mouth while my palm went to the first and rolled and squeezed the peak. Her fingernails dug into my shoulders. Hells, I hoped she left her marks behind.
She breathed my name in short rasps, and I wasn’t certain she knew she was speaking.
I pulled back, only long enough to meet her gaze. “You have the power to stop me, and I will, should you give the word.”
She jerked her head in a rough nod.
My palms slid down her waist and hooked beneath her thighs. I grinned against her mouth. “Then ready yourself. This will be cold, sweet menace.”