“I never thought the angel known as Silence and Stillness of Death would swear his fealty to me as he got on his knees.” Shaking my head, I swallowed hard and closed my eyes to prevent more tears from falling. “I’ve always felt a connection to you as my mom told me your story.” I opened my eyes and turned them to him. My heart sped up a little more from his hard stare, and I was afraid he could read my mind right now. “I wasn’t really religious or even spiritual. But I was thirsty for more knowledge about everything that wasn’t available in my realm. I want to know about you and the others. So...” I raised my chin to make myself look stronger and not the crying mess I was. “I accept your oath, Dumah. I wish to know you again.”
He gave a nod with a tiny quirk of his lips, which, if I weren’t watching intently, I would have missed before it was gone.
Rune came back to my side and ran his palm along my back, giving the top of my head a gentle kiss.
Pressing his lips to my ear, he murmured, “You did so good,elskan mín. I’m proud of you.” He brushed a kiss to my ear, then straightened with his hand at the small of my back. “Have your men guard the city armed to the teeth. Someone is after Isa, and he won’t stop until he has her.”
“It will be done. Any guesses on who?” Dumah asked, his voice low with a growl. He honestly looked pissed at the mention of someone hunting me. Why was everyone so worried about me? Who the hell was I in my past life?
“Someone from the wolf’s clan in Plapidell is my best guess right now. I got word that they are working with someone powerful, so expect anything. Tomorrow we’ll discuss plans, but I need you to get people out to guard the city now.”
Dumah grunted and moved to the door without a word. He hesitated at the doorway as he turned and looked at me with those all-knowing, tired eyes.
“You know how to fight?”
I nodded, then quickly shook my head, not sure how to answer. “I’m training?”
Why did it come out as a question? I sort of knew how to fight but was slowly unlocking suppressed memories that helped.
His eyes went to Rune, then back to me, before he gave a curt nod and left.
I peered around the room now that the commanding presence of Dumah didn’t distract me. The room looked like a war room with a large table covered in maps and marble pieces, which were used for the army’s positions.
There were golden tapestries on the wall with swirls and designs of black dragons with the three phases of moons that witches used in my realm. The tapestries were beautiful, and when I looked harder, there were some red swirls in the designs, giving them an accent and three-dimensional look. Behind them were the dark red walls with gold flakes in them.
I moved farther into the room, away from Rune, who watched me explore and take in the beauty of everything. This Viking hall was full of surprises with all the added rooms and endless hallways.
I loved it and how it felt like home too
A small smile found its way to my face as I felt an odd familiarity with this place. Rune worried about my mind fracturing if I knew too much about my past, but it was clear so far that it wouldn’t happen.
Even Estrid had said with time, I would know.
I didn’t want to change as a person and become who I was in my past life. I didn’t want to lose who I was now. But I wanted to be as strong as I was in the past and know everything that had happened. Why people were after me, and why no one told me anything important that pertained to me.
A faint echo of pain tingled in my lower back where my birthmark was. The visions of memories I had earlier popped back into my mind. I remembered the horrible pain from a knife slicing through my flesh, muscles, and bone. The same one that had caused the numbing pain as I lay in Rune’s arms, looking up at his tearful face.
But something about it bothered me. Something I couldn’t put my finger on.
It was something to do with my recent death and my past life one...
My breath hitched, and I pushed everything down away from the surface in my panic. I didn’t want to remember Rune’s pain, and I especially didn’t want to remember any of my deaths and pain. I was already too familiar with it, and I didn’t like it one bit.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I took deep, calming breaths while shoving everything further down. I jolted as a hand came to my lower back, but as the familiar warmth of Rune seeped into my cold skin, I relaxed.
“Let’s get some rest,” he said roughly. I knew he knew about my struggle. He never pushed me to talk about it, but he still let me know through our link and his comfort that he was here for me when I was ready.
The story he told me about the women who were abused and how they had a certain type of darkness came to the forefront of my mind.
If they could recover, then so could I.
ChapterThirty-Three
Icouldn’t sleep.
Rune held me in his arms after he spent an hour between my thighs, eating me out and making sure I came a few times before he tucked me into him to relax without a happy ending for him. I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t want to have sex or get a blow job for him to come, but he kissed me and murmured that sex to him wasn’t about him getting off.
Because of our link, I knew he didn’t fall asleep for a while as I tried to force myself to sleep, but he must’ve given up and went under. Or maybe he was just pretending to make me relax.
