My heart seemed to stop within my very chest.
He wanted her dead and so he’d get someone else to do it.
It all fell into place now. As my memory had returned in Suvi’s arms, I’d recalled more and more about the mate bond. Aeshyr had even mentioned it – that my life would be bonded to Suvi’s.
When Suvi died, so would I.
And as killing my sweet little star was a whole lot easier than killing me, that was who Koltar had taken. The most vicious sort of coward, he’d waited until the shield of my love was withdrawn and he’d struck like poison.
I’d always hated Koltar and I should have trusted my instincts. Should have crushed his pathetic skull back when I’d had the chance! But I’d tempered myself, restrained myself from hurting, from killing, so that Suvi would not hate me.
But I’d rather have her living, breathing hate than have her dead.
“Joleb,” Jolakaia breathed. “Skalla, he is the only warlord left with an army in this territory. If Koltar has taken her somewhere, then-”
“Where?” I cut her off savagely. I yet stood, which meant that somewhere out there Suvi still breathed. But who knew for how long? I certainly did not, and the not knowing made terror like nothing I had ever experienced yawn open in front of me, a chasm so deep and wide that even with my wings I was not sure that I could cross it.
“It’s your old home!” she said quickly, her words slurring slightly as she tried to speak faster than her weakened state would let her. “The house you grew up in. Follow the river away from where the sun will rise. You will know it when you see it.”
I could recall what it looked like. Even before my memory had started coming back more strongly, I’d glimpsed it in that fractured vision of Wylfrael in the river.
I didn’t waste any more time. I was up in the air, spearing out of the city, following the river and finally giving into the seductive darkness of the berserker rage. My body stretched and swelled as I flew, scales flaring outward with the force of my fury.
If you hate killing, Mother of Cotton, then you’d best turn your eyes from Bohnebregg tonight.
That was my last conscious thought.
But soon after that, there was no thought.
No words. No logic.
Even my own name disappeared, just as it had before.
But this time, hers remained.
I would not forget it. Could not forget it. I could go mad for a thousand lifetimes and still her name would be there, more recognizably a part of me than my own heartbeat. Even now, that organ did not pulse in service to me, but rather called for her, a brutal chant, repeating the same two syllables over and over again.
Su-vi. Su-vi. Su-vi.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Suvi
The room I’d been left in looked like something out of a fairytale picture book. Those images of dragon hoards under mountains that were basically just massive piles of gold coins and goblets and jewels? Yeah, they had nothing on Joleb’s hoard. Metal filled every bit of the floor, every corner, was piled up high against the walls, undulating down like a wave before rising high in a big shiny crest in the centre of the room. There were metal coins and goblets, just like those illustrations I’d seen as a child, but also weapons. Tons of weapons. Blades and axes and hammers and chains, all entangled together and balanced in their precarious piles. Not long after my arrival, Joleb had led me here and plopped me down, since apparently I was a part of his hoard now, too. Koltar was nearby, not actually inside this room, but chained by one of his hands to a wall in the hallway beyond. I could see him from here, and he was awake now, but he didn’t say or do anything besides sit there. I didn’t say anything to him, either, even though I had some choice fucking words for that pious idiot. I kept my eye on him whenever I wasn’t watching the huge mounds of metal all around me, paranoid that all that weight would come crashing down on top of me if I weren’t careful.
This was, as far as I could tell, the largest room of the palatial house. I guess it had to be, to store all this freaking stuff. It was at the back of the house, open pavilion-style and looking out over a courtyard with a fountain surrounded by tall grass and reeds instead of looking out over the river. Unlike Koltar, I wasn’t chained. I guessed nobody was worried about the little human trying to escape or using one of the many massive weapons left within my reach. Probably because there was nowhere to even escape to. If I fled deeper into the house, I’d just get lost and trap myself before being discovered. And I couldn’t run outside, because most of Joleb’s army was right there in front of me. They’d made their way out of the feasting area and were patrolling the courtyard and area beyond in small groups, occasionally talking and laughing and looking my way before casting their eyes up to the sky.
I cast my eyes up, too, but the sky was so heavy and dark with clouds I had no way of knowing if it had turned to stone the way I’d seen it do before. There had been a terrible smashing noise from up there, like Skalla’s fist cracking open the door, but before I could get too hopeful the sound had happened again, that time preceded by a flash of lightning in the distance. The warriors had begun grumbling about storms and the rainy season, and I told myself to wait just a little while longer.
I wasn’t the only one waiting.
Joleb walked past Koltar and into the hoard room, threading carefully through wobbling piles until he stood right behind the place where I sat. I hugged my knees to my chest and forced myself to keep staring forward, outside.
“Alas, I am not a patient male,” Joleb said on a sigh. I was aware of him bending into a crouch. Each of his knees jutted out on either side of me. I crunched my body inwards, making myself as small as I could so that I didn’t touch his inner thighs.
“I did not think I would have to wait so long for Skallagrim.”
He pinched a few strands of my hair between his finger and thumb, then tugged. It hurt, but by that point everything hurt. Half my face was like a furnace, my shoulder had stopped bleeding but throbbed venomously, and the nausea had returned with a vengeance. The only thing more overpowering than all these pains was my exhaustion. I didn’t know if it was a pregnancy thing, or if it was just a result of all the stress hormones that had been unleashed in my body tonight, but my bones felt like they weighed double what they normally did. If I weren’t in such a dangerous situation and desperately watching for any sign of Skalla, there was no way I could have stayed awake.
Joleb tugged again, harder, then let go. He let his hands come to rest on his knees, perfectly balanced, his chest a hair’s breadth from my back. He lowered his snout to my ear, his breath stirring the hair he’d just been pulling.
“Maybe he will not come at all.”
“He’ll come.” I kept my voice very neutral, not betraying any of the fear or longing or disgust I felt. I tightened up my body even more, wrapping my arms protectively around my abdomen.
“Hmm. Let us watch for him together, then.” Without warning, he grabbed my shoulders and hauled me to my feet. I cried out in pain when he gripped the place Koltar’s claws had cut me. Fresh blood began coursing down my arm, but Joleb didn’t let go. He merely marched me forward, holding my shoulders firmly and standing far too close behind me as we both stared at the sky outside.